I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Chimera

"There are still people fighting! Come on!" The leading mercenary led the charge towards the stone wall where they all moved to the right side of it where part of the ancient structure had collapsed. And while Ergen wasn't to enthusiastic about fighting another poisonous creature after his encounter with the giant insects in the Land of Legends, he figured that defeating the chimera would have little purpose if there were no mercenaries to retrieve anything from the dungeon afterwards. And so, Ergen ungracefully barged right through the wall instead of going around it, revealing what appeared to have once been a battlefield.

Now standing in a large circular area just outside of the massive stone dragon's mouth, hundreds of mercenaries must have fallen here as even those that were still alive were struggling to step over their fallen comrades. And as Ergen finally watched them struggling, his eyes finally rested on his opponent which laid in the center of the bodies. It seemed to be covered in some kind of black exoskeleton like a scorpion would be, though instead of having pincers and a single stinger tail, it's sides were completely covered with what seemed like hundreds of poisonous looking stingers which must have been the cause of so many deaths. The creature had at least twelve spider legs on each side of it's body with two long and almost human-like arms stretching out in front of it. However, instead of being concerned over his future opponent, Ergen was shocked to see that the creature had already died and that a familiar figure was panting from exhaustion while standing over it's corpse.

"Wait... is that-?" Rae asked quietly before flying off of Ergen's snout and towards the woman, who was clutching her arm. "Let me look at your injuries!"

"I think I've been poisoned." The woman said as she fell to her knees, dropping her blood covered sword to the ground in the process. Her right arm was already turning the same color that the mercenaries from before had been, though as Ergen watched, the spreading discoloration was thankfully reversed as Rae used her magic to heal the commander. And while the area had seemed clear at first, a vicious snarl echoed throughout the surroundings, and Ergen looked up to see that there was another chimera poised on top of one of the stone pillars above them.

Double the size of any horse that Ergen had ever seen, he watched as the second chimera jumped down from the pillar while heading for Rae and commander, apparently eager to avenge it's fallen friend. And while he didn't know if it didn't notice him or just didn't care, Ergen didn't let the creature get it's chance for revenge as he shot forward and trapped the chimera in his jaws, feeling his teeth pierce through it's exoskeleton as it shrieked and struggled to get free. It's many stingers struck at Ergen's head multiple times, though the points couldn't penetrate his scales. And when it discovered that it's attempts to defend itself were ineffective, the chimera started aiming for his eyes until Ergen finally had enough and started shaking his head to try and do even more damage. Gaining momentum, Ergen released the chimera in mid-swing, letting the creature fly out of his grasp before it slammed into a nearby rock pillar.

With the rock pillar shattering from the impact, the chimera let out a loud groan as it fell along with the rocks. And is it struggled to rise, Ergen blasted the creature with a stream of frost, making it cry out again in pain before it surprisingly ran through the breath, apparently unaffected by the freezing effect. Getting close enough, it jumped onto Ergen's head and once more attempted to sting his eyes, though it was to late as Ergen managed to defend himself. Thankfully he'd managed to close his eyes and used what little magic he knew to create a layer of ice around his head to protect himself, though Ergen didn't know how long it would take for the chimera to break through the barrier and therefore charged forwards in the direction of the giant stone dragon head. The chimera shrieked again after managing to finally make it through the ice, though it didn't manage to actually sting his eyes before Ergen's neck buckled and the chimera went silent as the two slammed into a solid surface of rock.

Feeling the chimera be crushed between his head and the rock, Ergen shook his head and made sure to be rid of the chimera's weight before he was able to open his eyes and find the chimera twitching beneath him. It seemed to be dead, but Ergen wasn't going to take any chances as he hit it with both of his front feet, sinking his claws into the already open wounds that it had before he ripped the exoskeleton apart and finished it by freezing the inside of the creature with his frost breath. And while the outside of the creature seemed to be resistant to freezing, the inside didn't seem to be the same as it quickly froze and Ergen was sure that he'd defeated it this time.

"It's all fun and games until you cause the dungeon to collapse." Ergen heard Rae scold in his ear before the fairy flew all around his head, most likely looking for anywhere that the chimera might have managed to inject him with it's poison. And despite the constantly moving flying light that was examining his head, Ergen turned around to look at the human that had managed to kill the other chimera and sighed internally. He didn't know what kind of fate that they had together, but he and the human commander seemed to be connected in some way as this was the third time that he'd encountered her in this vast world.

"Ah! You're the commander lady!" Rae suddenly shouted, seeming to only now recognize the woman.

"Not anymore I'm not." She sighed in reply before turning a glare to Ergen. "Because of you, I've chalked up so many failures that King Emric banished me from Ligan."

'You blame me for getting banished when you've been trying to kill me all of this time?!' Ergen shouted in his mind before he quickly scratched his thoughts on the nearby wall.

"You... can write?" The commander asked in a confused tone, and Ergen angrily snorted at her before the other mercenaries finally caught up with them after having spent so long in reaching her.

"D-did you kill that thing by yourself?!" The mercenary that had spoken before asked in shock as he approached the chimera that had been dead when they had arrived.

"The other's killed it and I merely struck the finishing blow." The commander explained.

"That's still quite the feat!" The mercenaries all gathered around her and congratulated her before Rae finished her inspection of Ergen and headed back over towards the woman to finish healing her. And Ergen waited patiently for her to finish so that they could leave before Rae completed her task.

"Alright, well, our jobs done here so good luck with the dungeon guys!" Rae called out as she flew over towards Ergen, however she was stopped as the ex-commander suddenly reached out and grabbed hold of her legs in order to stop her. "Hey! Let go!"

"These two chimera may not be the only ones in the dungeon." The ex-commander spoke, and Ergen rolled his eyes at her as he could see where her line of reasoning was leading.

"What do you mean?" Rae asked clueless.

"I mean that there may be a nest of these creatures inside." The ex-commander explained. "And seeing as you're here, you may as well help us clear the dungeon of any monsters. Your orders were to help us with any chimera, weren't they?"