Oh no.

  Chimera readied herself for the fight, but in her head she was already trying to calculate how she could escape from this situation.

  In her defense, she didn’t think the plan through, and having her transfer interrupted by a freaking princess was definitely not something she planned around.

  But she forgot an even more important factor.

  This was the Palace of the Empress, next to her freaking army headquarters.

  Of course they were going to have a few of their elites around to stop people from doing something like, oh I don’t know, breaking in and trying to steal data!

  With her goal so close, Chimera would admit that she lost sight of the obvious.

  Now, she wished she had a more subtle approach she used instead.

  “Well, if you will not begin, then I shall.” Bargo, the taciturn Elfari drew his spear back.

  And launched the thing like a javelin, straight at Chimera’s chest!

  “Woah!”

  Chimera blocked the spear with an arm, trying to parry it to the side. A massive screech sounded as it slid against her oak-enhanced arms, digging into the durable wood and carving a good chunk of it off of her.

  Crap! It’s got armor piercing!

  Chimera tried to grab the spear, only for a shockwave to blast from the thing, sending her flying off into the middle of a courtyard.

  It was an open area with a few hedges and a massive statue of an Elfari in regal robes. Besides a few walkways and benches, it was flat and surrounded by a wall of bricks and iron bars.

  Chimera pulled herself up as she unleashed her tendrils, blind firing a salvo while she got behind the statue.

  Okay, his spears a freaking bomb on top of everything. Got to take him down quick, maybe I should-

  Her thoughts were interrupted as the spear returned, nested next to where she was a moment ago.

  Shit!

  She jumped out of the way as another explosion tossed fragments of statue and walkway made a cloud of dust appear.

  “Found you.”

  Chimera turned to see Bargo launch a fist at her, wreathed in ice cold magic energy.

  Idiot, now you're mine!

  Chimera launched herself at the fist, grabbing ahold of it while also taking her tendrils and stabbing them into Bargo’s back.

  Instead of flesh, she met a barrier of iridescent light, which weakly held off her tendrils. However, the same barrier did not extend to the Silver Blade’s fists.

  Chimera took the full blow of the ice attack, which spread over her like a wave, freezing her to his fist.

  Damn… it’s spreading.

  The ice fist didn’t end, clawing its ways into her body and trying to freeze her in place.

  But Chimera didn’t need to worry about that nonsense if she could get inside Bargo’s body, so she focused on that, driving herself forward even as the Silver Blade tried to rip her off his arm.

  There!

  Right under the gauntlet he was wearing, Chimera felt the touch of skin, and forced her whole body inside the Harrier’s body.

  On the outside, it looked as though her own Elfari child body was frozen, but Bargo realized something was wrong as he felt Chimera traveling up his arm.

  “Monster!”

  In a moment of diligence the Harrier attempted to slice off his own arm, only for Chimera to block the blow from within, forcing his own skin to become like space oak to stop his hand blade’s attempt.

  Nope, you're going down!

  Now in his chest cavity, Chimera absorbed all the energy he held within, including his own magic, and syphoned it within her own body, setting aside a small amount of his DNA to study for later.

  Without his magical energy and bereft of his body’s own energy, Bargo fell to the ground unconscious, a soft snore escaping his mouth as Chimera poured out of it.

  “Crap, that was way too close.”

  Taking a moment to catch her breath and process, Chimera searched around as she prepared herself to run.

  Only for a barrier to appear all around the courtyard.

  “Creature of malignance, you will pay for having killed our brother in arms!”

  “Yeah! What she said!”

  “...Let’s just get this over with.”

  Chimera sighed, turning to the source of the new voices as she readied herself for another fight.

  Clad in specific armor, four Elfari approached her, three female and one male judging from their sizes. Chimera could make out that one of them carried themselves like the leader of the group.

  Bayleaf was among their number, a conflicted face as she too seemed to ready herself for combat.

  “Imperial Harriers.”

  Chimera spoke in a whisper, but inside her head she was already calculating her odds.

  Four mages, the leader uses a sword form from the looks of her, that smaller girl uses gauntlets, and Bayleaf has a staff. That last guy has a big fucking hammer… not sure how I’d fair against that.

  Do I have to though?

  Chimera took a quick glance around as the mages began to circle her, leaving no room for her to maneuver.

  She spotted the point where Bargo’s spear destroyed the ground, leaving a massive crater next to the statue that had a leaking water jet from the fountain near the statue.

  Maybe…

  Chimera took a moment to back up, placing the fountain behind her while the mages all circled her.

  “Chimera, don’t. Just come quietly.”

  Chimera tilted her head at Bayleaf, “and why should I? I got what I need, all I gotta do,” She paused as she jumped backward into the fountain jet.

  She pushed herself inside, only to find a magic crystal at the other end of the pipe.

  Crap!

  Shot out from the fountain jet, Chimera turned to fight the mages.

  “I have to go home! Just let me go!”

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “Nonsense, monster!” The small girl with the gauntlets clacked her fists together as she charged at Chimera.

  “We are the Empress’ Imperial Harriers, the elite who protect her and carry out her will!” The man with the hammer smashed the ground around them.

  “...to stop those who would threaten the empire.” the last girl said in a monotone voice, clearly not wanting to be there.

  “To… to safeguard the land.” Bayleaf said, also clearly not wanting to be there, but not due to lack of duty.

  The leader, a taller woman with a body modeled after some kind of beauty goddess, snapped her whip. While not as intimidating at first, Chimera could feel that the weapon was more than it seemed.

  “You will be brought down, by her will”

  “”By her Will!” The other Imperial Harriers spoke in unison as a flair of magic ignited something in their armor, making magic bleed off of them in roils of power.

  Chimera jumped to the side as a fist drove into the ground near the fountain, spraying the water around them. In the mist, Chimera shifted, no longer trying to hide herself as she decided right then and there.

  She was going home damnit!

  “Yeah? Big shots are you? Well screw this.”

  Chimera unlocked all of her P.E.Gs at once, allowing dangerous levels of energy to flood her now blob form. The energy radiated off of her in a glorious red flame, giving off the impression that she was burning alive.

  Which if she kept up the form for too long, she very well might.

  “I am Chimera, the Hero of Asta! Savior of the City of New Terra! And I’m. Going. Home!!”

  Chimera grew to twenty feet tall, gathering a massive fist as she expanded outward, and smashing it against the ground.

  The Imperial Harriers dodged, most of them taking to the sky as they started to surround Chimera once more.

  “Oh, you shouldn’t do that!” Chimera spoke with a reverb as her giant form made her voice carry, and spun around with her tendrils shooting out.

  She willed the tendrils to face off against each of the four heroes around her, each one tracking their movements, and taking moments to rush out and stab the Harriers.

  Being as massive as they were, Chimera made the needles on the ends of the tendrils filled with a serum she would use to put them to sleep.

  She might be fighting them, but she didn’t want these people dead.

  “Take this, Gravity Gloves!” The smaller girl went for her knee as her two gauntlets glowed with a black light.

  Chimera shifted to avoid them, but felt her leg start to freeze up just as she made to move. She gazed down to see Bargo was up and moving once more, Bayleaf next to him emitting a shining yellow light.

  Chimera’s leg shatters as the black energy makes contact with the now frozen limb.

  Overflowing with energy as she was, Chimera simply made a new limb and grabbed the now defenseless gauntlet wearer, sucking her inside as she made multiple needles of sleep serum to knock her out, while also absorbing her DNA for later use.

  Making the girl travel to the tendril she was using to track the girl, Chimera held the girl there at the end while she turned to face the remaining four, Bargo included.

  “Melga! Unhand her, you fiend!”

  “I’m not a fiend!” Chimera chucked the girl at the leader in the mask, the little girl landing in the leader’s arms as Bargo, Bayleaf and the remaining black Elfari girl rushed to defend their group.

  “Use fire, ice and things that would affect flesh, its the only way to take her down!” Bayleaf spoke to the group as she turned to help the girl Melga.

  Damnit! Should have never trusted her!

  Chimera roared as she summoned the latent skill she received from the space oak, and filled the ground arround her with a massive gravity well.

  “Try flying now you fools!” Chimera snarled as the well sucked them all down to the earth below.

  In such a state, none of them seemed capable of pulling themselves up, and Chimera felt like she could finally get away.

  Until the little girl Melga got up, her gloves glowing with a similar energy to her own.

  “I got you guys, get up quick!”

  Chimera watched as the group, now suddenly free from her gravity well, shot away from the area she affected.

  “Enough!” Chimera grew five tendrils from her body, filling them all with the sleep serum needles and launched them all at once with a mix of her gravity magic and the explosive force of her own biological muscles.

  The blast covered every inch of the courtyard, and Chimera could see that even with their barriers, none of the group could block needles so incredlibly small. The blast embedded into the earth around her, leaving them sticking out of the ground.

  Three of the five Imperial Harriers were down, but Bayleaf and the leader were still up.

  “Bay, grab the group and begin healing them. We just need to hold on for a few more minutes!”

  “Right!”

  Chimera snarled, “you think you can? This ends right now, I'm done playing!”

  With a flex of her own magical ability, Chimera dove deep into the druid magic that she learned about, coming up with a code to end this farce of a fight and get her out of there.”

  “Bring slumbering calm, bring restful night, bring down their rebellion with all my might!”

  Chimera felt the pull of the magic take hold, spreading off of her like a fog as purple mist enveloped the entire courtyard.

  Shrinking herself as the purple mist covered the entire area, Chimera rushed out towards the city of Cinderbough, her magic doing all it could to cover her tracks and give her the moments she needed to flee.

  A little more, just a bit and I can get out of this damn place!

  She heard no footsteps nor did she feel the flex of magic nearby, and as she turned down the road and moved closer and closer to the city limits, she could feel a lightness in her chest.

  I’m there! I just need-

  She stopped.

  Sliding to a halt, she watched as an army of Elfari raised a barrier around her once more, digging into the ground itself to completely surround her.

  She could feel it in the soil as it closed off the ground around her, and as she witnessed the barrier being fed with the magic of numerous hosts, she watched as seven figures approached behind her.

  The Imperial Harriers were all up, no less groggy than before and completely healed.

  No…

  Chimera felt despair grip her heart as she went through a list of things they could want her for, could use her for.

  The horrors of those poor heroes she killed flashed in her mind, the ones she devoured while under Monica’s sway for that short time.

  “No! No! I’m leaving! Aden, Meghan! SARAH!”

  Chimera tried to use her magic, but found it out of reach as the barrier seemed to syphon the energy from her body. She tried to increase her size, but found the seventh member of the Harriers, the one she had yet to meet, shine a peculiar sword staff which locked her body in place.

  Her body wouldn’t respond, seemingly stuck in a suspended state that prevented all movement. She tried in vain to increase and decrease her size, to push her body in one direction or whiplash herself in another.

  Nothing. She was a statue, trapped in her own body with no way out.

  She could feel tears in her eyes beginning to well up as the last bit of hope she felt started to drain away, replacing it with horrors that all held that mocking smile of Monica Ferrous.

  My little experiment, you’ve come back to me…

  No! She wouldn’t give in. There had to be a way out of this, she just needed to keep her head.

  “High General.”

  Chimera looked up to see a few of the Elfari military salute the approaching seventh Harrier, or what she might have mistook for an Imperial Harrier.

  The woman was a tall Elfari with white hair that reached down to her knees, a flowing tapestry with a silver shimmer to it. Eyes of gold stared at the men around her before flexing the massive sword that floated next to her. It was a greatsword that was edged with rainbow light of all things, and held a pearlescent gemstone in the hilt that seemed to drink in the energy.

  The taller woman had Elfari features to her, but the most striking was her longer ears, which poked out of her head as if they were antennae, only they were on the sides of her head.

  “This is the creature that bypassed all of our defenses, managed to copy our celestial star map and fight five of my six Imperial Harriers to a standstill?”

  Chimera couldn’t move a muscle, but her eyes allowed her a glare as she tried to keep herself from losing her mind.

  “Yes, High General. It wore the guise of a child hiding amongst the group that came to tour the Militarum Arboretum. We still have no idea if it is working for the Verdant Hood or a rebel faction. Captain Bayleaf was able to gain some insight with a new ability she mastered, which allowed us to respond before it could escape.”

  The military man held a thin mustache as he handed a clipboard.

  “We also believe this was the creature that was responsible for the breach on Yggdrasil Dock 14.”

  “That same one that had the Logistic team baffled? Interesting.” the general nodded as she flexed her magic, causing Chimera to forcefully walk behind her.

  “Captains Yarrow and Bayleaf, you are to meet with me and assist with further assessment of the asset. Master Chief's Melga, Bargo, and Arrose will begin clean up of the Imperial Square along with your platoon Major Tasok.”

  The mustachioed man saluted and rounded up the man who had just released the barrier around Chimera.

  She had hoped that would mean the return of her magic, but the source was still cut from her as her body moved against her will.

  Next to her Yarrow and Bayleaf walked alongside her, Yarrow with a glare towards Chimera, while Bayleaf…

  Bayleaf was staring back at Chimera as though she wanted to say something.

  Chimera wanted to glare back, but found herself exhausted once her P.E.Gs started to wind down, now only at the barest minimum levels of power as they began once more to spool energy from her reserves to start their perpetual cycles.

  She could do no more at this time, so she would wait.

  I’ll get my chance… just got to not lose my marbles.

  The laughter that sounded like Monica in the back of her mind did nothing to get her hopes up.

  …