Chimera King Box Set Books 1-3

by Atlas Kane

  “Challenge me?” Yotri asked, his mouth pulling wide into a mischievous laugh. He laughed again, appearing for all to see like a god mode predator about to eat them all. “You cannot match me in anything. Why even suggest such a thing? Yet I must know. It is simply too diverting to ignore. What would you propose?”

  “I challenge you to fight my champion. He is strong and powerful beyond belief. I don’t think you can defeat him.”

  Yotri’s mouth fell open, and he strode forward. Standing, the creature was at least sixty feet tall at the shoulder, though his limbs were long and lean. He squinted his copper eyes, staring down at Gamlum. “There is only one other male among you. What nonsense is this? Don’t waste my time, manling.”

  Holding up one of his hands, Cade gestured for the beast to hold his tongue. “I assure you, that my chosen champion is strong enough to contend with one so great as yourself. He knows no fear and is skilled in combat. Yet you have a point, Yotri. Who could stand up to one so great and powerful. My challenge is for you to meet my champion, head to head, matching his strength with yours. Will you accept my challenge, or is the proposal somehow exposing a vein of cowardice in your heart?”

  Cade knew he’d taken a risk. From flattery to insults was not the progression most people took when dealing with vastly OP abilities. Yet this thing was pure ego. If he had guessed right, he might have just found a way to defeat this thing.

  “I’ll fight anything of this world and crush it between my teeth. Tell your tiny lockman to lift his spear and prepare to meet the inside of my belly,” Yotri growled, his eyes growing wide and feral.

  Their poor guide began his bouncing routine again, hopping on his flat feet as if preparing to sprint away into the tunnels. Yet, to the little dude’s credit, he held on to his spear like a pro.

  “Excellent. So you accept my challenge? Defeat my champion, and we will bring you freshly killed game for a year and a day. But if my champion defeats you, you must promise to leave this place and never return.”

  The fox chortled once more, blowing up a cloud of fine dust from the bones of the Spider Queen’s nest. “Accept! I accept, little fool. Now let us begin this match of incredible strength. I find myself in the mood for something fishy.”

  Cade grinned nervously, hoping his plan would work. Not only did he need to trust that this bastard would be good on its word, but that his champion had it in him to crush this overgrown coyote. After sending a glance to Gemma and Ketzal, hoping they had figured out his ploy, he shouted in as loud and commanding a voice as he could muster, “Pablo! I need your services!”

  Gamlum stopped hopping and looked at Cade, shock in his fishy features. Yotri snuffled, his head pulling back in a snarl, and the ever-purple Pablo appeared before them. He wore the elegant and powerful form of a dragon.

  “Demon! You seek to trick me? How dare you?” Yotri hissed through his teeth.

  “I didn’t trick you at all. I told you my champion was strong enough to beat you. You only assumed it was Gamlum here.” Then, looking to the lockman, he added, “It’s okay, buddy. You can put the spear down now.”

  Pablo looked to Cade as if he’d been greatly offended, and opened his scaled mouth to object. But Yotri blurted out, “A baby demon? I haven’t tasted demon flesh before. It should be quite a treat. I do not mind killing one so small and weak as this. Let us finish this! I’ll have my first delivery of meat in the morning.”

  Cade glanced to his demon helper and shrugged. “You said you were given additional powers. I was just hoping this might count.”

  Ignoring Cade’s plea, the demon locked eyes with the great Yotri and puffed out a minute stream of purple mist. “Baby demon?” Pablo asked with an edge of extreme agitation. “I will show you how infantile I am. And though I will have harsh words with the human when we are through, it will be a pleasure to stop that yammering mouth of yours, Yotri!”

  The coyote god crouched, no longer laughing, his smile pulled back into a cold sneer. “Come then, demon. I am ready.”

  Cade and the girls ran off to the side of the cavern, Gamlum on their heels, as Pablo faced the massive creature. Then the demon’s form shuddered, winking in and out of existence like a glitch. His purple body solidified once more and expanded.

  The little demon, big enough to fit in a cat carrier, grew exponentially, his body rippling as it shifted to accommodate new bones, new scales. In his dragon form, huge claws tore from his paws, and two large horns emerged from his temples. In only thirty seconds, the demon became a terrifying giant, matched in scale with Yotri.

  No more witty banter passed between the two ancient beings, but the air rumbled as Yotri growled, his hackles rising like a wave on the ocean. Pablo’s chest vibrated with its own odd sound. It was more like a thunderstorm breaking within his chest. Then a gout of vibrant red fire leapt from his mouth, splashing over the coyote’s face.

  The smell of singed fur filled the cavern and plumes of black smoke billowed up from where the fire attack landed. Yotri yelped and leapt to the side, cracking open a dozen spider eggs as he did so.

  As he watched on, Cade saw translucent spider bodies spill out of their mud-forged shells. The poor things could barely move, and as the light illuminated them, he knew they would be dead soon. Each was bigger than a man and plump like hellish grapes. No wonder Yotri wanted to feed here. There are literally tens of thousands of pounds of meat just waiting to be feasted on.

  Pablo shook out his scales, his claws digging into the floor of the cavern. Yotri charged, ignoring the seared fur and flesh of his snout. The huge beast moved in a blur, as fast as thought. Pablo wheeled around to meet him, and their claws and fangs flashed in an unrestricted display of violence. The demon’s talons raked across his foe’s ribs, deep furrows of bloody flesh exposed and crimson splashing to the ground.

  Yotri responded by tearing into Pablo’s neck, a swath of flesh ripping free. The combat Cade witnessed was terrifying. Too fast, the two titans moved, and yet the more they destroyed each other’s body, the more aggressive the contest became.

  If they’d been cursed with mortal flesh, the fight would have been over already. Yet after each wound was formed, it reknit, healing almost instantly. Yotri’s flesh sealed itself with a golden light that burned from within. Pablo healed himself with billowing clouds of purple smoke.

  “This is horrible,” Ketzal said in a ragged whisper.

  Cade agreed, but Gemma responded oddly. “It is also honorable. Only the demon could have matched this creature. We would have died in a second. These two were born for this contest.”

  Deep, Cade thought, observing the battle before him. And I suppose she’s right. Both have lived for thousands of years, and at least Pablo knew of the other’s existence. Maybe we just helped facilitate this long-overdue fight.

  The idea of fate crossed Cade’s mind and that of course made the old chain of thoughts tumble down within him. Too many questions that can’t properly be answered had to be forced out of his mortal skull. I am no god, and no demon either. Let those who live for thousands of years wrestle with existential headaches. I just hope Pablo wins so I can go home in peace.

  The fight was at a stalemate for the moment. Both creatures had mouths filled with their enemy’s blood, yet their bodies were sealing up anew. There was no way to gauge who was winning. Yet when they clashed again, Cade did notice that Yotri seemed faster than ever. The coyote god snapped out with his jaws, clamping them down on Pablo’s long dragon neck. Pablo tried to turn his head around to bite back, but the coyote lurched his head and body to the side, pulling Pablo off balance.

  The demon fell to his side, pinned on the cavern floor by the great Yotri. Dark blood poured from the wound in his neck, soaking into the ground.

  “Yield!” Yotri growled between his clenched teeth. Pablo lashed at the coyote with his long, armored tail, a laceration opening up across Yotri’s shoulder. Yet the coyote didn’t relinquish his hold. “Yield, demon! I have won!”

&nb
sp; In response, Pablo went limp, his eyes closing, and for an instant, Cade thought the day was lost. But then the demon shifted form once more. His neck thickened and morphed. Yotri’s jaw cracked open, a few of his long teeth shattering. The coyote rebounded to the side of the cavern, shaking his head in pain as his bones healed.

  Pablo shrunk and grew at the same time, his body becoming dense and bulky. The scales smoothed out and then exploded in tufts of fur. His tail split into nine parts, each growing hair and writhing in the air independently. The greatest transformation occurred in the demon’s chest and head. His once dragon snout blunted and became the fierce maw of a great feline. None that Cade had ever seen, but recognizable anyhow. It had a wide face and relatively short teeth. Yet when it hissed, Cade saw the fangs were insanely sharp. The beast’s wide throat and lack of serrated teeth meant it had been designed to swallow its prey whole.

  When the battle resumed, it was at a fevered pitch. The cat moved faster from side to side, more agile than the dragon had been. It hissed as Yotri ripped a patch of its purple fur away, revealing a mass of raw muscle. Then Pablo answered by snapping out and crushing one of the coyote’s legs in his mouth. The sound of bones the size of tree trunks cracking was so loud that dust shook free from the ceiling far above and fell down in a haze.

  Yotri yelped, the pain of the injury causing him to flail, desperately trying to free himself. Pablo pushed him forward, pressing his enemy into the side of the cavern where a hundred more spider eggs met their death. Again, the tension built and the fight seemed at an end.

  The coyote god stared up at the sky though, his eyes filling with dancing motes of pure light. A charge filled the stuffed air in the cavern. It was enough to cause hair to stand up all across Cade’s body. Then a bolt of plasma, like lightning but more pure and as thick as a redwood tree, fell and lanced through Pablo’s chest. The smoking hole left in the demon’s body tried to seal itself anew, but for the first time, the healing was slow in coming.

  With a jerk of his leg, Yotri pulled himself free of Pablo’s bite. Kicking out the broken appendage, the coyote’s bones cracked back into place, and his form was once more pristine and powerful.

  Pablo limped back, a gout of blood spilling from his mouth. It was his own blood of course, and Cade felt sick. What did I do? Did I just get our one and only demon helper, our friend, killed for no good reason at all? He hoped he was wrong, but Yotri bounded forward, tearing out Pablo’s throat. The combined injuries drained the demon of thousands of gallons of blood. Too much blood. It seemed to have no end, gushing from the demon’s neck and chest like waterfalls.

  Yotri cackled, his eyes wild with the rush of victory. “I told you it was foolish to challenge me. I look forward to all the gifts you will give me, manling.”

  Pablo slumped to the ground, his huge frame crashing to the cavern floor with a rumble that ran through the ground and into Cade’s limbs. Guilt swept through him. It was over. And screw Camp Casmeer. They could find another place to live. And so what if he was forced to serve this asshole coyote creature. He only wished he hadn’t dragged Pablo into the mess with him.

  Cade let his face fall into his hands, but Gemma shook him. When he looked up to where she was pointing, he saw a river of demon blood smoking before him. The great body of the cat was dissolving into plumes of the same dense smoke, and as they watched, condensing.

  Another shape emerged from the wreckage of Pablo’s body, a viper of immense proportions. It was as thick as one of Yotri’s legs and hundreds of feet long. Hissing, the viper lashed out and bit the coyote on his paw. Yotri fell back in fear, looking at his paw. A purple venom leaked from the wound, and for the first time, it did not heal.

  “Cursed form! This is cheating!” Yotri howled in outrage.

  Yet Pablo only responded by lashing out twice more, each bite landing successfully on the coyote’s hide. Once in the chest and another in the neck, the venomous attacks were too quick to avoid. Yotri jumped forward, his jaws open to crush the snake’s sinuous body. But already, the venom was working. Yotri was clumsy, his attack slow. Pablo merely evaded the bite and struck again, this time aiming at the coyote’s other leg.

  The battle waged on, Yotri trying ever-harder to crush the snake in his deadly jaws. Pablo moved his endless coils about, evading each attack, and repaying the coyote with a mouth full of poison.

  Cade noticed that every place he’d been bitten, Yotri’s body was now swelling, becoming distended and limp.

  In less than a minute, the coyote slipped, his front paw unresponsive. Pablo didn’t hesitate. The vast snake dove forward, ducking under another snap of the coyote’s jaws, and then wrapping itself around his huge ribcage. Three times round the snake wove its body, pulling Yotri off of his feet and falling to the ground. The snake bunched, its length constricting its foe’s ribcage. Just like a python, it cinched tighter each time the coyote panted for air.

  Yotri growled in frustration, and again seemed to call upon some divine power. The same sparks of light filled his eyes, and Cade waited for another plasma bolt to strike through the deadly snake. Instead, Pablo flexed his length violently, and a series of ribs snapped like tinder. The coyote howled in pain, and the sparking light faded from his eyes.

  “It is your turn to yield, Yotri. I have you and would love nothing more than to finish you. But that would be stepping beyond what is necessary. Do you yield?”

  For a moment, the coyote refused to answer. He couldn’t take another breath, but stubbornly, he clung to the contest. Pablo met the resistance with another clenching of his body, and the coyote’s huge spine popped, a vertebra dislocating.

  Then in a voice filled with scathing anger and burning shame, Yotri said aloud the only words that mattered. “I yield.”

  Pablo disappeared, the vast snake exploding in smoke, a density forming in the air that fluttered toward them. In a heap of glistening scales, Pablo landed beside their group, a satisfied smile on his dragon lips.

  “I’m so sorry,” Cade began, knowing he’d asked more from the demon than even he had guessed.

  The demon shook his head. “No, it is well, Caderick. Not only have we succeeded, but that was immensely satisfying. I will owe a few favors though. That was a lot of power I was gifted. I will not be able to accomplish such a feat again anytime soon.”

  Yotri remained slumped on his side, and Cade wondered how the coyote god would recover. Fucking magic, he remembered, resisting the urge to face palm. He will heal himself with godly magic of course. The coyote took a deep breath, the ribs and spine bones finding their place once more. And slower still, he seemed to purge his body of the venom. One by one, the bites reduced in swelling.

  Then the creature was back on his feet, a look terrifying enough to scare off an angel on his face. “I will not forget this, manling.”

  “I’m sure you won’t. But you agreed to the challenge. Will you leave?” Cade asked, trying to keep any hint of boasting from his voice. There was no need to anger the creature further.

  “Yes. I will go. Should I meet you again, however, I will take revenge upon you.”

  Pablo cleared his tiny throat. “Actually, you shall not be doing anything like that at all, brother. Just scamper off and leave the travelers alone. I wouldn’t want to call upon any… higher powers.”

  Yotri growled and snapped his teeth loudly. Shaking his coat out, as if to rid himself of the shame of defeat, the coyote ran away, kicking up piles of bone in his wake.

  “Brother?” Cade asked, unable to hold his question back a second longer.

  “Yotri was once a demon helper. He fell in love with his form, however, and broke his contract. He gave up power and the freedom to leave this world. I do not think he has had occasion to regret his decision, at least not before today,” Pablo explained.

  Ketzal strode forward and patted the little dragon on his head. “Thank you, Pablo. I know we are two different kinds of demons from different planes of existence. But I must say that even in
my previous world, such a display of strength and skill would be looked upon with respect.”

  Then the demon blew everyone’s mind once more. The little bastard managed to look embarrassed.

  “I will be off now. Caderick, check your quest status before leaving, and make sure to speak with the queen. I don’t think you’ll need to wait long,” he finished and disappeared before their eyes.

  Cade pulled out a waterskin and took a long drink before passing it to Ketzal. They had accomplished their goal, or at least Pablo had for them, and all with much less cost and pain than anticipated.

  He was about to bring up his UVS to see what reward they had been given when the tremors of a hundred thousand legs clicking through the tunnels above caught his attention. Sure, they’d won the day, but now, it seemed, it was time to meet the Spider Queen.

  18

  Worse than a Hickey or a Mouthsore

  “Kneel, young traveler. Receive your blessing,” the Spider Queen said, her words rustling out from whatever mouth she possessed.

  Cade obeyed, no chance in hell he would risk pissing off this woman. Not only did she have a lot of brothers, and sons, and daughters, lurking all around them in the massive cavern, but she herself was twice the size of Bellows.

  The pointed tip of her clawed foreleg fell on his right and left shoulders. The spiders had asked him to bare his chest so the ceremony might proceed. Each touch pierced his flesh, and blood welled up from the tiny wound. It stung, but immediately, a numbness settled and bled down into his arms. Ketzal and Gemma were given the same blessing as was Gamlum.

  Oddly, the lockman was the most excited. He garbled a response to the queen when the ceremony was done. “Thank you, great queen. We have feared the spiders for many lifetimes. I will tell my people we at peace. Bring you offering of fish every month as gift.”

  “This will be greatly appreciated. My brood have a taste for such treats. We have another gift for you, Cade, and then I must ask you be on your way. The usurper destroyed many of our young ones, and we must repair the nest,” the queen added, and tapped out a command to the spiders nearest her.