As Ela and Damien navigated through the maze, they had been following the map for about ten minutes and were starting to approach the center. Rounding a corner, they came upon a large opening, and in the center lay a giant monster with a golden name displayed above its head.
“Chemira Level 40 - Legendary”
The chimera had the head of a lion, a scale-like body resembling that of a reptile, and a tail similar to that of a scorpion. However, the two prominent horns protruding from its head stood out the most, with black lightning crackling between them.
Damien looked at the beast on the ground and then glanced at Ela. "What is that thing? Why does it have so many different animal parts?" He felt a growing sense of unease; it was clear that the creature was much stronger than both of them.
“Chimeras are creatures that blend parts from various animals. They are a combination of different beings. Take the one in front of us as an example. It has the head of a lion, the body of a reptile, and the tail of a scorpion. Every chimera is unique, and it's rare to find any that look the same,” Ela explained while inspecting the creature.
“Interesting. Alright, then. I suggest we fight it together. I don't think it's wise for us to take it on alone,” Damien said, his expression cautious. “Agreed. Chimeras are dangerous opponents and should not be taken lightly. Considering that, how do you want to approach this? I suggest we try to land a heavy blow at the start. We don’t have much time left in the event to defeat this thing, and if someone shows up while we’re fighting, we could find ourselves in a tough spot,” Ela noted seriously.
“Alright, let’s stick to our usual strategy. We’ll both transform and get in close. You should strike first with your Cleave attack before using your King’s Cape ability. After your Cleave connects, I’ll attack while the chimera is distracted.”
Nodding in agreement, they took their positions. However, as soon as Ela began to approach, the chimera suddenly whipped around and focused on her.
A look of astonishment crossed her face as she realized she was uncertain about her next move. If she summoned Cleave now, the chimera would see the attack coming and evade it. ‘Maybe we should pull back and rethink our strategy,’ she thought, her doubts growing. She knew chimeras were formidable opponents, and attempting to fight one without a strong party was practically suicidal. Yet, if it was part of the event, it had to be possible to defeat it.
As Ela was about to back off a man with a giant sword appeared at an entrance opposite the one they had entered, upon entering the room the man glanced around with a narrowed gaze and an unreadable look on his face.
While scanning the room the man seemed to not care about the giant chimera whatsoever as his gaze did not stop on it at all finally the man stopped looking around once his gaze reached the back right corner of the room the corner Damien was in his shadow form at.
Seeing the man staring in his direction Damien decided to test if the man could see him and quickly started moving through the shadows towards Ela and unsurprisingly the man’s eyes never left Damien as he moved around.
‘What is up with this guy? Earlier when the event started he was doing the same thing and just staring at me.’ Damien thought to himself as the man had been acting strange ever since he saw Damien.
While he was wondering what was up with the guy the man finally moved and reached behind his back and grabbed his giant sword before slowly walking in Damien’s direction. While walking the man started to cross the platform the chimera was lying on and the second the chimera sensed someone entering the area of the platform it spun around and lunged at the man.
As the chimera was about to rip his head off with its giant maw the man finally moved his gaze away from Damien and looked at the beast, the second his gaze made contact with the chimera's it jumped back away from the man before looking at him cautiously.
“Disgusting,” he said aloud with a scoff before looking back at Damien whose face was full of shock. ‘Does he have an ability like my primordial one?’ he thought as otherwise it did not make sense for the chimera to be so cautious of him.
Finally, Damien decided to use inspection on the guy as he had been distracted by his own thoughts. “Human-level 25” Seeing that the man was around the same level as him he was even more shocked because if he did not have the ability like his then Damien was honestly not sure what to make of what just happened.
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“Who are you? Why are you so focused on me?” Damien finally asked while staying on guard.
“Jake, my name is Jake. As for why I'm focused on you its because you have something that can help me,” he stated never taking his eyes off Damien.
Listening to what the man said Damien started to rack his brain on what he could have that would possibly help them, man, ‘A ability? No, I don't have anything like th- wait, my bloodline?”
“You are from the “Organization” aren’t you? Damien asked with a hint of rage in his voice. Upon hearing Damien’s question the man adopted an amused look.
“Not exactly you could just say that I'm currently working for them, now how about we make a deal hm? If you beat me in a fight I will answer any of your questions and if you lose I will not tell you anything.” Jake asked while watching Damien’s facial expressions.
“Look ma-” Before Damien could respond Jake launched himself forward and and swung his sword at Damien who hastily dodged to the side with a roll. Springing back up to his feet he yelled out, “What the hell man!”
Instead of responding, though, Jake continued to attack with no sign of slowing down, seeing that the man had no intentions of not fighting Damien focused.
Entereing his lighting mode, he appeared next to Jake and swung at his neck. In response, Jake calmly parried the attack with his sword, a look of boredom on his face. "Is this all you've got? Your technique is horrible. It’s clear you haven't put much effort into improving that. And let’s not even discuss the simplistic and foolish ways you use your abilities," Jake said mockingly.
“It was just one attack,” Damien replied, frustrated by Jake's derision over a single strike. “That’s all I need to see: your form is terrible, and you haven’t trained your abilities,” he asserted.
“If you had really worked to understand all your abilities and also the weapon you were using, I would have had a way harder time parrying your attacks, but instead, you did the most obvious thing and attacked my head from behind after reappearing,” Jake said calmly.
“What are you, my instructor? Besides, if you know anything about the organization, you should understand that I have no memories of my life before my escape, let alone the chance to practice my swordsmanship and abilities.” Damien said in frustration. If it weren't for the fact that he had been trapped for so long, he would have spent time perfecting his skills and understanding them better.
“How long has it been since you escaped?” Jake asked with a smirk.
Now that Jake had mentioned it Damien remembered after he and Ela had arrived in town they had gotten some food and talked in their room but after that, they spent around a week or so just relaxing and going around the town as Ela did not want to go and hunt monsters right after she reunited with Damien.
“About a week and 3 days,” he responded.
“So you have had a week or so to try and understand your abilities no I assume your abilities got updated after the system fully integrated so with that in mind you probably only had a few abilities. Regardless you still had a decent amount of time to practice those abilities and familiarize yourself with them and I’m sure you can understand why that’s important right?” Jake asked.
“Look, I understand what you’re trying to say, but I’m not you or anyone else—I am myself. After spending most of my life locked in a simulation, I don't see anything wrong with taking some time to relax. With Ela by my side and my own strength, I have nothing to fear from the organization recapturing me,” Damien stated calmly.
“Now tell me what you want. I don’t see how helping me understand my abilities or how to use them benefits you.” Damien was genuinely confused about what the man wanted. So far, he had only been vague and had not clearly stated his reasons for his actions.
“I told you, beat me in a fight and I will answer all your questions.” after finishing his words Jake lunged forward once more.
“Really?” Damien asked, exchanging blows as the sound of swords clashing echoed off the walls of the maze. Off to the side of the battle, Ela could be seen watching the fight with a look of intrigue.
Saying nothing in response Jake feints a swing of his sword making Damien block his right side, seeing Damien fall for his fake Jake attacks the opposite side of his previous attack.
A chill went up Damien’s back as he quickly used lighting fast to dodge the attack, staring at Jake Damien decided he’d had enough. “Fine,” Damien says grinding his teeth together, “I just have to defeat you right?”
Without saying anything else, Damien enters his high-shade form. Seeing Damien’s transformation, Jake adopts a crazed smile. “Now we are talking!” he yells while waiting for Damien to make his move.
And move he did taking Jake's advice he uses his primordial skill making Jake freeze in place while at the same time, he appears directly in front of him before slashing down with his katana.
Sneering at the simple attack Damien was doing once again Jake prepared to calmly block but to his surprise right as their swords were about to clash the shadow-like Damien’s sword disappeared causing his sword to go threw the shadow.
With a smile, the shadow Damien walked threw the attack calmly before taking out his sword once more and holding it against Jake’s neck.
“I win,”