Harry Potter and the Norse Gods

{21} Chimeras Are Stupid

NICO'S POV

I hated monsters with brilliant comedic timing.

They made you want to burst out laughing, but you couldn't because they were about to eat you - or maybe, just kill you - if they were feeling nice. 

The rest of the patrons didn't seem to have that conundrum, as their synchronised, immediate reaction was to scream and run out the door, knocking over tables and drinks as they went. Fortunately for them, the chimera didn't seem all that interested in wizards. 

Unfortunately for us, the chimera was very interested in demigods. 

Its lion head roared, pushing through the broken framing of the window. 

I flinched, diving behind a fallen table. Will followed suit, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Magnus and Alex dart to safety as well. Not that I cared, of course. 

The bartender cursed, and I think Storm did as well, but I was a bit preoccupied by the monster trying to climb through the window, so I didn't know for sure. However, one thing I did know for sure was that the chimera, despite having all the trappings of a young comedian, was not very smart. 

It didn't seem to be able to grasp the concept of simply breaking the wall down, instead still desperately trying to squeeze its way through the steadily widening hole in the wall where a window had once been. 

But its stupidity wouldn't help us much longer. Dust was flying off the wall, and in its wake tiny fissures began to spread. In a matter of minutes at the very most, the wall would either break apart or fall down on us. Either way, the chimera would then have a clean shot. 

"What do we do?" Alex asked, eyeing the same cracks on the wall I was.

She had moved, standing just out of range of the beast. Magnus was backing up - still on the ground - to stand next to her. Not one to be outdone, I stood as well. 

"Kill it before it gets through," I answered sharply.

I thought that would be obvious. The chimera didn't seem to like that. It stopped, looked directly at me, and growled. I tried my hardest not to take a step back. 

"Uh, Storm, think you could just fire off an arrow real quick and we can all leave?" Will suggested. 

He was walking backwards, close to the bar, and he was studying our surroundings with a mixture of fear and urgency. He's looking for a weapon, I realised. Neither of us had one on us because we had come to expect that the grounds of Hogwarts were safe. Perhaps that didn't extend to Hogsmeade. They were also bulky and conspicuous to carry around.

Alex might have her garotte or another weapon on her though, and it looked like Magnus had his talking sword with him. And Storm had both her wand and bow and arrow with her. 

"I can't reliably shoot in this small a space," she snapped, "It'll see it coming immediately. It's only a waste of an arrow." 

As she finished speaking, a jet of light shot towards the chimera from behind her. It hit it in the eye, and its lion head roared, sending a wave of warm, disgusting breath my way. It looked as though the body tried to rear up, but it was stuck in the wall. 

"Aberforth!" Storm exclaimed, shooting the old man a glare. 

He simply shrugged, looking more pissed off than anything else. 

"Worth a shot," he grunted. 

"It's stuck," I cut in. 

Storm's eyes darted towards it and narrowed.