Black_Paladyn
patreon
MHA Paragon 2.0 Chapter 24: USJ Incident Pt. 6
🕑 Added 2025-01-10 02:53:10 +0000 UTCMy eyes were unfocused as profound fatigue spread through my body, sinking into my very bones. Regardless, a tired smile crossed my lips as I clenched my open hand into a fist and stared at the fruit of my labors and suffering.
The once-liquid flux had transformed into a synthetic textile tightly wrapped around my hand and arm, covering everything below my elbow except my fingertips. The textile was pitch black with a slight metallic sheen due to the tiny rivulets of fluid flux woven into the fabric. Under strain, the individual fibers would tighten, resisting cuts or tears, while the fluid flux would absorb and disperse the kinetic impact.
Closing the palm I had used to block the Chimera's spine, an intense euphoria made my heart race even faster. It was more than just the rush of success and triumph, but a nearly addictive high pushing away the aching weariness that had settled into my skeleton.
With renewed vigor, I stared down the Chimera, which had paused its relentless hail of spines. However, its tail still thrashed angrily through the air, a visible sign of frustration. One that I was almost sympathetic to.
'You were designed as well,' I thought as my other arm was quickly wrapped with bindings and flux coated my feet, sending me gliding across the ground, 'I can see the craftsmanship that created you with a single purpose. But just like the rest of us, you're flawed, imperfect...defective.'
Snarling, the Chimera abandoned its ranged advantage and flew across the ground in leaping strides, sharpening its claws as it tore into the ground, 'But I should at least thank you for bringing forth my own inadequacies.'
I watched the Chimera's hind legs tense. In the next instant, the creature was flying at me, talons outstretched, ready to hook my flesh and pull me to the ground. But the moment the Chimera's feet left the ground, I changed my momentum, gliding around to its flank as the creature landed its claws empty.
Seeing an opening, I dashed forward, my fists raised, eager to finally be on the offensive. My joy was short-lived, however, as I watched the Chimera's tail shoot out from the corner of my eye.
My momentum shifted once more, sending me straight back to avoid the fatal piercing blow, but to my horror, I watched the Chimera's tail curve around to follow me. Like a vengeful spirit, the barbed appendage snaked through the air, quickly closing the distance between us.
Regenerating had taken too much of my flux, reducing my top speeds, so with no other option, I raised my hands. Quick as lightning, the Chimera's tail lanced out the countless joints in the appendage, dislocating with explosive force, driving the spike forward like a jackhammer.
Without hesitation, I thrust out my palm, meeting the spike head-on. With a loud bang, my palm deflected the tail, sending a tremor up the appendage and making it recoil. My hand, however, had emerged from the collision without so much as a scratch as the flux bindings nullified the attack.
But instead of rethinking its approach, the Chimera only seemed to double its efforts as its tail struck again and against like a sea of vipers. Clenching my jaw in concentration, my arm became a blur as I tried to block and deflect every piercing stab. More often than not, I managed to block the tireless barrage or shift my body to avoid being gored.
However, I was no martial artist with years of hand-to-hand training; my form was sloppy, with wasted movements that only served to drain my stamina, turning my movements sluggish and cumbersome. My frustration grew as I realized a flaw that I couldn't fix with my quirk, and more than once, the Chimera's tail managed to snake its way past my guard and draw blood.
Realizing I was losing the stalemate, I went to disengage, only for the Chimera to take one last stab at me that I attempted to block, only for the tail to suddenly curve around my raised palm, slithering past my guard and embedding into my flesh.
My entire body went numb as I collapsed to my knees, both my hands grabbing at the Chimera's tail that had pierced through the right side of my chest like a wet paper. I broke out into a cold sweat as I felt a coppery tang fill my mouth and throat. I coughed and watched as a fountain of blood bubbled past my lips, splattering onto the ground.
"Shit," I muttered under my breath, my vision darkening at the edges as I desperately held onto my consciousness, knowing that the moment I closed my eyes, I would never open them again.
The sound of my deep, ragged breaths echoed in my ears, but as time crawled along, they gained a wet, spluttering sound, and I realized that my lungs were filling with blood. But before I could worry about drowning in my own blood, I felt a warm breath brush against my breath, followed by a soft, menacing growl.
Like the Grim Reaper, the Chimera slinked into my peripheral vision, licking its lips as its glowing red eyes taunted me. I raised my head to meet its gaze, eyes burning with a vengeful fire. In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to gorge myself on the monster's blood, but my body refused to move, too deliberated by pain.
Standing in front of me, the Chimera's maw of razor-sharp teeth opened wide, and my breath hitched as I stared death in the face, certain I was about to die for a second time. Unfortunately, the Chimera wasn't so merciful.
Snapping its jaws shut, the Chimera lashed out with a single talon that sliced through my flesh like butter.
I opened my mouth to scream, but all that came out was a strangled gurgle, as a line of pure agony carved across my torso, starting at my right shoulder and ending at the top of my left ribs. Unrestrained tears rolled down my cheeks as I sobbed and gasped with overwhelming pain threatening to break me.
But my agony wasn't over, and all I could do was watch as the Chimera placed its claw at my other shoulder before slowly piercing my flesh and dragging its talon across my chest. Taking its sweet time, the monster carved the second leg of the bloody x, decorating my chest.
When its claw finally tore free of my skin, I could barely muster the strength to draw breath; a deathly cold had spread through my entire body at odds with the fiery agony of my torturous mutilation. As if sensing my defeat, the Chimera let out a mocking roar as it went to pull its tail out from my chest.
Almost without me realizing it, my hands clamped down, holding the Chimera firm. Picking up my head, I stared at the monster with crazed eyes as my lips pulled back, exposing my bloodstained teeth, "Y-you're s-still f-flawed!"
The Chimera cocked its head to the side as if asking whether I had gone insane. Instead of answering, I gathered the last of my strength, raising my left hand and bringing it down. As I swung, a thin blade of solid flux slid out between the overlapping bindings around my arm along the back of my forearm.
The razor-sharp edge sliced through the Chimera's dense scales without pause and into the floor below up to my wrist, where the blade ended. A painful roar ripped through the air as the Chimera stumbled back, its severed stump failing around, spraying purple into the air.
Clenching my jaw, I ripped the severed tail out of my chest, leaving behind a gaping hole as the flux around my hand liquified and flowed up my arms and shoulders before forming a mask around my mouth.
Raising the severed tail to my lips, the mask opened, revealing a gaping maw lined with countless rows of teeth. With a savage bite, I tore into the Chimera's flesh, the mask easily slicing through the tough scales and meat. My flux eagerly consumed the blood scales and meat, and my eyes shot open as strength rushed through my body. Taking another bite of the tail, I felt a freezing current focus around the hole in my chest, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see the wound start to close.
Like a mindless beast, I gorged myself on the Chimera's life-giving blood, each mouthful restoring my body and flux, which was quickly consumed to heal my body.
Less than a handful of bites later, the Chimera's tail had vanished, along with the gaping hole in my chest. But I had underestimated just how potent the monster's blood had been.
Getting back to my feet, my feet I stared at the Chimera, who had finally recovered from the sudden loss of its tail. Meeting my gaze, the Chimera roared a sound of primal rage as it bore its fangs.
Responding in kind, I screamed back as my mask expanded, surging up to cover my face, replacing my human visage with that of something inhuman while my blackened cloth wrapped tightly around my arms, but not before two razor thin blades slid out from the back of my wrists.
