Good question. I think it is ... right behind you

You step out of the bandit hideout and Tocar follows you shortly. The fresh air is very comfortable, but you can't allow yourself to get distracted too much. The chimera is still around. Tocar seems very tense. You understand him. You both hoped to find the monster sleeping. But now you lost your advantage and have to face it awake and in a territory it knows better than you.

“As I see it, we have two choices,” Tocar mumbles, “we can wait here for the monster, maybe even build a trap. Or we could leave and hunt the beast through the forest. Honestly, I don't know what is more effective. What do you think, Clare?”

You are about to answer something, when you suddenly notice some movement in the bushes next to you. A moment later you see a shadow disappearing. You freez in shock and point in the direction, but can't make a sound. It is a mix of skill, experience and a ton of luck that Tocar understands your gesture and immediately throws a fireball while turning around. A tenth of a second later, a hissing, hairy creature bursts out of the bushes right to Tocar. His fireball rushes straight to the monster and forces it to abort it's attack to dodge. The fireballs only hits a tree and luckily only sets a small piece of it on fire.

Now that the surprise element is gone, the monster takes a moment to watch it's new enemies. You get a horrifying look at it too. The village people described it as a mix of big wolf and scorpion. This is not far from the true. The biggest part of the body looks like a black wolf. But his size is enormous. Even on all fours, he is almost as high at you. And then there is is the scorpion tail on his lower backside. You are no expert in desert insects, but the sting alone could cause serious injury and the venom inside is guaranteed to be deadly. There are several furless spots on it's body. At first you thought it is a result of former fights, but then you notice it is pieces of insect shells.

You don't have time to capture everything. The chimera seems to know you are mages and has no interest in letting you form more spells to attack it. It inhaled deep and then shoots out a howl that is so loud and terrifying that you think the whole area shivers. You and Tocar have to cover your ears with all your strength to not go deaf or loose your mind.

“Get behind me!” Tocar commands very tense and prepares the next spells, “this is too much for a novice. Let me handle it!”

You want to contradict him and make it clear that you are here to help. However, you are aware that a fight is the worst possible time to have such discussions. You have **** but to hold back and be on an opportunity to intervene and help.

At first, the fight looks quite good for Tocar. With fireballs, walls of fire and flame whips, he can not only keep the chimera at a distance, but even burn it a few times. If he manages not to use up his mana reserves too quickly, he can win the fight. The chimera, on the other hand, has to pay attention to her endurance and injuries. She stabs, bites and bumps again and again against Tocar, whose fire spells do not always protect him. A few times he has to swerve and give up his position, but is otherwise uninjured.

You try to find a way to be useful. But there is none. You can't distract the beast without distracting Tocar too. You also can't attack it because either Tocar is in your way or it moves too fast. And Tocar needs no healing so far. All you can do is wait, hope and shiver every time the chimera rushes forward to bite Tocar's head off. But then suddenly, the fight goes for almost five minutes, the chimera seems to get slower, it even gasps a little. It seems to run out of energy.

Tocar notice this too and goes in for a final attack. He fakes a fireball slightly to the left to **** the chimera to dodge to the right. This also works, because the chimera jumps directly into the attack field of his other hand. The monster is now dangerously close, but Tocar is already forming the next spell in the jump. A spear of fire. A powerful attack spell that you only know theoretically so far. With enormous speed, the spear races towards the chimera and collides directly at it's side. A small fire explosion occurs, followed by an aggressive, pain-distorted scream.

Tocar gasps triumphantly and you are also about to run to him, when suddenly the scorpion's tail shoots forward and sinks deep into Tocar's belly. The protective leather tears like paper and Tocar is thrown by the **** against the nearest tree. The chimera, on the other hand, seems to be only slightly injured. With horror, you realize that it was just pretending to be finished. This beast is smarter than you thought. It blocked the mighty spear of fire with a plate of it's insect shell. The plate is broken and the fur around burned, but this is a minor hit at best. It will neither kill the chimera, nor slow her notably down.

“Tocar!” you scream desperately, “hold out, I come.”

“No, run!” Tocar screams back with clear fear in his trembling voice, “run! Get to safety right now! It will kill you!”

Your mind is racing. You have to decide what you want to do. You could follow Tocar's command and get to safety. But you would definitely leave him to die. He is poisoned and hopelessly outgunned. The advantage would be that if he manages to weaken the chimera, you could finish it off in a second attempt and keep all the pay, as well as the fame. That would be a cowardly and highly reprehensible act, but since he basically gave you the order, the whole thing would also be very easy to justify.

On the other hand, if you decide to play the heroine and take up the fight against this monster, you would have to fight it to the ****. And it would be possible that it would be your ****. It would be a true heroic deed and maybe you can save Tocar's life in the process. After all, he was sincere and respectful of you from the beginning. Whatever you want to do, the decision, as well as the consequences, is now yours.