Earth, Hell Base 1, 2032
"Stand ready, they are coming through! Fire on my mark!"
General Willard Hunt called to his soldiers in a booming voice. Rather than a firearm, Hunt held an oversized maul, even a foot taller than he was. Cracks remained in the pavement from where Hunt had dropped it after reaching the defense line.
As the shadows in the red portal began to clear up and come through, the combined force of military and Powered saw what they were up against. Beasts that could commonly be seen on Earth, but mutated and wrong. Some beasts had multiple heads, others eyes, there was even a wolf pack with leathery wings like a bat. The Powered with less experience in high level rifts shuddered at the sight of the foreign creatures, but remained in the defense line.
"GROOOOOAAAAAAH!!!"
The entire combined force took a step back as they heard a spine tingling roar, a massive shadow appearing in the portal. The shadow was over 50 feet tall, and it's crossing made the portal pulse and hum, distorting even further. As the chimera stepped through the portal, many lower ranked Powered immediately broke ranks and ran, unwilling to face the living calamity before them.
General Hunt noticed something off however. The number of creatures was quite small, less than a thousand. When the lowest tier rift flooded there were thousands of creatures that came through. That's when he saw that the tail of the chimera was still in the portal, seemingly stuck. He continued to observe the chimera yank on its tail, eventually forcefully pulling it through. Hunt was shocked to see the chimera stumble forward as the red portal behind it shattered like glass, rapidly shrinking to its original size, roughly 3 yards in diameter, and stabilized . The General's mind raced as he tried to understand this phenomena, but quickly refocused on the sight of the a man emerging from the mouth of the snake.
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Hell Rift, 2032, 30 minutes ago
For the past week creatures had been streaming toward the portal clearing. The chimera had been laying in front of it for over a month, channeling some form of energy into the portal. The rest of the creatures gave it a wide berth, but well over 10,000 creatures watched the chimera as it worked.
Behind a rocky outcrop on a nearby ridge, a shaggy, filthy naked man watched the assembled creatures. The body of a Greek god but the grooming of a mental patient, Gregor Katsov knew this was his chance. When the chimera finally opened the rift back to Earth, he would go home. He gripped the rock he was hiding behind, cracking it in his excitement.
3 years spent endless fighting, endlessly surviving in this place. Gregor had nearly lost his life over a dozen times, and likely would have become little more than a beast himself had the chimera not chosen this time to cause a flood
Gregor heard shuffling footsteps and quiet chittering behind him, and swiftly swung his head around. His reflexes and senses had become highly tuned over the last three years, allowing him to notice the group 8 armed monkeys trying to sneak up on him.
He immediately flew forward, shattering the ground beneath his feet with the force of his movement. His first strike was a right cross to a monkey's jaw, twisting its neck around 180 degrees, killing it instantly. Next, he grabbed two of the arms of a nearby monkey, kicking his foot against its chest, sending the mutilated beast flying through its friends, leaving behind its arms. He quickly used them to bludgeon another shocked monkey to death, destroying the remainder of the arms in the process.
At this point the rest of the monkeys backed away from a bloodstained Gregor standing over their dead packmates. These particular beasts lived in small packs of around 10-12, so losing three was already a massive blow. The largest monkey howled in frustration, then ran off, followed by the rest of its group.
Normally Gregor would give chase, as the monkeys were intelligent enough to be vengeful, but decided against it. He might miss his chance to slip through the portal, and he would not let 3 years in this god forsaken place be wasted on some damn monkeys.
He returned to his spot on the ridge, noticing that the portal was shaking now. It wouldn't be much longer before the rift flooded. Gregor slowly sank into a reverie about the days to come, a warm bed and a hot meal, at least one not cooked over a skin fire on a bone skewer.
Time passed, and the chimera stood up, cutting its channel with the portal. The portal was shaking violently at this point, before a cracking sound echoed across the clearing and the portal expanded to around 100 feet tall. Some bolder monsters began to move through the portal past the chimera, disappearing through to the other side.
Gregor's eyes gleamed with anticipation. He briefly stretched his arms and legs, then got into a low position, primed to jump. He leapt with all his might, leaving a 15 foot crater where he was standing. After hitting the top of his ark, Gregor worried for a moment that he might have jumped too high, some of the beasts below unrecognizable at this height, but had little time to think about it as he came crashing back down. He managed to land on his feet, but not where he wanted. Rather than in front of the portal, he was in the crowd of beasts behind the chimera. He had killed most of the beasts in his immediate vicinity with his meteoric landing, but his senses still screamed danger at him.
Gregor jumped out of the crater he had made on impact, directly in front of a winged wolf. He kneed it in the jaw, sending it careening back into the crowd of beasts, while Gregor took off, dashing between the beasts and throwing powerful blows that sent the beasts flying if a detour would take to long.
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The chimera noticed the noise behind it, but did not care for the beasts it was leading. It only knew that the portal would lead to better food. It began to leisurely move forwards, parting the crowd of beasts in front of it. Some beasts near the portal still filtered in, but largely they knew to make way for the chimera.
The chimera paused briefly before the portal, its instincts telling it about a danger behind it. The snake head looked back and saw a rapidly approaching dust cloud, at its head not a beast, but a prey. Thinking nothing of it, the snake hissed at the incoming prey, coiling to strike. It darted its head out, jaws wide and fangs gleaming, only to be slammed into the ground. It hissed in rage, seeing the tiny prey standing over it, holding it down as the rest of the body continued through the portal. It tried to tell the rest of it what was happening, but their bond was broken while the rest of it was in the portal.
The snake was dragged along the ground all the way up to the portal, where it was rebuffed. Or more accurately, most of the snake was dragged through, but could not pass when the prey got caught on the portal. They prey shouted, hitting the portal. The snaked hissed loudly in pain as the prey struck it, crawling into the snakes open mouth.
Finally, the prey knew its place, as food. The snakes eyes gleamed with malice and satisfaction, finally passing through the portal. As it appeared in a new location, it surveyed the strange rock formations and the many prey before it, ready to feast. The snake opened its mouth slightly, hissing and coiling to strike, when a pair of hands gripped both parts of its open jaw and started forcing them apart.