Chapter 5: The third option and black wrath

I felt danger approaching, coming towards me. My heart was racing, beating so hard it could leap out of my chest at any moment. Fear gripped my body, but this time, it didn't tremble. I remained on guard, staring into what were probably the creature's eyes.
As my vision adjusted to the darkness, I was able to discern the creature's shape. It was sitting atop the mountain of gold coins. It had the appearance of a black cat. It easily measured four meters high and seven meters long. This enormous, long body was supported by eight legs. The upper part resembled that of a feline, but by the level of its legs, the black fur gave way to broken yellow scales.
Moreover, its legs were those of a reptile. With the added bonus of a split tail whose ends ended in very sharp arrowheads. I followed his lights which turned out to be his eyes. I noticed that there were two pairs on the face and one pair lower down, at chest level. The sharp-toothed mouth I had noticed at the same time was not on the face but, it too, on his chest just below the eyes, and a mist escaped from it every time he opened it.
This chimerical creature gave off a strange aura, unlike any other creature I'd encountered so far. I'm not sure how to explain it. It was the way he looked at me. I'd already met the gaze of many monsters in a short period of time, and none had given me this strange feeling. It's probably because the previous monsters would jump at me at first sight, but this one just looked at me without doing anything, swinging its two tails up and down.
I walked backwards in small steps, watching the chimera's reaction. It continued to look at me without moving as its mouth widened into a creepy smile.
That smile made my blood run cold and I immediately bolted towards the door when a shadow stepped between her and me.
It was the chimera. It had leaped down from the mountain and caught me off guard.
She raised her paw and struck me with a single blow. The force of the blow was so powerful that I bounced off the ground like a ball before ending up thrown against the wall.
"Aaargh !!"
I coughed up blood after hitting the wall hard, and when I fell to the floor, I felt like I had cracked several ribs. The claw swipe should have torn me apart if I hadn't been wearing that breastplate that had taken the blow for me.
I wiped the blood from my mouth and thought of a way to get out of here. The chimera was guarding the only exit. I had to walk past it to leave the room. There was no need to attack it, just find a way through. And I had glimpsed a possible path.
I took off at full speed, heading straight for the chimera, which remained motionless.
Arriving in front of her as she was about to attack, I let myself slide to the ground. The chimera's strike flew over my head, its claws catching a few strands of hair as it passed.
I narrowly dodged the blow and slipped under the creature's large body on the ground.
I cleared the obstacle and straightened up without losing any speed, I was almost at the exit.
However...
"Gyahh !!"
Beads of blood flew through the air as did my chances of getting out of the room.
My right shoulder was pierced by one of the chimera's forked tails. Hanging on the end of its tail, the chimera fished me out, bringing me back before its eyes as its smile widened even more. A crack of a whip sounded as she threw me onto a pile of treasure, ending up buried under tons of riches.
As I pulled myself out from under the piles of gold, I curled into a ball, clutching my injured shoulder. My breathing became increasingly difficult. My throat was burning, and my lungs felt like they were being compressed. The loss of blood was blurring my vision.
"Oh shit, I was almost..."
With the bitter taste of iron in my mouth, I felt my hopes fading, yet I refused to give up.
I would charge the beast once more. The chimera was waiting for me to come to it, but this time I turned to its left, where there was an opening. However, that was not my objective.
I jumped very high and leaned on a pillar, gaining more momentum to jump even higher and over the chimera. The latter swung its twin tails, which I narrowly avoided. I landed, rolling into a ball on the ground. Before I could get up, the chimera spun around, using the force of the rotation to deliver a powerful blow that sent me flying.
Despite its enormous size, the creature displayed remarkable speed, agility and flexibility.
After hitting the wall and ending up in a large pile of treasure, I jumped up and rushed forward, attempting once again to get past the creature, but it ended in failure. Nevertheless, I didn't give up and charged forward again, trying to force my way through in several ways. But the chimera thwarted all my attempts, and all I managed to do was hurt myself more with each attempt.
The repeated claw strokes tore at my body, making it bleed profusely and leaving their marks. Every time I hit a wall, my bones would break little by little and my head would take a hit. It was becoming difficult to think straight with all the concussions.
On my last attempt, after hitting the ground from the chimera's attack, it placed its paw on my body to hold me down. I couldn't break free from its grip.
I thought that was the end... But the creature suddenly started laughing.
"Keukeukeukeukeu"
A sinister sound, a dark laugh.
From the look of her, I expected her to grunt or meow, but certainly not to burst out laughing, and a cynical laugh at that.
The chimera removed its paw and swept me aside, eventually embedding me in a pillar.
I fell flat on my face, lying on the ground with my body covered in blood. I was frustrated, I was afraid, I was in the grip of despair.
This monster had been playing me from the start. My hunch wasn't wrong. This creature was indeed a special case. I sensed it at first glance. The other monsters acted on instinct and attacked me to devour me, from the smallest to the largest, trying to eat me. But he was the complete opposite. He had fun with me. Each time he tried, he just pushed me away without trying to devour me, even though he had several opportunities to do so. And when he attacked me, he always gave me time to get up and try to escape in vain.
He played with me like a cat with a mouse.
In his eyes, I was just a kind of entertainment, a toy to play with until it broke.
His sadistic smile and sinister laugh showed that he took pleasure in making me suffer and slowly dying a cruel death. This body may have been resilient, but it had its limits, and this monster was determined to test how long I could survive its blows before succumbing to my injuries.
In the end, a long and painful death awaited me. This monster had a certain conscience, illustrated by his cruelty and malice. Right now, he was patiently waiting for me to throw myself into it again, his smile never leaving him.
He could wait as long as he wanted, I no longer had enough strength to satisfy his sadistic desire. I had to face the facts. There was no hope of survival. There was nowhere to hide, and there was no way I could run away either. I was going to die here, alone, in this horrible, absurd world.
What if I just closed my eyes and let death take me...
My eyelids grew heavy and my eyes slowly closed, and through the darkness I saw a faint but bright light shining. I thought it was the light from beyond that was coming to find me.
But in reality, it was the amulet that had fallen and was glowing faintly. Looking at it during my last moments, I saw reflected in the precious stone the faces of Mom, Dad, Haruna, Haru, Joy and the pleasant and unpleasant moments that I had experienced with them.
It was ironic when I think that just yesterday I wanted to get rid of this thing, and that now it was the only thing that connected me to the Earth, to my family and friends, and that kept me connected to life.
My eyes began to water and the tears flowed endlessly, mixing with the blood as I stood up. I wanted to live, I wanted to return to my world and see my people. And for all these reasons, it was impossible for me to give up. I couldn't give up, not while I had a breath of life left. I had forgotten my own words: As long as I'm alive, there will always be hope.
Of course, I couldn't hide or run away, but I had a third option.
The fight.
To survive, sometimes it is necessary to fight. Fighting is a last resort when all other options are no longer an option. Attack your enemy and kill him by all means, using all your strength, because his life is at stake. That too was instinct.
Even a mouse would become aggressive, bare its fangs and attack when cornered.
With the will to fight and a renewed determination to survive, I stood tall in the face of adversity, clutching the amulet as if for good luck.
I will kill this monster and survive this hell. I will get out of this nightmare no matter what.
The amulet's stone glowed brightly in response to my urge to fight and survive. Then, a flash of lightning erupted from it, materializing into a spear that stabbed into the ground.
Without questioning why or how this weapon appeared, I grabbed and pulled the spear out of the ground.
The tip of the spear split into two forked blades with two prongs, which was actually known as a bident.
"Listen to me, cat...!" I cried, pointing at her with the bident. "You thought it was over, well no, you fucking monster. Now it's my turn to strike back, you hear? The tide has turned in my favor. I'm officially telling you that you're going to die. You'll bitterly regret not killing me when you had the chance."
"Keukeukeukeukeu!"
The chimera giggled loudly.
She understood what I was saying and laughed as if mocking my statement.
His laughter was starting to get on my nerves. It pissed me off to see this monster talking down to me, but it was exactly what I needed right now...
Feelings and emotions flooded my mind: fear, sadness, frustration, remorse, helplessness, despair, hope... All of this was swirling around, disrupting both my mind and body. With all of this in my head, it would be difficult to concentrate. That's why I had to bring it all together.
Just like when you mix all the existing colors until there is only one left and you get black.
I mixed all my feelings and emotions together to form one. This chaotic mixture gave birth to the deepest and purest emotion there is...
The wrath.
That's what I needed.
A black anger. A rage to win that would allow me to kill this monster and anything that stood in my way.
Gripping the bident with all my strength, I clenched my teeth so hard that they made a creaking sound. My veins were popping all over my face, bulging to the point of bursting. The whites of my eyes turned black as my pupils shrank, glowing a bright purple. The horn on my forehead thickened, stretching out long, and my wings relaxed over my back, feathers erect.
I let out a deafening scream, overloaded with dark rage, and charged the chimera.
I engaged in combat by charging at full speed towards her.
At first I only thought about escaping from here, but now I was fully focused on the battle. I could see his attack coming and predict its trajectory. I used the bottom of my bident to deflect the blow and continue my momentum. Halfway to the creature, I grabbed the bident by the end to maximize the range and power of the strike, and brought it down from top to bottom with all my might. The double blade sliced through the creature, leaving a large gash that gouged out one of its eyes on its torso in the process.
The chimera let out a piercing scream, its wide open wound bleeding profusely, and it tried to counterattack.
This time it came from the left. So I spread my left wing and with a flap I created a gust of wind to the left, which had the immediate effect of propelling my body to the right by the blast of recoil. This allowed me to move faster than the chimera. I leapt into the air with the gust of wind, performed an acrobatic pirouette, and landed on my feet.
The beast's purple blood trickled down my bident, dripping from the serrated tip. With a swipe, I wrung it out.
I felt that with this body I could do anything, accomplishing what was usually impossible for me. All I had to do was visualize the figure to be executed as a whole and then activate the right muscles and the nerve signals to reproduce every feat, figure and athletic prowess that defies understanding.
I had never held any weapon in my life, but despite that, I mastered the spear as if the movements were integrated into the memory of this body.
A body perfectly conditioned for combat. With skills like that, nothing was impossible. Even killing this monster was within my reach.
The pattern for my next attack was already mapped out. On the next one, I could land a critical hit and position myself in the right spot to cause the most damage.
"Here we go!"
The chimera became alert as it saw me approach. Its swift strikes no longer held any secrets for me. I easily avoided them using the air propulsion generated by my wings. I zigzagged past his defenses. Right with a left wing beat, left with a right wing beat.
When I was behind him, he used his tails, which undulated and attacked like snakes, whipping in spirals. Their tips hissed like a volley of arrows.
With a kick to the ground, I jumped to avoid them and then landed on their tails, trampling them. Then, two clean blows from my bident cut them off.
The chimera screamed again and turned around quickly, but I was already somewhere else.
Thanks to the rapid movements of my wings, I had managed to reach my target. I was under the creature, and that, without it having noticed.
Now I could lash out as I pleased. Surrounded by his limbs, I twirled my bident and delivered one blow after another. I stabbed and twisted my weapon to tear the creature apart. One by one, I tore away its flesh, sliced its tendons, slashed its belly, and its blood sprayed me everywhere.
I unleashed a barrage of blows that she couldn't avoid. I eliminated her limbs one after the other, considerably reducing her mobility. The scales on the lower part of his body were very strong, I had to put all my strength into each of my attacks.
For the first time since the beginning, the chimera stepped back, distancing itself as the roles were reversed. It was now the prey fleeing the hunter.
Among his many screams of pain coming from his mouth on his chest, a strange sound could be heard. A horribly peculiar sound, like flesh being torn as it was stretched. A poorly drawn horizontal line split his head in two. Another mouth with sharp teeth burst out of his initially toothless face, producing an even more shrill scream than the other.
Her cry of pain was justified; her body was bruised all over. Of the chimera's eight legs, I had cut off two from butchering them. The rest wasn't in good shape either. One limb was only hanging on at one end before it detached from the body. Her lower abdomen had suffered several cuts and had been pierced in numerous places.
"That hurts, doesn't it? Now you know what it's like to be in agony, you sadistic bastard!"
Her heart-rending scream echoed throughout the castle. The chimera charged headlong, charging with all its might. The fear and pressure of death were making themselves felt by the monster. He, who until then had been playing with me and only pushing me back or counterattacking, was finally attacking. He took me seriously, seeing me as a threat rather than a toy.
Although he was moving fast, it didn't matter. Thanks to my enhanced dynamic vision, I could see him coming from miles away. It was like watching a movie in slow motion. I braced myself for him.
I lowered my center of gravity, bending my knees, and as he arrived, I spread my wings and with a downward beat, disappeared from the chimera's field of vision.
The chimera, launched like an arrow, hit the wall. Stone fragments flew through the air.
The shock was terrible, but it didn't seem to affect the monster, which was searching for its missing target.
I propelled myself upwards, almost touching the ceiling, more than twenty meters away.
No less than two seconds later, I fell like a stone. I held my bident pointing it downward and I dived at the monster's head with all my weight.
The two blade teeth pierced the chimera's skull. My bident sank deep into its cranium.
The impact of my fall smashed his head to the ground, which shattered in shock.
The monster's body no longer moved, pinned to the ground, completely inert.
I had won, it seemed.
I pressed my foot against his skull to remove the bident.