CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.52 'BURNING AWAY, RESPITE FROM RAIN!'

 Alpha.1, the Chimera-Hunter, a top-of-the-line android designed to save humanity, stood almost idle now. Her arm drifted upwards as if to reach out towards Andrei, who was now putting his feet down once more in preparation to leap out at his nearly subdued opponent. Before she could register that the boy was still able to move, Andrei's leap carried him, but the adrenaline now began to fade, and so too did the flames on his still Install-energized opposition.

His steps began to slow as he hit the ground, and mere inches from his foe, Andrei raised his fist. The crackling energy just beneath the skin drew him in, a second wind for him to keep going after the fight was finished... and a way of satisfying Ra's appetite for more energy. Alpha cautiously approached the two half-Chimera, her hand firmly on her sword as it hovered low to the ground beside her. "Andrei, you can feel it too, right? The core you exposed."

Looking back, his eyes were dark, tired. His nails were still sharp from their previous transformation, and he used them to dig deeper into the burnt, bloodied Chimera before him. Clutching the crystalline core of the Chimera before him, Andrei gritted his teeth, and ripped it free of its host, crushing it between his fingers as the purple, otherworldly energy drifted up his arm from the glimmering shards. In that instant, he felt a burst of energy, though it wasn't nearly as great as either he or Ra had expected. "T-That wasn't it..."

As the last slashes across his face faded to fleshy scars, the Install energy across the mysterious opponent's body began to retract, and though wounded, he was still breathing. A colossal being of immense power still, even with the shattered core scattered to the wind as Andrei had made sure. Alpha's eyes widened, and from a distance as the half-Chimera began to stir, the Akoto twins gasped.

Seemingly, the beast of a Chimera that had just done such a number to Andrei was rustled from some unconscious spell. Alpha's blade trained on the behemoth in an instant, and a worn-out Andrei took a sloppy combative stance. Through panting breaths, he muttered to himself. "What the hell... Why didn't you stay down that time?"

From his place just in front of the half-split tree, the half-Chimera grumbled, and then grunted in a more humane tone. "Hrk- Huh? Hell? Down? What're you... Where the hell...?" His low, gravelly voice made out. His eyes seemed... sane now, unlike they had been in the frantic episode just minutes ago. Taking notice of Andrei's unsteady stature and shaking arms, the half-Chimera raised its brow and questioned. "Wha- Are you alright kid? What happened here? Was it..."

Alpha stepped between the two, her singular eye a piercing blade as it stared through the half-man now. "What are you, and tell me why I shouldn't take your head clean off your shoulders, monster."

Andrei groaned, planting a hand on Alpha's shoulder and pulling himself up. He didn't feel that impending sense of catastrophe that he tended to before a fight with a Chimera. Whatever had happened with this one, he was breathing a sigh of relief, for the fight was long over. With his other hand, he lowered her blade for her, and looked to the strange, previously rampant Chimera. "You... hurt my friend, and my cat. They aren't dead, I don't think..." His eyes clouded up though. "Alpha, this one isn't a threat to us anymore."

The giant ball of fur and fat blinked, flopping down onto his rear and staring now at eye-height towards both the boy and the machine. Scratching his head with a sort of blank expression, he looked around at the totally ruined clearing, and grunted. "I did all this? Then... who are you two? If you've made it this far, and survived something like me... I'm sorry if I hurt your friend, really. I live out in the wilds to keep others safe, if you need a place to rest and help them heal, I can show you to my hut."

That offer, in that instant, seemed like a godsend to Andrei. He sighed with relief rather than exhaustion, but Alpha continued to try and raise her blade to their previous attacker. "You still haven't answered me. Who are you."