Chapter 3


        A choir of horns blared on Romeo’s phone, prompting him awake at his usual, early 5 AM wakeup time.  Yawning and stretching in his bed, he was momentarily confused at the sight of a slender arm wrapped across his chest.  The cheetah’s eyes followed the appendage from the hand, down the arm, and all the way back to the shoulder where it was connected to the leopard girl he had hooked up with during Dozer’s defeat, at the hands of Typhon.  For the life of him, he couldn’t remember her name.  The fact that she had already spent the night in bed with him meant he had no reason now to bother to learn it.
        Carefully, he lifted up her arm to slip free of her.  Quietly, he then climbed out of his plush, king-sized bed.  It was equipped with a canopy so that drapes could conceal those resting upon the mattress.  Pushing the curtain aside, he took his first step out of bed, revealing his body was completely bare, save for the crusty condom from last night still clinging to his dick.  Plucking it off, he dropped the cum-filled balloon in his trashcan and proceeded to tiptoe through his bedroom and towards the bathroom.
        His room was lavishly decorated to give it the appearance of the insides of a king’s personal chambers.  There were a variety of fine rugs covering the floor and a very fancy wallpaper to give it a feel of the Middle Ages.  The walls were lined with weapons like swords, spears, and lances, though all of it was just plastic props for show.  Even his dresser, tables, and chairs were made to give them that 16th century feel.  The one thing that did stand out as a part of the modern era, however, were all the trophies and ribbons upon them that he had won from various races and marathons he had participated in.
        “Up already?” asked the leopard girl as she continued to laze about in bed, but raised an arm to wiggle her fingers at him till he turned around to look at her.  “Oh, Romeo!  Romeo!  Wherefore  art thou?”
        “It tis a noble knight’s duty to arise early so that they might be at the ready to smite villainous fiends wherever they may lurk,” he answered her poetically.  “Fair maiden, rest for however long you wish, but I must prepare to defend both king and country from that dragon most foul and reclaim honor for my fallen comrades.”
        “I know you will, beloved,” she spoke to him, charmed by his words, and lustful for that body of his that she snuggled with all night after a blissful session of lovemaking.  She was already wet with the anticipation of what tonight would bring, especially after he would end Typhon’s reign of terror once and for all.  “Do what you must to get ready.  I’ll rest a little longer and then be on my way.  Till we meet again.  Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
        “It is indeed,” he replied, entering his bathroom, he gripped the door’s handle and bowed to her gracefully.  “So long.  Farewell.  Till we meet again.”  He shut the door behind him.
        “SHIT!  SHIT!  FUCK!  SHIT!  FUCK!” Romeo cried internally as he gripped his sink in both arms.  His whole body was shaking and he was breaking into a sweat just recalling the sight of Typhon as he wrecked Dozer’s ass and stole everything from the bull till he was reduced to the state of a newborn.  The images of Brock were also on his mind, but viewing pictures on his phone were hardly the same as seeing it all go down in person.
        “Damn it, Dozer,” he sobbed.  “Why’d ya have ta fuck up and lose ta dat varmit?  Imma lover not a fighter.  I don’t wanna be his next victim.”
        Turning the cold level on his sink, he splashed some refreshing water on his face, hoping the shock of it would do something to get him out of this mindset.  It actually worked and he started to breathe heavily, watching his reflection in his vanity mirror.  Seeing the water drip from his face as his slender body inflated and deflated with each big breath of air he too, he smiled a little as he admired that body of his that had been a labor of love to sculpt.
        Looking his naked figure over, there was not much muscle to be taken from him, not when compared to the likes of Brock and Dozer.  After just the first, Typhon had already surpassed Romeo in strength and size.  Now, he was easily the largest student in school and probably the largest in town at that.  Focusing his gaze at his crotch, Romeo caressed his dick a little.  The cheetah then shuddered at the thought of losing his own impressive length and virility to that monster.  Losing everything his friends had was also terrible, but his cock was the one piece of him he found the hardest to part with.
        “Was last night da last time I am gonna git ta have fun like that?” he worried.  “Maybe I should leave town.  Git away from that monster at least till he decides to torment elsewheres.”
        “I did not know you had already lost your balls and dick,” Romeo said to himself as he looked at himself in the mirror and pretended he was having an actual conversation with himself.
        “What?” he answered his mirror self timidly.
        “How else could you consider running away with your tail between your legs,” he chastised himself.  “You are the prince of the school and a knight of great integrity and honor.”
        “Come on now,” he argued with himself.  “All that prince talks just been a load of baloney.  My family ain’t descendants of Arthur or nutting like dat.  It’s all been an act since I moved here so I wouldn’t be seen as some simple country bumpkin.”
        “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,” his reflection countered, much to his chagrin.  “You have reached the crossroads of your lie.  To either give it all up and surrender your pride or to face the beast and risk losing that and more.”
        “Like Hell I can beat dat monster,” he admitted, staring at his slender body as he flexed his muscles to show off just what he had to work with.  “He can break me in two like a toothpick!”
        “Which is why you are going to fight him on your terms,” he reminded himself.  “You know he’s capable of draining you merely by touch so you must compete with him in a way that you don’t need to come into physical contact with him.”
        “Yeah,” he nodded.  “Which is why I fix ta race the varmint.  That way I merely need to avoid him at the starting line and afer dhat I’ll leave him in da dust.”
        “The conceited fool thinks he is an unstoppable monster.  He thinks that no matter the challenge he will win, but that will be his downfall.  You will win and be a hero to the whole school.”
        “Yeah!” cheered Romeo, raising up his arms in extremely premature triumph.  “I’ll kick dat dumb monster’s ass and shine brighter than ever.”
        “That’s the spirit!  Now go!  Fulfill your destiny!”
        “I can win!  I can do this!” exclaimed Romeo feeling really pumped up as he watched himself in the mirror.  However, as soon as he turned away, he curled up into a ball and trembled.  “I must be some kind of nut to believe I can actually pull this off,” he whimpered, wishing time would just stand still so he never had to go and face Typhon, but he knew that was only wishful thinking.  After a few minutes he managed to gather his courage to stand up calmly.  Taking a deep breath, he proceeded to his sink once more to brush his teeth and get his day started for real.


        Entering into school today, Typhon wore a confident grin as he casually walked through the halls showing off his body in his skin tight jeans and muscle shirt.  His golden mane flowed elegantly and the horns on his head had been lovingly sharpened and polished in the time since he had acquired them.  But out of all the things he had stolen to build himself up, nothing caught more attention from his fellow students than the bulge in his pants that looked ready to burst free if he so much as thought of something lewd.
        “This just keeps getting better and better,” he told himself as he wore a smug grin and enjoyed being able to look down on everyone while his head was close to touching the ceiling.  “I’m finally getting a perfect body to go along with my perfect mind.  It still needs work, but already there is nobody who can oppose me.”  Looking around, everybody who saw him either remained quiet and meek as he passed or hurried out of sight before he got any closer to him.  “Heheh.  Even if they thought they could, they wouldn’t have the balls to try, knowing full well they’d just end up as part of mine in the end.
        As he turned down the hall, Typhon spotted a few of the jocks from before and couldn’t resist having a little fun.  Putting all his weight into his feet, he stomped on over, making the ground shake and boom as he approached.  Instantly, they turned to see him approach, but were either too frightened to move or feared running would only entice some predatory instinct with him to give chase.
        “You pipsqueaks doing okay today?” he asked them as he loomed his towering size over them.  Placing a hand on the top of the lockers he gave them a little demonstration of what the combined might of Dozer and Brock could do as he bent the metal simply by clenching his hand into a fist.
        “W-We’re fine,” one stuttered as he felt Typhon exuding his power.  It made him feel incredibly small and all the others felt equally puny.
        “That’s good,” he smirked, removing his hand from the dented metal to rub at his crotch, doing so to draw their attention down to his monster of a dick that could have eaten all theirs for breakfast.  “I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to my fellow students, especially ones so… small.  Ants have a tendency to get stepped on by creatures larger than themselves and end up nothing more than nasty splatters underfoot.”
        “Y-You aren’t planning on stepping on us?” the fox jock started to cry, unable to keep as calm as the others who all looked on the verge of freaking out too.
        “Don’t be silly,” chuckled Typhon, turning his focus onto that one jock in particular.  The fox backed off several steps away from Typhon, only for the chimera to close the gap in less than half the number in stomps.  He then placed a hand onto the fox’s head.  After seeing how he could bend metal with ease, the jocks didn’t doubt that Typhon could have crushed his head like a grape with the same level of ease.
The monstrous creature could have even drained away all the fox’s strength and add it to his own before fucking the shriveled remains of the fox, like he had done with Brock and Dozer.  He couldn’t tell which fate was worse, but, rather than either, the chimera just gently rubbed his head as he continued to speak.  “I was merely speaking metaphorically.  In this world of ours the strong devour the weak, but in some cases the truly powerful don’t even see the need to eat what is nothing more than crumbs to them.  They might ignore them or not even know they exist, possibly stomping on them by accident.  Then there are those who just find a certain joy in stomping on the weak simply because it is so easy.  Easy as clenching one’s fingers into a fist.  Can you imagine such a thing?”
“I can now,” the fox’s voice cracked as he looked up at Typhon, the chimera’s claws still on his head.  Looking into the monster’s eyes, he was smirking with a gentle gleam in his eyes.  However, behind that he could see the true beast he was, capable of destroying everything in its path without any trace of remorse whatsoever.  The only reason he hadn’t yet was because he was enjoying himself far too much to end it as swiftly as he could.  In this case, with the fox, he watched his fear overflow, causing him to start pissing his pants in sheer terror.  As he started to soak his jeans down to his thighs, Typhon lightly chuckled and released his head, letting him drop to his knees and bawl his eyes out.
“Well, if anyone gives you trouble just give me a call and I’ll straighten them out,” Typhon said, giving him a pat on the back and then went on his way, laughing heartily.
The fox just sat silently in his wet pants till Typhon was finally far enough away to wail out in despair.  “He’s… he’s a monster!”
“We know he is,” the other jocks comforted him on the ground, well aware that that could have been any of them.  “It’s okay.  He’s gone and you’re okay.”
“But for how long?” he sobbed.  “He’s messing around with us right now, but what happens when he’s had his fun and decides to just stomp on us like ants?”
“There’s still Romeo,” the hippo jock reminded him.  “He is planning to challenge him and if even one person can defeat Typhon that should end his reign of terror over us.”
“If he can win,” the fox sniffled.  “And if Typhon keeps his word.  Both are big ifs and I doubt either is still possible with how large he’s become.  Romeo might be fast, but I doubt anyone can escape that monster’s reach.  I’m afraid that we… we might need to do something desperate in order to survive.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing,” admitted the wolf jock.  “Since seeing what happened to Brock and even moreso once Dozen met the same fate.  If Romeo can’t stop him, then we might need to ask a favor from Bruce.”
“Bruce!” cried the hippo.  “He’s another monster!  He might be even worse than Typhon, at least in terms of body count.”
“Exactly,” the wolf nodded.  “What better to kill one monster than another one?”
“Still,” added the fox.  “Can you imagine what he might make you do with the debt you’d get from a favor like this?”
“It’d be deep, but maybe we could split it between a few of us,” he suggested.  “It’d be in his interest too, considering he might become a target at some point himself.”
“I can’t think of anything else,” the fox admitted.  “It sounds like he might be our only and possibly best option.”
“Then tonight, we will go and meet with Bruce,” decided the wolf.  “We’ll see if anyone else wants in on this deal too.  I’m sure they’ll want to play even a small part in avenging Brock and Dozer and Romeo, if he meets the same fate as them.  And if it can be a split debt then it might not be a steep cost for anyone as a result.”
With a nod from them all, the jocks then helped up the fox and led him to the bathroom to get him cleaned up.  While they did that, Typhon peeked around the corner with a sinister toothy grin on his head.  “Bruce, eh,” he pondered as he sifted through the knowledge he obtained from Brock and Dozer to see what they knew of him.  “Hmm… I don’t know much about him, save that he’s not one to mess with and those guys referred to him as an even bigger monster than me.”
Typhon rubbed his chin as his cock attempted to burst free of his pants.  The idea of another quarry to feast upon was already wetting his appetite before he even started on the one he was currently hunting.  The chimera even started to drool with hunger.  Wiping his maw clean, Typhon made his way down the hallway.  “Romeo and Bruce,” he spoke to himself with a big, toothy grin.  “I wonder who I’ll get to devour first.  Romeo hasn’t done more than puff out his chest so far.  Will he actually go through with it or are his balls even smaller than mine were before my first growth spurt?”
Chuckling at the thought, he stopped at his locker.  Not that he had anything in it or had anything he needed to put away.  Taped to it was an envelope with a wax seal stamped with a fancy letter R.  A slight chuckle slipped past Typhon’s toothy grin, already certain who the sender was.  Plucking the letter from his locker and breaking the seal with a flick of a claw, he opened the envelope to remove a letter that was inside of it.  The letter was on a thick, textured cardstock with a shiny golden border.  It was written in a royal blue fountain pain in the nicest cursive the chimera had ever seen.


Dear dragon,
        I am making good on my vow to slay you before you can once again befall your wrath upon our kingdom.  You may have bested Brock and Dozer, but I shall succeed where they have failed and avenge them.  This I swear on my honor as both a night and prince.
        As for how we shall battle, we will do so by means of a foot race.  You may choose the time, the place, and even the number of laps, if necessary.  If you accept my challenge then you can contact me at (XXX)-XXX-XXXX to schedule our fated duel.  Go ahead and try to stack this battle in your favor.  My legs have never let me down and they will carry our kingdom to salvation once you are banished from it forever.
Romeo


        With the letter read, Typhon just chuckled as he took a seat on a nearby bench and pulled out his phone to check on something.  “I’ll admit,” he mumbled.  “You do have some nice legs.  I look forward to seeing how they’ll look on me.  In fact, you’ve got a few things I think I’d enjoy making me own.  Hmm…”  He paused for a moment and got up to walk to a window, checking outside.  “Looks like I’ll be able to take what I want this afternoon.”
        Typhon then started to dial Romeo’s number.  The cheetah answered, surprised at getting such a quick response.  “M-Monster?” his voice cracked as he answered, but he quickly recovered.  “I mean, is this the dragon that threatens my fair kingdom?”
        “Heheh, yes it is I,” cackled Typhon getting into the act.  “Nobel prince, you may address me as Typhon the All Consuming.  Your kingdom is but a snack for my insatiable hunger.”
        “I shan't allow it!” snapped Romeo, kicking his desk down as he raged at Typhon on his phone.  “Have you already decided upon when we shall cross swords.  That is to say, race?”
        “Yes I have,” he answered in a dark, ugly tone that oozed unrestrained malice.  “I see you have allowed me to decide.  I’m sure I could pick a dozen places that would make this a cakewalk for me to seize victory and devour you immediately after, but where would the fun in that be?  Instead, let’s race in a place you are used to running and one that should put us on equal footing.  I think the school’s outdoor track will do the job nicely.”
        “That’s mighty sporting of you,” smirked Romeo, delighted to hear that choice of location.
“The track is wide enough for five regular racers to run on side-by-side,” he thought.  “I’ll have plenty of room to keep my distance from him even to overlap him without the risk of getting drained.  That was the biggest hurdle so everything else should be no trouble at all.”
        “As for the time,” continued Typhon.  “Let’s say… after school at, oh, is 5 o’clock good for you?”
        “Fine with me,” he agreed.  “And how many laps?  One?  Five?  Ten?”
        “How about thirty?” cackled Typhon devilishly.  “You did say I could decide the number, right?  Or is your world good as gold, the fool’s kind?”
        “Indeed I did say that,” he replied.  “And if thirty laps is what you want then thirty laps we shall run.”
        “That idiot monster probably thinks my strength lies only in my speed and that my stamina is my weakness,” Romeo analyzed in his head.  “He probably believes that I’d tire out part way through and be easier for him to catch.  After thirty laps I’ll only be a little winded and that big, lumbering body of his won’t even cover half that distance by the time I finish.  Victory is already mine before the race has even started.”
        “Then I shall see you this evening,” threatened Typhon.  “Enjoy what time you have left.  Come this evening, your ass will be mine, among plenty more of you.”
        “Nothing of mine is being taken by the likes of you, Typhon,”  countered Romeo.  “Least of all my ass and I will prove it to you then.  Till we meet, I bid you adieu!”  Romeo hung up the phone, only to realize he had the whole class, the teacher included, staring at him for the scene he just made.
        “Uh, it was an important call,” he apologized.  “Sorry for the interruption.”


        Though the day had started out only partly cloudy, as morning turned to nood and then evening it became completely overcast with dull, grayness blocking the vibrant blue sky clouds.  Soon to follow was some low rumbling of thunder that was slowly increasing in bass.  As Romeo stared up at the sky, he held out a paw, expecting it to open up and rain to start pouring out of the heavens at any moment.
        “I’m not opposed to running in the rain,” he thought as he turned to the stands where a large number of his fellow students had gathered to watch his match against Typhon, once word spread about it.  “Even so, I’d hate for all the pictures taken, once I win, to feature me with rain-soaked fur.”
        “Ready to lose, kitten?” asked Typhon as he approached Romeo, flexing and stretching his body to limber up before the run.  “Or would you rather just skip the race and just give me what I want from you now.”
        As Typhon extended one of his big hands over Romeo’s head, he could have easily covered the whole thing with it and picked him up off the ground.  Despite his heart pounding wildly with fright, Romeo wouldn’t allow himself to show any fear while so many eyes were on him.  Burying his anxiety, he retorted, “Celebrating a bit early, aren’t we?  If you want to drain me like you did the others then you’re going to have to defeat me all the same.  Or, maybe you know you can’t so you’ve decided to throw away your honor and decided to simply take it like the prideless monster we know you are.”
        Those words stopped Typhon in his tracks, but it didn’t anger him.  It only made him give a toothy smirk as he retracted his arm.  “A fair point,” he conceded.  “And with an audience of this size it’d be a shame to end this spectacle so quickly.  Very well, shall we begin?”
        “I’m ready if you are, monster,” Romeo nodded, giving his legs a little more stretching as he took his spot on the outermost lane on the track.  “Pick a lane and the ref will signal us to run.”
        “This is going to be so much fun,” the chimera chuckled.  “I’ve never run in a race before.  I’ve never had anyone to compete with, plus I’ve always been too small and weak to be any good at it.  But, now, I get to go up against the champ and I think I have a pretty good shot at winning.”
        “And that’s what I’d expect to hear from anyone with the passion and determination to compete,” praised Romeo.  “I believe this will be a race for the ages.”
        “I am going to beat this ass fucker so bad that it won’t even be funny,” thought Romeo internally.  “I’ll leave him in the dust from the get go.  He’ll be so humiliated that he’ll never want to race ever again.”
        A kangaroo stood on the edge of the grassy field inside the track.  He had a starter pistol in his hand that he kept pointed skyward.  The spectators in the stands had been chattering and gossiping almost exclusively about the race about to take place and their thoughts on if either Romeo or Typhon would win, but as he started to speak, they all went silent.
        “The race between Romeo and Typhon will now begin!” he announced.  “It will be a one-on-one run around the track for thirty laps.  There is no time limit.”  He paused for a moment, taking a breath.  His nerves were trembling, just as much as everyone else’s were, for whatever the outcome would be.  “Racers!  On your mark!”  The two of them got into a running stance.  Typhon had one leg extended as far as he was allowed to begin running immediately.  Romeo’s far more flexible body allowed him to get into a low running stance so that he could spring forward right from the start and go right into a run from that.  Just from seeing this, Romeo already knew his start was going to be far better than his opponent’s.
        “He really did become too cocky after beating Brock and Dozer,” figured the cheetah.  “He would have been a threat had he been able to manipulate this battle in his favor, but in a fair race he has no way in Hell to win against me.”
        “Get set!” continued the kangaroo, his trigger finger squeezing not quite tight enough to fire the gun.
Typhon’s muscles tightened as he prepared himself to start running the second the gun went off.  Romeo let out a low growl, as his concentration focused solely on the racetrack in front of him and the chimera.  “This is my victory.  No doubt about it,” he thought.  “Even so, I will give him no quarter.  I will crush him with all my might.  For the sake of the school, but even moreso, for my own sake.  I will not become his next victim!”
“Mmm,” salivated Typhon, sensing the extreme tension within his opponent.  “The little guppy thinks he can escape the great white that’s got him in his sights.”  He ran his tongue over his lips with delight.  “It’s both cute and also very sad that he thinks he even has a chance of escaping me.  He can swim all he wants, but he’s too blind to even realize that he’s just swimming circles inside my maw and I’m just enjoying his struggles till I decide to swallow.”
“Go!” finished the kangaroo as he fired off the blank from the gun and the audience began to cheer as the racers took off.  They both shot forward and got off to a great start, but as Romeo had already anticipated, he had already pulled ahead by a few feet and, as he started to run, the distance between them quickly grew.  When Romeo felt certain that enough distance was between them to ensure Typhon couldn’t lay so much as a claw on him, the cheetah worked his way to the inner part of the track.  Gaining the advantage of the inner track, the star runner was able to widen the gap between first and last even more.
After making it around to the other side of the track, Romeo turned to check on Typhon’s progress.  Craning his neck to look behind him, he chuckled to see that the foul monster hadn’t even finished the first turn yet and was continuing to lose ground.  “He’d have been better off challenging a sloth to a race,” the feline sprinter cackled as a few drops of rain hit his head.  “Then he might have had half a chance of winning.”
As Romeo reached the second turn, the rain picked up a bit, turning into a light drizzle.  The gentle spritz barely noticeable to him or anyone else as they focused on the race.  The only one who showed any interest in the weather was Typhon who held out a palm to catch a few of the tiny droplets and gazed at them.  “Is he even trying to win anymore?” wondered Romeo as he completed his first lap and only had twenty-nine more to go.  Typhon, by comparison was only about halfway done by this point and still falling more and more behind.
The cheetah kept on watching Typhon run at a pace that was nothing more than a walk in comparison to his speed.  With the distance still increasing as Romeo reached the first curve in the track again, Typhon turned to look back at him, a devilish, predatory glint in his eyes.  Seeing it, Romeo’s blood felt icy cold like he had just stared death in the face.
“W-What the Hell was that?” he questioned as he wiped his forehead.  “That look wasn’t the face one makes when they know they are clearly outmatched.  He looked like… like he had already won the race and was set to devour me alive.  Even from over here I could feel such overwhelming confidence exuding from his being.  Is he just trying to psyche me out?  No.  It’s pointless to do that when I’ve already taken this big of a lead.  But why do I suddenly feel such dread in the pit of my stomach?”
As he pondered this, Typhon merely chuckled and kept on running, his pace slightly picking up.  It wasn’t enough to close the gap or even stop it from growing larger.  As Romeo managed to get behind Typhon and was about to overlap he kept on showing off that toothy grin like it was the one in full control of this situation.
“So this is a race,” commented Typhon as he kept up his pace.  “It is quite fun.  I can see why you enjoy running.”
“Like Hell I enjoy running in circles like a dang mutt chasing its tail around,” thought Romeo.  “I only bother with something like this to win.  Ladies love a winner and when it comes to races, I’m faster than a jackrabbit with it’s ass on fire.”
“Indeed I do,” spoke Romeo externally, remaining cautious of how close Typhon was as he lapped him.  “The thrill of testing my limits and clashing in battle with others.  Not to mention the glory I bring to my school with each victory achieved and every record broken.  This race in particular is even more important if it means that I can rid us of you, monster.”
“That’s only if you can beat me,” Typhon smirked.  When he uttered those words thunder boomed while lightning flashed in the sky.  It was as if the weather was adding more ombience to his words.  “And this race has only just begun.”
“Maybe for you, but I’m already a full lap ahead and still gaining ground,” Romeo retorted as he picked up the pace to widen the gap more.  “And anyone who can’t keep up with me now has no chance of challenging me in a race of speed and endurance!”  With that said, Romeo kicked in a burst of speed to add even more distance between them and attempted to dash any hope the chimera had to win against him.
“Trying to discourage me,” salivated Typhon as he watched Romeo’s body turn into a blur from how fast he was dashing.  “But you’re just making me want to devour you even more!”  Reaching a hand out in front of him again, he watched the pitter patter of rain against his palm.  Just by feeling it, the chimera could see how much harder it was coming down and nearing a total downpour with every passing minute.  Smirking bigger, he started to pick up the pace again chasing after Romeo as much as he was running to finish the race.


        Harder and harder the rain fell as the race continued.  The two runners were drenched from head to toe in water and their clothes were sagging from the moisture, but they didn’t let that deter them from continuing on.  The same was true for those in the stands, refusing to leave until they saw Typhon’s defeat with their own eyes.
After completing his fifteenth lap, the audience roared with applause, encouraging Romeo on, upon reaching the halfway point.  In comparison, Typhon was only halfway through his twelfth lap.  The gap between the two of them was a big enough safety net that anyone would have been happy to have in a lead that big.  At least that was true to everyone watching from the sidelines.  However, in Romeo’s eyes the situation was bad and only getting worse.
“How is this happening?!?” his mind raced as his eyes kept darting back to Typhon’s position.  Meanwhile, he was doing his best to speed up while not depleting his stamina more than what he needed to finish the race.  If he was aware of how much time had passed while he was running, he would have been delighted to know he was surpassing his personal best and would have broken his old record if he continued going at the rate he was.  However, as things were progressing, he had a terrible sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched Typhon sprinting down the track, his movements getting swifter and his agility increasing with every few minutes that passed.  “Typhon… he’s… getting faster!  There’s no way.  There’s just no way that’s possible.  I can understand improving one’s technique while running, but how can he be getting faster?  He doesn’t even appear the least bit winded either.  If he was pushing himself harder to close the gap between us he should be burning through his stamina to the point he should at least be breathing hard, but he’s not.  He just keeps running smoothly and continuing to accelerate.  I’m still outrunning him, but I was twice as fast as him at the start.  Now I’m barely keeping three laps on him and he’s starting to inch closer.  It’s like…  It’s like…”  As Romeo took another glance at Typhon, he still had that same malicious grin on his mug, but it pierced him even deeper than before.  “...a predator enjoying the hunt.”
Just saying those words chilled Romeo to the bone.  He had the blood of a mighty predator in his veins, the fastest on the savanna, but now that blood was frozen.  The food chain of the animal kingdom paled in comparison in the face of a monster that resided far above and trivialized his position.  To Typhon, there was nothing that he couldn’t hunt and devour.
“NONONO!!!” cried the frightened cheetah, whimpering like a little cub that was worried about monsters under his bed.  Running even faster, he did all he could to escape from the chimera (even though the looping track also made the feline run towards him too).  To the audience, they merely saw Romeo’s hastened running as him finally pulling out all the stops to crush Typhon completely.  They all cheered excitedly, their hope reaching its zenith as thunder boomed and lightning flashed overhead.
Romeo zoomed through sixteen laps as Typhon finished his thirteenth.
Romeo dashed across the eighteenth lap while Typhon was halfway through his fifteenth.
Romeo sprinted all the way to his twenty second lap and at the same time, Typhon was well into his twentieth.
Romeo ran towards his twenty-fifth lap while Typhon was speeding a mere lap behind.
By the time Romeo was on his twenty seventh lap, Typhon was hot on his heels, the gap between then shrinking to nothing.  Mere meters were separating the two racers, but to the cheetah, he already felt like that monster was already on top of him.
In the midst of the intense downpour the two of them continued to endure it, however things were looking very grim for the cheetah.  Romeo’s speed had plummeted as he reached the last leg of the race.  He was managing a jog, but every few meters he staggered to keep his balance.  His breathing had become short and raspy and there were moments when he looked ready to collapse if he didn’t keep moving.  Typhon, however, was running like a champ.  Even this far into the race, he was moving faster than ever, possibly even outrunning Romeo at his best.  There was no sign of fatigue in him as each graceful step he took sprang him closer to his prey.  This far into the race, he wasn’t even breathing hard.  That such a thing was happening so close to the end was completely inconceivable to not just Romeo, but everyone in the stands too.
“What the fuck is Romeo doing?” one of the spectators freaked out.  “Typhon’s almost passed him!”
“Look how he’s running,” another pointed out.  “He should be a lot faster than that!  He’s a cheetah for fuck’s sake!”
“Maybe he sprained something… Or he pushed himself too hard.”
“What if he’s faking?  You know, pretending to tire out so he can turn things around at the last second and look like an even bigger hero.”
“I saw him warmup before the race so I doubt he’s hurt and he’s run longer races than this before and never looked ready to fall on his face with exhaustion.  Even if racing against that bastard is throwing him off somehow, he shouldn’t be this falling apart like this.  And, if this really is just an act build up suspense, I’ll fucking kill him for pulling this kind of shit.”
“I don’t care what he does.  So long as he wins, he can do whatever the hell he wants.”
“Romeo!  Romeo!” the fox jock from earlier started to chant, making those around him turn and stare at him.  “Come on.  We’ve got to give him our support or do any of you have any better ideas for how we can stop him?”
“Just Bruce,” answered the wolf jock.  “But since I don’t think any of us wanna go down that path… Romeo!  Romeo!  Romeo!”  He chanted to and it spread throughout the stadium with the hope it could help reinvigorate the cheetah to regain his strength.
“Oh, shut up!” cried Romeo, floundering about as he struggled to keep moving.  “Stop saying my name!  That’s not helping!”
“Is something the matter?” questioned Typhon, right on Romeo’s tails.  “What happened to all that composure from earlier?”  Turning to see how close that monster was to him, Romeo hurried to the other side of the track to keep out of his reach, but the white-scaled creature didn’t even attempt to make a grab at him.
        “Don’t come any closer,” begged Romeo.  “I’m not going to let you drain a damn thing from me!”
        “It’s already much too late for you to be telling me this,” commented Typhon, as he slowed his pace down so that Romeo could keep up with him.  “I’ve been draining away all your strength and stamina for nearly this entire race and I must say you were quite the buffet despite your size.”
        “You were draining me the entire time?” the cheetah panted in disbelief.  “That’s impossible.  I was perfectly careful to always stay out of your reach.  I made certain that you didn’t lay so much as a claw on my body since we began.  How could you possibly have been leeching off of me?”
        “While physical contact is the easiest and fastest way for me to absorb another creature’s attributes and add it to my own, I can also do it indirectly as well.  I merely need a conductor to link my body to my target’s and then I can drain them even from a distance.  Care to guess what I used as my conductor in this situation?”
        “A conductor?” pondered Romeo as he tried to think as he weakly trudged along.  Each step he took had him splashing in puddles, getting his feet and pants legs soaked.  Seeing this, a realization hit Romeo, making him turn to Typhon who grinned wickedly as he read right through his expression.
        “I take it by that look on our face that you just realized the truth,” the chimera chuckled.
        “The rain,” spoke Romeo, a look of utter despair in his expression.  “You used the rain as your conductor.”
        “That’s right,” he nodded with a devilish grin.  “Water works moderately well as a conductor, and lucky for me we had such a big downpour during our race so I had no trouble doing it from almost the very start.”
        “Lucky, my ass,” scoffed Romeo.  “You set our race at this time because you wanted to take advantage of the weather.”
        “As I recall, you had decided upon the race, but you allowed me to choose the time and place,” pointed out Typhon, walking backwards as he watched his opponent stagger sluggishly behind him.  “All that took was a single peek at the weather app on my phone and I had you snared.  Still, if not for that one little error on your part you may have very well have had me.  Well, not really.  Regardless of what happened I’d have simply devised a different means to win.  After all, this isn’t some fantasy story where the noble knight faces off against a terrible fiend and saves the kingdom.  This is a horror story where one-by-one the monster consumes his prey.  Unless of course you still plan to somehow win and prove me wrong.”
        Romeo met Typhon’s eyes and once more saw the glare of death staring right back at him.  It was even worse now than before with his trap revealed and how he loomed over the cheetah with an absolutely menacing aura.  As the weakened cat continued to stare, he wasn’t sure if the chimera was growing larger from draining him further or if his own fear was messing with his perception of reality.  It didn’t matter what it was, it didn’t change his current situation in the slightest.
        “I’MFUCKED!!!I’MFUCKED!!!I’MFUCKED!!!I’MFUCKED!!!” raced through the cat’s mind as he saw Typhon take up a blocking stance to keep him from getting past him.
        “Come on now, Mr. Knight,” dared Typhon.  “Isn’t this the part where you somehow find the power within yourself to overcome the insurmountable odds and defeat me?  We’re all waiting to see what you’re made of!”
        “Romeo!  Romeo!  Romeo!” the crowd continued to cheer, though the cheetah, already beaten and broken before the race had even ended, was too lost in his own thoughts for their voices to reach him.  Typhon knew this as well and just drank up that despair as if it was the perfect beverage to go with the meal he had been enjoying during the race.
        “Hey, Romeo,” cackled Typhon, his words still reaching him.  The look in Romeo’s eyes was of the frightened little kitten that the chimera had reduced him to.
        “W-What?” he asked him, only for Typhon to let out a monstrous roar that silenced the entire crowd from how ferocious it sounded.  Even the weather seemed to have been terrified by the monster as the rain slowed to a stop and, after one low boom of thunder, all of nature went quiet for a moment.
        Eyes welling up with tears as that beastly wail of Typhon’s finally pushed the cheetah past his breaking point, Romeo turned and ran off the track.  Finding new strength from fear urging him to flee, he hurried away right before everyone’s eyes, his cries breaking through the quiet.  “Fuck this!” he called out, his Shakespearen speech replaced with his southern drawl.  “I don’t wan ta do dis!  I don’t wan ta fight a fucking monster!  I wanna live!  I wanna fucking live!”
        In the silence, everyone could hear what he said, but none of them paid any mind to the change in his accent.  They were far too fixated on the sight of their hope freaking out and running away with his tail between his legs, not that any of them could blame him.  Even so, they knew this was another loss for their side and the consequence that was to follow it.  Some of the spectators panicked and scattered from the stand while others watched, either too terrified to move or resolved themselves to watch this horror show to the end.
        “Does this mean you forfeit?” asked Typhon with a  malicious grin on his face as he watched Romeo hurry away from him.  With his boost of adrenaline he managed to make it a few meters away while the chimera just stood there and watched.
        “Fuck you!” he called back, too frightened to think straight.  He slipped on the grass and fell into a large mud puddle on the ground, getting his clothes and fur dirtied.  Romeo ignored the mess, spitting out the dirty water from his maw and hurried back up to run some more.  He didn’t care about how dirty he became or how much of a prideless coward he appeared, giving up before the end and desperately attempting to escape his fate.
        “No,” grinned Typhon, taking that as Romeo’s surrender.  “I’M GOING TO FUCK YOU!!!”
        The chimera shot after the cheetah like a bolt of lightning, his ill gotten speed helped him close the gap between them in the blink of an eye.  It was so fast that it even took a few seconds for Romeo to realize he had been snatched off the ground and had no reason to run with his feet lifted off the ground.
        “NONONONONONONO!!!!!” cried out the cheetah in a panic as the rain started to pick up once again, thunder booming and lightning flashing.  Desperately, he kicked and screamed and struggled, but it was a futile act with what little strength he had in the face of an unstoppable force like Typhon.
Now that he was in contact with the cheetah, Typhon was free to drain him normally.  With a toothy grin, he tore Romeo out of his running clothes and watched as the remaining muscles in his body shrank down till he was nothing more than skin and bones.  Typhon’s own bulk barely changed at all, Romeo’s brawn nothing more than a drop in the bucket to him now, but that was low on the list of what he wanted from his current prey.
Pulling down his pants, Typhon shamelessly exposed his massive cock, so long and thick that he was able to seat the cheetah down on it and support his weight.  While he did this, he grasped Romeo’s crotch, rubbing and stimulating it to it’s full size.  Typhon’s hand then grasped over it, covering the length and his sac.
“Wanna see me do the disappearing cock trick with your itty, bitty kitty cock?” teased Typhon.  Romeo managed to shake his head ‘no,’ even though the chimera wasn’t looking for an answer from him.  Typhon’s cock soon began to swell out and expand forward by a few inches.  His balls increased in diameter too, gaining a small, but noticeable amount of girth on them.
“I didn’t have much expectations of getting more muscle from you, but I had hoped for a bigger boost to my crotch at least,” sighd Typhon, as he slide his claws over Romeo’s crotch and revealed it was perfectly smooth just like it had been with Brock and Dozer after they received the same treatment.  “Well, it is big enough for my needs, at the moment.  For now, let’s just finish you off!”
Picking up Romeo again, he aimed his dick for the cat’s tailhole and shoved it in.  Not even half his length was thrust into him before he forced a cry of pain out of the cheetah.  “Stop!  Please stop!” he begged and pleaded.  “You’ve taken enough from me already!  Let me go!”
“Oh, I’m not done yet,” cackled Typhon as he continued to push and pull his thick meat log in and out of Romeo’s ass without mercy.  The poor cheetah felt his insides getting wrecked to make room for the chimera’s cock.  “There’s still more you can give me and I’m TAKING IT ALL!!!”
Harding and harder, Typhon pounded into the chimera’s rear, the pleasure he was feeling was just as great as the despair that Romeo was drowning in.  The storm continued to rage on as the monster continued to do as he pleased.  Like with those before him, Romeo felt his body starting to regress, shrinking down in size at a rapid rate.  All that size was added to Typhon’s body, helping him grow larger than ever.  He had already been a giant among anyone in the school, but now that difference in height and size had widened, further cementing him as a monster in the eyes of everything still witnessing him feed.
In contrast, all that remained of Romeo was a shriveled up cheetah cub he could fit in the palm of his hand and still have space for a few more.  The insignificant feline wasn’t even big enough to fit the tip of his cock in his ass anymore, forcing the chimera to finish by jerking himself off with his free hand.  It just took a few quick faps before he started to spurt huge globs of seed onto the field, adding a huge puddle around the many created by the storm.
“Mighty knight?  Prince of the school?” chuckled Typhon, staring down at the pitiful creature.  “More like a crying baby.  Well, you’ve got nothing left I want.”  Rubbing his leg, he stared down in delight seeing they changed while he had been absorbing the every bit he could from the cheetah.  They had gained a slender, flexible feline shape with pale orange fur covering over his white skin.  Typhon had obtained the legs of a cheetah to go along with his mane and hooved hands from Brock and horns from Dozer.
Typhon gave a toothy grin of delight at the sight of his ever improving body, one step closer to the perfection he craved.  To those in the stands, they only saw this addition as the demon plaguing their lives growing ever more monstrous as his body became even more a hodgepodge of animal parts.
“I’m pleased with the results,” Typhon told Romeo, though in the state he was currently in he could barely move let alone respond to the monster’s words.  “So, I’ll see to it that you get safely returned to your parents.  See.  I’m not all bad, just mostly.”
Turning the students still on the bleachers, Typhon made his way towards them to drop off Romeo.  Though he had the unmatched speed of a cheetah now infused into his legs, the cocky chimera casually walked his way over, carefully carrying little Romeo in his claws.  The one sitting closest was the leopard girl who the cheetah had slept with the night before.  She just sat there as flabbergasted as the rest of them.  As Typhon approached her, she froze in fear.
“Oh, fair maiden,” he spoke waxing poetically towards her.  “Would you perform a mercy and deliver this unto salvation.”  Too frightened to say anything back, she merely nodded to spare herself from whatever wrath refusing might cause her.  “Then with my thanks, I shall take my leave with thy setting sun.  But shed no tear of sorrow for, with the rising of thine sun, so too shall I return.  Till then, adieu.”
Without speaking another word, Typhon began making his way back home.  His tail swayed side to side, exposing how giddy he was after all that.  “I knew taking that flowery speech from Romeo would be a fun little addition,” he thought while he quietly chuckled.  “It makes me all the more eager for what other treats await me when I come across my next victim.”
As Typhon reflected on his very productive day and contemplated what was next for him, a content smile was plastered on his face.  Already, he was eager for when he would find his next target and how it would improve him.  Bringing his arm up to his muzzle, he wiped away his drool as his hunger started to overflow uncontrollably.
The three jocks, still sitting far in the back of the stands, had witnessed Typhon finish off his third victim and gain his latest mutation.  As they looked at one another, realizing that he not only had unmatched power, but inescapable speed on top of that, they knew they only had one option left.
“Bruce?” the wolf asked the others.
“Bruce,” the other jocks nodded in agreement.


        It was the dead of night as the jocks slipped into the school through an opened window, however, instead of heading towards the gym, they made their way down into the depths of the building, into the boiler room.  Going down the stairs they could hear the sound of water dripping, steam hissing out of pipes and other noises that made their skin crawl.  The lights flickered on and off giving them brief moments of light before they were treading carefully through the darkness.
        “I knew our school was in shitty shape,” commented the fox.  “But I didn’t think it had a place this creepy and run down in it.”
        “It seems like a prerequisite for schools to have a murky basement,” the hippo replied as they reached the bottom of the stairs.  “But, yeah, I didn’t think a place could look this bad if it wasn’t done on purpose.”
        “And Bruce lives down here?” wondered the fox.
        “No,” the wolf shook his head.  “Well, maybe.  I don’t really know much about him besides that his office is down here and he’s the guy to go to if you need things done… professionally.”
        “If Bruce is a monster and this is his dwelling,” commented the fox shivering at the thought.  “I hate to see what kind of cave Typhon lurks in.”
        “Same,” agreed the hippo.  The wolf just rolled his eyes, doubting that he actually lived in a cave.
        “Here we are,” the wolf told the others as they came to a door with “BRUCE” scratched into the wood.  Swallowing hard, the wolf knocked on the door seven times and then waited.
        “Come in,” a voice said on the other side of the door.  Cautiously, they opened the door and went inside.  Compared to the rest of the downstairs, this room actually looked nice.  The floor was carpeted while the walls had wallpaper of a seascape.  It had properly working lights, that made the room far more comforting to be in as well.  There was an oak desk in the middle of the room and sitting on a chair on the other side of it was a great white shark.  He had his eyes glued to an activity book full of sudoku puzzles.  On the side of his desk he had a stack of books containing more types of puzzles, comics, and even some featuring the latest buzz on some spanish soap operas.  The intimidating feeling of a monster that Typhon oozed didn’t seem to be here in the slightest.
        “Is this really the guy?” asked the fox, seeing the shark chew on the back end of his pen as he tried to solve the puzzle he was currently working on.  He had on a suit with a novelty tie that looked like a fish on a hook.  He also had on a pair of odd-shaped reading glasses to properly fit on the unique curvature of his face.
        “Yeah,” nodded the wolf, though he didn’t sound so certain himself.  “Well, I think so.  Hey, are you Bruce?”
        “One moment,” he said as his eyes scanned the few remaining blank boxes and he filled one in.  I’m almost done.”  The jocks remained silent, not sure what to think about what they were seeing before them.  They just kept watching as the shark finished the last of his sudoku puzzle and then closed the book and placed his pen down.  Then he removed his reading glasses and placed them on the table too before turning his gaze on them.  “Greetings, I am Bruce.  How may I be of service to you?”
        “We were hoping you could take care of someone for us,” explained the wolf.  “This new guy at school, Typhon.  Have you heard of him?”
        “There is very little that goes on in this school that slips past my fishing net,” he explained.  “I have heard quite a lot about this new student and the rather interesting reputation he’s built in the short amount of time that he’s attended.  Already, he’s taken out Brock, Dozer, and Romeo in back-to-back days and he has only grown more formidable with each.  As he currently is, there might not be anyone who can defeat him.  Even several working together might not stand a chance, especially if he can steal one’s strength in the middle of whatever game they are playing.”
        “I guess that means that even you can’t beat him, if that’s the case,” commented the fox.  “Not unless you decided to play him in a game of sudoku.”
        “Do you have something against games to sharpen one’s mind?” questioned Bruce as he extended his arm out, revealing a switchblade as if it appeared out of thin air.  With incredible finger dexterity he managed to reveal the blade in the blink of an eye and throw it, going just over the fox’s head and right into the bulls’ eye of a target board that was hung on the wall.
        “I think I just pissed myself again,” whimpered the fox as the three of them checked out the board and were amazed that save for dozens of marks on and around the bull’s eye the rest of the board was untouched.
        “I guess he is the real deal,” commented the hippo jock.
        “It might be impossible to defeat Typhon in a game,” Bruck continued to explain.  “That’s because there are rules for how to play and so long as we limit ourselves to those constraints then he will always have the advantage.  I, however, don’t play games.”  He paused, as they all looked at the obvious pile of puzzle books he had.  “I don’t play games while I work and I won’t make the same mistake and challenge him to something where we are on the same level.  I will get rid of him, pure and simple.”
        “That’s great to hear,” stated the fox sighing with the greatest relief of his life.  “Uh, but what’s it gonna cost us?”
        “Whatever it is, we’ll pay it,” promised the wolf jock as he covered his friend’s muzzle before he said something that might ruin the deal.  “We’ve even got plenty of others who will chip in for it too.”
        The great white raised his arm to quiet them.  “I have no doubt that this Typhon fellow will likely set his sights on me sooner or later,” stated Bruce as he got up and slipped out of his suit.  “I won’t charge you.  It’ll be just a matter of time before he hunts me down and I don’t very much care to be the one on that end of the chase.  In a week’s time I will prepare my attack for Typhon and make him disappear from all our lives for good.  Can I count on you three to not breathe a word of this to anybody.  Not only do I not want word of my plans to reach Typhon before I am ready, what I do, in these situations, is hardly considered legal.”
        “We won’t say a word about it,” promised the wolf.  “And if you can get rid of him, it won’t be a loss in anyone’s eyes.  You’d be the greatest heard the school has ever known if you can pull this off.”
        “Heh, a hero, that’s certainly one thing I’ve never been called before,” he admitted.  “Not sure I like it.  Murderer, psycho, and hitman feel far more fitting to me.  Monster is another one, but it seems Typhon has taken that title from me and I detest those who steal from me, intentionally or not.”
        “Well, if you kill that asshole I won’t mind calling you the King of Monsters from now on,” stated the fox, a renewed glimmer of hope in his eyes that this great white could actually pull this off.  The other two looked the same, just as desperate to put an end to Typhon before he decided to target them.
        “King of Monsters?” repeated Bruce as he smirked, causing him to show off several rows of sharp, pointy teeth.  “I do like the sound of that.”