The Scourge's Herald

Chapter 11

I laughed happily as I dodged another set of swipes from the chimera, Marceline floated above it, slashing at the goat head that bleated in annoyance and attempted to headbutt her to no avail. Its lion head roared, and just as it opened its jaws to snap at me, a whip crack echoed throughout the forest, and it recoiled to the side with a pained roar. Sidney reeled back and sent another before being tackled to the side by her Teguan as the snake head tail slammed into where she had been standing. Travis lunged forward and slammed his hammer into the chimera's side, causing it to stumble and giving me an opening.

I raced forward, attempting to slice a gash in the monsters side but I barely left a noticeable mark, I twisted and spun as a shadow blotted out the sun and the hair on the back of my neck stood up before diving out of the way and turning to see the snake head had spat poison that was sizzling on the ground I had been a few seconds before. The snake head reared and went to spray again, I rolled out of the way but the snake seemed to have thought of that as it sprayed poison in a unending cone that followed very closely. Sidney's voice punched through the chaos of the fight "It's hide is too tough, you have to cut or kill the heads!"

I glanced over to see the nature mage disappear into the cave with her Teguan and I wasn't the only one. With an enraged roar, the Chimera swiped at Marcie who had to hop backwards and out of position to dodge the giant claws. It then turned and started for the cave but Travis and I were faster, I felt the ground underneath turn mushy with water before the Chimera prepared to leap and with a loud splash, sunk 5 feet into the ground, the mud sank up to cover its paws and ankles before freezing. It looked confused for a second before I smashed my chaos enhanced body into it, sending it stumbling into a tree before it fell disoriented. I smirked and looked at Travis remarking "Come on. You gave it a foot bath."

He rolled his eyes "Hey, this is totally opposite my training!"

I laughed and readied my warpicks as I channeled chaos through my legs before launching off the ground towards the chimera who struggled to move as ice slowly crept up its legs, it's goat head bleated in alarm as the lion body moved, too slow. My warpicks slammed into the head of the goat knocking it back over and sending the snake head to slam against a tree with a loud pained hiss. My first hit had barely sunk into the goats neck and wouldn't budge as I went to pull it out for another swing. I growled and let go, opting to two hand my other warpick and slam it into the goats nose. It managed to flail and intercept the blade but I didn't relent, raising up to strike again. This time, chaos rushed through my blood and channeled down my arms before I struck, once, twice, three times. The chimera roared in pain as the goat head hung limply against the ground, I pulled my warpicks free then was thrown off as the chimera stood, rage was coming off the monster as it's pelt glowed before it turned to me with hate in it's eyes. It roared and I could see the insides of its throat, the large teeth were the sizes of metal cans but what caught my attention was the ever increasing orange glow.

I quickly glanced to my companions to see Travis well out of the line of fire, then around the cave clearing before feeling arms on my shoulder, pulling me out of the way. I could see the fire now, the orange and red magic sparking as it ignited in my direction. We wouldn't be fast enough.
I turned as I was pulled and wrapped myself around Marceline before coating myself in chaos a second before the fire engulfed us.

I panted heavily as a wave of tiredness poured over me as I surrounded us in a bubble of chaos as best I could, in reality the chaos had formed a shield had formed around us but I wasn't prepared enough at the point blank plume of fire. I should've expected it, the same move was a signature of mine that I had taken from the chimera. I grimaced as I felt my energy quickly sapping away, I opened my eyes and sighed in relief as Marceline gazed back with worried eyes. She glanced around at the raging fire that engulfed us and the shimmer of my magic that was the only thing protecting us and murmured, "How long can you-"