I peeked at the room they had entered and silhouettes of three people behind the curtain came into view.

"Kiieeeekkk!!"

The beast's screech continued to roar and the child's voice followed.

"W-what is that sound?"

"Help!! There are monsters here!!"

"Huuaaa!!"

My eyes widened as the boy's body structure changed and slowly grew in size. There was no doubt about it, they were indeed developing Chimera.

The Doctor's voice pricked my ears.

"Hmmm.. this one failed."

Soon, a loud thud was heard, and the curtain slide opened. The Doctor and his assistant exited the room but the kid was nowhere to be found.

Seeing a thin line in the floor, I assumed it had a switch that could directly dump the kids below and they moved to a new room.

The kid shouted the moment he saw them.

"No!! Don't come near me!! Aarrrghhh!!!"

Luckily only my hands were tied and not my feet. I hastily put my ankle on my thigh and pulled out the pocket knife I had hidden in my shoe.

Wasting no more time, I used it to cut the ropes and tucked it back into my shoe. I took the dagger out of my jacket and threw it at the Doctor, however–

–Bang!

The sound of metal colliding was heard and the curtain was opened by a black-robed man. A sword hung in his hand.

He snorted as his eyes fell on me.

"No wonder there's an extra kid and turns out, it's a rat."

The Doctor asked nonchalantly.

"Can you take care of him?"

"It's just a bug, it won't take long."

"Alright."

It seemed that in their eyes, I was just an insignificant treat.

The Doctor was seen returning to his work. The black-robed man walked out of the room and closed the curtain.

"No!! You're a bad guy!! Don't come near me!!"

Also, I couldn't believe that the shitty Doctor kept testing different kinds of serum for each kid.

"Since I'm bored, I'll play with you for a while."

I exhaled a deep breath and took out the dual daggers I had hidden behind my back with both hands.

I tightened my grip on the handler and stood on guard.

He dashed toward me and raised his sword. He made a vertical cut and I blocked it.

–Bang!

Our weapons clashed and sparks of metal were created. I could see how my hands holding the weapons shook when our blades bound.

I couldn't help but clench my teeth, I bet this was going to be an annoying battle.

I was fully aware that the gap in our strengths was too wide and what was worse was that I couldn't use mana to make up for my flaws.

In other words, my strength was that of a normal eight-year-old child and I was undoubtedly at a disadvantage.

I know my decision was perilous but I just couldn't turn a blind eye to this matter, especially since it happened right under my nose!

I couldn't let the kids die! Not in that horrendous way!

As it was impossible to win the bound, I moved my feet to him but before my kick hit him, he jumped backward and spoke.

"Using your feet in a sword fight is blasphemy."

Who gave a fuck about rules? As long as I could defeat him, I would justify all means.

I ran towards him and thrust my left dagger into him.

–Bang!

He shoved my attack and I swung my right dagger in the gap. However, he took a step back and slashed horizontally, diverting my dagger.

–Bang!

I raised my left dagger once again and–

–Bang!

He blocked my attack and this action continued for quite some time.

–Bang! –Bang! –Bang!

I made a cut and as usual, he blocked it effortlessly.

I attempted another one but it stopped midway as my eyes stretched wide and my body was thrown backward; he kicked me in the stomach.

I rolled a few times before stopping. I got on my knees and clutched my abdomen from the intense pain. Churned surged inside and I puked up a mouthful of saliva.

"Urk! Cough, cough!"

"Thanks to you, I learned a new move."

Damn it. It hurt.

I wiped my mouth and immediately stood when I saw him running to me. He didn't even let me catch a breath, huh?

He slashed his sword and I deflected it with my right dagger.

I swung my other dagger but unexpectedly, he caught my hand and pulled my body forward.

He let go of my hand as I stumbled forward uncontrollably. He moved aside, then kicked my back.

–Thud!

My body hit a table and I could feel warm liquid sliding down my face. I clutched my forehead and blood stained my palm.

At this point, I didn't even know where the hell my weapons were.

'Urg, I hate being a kid.'

I got on my feet and my eye caught interesting stuff on the table. I snatched one of them and turned my body.

However, to my surprise, the black-robed man was already standing in front of me.

"Urk!"

He grabbed my neck and pinned my body to the table.

"At first I wanted to kill you right away, but it wouldn't be fun, right?"

He tightened his grip on my neck and I coughed as my oxygen ran low. But then again, I just laughed.

"Come on beg, maybe I will change my mind and release you."

"Cough, hahah–cough, cough! Ahaha!"

He raised one of his brows.

"It seems you've gone mad when you're about to meet your death, huh?"

With what little breath I had, I grabbed his arm and answered.

"I.."

I instantly swung the serum I got from the desk at him.

He tried to dodge but it was too late because my hand had grabbed his arm, and just like that, the serum embedded into his skin.

His eyes widened when he saw that the liquid in the syringe was empty–meaning the serum had penetrated his body.

He shoved my body away and as a result, I rolled several times on the floor.

"Ahaha–cough, cough! Haha.."

Despite the pain that I felt all over my body, I continued to laugh my heart out.

"Aargh!"

The man groaned. He dropped his sword and pulled out the injection from his arm.

"What–what the hell are you doing?!"

He screamed whilst gripping his arm that was previously shot and black veins began to emerge on his skin.

"Aarrghh!! Aarrghh!!"

historical

His body jerked continuously. His arm twisted weirdly as its size increased.

–Thud!

A long and large arm covered in blood fell to the floor. It continued to wriggle and sharp claws shot out of its hooves imitating a beast.

"AarrGGGHH!!"

This time it was his leg that transformed.

"Rian, why are you so noisy?"

The Doctor tugged his head out from the curtain and his body jolted after witnessing the scene before him.

The man called Rian turned his head and in the next second, he grabbed the Doctor's head with his new hand and lifted him.

It was so fast that my eyes couldn't follow his speed. Also, it seemed the black-robed man had completely lost his mind.

The Chimera–not only did it turn the user into a monster, but its speed and power doubled as well.

His hood fell, revealing light brown hair. His scleras turned black and his irises turned red.

"Arrghh!! Aarrghhh!! Rian what are you doing?! Let me go this instant!!"

The old man screamed and his hands tried with all their might to shake off Rian's vicious hands but to no avail.

And what happened next made me throw my face away.

–Pop! –Splatt!

Bones shattering sounded and the Doctor's blood mixed with white flesh jumped out between his fingers and scattered on the ground.

While he was busy with the old man, I dashed forward and picked up the sword that was lying. Sensing something coming at me, I immediately rolled my back to the side.

–Thud!

I turned and the Doctor's headless body landed not too far from me.

I glanced at Rian and my eyes stretched wide when I saw him shot toward me with his beast fist hovering in the air.

Wasting no time I leaped backward to dodge it.

–Boom!

A cracking floor was heard and without even bothering to look behind me I ran as fast as I could.

'This is insane!'

My heart skipped a beat when my ears caught how his loud footsteps were getting nigher.

I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye and his hand was outstretched—ready to grab me.

I ducked down and in a split second his hand was over my head.

Looking at the wall ahead, I swung my sword and slashed his arm as I jumped to the side.

"Kiiekkk!!"

He shrieked in pain and I rushed to run the moment I landed.

–Boom!

His body hit the wall but he quickly recovered and continued to chase me.

'Damn it. How can I beat him? There's no mana here!'