With his backpack full of both the gold-plated armour and two of the arachnid's obsidian hooked claws, he had stepped through the shadows and vanished into the night, leaving the bare Storm Weaver to be devoured.
Whilst he still wasn't sure what he'd end up using the gold-plated armour for, he knew that the two obsidian claws would be going into one of his pockets.
If the hell hound's horns, the horns of a newly descended Deviant, could pierce through the chimeras' scales with no issue, then Artorias was looking forward to seeing what the claws of a fully matured Deviant would do to it.
Appearing on another rooftop a moment later, he allowed the soothing winds of winter to settle over his skin, cooling him.
Whilst at first glance it seemed like any other chilly night, after spending a few hours in the city, he could determine that it was, in fact, the furthest thing from natural.
Expanding his senses to make sure nothing would be able to sneak up on him, he narrowed his eyes and felt his vision begin to zoom in on a distant tower, on the largest tower in the whole of Tokyo to be accurate.
There, covered in turbulent winds, blankets of snow and jagged spears of spinning ice, sat a large abomination, its humongous body covered by its four emerald wings.
He peered at it for only a moment before tearing his eyes away. The risk of something so powerful being able to sense his sight was high, and he really didn't want it getting curious and exploring to find who had looked at it.
Abominations were prideful and vein beings after all, especially once they reached the Rank of Fiend like this Fallen Spawn had.
Sighing to himself, he melted through the shadows, heading east once again.
He hopped the Garrison' already knew about this Fiend.
With how it was able to summon a literal winter storm by simply roosting, the possibility of it growing to become a Demon soon was highly possible. For a country already marginally covered in Fallen Spawn of the Rank of Monster and above, having a literal Demon here would only make things more difficult in the future.
'Problems for later,' he told himself. If he survived his battle with the chimera and was able to escape, then he'd report it and let the Grade 7 Ascended deal with it.
He was far too low on the ladder of strength to be thinking about it.
Appearing a few blocks away, his hearing prickled at the sound of combat. Interested, he stepped through another set of shadows, listening quietly to the grunts and roars of multiple abominations fighting.
Appearing on a slightly taller building directly above the Fallen Spawn, he stepped up to the edge and allowed his shroud to cover his body, hiding him.
His brow rose at what he saw.
Fighting against what could only be a Fallen Spawn at the Rank of Ghoul, a Rank directly above that of a Savage, like the Elaphus Spawn from months ago, were two mantis like Monsters.
Surprisingly enough, they were doing quite a good job.
Though the reason why, soon became clear.
The Ghoul was missing an arm, a bleeding stump which left its right side completely defenceless.
Not that it seemed to stop the powerful abomination.
Even when lacking any true intelligence, its power was equal to that of the chimera, using its powerful body and limited ability of shooting the spikes on its meaty tail to control the pace of the battle.
A part of him, the wild addicted side of him to be more exact, wanted to join in. To even the numbers before facing off against the Ghoul himself.
It was worrying how long it took him to dissuade himself of the idea.
'But then again…I am planning on fighting a chimera at the Rank of Terror, it's not like this won't be any more dangerous than that…'
That…was unfortunately a very good point.
If he could get used to fighting against multiple things at the same time, then facing the chimera would become a little easier. Fighting a chimera was always described as fighting against a dozen different enemies after all…
'I can't believe I'm actually about to do this.'
Pulling the katana out of its sheath, he wondered just how destroyed his sanity had truly become, if fighting against a Ghoul and two Monsters seemed like an actually good idea.
'The Ghoul is injured you'll be fine!'
Yes, a good point, unless you remembered that Artorias had also been injured when he had fought the chimera and had somehow come out of it alive, being injured didn't really stop things like the Fallen Spawn…or Artorias?
'Come on, think of the high you'll get out of this…'
His sanity was undeniably compromised.
The lightning in his chest sparked to life, accelerating both his thoughts and movements. His Soul Core pumped Spirit Energy through him, enhancing every aspect of his body.
Sharpening his senses and keeping his danger sense activated, he finally lept of the building.
The wind blew through his hair as he fell, a yell of excitement leaving his lips as the familiar feeling of his emotions coming back pumped through his veins with an undeniable high.
The three Fallen Spawn stopped in their battle, turning to look up at the maddened human falling through the sky.
Only for him to suddenly vanish in a wave of slithering shadows.
Artorias appeared behind one of the mantises, his blade gleaming as he sliced down through the bug, cutting into its already damaged exoskeleton and splitting apart its back.
It shrieked in horrible pain, feeling two of its four wings fall uselessly to the ground and a geyser of blood erupt from its back. It fell to one knee, the sharp jagged claws on its arms keeping it upright.
Its partner screeched in concern, turning to face it, only to have its focus changed back to the Ghoul, who used the opportunity presented to swing its tale and release a few more of its sharp needle-like spikes.
It cut through at least three before having to back up and run away, its two powerful legs shaking the ground beneath it as it tried to run to its downed partner.
It didn't get far before Artorias appeared from below its shadow and kicked its body back with all the strength he could, vanishing a second later as various spikes pierced its body.
The mantis didn't die, but now it was as terribly wounded and impaired as the Ghoul.
The interesting thing about bug related Fallen Spawn, he was learning, was that the strength of their exoskeletons relied heavily on what Rank they were a part of.
Whilst these mantises were most definitely stronger than any average Grade 1 Ascended, Artorias had the added benefit of not just relying on his strength, but also on the speed with which he attacked.
The force generated by his muscles, and the way he swung his sword, was powerful enough to destroy their strong armour with little to no resistance.
For a Fallen Spawn sitting comfortably in the Rank of Ghoul, the force it could create with just a swing of its tail would be enough to topple a skyscraper created specifically to withstand the worst earthquakes of the world.
Add in the razor-sharp spikes it was also shooting from its tail, and the mantis' armour didn't stand much of a chance.
It had lost one of its long claws in the attack, had at least two large spikes sticking out of its midsection and one of its legs was all but gone.
The first mantis he had attacked tried to stand up to help its partner, but it was already too late.
The Ghoul charged at it with all the instinctual knowledge that its victory was assured, and bit down onto the mantis body, shaking its head so violently that the mantises lower body went flying through the street, black blood erupting violently from the Ghoul's maw.
The last sound the first mantis heard was the crunch of its partner's body, before Artorias appeared behind it, and cleanly cut through its head, severing it in an instant.
The body took two hesitant steps forward, as if it was unsure of what happened, before it finally collapsed to the ground.
The Ghoul spat the bloodied and broken body of the mantis in its mouth out, before staring directly at Artorias.
He met the challenging stare gladly, the euphoria flowing through his body building quickly.