Becoming a Monster

Chapter 179: Chapter 179: Not all Small Things are Cute

At the same time Fenrir’s onslaught began, Arachne was slightly behind, still perched on the edge of the building. She overlooked everything, much more cautious and strategic in nature after their near-death experience.

Despite the foreboding generated from the skeleton, her instincts screamed at her that the real threat was the child. She could fight the skeleton to prove her worth, but now she was only set on getting the job done, nothing was allowed to go wrong when she’s left in charge.

With her eyes surveying the battlefield, she took in the sight of Fenrir’s unmatched prowess, while at the same time noticing two distinct zombies heading her way. Just one glance told her the creatures were unworthy of her attention, but nonetheless, the explosion generated from her leap betrayed her pride.

Those two zombies might be insignificant in her eyes, but what about when she’s confronting the other two? What if, somehow, in some miraculous way, those two creatures were able to power up, transcending their weak forms in the midst of the fight, all because she didn’t take them down first?

Faced with two options to choose from, her first target was also the one that held a strange resemblance to a zombie she encountered before. Compared to the other zombies, even with the other evolved ones, this zombie’s speed in particular was unbelievably fast, almost as fast as when she had first gained her human transformation.

But that was all. The Arachne now was able to perceive the zombie’s movements as if it was just a regular one. In an instant, Arachne landed on the creature. Her elongated legs that were each over six feet long, impaled the creature into the ground before it could react.

Not only was Arachne incredibly fast, but her almost otherworldly reflexes and sight made her pinpointed attack into the zombie’s head look effortless, as if the creature were moving in slow motion. The force of her attack was so great that the zombie’s body twitched for a moment before going completely still, its head reduced to a mangled mess beneath her feet.

The kill didn’t elicit a hint of emotion from her as her sights were already set on the zombie coming towards her. She frowned, seeing at how slow it was compared to the creature she just put down, but something about its jagged thorns protruding from throughout its body made her pause for a brief moment.

However, she didn’t sense the creature to be a real threat, and she trusted in her instincts. She was pleased to take out the creature just as she did the previous one. Yet, the moment her muscles twitched, preparing to strike, she noticed the minute twitching around the areas of its thorny protrusions.

Suddenly, she found herself being attacked from a distance by the thorns within its body that were abruptly propelled from the creature’s body. The speed of the projectiles was as fast as a bullet, and ten were closing in on her at rapid speeds.

The thorns’ propelling speeds were at a limit where Arachne could still adjust. Thwarting the projectiles down with her legs was easily possible, and although she didn’t have nearly the same constitutional stats as Fenrir, she believed that her skin was dense enough to protect her from any harm from such a weak creature.

And yet, she still chose to just avoid the attacks altogether. She quickly leaped out of the way, dodging the thorns that only aimed where she once was, while using that chance to avoid while also advancing on the creature.

The moment her legs touched the street, her figure disappeared again; arriving in front of the zombie that didn’t show a hint of surprise nor fear. Its eyes barely were able to make out that Arachne approached it when its head was instantly shredded due to the peculiar way Arachne’s legs were shaped.

The strike was so clean and swift that not a hint of blood landed on Arachne in the process. With such an easy kill, Arachne gaze no acknowledgment to the corpse, her gaze completely lingering on the little girl inside the skeleton.

During the time, she was anticipating their next step, her senses flared, hinting at a possible danger to her side. Her sensory hairs picked up on the change soon afterwards. Instead of turning to see what the danger was, she unhesitantly jumped back as far as she could. The moment she left from her position, the thorned creature’s body that was now swollen, exploded. Its flesh and blood scattered as if a grenade went off from inside it. The cause of the explosion was unknown, but the explosion came with almost a hundred different sized thorns that scattered in all directions.

Arachne’s quick reflexes had saved her from being caught in the blast, but she wasn’t able to completely avoid the thorns like before. With the propulsion from the explosion, the thorns projected at a speed that outmatched the earlier attacks. Several thrones bluntly impacted against her spider form, breaking upon impact. A few scratched against the exoskeleton surrounding her human form, while a small number that was able to pass even her spider legs and human arms that she used to protect herself, grazed her. The thorns drew thin lines of blood, while one even managed to lodge itself a few inches above her chest.

Yanking out the thorn, Arachne grimaced, not out of pain, but for allowing herself to be injured by something she labeled as useless. She needed to be better, she needed to be more aware, she needed to be...perfect.

When she finally landed a safe distance away, her gaze returned to the little girl and the skeletal creature. The small zombie girl’s body was shielded by the skeleton, who crouched down, bracing his shield to receive any injuries that came their way. Arachne’s eyes narrowed at the sight. She had to wonder if the skeleton reacted the same moment she did, or if the creature preemptively moved? If so, that would mean that they knew the explosion was about to happen.

There wasn’t any way to gauge the two creatures’ abilities, at least not one that was fast enough to help her finish the battle fast enough before Noah arrived. Knowing this, her eyes sharpened, and her legs slightly bent as she launched herself towards the skeleton.

Her actions would make one believe that she was aiming for the skeleton all along. Yet, she arrived mere feet away from the creature before disappearing again, maneuvering around the creature in order to take out the target that she knew to be the ringleader.

Her speed allowed her to reach the girl without opposition. Unlike before, she didn’t just stab at the little zombie’s head, another leg headed towards her core. The little zombie wasn’t even to respond as her body was lifted through the air from the sheer force and momentum of Arachne’s attack.

The fight was seemingly over before it began, but Arachne quickly realized something was wrong. The skeleton was still able to function, even with the death of the one who was supposedly manipulating it. Its sword headed towards her chest; the dull, chipped blade was subtly generating a dark grey mist around it. Arachne immediately sensed the danger of the attack, instantly jumping away from the sword’s reach, already satisfied with taking down her target.

She landed lightly on the ground a few feet away, her gaze flicking between the skeleton and the child’s corpse. But that’s when it struck her, the little zombie slowly rising back up, struggling to prop herself up, not because of any injuries, but just because of her small stature.

Arachne quickly realized that the areas that she penetrated through, that should have gaping wounds, weren’t there! Not even a hint of an injury, or even signs of healing. Even as Arachne analyzed the area underneath the girl, there wasn’t even a single drop of blood. The girl didn’t show expressions of pain at all, nor did she show any fear or surprise at the attack. Instead, she smiled; a small, unsettling grin that made it seem as if the little child was treating the situation like a game.

Arachne would gladly reenact what happened before, wanting to slice up the girl’s smile. But she paused, noticing there was a change on the skeleton’s body that wasn’t there previously. Large cracks webbed across its chest, while it had small cracks formed on its face but the number of generated breaks were much more than the other.

This would be the first time Arachne had come about such an exchange, it was impossible for her to precisely come up with the reason for what happened. She could only work with what she sees, and for now she understood that attacking the girl is essentially attacking the skeleton.

If that was the case, Arachne felt that it would be easier to keep attacking the girl instead, at least that way she could avoid the energy circulating around the skeleton’s sword. However, her plan was disregarded the moment she understood that the skeleton was gonna be much more troublesome than she gave it credit for. The damage it received in return for the girl was already being healed.