I Only Summon Villainesses

Chapter 254: Evident Growth

The weight bracelets had been on me for so long that I had forgotten what my body felt like without them.

I had been training, fighting, running, swinging a sword that was already heavy enough on its own, all while carrying Kassie’s ridiculous weights on every limb. I had gotten used to that slower, heavier version of myself, the one that had to work twice as hard for every movement.

This was the real version.

I clenched my fist and the ground under my feet splintered further from the pressure alone.

’Kassie, you beautiful, terrifying woman. I understand now.’

The Chameleon crashed through two more trees before it caught itself, claws scrabbling against bark. It righted on a thick branch and stared at me. For the first time since this fight began, the grin was gone. Those massive bulging eyes narrowed, and its head tilted sideways in that skin-crawling way, studying me like I was a different person than the one it had been throwing around earlier.

I raised Frostfang and pointed it at the bastard.

”Surprised? Yea, me too.”

The Chameleon’s body flickered.

That was the only warning I got. One moment it was crouched on the branch, scales catching the firelight. The next, the branch was empty. The creature was gone. Not leaping, not retreating. Gone. Vanished like it had never existed, leaving nothing behind but the grooves its claws had carved into the bark.

I spun, scanning the trees. Nothing. The forest around me was still burning, fire chewing through the canopy, embers drifting through the air like orange snow, and thick columns of smoke rolling between the trunks. But the Chameleon was nowhere.

”You coward,” I spat. ”You were grinning when you thought you could beat me. Now you hide?”

Silence hit me. Just the crack and pop of burning wood.

I tightened my grip on Frostfang and forced myself to think. The Chameleon was a creature built on deception. Disguise. Camouflage. Of course it could turn invisible. It had worn Nisha’s face convincingly enough to fool me for hours, and the only reason I had caught it at all was because it couldn’t copy an ass correctly.

’Nisha.’

She was inside that thing. Which meant I couldn’t burn it to death even if I wanted to. It also meant I couldn’t go all out. Which in turn now meant this bastard had a hostage and knew it.

A branch cracked somewhere to my left. I swung Frostfang and hit nothing but air.

Something heavy slammed into my back.

I flew forward and hit the ground rolling, flames scattering where my body tore through the burning underbrush. I was on my feet in an instant, spinning to face the direction of the hit. Nothing there. Just smoke and trees and falling ash.

Another impact to my right side this time. Something massive collided with my ribs and sent me skidding across the scorched earth. I dug Frostfang into the ground as an anchor and wrenched myself to a stop, coughing.

’The bastard can hit me while invisible.’

Another tongue-strike from above. I threw myself sideways and felt the wind of it graze my ear. The tongue punched a hole through the ground where my head had been.

I rolled to my feet, ribs aching, and forced my breathing to steady. The fire was everywhere now, and the smoke was getting thick. My eyes stung. Every direction looked the same: white trees burning, ash drifting, embers floating.

Then I noticed something.

The embers were drifting through the air in every direction, carried by heat and wind, landing on surfaces and dying. But in one spot, about fifteen meters ahead and to my right, the embers were landing on something that wasn’t there. They would drift down and then stop, hovering in the shape of something massive before sliding off and falling to the ground.

’Got you.’

I didn’t look directly at it. I let my gaze sweep past that spot as if I’d seen nothing. Instead, I raised my left hand and sent three chains flying.

Two went wide on purpose. The third shot straight at the invisible shape.

The chain connected. I felt the impact through the link, felt the chain wrap around something solid and huge, and the Chameleon shrieked. Its camouflage shattered in a ripple of color, the invisible form bleeding back into view like ink spreading through water. The crimson chain was coiled around its neck, burning into the scales, and the creature was thrashing against it, tail demolishing a tree behind it.

”There you are.”

I yanked the chain and the Chameleon lurched toward me. It dug its claws into the earth and resisted, neck straining against the coil, mouth opening wide enough that I could see down its throat.

Its tongue rocketed out.

I was faster. I caught the tongue on Frostfang’s edge, pinning it to the ground with a downward strike. Frost erupted from the point of contact, ice specks racing up the tongue, and the Chameleon screamed, a sound that shook ash from the trees.

I sent the other two chains forward. They flew with precision I didn’t know I had, wrapping around the creature’s front legs and pulling tight, anchoring it. The Chameleon’s legs buckled outward and its belly hit the dirt.

It thrashed violently, tail whipping through the fire, but the chains held. [Chains of Confession] was a control ability. Binding things was what it was meant to do.

”Stop moving.”

The Chameleon didn’t listen. It twisted its neck and snapped its jaws at the chain, fangs scraping against the crimson links. I pulled tighter and the chain burned brighter, searing into the scales of its neck. The creature howled.

I sent a fourth chain, then a fifth. One around the tail. One across the midsection. Each link glowed with that crimson light, and I could feel the drain on my essence with every chain deployed. But I had replenished. I had more than enough for this.

The Chameleon was pinned. Legs spread, neck yanked low, tail bound to a charred stump. It was still snarling, still trying to break free, but the chains tightened with every struggle.

I walked toward it with Frostfang at my side, flames rolling off my body in lazy crimson waves.

”Now,” I said, standing in front of its massive, ugly face. ”Where is Nisha?”

The Chameleon’s bulging eyes rolled toward me. Its mouth cracked open.

”Dick... big...”

”I will cut your tongue off.”

It went quiet. The huge eyes blinked once, twice. Then the snarling stopped entirely, and something shifted in the creature’s expression. The mindless aggression faded, replaced by something that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

Intelligence. Cold, calculating intelligence, looking out at me from behind those grotesque eyes like a prisoner peering through a window.

”Inside,” the Chameleon said. And this time, the voice wasn’t grotesque or broken. It was clear and certainly belonged to someone who the Chameleon must’ve digested before now.

”She is inside. And if you kill me, she dies with me.”

I stared at the creature. The chains pulsed crimson against its body, and wherever they pressed into the scales, the flesh beneath was beginning to change. To become translucent. Like glass slowly clearing.

The chains were doing what they always did. Forcing truth to the surface. Stripping away the lie.

Having confirmed that my hypothesis were true, I stared at the creature’s belly, through that thinning, clearing flesh, I could see a shape that curled in on itself. It was small, compared to the beast containing it.

The shape moved slightly, like a shift of the shoulders and a slow turn of the head.

I stepped closer and held my sword.

’Don’t worry Nisha, I’ll cut you out right now.’