Chapter 35 – Hunting the Chimera (3)

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Dealing with each beast individually wasn't difficult. Even without fully opening my eyes, I could 'see' to some extent.

Creatures with such simple minds were especially easy to read. Their instincts clearly telegraphed how they would move and attack.

I increased the resolution of my vision. What had been a vague intuition about their attacks now took shape as visual information.

A translucent blue trajectory marked the path the beast would take as it charged forward.

Timing my strike, I extended my blade towards the blue line. The beast, unable to stop its momentum, impaled itself on my sword.

This wasn't a battle or a hunt—it was a repetitive task, akin to a mechanical job.

After cutting down about thirty beasts coming at Neuro, the rest began to focus their hostility on me instead.

"But what can beasts without their handlers really do?"

Calmly, I continued the repetitive work. Not all the humans here would have died without putting up a fight. Let's say they managed to take down twenty of the beasts.

I'd taken down thirty. Dimedes had brought 120 beasts, so about seventy remained.

I assessed my condition. The aftereffects of the last time I opened my eyes lingered, but against these mindless beasts, it wasn't a significant handicap.

"It's done!"

A welcome voice called out.

Whizz! There was a sound of something cutting through the air.

Then, a flesh-piercing, explosive noise followed.

A beast's head in the distance exploded. Neuro's arrows were enchanted with explosive magic—expensive and deadly.

"Let's figure out the exact nature of the magic circle after we deal with these monsters!"

I decided to lighten the mood with a joke.

"Ho, aren't you going to keep their pelts?"

***

Keep their pelts? Neuro smirked behind his gas mask.

Harvesting a beast with minimal damage and collecting its byproducts was a hunter's instinct. Orthes was asking if he intended to act as a hunter.

It would be a lie to say he didn't want to. But that wasn't the correct answer.

The correct answer was.

"Hah. We'll think about that after they're all dead!"

It was a declaration of focusing on his duties as a director of Hydra Corporation. Neuro noticed Orthes's smile broaden slightly.

"Good. Let's handle them first."

Vreeeeee—

The four drones Neuro controlled aimed their barrels at the ground.

And fired.

Amid the hail of bullets, Orthes charged forward. Neuro found it fascinating. It was a battlefield with machine guns firing from above.

Yet, he had no doubt that Orthes wouldn't be hit by stray bullets.

***

It didn't take long to eliminate all the beasts. Although dodging or deflecting the bullets Neuro carelessly fired without worrying about the aftermath was a bit bothersome.

"Phew. I've never taken down so many beasts in half a day, let alone a whole day."

"Really? You'll probably break that record later."

Neuro's body flinched. The prospect of achieving greater hunting glory must have thrilled him.

"Now, let's look at the—"

Suddenly, the crystal in my pocket vibrated.

There were bizarre creatures that, while bipedal, couldn't be mistaken for primates. In their midst stood an old man in a robe.

The blood of the creatures and the magic circle drawn on the ground converged into a single point in the air, compressing.

The congealing liquid turned into a concentrated drop of dark blood. The old man drank the blood, and his body split into five parts, tearing the plain into five segments.

From the shattered space, the light of the extra-dimension emerged. The vision ended as the indescribable light seeped into the plain.

It was a warning from Phoibos's relic.

I quickly scanned my surroundings.

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"It seems it's not over yet."

Hearing my words, Neuro immediately deployed his drones for reconnaissance. His readiness to listen to subordinates probably made him popular in the Hunters' Guild.

"…Damn."

Neuro's voice carried a hint of frustration. He manipulated his proxy gauntlet to project a holographic image.

The scenery on the screen was colored differently from reality. Yellow and red spots dotted a blue background.

"A thermal camera?"

"Yes. Look there."

A significant number of entities were wriggling and approaching us. Their shapes were indistinguishable on the thermal camera, but they were clearly not normal creatures.

"About twenty… No, thirty?"

Thirty?

Dimedes and his beast handlers had totaled thirty-one.

I turned my gaze towards the direction indicated by the thermal camera, peering beyond the magical barrier cloaking them.

There, I glimpsed numerous strange creatures that looked like they had been cut and pasted together from various species.

"They're using camouflage magic."

"Are we dealing with mages then? Did the ones who drew the magic circle come here themselves?"

"No. These are people we know."

I plunged the high-frequency blade into the ground. It cut smoothly through the soil, and I twisted it horizontally to flick it out. The splattered mud and fluids marked the approaching enemies.

"Strictly speaking, they're no longer human."

As the camouflage magic covering their faces was washed away by the mud and blood, their outlines became visible. While it would have been hard for an ordinary person to identify someone by a mud-and-blood-soaked face, we were hunters.

Neuro, with his keen eyes honed over years of hunting, recognized them.

"Dimedes…!"

***

Even Neuro had barely recognized him by his jawline. The seven eyes embedded in his face writhed unsettlingly under the mud.

Seven eyes stared at Orthes and Neuro. There was no intelligence in their gaze.

It was the end of someone who had been a pillar of fear in Etna city.

"Is that… a chimera made from beasts? To control life so freely as to turn a human into a chimera in just a few days… Could it be from the Green Wood…!"

Were they facing a mage from the Ten Towers? Neuro's nerves were on edge. This might be the most dangerous hunt he'd ever experienced.

Excitement, fear, and anticipation swirled within him. Just as he was about to draw his bowstring, Orthes's words cooled his mind.

"No. Former Director Dimedes was originally a chimera."

Not just cooled—his words chilled him to the bone.

"Originally?"

"Yes. Why do you think they fed humans to the beasts? They could have used ordinary meat or feed. It was a cover to hide their true nature."

Chimera referred to synthetic beasts created by combining various creatures.

Among these chimeras, those made from intelligent beings were special. They were known as Nous Chimeras, possessing the ferocity of beasts and the cunning of intelligent beings.

However, Nous Chimeras had a fatal flaw. If their creation was imperfect, the beast's savagery would overwhelm the intelligence, causing their intellect to degrade over time.

To restore their declining intelligence, they had to consume the brains of other intelligent beings.

Neuro understood why Dimedes and his faction were so adept at hunting humans. They were man-eating beasts themselves.

This was information even Neuro, Dimedes's rival, hadn't known. It must have been a closely guarded secret among the beast tamers.

Orthes, nonchalantly revealing such a secret, seemed unfazed.

'Just how far ahead does this man see?'

Neuro was simultaneously amazed and introspective.

It was fortunate he didn't have many secrets that couldn't be disclosed.

***

'Better to clear up any misunderstandings about facing the Ten Towers.'

I wondered if it was okay to reveal a director's secret, but Dimedes's dismissal was already certain.

Given his current state, Dimedes didn't have much time left. You couldn't keep a dead man as a director.

In fact, he was already dead as an intelligent being.

As synthetic beasts, chimeras typically had control devices implanted to manage their minds.

In Etna city, he might have been lucky enough to kill his creator and gain freedom, but now, either his control device was seized, or his consciousness had fled.

The individual identity known as 'Director Dimedes' had collapsed, leaving only the chimera named Dimedes.

I focused on the lines faintly visible to my eyes. The lines linking the chimeras extended somewhere across this rocky plain.

These lines of mana likely connected to the robed old man shown in the crystal's vision.

"Director Neuro."

There was no response. Was he tense before the chimera horde?

"I'll leave one alive. Prepare to capture it."

As a hunter, he should have capture equipment, right?

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