"A level five chimera. Seriously Bones? Seriously?!" Bastion shouted his grievances into the sky, but there was no answer.

The chimera's snake-tail stopped swaying and came around from behind it, so that each of its three heads now observed us closely. For a few tense seconds, nobody dared to make a move. And then, without further warning, the creature lunged forward. The three of us jumped out of the way and it came crashing down right where we had stood a split second before, raising a cloud of dust at the impact. The sheer size of that monster did not seem to make it any less agile, and it turned around rapidly, lashing at Bastion, who had been the closest to it.

My heartbeat picked up its pace, and I could feel another surge of adrenaline flow through my body. In the real world, my lips curled upward in a wicked grin. This was even better than just fighting the two of them. After all, fighting giant monsters was right up my alley, it was what I did in simulation training all the time.

The creature seemed fixated on Bastion for the moment, so I charged forward to attack. But what I hadn't reckoned with was that the creature's heads apparently worked completely independently from each other. Out of nowhere, a whiplash from the snake-tail knocked me to the side. The rapid jerk of the simulated impact and my subsequent fall caused the rig around me to rattle so precariously that I could hear it all the way into the sim and over the sound of the music.

I scrambled to my feet again, only to find that the goat head had begun to spew fire all around without any clear aim. I dove to the side as a stray fireball came in my direction, and came back up, tightening my grip on my weapons. It was nothing but dumb luck that that I hadn't let go of the swords when I had been hit before. I scolded myself for letting my adrenaline get the better of me and charge in so recklessly, and vowed not to let it happen again.

First Lesson. Know your enemy.

I had been through enough of Steel's sims to know that every monster, no matter how big and scary looking, no matter if real or simulated, had a weakness somewhere. If his last sim had taught me anything, it was that this seemed to hold true even if their creator didn't even intend to give them one.

As I watched the creature move now, I realized that in the case of the chimera, the most obvious weakness was a blind spot between its tail and the back of the fire-spitting goat head. A plan began to form in my head, but the only way I could execute it was if the creature was momentarily distracted. Luckily, Blaze and Bastion had currently engaged it and kept it busy.

Bastion threw his spear at it, and in an impressive shot hit the goat head right in one of its eyes. The creature's lion head roared in pain and anger, and it lashed out with its front paws at him. That moment, Blaze rushed at it from behind, soon finding the gaping maw of the snake in his way.

Three heads, three players, I realized. Makes sense.

I didn't dwell on my realization. When the goat turned around to find me, I had already crossed half of the distance between us, swords sheathed securely at my sides this time. It belched a ball of flame in my direction and I ducked at the last second. If my hair had been real, it would be singed now. A low rumbling resounded from the depths of the goat's throat, as it immediately began to prepare another attack, so I darted forward again and made a beeline for the creature's flank. Grabbing onto the thick fur on its hind leg, I started to climb. The goat head swiveled around, trying to follow my movements, but it couldn't turn back far enough to fix me with its angry, one-eyed glare. It let out a disgruntled, eerie sound reminiscent of heavy stones in an empty tin barrel, and black smoke began to rise from its nostrils.

This time, I wasn't surprised when the rest of the creature's body began to react to me. While I scrambled up the rest of the way, it began to buckle and rear up in an attempt to throw me off, but I held on to its ragged fur tightly, and soon reached the dead angle of its attacks.

The goat joined the lion in focusing on Bastion instead. Without his spear he had to rely on his sword now, which was as a whole about as long as one of the lion's claws, so he was at a significant disadvantage. The goat belched again and Bastion barely evaded the fireball that came at him by rolling to the side.

I cast a glance over my shoulder towards the chimera's behind, where it seemed that Blaze had successfully subdued the head of the snake with his net for a moment. However, as the creature kept rearing up again and again, he had his difficulties to land a killing blow.

The chimera buckled once more, and the snake thrashed around frantically. Blaze, still holding on to the net, was suddenly and violently yanked from his feet and landed face down on the sandy ground. The snake shook off the net with an angry hiss, and as Blaze rolled over and looked up, he stared right down the reptile maw, ready to lacerate him.

I had planned to attack the goat, but in that instant, I changed my mind.

Unsheathing my swords I rushed along the creature's back and down along its thick, scaly tail. I raised the blades high and plunged them right into the snake's head. The lion roared in pain, lashing out with its tail one last time, and just before I got knocked off I was able to pull out my swords again. I landed rather inelegantly in the dirt next to Blaze's avatar, but behind me, I heard the snake head collapse to the ground with a thud.

"Thanks," the woman said with Blaze's voice. He scrambled to his feet and picked up his net and trident, "But it's not like I needed any help."

Don't you worry, I thought, I only saved your hide so I can kick your ass myself later.

I got back up to my feet, grinning in the real world. I hadn't felt so exhilarated since the Daidala test run. In a way, this was even better, because it was new and exciting, but I could be fairly certain that this time I wouldn't end up with a concussion and a bruised rib.

The chimera was now seriously pissed at losing one of its heads. It whirled around, its tail trailing behind limply, and leaped at us with another bone shattering roar. Blaze and I dashed off in two different directions, but as if it was aware that it had been me who had delivered the fatal blow to the snake head, it decided to pursue me.

As long as it was fixated on me like that, I was better off running than meeting its wild charge heads-on, so I let it chase me halfway across the arena before I looked over my shoulder - just in time to see the goat head spit another fire ball. I rolled to the side to evade it, but when I wanted to jump back to my feet, I felt that a cable had become tangled around my foot in the real world.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath, as I scrambled up and tried to shake my leg to free it.

The chimera was still hot on my trail, and when I raised my head to look at it, it was just about to cover the last stretch of distance between us, with the lion baring its fangs in a ferocious roar and the goat's remaining eye glowing white. With my leg still caught up in the cables of the rig in the real world, I knew I wouldn't be fast enough to dodge this time.

But it didn't come to that.

Form behind it, Bastion, who had apparently climbed onto the chimera's back via its limply hanging tail, had reached the goat head and grabbed it by the horns. He pulled it back so violently that the fireball it had prepared erupted straight up into the air like a fizzled firework. And then, with the force of his full body weight, he jump-kicked at the back of the goat head, and its neck broke with a horrific cracking sound under his feet. And from its flank, Blaze charged at the beast, ramming his trident into its belly

The chimera roared in pain and staggered, thrown off balance by the impact of the two simultaneous attacks. It buckled, and Bastion was flung off its back. It whirled around, and Blaze had to retreat in the face of the lion's claws, his trident remaining lodged in its side.

"Did you hear that too?" Bastion asked over the intercom, panting.

"Hear what?" Blaze asked. "I was kinda busy here."

Their attack had deterred the chimera from me for now, so I quickly seized my chance and blindly reached for that stray cable in the real world. In the simulation it probably looked like I had bent down to tie my shoe.

When I got back up, I realized that all of us looked quite tattered already. Bleeding scratches and graze wounds covered our avatars, Blaze's net had ripped in the fight with the snake, and his trident was stuck in the creature's belly, leaving him unarmed. Bastion had lost his spear - it was still tightly lodged in the goat's skull which now hung down limply over the creatures back like a malformed, exhausted rider. The chimer itself now only had one head left. The lion let out a frustrated growl as it tried to pull the the trident out of its side, moving in a circle like a cat chasing its tail.

"You lost your weapon," Bastion noted. His avatar had his gaze fixed on Blaze's as he tightened the grip on his sword.

"Aw, come on, man. You really want to do this right now?" Blaze sighed in annoyance.

I still couldn't get over the sight of this woman talking with Blaze's voice. It was hilarious. I managed to muffle my laughter in a quiet chuckle.

"I think you were right. That's no NPC," Bastion noted with a sideward glance in my direction. "Which is too bad, because it means you will be stuck with the bronze medal this year!"

That very moment, the chimera had finally managed to grab a hold of the trident with its fangs, pulled it out and flung it to the side. Blaze realized his only chance was to get his weapon back, so he lunged forward to grab it. At the same time, Bastion charged at him - and the chimera charged at the both of them.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment, but I knew that it wasn't the sim that acted up. It was the sheer force of my adrenaline rush, surging through my veins and putting me into overdrive, heightening my senses and reflexes and causing every fiber of my muscles to tingle and tense at the same time. I readied my swords and charged forward.

Blaze threw himself on the floor, reached for his trident and brought the hilt up just in time to block Bastion's sword from splitting his skull. With their weapons locked against each other once more, Blaze on the floor and Bastion cowering over him, neither of them would have stood a chance to defend themselves against what was coming for them. The creature roared, and as they looked up and saw it coming at them, they probably realized that, too.

I could have let the beast finish them off, but where would have been the fun in that?

A thundering roar tore through the arena as the lion bore its fangs. Just then, I reached their position and jumped, first landing on Bastion's back which he requited with a muffled scream of surprise, and then jumping again to meet the chimera on face-level, swords raised. And then, complete chaos ensued.

Everything blurred. Clouds of dust and tufts of fur filled the air around us, and there was blood everywhere. I heard the clang of metal on metal, drowned out by another roar, which turned into a gruesome, agonized cry. Incoherent cries from Bastion and Blaze. A loud creaking noise from the rig in the real world, as something hit me and I was hurtled aside. A loud thud as the creature finally collapsed.

The next thing I knew was that I was lying face down in the dirt, a few meters away from the limp body of the beast. Blood was gushing from a deep wound at my side. The chimera had probably swatted me off its face like a fly just moments before it had gone down for good. I propped myself up on hands and knees, and the vertigo-inducing motion of the rig told me that my avatar was probably about to pass out. Every motion had become slow and hard as the rig simulated the draining of my strength.

Bastion had been hit by the creature's massive paw as well and had been thrown a couple of feet into the distance. He managed to scramble back to his feet, although he seemed to have difficulty standing up. He was barely holding it together. Blaze, who had been half buried by the beast's massive body and came climbing out from underneath it, didn't look much better.

"Angel over there can't seem to stand up," Bastion remarked, as his avatar looked at me. "Whoever that is, we should finish them off and get back to what we were here to do in the first place."

"Yeah," Blaze agreed, "Time to end this."

As they made their way towards me, I realized my weapons were gone. Blaze had pulled one of my two swords from the chimera's snout, and Bastion came at me with his own. My sight began to blur as my character's health continued to be drained by the gash at her side. But I wasn't ready to give up, not yet. They didn't look much better than me. It wouldn't take much.

They approached me almost casually, their weapons not yet raised. They thought I was easy prey now. They thought wrong. And they would regret underestimating me. I smiled as I slowly reached for the two small daggers that I were still strapped to my legs. Just five more meters between each of us now. Three meters. Two meters. I saw an opening.

Gritting my teeth and mustering all of my strength against the rig's sluggish drag, I leaped back to my feet, lunged forward in Blaze's direction and planted the dagger in the tall woman's chest before he could so much as raise his weapon. Before either of them realized what was happening, I whirled around and threw the second blade at Bastion's avatar's throat. It hit the mark, and with a gurgling sound, he went down. Next to me, the female gladiator stumbled and fell to her knees as well. It was over.

"You're welcome, boys," I said over the intercom before my character collapsed as well and my field of vision went black.

_____

A.N.
This is another scene that underwent massive changes from the first draft to now - they were originally fighting NPCs in a dungeon, but I think the 'battle royale' they have now is much more interesting. The chimera came into play because I wrote this at a time when I played lots of Dragon's Dogma :'D I'm not quite sure if I am satisfied with the flow of the fight and the action - I find that it is really not one of my strong suits, because I can never really tell if the balance between "pure" action and description (of how the characters feel) is good and results in a nice flow, but I do feel like writing Against the Tide has helped me practice that. But still, your comments or suggestions are appreciated.