The Heroes’ Reincarnation

Wrock threw a punch forward imbued with Spirit. The Chimera lifted its scythe-like arm to block the blow, but made a cry of surprise when its arm was knocked back. Having created an opening Wrock slide closer in and delivered another Spirit imbued blow to the Chimera's head. Unlike the Mutated Chimera, this one did not explode after being hit.

It slid back and mumbled, "O-Ow?"

"Felt that one?"

Wrock dashed forward, with both fists imbued with Spirit he punched forward. The Chimera watched as the fist approached, as if in slow motion. As he was a hair away from landing his blow the Chimera turned into a blur.

The sound of wind rushing filled the ears of Wrock. His Azure flame whisked out as he missed his strike. For a moment, he was unsure of what he was sensing. It almost seemed like the Chimera's scythe arm was lingering at his neck.

No, rather it was. It did not attack him, it didn't even touch him. Just like his own attack it remained a hair away. A sickening clicking sound came from the Chimera, "Slow?"

'Was I. . . just toyed with?'

Wrock looked over to the Chimera, who's head was tilting at him. As if what it said wasn't a taunt, but a genuine question. Pulling away its scythe arms the Chimera took back a few steps, "Not threat?"

Inhaling a sharp breath Wrock corrected, "Don't assume."

Spirit swirled and plastered onto his face, a glow began to appear through the seams of his gi. A familiar pattern which has been seen before! The glow, the power, the might of {Arising of the Phoenix}!

Wrock moved so quickly it seemed like someone messed up a few frames in a video. From having his back towards the Chimera he was now facing it head on! His fist remained a hair away from the Chimera's face. A playful grin spread across Wrock's face as he pulled back his fist. In a smooth motion he rotated around the Chimera and sent it flying upwards with an uppercut. The speed at which it occurred was near impossible for any current Player to witness! Yet as soon as Wrock's fist made contact his body vibrated and left and afterimage. With a kick following the path of a circle it connected with the Chimera and sent it back down almost immediately as it went up.

{Spirit of the Phoenix: Wheel of Reincarnation}!

Slamming into the ground the Chimera made a strange noise of pain. Yet Wrock did not give it a moment to recover. Appearing behind him was a massive Azure Phoenix. Following his movements it outstretched its talons at Wrock's foot. Descending with an incredible power Wrock crushed the Chimera!

{Spirit of the Phoenix: Descent Upon Prey}!

Yet the appearance of this Phoenix shed light on a greater situation. The walls which were previously shrouded in darkness have been revealed. They traveled far higher than originally thought. In this moment Wrock caught eye of several pustules that have yet to open, despite the Party moving forward.

"Might as well then!"

Wrock moved at an incredible speed! A streak of Azure light began to pass through each of the Pustules as he moved faster through each one. Embers of Azure began to drop in his path, making it seem as if an inferno wiped through the place!

{Spirit of the Phoenix: Samsara}!

A few seconds passed and Wrock crashed through hundreds of pustules. Their blood flowed down the wall and pooled to a certain spot. The location of the Perfected Chimera. It absorbed their blood and stood back up, wounds recovering almost instantly. Twisting its head it cracked, "Threat. . ."

A red energy arced across its body, a sure sign of the thick Heretic energy that it held! Its eyes locked onto Wrock's accelerating figure, not losing track for even a moment. With its course voice it spoke:

"Remove. . . threat."

~ ~ ~

Gear coughed violently, "Just who is that guy?"

"Dot, number one player killer. Guy made a fuss against the various Guilds, seems he hasn't changed much."

Jarvis dusted off his knees, "Ignore him for now, that guy has no reason to cause any harm. And if he does. . . we can't stop him anyway."

"What's a guy like that doing out here? How'd he even get here?"

Jarvis frowned, "A question we shouldn't ponder. It seems what Wrock warned us about is approaching. How much can you fight?"

"If it's low ranked Chimera I can hold my own."

"It'll be good enough, the Sages will guard each of the cardinal directions, so we shall fill in the gaps."

"Will they last? Didn't you say the Heresy was messing with their command or something?"

"Should be enough, let's move though."

The two jumped to the top of the wall and peered down its edge. Everything was too quiet. There was no action, no swarm of Chimeras, nothing. An unnerving silence.

Jarvis shook his head, "Something's not right. There should be-"

Whoom-!

A thick wave of Heresy slammed into them. Struggling to keep their footing their attention was called towards the source. Once the creature came into sight several System Notifications appeared.

<>

"Jarvis! You must flee! This isn't something you should face!", Whitelash snarled while bolting past him.

The Perfected Chimera pointed forward and a rush of Chimeras leapt from the shadows. Whitelash was the first to greet them. His claws shredding through them like paper. Extreok suddenly appeared from above, a thick thundering lightning bolt slamming into a group of Chimeras.

"Extreok? But you're supposed-"

Extreok interrupted, "This thing is far more of a threat than anything else here! We're going to need everything to beat it!"

Earthen spikes shot up and impaled several Chimera, then plant vines wrapped around and pinned them to the spikes. Guarton and Neorvil appeared, their focus on the Perfected Chimera. Joining in the battle the Sages fought vigorously against the Chimera. They tore through them with ease for a majority of them were not of a high rank.

Despite this the Chimera's regenerative properties allowed them to stand up again. Gear was quick to flick the liquid on various incapacitated Chimera, but it was far from enough to deal with the horde. Within minutes they were beginning to be overwhelmed.

If only Heresy didn't tamper with the Sages' mastery over the elements! Yet because of it the Sages were pushing themselves, and weren't able to display their full strength! Moreover there was too much pressure to have them fuse, and Jarvis lacked any stronger tames to hold them off!

Gear leapt forward and cut through a low ranked Chimera. Landing and slightly stumbling he quickly flicked some of the liquid onto the Chimera, causing it to wither into dust.

His breathing grew increasingly labored. This was the largest scaled battle he had ever been in. Or rather the only one he had been in. Most of his fights with Chimera were one on one. Because of it he was having a hard time keeping up with the chaos.

A Chimera expanded like a balloon and slammed into Gear, knocking him off the wall. Crashing to the ground he felt the air get knocked out of his lungs. His vision turned hazy as he struggled to regain his breath. Looking towards the village—perhaps out of instinct—he saw something that wasn't quite there. Flames flickered across the village, the buildings nowhere to be seen. Yet the focus was on a single person. Just as Gear was about to see who it was he was suddenly dragged to his feet.

Jarvis steadied the wobbling Gear, "Get your head straight man! Lying down means death!"

"Oh, yeah I-", Gear suddenly coughed as he finished regaining his breath.

Leaving him with a pat on the shoulder Jarvis returned to the top of the wall. A frown formed on his face as he pondered any sort of way to get out of this. Perhaps he could buy time for the others to arrive. . . if they were able to escape their current predicament.

Out of frustration Jarvis opened his book and began flipping through the pages. Hoping any viable strategy would come to mind. Through his frantic flipping something slipped from the pages. A lustrous purple feather nearly fell to the ground before Jarvis caught it. It only took a moment before he realized what it was.

A feather from the Minokawa! Perhaps one fell into the book without him realizing it? Just as he was inspecting the feather his book began to shake violently. The feather flew from his grip and hovered above the book. Then, from his bag, the Phoenix feather joined the Minokawa feather. They spun above the book as if waiting for something.

Jarvis looked upwards and saw Bo and to diving towards the book. Upon making contact everything flashed a bright series of colors. Forced to cover his eyes Jarvis was unable to see what was happening.

A method he almost forgot about! This entire time he was focusing on obtaining other tames and growing stronger alongside them. However the Book of Life also held an important feature! It removed the limits of the Tames, thus allowing them to evolve much easier! This was a route of a Beast Tamer, to evolve those who followed alongside you!

A whirlwind of light sprung from the pages of the book. In an instant it exploded to reveal to large birds. One of brilliant yellow and flame. The other of lustrous white-purple, holding a sheen. Their wings spread and they began circling each other, like a cycle of day and night!

They both cried at the same time, a dazzling light befalling the earthen wall. The low class Chimera shirked from the light, fearing its glory. Jarvis did not notice this bit, rather his eyes were glued to the beauty of his tames. The birth of a new Phoenix and Minokawa, what a wondrous sight!

Oh how he wished to marvel it forever!