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The cloaked figure smiled cruelly, remaining where he was. No servant of the light would ruin his plans this time. His mere presence made the cold even sharper, even colder, even more terrible.

The Chimera roared as it was attacked, but protected its inner arms well. One of its mighty outer arms swung down and blocked Sue's arrow with its axe while the other swatted Valter back and the beast shot down, landing and rushing toward Sue through the snow. One huge axe swung out and down toward Sue, fast enough to cleave her cleanly in half!

The other arm swung around low, turned flat to try and knock Melethia through the air. One of the Cerberus heads waited with slathering jaws to reach out, to try and snap down on the dragoness if the axe-wielding arm was successful!

Amelia's eyes widened as the axe came in Sue's direction. "RUN!" she shrieked, flailing in the snow to get a good grip on the soft stuff with her boots. Lance still in one hand, she moved to defend Sue, intent on getting her and her horse out of harm's path before they could be obliterated. There was little she could do to aid Victoria's pain, and nothing to help those in the air, but Sue was right there, and Amelia wasn't letting a friend go down. No way in hell.

Melethia didn't see the axe coming, so she got launched into the air. She did see the jaws of the cerberus head. The jaws got her but it didn't fully shut on her. She was using what strength she had to keep the jaw from shutting.

"A LITTLE HELP PLEASE!" She yelled.

The jaws around Melethia strained and pushed, and the long, slathering tongue wrapped around her and covered her face and back and pulled, and suddenly she was sliding back, and back into the back of its mouth! The smell was terrible, but there was nothing the dragoness could do to stop the beast's tongue from pressing her to the roof of its mouth and pushing her back, and her leg was caught in its throat and it started to pull her down and down...

And it stopped. Her wings had caught in its throat, dug into the flesh! And here she was, her body down its throat, her foot trapped against the opening of its windpipe! The head began to thrash, trying to howl, trying to cough her up, but the dragon queen was wedged too firmly inside its throat. Its eyes were wide and bloodshot as the beast's whole body thrashed!

"No!" cried the cloaked figure, enraged-- but he could do nothing, not anymore, to help his creation. The leftmost head thrashed a bit longer, and moreso when Valter's spear struck its eye, but soon enough hung limp, choked to death. Melethia's head remained exposed to the air, so even if she didn't want to, she could still breathe. She remained trapped inside the dead creature's throat, alive but stuck until someone could free her.

As the left head died, so did the right outer arm. It fell limp, its axe buried in the ground just to the right of Sue and Amelia-- they had barely avoided being killed. The axe was released as the arm swayed with each movement of the now completely enraged beast, and the Gorgon head screamed to the heavens as she turned her stony gaze on Rei in an attempt to petrify him on the spot.

Amelia shakily pulled herself back up, glad that Sue's life had been spared. Her breathing was labored from the sudden panic, chest heaving underneath the heavy down jacket. As she pulled herself back up, the Gorgon shrieked out a terrible noise that sent a shiver down Amelia's spine. She grasped her Javelin tightly and threw it squarely at the forehead of the creature that was trying to turn Rei into an unamputated, male Venus de Milo. "Leave him alone!" she shouted, watching the weapon fly. Pleasehitpleasehit, she thought.

Valter grinned as he saw his spear connect with the creature's eye. Now confident, he leaped at the Chimera's hand, intending to impale it with his lance.

There was a flash of light somewhere behind the group as Leander and Nino appeared in Nino's favorite clearing, where she took the occasional walk to clear her mind. They were certainly surprised to find that it was so densely populated, particularly with such a massive creature, fighting...

Leander gasped at the sight of the Chimera, pushing Nino behind himself. "Get back! These... these are your friends, Nino?" He looked around at the people here, fighting for their lives. He recognized some of them, from the day he arrived... "My gods, they'll be killed..."