Becoming a Monster

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: The Queen’s demise?

”I hope this works....No...It needs to work,” Noah muttered to himself, his legs slightly bending as his waist rotated to angle his shoulder towards the creature. His arm began to bend, as he brought both of his palms together in front of his torso, concentrating fully on merging the two forms of energy.

Noah focused intently as he merged the two swirling masses of violet energy to create a more potent skill. His hands trembled slightly, not from fear but from the immense concentration required. The energies coalesced, forming a single, much more powerful orb of violet light. The fusion created a charged, crackling sphere that pulsed with lethal energy. The formation of the new orb began to generate an even stronger current of mana flow, creating a mini vortex of air that swirled around Noah, causing his loose silk armor and hair to flutter wildly.

As the orb momentum continued to build, it began to pulsate with a fierce, violet glow, casting an eerie light over Noah’s determined face. The swirling vortex of mana seemed to have sentience of its own, drawing in the abysmal mana in the air and amplifying the sensation of its power.

As he prepared to unleash the new skill, Noah could feel the intense heat and raw power radiating from the orb. He aimed carefully, aligning his shot with the struggling Ant Queen, her efforts to free herself from the webbing more desperate than ever. He had no room for error; the success of his new skill would determine the outcome of this battle. Finally, Noah released the sphere, roaring as he struggled to prevent it from imploding in his hands. The sphere shot through the air for less than a second, emitting a high-pitched whine that echoed across the entire battlefield, leaving a trail of violet light in its wake.

Noah’s heart raced, hoping that the combined force of his new skill would be enough to bring the monstrous creature down or at least injure her severely enough to give him a fighting chance.

When the orb finally collided with the Queen’s encased form, a blinding flash of violet light erupted, engulfing both him and the Queen, with her at the center.

The explosion of energy was unlike any other. The shockwave ripped outward, shaking the ground for a half a mile. The black substance of Noah’s webbing was vaporized instantly, leaving the Queen exposed to take on the full force of the sphere’s destruction.

The attack sent the Queen reeling, her indomitable form thrashing violently as the energy coursed through her. The very air around her became a weapon, microwaving her every breath as both her exoskeleton and insides burned under the immense heat and pressure.

——

The pressure emitted by Noah’s skill, combined with the agonizing, horror-inducing shrieks of the Queen, created an atmosphere more haunting than death itself. The suffocating power of Noah’s ability was overwhelming, as if the very air had turned malevolent, pressing down on everything around it.

Almost no one was immune to the effects of the condensed mana; only a few individuals managed to mitigate its impact. Yet, their attention was still drawn to the scene, each distraction for different reasons. Arachne’s concern heightened, both the mana and the pressure were familiar presences to her, yet the unsettling feeling they brought caused her to feel a mix of worry and arrogant pride. She couldn’t help but be aware that Noah was fighting the very creature that she warned him of. From the moment the Queen arrived, Arachne’s focus had been divided between tracking its location and her current battle.

The overwhelming dread she was put through when witnessing the Queen’s unrelenting attack against Noah was unlike any emotion she experienced before. A gnawing fear that Noah might not survive the encounter took hold of her. She was filled with the urge to abandon everything and rush to his side, despite knowing that the Queen easily displayed a speed and strength that far outstripped her own. But as she prepared to disembark to his location, her focus, entirely consumed with Noah’s image, allowed her to pick up on something unexpected...his emotions.

Noah wasn’t afraid. The absence of fear left her stunned, making her oblivious to the loud impacts of the battle going behind her, or Raven’s grunts of pain as the fight was reaching its end.

Her bafflement triggered a memory of a similar moment, a time when she had felt Noah’s emotions during a life threatening situation. Back then, not only had Noah overcome that threat, but he had been excited to confront it.

She couldn’t understand his thought process before, and even with her human psyche now, her understanding became more muddled than ever. But if there was one thing she knew from that moment, she understood that as long as Noah wasn’t afraid, then he believed he had a chance to win.

Her trust in Noah allowed her to transcend her disturbing emotions and haunting thoughts. She felt revitalized, as if she could conquer any opponent, no matter the odds, just like Noah. Redirecting her attention back to the colossal centipede, she waited patiently throughout the entire fight to finally use her trump card. Her predatory gaze analyzed the centipede, confirming that its stats had lowered just enough for her skill to take on full effect.

Her eyes glowed once again, enveloping the centipede in her violet aura. The effects this time were instantaneous; the centipede became sluggish, its hundred of legs moving more into a crawl, and the charge it was in the middle of initiating was almost in slow motion in her eyes.

Raven, who was on her last legs, noticed the development unfolding before her. She was prepared to defend again, ready to retaliate with another strike of her own. Her legs, arms, and torso were riddled with gaping holes, and the blood surrounding the wounds was so severe that they appeared fatal . However, the injuries were closing on its own, within just a few minutes the wounds would be barely noticeable.

But the damage was done. Regenerating the injuries couldn’t replace the fact that her stamina was almost depleted, nor could it erase the painful experience she had endured.

She was aware that she had maybe two more attacks left in her, and perhaps she could maintain her titan form a little bit longer if she focused solely on defense, giving Arachne the chance to attack.

Then it happened, the overbearing wave of pressure bearing down on her, accompanied by a screech that felt like an attack on her very soul. Her mind was forced to divert to the source of this feeling, even as the centipede showed signs of attacking her. But during the same time that she diverted her attention away, the centipede was affected even more. The despairing pressure created from the spell wasn’t enough to destabilize it, but the Queen’s cry caused it to falter, its brain momentarily shutting down because of its banshee-like scream. The centipede wasn’t the only one affected; the beetle experienced the same reaction.

Unlike the others who were affected by the soul wrenching cries, the two behemoth insects were paralyzed by fear for a different reason. They feared the Queen with every fiber of their being, the same fear that forced them to become part of her hive. To them; she was an existence that was no different than a god in their eyes. An existence that they believed had no equal. For such a god-like being to cry out in pain as she did, shattered the very foundation of their fear and even threatened their very existence.

The sight of Noah’s devastating attack was breathtaking, and terrifying, especially when thinking that that much power could be wielded by a single individual. It was his otherworldly display that filled Arachne with such pride. In her eyes, he had once again succeeded in overcoming a predator that was overwhelmingly superior. Slowly, she began to adopt the mentality of his success was her success.

Emboldened by his actions, she wanted to show Noah that she too, could defeat an opponent against the odds. Her gaze swept over the battlefield, noticing both the centipede and Raven were still distracted. Her eyes narrowed, and her once prideful smile shifted as she leaped in Raven’s location.

Raven still couldn’t make sense of what she was witnessing; the curiosity of seeing a scene of such magnitude made it nearly impossible to look away. But then, six sharp objects slightly pierced the surface of her skin. Given her current size, the pain resembled more like a deep scratch than an actual injury, but the sudden presence caused her to instinctively remove the foreign presence.

”Dummy, attack!” The sudden voice echoed in her head as Raven saw Arachne jumping towards the centipede, aiming for its last remaining eye.

Raven’s eyes widened in alarm, realizing her blatant mistake. Witnessing Arachne’s ferocity, Raven remained rooted in her location. Her eyes suspiciously became somber, and her presence shifted to that of someone who couldn’t be approached. The golden aura that normally surrounded her began to darken, gradually transitioning to a flickering combination of gold and red, flickering like a flame threatened by the wind.

Her already pristine skill and muscular figure soon began to undergo another transformation. Her skin began to redden over every inch of her body. Her already muscular stature became more domineering as her veins bulged in preparation of her final attack.

What she was about to unleash was a technique designed for dire situations, an ability she acquired from her awakening class, Wraithguard. Her class revolved around her taking damage, building up her wraith meter that could be used to unleash her skills. The skill she was performing was her most powerful skill of the three, a skill that needed her meter to fully max out to be activated, her trump card, Repentance Armageddon. This skill required her meter to be fully maxed out to activate, allowing her to absorb all inflicted injuries and release the accumulated force with double the intensity using a blunt weapon.

In Raven’s case, she couldn’t use her spear. While her bare hands were an option, the eye blinding glare building up within her shield showed the weapon she was preparing to unleash the skill with.

Although Arachne was focused on inflicting as much damage as possible, she instinctively stiffened and leaped away, sensing an imminent threat to her life. A second barely passed before Raven’s shield shot forward. The immense power enveloping the shield gave the illusion that the shield was almost the same size as her titan form before it came crashing into the centipedes form.

The power displayed behind the attack seemed to be able to launch the centipede meters across the battlefield. However, when the shield made contact, all of its momentum halted, and the centipede didn’t move an inch. The suspense of the attack made the overall scene appear as the very definition of anti-climatic. Not only did the centipede remain unmoved from the attack, but Raven’s aura also diminished, and her titan form gradually receded, leaving her as a vulnerable woman who could barely support herself.

Although the centipede seemed to be unharmed, Arachne seemed to no longer care about the creature. Her eyes were fixed on Noah’s battle before she leaped away in his direction.

As she left, the others glanced between Raven and the centipede, hesitant to approach Raven’s side, fearing that the centipede might still be alive.

”Whaaa?” The sound of small cracks began to reach their ears. At first the sound was barely audible, then the cracks grew louder, followed by a cacophony of noises as if something were breaking apart. The centipede’s shell twitched in multiple areas before its body started to disintegrate. Visible cracks, filled with the aura of Raven’s attack, began to glow throughout its body. As the final crack was filled, the world around the centipede seemed to freeze, with only the intensifying glow as a source of movement.

When the glow finally reached its peak, the centipede’s body exploded. The explosion lacked the usual fireworks of a typical blast. Instead its exoskeleton, mixed with its guts, was scattered forcefully. Some unfortunate bystanders were hit by the debris of the crushed shell, either being knocked unconscious, or killed instantly by the impact.

Raven was too exhausted to feel a sense of accomplishment after defeating the most powerful opponent she ever faced. She was more focused on the restless anxiety within her, her gaze turned shifting to Noah, her worries rested on the results that were being covered by the dissipating smoke.