“Ohh...?”
The beast slowly emitted the common language from its vocal cords.
“You know of the High King’s seal. Are you a warrior sent by some god or other?”
I nodded, a little surprised at its lucid question. And if that was its answer to me, then I could be virtually certain: the demons’ objective was neither deep nor far from here.
The demons taking over this base had all been part of the greater plan.
That city of the dead, the ground of the High King’s seal, still wasn’t under the control of any power. If the demons could take the city, they could break the seal, and calamity would once again sweep across this continent. Conversely, if people could take the city, and came to learn about the seal, the seal would be strengthened further.
So, for the demons, Beast Woods was a place that had to remain ravaged. It had to be a crucible of conflict, poverty, and disorder.
They couldn’t allow mankind to advance any further south.
They couldn’t allow people to set their sights on the south.
They couldn’t allow people to think there was any hope to be found in the south.
Once you considered the existence of the demons’ king, their goal in subjugating beasts, attacking cities, and constantly applying pressure was incredibly easy to understand, and blatantly incompatible with the happiness of people.
“In the name of Gracefeel, I will destroy you all.”
“Ohh? But wait. It seems there has been a little misunderstanding. A false impression.”
The chimera’s enormous body slowly walked towards me.
“A false impression.”
“Yes. You see—”
It flowed from its slow walk into a horizontal swipe at me with one of its massive front legs. If it hit me, it would smash my head clean off in a single strike. I leaned back and avoided it, and as I did, I gave the beast a quick spike to send it a message.
“Ghh—!”
It leaped back and put distance between us.
“I’m surprised that demons still use those antiquated classics.”
My mild provocation enraged it. The chimera let out a loud roar and began to charge at me. Real battles rarely began with a clear “ready, set, go”; usually, they started just like this.
I wasn’t going to use any clever schemes this time. There was only one main aspect to my strategy, and it was very ordinary: to make full use of all the power at my disposal. This wasn’t like my battle against the god of undeath, where there had been an overwhelming difference in power between us. This time, I had properly prepared, discussed, taken all measures that could be taken, and now, I was going to win—because that was perfectly possible, as long as I didn’t lose my cool.
“Menel!”
“Gotcha!”
Shouting out a signal to my partner behind, I faced the chimera rushing at me.
The chimera’s huge body came towards me. As I faced it, its demidragon head was on the left, the middle was the lion, and on the right, the goat.
From behind, Menel ran around to the right in a wide arc. The goat’s mouth spoke in a muddy and indistinct voice, and Sagitta Flammeum came flying at Menel.
“You’re not getting me with that!”
The sylphs changed the arrow’s direction, offering him their Protection From Arrows.
Keeping Menel in the corner of my eye, I faced the rushing chimera head on. I was staring down a frontal assault by a beast of greater mass than a wyvern. I may have been strong, but with my small body, it was going to be impossible to physically block or throw this thing.
So I prayed for protection with the blessing Sacred Shield. Drawing from my experience with the wyvern, I set up the shield at a diagonal angle.
The wall of light rose in front of me. The chimera collided with it, its momentum was redirected by the diagonal wall, and it glanced off to the right. Instantly, I erased the shield, and with a shout, I stabbed Pale Moon deep into the chimera’s right side.
“‘Gnomes, gnomes, take his feet! Harden, bind, and nail him down!’”
It was the spell Hold, sent out just at the moment when the wall of light and my spear together had slowed the chimera’s charge. Menel’s spells wouldn’t have been powerful enough to do anything about a chimera in peak condition, but his timing was exquisite. Forced to devote most of its attention to me as the closest attacker, the chimera got its feet caught in Menel’s trap.
Menel sprinted nimbly over the craggy ground. It was hard to run in this place, but the fairies were making sure the path was clear for his feet.
With a proper front-line attacker in front of him, Menel’s skills at mid-range were more impressive than I imagined. It was true that I’d overestimated him, but apparently I had been underestimating him as well. People are so complicated and multifaceted. I realized that coming to a quick conclusion about someone and thinking you had them fully understood was a very foolish thing to do.
As the chimera fought to shake off the earth and stone clinging to it, I took my chance. Screaming a war cry, I relentlessly gouged into it with the blade of my spear. The chimera finally gave out a roar of agony. Its demidragon head attempted to bite me, but stopped dead an instant later. On the other side of it, Menel had shot an arrow towards one of its goat eyes.
Being a multi-headed beast meant it had multiple brains, and if each issued a different command for a different reflex action, it was obvious that the body receiving them would become confused. This beast was simply unnatural as a living creature.
As the chimera fought and screeched wildly, I ran to the other side, where Menel was. The chimera’s enormous body was causing it problems. It couldn’t fully keep track of my movements. Having a huge body made it strong, and fast by the same token, but that body was obstructing its field of view, and there was nothing it could do about it. Having something dance about in close proximity to it was probably the behavior the chimera found the most unpleasant.
I stabbed it repeatedly with my spear, twisted it in the wounds and making it bleed. I avoided it when it tried to bite me, and deflected its heads with my shield.
There was no need to win cleanly in a single strike. I just needed to fight normally, and win by being better. I didn’t have any spectacular tricks up my sleeve, or any ultimate moves. I just had what I’d been taught by my parents, which had raised all my abilities to an equally high standard. So I would put them all together, and press forward to victory. Through experience, I was finally beginning to understand that that was the way of fighting that suited me best.
With the help of the wind elementals, Menel fired off an arrow accelerated to terrific speeds. I didn’t miss the chimera switching its attention for an instant. I swung down Pale Moon with all my might.
The goat head was crushed. Its teeth smashed together and flew everywhere, and blood squirted out of its broken skull. The chimera screamed in obvious agony.
“One down!”
There was just the demidragon and lion heads left, plus the venomous snake tail—no, that was already gone. Menel had found an opening to sever it with a spell. He was quick.
While Menel was using Stone Fist to crush the head of the snake that had fallen to the ground, I decided to do something about either the lion or the demidragon head. But before I could, the two heads let out a terrible howl, and I sensed something dreadful coming. Menel and I both leaped back and kept our distance.
“It is an accursed dragon power, but you leave me no choice!”
Dragon? I thought, but had no more time to think about it. The chimera’s veins turned black. Its muscles swelled, becoming misshapen and even thicker than before, and miasma gushed from its entire body.