Chapter 66 - Curtains Fall (Shamac)
[Shamac]
"Form: Chimera"
The most powerful form Shamac currently possessed. Combining various animals and partially transforming parts of his body to them, he has an overwhelming advantage in offense, defense, perception, speed, and instinct. With this, he was resolved to win.
"Y-You monster!" Gerund shrieked as he saw the horrific transformation Shamac made.
"Sigh, this is why I hate using this form... It\'s too unsightly, even for me. But I can\'t afford to be picky right now" Shamac thought to himself.
"Die, you beast!" Gerund shouted.
He again drew his Gale Spear and rotated it as fast as possible, generating a vortex that swirled and went straight for Shamac\'s chimera form. The massive gust of wind and the twisting current burst forth and neared him with unimaginable speed and power, destroying the ground in its path.
Shamac used his hands to cover the rest of his body and head as the wind made contact with him, crashing and clashing with his monstrous physique. The clash between the two sent shocks radiating throughout the area, raising an unbelievable amount of dust around them and blowing away all in its path.
The waves finally subsided and the dust settled, making everything clearer and the result of the attack visible for Gerund to see.
"Hahahaha, I\'d like to see you survive that, you bea-" Gerund laughed triumphantly, but stopped midway as he saw the unbelievable.
"Haaa, that was a strong one. Good thing I had the right defense." Shamac said with his husky voice.
Gerund\'s eyes widened as he saw Shamac looking entirely unscathed from the attack he just rendered.
"H-How... Impossible!" He said in disbelief"
"Heh, good thing I used my Reptile skin coating to block the attack. Don\'t you know? Reptiles have unusually dense skin" Shamac said to Gerund with a triumphant tone.
"You... When I\'m done with you, not even your bones will be left!" Gerund said, raising his spear above his head and rotating it.
Slowly, the wind began to gather around the spear, spinning and turning. The pull of the wind began to attract the earth, the grass, rocks, and everything around them. It attracted Shamac too, drawing him closer to the twisting wind, but Shamac remained rooted to the ground.
Before long, it resulted in a massive twister, incomparable to the one Shamac experienced before. It blew away everything around them, drawing them to the large whirlwind in a systematic fashion, and even began to break off the surrounding earth. Shamac stood his ground as he watched the massive tornado grow larger and larger.
"Looks like I can\'t mess around anymore. The more I delay, the stronger that twister gets. Besides, I can\'t maintain this form for too long." He said to himself.
"I\'ll end it with this one move"
Gerund laughed crazily as he was within the safety of the giant mass of twisting wind of his making. He raised his Spear and laughed even more.
"How\'s this? Think you can also block this? Go ahead and try! I\'ll skewer you into unrecognizable pieces you damn beast!" He declared.
Even though he couldn\'t see Shamac, he knew he was trapped. The tornado had a strong pulling force that would prevent Shamac from escaping. Even if he managed to maintain his position, eventually the wind would reach him and swallow him. Once that happened, he would be torn apart and skewered by the wind, resulting in his loss.
"Hehehehehe, serves you right. You monste-"
As Gerund gloated, suddenly a crack appeared beneath him. Initially, he didn\'t notice, until the crack grew wider and the sound was too loud for him to ignore. He looked beneath him and saw the massive crack, as though... There was something beneath him...
"Bingo!" Shamac\'s voice rang out.
"Wha-" Gerund let out in shock.
Before he could react, two of Shamac\'s hands emerged from the ground and grabbed Gerund\'s legs. Two more grabbed his hands and finally, his tail coiled around his neck, firmly gripping it.
"Gurghhhh" Gerund let out in a choking sound, unable to release himself from Shamac\'s constraints.
Shamac finally emerged from within the cracked and gaping hole in the floor. He grinned widely in his monstrous form.
"Got you," He said to Gerund whose face depicted a mix of utter shock and fear.
He gagged due to the tail around his neck and could barely let out an intelligible sound. However, from his eyes and lip movements, it was clear he was asking... How.
"How... How did you..."
Shamac grinned widely.
"I don\'t wanna tell you!" He said teasingly, winking with half of his eight eyes.
"You... You bastard... You beast... You..." Gerund yelled, straining his voice to speak as he choked.
Immediately, Shamac used his tail to snap his neck, causing him to cease his struggle. The bone snapped and Gerund\'s struggling face filled with desperation grew lifeless as it hinged on Shamac\'s tell, unable to show any more than it had.
"You were too loud, old geezer. How annoying." Shamac said.
The spear Gerund held slipped from his dead hands and fell on the ground at the center of the raging wind. As soon as it did, the wind it was causing to rage forth slowly ceased, stopping its rampage and destruction.
"Whew... Finally" Shamac said to himself.
Slowly, his body began to morph back, until he returned to his regular look. He slumped a bit but quickly regained his posture.
"Ah, looks like I won... Old man." Shamac said with a huff.
His two hands still held Gerund, while the others returned to within him. As he raised Geruns\'s lifeless body, he stared at the wind which was subsiding around him and smiled.
"I believe he mentioned something about skewering" Shamac grinned.
He threw Gerund\'s body to the wall of wind surrounding him and immediately, the Commander\'s body tore apart due to the remaining pressure left in the whirlwind and got skewered in the process. Blood sprayed out of his chopped-up flesh as his bones were also ground by the torrents.
Finally, the winds died down... Leaving the victor of the match to come out of the confines of safety. Shamac smiled as he glanced at the hole in the ground a short distance from himself and remembered how he managed to escape the massive whirlwind.
He dug.
His Chimera form is ever-changing, able to quickly transform any part of his body to whatever part he needs. Using the features of the armadillo and mole, he was able to quickly dig into the earth and by calculating the distance he needed to travel along with the sounds and vibration generated by the whirlwind, he was able to return to the surface at exactly the location he wanted.
It also helped that Gerund was ranting in the victory that was never given to him. It allowed him to grasp the exact location of the commander through the cracks he had made, allowing him to immobilize him before resurfacing.
"Whew... I\'m beat" Shamac said.
Suddenly he started feeling dizzy and his body didn\'t feel too good.
"Urgh, looks like I overexerted myself again." Shamac groaned.
He collapsed on the ground, being unable to maintain his consciousness, he fell into a deep sleep.