Chimaera's Conquest: The Legend Of The Devourer-Chapter 264: Beast Form

Adrian sat in his room, staring at his reflection in the small mirror on his desk. His hair and horns have become impossible to ignore. With nothing to do, he sighed, feeling frustrated at the weird situation.

’I can’t even go out with all those reporters waiting for me.’

Adrian was well aware of the media’s hunger for weird situations like his. If they had learned about his situation, he would have never heard the end of it.

"Okay, let’s try this again," he muttered.

Adrian focused on his [Mimic] ability, hoping his appearance to return to normal. His hair flickered, briefly changing from ash grey to blonde before snapping back to the new colour. At the same time, the horns remained stubbornly in place.

"Come on!" Adrian groaned, concentrating harder.

This time, his hair shifted again, almost staying blonde for five seconds before reverting back to the grey. Giving up, he grabbed the hat that Sophia gave him and jammed it on his head, trying to cover the horns.

However, it looked ridiculous, with the horns poking out from under the brim, threatening to tear through the cap.

Sophia knocked on the door and peeked inside. "Adrian, are you okay?"

He turned to her, wearing the hat at an awkward angle.

"Do I look okay?" he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"The hat suits you... haha!" Sophia tried to stifle a laugh but failed. "Trying a new look?"

"This is impossible!" Adrian pulled the hat off and threw it on the bed. "I can’t hide these stupid horns or this hair."

Vesper walked by the open door and stopped, taking in Adrian’s appearance. Unlike Sophia, she didn’t laugh at him, but like his big sister, she tried to make him realise how good he looked. Something that made Adrian feel even worse.

"Hey, the hair is nice. Smooth and silky like you wanted... probably," she said. "As for the horns... well, no point lying about it. They’re a bit edgy."

"You’re not helping, Teach," Adrian said, rolling his eyes.

"Have you tried a wig?" Vesper chuckled and leaned against the doorframe.

"Yes, and it looked even worse," Adrian replied, pointing at the wigs Sophia bought for Adrian an hour ago. "Plus, the horns just tear through them."

"...I’ll go get some other wigs," Sophia replied, hurrying away before she broke down laughing again.

"Wait! I’ll join you!" Vesper yelled back before rushing behind Sophia.

"...good riddance."

<Huhuhuhu...>

Watching Adrian’s baffled face, Lucina couldn’t hold back her laughter. Adrian was already annoyed because of the horns, and now even Lucina was making fun of him. His day couldn’t get any worse even if he tried to.

<This is why I asked Master to check his skills first.>

’My skills?’

Adrian asked and opened the tab when he realised something. He had a few new skills, but one of them was shown as being active.

’Beast form? When did I get such a skill?’

<You obtained the skill upon evolving, Master.>

Adrian nodded and turned his attention towards the skill’s description.

--

• [ BEAST FORM ] (Level 1) : (Active ability) Upon activation, the User transforms into a humanoid beast. This form harnesses and enhances all of the Chimaera’s unique organs, providing a substantial power boost.

In Beast Form, the User gains a 20% increase in strength (STR), agility (AGI), and defence (DEF). Additionally, all physical attacks have a 12% chance of causing bleeding, dealing extra damage over time. The transformation lasts as long as the User can sustain the skill’s mana cost.

Additional Skill effect(s):

> Beast’s Valour: The User can simultaneously trigger every organ’s exclusive ability within the skill duration. However, the effectiveness of said skills will be lowered by 30%.

> Beast’s Intuition: The skill will be cancelled if the User loses control over themselves for any reason.

> Beast’s Ferocity: Fighting more than two enemies at once will increase the User’s stats by 0.1% for each enemy.

[ Rank: EX ]

[Mana cost: 3% mana lost per minute]

[COOLDOWN: 6 hours]

--

Adrian was taken aback by the implications the skill’s descriptions had. Usually, he had to activate skills one after another. Activating all of his skills at once seemed impossible due to their mana cost and the toll it could take on him.

But he was worried since the text said all of his abilities would be triggered simultaneously, others might be in danger around him.

’Most of my abilities are fine, but I’m worried about Blood Mist and Soul Devourer. Once unleashed, I have no control over them.’

While controlling [Blood Mist] was somewhat easy, Adrian still had PTSD from the first and the last time he used [Soul Devourer], and he never wanted to think about using the skill ever again, much less around people he cared about.

<Master, you need to learn to read properly~>

"What do you- oooh! My bad."

Once Adrian read the additional effects of the skill, he sighed in relief. He didn’t have any issues with the [Soul Devourer] skill itself, but he was worried about the second phase, where he would go berserk and kill anyone and everyone in sight.

But since [Beast’s Intuition] passive would cancel all the skills if Adrian lost control over himself, it should be fine to use the skill.

’Although, it’d be better if I tried out the skill in a dungeon first,’ Adrian thought. ’Too bad, that won’t happen for a while.’

As much as Adrian wanted to head to a dungeon right then and there, he didn’t have a choice. After the failed attack, Maria would definitely try anything in her power to stop Vex from revealing her secrets.

She might even try to kill Vex. Therefore, Adrian couldn’t afford to enter a dungeon until the truth was revealed to everyone. As for the DRA, he had little to no faith in them.

James and Rick were the only ones he could depend on, but things might get out of hand even then.

"I should prepare for the worst."