Chapter 328: 326: Grafted

Chapter 326: Grafted

"| Final Wave. Begin. |"

The fifth announcement rang and Rakna grunted noncommittally, Sonata slightly steaming in his hand as its inherent heat cleaned the blade. The pair of chimeras he had just defeated, clearly twins in origin, disappeared from the ground and left the place for a surge of light much larger in size.

He frowned deeply at the sensation of power. Once again, there was a dreadful sense of familiarity, but it was doubly so with this specific one.

"Kekekeke..." A rather infuriating cackle echoed in the room as the final chimera materialized. Its overall appearance was undoubtedly far less hazardous than the others. The limbs were grafted seamlessly and it had a consistent form.

The legs and body of a werewolf, the arms of a bear, and the head of a giant rat... wearing glasses in a weirdly scholarly manner. Nnêw n0vel chapters are published on n0v/e/(lb)i(n.)co/m

Rakna's eye twitched at the features. Not to mention that, somewhere deep inside, a small part of his newfound Pride was offended by the disgusting defilement inflicted upon the race he was the emperor of.

"Kekeke, a fresh prey..." The rat head rattled its teeth as it laughed. It stared at Rakna and its eyes noticeably lit up. A forked tongue came out of its mouth to lick its lips while it readjusted its glasses at the same time. "Yes, yes, yes... I'll defeat you, gain my freedom, and turn you into my woman!"

The disguised therian groaned silently. "Even experimental abominations like you think with their dicks in this Plateau... is it a virus?" He spat out. "Let me warn you, rat. If I see a 'sheath' come out, I'll chop it off first and feed it to you."

"Kekeke! Feisty, I see," the rodent chuckled maddeningly before blanching completely. "...I don't like that," it suddenly uttered with a sinister tone. Then, in the blink of an eye, cracks formed on the floor it stood on and its claw found itself on its way to hit Rakna.

'Fast--!' His eyes widened under his mask and he instinctively expended one mana point to trigger an improvised version of Flash Step, since his Star Flash was unavailable to him. The bear claw phased through his afterimage and he promptly counter-attacked.

This chimera was admittedly fast. At the very least, more than what he could do without shifting into his werewolf form. But there was simply no way for him not to be able to react to it.

With the combination of his instinct, senses, Crystal Sight, and Eye of Symphony, nothing at this level was fast enough to outpace his reaction time.

'Come back when you have a few hundred more attribute points in speed,' Rakna snarked internally as he channeled his Internal Energy for Ripple of Rupture. He dashed behind the large chimera and swung Sonata at the back of its neck.

However, to his surprise, before he could strike, a tail moved to hit him. It was an appendage that matched the body's head; a rat tail. Rakna grunted and used an insignificant amount of mana to step on thin air and pivot his body to dodge it.

Without wasting time, the chimera turned around to claw him while he was in midair. In response, Rakna swung his sword at the bear arm and nearly cut the hand off to deviate it. He then triggered Ripple of Rupture around his left hand and hit the chimera's body right in one of its Focal Points.

On impact, the dimensional bonds that linked the chimera's body together were destroyed and its lower torso suddenly had a large hole in it, opening as if it was a maw. The creature flew back from the shock and crashed against the wall.

Rakna landed on the ground afterward and for some reason, he was completely frozen as if he had seen something he couldn't believe. "This is..." He muttered out loud as he stared at the chimera slowly standing up.

"{What's wrong?}" Fray asked worriedly.

'...I used Crystal Sight to target his Focal Points,' Rakna replied solemnly as he straightened himself and watched the rat-headed creature hiss angrily, moving as if its injuries didn't exist. 'I saw more than I expected; I know this guy.'

"{What? You've met this chimera before?}"

'Not exactly...' Rakna replied without further explanation and the monster shouted angrily.

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Herts' chest quite literally imploded and he found himself lifted off the ground again. Ruthlessly, Rakna used Flash Step to appear above him, and with a leg cloaked by Rift Shuttle and ripples of ki, he kicked his neck and hooked him before slamming the chimera's body against the floor. The material splintered and cracked under the shock, spreading to the walls.

The masked therian calmly landed on his feet afterward, Herts letting out strangled noises as he tried to push his neck and spine back in place.

"It's enough; you will never defeat me," Rakna stated with finality. He walked around his downed opponent and unceremoniously booted the rat's neck back into place. A dreadful crunch echoed in the room and Herts cried out in pain.

"Aahh! You bitch!" He instantly roared, trying to stand back up, but to no avail. The attack that had torn his chest apart had been handed out by Sonata. Despite the dimensional damage diluting its effect, The Retaliator's curse stopped him from regenerating.

"How about you answer me this?" Unbothered, Rakna loomed over the former human and Herts shuddered. "How did you find yourself in Zero?"

The rat visibly tried to hold itself back from replying, but the gap between itself and its questioner was far too big. "I-I was... fooled... After the Tutorial... we were... not invited... by any of the official Guilds... Kratos... lured us to this Plateau...!"

"And turned you into one of these 'Grafted' you spoke of," Rakna nodded in understanding, he was about to ask something else when a beep resounded.

"| Competitor Ranka Valcroft, we advise you to mind your inquiries. |"

The therian smiled furtively as the woman warned him. "I see," he said out loud and crouched next to the chimera. He clenched the rat's skull as it thrashed about, effectively shutting its mouth.

"Well, then, I suppose I shouldn't test my luck. I'll simply kill you," Rakna said as he roused his soul power and passively created a telepathic link with his enemy. "{I admit I was a bit annoyed when I had to let you go back then.}"

The chimera's eyes dilated in confusion at that statement before it suddenly felt a gut-wrenching pain that was anything but physical.

Herts seemed to have evolved enough to stay sane and control the strange power allowing him to regenerate. But, in exchange for that, it appeared that he had regained a fully-functioning soul with said power being contained inside as one entity.

"{But luckily, you gave me a nice bit of info in return,}" Rakna added with a chuckle. "{Thank you and have fun in hell, teacher.}"

"YOU--!" The chimera widened its eyes in recognition right before its head was crushed along with the pitifully weak soul sustaining the creature's life.

"| Final Wave. Cleared. |"

Rakna stood up quietly as Herts' corpse was quickly repatriated.

'Kratos abducts estranged Hosts after their Tutorial,' he thought sourly as an exit opened for him.

"{And turns them into... this,}" Fray continued for him. "{I have never seen this before. They don't feel like normal chimeras, undead, golems, or even homunculi. It's as if their body is randomly put together for some purpose... and then converted into a completely different kind of existence.}"

'I have a conjecture,' Rakna narrowed his eyes, their color flickering. 'And I fucking hope I'm wrong.'

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Bruh, I keep forgetting to schedule chapters after spending so much time without posting anything.

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