The Simulacrum

My arrival at the park was as quiet and unceremonious as usual. Once I found my balance after the long-distance Phasing, I glanced around and quickly found my anchor silently trying to hide his considerable bulk behind two trees. I didn't know why he bothered, considering he was covered in the familiar thin film of magical camouflage, but I figured it might've been a habit. Anyhow, after making sure there was nobody else in the vicinity, I stepped up to him, and lightly tapped the cloaked Brang on the shoulder.

The large Faun didn't show any sign of surprise at my sudden appearance; he only turned his head towards me and gave me a smile that was visible even through the distortions created by Snowy's sigil.

"[Maintain your cloak of transparent shadows, general,]" I warned him in a whisper (or at least the closest thing to a whisper the Faun language could manage) before looking over our vicinity one more time. "[Have your preparations ensued with ease?]"

"[Aye. The young ones have hidden themselves among the trees of this green patch of land, as we have discussed. If the Chimera or thine ireful companion were to arrive, they will keep their distance and observe unless an emergency were to arise.]"

"[Hearing that fills my chest cavity with feelings of reassurance.]" I paused for a moment, then after a few tries I managed to reword that into a slightly less verbose, "[What I meant to convey was that I was glad to hear so.]"

Brang gave me an odd look that was perfectly evident even through his cloaking, but didn't ask. I, on the other hand, let out a relieved breath. My recent efforts to make my Faunish slightly less convoluted were finally bearing fruit. I'll have to thank Karukk and Pip for their help later.

"[Were thine arrangements also in order, Lord Blackloak?]" It took a single sharp glance from me for Brang to realize that he accidentally uttered the two forbidden words in my presence, so he hastily cleared his throat in an attempt to let it slide and pressed on. "[What I meant to say was, you have arrived later than planned. Did thy plans proceed as they were envisioned?]"

"[To a greater or lesser amount.]"

To be honest, things didn't go as smoothly as they could, but I certainly wasn't lying to Brang. The last-minute planning session with the group started out well, but then Angie had an 'emergency tennis practice' session she had to attend to, and then Ammy awkwardly told me that she actually had plans for the afternoon, though she was very vague on the details.

For the former, I could get her off the hook by talking to the leader of the club (a short-haired, sporty upperclassman placeholder, for your interest), and after leveraging my previous help with the pitching machine, I got her to compromise.

As for the latter, it felt like pulling teeth, but at last I managed to have the class rep confess (in private, of course) that she was meeting up with Mike for an outing. That got resolved by a single phone call, though for some reason she was giving me the evil eye for the rest of the day for meddling in her affairs. To be fair though, considering how crucial she was in Josh's plan, it was I who should've chewed her out for going on a definitely-not-date smack dab in the middle of a pre-planned operation.

Also, a quick mental note: pay more attention to this odd, budding relationship. No, not because it was interesting and juicy gossip, but because it was a completely unexpected development.

To put it bluntly, Ammy was established to be part of Josh's entourage from day one (or three, I can't remember), so the fact that she was suddenly showing even a modicum of interest in another guy, even if he was as smitten and enthusiastic as Mike, felt like a culture shock.

Was Josh's harem protagonist aura fading? Or was it just the class rep realizing that she was losing the race against Snowy and Angie and cautiously testing the waters with others? Or better (or worse) yet, could it be that Mike was 'scripted' to be a love rival for Josh when it came to her attention? I mean, these kinds of love triangles are the bread and butter of any romance story, and harem narratives are no exception.

Let's look at this objectively: Mike was a side-character from the start, and a fairly well-established one at that. Those don't grow on trees. That told me that he was supposed to be important from the get-go, and what could be more important for a male side-character than being the protagonist's love rival?

I could already picture the scenario in my mind; if Josh were to pick Ammy to be his love interest, Mike would show up to try and seduce her, making Josh jealous and finally taking the initiative. But then, it would turn out it was just a Celestial ploy to infiltrate the School all along! Oh no, what a twist! Because of that, Josh and the class rep would go through a lot of trials and tribulations, and then it would lead to their relationship rising to the next level, and they would live happily ever after.

This was of course all hypothetical, based on the possible route system on which our world could operate, but if I was a betting man, I'd put good money on it being close to the mark. As such, it was very important for our research to keep a close eye on these two. For research, I stress. Not for gossip. Are we clear on that? Good. Now, where was I before this tangent?

Oh, right; preparing for the counter-ambush. So, after all that malarkey with the class rep was resolved, I had to sneakily take Judy home, lest she would end up in the middle of the crossfire. Needless to say, that resulted in yet another familiar lecture about safety and contingency plans and how she will flay my ass if I would show in the living room covered in blood again, yada-yada. I, as a good and very safety-minded boyfriend, naturally had to listen to her until the end, and only then did I manage to Phase here. All I'm trying to say is that it was a small miracle I arrived as early as I did.

Anyhow, I looked over the area we picked for the ambush, and once I was sure there wasn't a single soul around besides us, I extended my hand towards Brang. Without a word, he reached over his shoulder and, after unbuckling the leather holder, handed me the spear on his back. It wasn't his own, but a replica weapon I ordered online the same time I purchased our training equipment. It was a simple, undecorated weapon, with a leaf-shaped head that was on the longer side and a smooth, roughly two meters long ash wood shaft. It wasn't a fancy weapon, but a well-balanced one, and considering I was planning to leave the lion's share of the fighting to Rinne, it was more than enough for the occasion.

"[I shall lie in wait. Proceed with your duties, general.]"

The mostly invisible Faun slowly nodded in response to my words, followed by a salute. I returned the first gesture, but refrained from the second. He didn't mind, instead he dashed away with surprising speed, at least considering his bulk and his bum leg.

And just like that, I was left alone in the rapidly darkening woods, waiting for a terrifying being of untold bloodlust and wanton cruelty to show itself. Oh, and also a Chimera, I supposed. I exhaled sharply through my nose and glanced up at the cloudy sky above. The weather was perfectly nice until school was out, and then a wave of dark clouds rolled over us like an angry herd of grey sheep. I half wondered if it was just for a dramatic effect. I mean, climactic battles rarely happen in cheerful sunny weather, now do they? Well, I for one could've done without the trope, as it also made the air cool down even further, and the overcast skies were just a tad too foreboding for my liking. If not for the fact that I was already used to the ambiance, I probably would've been pretty tense by now.

Overall, I was more bored than anything else at the moment, so after a brief consideration I picked a comfortable looking spot near the base of the same trees the ex-general was hiding behind, and I took a seat on one of the twisting, arched roots sticking out of the ground nearby. I glanced around one last time, but I couldn't see any of the pre-arranged signals the Faun were supposed to send up in case the Chimera showed up early.

Next, I Far Glanced in the direction of Mountain Girl, but she was still home, meticulously oiling her infuriating sword using a long stick with a ball of cotton at the end of it. It was a little weird, but not enough to pay any more attention to it.

Now that I finished with the obligatory round, I could finally focus on the main dish of the day. With that giddy thought in mind, I switched my perspective over to Josh, and not a moment too soon. He was already well on his way towards the ambush point, and in Armband Guy's company, no less.

The small procession in front of me consisted of the aforementioned pair in the front, with Snowy and the princess following a few paces behind them, and the Class Rep/Angie duo so far back it was impossible to tell if they are even part of the same group. So far, so good.

"Are you certain?" came the vague question from Armband Guy right around the time I shifted my viewpoint over to him.

"The tip came from Leo, so it must be right."

Josh's answer seemingly placated him for the time being, and my friend let out a relieved breath.

In terms of context, the bait we set for Armband Guy went something like this: using my amazing talent for subterfuge, I infiltrated the group of the local creepy misfits to gather evidence about their misdeeds. During that time, I had also discovered the top-secret location of their secret stash, hidden at an unassuming location in town just in case their little Gathering got raided.

I naturally told Josh about the stash, and he informed the disciplinary committee, badgering Armband Guy until he agreed to come with him to overseer the disposal of the contraband. It was a very straightforward cover story made credible by our actions from the day before, combined with just a hint of refuge in audacity. As a matter of fact, Josh was doing really well on the latter front, to the point where even I might've believed him about the existence of the secret stash of underwear of I didn't know better. He was a natural when it came to pretending to be offended and outraged by the state of public morals. I wonder if he ever thought about becoming a politician…

"Speaking of which, where's Dunning?" Pascal inquired in a flat voice and glanced over his shoulder.

The question probably wasn't aimed at her in particular, yet my girlfriend immediately jumped to my defense.

"Leo can't come because of the Chimera!"

"She means brother is going to come later, because he is tracking the Chimera around the city," Snowy interjected in a hurry, keeping my cover story intact.

I was afraid Pascal would try to probe further, but he simply acknowledged their words with a blasé 'Hm,' and faced forward again. I let out a breath of relief I didn't even realize I was holding. I continued to follow him for a while, but even after a few minutes, he was only exchanging a few meaningless words with Josh. It wasn't even the fun, passive-aggressive kind of back and forth, just garden variety boring small talk about school life. I had to wonder since when were these two getting along? This was the second time I missed something like this after Ammy and Mike.

…

Oh, crap. I hope it's not the same situation! Our lives are complicated enough; we really don't need Josh's harem aura to start affecting guys too!

Bad jokes aside, since there was nothing particularly interesting to see here at the moment, I quickly shifted my attention over to Labcoat Guy. He was a whole block away from our guys, and he was standing on top of a… billboard. As in, one of those small, metal-framed billboards businesses put to the side of walkways in intersections.

… Um… What? Why was he doing that? Did I even want to know?

I shook my currently nonexistent head and decided to ignore the guy's peculiar choice of perch, and instead I focused on his immediate environment. I quickly found the trigger happy android and, let me see… Two, sixteen… Thirty-two of those silly sentai foot-soldier wannabees, plus at least one of those balls that turn into those biomechanical whatchamacallits. In other words, he was fully prepared. Unfortunately for him, we have already prepared for him to be prepared.

He also picked a great battleground again. It was the intersection of two of the main, four-lane roads running through the city. The juncture itself was already spacious, but then there was an empty supermarket parking lot on one side providing plenty of space for some carnage. On the opposite side, we had an eight-story office building with a number of balconies and fire escapes providing convenient footholds. In other words, whether the battle went horizontal or vertical, the stage was suitable.

However, while I was confident that Joshua could finally leverage his protagonist status to deal with our resident mad scientist, there was still one pivotal detail that could make or break this encounter. While Josh's plan was fine, triggering it required the 'contribution' of Labcoat Guy, as he had to willingly draw everyone into the Purple Zone on his end. I was a little worried whether he would do so if I wasn't around, so I naturally made contingency plans for this scenario.

I focused my attention to the next red dot on the edge of my vision, and the odd purple hue layered over everything within my sight abruptly disappeared as my point of view moved behind the corner of a nearby boutique. I was relieved to see that Vurrok wasn't held up and arrived at the ambush point on time. I picked him for the job because according to Brang he was the sneakiest of the whole sneaky bunch of them, and I needed him to be on standby near the battle site and act as my anchor, just in case I would need to Phase over to goad Labcoat Guy into showing his face.

While I could've used Armband guy or any of the others to do this, and then hand-wave my sudden appearance by claiming I was using illusions, I didn't want to over-use that explanation. I was afraid that if I did that, they would sooner or later realize I was pulling the wool over their eyes and would try to come up with ways to counter my ability. As they say, information is power, and misinformation is doubly so.

In the meantime, our totally hapless, not at all prepared and eager little group came to the intersection where Labcoat Guy, for some inexplicable reason, was still balancing on top of a billboard. Seriously, why though? Was it a height thing? Maybe he just wanted to make sure he was immediately visible? I mean, if that was the goal, he definitely succeeded, but I wasn't sure it was worth sacrificing his dignity for.

Oh, wait. This is the guy who's doing unabashed sentai shenanigans without even a hint of irony or self-awareness. He had no dignity to begin with. Sorry, false alarm.

Anyhow, I held my breath with rapt attention while I waited for Josh and company to reach the intersection, ready to move at a moment's notice. And then...

"Ki-hi-hi-ha-ha-ha!!!"

... the whole world turned purple again with the sound of manic laughter.

Armband Guy visibly twitched in response to the sudden development, but he kept his cool and only gave the cackling mad scientist wannabe standing arms akimbo on a bloody billboard (no, I'm still not over it) a long, suspicious stare. His reaction was reasonable, as this was an unscheduled attack on my friends, one he evidently didn't expect to happen, let alone get caught up in it.

"What's going on?" he asked my friend at his side, and Josh promptly shrugged his shoulders.

"Exactly what it looks like. An ambush."

"You don't sound surprised," Pascal noted with a frown.

"We got used to it," the princess quipped as she and Snowy both stepped forth, and she even honest to goodness cracked her knuckles.

While that was going on, I hurriedly switched my attention over to the class rep. I had to make sure that they were also taken into the Purple Zone, otherwise things would go south really fast, and I was immediately relieved when I found the pair clumsily flying through the air.

"That way," she instructed the Celestial girl carrying her while pointing at something with one hand, the other one frantically trying to stop the skirt of her magiform from flipping over. I didn't know why she was so embarrassed about it; it wasn't like anyone could see her panties at the moment. Well, except for me, but I didn't count.

Angie nodded, or at least I think she did, as she frantically flapped her transparent wings while holding Ammy under her armpits. While the wobbly way they were flying didn't exactly inspire confidence, I decided to cheer for them all the same and left them to their mission. So far, so good.

Since I confirmed that the duo was on track, I moved back to the scene of the real action.

To tell the truth, I was looking forward to the coming battle juuust a little bit, and it wasn't just because I could potentially get to see Labcoat Guy get his teeth kicked in, but because even after all this time, I never had the chance to see a proper supernatural battle from start to finish. I was also really curious about just how much Josh improved, and getting some data on Armbad Guy was also a nice bonus.

As such, I changed my PoV again, and when my vision settled, I immediately froze in shock as I laid my eyes on Joshua raising his fist high.

"Today, we'll take you down! Right, Pascal?"

... Josh... Dude. I know that you must be in the moment and all, but why in the name of all that is holy are you posing!? It wasn't part of the plan! Posing should never, ever, be part of any plan!

"R-Right! You are going down!" my sister followed him up just a tad awkwardly and... Okay, what the hell!? Snowy, why are you posing too!? And what's with the way you are holding your hands!? You are not a sailor scout! You can't punish him in the name of the moon!

Okay, calm down me. Deep breaths, happy thoughts, the works. Now, let's look at this rationally. Maybe they are just really in the mood and they got carried away in their excitement and oh for the love of god princess, not you too!

"We are going to make you regret picking a fight with us today!"

Dammit Elly! If you don't want to be left out, at least stick to the theme! You look like you want to do a crane kick! At least pick a fitting pose! Or better yet, just don't do a pose at all!

I rapidly breathed in and out to calm the fires of my internal rage, but then I realized something. One sentai pose could be a mistake. Two, an act of passion. Three? That meant there was predetermination involved. So… maybe this was the plan? Was this how they wanted to get Labcoat Guy's attention? By playing into their theatrics?

If so, then I'll applaud their ingenuity. If not, then I'll give them a stern talk for fraying my nerves like that. In fact, I'll give them a stern talk anyway on principle.

Anyhow, I positioned my point of view at a spot where I could keep my eyes on both them and Labcoat Guy's little mob of robotic eyesores. I was half afraid that my old nightmare would be realized in front of me and the situation would devolve into a back and forth exchange of hackneyed dialog about justice and whatnot, but thankfully it never came to pass due to Armband Guy raising his voice.

"Are you really going to do this while I'm also present?"

"Ki-hi-hi!" The guy still precariously teetering on the billboard continued to let out chuckles that made his weird welding mast rock up and down, and then he declared, "Yes! Your presence is unexpected, but I'm actually glad to see you! With you here, he will have no choice but to show his true colors!"

"Who are you talking about?" Pascal asked back and my guys also shared an apprehensive look between each other.

"The man who made all the preparations for today's event! I'm sure he arranged for you to be here to test the veracity of my words! Isn't that right…" Speaking slowly, Labcoat guy leisurely raised his hand, and then sharply pointed forwards and exclaimed, "Leonard Dunning! Did you think your tricks would work forever!? We already have the means to detect you… with science!"

I could hear Snowy gasp in surprise. I could see Elly blink in confusion. I could also see the nervous sweat-drops forming on Josh's brows. But most important, I could see our resident sentai enthusiast point… in a complexly different direction than where I was right now. Or rather, from where I was looking at the scene at the moment, but let's not get bogged down by semantics.

There was a long, silent beat following his declaration, but since nothing happened, he added on an emphatic "Show yourself!" for little to no avail. Another five seconds of awkward silence later he sheepishly glanced over his shoulder and loudly whispered, "Psst! Galatea!"

"Yes, master?"

"Are you sure he's over there?"

"Affirmative," the eclectically dressed fembot answered without delay. "The new anti-illusion sensor arrays are detecting an invisible humanoid in that direction. Preliminary biometric scans indicate their height is approximately two meters. The probability of it being Leonard Dunning is ninety-seven percent."

"… I don't think he was that tall."

The funky android gave her master a flat look, then uttered, "Ninety-two percent."

"Whatever!" Labcoat Guy threw his hands into the air in resignation, almost losing his balance in the process. I really hoped he would fall over and we could get this over with, but unfortunately he quickly steadied himself and pointed in the same direction again. "You hear that, Leonard Dunning?! We can detect you, so come out already!"

Once again, nothing happened, even though everyone was paying close attention to the spot where he was pointing, and they seemed to be expecting that someone would suddenly appear out of thin air to walk around the corner. This, of course, actually included the invisible Faun around said corner. This was one of those moments where words simply failed me, and I had no hands to facepalm, so I had to settle with a long mental groan instead.

This encounter was already off the rails, and I had a premonition we had a trainwreck on our hands…

So, things were getting complicated. That's not new. No need to be flustered just yet. Let's just look at the situation objectively.

First off, it looked like Labcoat Guy was laboring under some kind of misunderstanding about why we tricked Armband Guy into coming with our group. He didn't run away though, and he still went through with the ambush, so it's probably not a bad thing.

As for his other misunderstanding, I can't say the same yet. I have momentarily wondered why Vurrok was taken into the Purple Zone along with the rest of the gang, but if he was mistaken for me hiding around the corner, it would all make sense. In fact, in some way this was to our advantage, as this diversion gave Angie and Ammy more time to find the core of the Purple Zone and lock it down. Now, the real question was this: what would Labcoat Guy do when the Faun doesn't come out of hiding?

Or rather, I hoped he wouldn't come out of hiding; otherwise we would've a lot of explaining to do for Pascal and the Arch-Mage, and it may prove to be a disadvantage during negotiations. Considering that, I actually entertained the idea of waiting until Josh got the bad guys' attention and then sneakily smuggling him out of the battlefield. I just had to wait for the right moment, and…

"Galatea, he's not coming out!" Labcoat Guy suddenly exploded with anger. "Do something!"

"Understood," she responded in a flat voice, following which she extended her hand towards the corner of the building where Vurrok was hiding, and oh my bloody god, you have to be kidding me!

Before I knew it, I already initiated a Phase jump and reappeared just behind the confused Faun inside the Purple Zone. The sudden transition, combined with the fact that my body was sitting on rough ground just a moment ago, almost caused me to fall over, but I managed to regain my balance at the very last moment and grab him by the shoulder.

Vurrok let out a high-pitched gasp that would've been hilariously anachronistic under any other circumstances, but at the moment I was so far beyond caring I wasn't even in the same time zone. Instead, I uttered a hasty "[Maintain motionlessness!]" as I wrapped my Phantom Limb around his waist and picked another red dot to move to before I disappeared, dragging the hapless guy along with me.

"[What manner of ludicrousness is this?]"

I presume that question came from Brang, no doubt really shocked by the two of us appearing right in front of him while he was still on the lookout. As much as I wanted to give him an answer right away, my legs had other plans, and they unceremoniously slipped right out of under me. I stumbled backward, barely managing to brace myself in time so that I only landed on my butt instead of getting sprawled out on the ground.

It took a few seconds to get my bearings. The rapid Phasing combined with forcefully pulling someone with me did a number on my head. I felt like the whole world was spinning, with my body parts also spinning, but in the opposite direction and at various different speeds. It wasn’t particularly pleasant is all I'm trying to say here.

"[Are you all right, my Lord?]" Vurrok inquired in a panicked voice as he began to buzz around me.

"[To a degree that is far from satisfactory, yet not one that threatens this life of mine. Now excuse me, for I must reign in the rebellious impulses of my disobedient innards.]"

"[Are you certain thy condition isn't dire?] came the next inquiry from Brang as he casually leaned on his spear. [You even forgot to denounce young Vurrok for referring to you by thine title.]"

I gave the easy-going ex-general a critical glance, but he only smiled back like he was oh-so-clever.

"[All is not lost that is delayed.]" My off-handed response only earned me a subdued chuckle, so I decided even rolling my eyes would've been wasted on him, and instead I focused on somehow standing back up. It was only slightly harder than strictly necessary, but with the help of Vurrok, I managed to stand on my own two feet again.

Brang waited for me to readjust myself, and only then did he ask me, "[Is my presumption correct in that something unexpected happened for you to arrive in thine unsteady state?]"

"[Unexpected is a word that places it without due consideration,]" I grumbled before I stretched my back. Then I paused, rewound my words in my head, and after a short yet intense sigh I added, "I wanted to say 'it's putting it lightly.'"

"[We understood thine words.]"

Brang might have said that, but based on Vurrok's expression, no, he didn't. I let it slide for the moment, and I asked the obvious. "Are we still in the park?"

"[Aye.]"

"Which way is the ambush point?" Brang wordlessly pointed to our right. I glanced in the direction, and after rummaging through my memories for a while for familiar landmarks, I finally managed to roughly pinpoint my current location within the park. I wasn't far away, but it would still take a minute or two on foot to get back into position. "Well, I better get back there."

"[Do you require our aid in traversing the grounds?]"

"No, I'll manage. Let's stick to the plan. Maintain your positions for now, and warn me when the Chimera makes its move."

Instead of waiting for the response, I immediately began jogging towards my destination. As expected, it only took about two minutes to get back to the spot where I Phased from, and the moment I arrived, I immediately took a seat on the same root and wiped the sweat from my forehead.

Catching my breath might've been important, but there was something more urgent going on at the moment, so I quickly closed my eyes and picked one of our guys before projecting my point of view over with Far Sight. What welcomed me was utter, unabashed chaos, to the point I couldn't even decide where I should look first.

Okay, let's start with a general overview of the situation. First off, it was hard to see because there was a lot of dust in the air. That should already tell you that there was a lot of collateral damage involved, such as the broken windows on the buildings or the way the utility poles around the intersection were knocked over, but hey, it's the Purple Zone. It conveniently existed so that we wouldn't have to care about wantonly destroying everything at times like this. That said though, the odd mannequins, representing the locations of people on the outside at the moment the zone was opened, getting flattened left and right did feel a little icky, but again, no one got hurt, so it wasn't that big of a deal either.

One correction though: at the moment, the area could be better described as 'Red Zone', with the usual violet hues being replaced by a tense crimson ambiance, with most surfaces also getting vein-like black cracks on them. It was all pretty eerie, even more so than usual, but if I had to guess, I would say it was the result of the class rep working her literal magic on the anchor points to lock down the place. That was reassuring, though I was a little worried as well, since I couldn't see Ammy or Angie anywhere.

But then again, that wasn't something I couldn't fix in a split-second, so I immediately Far Glanced over to their side and sighed in relief when I found the class rep tinkering with a glowing spot on the ground while Angie had her bow on the ready while sitting on the shoulders of Petra the golem and watching the perimeter. Once I confirmed that they were fine, I quickly shifted my attention back to the battleground.

So, back to the overview: in front and center, a transformed Josh and Armband Guy were currently fighting the mad scientist, who was putting up a decent fight, if I do say myself. He was throwing around all kinds of gadgets, and the silly-looking pauldrons he was wearing were, for the lack of better words, 'unfolded' so that they formed what looked like the torso-part of a power armor that also covered his arms with metal plates. This, incidentally, made his legs appear hilariously small in comparison.

That side of the battlefield looked pretty intense, but not nearly as noisy as the others. The parking lot on my left was now in even worse shape than the intersection, with a lot of the cars flattened or lying on their sides as if someone kicked them over.

"AAAAAARYAAA!!"

Correction: they didn't just look like that, they were kicked over, as demonstrated by my lovely, if at the moment absolutely terrifying, girlfriend sending a small green sedan tumbling across the lot with a single, draconic-physique enhanced kick. The poor vehicle didn't get much airtime, but on its last roll it still managed to land squarely on the heads of three of Labcoat Guy's foot soldiers. It resulted in a metallic yet still painful crunching sound.

*GHRAAAAAAA!!!*

It was at this moment that, with the sound of a roaring furnace in an echo-chamber, a pair of three-fingered arms reached down and grabbed hold of the already totaled car before sending it careening back towards the princess. Thankfully the Gigant had terrible aim, but she dived to the side anyway. Elly rolled on the asphalt before she quickly leaped to her feet while delivering an uppercut to the face of one of the nearby Sprockets surrounding her. She had so much momentum that it actually carried her into the air, and then she did a three-point-landing and dashed forward to dodge the Gigant's follow up attacks.

If it wasn't completely obvious by the description, my girlfriend was soloing both the mooks and the oversized miniboss, and considering that half of the robots were already in pieces, she was doing really well for herself. Still, I would've preferred if Josh or Snowy was there to back her up, but in the case of my friend, I could at least understand why he was busy, considering he had to keep an eye on and 'encourage' Armband Guy to fight properly.

But speaking of which, where's my sister? I looked for her dot, and to my sincerest surprise, it was pointing upwards. I Far Glanced there, and found her flying through the air somewhere halfway between the intersection and where Ammy and Angie were staying. Then, just as my vision cleared up, I almost let out a scream as I found an ice spear flying right at me.

Of course, it passed right through the spot from where I was looking, but damn, it almost gave me a heart attack! I mean, I wasn't easy to rattle, but I have bad memories of those. I let out a small gasp, and once I gathered my wits, I turned around to see where she was aiming, and I found the funky android there. She dodged the incoming projectile with a pirouette and seemed to maneuver through the air using a series of glowing spots on her shoulders, back, soles, and butt. I couldn't tell if they were technological, magical, or both, but she managed to use them to fly with surprising grace all the same. Well, at least until Snowy used what looked like a blast of snowflakes to stall her, and then deliver a literal flying kick to her back.

In other words, she was also doing well. I had a hard time deciding who should I watch, but I settled on getting another good look at Josh first, if only so that I could take a better look at Armbad Guy's fighting style.

When I returned to them, Josh was in the process of scaling the side of the office building by the intersection; using the super-human strength given to him by his Abyssal transformation to grab onto ledges and use them to fling himself from one balcony to the next. The way he was doing it struck me as really dangerous, since one wrong move could send him falling tens of meters, but based on his expression, he might've been enjoying this.

"Parkoooour!"

… No, scratch that. He was definitely enjoying it. With one last heave, he landed on the rooftop of the building with a heavy thud that made me wince and he quickly glanced around to find the other two engaged in trading blows smack dab in the middle of the roof. The whole place was flat, save for a few large air conditioners and satellite dishes, so it was a perfect place for a showdown.

Without further ado, Josh rushed towards them in the cover of one of the air conditioners, popping out into the open just as Labcoat Guy's left shoulder plate opened up and launched a small, round object towards Pascal.

"Duck!" Josh shouted as his hands made a series of subtle motions. There was a flash of light in his palm, followed by a blast of wind aimed at the ball. He didn't manage to hit it head-on, but the wave of air still threw the projective off its track and it landed a couple of steps to the left of Armband Guy, where it exploded into a puddle of viscous yellow liquid.

I wondered if it was something like an acid grenade, or maybe some kind of superglue designed to hold someone in place, but my attention was quickly yanked back to the fight when Josh came to a halt beside the bespectacled disciplinary committee member and told him with a grin, "Sorry I'm late, I still have to work on my parkour tricks."

"Your assistance was wholly unnecessary," Armband Guy answered dourly, but then a moment later he added, "Thanks, nonetheless."

"You're welcome. Now, let's take this guy down!"

"Ki-hi-hi! Do you think you have what it takes t—!?"

Labcoat guy got exactly that far before the whole building shook so violently the three of them could barely keep their footing. I was also startled by the development, so I quickly Far Glanced around to find the cause of the disturbance, and I soon found the culprit on the ground.

Elly was standing on top of the wreckage of a different car, leaning forward and with a series of magical sparkles dancing around her face, her hair cascading behind her like she was in a wind tunnel. I'm not going to lie, she looked outright stunning, but I quickly shut down my lizard brain and its annoying signals, and instead I focused on the direction where she was looking.

Pivoting around, I found myself face to face with one of the severed arms of the Gigant, blown right into the middle of the intersection and leaving a nasty indent on the asphalt. More importantly though, I noticed how there was a huge gash in the side of the office building, almost as if a straight line was gauged out of it with the world's largest ice cream scoop.

Dammit, princess! I know I just mentioned that you don't need to mind the collateral damage in the Purple Zone, but at least pay attention to where you are firing your dragon flame! Friendly fire is still a thing! Also, I'm fairly sure that even if none of the buildings are strictly real, they would kill you if they fell on your head all the same. Be more careful, and… Wait. Could this be how Judy feels when I do something reckless?

Putting any eye-opening revelations aside, I quickly looked around to locate the owner of the large severed arm; not that it was hard to find it, considering it was a honking huge monster thing. The princess's attack only grazed it, as it still had three of its arms remaining. That said, I also noticed a dent on the metal plates centered around its chest region, one that wasn't there the last time I saw the creature, and its shape looked suspiciously like it was left behind by a comparatively tiny fist. Which meant…

Dammit, did I just miss the moment when my girlfriend decked the three stories tall monster? Why do I keep missing the best parts? Oh, speaking of which, I just realized that there was a series of bright flashes in the direction where I last saw Snowy. I had a feeling something was going on over there, so I moved my point of view, just in time to catch a chase between the android, my sister, and Angie, who must have joined the fray while I was paying attention elsewhere.

The three of them were weaving between buildings and under street lamps, and while I wouldn't have called it a high-speed chase per see, they were still moving fast (and frantically) enough to give me motion sickness, so I switched over to Ammy, who was watching the spectacle from the shoulders of her golem. From this vantage point, I could finally see that the flashes of light I was seeing were from Angie firing her bow while flying and the arrows exploding mid-flight as they came into contact with some kind of transparent force field that surrounded the fembot's body.

I kept watching them for a while and cheered on them, though I couldn't see much. I figured I might as well try to follow one of them again once I braced myself for the motion sickness, but before I could get to it, there was an unexpected development in the form of the sound of thunder followed by the office building in the distance beginning to tilt. The moment I realized what was going on, I immediately moved my vision over to Josh, ready to do another Phase and grab operation at a moment's notice.

Thankfully my worries were unfounded, as once I arrived, I found them already standing in the middle of the crossroad, right next to an enormous, severed black arm. Before I knew it, Elly also joined the fray, while the Gigant and the remaining silly robots surrounded Labcoat guy. Once they squared off, the oversized biomechanical monster thingie casually reached down, picked up the limb that the princess blasted off with her breath attack, and simply reattached it to the stump on its shoulder.

Wow, that's a handy ability.

…

I apologize for my terrible pun. I reflected on my actions, and it won't happen again.

Anyhow, for the moment neither side was willing to make the first move, and I was afraid it would devolve into a stalemate until the Purple Zone got unlocked and allowed the baddies to scurry away, but my reservations were once again overstated, as Labcoat Guy immediately let out another one of his grating chuckles.

"Ki-hi-hi-hi-hi! So this is what it came to! This is how it feels to be betrayed!"

"Give up, Robatto! We have you cornered! Surrender now, and I promise we won't hurt you!" Josh exclaimed, his words so protagonist-y it wasn't even funny. But then again, this whole excursion was about forcing him to take up the mantle, partially for my own benefit, so I wasn't exactly in a position to call him out on that.

"You think you've cornered me?! Ki-hi-hi! How naïve!" All of a sudden, a couple of bright spots, the same kind that I had seen on the android, lit up on the guy's half-power-armor, and he gradually rose into the air. "No, Joshua Bernstein! The real battle has just begun!"

Ooooh, that was pretty ominous. Also, just a tiny bit cool. Or at least it would've been, if not for the multi-colored pauldrons and the silly welder's mask, but hey, he was still getting better at looking like an actual threat. It was a good start. If he kept it up, at this rate I might even start taking him seriously in a year or two.

More importantly, he was obviously getting ready for some kind of climactic last stand. Or at least I hoped he was, and that this wasn't one of those bad jokes when the villain makes a big show and then turns tail for comedic effect. I mean, not all tropes are bad, but some are, and we certainly didn't need that one in our lives.

I was also itching to finally see a proper battle, so I swore not to get tempted by anything and Far Glance away from the action. So, I watched, very closely, as Labcoat Guy slowly rose into the air, hovered just in front of the chest of the Gigant, and then…!

Someone poked me in the cheek. … Wait, what?

I hastily opened my eyes, just in time to get poked again. I followed the long, purple object touching the left side of my face, and found it being held by a certain annoying huntress. She was crouching about two steps away from me, and she was using her wrapped-up sword to prod me.

"Oh, come on! I was just getting to the good part!" I grumbled as I swatted the annoying sword away with my hand. Rinne blinked at me in surprise and turned her head to the side like a doggie.

"You're alive. Good," she stated emphatically before proceeding to turn her head in the other direction. "What were you doing?"

"I was…" I spoke up reflexively, only to catch myself before I would accidentally reveal something to her. After a moment of thinking, I decided to answer with, "I was listening to any signs of the Chimera."

She blinked again, following which her thin brows scrunched up in a frown.

"Onikiri wonders that if you were truly listening, then how come you didn't notice when we sneaked upon your position on our way to the slaughtering grounds?"

I rewarded her oddly sharp question with a critical glance, and then replied with, "You're not a Chimera, are you?"

"No, Rinne is not a vile creature of the despicable underworld," she responded with a huff. "How could you ever mistake Rinne like that?"

"I didn't. That's the point." My level voice even surprised me, as I think no one would fault me for blowing her off. I took a deep breath and carefully stood up while minding my numb legs. Crouching in one place for so long certainly wasn't good for them. "Speaking of which, since you're here, I suppose you're ready for the ambush?"

"The hunt for blood and viscera," she corrected me as if I said something silly just now. "Yes, Rinne is ready to slash, maim, mince, and tear apart the abominable creature of darkness tainting the nights of this city."

"Good to hear that," I answered on autopilot as I glanced around to see if any of the Faun were giving me signals, but as far as I could see, none of them were in the vicinity. That meant that they were probably still on lookout duty. "In that case, let's find a good spot where we can hide."

Mountain Girl nodded, and we began to search for a nice little hidey-hole. At the end of the day we decided on a pair of lush coniferous shrubs that were just thick enough to serve as cover, but we could still see through them enough so that we had a nice view of the nearby footpath.

I took my spot behind the leftmost shrub and Rinne… also did the same. I wanted to tell her that she could hide behind the other one, but before I could do so, she suddenly asked, "Are you certain our prey will cross paths with us on its own?"

"Yes, it should. Also, you could—"

"Onikiri wonders how you could possibly know that," she casually cut me off and glanced up at me with questioning eyes. "She says you must be a traitorous te… tegriv… ter-giver-sa-tor? Yes, it's tergiversator!" She let out a proud little grunt, but then her eyes clouded over and she followed it up with the question, "What does that mean?"

"… Why do you ask me? You said it."

"No, Onikiri said it, and we don't know what it means." She paused for a long time here, right until her eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh. Onikiri says it means a person who turns coats. … But you don't have any coats, so Rinne still doesn't understand."

"I think it's better that way. Your sword is a bad influence on you."

"Leonard-san can tell?"

The high-pitched surprise in her words made me raise a brow in turn, but before I could get into what she meant by that, as I was pretty sure we weren't talking about the same thing, I noticed a small, yellowish glow in the distance. I focused my attention over there instead, and I quickly realized that it was a waving Faun. It was either Hrul or Gram. It was hard to tell those two apart even under the best of circumstances, let alone at this distance.

More importantly, the fact that they were giving me a signal meant that the Chimera started to move. I quickly put a finger on Rinne's mouth to stop her from any further babbling and pointed towards the path where we were expecting the target with my free hand.

"Psst. The Chimera is coming," I spoke in a low voice, and then I slowly removed my finger from her lips.

Mountain Girl gave me a confused look, which then turned into a skeptical one as she whispered back, "How do you know?"

I thought for a moment, and then decided to double down on my previous stray comment and told her, "I can hear it coming."

"Is it how Rinne can smell the vile stench of the underworld?" She suddenly sounded really excited for some reason. "Rinne and Leonard-san may really be compatible after all…"

"No, we're not," I denied her bluntly before I flicked her forehead. Now granted, doing that to an armed person in a decidedly dark park might've been considered a bad idea under any other circumstances, but this time I felt entirely justified in doing so. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Y-Yes! Rinne-must-first-spill-the-dark-red-lifeblood-of-the-vile-and-abominable-and-really-really-bad-thing-that-is-coming-our-way-under-the-guise-of-the-night-most-dark-as-if-it-was-made-for-the-sake-of-th-eultimate-hunt-between-the-two-of-us-and-to-paint-the…."

Okay, I'm not going to lie, her motor-mouth mumbling was once again creeping me out a little, but I decided to ignore her and instead I focused my attention ahead. I really hoped we could get this over with quickly, and then maybe I could catch the tail end of the battle between the others.

Unfortunately, it took nearly five minutes for the first sign of the creature, five minutes which Mountain Girl spent quietly babbling by my side. At last, I could see a large body moving in the dark, so I tapped her on the shoulder and whispered, "It's here."

Rinne immediately fell silent as her body relaxed and her face was slowly twisted into an impossibly wide slasher grin. Weird as it might sound, I was almost relieved to see that, as it meant she was finally serious. Probably. Hopefully.

Anyhow, it was my turn to get serious as well, so I clenched my hands around my spear and…

...

Um… Where's my spear? Where the hell is my bloody spear?!

I remember taking it from Brang, and I still had it when I sat down on the roots. Did I leave it there, or… Oh, damn it. I had it in my hands when I Phased over, didn't I?

My eyes opened wider and wider as I rewound my recent memories, aaaand yup. I had the spear with me, and then dropped it in the Purple Zone when I grabbed Vurrok. My feelings at this moment were quite complicated, but I think I managed to sum things up very succinctly as I whispered:

"Fuck my life."

For some moments in life, you need a poet to describe them. This one? Yeah, those three words were more than enough, I'd say.

Okay, calm down, me! So I screwed up. Big deal; wouldn't be the first time it happened. I just have to rely on plan B. So, what is the first step…? Coming up with a B-plan, I suppose.

First things first, let's observe the situation. This might've been wishful thinking, but there was always a chance that things would proceed in an unforeseen direction where I didn't even need to fight the Chimera. Say, it was possible that it wasn't hostile, or that Rinne would take it down in a single strike, or that it would turn out to be a cute little girl who would call me Onii-chan. I mean, that last option would've been absolutely terrifying, but it was a trope, so it wasn't entirely off the table.

Anyhow, there were a number of scenarios where I could avoid fighting today. Ideally, I would've Mountain Girl do all the heavy lifting, but at this point I felt obligated in a way to put in at least token effort, so... maybe I could act as a distraction? I doubted I could do more than that without a weapon, but considering I've been serving as bait for so long, I had more than enough experience in the field.

With that line of considerations finished, the next order of business was observing the Chimera. It was a little hard to see due to the moody weather making dusk set in even earlier than usual, so I had to wait for a while before it got close enough for me to be able to take a good look. Once it did, I immediately let out a relieved sigh. Not a little girl. At least the worst-case scenario was avoided.

As for an actual description: this Chimera was considerably smaller than the one I encountered during the school incident; about as tall as I was and a little on the skinnier side, which incidentally still meant it was about as big and well-built as Brang. On the other hand, its shape was almost identical to the first one; or rather it was the mirror image of the school Chimera's initial appearance when it showed up in the courtyard.

Its dark red skin and black fur didn't exactly blend into the background, and its body was an odd mixture of simian and reptilian traits, with a quadrupedal gait that reminded me of a mountain gorilla and an elongated, crocodilian head. It had six glowing eyes, also in the same positions as his predecessor's, but most curiously, its whole head was also giving off a subtle magical glow. Back then I wasn't as experienced with this kind of thing, but I was still about ninety-eight-point-five percent sure the first creature didn't have a halo like that.

If I had to pinpoint another difference, it would've been the way it was moving. It just wasn't right. The first Chimera might've been an unnatural mishmash of animals, but it still moved just like that; an animal. You could tell that it was prowling, and when it noticed its prey (namely, me), it moved in for the chase like a real predator.

The creature in front of me looked the same, yet moved very differently; sluggishly going through the motions like a tipsy office worker unsteadily hauling himself home after an especially hectic day at work. Not exactly the most flattering of comparisons, but it was quite accurate all the same. Furthermore, looking at it made me wonder just how the heck it managed to avoid being seen for so long. Even the Faun, who could turn invisible, slipped up in the past and had public notices about them in the park. This thing didn't even try to hide. It boggled the mind.

On another note, I was also surprised that I couldn't see any mini-Chimeras around. I told Brang and co. to try to smack down any they could find so that they wouldn't end up as a distraction at a critical moment, but I was pretty sure at least a few would escape their notice. They were either really good at their job, or one or two of those things are actually present, but lying low just to pop up at the most inopportune moment. I naturally took the second option to be a given, and mentally prepared accordingly.

What I couldn't prepare myself for was that the moment the Chimera got around fifteen or so meters close to us, my hunting partner suddenly let out a shrill cackle and burst through the bushes with her the purple shroud trailing behind her like a comet's tail.

"Shinsoku battō-jutsu!"

Before I could even call after her, she already made her way next to the Chimera and delivered a diagonal slash aimed at its neck. The brutish creature was apparently so taken aback by the screaming woman that suddenly popped up in front of its face that it didn't even attempt to dodge, or even block. The ominously glowing blade cut through the air with a sharp sound, followed by a meaty 'thunk' as it embedded itself into the creature's collarbone.

Unfortunately for Rinne, it only cut about a finger's width deep into the Chimera's tough hide, and for a second it looked more surprised than in pain. I'm not going to lie; after she hyped her sword and hunting credentials for so long, I expected a little more than a flesh wound from a surprise attack like that. Oh well, such is life.

I also knew that something like that would barely give a Chimera a pause, let alone kill it, so I instinctively called out to her.

"Watch out!"

When she heard my voice, Rinne let out another creepy laugh, following which she raised her voice and spoke up, her words eerily articulate and filled with a kind of languid magnetism.

"Hurry up, Leonard! The evanescent dance of life and death waits for no one! Come, and let us caper under the ever-fleeting pale moonlight and taste the sweet nectar of our hunt!"

… Okay, what just happened? Did those words really just came out of Mountain Girl's mouth? Did that mean she just broke character? If she did, then oh crap, because that usually meant things were getting serious.

On a related note, I couldn't help but wonder what the Chimera was thinking while it patiently waited for her to finish her piece. I didn't have to speculate for long though, as just half a moment after the thought crossed my mind, the creature ponderously raised its front leg and tried to hit Rinne with a backhanded swipe.

I instinctively wanted to call out again and warn her, but she was way ahead of me, and deftly got out of the way of the attack. In fact, she even had the time to do it by jumping high into the air, do a back-flip, and even an axel before landing. Because of this, my original warning turned into a mildly exasperated, "Just dodge out of the way like a normal person, will you?"

She completely ignored my words and lunged forwards while shouting something along the lines of 'Sakurabana Ranbu!'. While yelling so, she dashed forth and delivered a shallow, vertical cut onto the Chimera's raised arm, following which she let go of her sword and allowed its momentum to carry it into the air. That was already pretty damn baffling, but then she lowered her stance, turned 360 degrees on her heel, and raised both of her hands to her right ear, and as if it was the most natural thing in the world, her aggravating O-katana (that was the technical term of her sword, by the way) landed in her open palms. Once she grabbed hold of her weapon, she immediately struck forth with a vicious stab that landed on the Chimera's abdomen.

This time it looked like a nice, deep wound, but I knew from experience that it wouldn't give it more than a pause. More importantly, the creature still had its arm raised after the missed pimp slap, and it wasn't hard to figure out what it would do next.

Now then, it was exactly at this moment that I caught up with Rinne, so I did the only sane thing in this situation and grabbed her by the waist. She momentarily stiffened under my touch, but I didn't care, as I immediately heaved hard and flung her to the side, and not a moment too soon, as the aforementioned arm was already in the process of descending upon her head.

She let go of her sword still embedded in the creature, either by surprise or on purpose for her next move, as the moment we were out of immediate harm's way, she grabbed hold of the billowing shroud attached to the hilt of her weapons and yanked it right out of its belly. It didn't end there though, as she proceeded to swing the whole sword around in a circle using said shroud.

"Tenka Daiwa Zan!"

I had many questions about that, such as why she was calling her attacks, or how the heck she planned to cut anything like that, without proper edge alignment, but then such thoughts were immediately overwritten by a sudden prickling sensation that told me to dodge right the hell away from where I was standing. My legs moved on their own to comply even before I could give them a conscious order, and before I knew it I was already rolling forward on the hard ground.

That still wasn't enough, so I stumbled even further forwards, and I only stopped when the sense of imminent danger subsided. I hastily rose to my feet and looked back, but couldn't see anything dangerous. On the other hand, I could most certainly hear something dangerous, and when I looked over there, I noticed one of the trees by the footpath began to tilt and then fall right onto the spot where I stood a few seconds ago.

I was startled by the loud cracking noise of the branches breaking, but once I collected my wits, I attempted to put the pieces together and figure out what exactly just happened. It didn't take long to form a hypothesis: Apparently, when Rinne swung her sword around in an orbit, she hit the tree, as professed by the clean horizontal cut on the still-standing stump. Considering we were talking about a tree that was about as thick as my waist, that meant her sword was really freaking sharp, so I had high expectations when I glanced over to the Chimera, only to immediately be let down.

At the moment, Onikiri was embedded about two fingers deep in the creature's shoulder, with Mountain Girl still holding onto the purple cloth on the other end. The same sword, the same strike, two completely different outcomes. Why though?

I naturally had an ideal. If I had to make an educated guess based on the evidence at hand, I'd say that the thing giving the infuriating sword its unnatural sharpness wasn't the actual metal blade, but the ominously glowing magenta mist coming off of it. My gut said that it was probably the result of some kind of enchantment that gave it its terrifying cutting power. However, as the class rep pointed out on numerous occasions, Chimeras were really scary for all the supernatural folks because they were very resistant to magic. Well, that, plus the fact that they were unrelenting, regenerating murder monsters, but let's not split hairs.

That meant that, with the cutting enchantments nullified, Onikiri was exactly as dangerous to the hulking monstrosity in front of us as an ordinary sword. Some ancient evil-slaying sword, am I right? Now granted, Rinne still managed to land a couple of really solid wounds already, but I couldn't tell whether that was due to the blade, her fancy techniques, or just the Chimera pretending to be a punching bag.

As if it realized I just called it that, the eyes of the large creature focused on Rinne and it opened its mouth to let out a deafening roar. I instinctively braced myself, but to my further confusion, the Chimera only raised its arm again in the exact same motion it did the first time. It didn't try to bite, or to use its claws… Hell, even the way it was moving towards Mountain Girl felt more telegraphed than the bestial pounces the first one did when we fought… or rather when it tried to eat me and I was mostly running away, but again, splitting hairs is bad.

This was weird already, but then Rinne yanked her sword back into her hand and took up a stance, and…

"Sakurabana Ranbu!"

… Yep, it was the exact same move. She did the whole three-sixty twirl too, which incidentally took her just under the incoming backhanded slap, and then she once again stabbed forth. This verified two things: Rinne was indeed calling out her attacks, and the Chimera was acting really weird.

I couldn't do much about the former other than shaking my head in disapproval, but the latter was something that deserved closer scrutiny. The creature's movements, while not exactly mechanical, were somewhat stiff and had short delays in them every once in a while, as if it had to think hard before making certain moves.

"Hisho Taikakutachi!"

I ignored the way Rinne attacked by throwing her sword behind her back after a diagonal cut, only to catch it with her other hand, spin around in place, and slash down from the other direction.

...

On second thought, no. Let's not ignore that. What the actual hell was that!? To be fair, I'm no sword expert (though as far as I know, I might've used to be one, but that's neither here nor there), but even I could tell that randomly spinning around mid-combat, exposing your back to the opponent, and doing all that while also letting go of your weapon in the process was not exactly the most sensible of moves. It looked flashy and a tiny bit cool, but do you know what would've been even cooler? If after all that song and dance routine, she actually hit the hulking monstrosity in front of her!

I mean, the Chimera was huge and wide open! How hard could it be to hit it!? Well, by the looks of it, it had either its EVA or its LCK stat maxed, because Mountain Girl managed to whiff both the initial and the follow-up stroke! Oh, and now she was extensively flourishing her blade before she tried to parry an incoming fist. It naturally didn't work, as even though the edge bit into the flesh of the incoming arm, it did little to stop its momentum and Rinne was sent careening into the nearby bushes on the other side of the road.

Now then, since we finally got a little breather from her oh-so-practical swordsmanship, let's focus on my previous line of thoughts about the Chimera again. In short, it was really peculiar. Just now, it didn't even react to getting cut. In fact, it didn't acknowledge any of its injuries, did it? Sure, you could say that the first Chimera was also prone to under-reaction to, say, getting its arm bitten off, but it was still reacting. This one didn't even flinch from being skewered by a sword. Twice.

Also, while we were still at the differences, there was a startling lack of transformations. By now the Chimera should have shown at least some kind of physical change. Maybe longer limbs, or some kind of carapace on the arms to deflect cuts, or some other kind of adaptation fitting for the situation. For comparison, the first Chimera already had a silly whip-arm by this point, but I couldn't see anything even remotely similar to it this time.

Now put all of that together, and consider the fact that the thing's head was still glowing like an off-season Christmas tree, and it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that something suspicious was afoot. I was just about to formulate a plan for taking a closer look at that magical light show, but then my attention was grabbed by a small movement in the corner of my vision.

I glanced over, and saw Rinne jump back out of the shrubbery with a furious glint in her eyes, sword raised high as if she was about to declare that 'there could be only one', or some other similarly dramatic line. That wasn't what really drew my attention though, but the small, indistinct shape following in her wake.

"I knew it!" I exclaimed with a 50/50 mixture of exasperation and vindication, my legs automatically taking up the fake Phasing position. I rushed forth, though I technically didn't actually move forward at all, and I reappeared right next to the irate huntress. I caught a glimpse of her shocked expression, but didn't dwell on it, and instead I focused on the small creature leaping through the air behind her.

My right hand extended with a practiced motion and my fingers unceremoniously grasped onto a thin, lizard-like tail. For a moment I was even surprised how easy this was, but I figured all the Phasing training with Brang paid off. I'm not going to lie, I felt just a little smug at the moment. The Faun considered my training method of having them toss weapons into the air for me to catch after Phasing across the room to be odd and of little practical use, but look at this! I just caught a… thing.

Speaking of which, it was about time I took a closer look at the tiny creature in my hand. It was about the size of a common housecat, except scaly, with a rat-like head, and instead of front paws, it had something that reminded me of a praying mantis's graspers on steroids. Once its first shock over suddenly being caught and held upside down by its tail passed, it began to struggle and wave its forelegs around with a high-pitched screech.

"Whoa there!" I exclaimed by reflex as I waved the mini-Chimera around to keep it from clawing at my arm. I don't know if it was the screech, the words, or just my flailing around, but it made the big Chimera let out an anemic yet still loud roar that startled me for a moment. I glanced at it, and on a whim I swung the creature in my hand towards it.

I'm not going to claim it was thanks to my amazing aiming skills, but I managed to throw the tiny creature right into its gaping jaws. The big guy continued to roar, completely disregarding its flailing spawn in its mouth, and then it closed it without any fanfare, resulting in a crunching noise and a soft, "Ouch," from me.

"So that is why you were staying back," Rinne noted beside me as she did that thing where she flicked her sword to get the blood off or something. "We were almost certain your courage must have left you in face of an enduring opponent such as this, yet it appears you have predicted the emergence of threats outside our expectations instead. You have our sincerest gratitude."

"Err… You are welcome," I replied with a good amount of uncertainty. Somehow polite and well-spoken Rinne was even creepier than oddball chuuni Rinne, and the way she talked kept sending shivers down my spine. Because of all this, I weighed my options and decided that it was probably in my best interest to end this battle as soon as possible.

With that in mind, I faced the monster slowly lumbering towards us, with bits and pieces of its unfortunate spawn still hanging from its jaws, and as I did so, something finally clicked with me: I wasn't afraid of this thing. Now granted, I had access to free and unlimited teleportation to get out of harm's way, and the creature wasn't focused on me either, but the fact that I felt zero apprehension towards it was still odd, so I tried to analyze my feelings. I didn't stand still while doing so though, as I slowly began to circle the creature from the right. Rinne, as if following my lead, did the same from the other direction, and it took until the three of us formed a more or less straight line for me to finally put my finger on my source of incongruity: my danger sense wasn't giving me any signals.

Granted, it wasn't actually targeting me or attacking in my direction at the moment, but I could still vividly remember the last time I faced off against one of these things, and I had been feeling a constant sense of pressure when I was looking at it. It felt like I had its attention, and it had the potential to hurt and kill me, so my danger sense was constantly warning me to be wary of it. There was none of that this time. Did it mean that I was safe? I wouldn't go that far, but it was certainly a completely different experience.

In the meantime, the Chimera seemingly vacillated about which one of us it should face, and eventually it decided to turn towards Mountain Girl, which incidentally also meant that it completely turned its back at me. This settled it. No creature, no matter how dumb, would obliviously expose its back to an aggressor. The fact that the still unchanged beast in front of me did so could only mean one of two things: it either completely disregarded my existence, or it didn't possess all of its faculties because of some kind of magical shenanigans. I was inclined towards the latter.

So, what would any self-respecting alleged Chimera-slayer do in this situation, with their opponent completely open and just asking for a backstab? Well, I wouldn't know, because I wasn't one, but I did have a plan in mind, and this guy just made it all the more hassle-free. Step one was to just wait for Rinne to make her move.

"Mumyō kansatsu ken!"

Oh, look. Another new attack with a fancy Japanese name. How very surprising.

This time she flourished her sword, and as she did so, the blade left behind a series of after images, following which she delivered a sequence of quick jabs at the Chimera's joints. The wounds were superficial at best, but the pause they gave to the thing was all I could ever ask for. I once again reflexively assumed the sham Phasing stance and then reappeared right on top of it. I raised my arm high, curled my fingers into a fist, and struck down onto the top of its skull.

Needless to say, that was all an act. I didn't want to break my knuckle, so I slowed my descending fist at the very last moment so that I only ended up lightly knocking on its head. There was no reaction whatsoever, but it was no biggie; I more or less expected as much. If it was a complex enchantment, like the curse on Emese, I had a feeling that surface contact wouldn't cut it. I had to go 'deeper', and thankfully I had the right tool for the job.

With that decided, I immediately brandished my invisible Phantom Limb and plunged it right into the Chimera's skull. There was no resistance whatsoever, which was just a little surprising. The thing's magic resistance was strong enough to render even a magical sword capable of cutting through a mature tree like it was butter borderline useless, yet my mysterious extra appendage was completely unaffected. It was food for thought, but for later, as I made contact with whatever was giving off the magical halo, and my consciousness was immediately sucked in.

What I found was… odd. Granted, I didn't have a ton of experience with poking around in the metaphysical innards of living things, but after the customary wading through a syrupy river that tasted like turpentine mixed with all the songs of an entire death metal album being played at the same time, I found myself inside of a spacious cavern instead of the core of records I was expecting.

The 'place' itself was perfectly spherical, and there wasn't an opening on it anywhere. This normally would've made me wonder where I entered, but I was getting used to the un-intuitiveness of spaces like this, so I didn't let it bother me. Now, back to my environment. I looked around, at least as much as the concept was applicable, and if I had to pinpoint the most striking feature in this cavity, it was definitely the thing in the middle.

Let me try to describe it as best as I could: inside the center of the cavern, there was a comparatively small, white ball of light. It had two long strings connecting it to the opposite ends of the hollow affixing it in place, with countless thin, jointed 'legs' sprouting out of it and touching the walls. All in all, it reminded me of one of those long-legged cellar spiders, except with an absurd amount of limbs. I followed one of them and soon realized that when it touched the wall, it would ever so slightly change its shape. Then it would move and tap it elsewhere, which resulted in a different portion of it changing its form or texture.

After some consideration, I also tried to touch the wall of the cavern surrounding me. I gingerly reached out, wary of what might await me, but I made contact all the same. What I found was fairly unexpected. Instead of waves of fragmented images, sounds, and other sensory records, I was hit by a nauseating torrent of nothing. I shut the contact off, and it didn't take me long to realize what just happened and where I was. This place, this 'cavern', is where the records of the being were held, right until it died, leaving behind a hollow sphere; the negative imprint of its 'soul', so to speak.

But then what was the thing in the middle? I cautiously approached it and extended my invisible, intangible hand towards the white ball. What I found was yet another abnormal thing. It was very similar to an enchantment I could find on an artifact, but insanely complex; and this time, I didn't mean it in the over-engineered way seen on things like the dragon-slaying spear. No, this thing was the real deal.

I didn't know how much time I had to 'read' it, so I tried to skim as much of its functions as I possibly could. From the looks of it, the whole, multi-layered enchantment was centered around an extremely extensive and complex series of if/or/then nodes with pathways forming an enormous, tree-like structure, with connections skipping between branches and routinely looping back to the base of the tree. Even as I observed them, I could see small bundles of light traveling down the lanes between the nodes. Some of them seemed to govern basic tasks, such as breathing, while other segments managed complex motoric functions and even decision making based on the state of and feedback from other nodes.

Long story short, the 'white spider' inside the cavern was pretty much a magical artificial intelligence puppeteering the body of the Chimera based on behavioral trees. Of course, this was a gross oversimplification of the simultaneously crude yet brilliant piece of magical engineering in front of me, but not an inaccurate one, and if I had a mouth, I would've most definitely whistled in approval.

I wondered; could I possibly gain control of the Chimera by taking control of this 'white spider'? I have detected a couple of anti-tampering mechanics, but nothing that would pose an insurmountable obstacle. I just needed some time. Unfortunately, I had less of that than I thought.

Before I knew it, I was abruptly thrown out of the metaphysical space of the hollow cavern, and after blinking a few times, I found myself staring at the sky on my back. It didn't take a genius to figure out that at some point the Chimera must have thrown me off its back, and once I got out of the range of my Phantom Limb, I was kicked back into boring old reality again. The fact that exiting this way felt pretty much like getting squeezed through the eye of a needle, and its ill effects on my poor brain, went without saying.

I tried to get my bearings first, but then my danger sense abruptly gave me the red alert signal, and so I forced my body to roll to the side, just in time to get out of the way of the enormous clawed fist descending towards the spot I occupied just a second ago. I kept rolling, and only stopped when I was well out of arm's reach. After a quick shake of my head, I did my best to rise to my feet, made slightly harder by how the world kept spinning even after I stopped.

I was just about to give up on the prospect and instead focus on catching my breath, but I received help from an unexpected source. As I looked up, I just noticed Rinne landing behind the flailing creature after doing another unnecessary axel, and then she dashed over to my side and offered me a hand.

"What have you done to the creature of the underworld?"

"What did it look like?" I asked back as I accepted her help and rose to my feet.

"It stopped moving for approximately four seconds," she answered right away. "After that, it became exceedingly aggressive and threw you off."

I observed the Chimera while listening to her explanation, and seeing how it was randomly roaring and pounding the ground without any rhyme or reason, I couldn't help but wonder if I might've accidentally tripped some kind of anti-tampering fail-safe. Oh well, there was no point in crying over spilled milk; I just had to clean up my mess, and everything would be perfectly fine.

"I think I can end this in one more attack."

My white lie made Mountain Girl nod in approval, and she asked me, "Do you require support?"

I took another look at the way the flailing creature, and then answered, "I would appreciate it if you could stop its movements for a few seconds."

Rinne gave me another wordless nod, clenched her hand around the hilt of her sword, and she immediately rushed back into the fray. I was honestly a little dumbfounded. Was this the same person I had been forced to hang out with for the past week? Where are the cringy lines? Where are the condescending looks? And when the hell did she become so dependable? I had to wonder; was this the influence of her sword, or the lack thereof? Either way, I had to admit that reasonable Mountain Girl, as much as that sounded like an oxymoron, was pretty useful in this situation.

Anyhow, I let her get the attention of the Chimera again while I found my center, and once I was ready, I broke into a run and circled around the two of them from the left. Once I felt like I was in position, I gave her the signal, and she wordlessly raised her sword over her shoulder in response.

"O Mumyō kansatsu ken!"

Oh, I think that's the same one she used the last time. Neat. I waited for the target to stagger, and once the path of approach was clear, I once again fake-Phased right next to it. This time I decided to add some extra flair to my move, so instead of a fist, I stabbed towards its temple with just two fingers. It was for only show, as it was my Phantom Limb that did all the heavy lifting, and once it made contact I immediately dived into the space between spaces. This time the process of getting to the cavern was much smoother, and the moment I was back in front of the white spider, I plunged right into it.

I didn't know how much time I would've to do this, so I zeroed in on the more basic metabolic functions. In retrospect, that turned out to be a bad idea, as those nodes were bloody complicated, and I quickly realized that messing with them could easily result in irreparable damage to the body. Since I was running out of time, I decided to go after my second best bet and scoured the section of the behavioral tree for anything dealing with motorics. By tracing the branches back as far as possible, I ultimately found the bundle of nodes responsible for communicating between the decision-making nodes, the nodes responsible for interpreting sensory data, and the ones dealing with motor control.

I had no time to mess around, so I swiftly and decisively used my phantom limb to carve the whole section out of the tree. It was unexpected, but throughout the entire process, the knowledgeable corner of my brain remained entirely silent. That meant that none of these nodes were 'plot-relevant' in any shape or form. I wasn't entirely sure I liked the sound of that, but it made my life easier, so I decided not to look the gift horse in the mouth, and instead I retracted myself from the cavern.

Upon returning to my body, the first thing I noticed was that I was still standing in the same pose I was when I left, metaphorically speaking. Same for the Chimera, and even Rinne, though she probably did so for different reasons. Anyhow, I took a deep breath, and gently pushed on the head of the creature. The moment pressure was applied, its balance completely crumbled and it collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut (which was, to be fair, entirely accurate). My companion took a confused step back, but when she realized that the body was not moving, she finally relaxed and let her weapon down.

"Has this creature shuffled off its mortal coil?"

"Erm… Yes, it's very much dead," I stated just a tad forcefully as I assumed a slightly more casual posture as well.

"What kind of secret technique was that? We have never seen its like," she inquired as she took a step closer to me, and unsubtly observed my right hand.

"It's… a sure-kill move that I developed. It needs a lot of preparation, but if it hits a weak point, it's a one-hit kill," I lied like a champ with all the conviction I could manage at the moment.

"A truly terrifying technique, if there ever was one," Rinne noted with one gloved hand on her chin, and all of a sudden her lips widened into the creepy slasher smile I hoped I would never get to see again. "Let us proceed to spill the vile creature's blood and viscera!"

Aaaand here we go. Bye soft-spoken and reasonable Rinne, hi annoying chuuni Mountain Girl. I was really curious about what that was about, but I figured I should try and figure it out on another occasion.

"No. It's already dead."

"But Rinne wants to!" she whined as she waved her sword towards the 'corpse' on the ground. "Onikiri also says that you steal stage lights and that we deserve to see the woods run red with blood!"

"Just leave it alone, will you? We already killed the Chimera, and that's what's important. Come on, let's go."

"We must dispose of the body," she insisted as she carelessly waved her blade around, forcing me to take a step back. "Let Rinne at least mince it! Just a little bit!"

"You don't have to. It will dissolve like the small ones over time. Let's just leave it here and go." Mountain Girl was giving me a hurt look, and she even puffed out her cheeks in the most overdone display of sulking I have ever seen, so I decided to try and cajole her a little. "Come on, let's celebrate a successful hunt. I know a good gyros place nearby; it's my treat."

As expected, it only took a single mention of food for her to immediately re-wrap her sword and state, "Rinne also believes that celebrations are an important part of the hunt. Please lead the way, Leonard-san."

I was tempted to roll her eyes at her transparent gluttony, but I refrained and instead told her, "Let's do that, but first, we should clean ourselves up a little."

I pointed at the leaf stuck in her hair, probably even since her tumble in the bushes, and then I followed it up by pointing at the restroom by the end of the footpath. That was about all the encouragement she needed.

"Come, Leonard-san!"

"Go ahead. I still have to find something I dropped," I replied, and she did as I told without suspecting a thing. The moment she was out of earshot, I let out a pent-up sigh and said, "[Transport the cadaver to our hidden fort. I shall be with you once I've seen this task to completion.]"

There was no answer, but I knew for sure that the message was received, so after sparing one last glance at 'remains' of the Chimera, I quietly followed after the gluttonous huntress, my mind already filled to the brim with ideas.