Angel vs. Demon
Chapter 36 – The Fifth Level
"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Moka, touching Yukari lightly on the shoulder. "That Earth Dwarf on the last level was too much…"
"I'm fine," Yukari replied brightly, smiling. "I mean, I had trouble getting air into my lungs for the first few minutes, but now I'm seriously okay."
Moka eventually nodded, relieved. They hadn't even gotten past half of the levels yet (they were almost to half). Moka knew that they were going to be facing way stronger enemies soon, and she didn't want anyone to be hurt especially when they needed to be on their guards. That would make them more prone to attacks… and she didn't want anyone to be injured, much less die. They were Ame's only hope of rescue, and friends had to stick together.
"Moka, you should stop worrying so much!" Kenta, as if reading Moka's mind, came up to her from behind and rubbed her forearm comfortingly. "I know that it's been hard – and even I'm worried – but we're going to make it! Ame's waiting for us somewhere, and she wouldn't want you to be all sad and depressed."
Moka smiled, patting Kenta's head. He's right, she realized. Why am I wasting all my energy on worrying? We're going to be okay, all of us… I mean, none of us are severely injured yet. It's not like some monster is going to leap out of nowhere and –
"Aaaah!" Kurumu screamed. She scurried back hastily, bumping into everyone in the process. But even as she knocked into the people behind her, she did not stop or even slow down. Kurumu pushed back farther and farther, as if trying to get everyone as far back as possible. In the midst of this, no one could see what had made Kurumu so agitated. They could, however, hear sounds…
Very, very loud sounds.
"RWWAAAAAOOORRRR!" something bellowed ahead.
"Alright, here it comes," Kiseki warned everyone, getting into a defensive position. "Get ready…!"
Almost a millisecond after they prepared themselves, a huge, furry monster leaped out from around the bend of the tunnel ahead of them. At first, the group of friends thought that it was some kind of lion (it certainly looked like a lion)… but Kenta knew better. He was part dog-demon himself, so he knew what animals should smell like.
And this creature definitely wasn't it.
"Wha-What the…?" Kurumu couldn't find the words to express herself. "Is that a goat head I see?"
"Yes!" Mizore replied in disbelief, "It's coming out of the lion's shoulder!"
Yukari straightened her witch hat. "It's called a chimera. They're monsters from Greek mythology… They're very deadly creatures. Almost an equivalent to the Japanese Yoko fox monster!"
"Well, that sure was useful knowledge," Kurumu stated sarcastically, backing away from the "chimera". "The real question is… how the hell are we supposed to defeat this thing?"
Yukari pondered this question for a moment. "Well… it has a snake for its tail. That spits out venomous poison. And the chimera's lion head can breathe out fire… did I mention that?"
Almost everyone groaned in dissatisfaction.
"It can't be that hard to defeat, though," Tsukune reasoned, thinking of strategies rapidly. "After all, it's made out of flesh. Animal flesh, too… it won't be as difficult as our other opponents. Mizore, can you try to freeze this creature?"
"Sure thing." With a flick of her wrists, her ice hands emerged. She aimed it towards the chimera (who had no idea what she was about to do), and shot an ice beam at it.
It did freeze the chimera. Temporarily. It turns out the chimera had magical powers of its own, like Yukari mentioned before. With merely a breath of fire, Mizore's magic ice was melted. The chimera seemed to be glaring at Mizore as it shook the wet liquefied ice off of its fur.
"Well, that sure didn't work," Mizore commented weakly. "I only seemed to make it angrier…"
"Alright, let's try something else," Tsukune replied, frowning in concentration. A drop of sweat dripped off of his brows.
"I'll go," Kurumu volunteered. "I want to get the chance to kill it."
Tsukune and Moka shook their heads. "Did you see what happened to Mizore's ice? I don't want you to share to same fate. That chimera's fire can sure cause serious damage."
Kurumu nodded, resigned. "You're right."
"You know, why can't we just get Inner Moka to handle this?" Kenta asked, "I bet she'll take care of it in a second!"
Before anyone could reply to this, though, the chimera spoke. It spoke.
"I do not wish to attack you," it said in a deep, growling voice. What was very abnormal (and extremely eerie) about its voice was that there seemed to be three different tones of voices speaking in unison; three layers of voices spoke simultaneously, and overlapped each other. A snake's hissing voice, a lion's feline voice, and a goat's throaty voice could be detected from that one single sentence if one listened hard enough.
"I don't wish to attack you," it repeated again. "I came to negotiate instead. Chimeras are strong, ancient, powerful monsters; I do not desire to fight with humanoid monsters such as you."
Kurumu snorted, but the chimera – ignoring her – continued on with its speech.
"I came here to discuss something with you. And then – if you don't agree – then I will attack you."
"Then we get no choice?" Kiseki demanded, knowing full well the answer to his question. Still, he dared to question the chimera with his eyebrow raised. "We get no say in this matter – this 'discussion', as you call it?"
The chimera thought for a moment. "You get to listen to what I have to say. Is that not good enough?"
Kiseki did not reply. He had his poker face on, and was staring blankly at the chimera. The chimera took this as a sign to continue.
"I came here to persuade you. I've got orders sent to me from higher up to kill you on the spot, but I do not wish to do so in such an uncivilized manner. I assume you all know by now that the monsters that have been set up to attack you are all hired by authority figures?"
Kiseki nodded to himself; the chimera had just confirmed what he had suspected.
"Good. Well, obviously there is an overall plan – a project – going on… and we are going to be a part of it. We are already a part of it, in fact. I'm here today to persuade you to be a part of it."
"A plan?" Kenta asked innocently. "What kind of plan? We just came here to rescue our friend… we didn't suspect that there was going to be something bigger involved."
"Well, of course you didn't anticipate it; I expect nothing more out of you all. Now you know, however. And I must apologize for my rudeness; I actually see some power and talent hidden inside most of you. You will all be fairly useful. But you all must know that I am sent here to kill you all; I have the power to decide which one of you lives or dies."
The chimera let the silence ring through the tunnel for dramatic effect.
"Wait… so is this what you wanted to discuss with us?" Moka asked.
"Why, I suppose so. I wanted to share a bit of information with you before you all perish."
Kenta gulped nervously. The chimera, picking this up, turned its great head towards the half-dog-demon.
"Hmm… I've decided." The chimera raised its head – or more correctly, heads – higher and pointed its lion nose at Kenta. "I will keep this young fellow right here. As for the rest of you… farewell."
"Wait!" Kenta almost screamed. He put his palms out in front of him, as if stopping the great beast. "Hold on a second! Keep me? You mean, you will kill the rest of my friends?"
The chimera snorted in confirmation.
"No!" Kenta cried, shaking his head frantically. "You can't. I won't let you!"
"My young friend, you should be honoured that I even considered letting you live. Although, the only reason I did so is because you are a fellow animal-monster… like me."
Kenta's eyes were wide, but he did not interrupt. The chimera continued talking in its creepy, three-tone voice.
"You should know that such monsters nowadays are getting rare. Humanoid monsters overrule, like your friends over here… lowly insect monsters, or other unmentionable, insignificant, useless creatures. We are the ones that are becoming extinct, my friend. And I say this with absolute seriousness. Sure, there are plenty of other animal monsters out there roaming around, but they are not as powerful as you and I! They live by stealing food from others, and hiding themselves! I suggest that the time has come for the animal kingdom of monsters to strike back. We will strike back, and we will do so with force… We will show them that we are not to be taken lightly."
Kenta made no comment whatsoever. Truthfully, he didn't think much about what the chimera said before. He knew that animal monsters were prejudiced against; they were often disregarded and not held in high positions like the humanoid monsters. They were slowly getting pushed back, and as a result, many were dying. With global warming, habitat loss and fragmentation, there was simply no place for them to be anymore.
Kenta knew this. He knew all of that. But what could he – a mere half-demon – do about it? He was still just a kid! Joining the chimera's forces wouldn't make much of a difference. And, since his father was cruel enough to impregnate his mother and then leave her, he bet that there were plenty of other half-dog-demons out there in the same situation as him. What could they do? Almost nothing. They couldn't strike back at all, for the other, more powerful monsters would simply push them back down again. Both in the human world and in the monster world, animals were not meant to rule; and even if they were, nobody would let them.
"I can't join you," Kenta replied honestly, shaking his shaggy silver head. "I belong here, with my friends." He smiled sincerely at Tsukune, Moka, Kurumu, Mizore, Yukari, and Kiseki. This was the family he'd always dreamed of, he knew that for sure. And there was no place else for him to be than right here.
The chimera, as if sensing his true feelings, shook its head sadly. "I guess I didn't convince you. No matter. The other animal monsters will do fine without you, I'm sure… So now, I guess there's not choice but to… attack you?"
On the last two words, the chimera sprang forward and blasted everyone with a breath of fire. It was so bright (and so terribly hot) that it lit up the entire section of the tunnel. Any traces of loose pebbles or plant roots sticking out of the tunnel were obliterated.
Luckily, Tsukune and his friends were not seriously hurt. The fire the chimera set was almost exactly identical to the Yoko fox's fire; they were prepared for it (well, more so than last time with the Yoko monster, anyway).
The chimera looked strangely impressed that the group of travelers had survived. Slightly shaking its rump, the chimera bounded towards them instead.
Kurumu was delighted by this; she was superb at hand-to-hand combat. While the monster was charging towards her, her nails elongated and developed as her fiercest weapon. She tensed up her hand and flew at the chimera, attempting to slash its lion head off. The lion head was her main priority now; the other two heads she would worry about later.
The chimera seemed to sense her attack. The body dodged to the side with surprisingly quick speed, and while it did, the goat head part of the chimera stretched out and bumped Kurumu in the stomach. "Bumped" was putting it lightly; it head-butted Kurumu in her abdomen with its long, pointy goat horns. Kurumu's nails were pointy and sharp, of course, but it wasn't as strong as these goat horns.
With a gasp of both surprise and pain, Kurumu twisted to her side and flew off-course. She crash-landed near a pile of rubble, and her hand immediately went to her injured side. It took her a few seconds to realize that blood was flowing out of her wound.
"Are the goat horns poisonous?" she asked Yukari weakly.
"No," she answered, giving Kurumu a sympathetic look. "They're not poisonous. Only the snake venom is… and, of course, the lion's bite is fatal. As is its fire-breath."
Kurumu nodded weakly, sighing. She flinched as she got up, but still made her way towards her friends. She was determined to stop this chimera once and for all.
Meanwhile, the chimera was terrorizing the other people. Kiseki – with his superhuman speed – tried to give it a surprise-attack from the back, but the snake's jaw (replacing the lion's tail) clamped shut only millimetres away from Kiseki's neck. It seemed to have the speed of a cobra… and with deadly precision, too. Had Kiseki not been the vampire that he was, he would have already been dead.
The trouble with defeating this chimera was that it had three heads. This meant it had three times the defence, and three times the attack. The only way to beat this monster would be for everyone to attack it together, but even that was difficult, considering that the chimera had three heads, two horns, breathed fire, and spit venom.
Still, our group of travelers would not give up. Kiseki distracted the snake part of the chimera, weaving this way and that, preoccupying it. Kurumu took this chance to slice the snake's head off. With her extra-long nails, she didn't need to be too physically close to the snake's head to cut it off. Their plan had worked; the snake head fell down onto the ground with a thump, and while it was hissing only moments before, it no longer made any noises. Where the snake's body was before now rested a scaly stump of green, bloody snake flesh; it was quite disgusting.
The chimera roared in pain and spun around, blasting a wave of chimera fire into Kurumu and Kiseki's faces. Luckily, Kurumu wrapped herself up in her wings protectively at just the last moment. Kiseki, on the other hand, had no wings or cover to block the attack with; he tried running for it, and could only hold up one arm to cover himself. The chimera fire burnt his uniform, and while his vampire skin wasn't so heavily damaged, he did wince in pain.
"Kiseki, are you okay?" Moka cried, bounding towards him.
"Retreat for now, Kiseki!" Tsukune called from the other side of the chimera. "You've already helped Kurumu cut off one of its heads; rest for now!"
Kiseki really wasn't in too much pain, but he didn't argue. He obediently drew back along with Kurumu, and the two (having completed their part) left it to the others to finish the job.
The ones that were left were Yukari, Kenta, Tsukune, Moka, and Mizore. Tsukune and Moka (still untransformed) tried to physically wound and distract the chimera as much as possible, letting their other friends do the attacking. The reason for this was because they couldn't get too physically close with the creature; even though the snake tail was gone, it was still pretty deadly. Mizore and Yukari could conjure up magical weapons and injure the chimera with it, while they could not.
Regardless of that fact, however, Tsukune and Moka still did a lot of damage. One took care of the backside of the chimera (where the snake tail used to be) while the other took care of the front (where the lion head was). Tsukune would kick, punch, and battle with the chimera's rump, while Moka did much of the distracting at the front. This way, they allowed Mizore and Yukari the chance to attack at the chimera's sides… which they did.
Yukari called up her magical spell cards, and sent them flying through the air and slicing the horns off of the goat's head (so the chimera would not be able to use its goat head to head-butt anyone anymore). Although it did not necessarily cause the goat pain, it still angered the chimera. The lion's body twisted to the side (towards the side of the goat head) and tried to assess the damage. While it did this, Mizore seized the chance and sent a flurry of ice shards towards the chimera's side. They were successfully implanted in the chimera's fur, and it let out wails of fury.
They were almost done finishing off the monster; two heads ineffective, one more left to go.
The chimera, however, was much more wary now. It remained highly attentive and always on its guard, and kept bounding around and twisting this way and that to keep its eyes on its targets. It was more difficult than ever to find a chance to overtake this creature.
The one who actually took the initiative and attempted a brave feat was Kenta, surprisingly. He knew that with every passing moment, Kurumu and Kiseki's wounds would get worse; and with every passing moment, Ame could be in deeper danger. He had to get this over and done with, and fast.
So what did he do? This little half-dog-demon charged at the chimera – shifting into monster form mid-sprint – and leapt high into the air. Fortunately, this part of the tunnel had a high ceiling; there was plenty of room for Kenta to jump around in. He spun around in the air above the chimera and did a dive palms-first, claws-out at the chimera's face. Kenta's outstretched dog-demon claws came into contact with the lion head's eyes (not as superior as Kurumu's claws, but still). There was a nasty squishing sound as the pupils were crushed. Chimera blood spewed everywhere and the lion and goat's cries could be head echoing miles away into the tunnels.
However, even if the lion could not see, the goat could. And even if the goat couldn't see, the chimera would still be able to move.
Kenta did a back flip into the air and landed on the chimera's back. It tried to rear up and throw Kenta off, but Kenta quickly grabbed a hold of the goat's stubby horns (or what was left of them, anyway). He drove the chimera right into the rocky tunnel walls… which was pretty easy to do, considering that two of its heads could no longer see.
The chimera crashed into the tunnel wall and landed in a defeated heap onto the dirt floor. It twitched for two seconds, then stopped moving completely. It had finally been defeated.
Everyone (everyone else left alive, at least) in the tunnel was silent. They just stared at Kenta's unmoving back, not speaking a single word. There were many different thoughts going through people's minds right then, but almost everyone was stunned by Kenta. Not necessarily proud of him or happy for him, but shocked. How could Kenta, the sweet little "puppy" everyone had grown to love, be able to do something like this? Of course, they were happy that he had saved them, but no one saw this side of Kenta before.
Nobody moved; everyone waited for Kenta to make the first move. And he did. The hero of this level slowly turned around and gave his friends a faint smile.
Moka then walked up to him and hugged him tightly. Kurumu did the same thing, and almost everyone else followed up afterwards.
No one made inquiries about Kenta's actions, but he decided to explain a little bit anyway. He sniffled and smiled tiredly.
"I didn't want anyone else getting hurt," he said. "Kurumu and Kiseki were already injured, and Ame could be as well. That chimera wanted to take you guys – my only family – away from me, and I just couldn't take it… I was so determined to stop it." Then he grinned a bit. "I'm sorry if I scared you all… but I'm sure you've all seen and done a lot worse. I'll try not to be so violent next time."
Moka simply shook her head. Kurumu fondled with Kenta's dog ears, and said this: "Kenta, you did what was right. You can be as violent as you want next time… just make sure it's for the right reason."
"That's right," Tsukune agreed. "We're not upset at you or anything… In fact, I think this experience is good. We know each other a lot better now, and we all know what we are capable of – our strengths and weaknesses. This is a good thing."
Yukari nodded, giving Kent another hug. "You saved us today, Kenta! You're the hero of this level!"
Kenta, tired and dazed (and a little bit shaken, to tell the truth), smiled in satisfaction. His fluffy doggy tail wagged in pleasure before he slipped his dog tag back over his neck.
The seven friends had survived yet another level, and were now heading towards the next.
Author's Note:
Hey y'all!
So you might be a bit surprised at this new side of Kenta. But as this is an action manga/story/anime, what would one expect? It's not too surprising, I'm sure.
Just a little side info, though…
Kenta had to do a lot to survive on his own when his mother abandoned him before. Countless times, he had to steal food to sustain himself, find shelter in the woods, and fend off rogue monsters he met along the way. I myself think this chapter is quite important because it exhibits a new side of the character we've never seen before. Kenta is not all about puppy-dog-eyes or tail-wagging! xP
Anyhoo, no more complicated/lengthy explanations! Please anticipate the next chapter… I swear it is going to be very entertaining and exciting. The Sixth Level makes it to my top favorite tunnel chapters! ;)
- ACookieZ