Villain Seduces to Rise in Status

Chapter 21: 21 - The Beast

The cave was dark and dreary, with small crawlers moving along the walls and ceiling all around him. They were creeping him out, but still he walked forward into the depths, refusing to let fear paralyze him.

Then a small light appeared ahead—not like proper light from the sun or a torch, but at least it was brighter than the darkness he’d been walking through. His pace quickened slightly, drawn toward that faint illumination like a moth to flame.

”There it is.”

But when he reached the cave’s opening into a larger chamber, the scene that greeted him was nothing he wanted to encounter at this point in his cultivation journey. At first, he mistook it for a mountain rising from the cavern floor. Then the mountain shifted.

Its body rose from the earth like a broken piece of the world itself—too vast to be called a living creature in any normal sense. Its shape was vaguely humanoid, but only in the way that cliff faces resemble faces if you stare long enough and let your mind fill in the gaps. Eight arms extended from its massive frame like those of a spider, moving with an alien grace that defied nature itself.

Its skin was not flesh. It was layered stone like the remains of countless dead things pressed together over centuries, fused into something that resembled flesh but was fundamentally wrong. The head was small compared to its body, crowned with jagged growths that might once have been horns or were simply stone formations shaped by time and whatever cosmic force had created this abomination.

Yet the weight of its presence pressed down on the air around it, making it hard to breathe, harder to think, harder to process what he was actually seeing.

It was one of the fledglings of Ungoliant, a monster beyond belief, one that would raze half the continent of Silcrossa to the ground in the next four years.

But... but why is it here?

Cale took hide behind a corner of the entrance, pressing himself into the shadows as much as possible. The monster was feasting on corpses, bodies of animals, beasts, demons, and humans alike scattered across the cavern floor like offerings to some dark god. The ground was slick with their remains.

After staring for what felt like an eternity, he saw Koza in that pile of bodies. The boy was still moving slightly, still alive but in desperate need of rescue.

”No... stop!!”

He ran forward without thinking or planning, driven purely by the impulse to save the child. He threw his sword at the arm that was about to pierce the boy, diverting its attention momentarily.

The beast took a turn and shifted its focus entirely onto Cale. It ran fast with all its legs, moving with shocking speed for something so massive, and in a matter of mere seconds, Cale was beneath it with four of its legs holding him pinned to the ground with crushing force.

”Aah... get off!”

He tried to punch and kick at its body, but the surface was mostly fur and exoskeleton, providing no purchase for his blows. He snuck out from beneath it through a gap between its legs and ran to pick up Koza, cradling the boy’s limp form.

The beast slapped him on his ribs with one of its massive arms, slamming him hard onto the stone wall. Stars exploded across his vision as the impact drove the air from his lungs.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: ABSORB YANG ESSENCE?]

”What... where is this essence here? I thought it was only for sex times,” he gasped out between labored breaths.

[SYSTEM: As the host keeps upgrading intelligence stats, the system will keep learning new methods of extracting energy. This fledgeling beast contains unstable yang and beast essence that can be harvested through combat.]

”Huff, thank god.”

The fight continued as Cale kept struggling against the creature, constantly moving and fighting. His main aim wasn’t to defeat the beast—that seemed nearly impossible—it was to avoid it and drag Koza’s body out of this nightmare cave.

Thank goodness it’s still an imitation, incomplete. If it wasn’t, it would’ve killed me easily. Still, with my current capabilities, this is incredibly difficult.

He picked up his sword again and used three continuous moves of Blue Thunder Arts in rapid succession, the original techniques were adapting through his body from the system users’ memories. Fighting in defensive circles, he gradually reached Koza and checked the boy’s pulse.

”He’s still alive... but the poison and blood loss, shit, I gotta take him out.”

The beast crawled up the walls with disturbing ease and started attacking with energy beams like lasers, shooting them across the cavern with increasing frequency. For three minutes, Cale kept avoiding its attacks, jumping and rolling, barely staying ahead of the destructive blasts.

”What is this trying to do?”

A sudden rumble in the land was answer enough. The rocks at the entrance fell down, blocking the exit completely and trapping them inside.

”The... exit is blocked. This beast is trying to fight to the death and prevent our escape.”

He turned and ran toward it like his life depended on the next few attacks, abandoning the defensive strategy.

”Bring it on!”

The beast kept shooting energy bursts which gave Cale multiple cuts on his arms and thighs as he barely managed to avoid the worst of the damage. He got close to it and even attacked one of its eyes with a furious strike, but then felt a sudden burst of movement behind him.

Another arm came at full speed from behind, moving faster than he could completely avoid. He crossed his arms to block the worst of the damage, but still his left forearm was pierced completely, bones broken from the impact.

”Aaagh... arghh... it hurts, so much!”

His struggling couldn’t remove the pierced arm that held him in place, so he still punched at the beast’s one of six visible eyes with thunder-like fists, channeling his cultivation into the strikes. The beast kept attacking frantically and he used the same numbed arm to cover his body, punching all six eyes repeatedly until blood—if it could be called that—started flowing from the wounds.

The beast kept crackling with energy, unable to see now that its eyes were destroyed.

”Yes, I have power now! With not being able to see, it will have to rely on senses only!”

He jumped on its massive form and kept striking at its neck with his sword, each blow more desperate than the last. The blunt sword broke under the force of his assault against the stone-like hide.

”Shit!”

He jumped down and picked Koza up, carrying the boy with his one good arm as much as possible. The beast shot more energy blasts, but they were weaker now, less accurate without its eyes to guide them.

”These blasts are weak now! My body is easily resisting it!”

He put Koza carefully in a corner where the beast couldn’t easily reach him and kept punching with both arms at the beast’s face, striking relentlessly until his hands reddened from the pain and flesh tore.

After five minutes of unrelenting assault, the beast finally stopped moving entirely. The stone-like form went still, no more energy crackling across its surface.

”It... stopped moving... is it dead?”

He sat down huffing heavily, his entire body screaming with pain as he tried to tie his broken arm with cloth strips from his bag.

”Even though it was a Rank One fledgeling beast, it’s still not something a Novice ranked like me should be able to defeat. I got lucky.”

It took half an hour to clear the entrance by moving rocks piece by piece, slowly creating a passage wide enough to escape through. He was badly hurt but not tired at all, adrenaline still coursing through his veins. He picked Koza up in his hurting arms and started walking out of the cursed cave.

Lapu was already there outside, holding a stick barely able to walk despite his grievous wound.

”How... how is he?”

”He is poisoned, and barely alive, but still breathing.”

Cale didn’t even take ten seconds to realize a cure for the poison.

”Wait for me here. Don’t go out.”

He ran outside with gleaming hope burning in his eyes. The herbs—the information from Silvester about herbal mixtures and their properties was useful indeed. He plucked out four different flowers from his gathered collection, flowers which when mixed together could cure a poisoned person if the poison was low level. But it could also delay even deadly poisons if applied quickly enough.

He put a few in his bags and ran back to where they were waiting. But Koza wasn’t in a state to drink anything, his throat convulsing involuntarily.

”Though the effects will be reduced, applying it on skin is still helpful.”

Cale munched the flowers in his mouth to create a paste-like mixture, then applied it on Koza’s body, working it into his skin and wounds. The herbal mix began to take effect almost immediately, the poison starting to neutralize under the mixture’s properties.

Lapu watched with growing hope and concern. ”I hope this method works.”

”I’ve read about it, so don’t worry. The boy will pull through.”