The King's Beloved

[Music Recommendation: "The Fire Within" by Hiroshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XV OST) - available in Spotify or Youtube]

After deciding on their strategy, Clavis' team continued unto the shrine. Ducis flew fast the hordes of monsters, dropping Ventus and Caligo on the way. Ventus cast a massive cyclone that cleared the surrounding area of monsters as he dived to the ground. Caligo, on the other side, dropped a poisoned mist bomb that spread over thousands of monsters, killing them in the process. Just as Clavis thought, their skills were best suited for wide-range combat.

Ducis opened the shrine's door, and as expected, a bunch of monsters was inside as well. This time, Aqua and Saburra kept them at bay while the rest continued to the innermost place. Aqua cast a thick water wall that drowned any monster that tried to follow Clavis and the rest. And to add to that, Saburra turned the ground into sand, making a huge pitfall for the monsters should they persist in following the others.

Clavis, Selena, Illuminaire, Ducis, and Terra were the only ones left who continued towards the innermost place where Ignis' red crystal obelisk stood. Like the previous shrines, fissures could be seen surrounding it, and the boss monster guarded the crystal. This time, it was a Dark Chimaera—tall and scary looking, especially with it having the head of an angry lion, another head of a devilish goat just behind its back, and a tail that ends with a snake's cunning head. 

"ROOOOOOAAARRRR!" the Dark Chimaera roared as soon as it saw them.

Along with it, a dark red aura dropped at them like a heavy pressure.

"Ugh… what was that?" Clavis asked, surprised by the sudden heavy feeling surrounding the air. "This pressure—it can only be imposed by someone stronger than you. And the fact that I am feeling this pressure means that this monster is way stronger than the previous ones."

"What?!" Selena shrieked. "That doesn't sound good. How are we going to defeat it if it's stronger than us? And why did it suddenly get a magic boost?"

"It's alright," Ducis comforted them. "Do not be alarmed. I am not feeling any of this pressure. I am still stronger than this monster."

"Ha-ha-ha. Showing off, are we?" Terra teased.

"Huh? N-No. That's not what I meant. I am simply assuring my master's comrades."

"Yes, yes. If you say so."

Terra then, waved her hands and cast a thin barrier to the three—Clavis, Selena, and Illuminaire, canceling the effects of the monster's pressure on them.

"That should do the trick. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes! Thank you so much!"

Shortly after that, they started the battle against the Dark Chimaera. Their strategy this time was simple. Clavis would be the one to focus on creating highly concentrated energy to deal critical damage to the monster. Ducis and Terra would focus on offense and counter the monster's attacks. Lastly, Selena and Illuminaire would focus on defense while also dealing damage in every opportunity they could.

What they didn't expect was how fast the monster could attack and the fact that it could sense Clavis and attack him, canceling the magic he was trying to build! Given the three heads that all had a mind of their own, the Dark Chimaera could quickly survey the whole area and launch its attack on them. Its skin was too thick as well, making it hard for them to damage its body.

'It's way stronger than the Basilisk and moves faster,' Clavis thought. 'How are we going to defeat this if I can't get a chance to produce highly concentrated magic? Guardian Ducis' and Guardian Terra's attacks deal damage, but the monster can easily regenerate or heal them. Hmm…'

Hours passed as they battled the Dark Chimaera. As they fought it, Clavis kept on observing its attack patterns, skills, and everything there was to observe, continuously plotting in his mind how they should defeat it. But the more he watched, the more it canceled the early ideas he thought of since the monster could counter it easily.

Angered by the long fight, the Dark Chimaera suddenly stopped attacking and prepared to launch what looked like a fatal attack. The lion head, goat head, and snake head looked up, and spiritual energy came from their mouths and combined into one. A giant ball of scorching fire started to form and slowly got bigger.

"Everyone, be careful! That's a—" Terra shouted to the whole team, alarmed by the tremendous amount of power growing.

But before she could speak any more word, the Dark Chimaera already shot the fireball towards them! It was too big that it burned out half of the area just from its heat!

Terra quickly dashed towards the center, standing as a wall between the team and the fireball. She transformed her body into an earth-elemental Elf while casting a barrier to protect them. However, the barrier was too weak as compared to the scorching fireball. It easily broke the barrier, and Terra had no choice but to stop the attack with her hands. She transformed her body into that of solid metal, hoping to withstand the heat.

"Arghhh!!!" Terra screamed in pain.

Despite her strengthened defense and metallic skin, the fire still managed to scald her. Desperate to protect the team, a powerful aura seethed out of Terra's body, covering every inch of her skin, transforming it into something new.

"Composition change," Terra said in a low voice.

Suddenly, her metallic body hardened all the more! The scorching fireball wasn't able to penetrate through her anymore.

From her hands, a golden brown glow emerged and touched the fire, changing its properties. What once was an extremely hot fireball turned into a ball of rock!

Then, it changed again into the strongest metal like her body and divided itself into large spears, aiming its pointy end towards the Dark Chimaera.

With a swish of Terra's hand, the metallic spears shot like arrows to the monster's body, and it penetrated its skin!

"ROOOOOOAAARRRR!!!" the Dark Chimaera roared in pain as its body got pinned on the ground with the spears.

It tried to regenerate itself, but the spears were on the way and somehow disabling his regenerative abilities. Ducis and Clavis took this time to launch many powerful attacks on the monster. Selena and Illuminaire joined in and attacked it nonstop.

Unable to move nor defend itself, and with Terra's magic slowly changing the composition of its body, making it weaker, the Dark Chimaera could only receive their fatal attacks. It tried to fight back, but its body slowly eroded until it finally died and turned into dust.

"WE DID IT!!!" Selena shouted in joy and dived into Clavis' arms. Turning her head to the Terra, she looked at her with awe in her eyes. "Guardian Terra, that attack earlier was really cool!"

"Indeed, such impenetrable defense," Ducis agreed. "I was about to step in earlier to help, but it looked like it wasn't needed anymore. And that's a new skill, if I'm not mistaken. How did you do it?"

Huffing, Terra replied, "Honestly, I'm not so sure. I just felt like I badly wanted to protect you all since if the fireball got nearer, you'd all be toast for sure. We can't revive those who are dead, so I thought I needed to be stronger. And then I felt this strong power from within me. I'm not sure what exactly it was. It just happened."

"I see. A will to protect, huh?" Ducis pondered. "It's just like Caligo when he did that new skill of his as well—Obliterate. And Fauna, too—Beast Fury."

"Wooow, that's really amazing," Selena complimented them. "So that's how Guardians get stronger, huh? When they strongly wish to protect people. No wonder you're all called Guardians."

Ducis and Terra flinched from her words.

"… Right," Ducis agreed. Then, a soft chuckle left his mouth.. "You're absolutely right."

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