CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

CH.68 'A MONSTER'

Asura watched as the vampire before him lapped at the blood he had coated his arm with. A smile crossed his lips as his eyes shuddered with excitement, and he threw his arms out in delirious celebration as Hirano's body began to twist... his legs inverted themselves, taking on an evolved, more bestial form as his robes flew backwards, revealing a pair of pale, leathery wings on his back. His eyes were now a bloody red, distinct from the chimeric crimson in Asura's own eyes. Now Hirano's muscles bulged, and Asura tensed up as his foe's veins began to pop, and he began to scream with an inhuman rage.

"So... You Beastkin are just as beastly as I expected!" Asura laughed manically, his eyes nearly popping right out his head as he began to clap wildly. The mad Chimera cackled like a hyena now, and in an instant threw his form forward as Hirano blasted forward, his strength and speed amplified by both his ch'i and distinct form. "The power of evolution... It's not unlike 'Install' is it? Though the manner in which one undergoes your change..."

Hirano no longer used his sickle as a weapon, but rather as a distraction, tossing it into the air in order to refract sunlight before throwing his cloak Asura's way, revealing the tight black tank-top and cargo pants he now wore beneath his more refined attire. A fist struck Asura's chest, though was caught before it could break his soft flesh. "I don't understand you Earthly insects... fighting against such insurmountable odds, isn't it just tiring?"

Asura's face erupted with visceral spikes of blood, his features contorting to make room for the new crimson features as they caught Hirano off-guard. "Now, we can both use blood. Though I believe that my powers are superior even to that brutish strength you wield!" The chimera jested as Hirano beat his leathery wings, propelling him to the side at the cost of one of his wings being torn, spraying blood out and onto the cobblestone street.

From Asura's side, the glint of two polearms tipped him off to an approaching Inoshishi and Hattori, the first of which he avoided by leaping atop his weapon, feeling the bottoms of his boots being burnt by the flames which blazed on the tip of the halberd. As the second blade came his way, he let himself fall from the thing, a gust of wind exploding forth and causing him to take a second glance at Hattori, whom he targeted once he landed on the ground, lunging low and tackling the man, who barely managed to block the humanoid Chimera with his weapon. "And you both, mere humans... You don't even have the gifts of evolution granted to your superior beings! To think of all sorts you would stand against the top of the chain!"

Between both Inoshishi and Hattori, a streak of purple retribution caught Asura's side, tearing it open as the glint of a black longsword flashed, and Shimoda appeared. The Chimera spat blood in Hattori's eyes before kicking off of him like a springboard, sending him backwards and closer to the boy with the blade. "Your power... I don't understand, I've seen it many a time...!" He skidded across the ground, stopping before Shimoda and flexing his sharp clawed fingers before slashing upwards.

"I've never been able to harness that power! Before I take your life-" Asura paused, realizing that his forearm had a hulking arm against it now. Hirano stood between the chimera and Shimoda, both his arms shuddering as Asura began to push into his grasp. "Keh-hahah! What is this? What do you call that power?!"

Cobblestones fractured as Hirano began to crumple under Asura's pressure, and Shimoda raised his blade, nodding to his mentor before thrusting it under his raised arm, aimed right at the heart of the beast. His sword flashed with a particularly bright purple, and as his emotions began to well up at the questioning, Shimoda let out a pure, guttural scream, spurring the spectating bounty hunters into action. "This power... This power is the very heart that beats in each of our chests...!" Almost as if casting a spell, a beam of ch'i energy shot forwards before Asura could react, piercing his chest and sending him tumbling backwards.