The Beginning After The End 08

by Turtle Me

  The door to the sanctuary was just a few steps to my left, and the temptation to just go back grew stronger. I weighed my options, trying to figure out the best way for me to survive, when a beastly roar captured my attention.

  The sword-wielding chimera and the archer were fighting… against each other. This seemed to have drawn the attention of the chimera with the shotgun, who was stomping toward them despite Regis’s intervention.

  The other two chimeras, however, had realized that I was still alive and were charging toward me. A few minutes ago, I would’ve accepted this as my death, but now a new plan had solidified in my mind.

  My eyes locked onto the lead chimera, which ran just ahead of its spear-wielding companion, and, with a sharp breath, I dashed toward it.

  The chimera brandished its skeletal whip, slinging the deadly weapon around its head as it charged. Just before it was within range, I turned sharply to my right—nearly tripping in the process—veering instead toward the chimera with the spear.

  I only have one shot at this.

  Not wanting its prey to get away, the first chimera struck its whip at me with a sharp crack.

  Now!

  I raised the bone shaft like a shield and blocked the tail end of the whip, causing it to curl around the arrow.

  Come on…

  Now with the tail end of the whip in my grasp, I dove down just below the spear-chimera’s midsection swing and used the whip as a tripwire.

  The chimera toppled forward and smashed into the wall with a thunderous crash, tearing the shaft out of my hand and sending me sprawling. Panicked, I rolled away, expecting the whip to come scything toward me at any moment, but the chimera wielding it had been pulled off its feet by the impact as well.

  The two chimeras were scuffling in their attempts to heave their large bodies from the ground, both entangled in the long whip and growling, shoving, and pulling at one another as they tried to free themselves.

  Success!

  With those two momentarily distracted, all that was left was for the last stage of my plan.

  The shotgun-chimera was slow to reload its gun, but each attack made a crater in the wall or floor of the hall. I was thankful that Regis had been able to blind it enough to minimize the threat it posed while I dealt with the others.

  Now, I needed to take advantage of that threat.

  “Regis! Keep its eyes covered but steer its gun toward me!” I barked, positioning myself in front of the scuffling chimera.

  Unlike before, my companion didn’t question the command. Regis unlatched himself from the shotgun-chimera’s face just enough to keep its vision mostly obscured.

  Enraged, the chimera swung its gun at Regis, who was zipping around its face.

  “Now!” I roared.

  Regis flew towards me and I found myself staring down the barrel of the chimera’s shotgun once more.

  This time, however, it was on purpose.

  Timing it up until the very last moment, I leaped out of the way just as the chimera fired, letting the bullets rain down on the other two.

  I gritted my teeth as pain shot up my shattered arm and back, afraid to turn and look, but when I did I was astonished by the sight before me.

  The shotgun had punched holes right through both the spear- and whip-wielding chimeras—both of whom were lying limp.

  The plan had worked better than I expected.

  With no time to lose, I ran to the two chimeras, still partially tangled in the long whip, and dragged them toward the door.

  A feral roar ripped out from the shotgun-chimera’s throat, getting the attention of the archer and swordsman, still fighting each other further down the hall. They regarded each other for a moment, then their beady eyes landed on me.

  Crap.

  I heaved even harder, dragging the heavy corpses across the pock-marked stone floor as fast as my tired, broken body would allow.

  “Regis!” I called out, not able to see the floating black fireball anywhere.

  “Here,” Regis groaned, manifesting just beside me. “I didn’t know that it would take so long for me to form back after being obliterated.” Lazily, the will-o-wisp fluttered into my hand, attracting my aether so we could open the door.

  An arrow whizzed past, barely grazing my leg. I let out a roar, mustering every last bit of my strength into pulling the giant chimeras.

  The bow string twanged again. Without the strength and time to do much else, I pivoted my body so the arrow would strike my right shoulder, sacrificing my debilitated arm to keep the rest of my body able.

  A piercing pain burned through me and I almost fell back from the force of the blow, but I managed to stay on my feet.

  The sword-chimera was nearly on me by the time we reached the door, but I was able to activate the aether runes to allow our escape.

  I hauled the two chimeras through the portal with a mighty heave, but my heart pounded against my cracked ribs when I saw the spine-whip slowly untangling itself from around the two chimeras, making it impossible to pull them both at the same time.

  Barely managing to pull the whip-chimera fully through the portal, I scrambled forward and began dragging the spear-chimera as well, but as the whip’s hold on the spear-chimera loosened, I felt a strong force pulling it back.

  “No!” I roared, watching the chimera slip back through the portal as the swordsman pulled it from the other side.

  “We need to close the door!” Regis shouted, shooting out of my hand.

  “Damn it!” I cursed, slamming the large metal door closed.

  260

  Victory

  My entire body shuddered as I let out a deep breath. Taking a moment to let the aether move through me, I looked over my asuran body. Despite the horrific injuries I’d sustained from the chimera, there wasn’t a scar or blemish on me; the perfectly defined muscles of my arms, torso, and legs looked like they had been painted on, rather than acquired through hard work.

  A faint aura of purple enveloped me, slowly dimming as more and more aether dissipated from my body. Even though the aether left me, however, I realized a feeling of strength remained.

  It was a feeling that differed from when I had enhanced my old body with mana. It was even different from how I felt after unlocking the third stage of Sylvia’s dragon will in my fight against Nico.

  The strength pumping through me didn’t feel borrowed or artificially implanted; it felt like it was mine.

  Approaching the nearby wall of the sanctuary, I squeezed my hand into a fist. Even my own eyes could not properly track my hand as it struck the wall with a deafening explosion.

  The wall quivered and dust dislodged from the ceiling and drifted down to the ground like falling ash. Although barely a crack had formed in the stone, I was still content; I knew that the force of my blow had been enough to easily punch a large hole through even the thick metal gates of the Wall.

  I looked down to see the wound on my fist already closing and healing itself. Turning around, I silently thanked the corpse of the giant chimera, now reduced to a pile of withered bones since the aetheric essence holding it together had been absorbed.

  “Well look at that! You look a bit more like a man—at least, your body does, that is,” Regis said, studying me.

  “And you still look like a blob of ink,” I replied, swatting him away.

  I expected my hand to simply pass through him like it had before, but this time I felt some resistance upon contact.

  “Woah.”

  Regis’s eyes lit up and bounced around within his ethereal form in an expression that made me think of a lewd old man waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Did you get a good feel for my muscles?”

  I wiped my hand on my pants. “Gross.”

  Regis laughed, zipping around through the air as if he were flying for the first time.

  I shook my head. “We should leave now. I can feel the aetheric essence leaving my body by the second, and I
need as much as possible if we’re going to kill all of those chimeras.”

  “You’re right,” my companion replied confidently. “Let’s do this.”

  Taking one last deep breath to calm myself, I pushed open the door.

  My body tensed and my heart pounded against my ribs. Even though my mind knew I stood a much better chance against the chimeras now, fear and pain had been deeply ingrained into my body by my two previous battles.

  “Third time and this place is still creepy,” Regis groused.

  We proceeded cautiously up the hall, trying to make out any differences from the last time we came here. I had hoped that the whip chimera that we had killed and taken back to the sanctuary wouldn’t be here, but its statue remained intact, looking somehow even scarier than before.

  “I’m curious how the party before us got through,” I wondered aloud, my head still turning left and right as I scanned our surroundings. “How strong are those three?”

  Regis bobbed in a shrug. “Hopefully we’ll never have to find out.”

  As I approached the activation point, I checked to make sure that Sylvie’s egg was tucked tightly beneath my leather vest. I took a deep breath, then another step. The room rumbled.

  Unlike the previous two times, there was no gradual crumbling of the statues, no time spent prying themselves free from their encasements. The chimeras simply burst out of the statues and glared around the room, ready to attack.

  “So I was right,” I sighed. “They do break out faster each time.”

  Regis rolled his eyes. “I’d clap slowly, applauding you for your incredible foresight but—y’know—no hands.”

  In unison, the chimeras leaped from their podiums and let out a series of shrill screeches.

  I got into a fighting stance, my trained eyes taking in the positions and weapons of the twelve chimeras surrounding us.

  I focused on the three chimeras wielding long-ranged weapons: a bow, a shotgun, and dual crossbows.

  “I know the rough timing of the shotgun chimera. Keep the one with the crossbows occupied!” I ordered as I leapt forward and drove my fist into a chimera wielding two maces, each made from the skull of a giant ape-like beast.

  The chimera stumbled a few steps back from the force of the blow. It screeched in pain, but was able to make a desperate swing with one of its maces.

  I ducked and released a wide hook straight into its exposed ribcage. It buckled and let out another wail, but before I could capitalize on its injuries, an arrow caught me in my leg, going straight through my thigh.

  Gritting my teeth against the pain, I tackled the mace-wielding chimera onto its back, then focused on the other chimeras fast approaching.

  Keeping the position of the shotgun- and bow-chimeras always in mind, I dashed toward my next opponent.

  Each step I took, each punch I threw, I could feel more of the aether that I had gathered being spent. Even though I consumed aether mid-battle from the chimeras, I was expending it much faster than I could absorb it, and I had only managed to kill three.

  Making sure that my breathing remained controlled and my movements sharp and unwasted, I relied on the same tactics I had used before. I was able to make two chimeras kill each other, but after that the shotgun chimera took command of its forces, ending their infighting with a guttural war cry.

  Meanwhile, Regis continued to occupy the crossbow chimera. Based on the speed at which its weapons reloaded and the power each bone bolt contained, I had made the right choice in sending Regis to blind it.

  Still, as I killed each chimera, an uneasiness crept up my spine and into my stomach.

  The entire hallway was littered with fragments of stone from the crumbled statues and the divots dug up from the ensuing battle. I had used over half of the aether I had gathered, and the remaining chimeras were stronger than the ones I had killed.

  “It’s never easy, is it,” I muttered under my breath, my eyes focused on a chimera with serrated daggers for hands.

  Another idea began to form as my gaze shifted from the dagger-chimera to the sword-chimera.

  Among the rubble and corpses, I scooped up two intact arrows, then locked onto the chimera wielding twin daggers.

  Before I engaged, I hurled one arrow like a javelin toward the swordsman, where it sank deep into its arm, causing the monstrosity to snarl and prepare to attack.

  With no time to relax, I dipped and weaved through the flurry of swings from the lanky dagger-chimera. My mind brought up scenes from almost ten years ago, when I had sparred against Jasmine on a daily basis while starting my time as an adventurer.

  Unlike the way Jasmine seemed to almost dance with her daggers, however, this chimera’s techniques were crude, relying entirely on its long reach and ridiculous strength and speed.

  Whoever made these things might have imbued them with the physical prowess of an S-class mana beast, but their intellect and technique were subpar.

  I continued twisting and dodging, almost like I was dancing myself, always just out of reach from the dagger-wielding chimera. I used it like a shield, its manic assault forcing the other chimeras back, preventing them from engaging me directly without hitting it, or without it cutting them to ribbons.

  Growing more and more frustrated by its inability to even touch me, the chimera let out sharp screeches, swinging its daggers until a rather desperate overhead swing dug one of its blades a bit too deeply into the ground.

  Finally with an opportunity in place, I jumped forward, kicking the chimera’s arm with enough force to snap it like a stick. It roared and reeled back, ripping the knitted flesh and exposed muscles like tissue paper; the severed arm, ending in a curved dagger, lay at my feet.

  I could sense the others closing in. I dug my toe under the severed arm and kicked it up into my hands, wielding it in front of me like a longsword. The familiar stance filled me with a newfound confidence.

  Spinning, I deflected a sword thrust, then rolled backwards away from a descending axe, only to come face to face with the now one-armed chimera.

  It dove at me with an enraged howl, its remaining dagger flashing toward me with the speed and strength to slice me in two.

  All it took was one step to avoid the desperate strike from the one-armed chimera and a pivot to dodge a shotgun blast before I swung my new sword. With that single swing, its severed, bug-like head rolled on the floor.

  Smirking, I looked around at the remaining chimera. “I finally got a weapon.”

  “Oh bite me!” Regis hollered from across the room.

  The soft purple glow surrounding the chimera’s dagger-arm dimmed after just that one swing, and I knew that this weapon wouldn’t last much longer.

  Knowing I would need it before long, I quickly severed the other dagger from the headless chimera’s arm before squaring up against a thrust of the swordsman’s blade.

  I deflected the strike, allowing the momentum to spin me in place, my own sword carving through the creature’s leg before plunging into its throat. It crashed to the ground next to the headless chimera, dead.

  Four more seconds until the shotgun chimera is finished reloading.

  I dashed past a chimera wielding a lance and shield—one of the stronger ones—and I aimed my sword at an old friend of mine.

  The whip-chimera let out a shrill cry as I stabbed my sword into its gut and carved a line straight through its torso.

  Discarding the severed appendage, which had begun to crumble apart, I ran for the other dagger, rolled under a barrage of crossbow bolts, and came back to my feet with the blade ready. I prepared to rush the closest chimera when an earth-shattering roar exploded from behind me.

  I whirled around, prepared to dodge or block whatever was coming—except there was no charge or attack. The shotgun chimera had let out a thundering cry, but it wasn’t pointing its shotgun at me. It was standing tall with its arms spread wide.

  It let out another roar, even louder this time, a
nd the remaining chimeras, those that were still alive, began barreling toward their leader.

  Even the crossbow-chimera rushed toward the sound of its leader’s cry, ignoring Regis and leaving the two of us confused and wary.

  “What in hell’s name is going on now,” Regis groaned, floating by my side.

  Every fiber of my body, every combat instinct I’d earned over my two lifetimes of training, screamed at me to run away. Unfortunately, the shotgun chimera was standing in front of the door to the sanctuary and the rest were quickly gathering to him, cutting off our escape.

  Spinning on my heels, I rushed to the metal door at the far end of the hall, which would lead us to the next level of this godforsaken dungeon, and yanked at the rune-covered handle.

  It didn’t budge.

  Cursing, I scanned every inch of the door, looking for any familiar aetheric runes that I could alter like the door to the sanctuary.

  “Uhh… Arthur?”

  “What?” I snapped, my eyes darting left and right, trying to find something that would get this thing to open.

  “They’re… piling on top of each other,” Regis said.

  Despite my instincts demanding that I get out of there, I couldn’t resist.

  My eyes widened in horror at what I saw.

  The chimeras weren’t simply piling on top of one another. They were devouring each other.

  “It’s intoxicating to watch,” Regis mumbled, eyes wide. “Maybe they’ll just end up killing each other like that.”

  “I don’t think so.” The aetheric essence enveloping their bodies grew thicker as they continued to eat each other, fusing into a pile of flesh and bone.

  I turned to the door, not wanting to stick around for what was to come. Unfortunately, the door wouldn’t budge, and, unlike the door to the sanctuary, there were no runes that I could decipher.

  I slammed my fists against the door in frustration before turning back toward the monstrosity I would have to face.

  Luckily, they were still in the middle of whatever metamorphoses they were undergoing.

  Picking up the dagger beside me, I dashed toward the pile of chimeras. If I can’t run away from them, I’ll just have to try and do as much damage as I can before it fully forms.