The chimera slunk forward, careful not to attract the attention of the intruders. She suppressed a wave of annoyance at the thought, the intruders should be hiding in fear of her, not the other way around. However, days of death and rebirth had taught her well that these humans were a lot stronger than her, for now at least. They were still prey though, even if they were strong, they foolishly turned their backs to her oblivious of the danger. They were lazy and certain of victory against the other invader. That particular point had confused her slightly when the creator had instructed her to attack when the invaders fought each other. Why would two groups of the same species fight each other? They were both invaders; it wasn't like either of them had the excuse of being crafted by the creator.

Her mandibles closed on the back of a human neck with the quiet sound of chitin sliding through flesh. The chimera was just congratulating herself on a completing silent takedown when the human screamed in agony. She chittered in annoyance and bit down with all of her strength, it took more effort than was normally necessary, but the human eventually stopped thrashing. She greedily drank in the nectar of power, she could feel herself growing closer to the third step and a greater version of herself. However, she could also feel a very familiar limit growing closer the stronger she grew. The chimera would not be able to evolve again, but this barrier felt different than before. She couldn’t quite tell how, it was not close enough to fully sense, but it seemed less solid yet more impenetrable than the original limit she had overcome.

Shaking her head, the chimer shrank back into the forest dodging out of range of a spear thrust. Thinking too much hurt her head, ideas filtered down from the creator were sometimes helpful but most of the time they were just too much for her to fully understand. The humans stamped and yelled but seemed unwilling to move away from the exit to her room. Idiot humans leaving the door propped open for their enemy to attack through. To be fair the chimera didn’t want to tangle with that one either, it’s the plants around it that acted like its claws and teeth and she wasn’t sure how to kill a plant, not yet at least.

She leaped out from a different direction, drawing on the formidable strength of her back legs. Warmblood flowed down her mandibles as another human had its skull caved in, this was really much too easy. In retrospect, the chimera would chide herself for her arrogance, but the damage was already done. Even as the human’s lifeless body thumped to the floor a crescent of polished steel whooshed through the air.

With a weird plink, the chimera felt her head go bouncing away from her body. Above her stood a human wielding a battle-ax in its paws, she clicker her mandibles defiantly one last time even as she began to fade into sleep. She would get all the stupid humans, next time at least.

Kira grinned as the guard surrounding Gary dwindled to almost nothing, the dungeon was even kind enough to take out two of them as well. Pity they missed Gary himself, if that had happened then all their problems would be solved and she wouldn’t be executed for killing a noble, probably at least. She frowned at that casual laying open the throat of another soldier, maybe it was for the best that the idiot noble was still alive. She might still be held responsible if she was so close and didn’t stop a tier two boss from ripping his head off, but only if his family insisted on blaming her, and they definitely would.

She winced as she stepped forward, the wound in her side making itself known once more. She reminded herself again that it wouldn’t kill her, but still having a hole in your side wasn’t the most comfortable either. As she made her way forward her plants grew along the ground towards where Gary and his two remaining guards were standing. The first guard was practically wetting himself and shaking like a leaf in a storm, but the other one, who had killed the chimera, simply looked bored.

“Sir, we should surrender, we can’t beat that, even Felix got killed.” Kira was frankly surprised that the scared soldier had the nerve to speak up. Especially given his commander was known as a rather impulsive and arrogant noble prone to lashing out at perceived insults.

“Are you questioning me you commoner trash?” Gary practically screamed in anger, Kira sighed it was like a bad drama that she was forced to watch. At least it gave her time to surround them with her plants. The irate noble promptly tore his sword out of its sheath and gutted the trembling soldier in the back. Kira winced in sympathy and the soldier starred in incredulity at the wound in his stomach before collapsing. The only mercy she could grant was a swift death, she was no healer, and besides, she wasn’t a fan of taking it easy on people who were actively trying to kill her.

“Kill her now.” Gary was yelling at the last soldier he had left who was standing a little ways away from his boss. Probably a good idea considering the bloody sword still in his grip. “I’m paying you, damn it. Now go kill her then find the Storm brat and kill him too.” Kira had to hold in a snort at that, kill her sure, not likely.

“You paid me to handle securing a town, and maybe kill some low-tier brats, that’s the plant witch over there. I want a raise, double my price and then we’ll see, or I can just let her have you.” Kira hated that nickname, seriously who thought that calling her a witch was a good idea? She was a plant mage for goodness sake, not a witch, that wasn’t even a class option.

Gary spluttered and threatened, she could practically see steam coming out of his ears. As he looked around at his increasingly precarious situation he came to a rather swift decision. “Fine,” he ground out teeth clenched in anger. “But you had better be worth it, if the Storm still lives when all is said and done then you get nothing.”

The mercenary nodded agreeably as he stepped forward, splitting her vines with a swing of his ax. “Sure, fair enough, in any case, time to die now girly, I have a payday to collect on."

Now it was Kira’s turn to splutter in outrage, she didn’t let it stop her spells as the thorns began to grow around her, thickening and multiplying like crazy. Seriously, she might still be in her twenties and sure that might be young for her tier, but that did not make her a ‘girly.’ She was just going to kill this old bag of bones before, but now he was going to hurt first. “If you’ve heard of me, shouldn't you be a little more concerned? You seem awfully confident in your victory.”

The overly large man shrugged and scratched his slightly graying beard. “Sure I heard about you, the little girl you invented a new magic or whatever. Heard you got to tier four when you were only twenty-four. But the rumors also go that you haven’t been seen near any of the major dungeons in years. So here’s what I think, you probably pretty smart inventing magic, apparently that’s kinda hard, I wouldn’t really know, but I also think you’re just some rich brat that used mommy and daddy’s money to get herself power leveled to where you’re at.”

Kira snorted at the advancing mercenary as the power built in her plants. “I guess you’ll just have to come and find out the hard way now won’t you?” She was no delicate flower that needed others to fight her battles. She had good reasons for spending so much time and tier four and just about figured out her next step, she just needed Silas to confirm she was right. She needed to keep her head in the game though or she was liable to lose it. This one seemed like he had actually put effort into utilizing his chi class, unlike the other soldiers who had been so pathetic for tier threes.

Vines lashed out, thorns extended and thirsting for blood, her enemy snorted in amusement and ignored her attack. Mistake, the thorns opened up thin but long scratches along the man’s arms that began to weep crimson tears. He scowled and lashed out with his ax again, but this time he only succeeded in partially cutting one of her vines. Unlike before these plants were meant for actual tier four combat, and not the bare-bones creations meant to mop up weaker tiers.

She winced slightly as she favored her injured side then gritted her teeth and pressed on thorny vines lashing out again. This time the mercenary was justifiable more cautious and instead of just ignoring the attack he swiped out with his ax. This time though the blade sheared through the ends of her plants with ease and Kira cursed to herself. She had been hoping that he would just be unable to cut her plants resulting in a swift victory for her, it seemed like he had just been playing around before.

As the mercenary came closer and closer, it brought more and more of her plants into range. Unlike a typical mage of her tier, she wasn’t that much of a long-range combatant, her plants got more dangerous the closer someone got to her. Which was a bit different from most mages who could only use their most powerful spells at a distance or risk including themselves in the area of attack.

The thorny vines snapped out like whips leaving shallow but numerous wounds, the damage was accumulating but the mercenary still wasn’t stopping. He did however look a good bit more serious as he tried to cut away as many plants as he could. Kira decided it was time to bring her roots into play, and stabbed one of them upward and right into the enemy’s boot. That earned her a roar of pain and a few dozen curses and the now limping mercenary tried to get within striking distance.

She grinned, this was how mages were supposed to fight against enemies they could see and fully tear to shreds. Not against skulking shadows that struck from hiding like cowards, her side twinged again and she gritted her teeth. It would heal quickly, probably a day or two at most, but it was still annoying that she had let a tier-three get one over on her. Maybe she was slacking in her awareness training, an ax blade whistled by her nose and she flinched back in shock.

Yep, she was definitely slacking, but then again what kind of idiot threw their weapon away when they needed it. She returned her attention to the now crawling mercenary who wasn’t even attacking anymore and was just trying to get away. Kira heaved a deep sigh, all of that talk and he could even get close enough to attack properly. She shrugged and decided to put him out of his misery. Dozens of roots burst from the ground impaling the mercenary and killing him almost instantly. Kira nodded in satisfaction and speared the man one more time through the head, after all, chi users were rather tough on the whole. It would ruin her day to be on the receiving end of some sort of desperate last second attack.

A sweating Gary was looking from her to the now cooling corpse on the ground as he gasped like a fish, and slowly backed away. Kira smiled sweetly as a root lunged out of the ground and wrapped securely around the annoying noble’s ankles. His screams of terror and anger were incredibly satisfying after all the annoyance he had put her through. If she had known his group was this weak they could have just taken the town back over and waited for Silas to get back. Branches and roots wrapped themselves around the struggling noble's mouth abruptly cutting off his threats and curses. “Well now, time to head back. Hopefully, those two boys made it back fine.” Picking up a vine like it was a handle she began to drag the trussed up noble across the ground as she made her way slowly back through the dungeon.