Chapter CXL - Chimera (part 1)

"Tell me we are seeing the same thing..."

I said to the headmaster, and he nodded with a really worried look.

"Yes... We are."

The Thing outside is walking very slowly towards us. Around it, the people are running away in panic, and what seemed to be weird was the being completely ignoring them and continuing making its way to the academy.

Okay. I was wrong. That wasn't even the weirdest part of this Thing.

The Thing has three heads, two seemed like human, while the last head looks to be a bear. It has eight arms, placed all over it's large circular and muscular body that looked nothing like a bear whatsoever. It only has two legs, but it's extremely gigantic and it's covered in fur. Each and every single one of its arms has long black claws on its fingers that look so much like a bear claw except for the fact that it's three times longer than normal.

Those claws looked more like a wolverine blade rather than claws… Those were definitely man-made.

Aside from the disgusting appearance, the thing also held two gigantic axes at two of its hands. Because surely, the stupidly long nails aren't enough as a weapon.

From the air alone, anyone can tell that it is definitely coming for blood.

"Ve… neo... Hen… derick...! Ven… eooo... Hend… rick!!!"

A specific person's… blood.

When the bear chimera arrived at the gate, it swung both of his gigantic axes towards the gate of the academy. And with a single slash of each giant axe, the gate got annihilated easily.

BLAAARRRR!!!! 

Welp, there goes that gate.

"That is some incredible raw power."

Veneo mumbled calmly, despite knowing how disgusting this thing is. I turned to him with a really annoyed expression and asked a funny question.

"That thing knows you?"

"... I have some guesses."

The headmaster ignored my funny question and saw through what I actually meant. He knows the reason why this bear chimera thing is coming for him, and he quickly formed a stance. 

Seeing him getting prepared, I also took out my knight's sword and got ready for a battle. 

Let's just end this as quickly as possible, I want more sleep.

"Oh…?? Veneo... Henderick?"

The god-knows-what being in front of us must have landed its eyes on us, and it quickly asked the question as all three of it's heads stopped twitching and faced us, who was only tens of meters away from it.

"Yes… That's me."

Veneo said calmly to the Thing, and the Thing changed its expression.

Into… an angered one.

"Veneo!!!!! Henderick!!!!!!!!!"

Seeing that his target was right in front of him, the Thing turned insane and began swinging around its arms and axes.

VWOOOSHH!!!

The mutant began rushing forward, and it's surprisingly fast. It held both of the axes high while being ready to smash down the headmaster.

But, the headmaster isn't so weak.

He lifted his right hand and a giant wall of stone quickly formed in front of the mutant.

But not even a wall of rock can stand against a beast like this.

BLAARR!!!!

The mutant used both of its axes to smash the rock wall to pieces. But by the time the wall got knocked down, I was already a meter away from it.

The mutant turned its gaze upwards towards me, and my fist arrived on its chest.

I did not hold back one bit.

BAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That felt awesome… I haven't punched full power like that in so many months…

Our entire surroundings were destroyed badly from the shockwave of my punch. It was enchanted by a ton of energy, and should be able to obliterate this thing to pieces. However, my eyes didn't move from the target in front of me.

ZRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… W-What!?

My powerful punch… did land perfectly on that thing's chest… 

But it only pushed the bear chimera a few meters back.

Only… a few meters back…

"Huh!?"

I landed back not far from my original position while shaking my hand around. 

That thing was incredibly sturdy… It felt like punching steel with a normal hand, making my hand completely numb.

"That thing is unexpectedly sturdy…"

"Be careful, Rize! There's a reason why this thing was sent after me. 

Whoever sent this thing to kill me must have recognized that I am strong. Which means this thing must have some secret weapon or ability that is designed to kill me."

"I know… Let's find it out slowly."

I dashed forward again after saying that. I'm not giving up with just a punch, plus I'm also curious about what this thing can do. A sword appeared on my hand as I ran, and the mutant became more enraged as I got closer.

"Grrrk!!"

GRRPP!!!

The mutant lifted the giant axes, but it's still fairly slow. I used a shadow tail from the ground and it grabbed the axe that was in the air. Then I leaped towards its head and used my sword to slice the most left head.

Losing one head shouldn't be a problem, right?

But, something went wrong.

FTANG!!!

"What the--"

SWOOOSHH!!!!

I leaped back just in time when the hands filled with large black claws nearly sliced me to watermelon pieces.

After I landed, I studied the left head, precisely at the spot where I 'smacked' my blade to it.

The blade surely made it to the top right head… But why didn't it cut through?

BAAARRR!!!!

I leaped back just in time when the mutant threw a giant boulder at me. It has eight arms, and two of them are hidden on its back. While the front hands were busy fighting me, the hands on the back were grabbing rocks from the floor for projectiles.

This thing... While it is a mutant, it is highly intelligent.

"Careful, this thing is intelligent."

No shit, sherlock...

"… I can see that."

I managed to step all the way back to the headmaster who was watching from the back. As soon as I arrived next to the headmaster, the mutant's gaze fell back on the headmaster, and it remembered its task.

"Veneoo!! Henderick!!!!!!"

"It's coming!"

The headmaster quickly said while the mutant's hands started to throw more rocks. Those things are as fast as bullets and weigh around ten kilograms. A single hit from it, and I am down for the night.

BAARRR!!!!

PRAAANGGG!!!!

The headmaster lifted his only hand and tried casting a powerful rock wall, but it was destroyed almost instantly on the third projectile. I also tried casting a multi-layered shadow wall, but it got devastated even faster.

In the end, we just have to dodge.

BAARRR!!!

BAAAARRRR!!!!

The rocks crashed into the wall behind us, where the receptionist desk was. The receptionist lady has already long left the receptionist desk just when the mutant destroyed the gate, so we can just focus on dodging.

"We should do something."

I said to the headmaster as I dodged the ultimately fast rocks flying at me. The headmaster himself is flying here and there, dodging the rocks that are being thrown at us like a machine gun.

"Yeah... Try getting close to it again, I'll try charging up a powerful strike."

"Okay. Try not to destroy anything."

"I should be saying that to you!"

I grinned at that final part he said and dashed forward again. The mutant started to focus its attacks at me, but I used my sword to slice away all the rocks while dodging half of it.

Damn… slicing rocks is so easy…

I was able to get close to it and reach a swingable distance. This time, I enchanted my sword with an insane amount of magic energy, and I tried slicing the head.

VWUNGG!!!

PTAAAANNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!

"What, in the goddamn--"

VWOOSHH!!!

I dodged right after because a hand tried to capture me and crush me to juice. The sword in my hand was already vibrating like crazy, as if it could cut simply anything. And yet, it simply bounced off its head like hitting a damn anvil.

I looked back to see that the headmaster was ready. He nodded at me, and I quickly went out of the way.

He lifted his only hand forward, and the ball of light in his hand began to shoot out towards the target.

That is one powerful light magic… it was so powerful that I immediately grinned upon seeing it.

… Looks like we are done.