The Primal Hunter 15: A LitRPG Adventure, page 66
As expected, the monster gave chase to try to keep Jake within its optimal attack range. Being on the ground, Jake also lost the ability to dodge downwards, meaning entering the jungle wasn’t entirely bad for it.
For a little while, the Chimera tried to stay above or near the canopies of the trees, but he kept moving in a way that made it impossible for the B-grade to attack effectively, forcing it to eventually enter the jungle proper.
“Do you believe this is advantageous to you?” the Chimera asked tauntingly as it kept striking with its tendrils.
Meanwhile, Jake kept moving rapidly through the jungle and shooting stable arrow after stable arrow. “Hopefully,” Jake said, deciding to banter a bit. Usually he wouldn’t bother, but a lot of things still nagged him.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever god had blessed the Chimera was from the Court of Shadows, and that this B-grade had been given a job to kill Jake. Likely, that was why the monster cared so much about taking him out in the first place. He would be the Chimera’s escape from this planet and the source of his backing once off-planet.
Jake’s biggest question was, who the hell would hire the Court of Shadows to kill him? It might be a bit rude, but the first candidate to enter Jake’s mind was Villy himself. Jake could totally see the snake god hiring the Court to send assassins after him for some extra training and experience. It would also make sense for the Primordial to be apprised of assassins being hired, potentially even having to approve them. While Umbra was considered to be at the same level as the twelve Primordials, making someone like the Viper an enemy was still risky.
However, it didn’t feel right. First of all, the timing was wrong. Villy wouldn’t hire them while Jake was off visiting the Pantheon of Life in what even the Primordial had called an official diplomatic mission. It would also be odd to hire assassins to kill your own Chosen within the dominion of another Primordial-level faction.
That meant someone else had enough hatred for Jake to hire an assassin. Was it perhaps someone who had been related to Yip of Yore? There were still a lot of gods who’d backed Yip out there.
It could also totally be the Holy Church, though they tended to only hire the Court of Shadows to handle internal matters. Perhaps it was just someone who didn’t like to see Jake’s name on top of the Nevermore Leaderboards... Whatever the case, whoever was behind this had to be powerful to dare hire an assassin to kill the Chosen of the Malefic Viper and have the Court accept the mission.
So many unknowns... and Jake had no way to investigate them besides trying to probe the Chimera a bit.
As he dodged through the jungle, avoiding strike after strike, he also slowly got closer to the Chimera. “I know the faction who promised to give you a place in the multiverse... and do you genuinely think they’ll want to invest in you?”
Jake’s words seemed to have some effect, as the tendrils were thrown off ever so slightly. He took this chance to instantly close the distance and get close to the Chimera, thus exiting its optimal range.
“Look at yourself,” Jake continued, “You’re a B-grade, yet this is the best you can do? Someone of your caliber isn’t even worth being cannon fodder to the Court of Shadows.” Mentioning the Court of Shadows certainly had an effect.
“You... how do you know—” the Chimera began, but Jake stopped it from speaking by teleporting right below it and punching upwards with a Penetrating Fang, stabbing deep into the stomach of the B-grade.
It screamed before trying to crush Jake, but he was too fast and cut the monster across its stomach, causing a small waterfall of sludge-like brown blood to pour out. The wound took a long time to close due to Heartrot Poison.
“I’ve encountered people from the Court of Shadows many times before,” Jake said, the conversation having no effect on his ability to fight yet clearly messing with the Chimera. “In fact, there was a time they really wanted to recruit me. An offer I would have perhaps taken in a different life.”
His katars moved across the body of the Chimera like a whirlwind, leaving dozens of cuts every second as the monster struggled to stop him in any way it could. Entering the jungle also quickly proved an excellent move, as the tendrils struggled to avoid hitting trees or other obstacles while trying to catch Jake.
“I know them well enough to know that in their eyes, you are nothing. A means to an end at most. Even if you leave this planet, what do you think awaits you? Do you think they can magically turn you into a B-grade that’s worthy of actually being called a B-grade? Even if they could, why wouldn’t they invest those resources in someone actually competent?”
The Chimera tried to get away several times, but Jake didn’t let it flee. When strings of arcane mana wrapped around the monster in several places, Jake used them to pull and swing himself while attacking, leaving his opponent more and more bloodied. All the while, he continued channeling his inner Songbird.
“How long have you been on this planet without facing any real challenge? How long have you hidden away like the coward you are? How can anyone with such a fragile mindset ever achieve anything? The only thing weaker than your power is your mind.”
Getting a good opening, Jake stabbed right where one of the legs connected to the Chimera’s body and released a blast of arcane mana, nearly severing the limb. He sensed that his poison had accumulated quite a bit inside the monster’s body, too, ravaging it from within.
“Makes me wonder what kind of god wasted a Blessing on you,” Jake said, deciding to also insult the Patron of the Chimera in case it was the reverent type. “Did they do it out of pity? Vanity? Either way, whoever this god is, they are living proof that even the divine can sometimes make idiotic decisions.”
Jake’s plan had certainly worked out well so far. His psychological warfare had bought him a lot of time as the two tore through the jungle, destroying vast swaths of it, as the Chimera had constantly tried to either get away from Jake or attack him.
Yet he couldn’t be entirely calm... because even if everything he’d said about this B-grade being trash was true, it was still a B-grade. Moreover, what he’d seen so far didn’t even put it at the level of the Sovereign. Far more durable, sure, and Jake could see the Sovereign losing to the Chimera, but in most scenarios, his money would be on the bird.
That meant Jake could only conclude the monster had more to show. The question was just what it was waiting for. As things were going, Jake was rapidly building an advantage.
Once Jake landed several more stabs, the Chimera finally had a proper way to force him back. The monster roared with immense power, releasing a shockwave of dark mana that temporarily forced him away.
“Useless... weak... unqualified... yes... I am pathetic,” the B-grade said, its defeatist tone echoing through the jungle. “But... I’m also a Chimera. I change. Adapt. Improve. It remains incomplete, but you leave me no choice. Witness me and lay eyes on power found within the shadows!”
The torrent of dark energy exuded by the Chimera only seemed to increase in intensity as it slowly changed properties, going from dark energy to shadow energy. At the same time, Jake also heard a cracking sound. Within the darkness, the Chimera was changing form.
Chapter 75
"Is this really all you got?"
Being a mix of different creatures, Chimeras often had physical bodies that were quite malleable. These creatures typically changed a lot between evolutions, but even within the same evolution, they could change forms, primarily because they had a more powerful version of the Polymorph skill that most monsters unlocked when evolving to C-grade.
This improved version was able to achieve far more than slight physical alterations or creating a humanoid form. It could allow them to change their forms substantially, to the level where some of the properties of their body could shift entirely.
Jake had seen the absolute extreme of this with the Chimera that had dwelled within his Soulspace before it merged with sim-Jake. Summoned from pure Records, that creature had shifted its shape like water, altering anything and everything at incredible speeds during combat.
Clearly, this mediocre Chimera couldn't quite achieve that, yet it had managed to redesign itself. The alteration had changed the creature significantly, from the looks of it.
When the black torrent of energy finally let up, the Chimera stepped out of the darkness, emanating a more powerful aura than before. No longer in its dog-like form, it now stood vertically, its entire body condensed from nearly ten meters long to just five meters tall.
Its fleshy midsection had seemingly been squashed together, and with the gap mostly closed, the creature looked a lot bulkier. Calling the Chimera human-like wasn’t entirely accurate, but it had certainly come closer, as it did have a human-like torso and a head attached. The head still had its crocodile features, but with the Chimera’s changed form, it at least looked closer to some ancient god depicted in a pyramid than a weird sausage dog with a reptilian head. It still looked weird as hell, though, as it had no legs or arms. The four thin, fairly useless legs from before were now gone.
The eight tendrils from before remained, but those had also changed in both form and function. Four of the tendrils were embedded in the ground, functioning as legs reminiscent of a spider’s. Another two tendrils came out of its shoulder region, both looking thicker and far deadlier now. At the end of each tendril, the Chimera had created what looked like double-edged battleaxes. The kind with a sharp tip at the top, letting the B-grade still use them to stab.
The last two tendrils had undergone the most change. These grew out of the Chimera’s back and were a lot shorter than the four others, though they did look more durable. These had also changed at their ends, now demonstrating some plant-monster heritage in the form of two blooming flowers of flesh that emanated powerful shadow magic.
Overall, Jake would say this was definitely an improvement from how the Chimera had looked before, even if he felt like there was still some work to go before it was perfect. The form also looked a lot more functional and harder to deal with.
“Through embracing the shadows, I shall become more than what I was,” the Chimera said, the energy within its body still increasing slightly, giving Jake the impression it wasn’t staying in its old form just for fun. This changed form required far more energy to sustain, and the Chimera likely couldn’t even be in it without first using its boosting skill. “Lost for words?” In reality, Jake was still just mentally evaluating things. “Good, for I shall not give you time to find them, as I’ve had quite enough of your venomous tongue.”
With those words, the Chimera made its move. One of the axe-headed tendrils swung down from above, making Jake dodge back and out of the way before it impacted the ground... except it never did.
Instead, the axe-tendrils emanated shadow energy and then phased through the soil effortlessly, keeping its circular momentum to perform a full rotation before coming down again, far faster than Jake had expected.
The other axe also made its move, this one launched forward with its sharp tip to try to impale Jake if he dodged backwards again. For a brief moment, Jake considered trying to make the two tendrils collide with one another, but he quickly abandoned that idea and teleported away at the very last second.
His gut had saved him once more, as the two tendrils seamlessly phased through one another. Had he tried to make them collide, Jake would have either lost an arm or gained a big hole in his body.
Jake didn’t have any time to rest, though, as another attack was rapidly approaching from below the ground. The four tendril-legs of the Chimera functioned like roots as they dug deep, two of them even growing and heading toward Jake from below.
Retreating away, Jake summoned his bow and tried to shoot at the B-grade, but that was when the two flower tendrils came into play. One of them pulsed with mana to form a barrier of dark magic, blocking Jake’s potshot. At the same time, the other flower also pulsed to release a beam of pure dark mana.
Jake avoided the beam yet was unable to shoot again since he needed to address other tendrils. The two axes moved more swiftly than the previous tendrils, and although handling two was easier than eight, these tendrils had become significantly stronger and less predictable. The Chimera had evidently taken measures to compensate for its weaknesses. Having numerous tendrils often resulted in them obstructing each other; however, the ability to transform into shadows and phase through one another turned this into an advantage, enhancing their unpredictability.
This evolved version of the Chimera also didn’t have any parts with exposed flesh, giving Jake fewer obvious places to strike. Everything was nicely covered in bark, though to keep the tendrils mobile, there were still small gaps here and there which Jake could aim for.
Assuming he wasn’t just planning on breaking through the bark, that is.
For now, Jake chose to stay on the defensive to learn what the Chimera was capable of. Those blooming flesh flowers gave him an uneasy feeling, making him hesitate to go on the offensive until he better understood what they could do.
In the meantime, he learned more about the axe tendrils in particular. First of all, they couldn’t phase through most of the Chimera’s body, only each other. Jake also noticed that when the Chimera struck the ground, it didn’t do so entirely harmlessly. The underbrush of the jungle was cut down, giving Jake an idea he confirmed moments later. When the Chimera struck a tree, the tendril didn’t phase through.
Instead, the axe chopped through the tree, felling it entirely. It did slow down the attack, but not by much, and the axe shape chosen by the Chimera suddenly made a lot more sense, as it had likely selected this design in part to better fight in the jungle and remove obstacles.
Suddenly, the environment wasn’t much to Jake’s advantage anymore. Quite the opposite, in fact. Using its four tendril-legs, the Chimera rapidly gave chase, moving easily through the jungle and attacking Jake with a mixture of magic and physical blows. Meanwhile, Jake’s One Step was hard to use due to the dense jungle, especially when he wanted to avoid stepping on the ground at all costs to avoid the tendrils the Chimera constantly kept hidden down there.
When Jake was nearly cut by an axe and had to block a dark beam of energy that still ended up grazing him, he knew it was time to seek toward the sky once more. With both katars, Jake parried the axe's upward swing. The blow hurt his arms, but as planned, he was propelled through the thick canopy above and sent flying into the air.
As Jake borrowed this momentum to fly even higher, he pulled out his bow and released a rapid barrage at the Chimera that was still down in the jungle. A second later, the B-grade broke through the treetops, only to be met by a rain of exploding arrows it hadn’t been able to see in time.
This attack did limited damage, but it stalled the Chimera for a moment, giving Jake time to charge a quick Arcane Powershot. By the time the Chimera resumed its chase, Jake had charged enough and released his attack.
Once more, the B-grade tried to swipe away Jake’s arrow with a tendril, but this attack was different from those that’d come before. Jake had purposefully slowed down his Arcane Powershot arrow to appear like a more regular arrow, successfully fooling the Chimera into not even bothering to dodge.
The tendril hit the side of the stable arcane arrow, only to be repelled by the energy surrounding the Arcane Powershot. The attack continued and struck the B-grade square in the chest, blasting it down and back into the jungle.
Despite being surprised and now having a nice hole through its bark, the monster was quick to get back up and shoot toward the sky, only to be met by another Arcane Powershot, this one sped up to arrive faster.
This time, the Chimera tried to block with a shadow barrier, but this was also broken, and the monster took another hit. Due to Jake using some of the energy of the arrow to speed it up and the barrier blocking some, the Chimera avoided being blasted back into the jungle and only spun around in the air a few times.
While flying up towards Jake, the Chimera began altering its four legs for a new function, likely because it was now airborne and there was no need to walk around.
All four of them elongated, and the bark covering them turned darker as they sharpened into spear-like limbs, all while still partially serving as legs to help navigate and change direction while flying.
During its flight, Jake continued to shoot arrows, while the Chimera responded with beams of dark mana that he avoided. Though he had high natural resistance to dark mana due to his affinity for it, each hit still caused significant damage. When Jake had been grazed earlier, he hadn’t suffered much physical harm but had lost a substantial amount of energy when the attack removed it from his shoulder. The attack had done some work, yet without the passive barrier from Arcane Awakening, the damage would have been more severe.
Speaking of damage, Jake also managed to land a few more arrows on the Chimera, all delivering their payload of toxins. Even if the B-grade had changed form, that hadn’t healed all the damage Jake had done before the shift. The monster had an insane amount of Vitality, allowing it to fight back against the poison extremely well, but everything had its limits.
The fight was far from over, though, and the Chimera appeared fully aware of Jake’s poison, actively seeking to eliminate it internally while fighting.
A dozen seconds passed as the B-grade chased Jake across the sky before deciding to close the distance. Jake saw the entire body of the Chimera covered in shadows, and before the monster even fully vaulted, he used One Step to get away.
Just in time, too, as the Chimera was upon him instantly, and before it even fully exited its Shadow Vault, it used the skill again to continue its chase. Jake, ready with both katars, went straight for where the B-grade was about to appear and used his prescient instincts to avoid the first strike of his opponent, then threw a solid jab into the Chimera’s chest.
He didn’t have any time to be pleased with his blow, as the bark around where his katar penetrated began to move, once more attempting to envelop his hand and steal his weapon. Jake could only smirk as he blasted his hand free with arcane energy before teleporting away again, leaving his katar stuck in the Chimera and slowly being covered by bark.
