"Are we gonna talk about how big these tracks are?" Autumn asked as the party approached the thicket.

The tracks they followed were of a four-legged creature, seemingly with a pair of cloven feet like a goat or sheep and a pair of padded feet like a large cat. The prints were larger than those of Glimmer, who herself was as massive as an especially large horse.

"We can handle it," Dorragth said from the front of the line.

"Easy to say for the biggest person here," Autumn said, "some of us have to worry about getting picked up and carried away."

Dorragth snorted, but didn't respond.

The thicket of trees offered shelter from the warm sun overhead, but gave little in the way of concealment from the ground as the tree trunks were thin and the foliage was well below eye level for most of the party. The sunlit meadow on the other side of the thicket was visible in cracks and slivers between the trees from almost any angle, and there was no concern of the creature they searched for hiding within. While Glimmer took to the skies and circled over the thicket, the hunting party followed the tracks through the trees until they came across the mostly-devoured corpse of a deer.

"It's still fresh," Eli said as he crouched beside it, "the flies have just gotten to it. Whatever killed it is close."

The adventurers warily scanned their surroundings in response.

Cameron joined Eli beside the corpse and inspected the marks on its bones and what little flesh remained, "two different tooth profiles, one reptilian and one feline. That's our target."

"It went this way," Dorragth said, already stomping off towards the edge of the thicket.

A panicked screech rang out from the sky, followed by a lion's roar.

Dorragth broke into a sprint towards the meadow, followed an instant later by Eli, Cameron and Titus, and a second later by the others -- all accept for Killup, who leapt off the ground and flapped his wings to lift him into the canopy, where he hid amongst the leaves.

Despite the head start of some others, Adan was the first to reach the thicket's edge. His gleaming skin caught the sunlight as he burst out into the meadow and shot his gaze towards the sky, where he immediately located the target.

The chimera was one-and-a-half the size of Glimmer and flew on large, leathery wings as it chased the griffin through the air just a few dozen feet above the ground. It had three heads, a thick-maned lion on the left, a red-scaled reptile on the right, and a large black ram with thick, curling horns in the center. Its body mostly resembled that of a lion with short sandy-brown fur, except for the hindquarters that resembled a goat with shaggy black fur and rear legs that ended in hooves.

Dorragth charged out of the thicket with a coarse battle cry, picking up a large rock from the ground and chucking it at the creature with such force that the grass around him fluttered in the wake. The rock shot through the air as fast as a bolt of magic and slammed into the chimera's side, crunching into bone and even partially embedding in the flesh.

The chimera's heads roared and screamed and its flight faltered, buying Glimmer enough time for a banking maneuver that brought her circling around behind the creature as it struggled to stay aloft. Eli stepped up beside Adan and fired a blast from his staff that flew straight and fast, piercing through both of the chimera's wings as they flapped upwards. An instant later, Glimmer swooped down and landed atop the chimera, digging her talons deep into its flesh and pecking her sharp beak against the back of its lion head.

The lion head roared and the ram head screamed, while the reptilian head twisted around and cracked its jaws wide. A glow began in its throat, and a long second later fire erupted from its mouth and bathed the meadows in a long, curving swath of flame.

"Fire drake!" Misty called out.

She dropped to her knees and buried her hands in the dirt with forceful strikes. Her eyes lit up a vibrant green as an explosion of plant growth erupted from the ground in a line shooting out from her hands. The line split to either side when it reached the edge of the flames as thick, leafy vines rose in and out of the ground as they lengthened, weaving themselves through the air and the soil.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Iris appeared beside her, "won't that just give the fire more fuel?"

"The plants are full of water from the ground," misty said, "they'll burn slow and halt the spread."

As the drake head's fire breath petered out, the chimera twisted abruptly in the air. The maneuver flung Glimmer loose, tossing her out to the side where she quickly recovered. The chimera was not so agile, however, and came out of the spin on a collision course for the ground. With a few desperate flaps it salvaged the crash into a rough landing which it carried into a full sprint.

Its legs moved in a blur as it ran impossibly fast in a circle around the gathering attackers. It dived low to dodge a blast from Eli's staff, and leapt high to jump over its own trail of fire, and then abruptly shifted course in a straight charge towards Misty and Iris.

"I got it," Iris said before Misty could pull her hands from the soil.

The elf snapped her head towards the strange wizard girl, only to see she wasn't there. She looked back at the charging chimera as Iris appeared in the air in front of and just above it. The girl delivered a full body downward swing with what looked like an ordinary walking stick, arcing in front of the creature and impacting the ram head between its horns with looked like it would be immense force. The strike, however, did no apparent damage to the creature -- instead, it was as if all momentum was drained from the creatures charge, and it slowed to a confused trot as the ram head looked around in confusion and the other heads lashed about in search of the attacker.

Iris appeared beside Misty again, "I'm not done, but I thought I should get out of the way for--"

Something like a horizontal landslide had raced through the swath of fire and was now barreling across the meadow. It was a massive, curving wall of dirt, stone and plants that left a deep gouge in the land behind it as it shot forward with twice the speed of a galloping horse.

The wall slammed into the chimera so hard that its feet left the ground and it was flung away into a rolling tumble. Dorragth erupted through the remnants of the wall, lifting a huge rock over his head with both hands and leaping into the air. The drake head met him with a throat full of flame, but he brought the rock down on its snout before the fire could escape. With the chimera not yet back on its feet, the force of the strike drove the drake head into the ground and clamped the jaws shut, and a second later the drake's neck began to bulge and glow brightly.

Dorragth shifted a foot onto the drake's mouth to hold it closed while he swung the rock into the ram head as it attempted to bash him with its horns. He blocked the attack, but did little damage to the creature's horns. There was a pop and a flash of flame by his feet, just before the lion head snuck under the ram's neck, sank teeth into his arm and viciously jerked him aside.

With jaws firmly locked onto the orcs arm, the lion head slung him onto the ground and placed a large paw on his chest to pin him, embedding sharp, hooking claws into his flesh. Adan appeared from a streaking flash of movement and delivered a spinning kick to the lion head, pushing it away from the pinned orc. The motion ripped flesh from Dorragth's bones, but his only acknowledgement was a roar as he immediately began prying the creature's claws out of his chest with both hands. Adan flashed away as quickly as he had appeared.

Three blasts of magic shot out. The first was a streak of red that pierced the chimera's chest and exploded beneath the flesh, the next two were streaks of white that impacted Dorragth where he lay. He growled through the pain as his missing flesh reformed and he pushed the creature's paw off his chest.

"Now's probably a good time," Iris shrugged beside Misty before disappearing again.

She appeared on the ground beside Dorragth, just in front of the chimera, and swung her stick in a wide arc with all her strength and most of her mana. The stick impacted the side of the ram head, and all the force it had absorbed from the chimera's charge joined Iris's strength. The impact cracked the skull and snapped the ram head to the side, slamming a horn into the lion's head. The chimera swiped out with a lion's paw towards Iris, but she was already gone.

Dorragth took the opportunity to roll away, twist into a crouch and conjure a wall of dirt and rock between himself and the creature. Two more bolts of white magic hit him in the back, prompting muted grunts as the healing magic entered his system and continued work on his wounds. The chimera reared back as the lion head roared in fury. Beside it, the ram head hung limply, while all that remained of the drake head was a gory mess.

Despite Misty's best efforts, the fire was spreading across the meadow and growing close to the thicket. "I can't hold back the flames! It's about to be real bad here!" she shouted as she withdrew her hands from the dirt and put distance between herself and the fire.

With a deep breath, Dorragth vaulted over his makeshift cover and charged towards the chimera. The creature planted its feet and poised to meet him, but Adan flashed beside it again and delivered another powerful kick to the lion's head, knocking it aside and dazing the creature. It kicked off the ground and desperately flapped its wings in an attempt to take flight, but was interrupted by Autumn crashing down on its back and driving a stone spear past its spine.

The chimera still tried to take flight, but it was out of time. Dorragth leapt into the air and met the lion head with a foot on the inside of its lower jaw between its two bottom fangs, and a hand on either side of its upper jaw just behind its upper fangs. He pushed down with his foot as he hoisted up with his hips and arms. There was a loud crack, followed by a pitiful whine. Dorragth leaned forward and wrapped his arms around the lion's head like a bear hug, squeezed tight, and twisted his torso. A series of cracks followed, and the chimera fell limp to the ground.