Unknown: "So, they realized... phuahaha... too late. Reinforcements will never arrive on time. You will die!" "You better get ready," a dark voice said, full of malice, but he was too far away for Art and Anthony to hear. "Enjoy your remaining days alive! Hahahaha!" He laughed and disappeared into the shadows.
"What have I been doing till now..." Art thought to himself, wondering about the whole mission. Then he decided to report everything and ask for reinforcement. But, disappointed, he found out that it would take about a whole week to arrive, "The director must know that we found his other identity out, *deep sigh* We will not survive." Anthony spoke out loud, full of doubt. "What about the men you sent away?" Arthur asked, full of hope but without seeing the disappointment that would come. "They are far away, I sent them back to the headquarters and I cannot contact them. Sorry. " Their disappointment and helplessness were clearly shown on their faces.
*Crack* A sound of a breaking stick alerted them and both put their hands on their sword ready to draw and fight. Both of them walked around slowly until they were back to back, and then, they slowly and very, very carefully moved around in circles. One step at a time. Their blades pointed towards the forest very calmly. "What was that? Where did that sound come from? Maybe snow goblins... no, no, no, not possible. They would have attacked us. So, damn it, what was it?" Art thought to himself while keeping an eye on the forest. Nothing moved in the forest, which was covered in snow so beautifully yet miyterious and ominous. They looked everywhere they could in order to find out the source of the sound, but nothing. They could not find anything. They finally decided to lower their swords and go back to the orphanage to forge a plan on how to continue. "Seems like there was nothing, even my breath was held Phuuu... Thankfully, nothing happened. "Let's go back and think about what we should do from now on. You're very cautious, aren't you, Arthur?" Art was shocked that Anthony knew his name, but then he remembered that they saw each other's ID and their names were written on it. "Forewarned is forearmed, so better be safe than sorry," Art replied, and finally decided to put away his sword and dagger. He put his sword back into his seat and, as he wanted to do the same with his dagger, he suddenly stopped. "W-what is it this time, Arthur?" Anthony asked, confused, but Art remained silent, not speaking a single word because he was deep in thought. "W-what was that feeling?" He closed his eyes and grabbed his dagger really strongly, "Now slash to the right, fast!" and he slashed as fast as he could. *Clang* A loud noise of swords clashing against each other could be heard. Art opened his eyes and turned around, but he was stunned. That thing was from the first time he passed through the dense forest. "T-that's what I s-saw in the forest?! What is this thing?!" Art asked himself loudly. In front of him was a humanoid beast, about 2 and a half meters tall. It had two long, thin, but overgrown limbs with extremely strong scales and a muscular, thick upper thigh, speed type. Then a long lizard-like tail appears, like a whip with a blade at its end, which, under the moonlight, seems to be covered with blood. Its upper body was also overgrown with small scales, which looked like normal skin, I guess, but it had bones all over it, like a bone armour, and inside his chest there was something like a heart and monster core combined, pumping and glowing lightly orange. "I guess that's its heart," Anthony said, unsure and scared, and I couldn't blame him. It had two pretty long arms. At its elbow there were bones like knives, sharp and long, and it had fingers like blades but with joints, which was extremely unusual and dangerous. Its head was like that of a human and a wolf mixed together. Its fangs were strengthened with steel, like the steel-fanged wolf you find further in the south. It didn't have any eyes... instead it had two black holes, but it was watching the two mercenaries very carefully. Not to forget that it also had blades on its forearm, from its hand way back to the elbow, like a sword attached to its forearm. As if this wasn't enough, it could speak, but not understandably. Its mouth may have been moving, but the voice came from its body.
Art and Anthony were shocked. After Anthony woke up from the shock, he quickly drew his two short dagger-like swords and looked over to Art to tell him to do the same. "A-Art, hurry up and get rea-" Anthony looked at Arthur and was amazed to see him already ready with the sword in his right hand and the dagger in his left hand. The dagger was in front of his head to protect him, and the sword was lowered near the ground, ready to either attack or defend. not leaving any openings. "Damn, he got ready before I did. He is still a kid, isn't he? How can he be so calm? What did he face till now to not be faced in front of such a monster-wait, he is obviously a little panicked. I guess he is human too, but I am ashamed to lose to a child... Anyway, I need to concentrate on that thing!" Anthony thought and thightened his grip on his twin blade, and Art was watching the monsters' movements very closely. It let out a shrill scream, echoing through the forest and in their ears, then it vanished from their eyes, "W-where is it?!" Anthony asked in pain, but there was no answer. Instead, there was the sound of blades clashing against each other. The librarian turned around and saw Art fighting that creepy monster at an incredible speed. He was amazed at Arthur's speed, agility, and so on. After staring for a while, he shook his head to wake up from it and attacked too. "Took you long enough!" Art uttered this while fighting. "And you still breath very calmly, don't you?!" Anthony responded with a smirk. "Can you take it on on your own?" Art asked Anthony, who was pretty confused, "Are you able to fight it at this pace alone?!" "Y-yes, I think so..." Anthony responded to Arthur's loud question, which demanded an answer. "Good" Art grinned and punched the monster hard. It flew into the forest while breaking some trees and crashing into a boulder. "Go and take it on then," Arthur commanded Anthony, and he listened to him while trusting Arthur that he had a plan.
A fight could be seen under the beautiful full moon and snow-covered forest. Anthony had a hard time keeping up with the humanoid beast, because of its speed, power, and overall well balanced abilities. "A-Art, argh... where are you?!!" Anthony screamed while searching for him, but he was nowhere to be found. "So I was just used as bait! Damn you, arghh! G-get away-y f-from.. meee!" The librarian used a lot of force to push it away and was pretty out of breath already, panting *huff..., huff...* As he slowly looked in the direction of where he pushed the monster, all he could see was three orange glowing dots through the churning snow, which dissappeared immediately. Anthony looked to his left and saw the monster's blade aiming for his neck with incredible speed. "I guess that's it." He thought to himself after closing his eyes. *Clang!* When Anthony opened his eyes, he saw Arthur himself blocking the monster's blades. "What are you doing? Why didn't you flee?! Wasn't I the bait so that you could escape?!" Anthony shouted in confusion. To which Art responded, "What the heck are you talking about? Since when did you become bait? I never made you one , did I? So, get the heck out of your delusional thinking and fight! Don't give up before even really fighting! Ohh... and be careful, its thorns and blades are poisonous. " Art kicked the monster in its chest, which pushed it away. He rotated his dagger in his hand and dashed at the monster, fighting it while Anthony was resting. The fight went on and on, but neither the monster nor the mercenaries were giving up. Instead, the monster was at the end of its powers because it was fighting non-stop and didn't take turns. A block of fog came out of it and all the thorns were shot out of its body. Art and Anthony barely hid behind a boulder. Both of them came out pretty fast, and while it wasn't shooting any more thorns, the black fog got denser and denser. "W-what is that?!" Anthony asked, full of shock while falling back and pointing at the monster's upper body. Indeed, there were faces of humans moving around on it, full of agony and begging to get killed. Where the stomach should be, a huge mouth was forming and trying to bite both mercenaries, but they dodged. "A chimera. That is a chimera. "Now it all makes sense. Art retorted, full of anger "Using children for their experiments and to make sacrifices!" Arthur clenched his teeth, gripped harder on his weapons, and dashed at them with a lot of killing intent and bloodlust, which made Anthony kneel down gasping for air. That's how heavy it was. "I don't care about hiding my abilities anymore!" Art thought while fighting it. To Anthony's surprise, Art didn't need his assistance because he was easily overpowering the monster and crushing the chimera.As the faces were smiling at him, he closed his eyes and used his flames to burn them down. These flames cannot be extinguished by any means, not until they burn down everything there is to burn or what they are meant to burn. While Anthony was watching the beautiful yet dangerous flames, he asked himself what Art had to go through in order to obtain such powers. They weren't normal...
"Is it over?" Anthony asked Art while looking at him praying for the dead souls. "Yes, at least this one. Now all that remains is the Creator!" Art looked over to Anthony with a serious face, and he understood that the upcoming fight would be even harder than this one, so they made their way to the orphanage. "Go back first, I need to go somewhere." Art said to Anthony, and went on his way. *Their eyes, watch out for their eyes* The voice which saved his live multiple times told him this. Art looked around and couldn't believe how he wasn't able to tell. Their eyes were all the same green. All the citizens had the same eyes. He took the hood and put it over his head as much as possible, covering even his eyes, and made his way to the blacksmith. Upon entering, the blacksmith responded the same as back then "We are closing. Oh... it's you!" He looked at his eyes, and they were different from the rest of the town's people. "What can I do for you this time?" "Hmmm...." Art examined the weapons with care. "I would like a new sword, powerful and very durable as well as very sharp." The blacksmith looked at Art inquiringly and chose a sword. "Here you go, I hope this one will be of help to you, young man. That would make about 5 gold. " "Thank you very much," Art replied, as he paid for the sword and left the store.
[After a while]
Art arrives at the orphanage and meets with the librarian in the library. With this opportunity, Art asks about the letter he found in the book. "This one?" Anthony asks, "Yes," Art replies. "Hmm... Oh, these are book titles from different types and genres of books. They are the oldest books in this library, and one thing they have in common is that they are about a being that is searching for immortality and is becoming more and more of a monster. One day, when his old teammates find him, he kills them with his new power and makes them into himself." Anthony summed it up for Art. "So in short, it was once human," hmm... "so like the chimera creator, I guess." Art thought loudly and looked at Anthony. Both of them remained silent, lost in their own thoughts. "I am going to go back and sleep." With this, Arthur broke the silence and went to his room to sleep. As he lay down in bed and fell asleep, his nightmares came again...