"Like I said, it's a precaution. I've already taken the cure myself, and I feel fine. See?" Beist said, squeezing himself through the door more and starting to fill the room. He usually very friendly demeanor seemed to crack slightly as he entered the home more forcefully than expected. The door frame cracked as he pushed a hand against it.

From a corner of the room, a high pitched yap came from the purple and yellow fox that Beist had sent to watch over Apogee earlier, evidently growlign and yapping as his own master.

"So unwieldy, this one. Too large, but the strength is useful, at least." Beist muttered to himself as if he was evaluating himself. His voice sounded off, his usual manner of speaking replaced with something completely different.

He reached an arm out to grab Apogee, the wiggling leech-like parasite in his other hand now held aloft and ready to be introduced to its new host as soon as he could just hold her still.

---

Down in the nursery, Shaa and Leandros stood over what was left of the Cthonian. With the Cthonian dead, the psychic connection to all of the parasites should be disconnected and their hosts should be freed from control, but from the tunnel Shaa had come from the sounds of mind controlled thralls trying to tear their way through thorny vines without a care for their own wellbeing continued.

Looking down at the Cthonian corpse, the mental effect on Leandros mind finally faded as what he'd actually shot dead right before Shaa's eyes was one of the villagers. Where the Cthonian actually was, neither of them knew, but they had another problem to deal with.

In Shaa's hands, the pod he was holding cracked open at the top and a parasite attempted to leap out, aiming straight for Shaa's snout to attempt to climb up his nose and claim him as a new host.

Shaa looks at Leandros and nods in the affirmative. Sort of. If you can call being ankle deep in evil psychic squid babies ok. He turns his attention to the make shift barrier. He can hear the mind wiped tiwnsfolk still trying to tear through it. Something wasn’t right. If the Mindflayer was dead, everyone he was controlling should be fine now. Unless they were running on automatic or something. He was no expert on how these things worked, just that they were annoying as all get out.

As he considered the implications, he notices a small tremor in the hand that is holding the pod. Shaa’s Fighter Sense goes crazy as he turns to see a mass of tentacles fly towards his snout. He has just enough time to grab his own snout with his free hand. As he does, the tentacular creature glues itself onto his hand and snout, probing for a way in. This was bad. Between his own hand plugging up his orifices and the creature, Shaa found that he was now about to smother himself. Of all the ways that he pictured his demise, snuffing himself out was not high on the list of candidates. 

He quickly runs over and tries to smash his face/hand against the wall. The creature simply bends and moves with the impact, seemingly unphased in the attempt to dislodge it. Shaa considers trying to breath fire on it but decides he can’t risk trying to take a breath with the creature so ready to enter him and subvert his mind.

How long has it been now? A minute? Two? The room was starting to blur as the Minotaur’s lungs screamed for relief. He could feel the tentacles writhing and sliming their way across the rough contours of his hand, looking for an opening. He scratches and scrapes but nothing seems to deter the creature from its single minded purpose. He starts to staggered across the cave, his mind swimming frantically for a solution. It’s possible…..His hand. HIS HAND! Shaa pulls as much focus as he can and triggers the arcane tattoo on the back of hand. Three blades pulsing with dark energy burst from his hands, shredding the creature to pieces. Feeling the being go slack, he rips the creature from his face and takes a deep breath inwards. Paaaghhh! 

After a couple more deep breaths, his face gets serious. Summoning as much mana as he can he starts to breathe fire and ash across the feild off eggs on the ground. The heat in the cave starts to rise as the eggs start popping like fetid balloons, fields of slime and ichor all caught in the Minotaurs fiery wrath. Dieeeeee!

---

Eldritch Claws
Flame Breath
Conflageration
Molten Core

Leandros kneels down to place a hand to the man's back and heal him.[1] He will stay unconcious for the time and feel awful, but he won't be dead and that's important. The knight lets out a sigh as he stands.

He is about to call out to Shaa, but the Cthonian is already making his play. Sprinting down towards the minotaur he tries to think of what he can do in the meantime. He can't swing wildly lest he hit Shaa or a villager. He could grab hold of it and try to yank it off, but what sort of damage would that do to Shaa? None of the options he had were good.

As he sprinted, enthralled villagers began to dive towards him and grab at his legs. If the Cthonian can only overtake this bull, things will be set. It has seen into the mind of the knight and knows he won't slaughter civilians just to get to it.

"You need to grab HOLD of yourselves!" Leandros growls out, a pulse coming from his body knocking over the villagers.[2] It would also shore up Shaa's resolve to claw the creature free.

He sighed with relief seeing Shaa freed, beads of sweat on his forehead. "Should we start collecting people? We need to get out of here before your heat starts affecting everyone, they already seem exhausted."

---

Back at the cabin, Apogee is more than familiar with avoiding unwanted advances. The reaction of his pets confirms her suspicions that something is off. He is usually a lot more soft spoken and gentle, at least in what she has seen and heard so far. She didn't imagine him to be this pushy.

When he goes to grab her, she shifts to the side under his paw and draws a rapier. The point is held at the middle of his ribs which is about as high as she can reach, "Mr. Beist or whoever is in there, you must know harming me would be the worst decision possible. A good parasite knows not to invite danger to itself....and my husband I imagine you know is quite the danger. Consider this, let me and this woman go and I will get him to stop attacking you."[3]

---

1. Minor Healing
2. Undying Fervor
3. Smooth Talking

Beist looked down at Apogee with a snide smile.

"And you must know by now that harming this body won't hurt me in the slightest, only the parasite and this big beast. The loss of one parasite is nothing. Isn't this your friend? Would you really want to hurt your friend?" He stated mockingly, moving one hand to lower the rapier away from his side with one finger.

"Oh, your husband? Who's that? Do you mean the minotaur, or the knight? Well, neither of them will be escaping my lair alive unless they've got more of my parasites in their heads, so it doesn't matter." Beist continued confidently, though from the way the battle in the tunnels was going, his confidence was just an act. He believed she was being honest, but there was no need for him to accept such a deal when there was such a difference in power here. He could use her as a hostage whether she was under his control or not.

"You seem awfully attached to this woman you've just met. Well, you can go ahead and stay together as long as you want."

Suddenly, Mureen suddenly threw her arms around Apogee from behind, trying to hold her in place.

"You can stay with all of us." Beist and Mureen said in unison while Beist held out the writhing parasite in his hand.

---

Down in the nursery, Shaa and Leandros were surrounded by the enthralled villagers. They had been pushed back by Leandro's shout, but they still blocked every exit to the room. In the muddy ground, more pods started to open as leech-like parasites climbed out and fell into the mud, wriggling their way toward the two potential hosts.

The villagers' forms began to flicker one by one, replaced with the tentacled visage of the Cthonian as he used his mind manipulating powers to toy with Shaa and Leandros. He knew even if the two actually could see him now, they would have to risk killing an innocent villager to harm him. The goody-two-shoes knight would never allow such a thing.

The Cthonian himself, hiding in the entrance to one of the tunnels nearby, laughed to himself quietly at his own genius. These fools would be fine additions to his thralls. They were powerful, like the big one outside. Much better than these simple villagers.

He was too caught up in his own internal gloating he didn't even notice an enormous white snake sneaking up behind him until Pretzel's jaws were clamped down over him all the way down to his chest, pinning his arms to his side while he screamed a shrill scream that was  slightly muffled by the flesh and scales around him. Two fangs pierced into his chest, making him scream louder as he flailed his legs.

Pretzels slithered into the room with the smuggest look a snake could have with a mouthful of squid-faced loser.

Shaa looks over at Leandros and nods in acknowledgment. These villagers had been through enough without being barbecued on top of it. But there was no way that Shaa was leaving all of these parasites down here to spread their rot over the rest of the town. Now that he was able to breathe normally and his mind was clear, he decided was going to continue and put a quick and decisive end to them here and now.

Up to this point, his fire breath and molten core had been bursting the unhatched eggs. The problem was that some of the eggs had already hatched and their unholy spawn were starting to wiggle around in the mud to attack or escape. Neither of which was an option. Shaa focused on his flame breath and used an advanced technique that he had learned studying the ways of Vulcadreus. Suddenly his flames come alive and condensed themselves into seemingly living strings of white hot magma. The Minotaur focuses on each parasite and sends the magma strings to hunt them down and wrap themselves around their necks. The magma strings whip and writhe, burning off their heads like tiny little executioners one after another. Shaa rushes through the cave, spewing the burning death strings until every parasite is nothing more than a smoldering pile of ash. With his geosenses, even buried in the mud, none of the parasites can escape the fiery swath of destruction.

It was a satisfying sight. He was by no means a worshipper of death but there was something inherently unnatural about these creatures and the sight of them being reduced to nothing more than shriveling briquettes put something inside him at peace. Now it was time to help the villagers. This, perhaps, was going to be the trickiest task of all. How do you attack something with a human meat shield. There may be a way.

Shaa runs over to Leandros. Taking care to reduce the heat in the palms of his hands, he motions to his friend his intention to grab his head. With a swift motion, he grabs the fighters head firmly but not painfully. The intention, to protect his friend from what was coming. When he is sure the sounds of the room are muffled, he watches as the villagers start to mob them. 

With a shudder in his own spine, Shaa begins to emanate the feeling of pure fear in the room. He knows full well that a fear won’t affect the mindless villagers but he’s not targeting them. He’s after the parasites and the tentacled jerks that is plugged into them. The problem with hive minds is, you attack one of them, you attack them all. The villagers get a panicked look in their eyes and turn around to flee the cave. The interesting thing is that because they are a collective, that all try to go the same way. If he had to guess, right back towards their master. Shaa notices that the snake is coming in from the tunnel the villagers are fleeing into.

---

Molten Core ( 2 stacks of Conflagration), passive
Flame Breath
Wielder of the True Flame- Fire Strands
Geosense- Passive
Endothermic Reaction, passive
Reincarnation of Fear

"I can more than easily take the parasite out before you come any closer. As for the body you've taken over, I'm afraid you've miscalculated there. We've only just met, so while it would be a shame I wouldn't lose much sleep over it."

Of course, Apogee was far from that cruel and ruthless, but she couldn't just annnounce to a captor that she was soft-hearted. When Mureen jumps up and Beist lurches forward, without thinking she does push the rapier forward to stab into Beist's ribs.

With his size and her restraints, she can't keep a hold of the sword too long. She shoves Mureen back against the wall, the noise startling Byrr who whinnies outside. Apogee struggles to throw Mureen off, but even if she frees herself there was going to be little she could do against Beist's size.

---

Back in the caves, Leandros is sweating under the heat created by Shaa. The villagers coming to mob them simply get tossed towards the tunnel to speed up their escape. There as almost nothing they could do to hurt him in their ragged and unarmed states. Terrible minion management to work them all to the bone.

He is a bit confused when Shaa grabs him, unsure of what is happening for a moment. He puts a gauntlet to Shaa's chest and pushes him back catching glimpse of what Shaa was intending. Thanks to the effects of his undying fervor, it does little to him.

"I appreciate your concern friend, but perhaps use words next time." Leandros smiles and gives him a tap on the chest before motioning for Shaa to follow as Leandros looks to leave.

The knight actually is a little concerned as he sees Pretzels eating something.

"Good work, unless you'd like to eat him yourself, could you spit him out and let us finish it? The faster this thing dies, the faster we can get everyone back to normal."

Maybe Leandros should have let the snake devour the squid, regurgitating it out while it is half eaten was not a pleasant sight. He grimaces at the creature on the ground.

"I warned you this is how it would end." Before letting it respond, he plunges the halberd spike into its head where it seems to hold most of its power.

"Shaa, if you could immolate it, I'd prefer nothing left behind. And you, Sir Pretzels was it? Should we find you something more appealing to eat?"

"Ha! Heartless, aren't you?" Beist said with a chuckle, not believing Apogee's cruel words. Even if she had only met the man recently, he doubted she was truly as heartless as she was trying to convince him she was. And if she really felt that way, it was still no danger to him.

Beist was too timid to be much of a fighter, but it wasn't Beist's mind in control of his body at the moment, and the Cthonian took full advantage of the monstrous size and strength of the beast man. With a quick swipe from one of his hands, the rapier was sent flying off into a corner of the room. He didn't care for the life of his parasite's host, but he didn't want to lose a valuable pawn.

The situation looked grim for Apogee. Overpowered and outnumbered. Moe, the lightning fox, bit onto the tip of Beist's tail to try and help, but Beist didn't even pay him notice. The fox's teeth couldn't even pierce the scales on his tail. He moved the leech-like parasite closer to Apogee's ear, but before it could wriggle its way in and infect a new host, it started to thrash and screech in pain.

At the same time, Beist and Mureen both stopped and grasped their heads as they cried out in pain. Beist released the parasite from his grasp and it fell to the floor with a splat.

---

Down in the tunnels, Pretzels spat out the Cthonian a little reluctantly. He knew he couldn't actually swallow the thing. His large size was only temporary anyways. He wouldn't have time to digest it if he wanted to. And he didn't want to. The creature was disgusting. The blood in his mouth tasted like putrid fish. He wished he'd strangled it or something instead of biting it.

The Cthonian gave one last glare to the ones who had ruined his plans, his tentacles twitching. He's been so close to finishing his plans. He'd already taken the entire village. There should have been no one in his way. How did it come to this? Foiled by some weirdos. A knight, a minotaur, and a fucking snake? What the hell was this?

The final stab from Leandros' halberd was practically a formality with how close to death he already was from being chewed on. It was a mercy, even.

---

With the Cthonian's death, the remaining parasites lost their connection to him along with the control over their hosts they'd been the conduits for. All of the villagers down in the tunnels and around the town suddenly came to with terrible headaches, but they were in control of themselves again. Some of them had been forced to be spectators for their own bodies for so long now that they started crying when finally freed.

The parasites wriggled back out of their hosts' ears one after the other and fell to the ground, burrowing into dirt or trying to inch their way off to somewhere.

Beist groaned in pain and picked up the parasite that had fallen from his own ear before placing it in a jar and pocketing it.

Not wanting to break his concentration, Shaa simply nods and weaves the fire threads through the dead Clithonian’s remains. With a turn of his hand, he releases the stacks of conflagration that he had been generating, setting the corpse ablaze until there was nothing more than ash. He dies another quick sweep and when he is finally satisfied that no more creatures remain, he pulls all the errant heat from the room and disperses it harmlessly. He can feel the temperature drop to a normal degree.

The big Minotaur catches a cramp from the effort and bends down with his head between his legs. He keeps his eyes closed as the pain washes over him, taking his mind into the darkness of the cavern. It takes a moment but his muscles finally start to relax and he can breathe normally. It was times like these that he wished that punching things could solve all his problems. Despite his elemental mastery, Shaa took special care to continue his training in hand to hand combat. The split focus helped him keep balance but came at the cost of extreme stress whenever he pushed it too much. It was a price he was willing to pay. He had known too many mages who he himself defeated because they neglected physical conditioning in exchange for magical power. Or at least so they thought. 

Ok let’s get out of here and check on the villagers and the big guy. They should be good right?

Apogee breathes a sigh of relief as things return to normal before quickly gasping with the realization that she hurt Beist. She immediately pulls out a healing potion, forcing it into his furry hands.

"I am sorry, I knew something was wrong, but I don't exactly have the kind of magic to force weird bugs out of heads." She offers a tired smile and laugh as she tucks a curl of hair back behind her ear. "I promise I really didn't want to hurt you, it just sort of happened."

Leandros and Shaa had made their way out of the cavern of the Chthonian. The knight's first instinct was to find the others, heading off immediately towards the house Apogee went to. Despite the weight of the armor, he moved quickly as a testament to his own physical conditioning.

Bursting through the door, he was relieved to see everyone alive and relatively unharmed. He breathed heavily as he grabbed Apogee in a quick embrace, the relief of her safety evident on his face.

"Thank you Mr. Beist...Pretzels here saved the day with his quick action. I promised him a better snack than the monster we found, what would be something fitting for him?"

Leandros was happy to provide whatever was asked for if he could or at least provide the solars to Beist to buy it. Knowing that Beist was not in control, Apogee chooses not to divulge what happened in the cabin. If Beist does, he will find Leandros' response concerned, but understanding. He saw first hand just how powerful the control this monster had on people. Something to keep an eye on in the future it seems.