Nerves bulged from its thighs to its calves as strength coursed through them. The horned beast's leg muscles expanded and contracted, twitching with power as it firmly planted its hooves on the ground. The gentle green glow emanating from its majestic horns began to grow dimmer and darker, turning into a more ominous shade. It began to scrape the ground with its hooves, signaling a wild charge.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A deafening explosion roared through the battlefield as the horned beast dashed forward with overwhelming force. The ground it stood on caved in, and bits of dirt and grass flew off the ground as the beast sped up. Its mad rush was reminiscent of a bull angered by the red-colored cloth of a matador as the horned beast primed its antlers to skewer its foe. A trail of dust lagged behind the beast as it approached the chimera.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The ground shook, and the air trembled with each stomp of the charging mighty horned beast. The chimera immediately knew that it would die if its manic charge successfully landed.

ShKkkkShK...Grrrrrrrr

The chimera quickly dashed to its right, barely escaping the mad rush of the horned beast. The beast's antlers effectively grazed the chimera's left side, leaving a huge gash. It snorted in dissatisfaction as its antlers didn't skewer the damned intruder. The beast began to slow down as it passed the chimera leaving its back vulnerable. Taking advantage of the opportunity that arose, the chimera discharged a dangerous amount of lightning towards the beast, threatening to electrocute it once more.

Grrhmmmmmmm

As if expecting the attack from the chimera, the horned beast raised a wall of dirt behind it, protecting its back from the coiling lightning. The beast quickly turned towards the chimera. Noticing imminent danger, the chimera flapped its wings and tried to escape into the air where it was safe from the beast, but it was too late. Vines that remained unnoticed under the piles of ashes lashed towards the chimera, effectively grabbing its legs and slamming it down to the ground with force.

The impact was enough to daze the chimera as it remained unmoving for a few seconds. The vines held it onto the ground tightly, its limbs and wings sprawled flat across the earth. The ground began trembling, and the chimera knew what this heralded.

It quickly burnt off the vines that leashed it to the ground by coursing lightning throughout its whole body. The ones holding its wings were the last to burn, but its efforts were for naught.

SHHHHHHHHHHHK. SHHHHHHHHHK. SKROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

The chimera cried in pain as multiple vicious spikes of varying sizes impaled its wings, effectively keeping it grounded. Bright blue blood gushed out of the holes in its wings as the spikes retracted back to the ground.

"Pitiful." growled the horned beast as it took a step towards the chimera, "I admit you are strong, but not stronger than I." It took another step forward, forcing the chimera to take a step back. Its visible mouth curved into a smirk as it noticed the chimera's movement.

The chimera began to laugh maniacally as it heard the words of the horned beast, "You? Stronger? Don't make me laugh!" Lightning began to fade from its body, giving the beast a sign that the chimera accepted its fate.

"I'll end this quickly." said the horned beast as its leg muscles flexed with power once more, heralding another charge. It poised its antlers towards the chimera before speaking, "Any last words?"

"YOU'RE A FOOL!" insulted the chimera as it kept laughing non-stop. Its eyes couldn't open due to it was enjoying itself too much. The horned beast looked at the chimera with pity. The chimera must have gone mad from its defeat.

The ground below the horned beast cracked under its monstrous strength as it dashed towards the chimera.

BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM KKKKKKKRKKKK

As quickly as its hooves were lifted off the ground, the horned beast suddenly fell forward with unnatural force, in front of it was its severed arm from the previous confrontation, "What?!" exclaimed the beast in confusion as its body was unable to get up, "This feeling of heaviness...Impossible!" shouted the horned beast.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA," laughed the chimera as it rested on the ground a few meters away from the horned beast, a subtle purple aura coated its body, "You've been so preoccupied with my lightning that you've forgotten my true elemental authority. How foolish you are!" insulted the chimera, slowly opening its eyes that were glowing a purple hue.

Tahk...tahk...tahk...

"Two times! You've thought you have won!" declared the chimera as it walked towards the horned beast. The sound of rustling followed its footsteps as it dragged its injured wings behind it, "Did you think that I released my coating of electricity because I'm surrendering?" shouted the chimera as it stopped two steps away from the horned beast.

The horned beast's eyes widened. It was tricked. "I didn't want to use this skill since this expends all my energy, but you've forced my hand." stated the chimera, slowly taking another step forward, enjoying the suspense it was giving to the horned beast.

"You know, this is the second time I've been forced to use this skill." said the chimera as it looked down on the ground, noticing the hand it severed from the beast from their previous clash. The corner of its lips curved a little seeing it.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR...

The horned beast groaned as it forced its body to move, but only its fingers were able to move. Its entire body felt like it was being crushed, and it was taking all its strength to resist it.

"It pains me to kill another candidate, but alas, it is what the system says." said the chimera sinisterly, lifting its right front talon and stepping onto the body of the horned beast, "I wonder who you were in your past life."

SKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKLLLLLLLLSHHHHHH

Its talons slowly dug through the horned beast's body, puncturing through skin and muscle, "I was quite the sadist in my past life." chuckled the chimera, as it lifted its other talon forward, slowly trailing it against the body of the horned beast, cleanly cutting its bark-like skin open, "Even, in this life. I still am." It smiled creepily, revealing the full extent of its two protruding fangs.

GWOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!

The beast roared in pain as the talons kept digging through its body. Every time the chimera would push its claws even deeper, the beast would flinch and growl in pain. It couldn't do anything. The beast wasn't able to move an inch.

"Speak, will you?" said the chimera in a sad tone, as it lifted its talon slowly and relocating it near the beast's right shoulder, "SPEAK. I SAID." snarled the chimera, digging its claws through the beast's shoulder.

HNGWOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!

The horned beast howled in agony, "That's more like it," disparaged the chimera, "More!" Its talons twisted and turned, rending the flesh of the horned beast causing it excruciating pain. The eyes of the beast went to the back of its skull as it fainted from the torture, "No, no, no, no...we're not done yet."

The chimera opened its mouth and dug its fangs through the back of the horned beast, seemingly absorbing the energy of the unconscious beast, "Such exquisite vitality..." complimented the chimera, slowly raising its other talon that was tracing through the beast's back. A tiny spark of electricity ran through the edges, its eyes widened a little. Surprised by how much energy it gained from such a quick feast.

It dug its other talon deep inside the open wound, causing electricity to shock the unconscious beast wide awake, "You're no fun." said the chimera disappointedly. The horned beast was intentionally keeping its mouth shut. The chimera let out a sigh, "You're different from the other candidates I have slain. Most of them were confused and scared, but you, you, there's not even an ounce of fear in your eyes. They're still burning with determination. What are you up to?" inferred the chimera. It shook its head. There's nothing that the beast can do in its current position.

The horned beast stayed silent, "Making me look like a fool, by not even answering back?" asked the chimera, "Is that your petty way to get a small victory over me? making me angry?" the chimera stared at the horned beast for a few moments, all that the chimera got was the dagger-like stares of the horned beast.

"Oh, well." shrugged the chimera, "While on earth, I kept souvenirs from my victims. Hmm...what shall I take from you?" pondered the chimera as its eyes wandered throughout the horned beast's body.

"Ah...this should do." its eyes stopped on the amber antlers of the horned beast, "You won't be needing this when you're dead." The chimera's talons slowly made their way to the beast's antlers and firmly grabbed it. It put forth strength in its arms, forcing the antler to break off, but it wouldn't budge.

"Tch." the chimera clicked its tongue, it raised its talons in the air and swung it in arc cleanly, cutting one of the antlers off of the horned beast, "I wanted to break it off, but this would do." sighed the chimera.

Thud.

The amber antler fell to the ground beside the severed arm in front of the horned beast. The chimera moved towards the antler and bent down to obtain it. As its talons approached to grab the antler, it began to glow a dark shade of green.

GWOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!!

The beast roared, causing the severed arm in front of it to suddenly spring to life as vines propelled it upwards, grabbing the chimera by the throat. The chimera's eyes widened from the surprise counterattack. Vines shot out of the stump of the severed arm and rooted themselves to the ground, effectively anchoring the chimera in place.

"What?!" exclaimed the chimera as vines crawled up from behind it wrapping themselves around its legs.

"You were too complacent." The beast finally spoke, "I hate people like you." As the horned beast finished its sentence, a spike slowly rose out of the ground just below the chimera's chest. A sense of crisis dawned upon the chimera as it sensed something sharp below it.

Only its left talon had lightning coursing through it and needed to be quick before the spike slowly impales it, "Damn you!" shouted the chimera as it struggled to escape from the grasp of the vines.

The spike inched ever so closer. Struggling wouldn't help, so it had to calm down. It quickly changed the direction of the lightning from its left talon to the vines that wrapped around its left arm so that they would burn off, but it was going to take a few seconds. The lightning it carried wasn't as intense like before.

Ssssssszzzzzzzzzz

The vines began to burn and turn to ash as the chimera's lightning began to do its job.

SKROAAAAAAAAAAAR!

The spike began to penetrate the chest of the chimera sending it through excruciating pain. It had no choice but to wait for the vines on its left arm to completely burn off. If it struggled now, the spike would only enter deeper.

The spike started to pierce muscle and was slowly making its way to the chimera's heart. It felt the spike slipping through its ribs and dangerously getting closer to its heart. In a desperate attempt to survive, it took a gamble. The chimera pulled its left arm, severing the already burnt vines off of it.

This pushed the spike even further, leaving only a few centimeters before it would puncture its heart. The chimera quickly swiped at the earth spike under it, successfully cutting it. It proceeded to cut the vines that held its neck, cautious that it might pull it down to the ground.

As the vines that anchored its neck to the ground were cut off, the remaining vines that bound its legs quickly withered and fell.

Thud. Tahk. Tahk. Tahk.

The spike that was embedded through the chimera's chest fell with a resounding thud drowning out the sound of small footsteps from nearby. Blue blood gushed out of the gaping hole in its chest, staining the grass below it with blood and ichor.

"You!" exasperated the chimera. Blood dripped from its lips as it spoke. The chimera was absolutely livid, raising its talons and bringing it down in a swinging motion aiming for the beast's nape, like an executioner dropping their axe on a criminal's neck sentencing them to death by beheading.