200 Engraved Trauma
The animal trainer took a whip out of his mantle. He lashed it at the Chimera all of a sudden.
(Oy! You're overlapping with that Daria elf! That said, I guess a whip is the way to go for animal trainers even in this world huh.)
A scene of performers whipping circus animals flashed in my mind.
Must be what he's doing now.
However, Chimera dodged that whip lash. Gracefully leaping and landing.
But then, the second lash immediately whipped out. It got dodged again, and the third hit followed.
That too got dodged, Chimera kept leaping here and there as the lashes continued.
The whip never landed a hit even after 20, 30 strikes, the animal trainer showed his irritation.
"Damn you! Get hit already! You dregs of an existence dares to make a fool out of me! Just one hit and!"
Chimera stopped moving after those words and the whip hit it as its back was turned at the trainer.
"Ha! Finally given up huh! I've filled this whip with mana that takes control of the mind! Just one hit and you're mine! How dare a mere beast like you annoyed me. I'll keep on lashing until you're completely under my control!"
(Hm? Keep lashing? So a hit doesn't get the job done huh... It's going to get dangerous if this keeps up though? For this trainer's well being that is.)
Afterward, the animal trainer caught his breathing before attempting to lash his whip again but what he saw was Chimera turning gigantic in the blink of an eye.
Chimera turned around to unveil its tiger body, bat wings and snake tail. Its eyes are glowing golden aimed at the trainer.
Its height far outstrips the trainer's. The animal trainer wouldn't move a muscle like time had stopped for him, you could see a mix of terror and shock on his face.
Maden who was watching from a distance popped his eyes wide open and stopped moving as well.
The trainer remained in his position with his hand brandishing his whip aloft.
Chimera slowly lifted its foreleg and swung it down toward the trainer.
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"N-no! Stooop!"
The trainer tried to 'order' Chimera, but it had no effect.
BOOM, the swing was powerful enough to cause a tremor as the paw hit the ground ahead of the trainer.
It didn't hit. However, the claws protruding from the paw had torn the animal trainer's barrier asunder.
"M-m-m-m-m-m-my b-b-b-b-barrier...."
Looks like he was quite confident with that barrier. He's completely lost mind. And it looks like he just experienced terror beyond belief.
However, Chimera isn't done yet.
It raised its forepaw once again and swung it down at the trainer's head.
"Hiaaaaaaaaa~~~!" as he screamed pitifully Chimera's paw stopped dead right above his head.
(Had Chimera been serious about it, this guy would have been long dead after that first strike.)
I was gonna stop it if I didn't saw Chimera yawning as it swung its paw down.
The goal here was never killing. I was ready to intervene if Chimera mood soured so much it went in for the kill, but that fear ended up unfounded.
That said, this was far from over. Chimera slowly approached Maden.
"S-stop! G-get away from me!"
The sight must have looked dreadful to Maden even from afar.
He fell into panic and then down on his butt.
As for the trainer, he's on his knees with his face raised upward, keeping absolutely still.
Chimera stopped ahead of Maden and slowly opened its mouth before spewing a flame breath.
The flame never actually touched Maden, but the heat still reached him to the point he came under illusion of getting hit as he started rolling around on the ground.
That didn't last long as he got up while breathing roughly.
"T, that's enough... T-take that thing away and disappear from my sight..."
The two seemed to have been traumatized to the point of no return, while Chimera itself had turned back into its kitten mode, 'Meow'.
(Why was it 'Tiger'? Not 'Lion'? Is there some sort of 'Rule' or something?)
As my mind wondered about the reason why Chimera assumed a tiger form instead of lion in its titanized form, I walked up to Maden and spoke to him.