Blood dripped from the tip of my dagger. The magically enchanted blade was able to do far more damage than a simple pistol. The jagged edge only served to worsen the damage, but not enough to kill it. And yet, I knew that that was not a clean hit— it was only a given that striking a moving target was not as easy as striking an unmoving one.
If I had either been more skillful or stronger, I knew that I would have been able to sink the blade even deeper. Perhaps enough to have impeded its movements. But as of right now, the Chimera was still moving without any difficulty. Just, wary.
The Chimera backed up, cautiously circling around me as I stood my ground. It was looking for an opening, I could tell. It let out a roar. Its entire body jerked back as if it was about to jump at me—
But instead, a fireball shot out of its mouth.
A regular fireball. Not a Fireball. But even still, that was still dangerous. I would have fallen for the feint if I did not sense the mana building up in its stomach. Apparently there was some magical aspect to that attack, which only made sense since there was no way a normal living thing could do that.
I rolled out of the way, as the ball of flames continued to a tree at the back. It did not explode as much as it engulfed the area in flames, catching fire to the surrounding bushes.
I was just getting back to my feet when the Chimera reached me. It came at me like a wild dog, clawing, biting—
And I stabbed at its eye. The Chimera just barely jerked out of the way. The dagger struck it across the face regardless, and Monster reeled. It spun around, whipping its tail at me. But I simply ducked under it as it overextended. And with a simple swing of the blade, I felt my dagger cut through the leathery skin of a snake.
Except, it was not a snake. It was a snake-like tail. The one that was part of the Chimera… well, used to be a part of the Chimera.
I severed the Chimera’s tail in that single swing, causing it to stagger. But I did not let up. I ran forwards at the Monster, dodging it as it swung a claw at me in a panicked state. I leaned out of the way, slashing at its limb as it narrowly missed me.
I managed to get another strike into the Chimera before it leapt back, away from me by a good 20 feet. It once again opened its mouth, readying a fireball to blast me with. But I had seen that trick before. In fact, I already knew how to counter it.
I simply held up the gun on my other hand and fired it. The bullet struck the fireball while it was still within the Monster’s jaw, causing it to blast out at its own face. The Chimera flinched. Damaged by its own attack, and its vision blocked by the smoke covering its face.
It could not see. So it was not prepared for me when I swung at it again. My dagger plunged it deeper than before, getting a proper hit in on the Chimera for once. It tried to strike back at me, but I easily countered it once again.
The Monster helplessly tried to fight back, but it was no use. Whenever it swung at me, I countered it. Whenever it tried to send a fireball at me, I blew it up in its mouth. And if I did not— could not— dodge an attack, the one time I parried, my dagger actually cut into the Chimera’s claws instead.
I had known that Chimera’s had a keen intelligence to them when I first met one. One that gave it the ability to cruelly taunt its opponents, and one that would surely tell it when to flee. And right now, it was seriously considering the latter.
The Chimera swiped one paw at me, but I easily ducked under it. It was slower now. More tired. I brought my dagger up at its neck, cutting open a light wound at a vital spot of the Monster. I was about to follow up with a second swing to make an ‘X’ shape, but the Chimera bounded away once again.
I had whittled it down, slowly. Over time, its movement became more sluggish, and its attacks became weaker. Its jump only covered half of the distance it did when I first saw it, despite putting all its efforts to get away from me. The Chimera had lost its tail, and was now bleeding from multiple cuts on its legs and sides. With that final strike to the neck, it must have decided it had enough.
The Monster spun around, the remaining half of its tail between its hind legs, and... it ran.
"Oh no you don’t—"
I raised a hand, and the spell I held at my fingertips the entire time manifested. The very same spell Victor used so often, one of the many I had learned during the months I was traveling alone in the Free Lands.
A blade of wind shot out, moving faster than the injured creature. It struck the Monster from behind, going through a quarter of the way before stopping. It did not slice it completely in half like I thought it would, but it was enough to instantly kill the Chimera.
It dropped dead where it stood, and I walked up to its corpse. I could have used magic the entire time— and I was prepared to use magic just in case— but I had fought a Chimera before; I had killed one before, even without magic. This was just a test to
