Chimera

"Kill him! Now!" Shouted Starx to Alex.

Alex sprung into action, ready to confront the tattooed man whose tattoos were glowing red, and whose body convulsed.

He was already near the man, so in a moment, he was upon him, his fist about to strike, yet in that instant, he explosively retreated back.

A split second after his retreat, something violently crashed to the ground exactly where he had been standing.

Due to the force of the impact, a cloud of dust appeared.

"What the...."

Alex's eyes widened, spotting movement within the cloud of dust.

'What the hell is that?' he wondered.

He didn't have to wait long to find out.

His eyes widened even more as he observed a black serpentine tail slithering from left to right, seemingly guarding its owner, whose body continued to convulse.

'A tail? Was he not huma-'

Alex didn't finish his thought as the convulsing body stopped moving. However, judging by the glowing tattoos, Alex suspected otherwise, and he was right.

A second later, the man's body convulsed again, and he was thrown sideways, the tail following suit. Another second later, he was flung the other way.

Then, two bulges appeared on each side of the man's body.

Alex looked on, his face showing horror, disgust, and a peculiar fascination. Despite the repulsion, he couldn't tear his gaze away, almost mesmerized by the unsettling and bizarre scene unfolding before him.

The bulges intensified, seemingly intent on tearing apart the skin on both sides of the body, and they succeeded.

In a fountain of blood and gore, two thin yet toned arms emerged from the man's body, each terminating with razor sharp claws.

Simultaneously, the pre-existing arms slimmed down to match the size of the new pair, also acquiring claws of their own.

Following that, the creature came to a halt, motionless.

Just as Alex believed the transformation had concluded, he was astonished to witness the human skin enveloping the creature begin to peel off. During this process, it continued shrinking until it was half of its original height.

Beneath the human skin, Alex discerned pitch-black skin adorned with scales.

'What the hell is that creature?' Alex's expression turned wary.

Although Alex wasn't well-versed in other races, it didn't mean he was entirely clueless. He was certain the creature before him belonged to no recorded race.

Meanwhile, the human skin of the creature completely peeled off.

It raised its head and stared back at Alex with slitted eyes, then released a screech particularly grating to the ears.

'A serpentine tail, serpent's eyes, black scaled skin, four arms... this thing looks more like a chimera than anything else.'

Screech

The creature screeched one last time and lunged at Alex, moving on both its four arms and legs!

'Fast!'

Due to its short stature and six limbs, the creature's speed when it ran was significantly superior to its previous speed when it was still human, thus, it quickly covered the distance separating it from Alex.

With a powerful swipe of its claws, the creature wildly slashed at Alex, attempting to sever his head.

However, Alex swiftly evaded the attack.

With a practiced move, he sidestepped and punched at the opening that revealed itself when the creature attacked.

Unfortunately, his fist was blocked by the creature's tail, yet it wasn't the end.

Taking advantage of its light weight and the brief moment when Alex's fist made contact with its tail, the creature used the impact as a springboard and propelled itself over Alex's head while spinning!

'what-'

Alex's instinct shouted at him to duck if he still wanted to live, and he did exactly that, successfully evading the tail that tried to pierce his head.

However, the creature still hadn't finished its attack. The instant it landed on the ground, it propelled itself at Alex, who was still crouched, his back against it.

With a savage grin, the creature used all of its four claws to slash at his back, but at that moment, a wall of smoke appeared behind Alex, protecting him.

The sight of the wall, especially the smoke that constituted it, made the creature's eyes burn with madness.

Apparently, even though it had lost its humanity, the man's hatred for the smoke element remained.

Its sharp claws easily tore through the wall of smoke, and the creature's mad grin grew even madder.

However, its grin soon disappeared, its eyes full of malicious intent widening and scanning the area where its prey had just been.

Before it could comprehend what happened, its ears picked up on a sound coming from above its head.

The creature raised its four arms above its head to shield itself.

A split second later, Alex's leg descended on the creature, crashing down on it with formidable strength!

Crack!

Both the creature's arms and the ground underneath it cracked under Alex's formidable strength.

The creature's physique was primarily designed for speed, agility, and slaughter, so it didn't have high defenses. Coupled with Alex's strength, it became understandable that the creature was currently under a lot of pressure, with its arms on the verge of giving way.

The creature's tail shot toward Alex's leg, attempting to swat it away, yet before it could land on Alex's leg, it stopped, or rather, it was stopped.

"You won't be getting me two times with that tail of yours," smirked Alex.

He lifted his leg, causing the creature to fear another blow, but that blow never came. Instead, the creature felt Alex's hold on its tail becoming firmer.

The smile on Alex's face became wider as he lifted the creature using its tail.

As he lifted it, the creature's arms and legs began flailing in the air, but Alex paid them no mind.

With a savage grin, he whipped the creature against the ground.

BOOM!

Like it wasn't enough, Alex lifted the creature again and whipped it against the ground again and again and again.

"...."

Starx, who had been worried sick the moment the tattooed man began transforming into the creature, a monster of immense power that he dreaded, could only look with a bewildered expression at the one-sided beatdown of the creature.

'Of the two, I think he is the one who is a monster,' he thought with an awed expression.

Meanwhile, Alex continued whipping the creature using its tail until he became bored with it.

He lifted it in the air one last time and whipped it against the ground with much more strength than usual.

CRACK!

With a resounding crack, the bones in the creature's arms snapped the moment it touched the ground.

However, it was still alive, albeit badly battered, with blood oozing out of it from the different wounds it suffered at Alex's hands.

Although he knew that it was still alive, Alex didn't make a move to kill; before that, he needed to understand what this creature was.

Turning around to stare at Starx, he questioned, "what is this thing?"

"Huh? Ah, umm, I don't know," answered Starx with an embarrassed expression.

Alex's brows furrowed into a frown.

"Kid, don't take me for a fool. You warned me to kill it before it could fully transform, so you obviously know what this thing is. I suggest you start speaking and don't even think about bullshitting your way out."

Seeing Alex's stern expression, Starx began sweating profusely.

"I-I'm not lying, Sir. I really don't know what this is. I have only seen a creature like that even once, and even then—Sir!"

Starx suddenly shouted mid-sentence while pointing behind Alex.

Following Starx's finger, Alex glanced behind him only to see the creature running away on its legs.

At first, Alex wasn't very worried about the creature running away; its body was so battered that he could catch it before it could get far.

"T-The old man!"

It wasn't until Starx mentioned Cedrix that Alex remembered that Cedrix was sleeping near the carriage.

'Sh*t, I forgot about him!'

Alex turned back, and as he feared, the creature was running towards the unsuspecting old man's body.

The instant it was upon the old man, the creature's tail whipped in the direction of Cedrix's head!

Just as the creature's tail was about to hit Cedrix, and Alex was about to blink in front of it to stop it, large vines emerged from the ground and wrapped around the creature's body, preventing it from moving even a finger.

An instant later, the carriage door opened, and the girls walked out of it.

Alex sighed in relief and smiled at Amelia.

"Thanks for the help."

****

Hello, author here.

As some of you might have noticed, there wasn't any bonus chapter this week. I'm sorry for that, but it's not of my volition.

I'm facing problems with my internet connection these days, and since fixing it will cost an arm and a leg, and I'm broke

(╥﹏╥), it might take a bit over a week to be able to resolve the issue.

Sorry about that!