Chapter 347 - The Attack of the Chimeras

On another part of the Barren Dimension, where Portal 1 appeared deep within a jungle, 

Blood was raining down heavily as the smell of iron permeated the air. Two participants wearing the Nakamura Clan's uniforms huddled together as they kept their eyes locked on their target. Their bodies were rained with fresh blood, but they were unable to feel anything for it. 

Instead, their eyes were on the culprit standing in the middle of the decapitated bodies of their enemies. No, bodies were incorrect… They were basically strips of meat at this point. 

Even though they were enemies, the two Nakamura members could not help but feel sad for them, as well as fear for their own lives. 

"Do you have to go so far?!" Taka Nakamura hissed as he wiped the blood away from his face angrily. "They were children!"

"They are enemies…" Akuma Nakamura said in a cold voice. He lifted his head, upon which, his the hood of his blood-stained jacket fell back, revealing a pale-looking young man with black hair and narrow red eyes. Other than his eyes and the incisors that protruded out slightly, he was basically a split image of Taka Nakamura..

"Were enemies.." he added as he looked at the strip of human meat that fell on his shoulder. 

Picking the bloody strip of human meat, he smirked and roasted it with blue flames before putting it into his mouth. 

The other two Nakamura members gagged upon seeing it, but when they saw that Akuma Nakamura was looking at them, they immediately swallowed their vomit back. 

"Are you boys sick?" Akuma Nakamura asked with a cold smile. 

The boys immediately shook their heads. "N-No, Young… Young Master…" 

Akuma Nakamura sneered and walked in the direction of the nearest treasure. 

"We are not done, Akuma!" Taka Nakamura snapped as he reached his hand out to grab his brother's shoulder. 

However, before he could even touch Akuma, an invisible hand punched into his stomach, sending him flying towards a tree trunk.

"Cough! Cough!" Taka spat out blood as he struggled to breathe from the impact. 

Akuma Nakamura turned back and glared at his younger brother. "Taka, it's been a while since I taught you a lesson, right? Do you really want to be taught a lesson here? I don't mind teaching my dearest twin a lesson, but there won't be anyone to save you this time… And I really need you to be alive so that we can get more of the Portal Stabilizers."

Taka Nakamura wiped the blood off his mouth as he glared at his older brother, who had turned around and was already walking away. His hands shook as an image of 6-year-old Akuma Nakamura laughing like a mad person while being restrained by some of the strongest Nakamura elders, including their father, appeared on his mind. 

He closed his eyes as he willed away the nightmarish image, one that haunted him for years. Once he felt stronger, he got up and signaled the other two members to follow behind him. 

"He wouldn't kill you, but stay away from him just in case, and don't get in his way," he said to them in a low voice. Taka Nakamura was sure about that at least. Akuma Nakamura and their father dėsɨrėd the Portal Stabilizers. 

Similar things were happening at every other portal, some were worse while others were mild. Within the first hour, half of the teams were wiped out.

...

After walking for hours, Juin and the rest appeared in a small desolate town. Even after walking for 15 minutes, they couldn't find any sign of lifeform within the town. Instead, what they found was disturbing. 

Walls decorated with suspicious dried brown stains that Wolfe and Cyrus could smell from miles away, skeletons of what seemed like humanoid beings, and… a strong ammonia smell. 

"What's that smell?" Juin wondered out loud as he rubbed his nose. The smell was so strong that he found it hard to breathe. 

"Urine…" Wolfe and Cyrus replied in unison. 

'

"Someone marked this place as their territory… Or something, to be more exact," Wolfe said as he smelled the air. "No, wait… It's not just one, but a group of them… A pack maybe…" 

"Do you know if they are dangerous?" Juin asked. 

"Hard to tell," Cyrus said. 

"Something is weird with this place…" Caelian finally spoke up again after so long. 

"Definitely," Cyrus agreed. He looked around cautiously while keeping his senses on high alert. Suddenly, he moved in one direction so quickly that no one even noticed he was gone until they heard a yelp. 

When they turned to the sound, they saw Cyrus walking towards them with a tiny animal in his hand. 

The animal was biting his hand, but Cyrus ignored it since he could bȧrėly feel the bite. 

"I found a pup," Cyrus said as he held the little thing up for the rest to see. 

It was a peculiar species, with a lion's golden head and a small horn protruding out from the middle of its forehead, and a pair of eagle's wings on its back. 

"Have you seen this creature before?" Juin looked at Luca and Wolfe, who both shook his head. 

"But…" Luca frowned slightly. "This looks like a hybrid of sort…"

"A chimera," Caelian said as he reached out to pat the animal, but when his hand was near, the animal tried to bite it. Caelian pulled his hand back in time and glared at the pup, upon which it looked away guiltily. "It's probably a young of its species, but something is off about it."

Cyrus nodded. "It doesn't smell like an animal…" 

"Waaaahhh… Waaahhhh…" the pup suddenly started crying. 

A few seconds later, they could hear rumbling sounds heading towards them from all directions. They did not have any time to hide or run away, because something had grabbed onto their legs. 

When they looked down, they saw sharp claws grabbing onto their pants. 

"Beavers?" Juin looked on in confusion.

"No, they are chimeras!" Wolfe gulped, "And we are surrounded by them." 

Things weren't that much better on land as well, because they were surrounded by various ferocious chimeras. 

A lioness with wings on its back flew up and landed right in front of the boys, while an animal with a lion's head and two horns on the top of its head and the body of a furry dog jumped out from behind the group of chimeras and landed behind them. 

"Err… I think those two are its parents," Juin said as he looked around and nervously patted Cyrus' head. "I think it's better if you let it go."

Cyrus nodded and released the pup, who then ran towards its mother, flying halfway before tumbling down and rolling into a ball, stopping only at the leg of its mother. 

"Pfft…" Cyrus snickered. "It's such a clumsy animal…" 

As if it understood him, the lioness glared at Cyrus and growled. 

"What?" Cyrus taunted the lioness. "With its agility, it can't possibly survive for long. Why don't you just create another one?"

"ROAAAARRRRR!!!" the lion chimera behind them roared out loud as it thumped its paw on the ground threateningly. 

Of course, as a high and mighty pure-blooded mythical creature, Cyrus would have none of this. He took a deep breath and roared back mightily. 

"RRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!!" 

A powerful roar came out of his tiny body, startling all the chimeras and everyone else. Wolfe, however, was the only human who understood his roar. 

[Get lost!]