Asher barely finished speaking before the chimera moved.
One instant it stood across the chamber.
The next, it exploded forward—so fast the air itself bent around it. Its two void cores spun together, forming a distortion wave that swallowed the room. The creature vanished in a blur and reappeared right in front of Asher, moving with silent, deadly precision.
Its demonic fist shot toward his face, wrapped in compressed void energy strong enough to erase matter. Asher tilted his head just slightly. The punch grazed past him and detonated behind him, blowing open a crater in the wall big enough to swallow a house.
Asher countered with a palm strike aimed for its ribs, but the chimera shifted its liquid metal torso out of the way. Its molten tail snapped upward toward his throat. Asher caught it—only for the metal to melt instantly, slip out of his grip, harden again, and stab toward his heart. He moved back just in time, the tip missing by an inch.
He frowned.
