What were Chimeras in the world of [The Revenge of a Professional]?
They were aberrations of nature, that's what they were. Artificial monsters with different body parts of various animal or even humanoid species, created by the Witchcraft of the ironically called “Nature Witches”.
These Witches took the natural negative energy of the Earth for themselves and used it through spells to manipulate organic and inorganic matter. It was basically an evil art inspired by the mystical science of a certain anime that told the story of two alchemist brothers...
In any case, these witches were quite dangerous with their abilities, and together with the Witches who were experts in Necromancy (The Witchcraft of the Soul) they have such infamy that most professionals prefer to avoid them. Not because they are difficult to kill, not at all...But the abilities of a Nature Warlock themselves are quite unpleasant.
After all, if you look at a huge three-meter saber-toothed tiger with multiple eyes and mouths all over its body; Full of sharp teeth and tongues even longer than snakes, you might get an idea of how nasty they are when creating such things.
Most likely, magical beasts that were not turned into undead served as material in its creation.
A large number of aberrations like that, at least a few hundred Chimeras, fiercely headed towards the soldiers of Monte Cartus under the orders of their unholy creators.
Those things passed through as if it were nothing a huge gray fog with red hues, which was being generated by the Demonic Warlocks whose silhouettes can be faintly captured through the fog, and blocked both the path they came from and the to follow Monge Cartus.
Dat die sluise van die afgrond sal oopgaan, en die mis van pyn en angs sy bose teken sal bring vir die ongelukkiges wat dit waag om 'n voet daarin te sit….
The eerie and disturbing incantations of the Demonic Warlocks echoed faintly across the cliffs, sending shivers down the soldiers' spines.
None of the 5 high-ranking professionals present had any idea how the Demon Warlocks dared to create such a huge Barrier on the cliffs at an absurd cost of power, but regardless of the reason, it was dangerous to try to pass through there, since the result obviously wouldn't be pretty.
“Astrian!”
Seeing that the situation was too serious, Ershas showed a conflicted expression for a few seconds before taking out something from his space bracelet while calling out to his nephew. The Duke frowned in his direction, and watched as Ershas hurriedly handed him several purple potions in a bag.
…..With an unpleasant expression of pain, at that.
"What are these?" Astrian questioned him while he felt absurd inside.
“They are potions that accelerate the recovery of spiritual power that Lucelle gave me, and they are all I have! I don't remember the name (since I focused more on their effects), but they are super effective!”
"What…..? Was there something like that?” Astrian exclaimed in amazement, not expecting that his wife's self-proclaimed sister could even do something like that. He knew that she was a genius in alchemy, but he would never have dreamed that a rural Alchemist could create such a potion.
However, upon realizing something, the shocked expression on his face turned into anger and he shouted furiously.
“If you had something like that, you should have given them to me from the beginning!”
It was natural for Astrian to get angry. This bastard uncle of his watched as he struggled to recover his spiritual power with meditation and did not give him a single one of these revolutionary potions in all this time.
“Don't sweat the small stuff!”
“...” Astrian silently looked at the shameless man who simply did what he did to hoard things, but immediately decided to ignore him for the sake of his recovery.
Later he'll be able to kill him anyway... A chill ran through Ershas' body for some 'mysterious' reason as Astrian got into the van with an emotionless face.
Alica and Selena looked at the two with some curiosity, briefly wondering what their relationship was while their eyes shone when they saw Astrian.
The guy was surprisingly handsome, more than Alica expected, with his golden eyes tempting both her and Selena to make a move even though he has a wife, but they both controlled themselves and banished those immoral thoughts due to the situation, concentrating and preparing to help in battle.
At this moment, the soldiers under the direction of Kaiter fired their cannons at the chimeras, tearing their bodies into pieces while the Elder himself stayed there to protect the valuable military trucks and the equipment they contained.
However, the abominable creatures created with Witchcraft had a great regenerative capacity. Even if you destroy an arm or even half of their skull, they would still march forward ferociously as their bodies visibly rebuild.
Only by destroying their Witchcraft Cores could they be permanently killed.
The Warlocks on the cliffs, for their part, conjure up dark flames to attack the vehicles, which could barely withstand such sorcery despite the reinforcement of durability enchantments. Kaiter, of course, did not allow any of those supernatural flames or even Chimera to touch his precious technology that cost thousands of gold to build.
He looked quite desperate, with bloodshot eyes. His dignity was lost centuries ago, if he had it in the first place….
Seeing the situation, Ershas gathered the Qi from the surroundings outside the barrier using his powerful spiritual power, and created hundreds of compressed energy spheres; throwing them at the demonic witches who maintained the barrier with great precision.
Eh?
However, their efforts to exterminate them were quickly thwarted, as surprisingly, the blue Qi balls scattered helplessly.
....These bastards have an artifact that interferes with Qi energy constructs...No wonder my spiritual power could penetrate the barrier so easily
Ershas frowned.
Artifacts capable of interfering with Qi were almost as rare as those that could interfere with psychic powers. That the Warlocks had such an artifact not only means that they had more powerful support than expected, but they also seemed to have expected a martial artist like him to get involved in these matters from the beginning.
Perhaps, there really was a spy on Monte Cartus who left information to the Witches.
The question here was...why didn't they use it in the battle they had with the undead?
Because right now? Could it be that they just want to delay them?
Even as he asked himself these questions, Ershas moved between the cliffs at an inhuman speed, with a mythical footwork that allowed him to move from one point to another almost as if he were teleporting.
There was something that Ershas was proud of, and it was the fact that unlike many martial artists, he not only had an inhumanly powerful physical body, but he also did not stupidly use his Qi to disguise the shortcomings of his martial arts.
He mastered them without needing to use Qi to strengthen them...which in combination with his inhuman physique, allowed him to display terrifying power while conserving his Qi reserves.
Ershas appeared out of nowhere in front of a Chimera with a human face and a bull's body, launching a clap that seemed simple at a glance...but caused an explosion in the air, as if he had fired an air cannon with his own hands. hands.
The horrifying creature's body was torn to pieces, its core destroyed.
Ershas did not stop there, but quickly moved from one place to another, tearing several Chimeras to pieces. In the midst of that, he dodged with absurd ease the enemy's attacks as well as friendly fire.
Θεά Αφροδίτη, σε παρακαλώ δώσε μου τη δύναμή σου να εξαγνίσω το κακό που ο δηγεί αυτά τα άσχημα και αηδιαστικά πλάσματα!
Alica prayed to the goddess Aphrodite with a serious expression on her beautiful face, causing a purple light to emanate from her body. The holy power emanating from her divine spark surged out of her body in waves and took the form of an aura.
The “aura” made of holy power gathered in her arms, which were now outstretched, and then gathered in front of Alica, taking the form of a ball of pink chaotic energy.
“Hey!” With a cute cry expressing Alica's will, her 'Cosmic Divine Energy Cannon' fired towards a large group of Chimeras.
It was quite an impressive sight.
Naturally, Aphrodite's sacred power should not have any destructive power on the physical level. However, the Chimeras were beings of negative energy...and the power of the Goddess of Love was one of their nemeses.
The result of such a clash was obvious.
By the time they were hit by the 'Laser Beam of Love', there was only a dazzling light. There was no explosion or destruction in the surroundings, not even the bodies of the Chimeras were damaged...but they fell to the ground, completely without life in them. Evidently, the concentrated holy power devastated their cores made of negative energy.
It didn't end with that; The residual holy power from the attack transformed into feathers that spread across the battlefield, landing on both soldiers and Chimeras alike.
Of course, the former were healed of their wounds and regained their vigor, while the latter suffered from pain and were weakened, screaming in anger.
This divine spell, quite similar to a Saiya-in's attack, clearly cost a lot of sacred power. Alica staggered a little dizzily at the cost of her power, and pulled out of her space bracelet a potion just like the ones Ershas gave to Astrian.
Both Selena and Alica received these Spirituelle Heilung potions, in a larger quantity than Ershas. If it weren't for the fact that they don't really recover the lost physical energy, both of them wouldn't have collapsed from exhaustion just by taking these potions.
As for Selena herself, she used her Divine Magic primarily to bless the soldiers' weapons, giving them sacred properties with which to more effectively harm the Chimeras.
Everyone was doing their best to resist. But not knowing the number of Chimeras in the enemy's hands and how long they can maintain that barrier did not help the soldier's morale much.
Especially since the Chimeras were not only Semi-immortals, but were also under the control of witches; avoiding the attacks against them as much as they could to last longer.
If it weren't for the deadly barrier that limited them in that area, Ershas could just go and kill them all quickly. As it was, they could only trust Astrian once he recovered enough to finish them all off in one fell swoop.
Strangely, the Chimeras did not seem to want to attack the Elder's military truck where the Duke and the Clerics were. Furthermore, they didn't seem to put much effort into killing and destroying.
It seemed true that they were just holding them back, for some reason. But Ershas didn't want to bet on that assumption, as they might be planning something insidious. He had to be prepared in case they really attack hard towards them.
"That being the case...I have no choice but to use Ancient Magic if I want to buy time for Atlas..." The martial artist whispered with a frown.
Ancient Magic.
It is a form of Magic in which you could use practically any natural energy or materials to create magical phenomena, thanks to its unique thaumaturgic system.
There were many styles of Ancient Magic in human history, but most were lost. Today, only the Taoists use that form of Magic in their own style, the Taoist Arts.
––With Ershas as an exception, who received teachings in Taoist Arts thanks to his grandfather.
Still, it wasn't something he was specialized with, as they didn't have much combat power, nor was he a Taoist, so he lacked the professional skills to raise their effectiveness. He also could not manipulate the natural energies of the world, but he could not complain about the means available to him.
Above all, he knew a good ancient spell to use...Though the Qi cost for this one will be especially daunting, especially since he hasn't fully recovered yet.
It's good that Taoist Arts also have power against evil....Although they lose against divine magic
With a sigh, Ershas put his hands together and made the emblematic symbol of Taoism, Taijitu, with the fingers of his hands moving unnaturally; while he whispered incomprehensible songs.
Slowly, a strange and mysterious atmosphere enveloped the surroundings of the cliffs, while violet Qi emanated from Ershas' body like incense smoke.
Gradually this mystical smoke spread to the limit imposed by the barrier created by the Warlocks, and then...
"W-what!?"
One of the Warlocks shouted in shock, as he felt that his connection with the Chimeras was being severed. Not only that, the barrier that her subordinates were maintaining was visibly weakening, becoming thinner, and they had no choice but to put in more negative energy to feed it.
The bald and skeletal-looking witcher was the leader of this small group of demonic and natural witches to be the strongest of them all.
They originally had no intention of messing with Madarhem further after confirming that Monte Cartus was indeed “destroyed” as agreed, but the demon with whom the Demon Warlocks made a contract ordered them to stop the caravan of military trucks for at least least an hour, and even granted them a demonic artifact to achieve it, the [Staff of Eternal Evil].
That was the twisted black wooden staff with a crimson bead that shone with an eerie light as a Demon Warlock had it supported tightly with his hands on the ground.
If it weren't for this demonic artifact given by the elder demon, Mephistopheles, they would not be able to hold the barrier the way they were doing until now.
Still, it was only a matter of time before even such a demonic artifact could no longer hold out, all because of a failure in information gathering.
In fact, the reason he didn't attack the Monte Cartus soldiers with flying Chimeras is because apparently the demon Mephistopheles was very specific in only holding them back. Otherwise, casualties might have occurred among the soldiers long ago, as usually the witchers were not kind enough to let them live without tearing them to pieces.
The Warlock leader gritted his teeth as he thought that.
“Why did we come to find out now that that bastard could use Ancient Magic!? Those stupid Taoists are supposed to keep the secrets of their Ancient Magic to themselves! Why the hell didn't we have such crucial information!?” He shouted at the other Warlocks in a somewhat unhinged tone, causing them to flinch as they struggled to maintain the barrier.
All Witches were cruel and generally apathetic, there was no doubt about that. But they, who foresaw that their fellow Witches would be punished for such a mistake, could not help but pray in their hearts for the tragic fate that awaited them.
After all…. This weak-looking Warlock is the creator of most of the Chimeras, and was the cruelest of them all.
That terrifying leader decided to horribly punish the foolish spies who failed to gather this important information, not particularly caring that it was not their fault that Ershas hid his ability to use Ancient Magic. He even began to imagine what cruel experiments he would do on each of them for his mistake with a distorted smile.
Meanwhile, the Chimeras that lost control of their masters began to disorganize. Since they no longer received orders, they moved erratically and wildly, guided by their terrible animal instincts. Because of that, it became a little easier for the soldiers to deal with them.
However, this could not last forever.
Shit.....my Qi is near the bottom!
Ershas gritted his teeth, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead as veins stood out all over his body.
He was losing a lot of Qi simply to keep this ancient spell going, and the worst part was that the mere pressure on his meridians from releasing so much of his internal Qi was negatively affecting his body as time went by.
He could feel his heart beating faster than normal, and blood seemed to boil as it ran rampant through his veins.
The increase in temperature was visible by his skin turning red, and a faint white smoke like steam from a teapot seemed to mix a little with the "purple smoke" emanating from him.
If they were a true Taoist specialized in Ancient Magic, they would not have such a problem because they could use their spells with other natural energies with ease thanks to their training. But unfortunately, Ershas had no such formal training, he could only use Qi as material.
The only reason the damage is not actually intolerable to him is because I train his physical body to the limit of what is humanly possible.
I still have a long way to go....Ershas lamented.
....The fact that he excels in martial arts, despite focusing on improving his physique so much, would make him a victim of hatred from all martial artists, let alone knowing Ancient Magic.
Let this bastard continue to have a long way to go....How shameless can he be?
