They were an amalgamation of different animals thought to be a result of crossbreeding. How that happens confounded even the esteemed researchers of the Guild and was a constant source of debate.

The only observation that was unanimously agreed upon was its indiscriminate aggression and its tendency to gravitate towards large civilisations.

One such a creature landed but a scant few metres from Vella's transfixed form. It whipped its tail around to slash the ground, spreading its arms and unfurling its strangely human-like hands. It bent forward ready to charge, and in doing so, revealed menacing spikes upon its back.

If that gesture of challenge was not clear enough, its raspy cry scraping from its chest-maw certainly was.

The danger finally registered in her head and shook her petrification. Her hands felt rather empty, and she realised she had dropped the Clems in shock.

Vella immediately assessed the situation. The Monster wasn't all that large compared to a human; smaller, even, than a typical adult. But she was physically a child. The only way she could defend herself was with the abundant sticks around her.

Had she learnt some magic, she would have been a lot more confident in protecting herself. However, all she had was Lilyan's inheritance.

Vella paused.

Her summons. They were... well, to be honest, they were pitiful against a Monster, but at least she could use them as a distraction.

As she thought to herself the Monster's patience had come to an end. It jumped to the side and scaled up a tree. Then it used a low branch to springboard itself, diving at Vella at an unorthodox angle.

She threw herself into the ground, the scythe-like arms whistling above her head as she fell. Her momentary blindness fuelled her with panic. Whatever plan she had went out the window as she scrambled to put distance between them.

That proved to be a mistake. She was rewarded with a hard impact on her back that sent her into the ground again. Dazed, she could not feel the wound, but she could certainly feel the warm wetness steeping across her clothes.

She shook herself, there was no time to appreciate the miracles of adrenaline. She had barely started her second life; she wasn't about to let it all end again.

Her mind cleared and she aborted the instinctual urge to crawl forward. Instead, she rolled to the side, getting up in a less than graceful motion. Again, she barely avoided certain death.

Stones arced through the air, peppering her. It told how close she was to being skewered by the creature's back. It was a bizarre sight. The creature was seemingly stuck on its back like an overturned turtle on a beach. Its screeching promised pain and death should Vella be too slow to act.

This was it, her chance to run away, but a stray thought grounded her. What if she took this chance now to kill, or at least injure it? Her chance of surviving would improve. She reasoned that she wouldn't be able to outrun the Monster anyway, injured as she were. Perhaps the blood loss was feeding her delirious ideas, but after weighing her options her decision was clear.

The Monster rolled itself off its spikes to find its prey obediently staying for the promised agony. It seemed to be intelligent enough to feel and express a sense of satisfaction. Its slow pace towards Vella was seemingly filled with an assured, smug confidence. There was even a bit of swagger to its natural sway as it stalked forward.

It raised its bladed arm and Vella's vision changed. Whether it was due to bloodloss or a magical effect, she did not know, but a buried memory resurfaced. In the creature's hand, it held a smoking gun and the trees distorted into a concrete barrier. The monster itself became a fuzzy humanoid figure. A woman.

Vella jerked backwards, struggling to contain her panic. Half of her screamed to repeat her past actions. To do them better. She could survive the gun if she tried harder, pushed herself faster. She could imagine it. The rushing sensation of wind while tackling the woman, the shake of her arms as she exerted against the stronger opponent.

Then the failing of her strength despite mentally screaming at her muscles to obey, to overcome. She was sent tumbling over. A smile of triumph, the last thing she ever saw.

No. She had already tried hard enough. She had to try smarter.

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Vella observed the swaggering chimera, tried to find weakness in its armaments. Bladed arms, a maw in its torso, a protective spiked back, a strong scaled and armoured tail. She would never beat it in a fair fight.

She remembered rare encounters in her old life. Against gangbangers with unsavoury motives. She would hit them below the belt and run. Everyone had a weak spot, even if it was a weakness professional martial artists never go for in favour of honour.

Vella smirked as she sent a series of mental commands to her Yunare.

A smudge of brown raced from behind the Monster and before it could react, the blur sprang upwards. Vella's Yunare plunged twelve centimetres of horn up where the sun didn't shine.

The damage done was quite evident as splatters of dark red liquid stained the earth beneath the creature.

Enraged and hurting, the Monster grabbed at its behind and pulled out the offending culprit. It howled at the Yunare before throwing it into the ground to slice apart with its arms. It was a frenzy of cuts, but Vella was sure the first slash had already set her summon dissolving into ambient mana.

Despite the steady river of blood, the chimera's vigour had not diminished. Vella hoped it was a result of being oblivious to its own blood loss, and not because it was able to magically walk off its severe haemorrhage. Whatever the case, it looked ready to pounce on her once again.

Shuffling backwards, she felt for her footing. Her eyes never left the Monster in front of her, as if breaking eye-contact were a signal to attack.

The back of her foot hit a log, and she made to step over it. Cunningly, the Monster leapt at her there and then. The aggression shocked her into a sprint.

Vella turned but her leg suddenly felt like lead as she struggled to step over the obtrusive log. Her vision swam, and it took her a moment to catch herself hovering over the ground, light and heavy at the same time.

The bleeding must have been taking a toll on her. She could not move her sluggish body. Escape was all but impossible. With a grunt and a titan’s worth of effort, she was on her back, facing her end.

The pain on her back was registering now. A newfound pain also made itself known in her ankle. Just another thing to suffer as she waited for the guillotine.

Her executioner seemed to flow through the air slowly. She never noticed how mesmerising a pattern its blades made when it spun. The spikes on its back leading to its tail spiralled in the air balletically.

Strange. It had just occurred to her that she could probably make her Dawli do the same thing as a parlour trick. If only she lived to try it.

Dull determination gripped her as she in turn gripped a nearby stick. At the same time, a command was sent to her Dawli.

With a burst of energy, she heaved herself to the side just as the Monster landed on her. A deep gash carved its way across her right brow and down to her cheek. A glancing blow compared to the state of her other wounds. One that bought her precious few seconds.

With her body still trapped under the monster, she could not fully escape. Yet it was not her intension when she shifted herself further down through the legs of the monster. The stick in her hand stabbed upwards and Vella prayed that the angle was right.

It wasn't, and the stick probed the side of her intended target. However, it was enough to set the chimera screaming as she prodded around the only injury she was able to inflict upon it.

Unfortunately, that also jostled it forward sending a knee into her face. With all the injuries she was accumulating, it was a wonder how her nose was still intact.

The Monster's own suffering afforded her a little bit more time. With her adrenaline spiking yet again, she re-angled her stick and pushed.

This time the cry from the creature came out as more of a whimper, although, it was not quiet by any stretch of the word. It crawled forward to get away, throwing up dirt and leaves, but Vella was able to grab hold of one of its legs.

Applying leverage, she drove the stick further in whilst twisting. It understandably increased the Monster's kicking. She diverted the flow of the kick away from her body with every buck, barely keeping her grip on the Monster.

She was sure that its arms were slashing too, but the angle was awkward. With the way she held its leg between them, it also risked cutting itself if it swung too wildly.

The creature's frantic movement was hard enough to snap the stick. It was all Vella could do to switch targets and grab hold of the monster's other leg for dear life. Her last hope depended on keeping the Monster facing down at the ground.

A couple of eternal seconds later, her Dawli finally made its way back to her. Its sight allowed Vella to see how strange her grappling looked on the outside. She noted that this only worked because of the strange biology of the creature. The chimera's spiked back prevented it from flipping over as it could not properly push itself off the ground. Especially with her weighing down its legs.

Soon the Dawli was close enough and Vella directed it to claw and peck at the Monster's bottom entrance, or rather, its exit. The Dawli, being a magical construct and not truly a living being, obliged mercilessly. All Vella could do from then on was to hold it down.

She had no way of telling how much time had passed, but eventually the beast's movements slowed, and then abruptly stopped. Still her Dawli continued long even after she had exhausted her strength holding onto lifeless limbs.

Memories and impressions of blurry things looked, stared at her. The trees, the forest, carried her away on their roots and vines. The air, the sky, they washed purple and orange, offering a strange warmth as the world swam across her vision. Then she felt her insides flip as the feeling of falling clutched at her weakening heart.

Not again.

She could not understand why life ended up the same way even in another world. What else could she have tried or done to escape death's fondness? She felt cheated, for an answer would never quench her question.

As her consciousness slowly ebbed away, an inner connection became more and more pronounced. She briefly wondered what it was before she scrambled desperately. The Clem. It could heal her injuries.

She concentrated one last time to compile a set of instructions the best as she could to her Clem.

Immeasurable pain flared on her back, and she drifted off into a dreamless slumber.