Seirios didn't bother reacting to the insult.
Whilst the run hadn't taken a lot out of him physically. Mentally, the initial panic of the situation, his own inexperience and the adrenaline surging through his body, had all mixed together and now left him feeling mentally exhausted.
It was a rookie mistake to make, letting so many factors overwhelm him and get the better of him. But it was a mistake he would have to own, if only for the purpose of doing better in the future.
If he wished to escape, if he wanted to keep pace with Artorias, then he would have to adapt and overcome these issues.
Speaking of his cousin…the other teen was clearly exhausted; hunched over, his body was covered in a thin layer of sweat, and he was still breathing heavy.
Seirios didn't know whether to be impressed or horrified at his cousin's ability to still be able to stand, much less run how he just did.
For someone who was mostly skin and bones, his endurance and resilience beat some of the Grade 3 Ascended he had met back in the garrison.
Taking a seat against one of the cracked walls, he heaved a tired sigh, stretching his legs with a small grin before speaking, a singular question burning in his mind.
"What the hell was that?"
Now that the panic, fear and adrenaline had disappeared, Seirios felt like he could relax a little more, a sort of pride growing within him at their accomplishments. They had just escaped a Fallen Spawn of the Rank of Terror after all.
Or so he had thought, until Artorias opened his mouth and shattered his delusions.
"It's a damned chimera," he huffed, wearily stretching his legs with a wince. At his blank look, Artorias sighed. "You've probably already heard some of this before- "
He probably hadn't.
"-But the Ancient Greeks we're the first to ever write about them. They called it the first amalgamation, the chimera. A twisted hybrid of various animals born from the loins of two other, more powerful monsters."
His face twisted at the mention of 'loins', and Artorias released a raspy chuckle.
"Anyways, that's just the mythological version of what a chimera is. The real version is far worse."
'Because of course it is,' Seirios couldn't help but grumble to himself, the myths and stories of before the collapse seemed to always pale to their real-life counterparts.
"They usually begin appearing at the rank of monster, but it isn't really until they reach the rank of deviant that you can start to recognize them," Artorias explained, collapsing against the wall next to him.
"You know how once their a deviant they can start developing abilities of their own don't you?"
Seirios nodded, remembering the first Fallen Spawn he had killed. It was a strange abomination, having the body of a human but the physiology of a bull, and the ability to manipulate the gravity of its own body to either make itself heavier or lighter.
If not for his own uniquely powerful Impetus Talent, he would have been turned into a red paste on the ground within the first second of the fight.
"Well, a chimera is a little different. The spawn are mimicries of life, and by extension, also fall under the same rules of nature that we and anything living does. In the beginning of their lives, their physically weaker than literally everything else, so, nature, in its own twisted way, balances their weakness by giving them a powerful ability, or, more accurately, it gives them three smaller abilities that each complement each other so well, they are considered by many to be one."
Artorias stopped suddenly, releasing a sigh and rubbing his head.
"You, okay?" he asked, feeling a little concerned. Seirios still remembered how weird his cousin had been acting earlier.
"I'm fine," Artorias muttered, blinking his eyes. "Just felt myself beginning to ramble. Now, where was I?"
"You were telling me about the chimera having three abilities…" he muttered, keeping his sight trained on the other teen.
Something was off about his cousin.
"Right," he yawned, his mouth stretching to reveal canines Seirios had never seen before. "They have three abilities. Absorption, Assimilation and Replication." he stopped again, another yawn leaving him.
Seirios narrowed his eyes.
"Are you good man?" he interrupted.
Artorias tiredly nodded. "It's just my healing factor draining me, stop glaring, I'm fine."
'This guy just always has an answer,' he thought with a roll of his eyes.
He did as he was told, looking away from Artorias with a huff. It seemed as if he was sulking, but in reality, he was actively training his other senses on the teen beside him.
His gut was telling him that something was wrong, and it had never led him astray before.
Artorias rolled his eyes at his childish behavior. "Anyways, their weak physically, but once they become a deviant, their strength begins to skyrocket." Another yawn escaped him. "They grow by either absorbing the bodies of other abominations or through replicating their unique abilities and assimilating specific parts of other spawn's bodies."
Seirios felt himself grimace at the information.
"So, it could have countless different abilities, and we wouldn't know where to even begin?"
"That's why they're sometimes referred to as, 'Butchers of War'." Artorias snorted, a tired grin on his face. "But that's only one of the reasons why their considered so dangerous."
"Of course there's more," he grumbled, shaking his head.
"It's of the rank of terror, Seirios." Artorias reminded him. "Which means its intelligence is beyond either of ours. It's smarter than us, sharper, wiser. It's no longer controlled so easily by its instincts."
An uneasy suspicion began to grow in his mind.
"So, it didn't let us go?"
"You idiot," Artorias said around a yawn. "It means it's toying with us. We didn't escape from it; it let us go. It's hunting us, taking its time to make the hunt more interesting for itself."
Artorias looked him in the eyes, the dull gold of his irises seeming lifeless for the first time since their initial meeting.
"It's given us time to prepare so we could entertain it, it's playing with us, before it finally rips our bodies apart and adds us to its collection of growing talents."