Becoming a Monster

Chapter 260: Chapter 260: When Put Into a Corner

Noah couldn’t fully grasp the cause of the creature’s sudden burst of strength. Out of all of its abilities that were shown in Eve’s grimoire, there was nothing within its contents remotely close to explaining its newfound powers.

And yet he had to accept it, acknowledging the reality as he scrutinized the zombie’s movements that were entangling with Ailetta’s eig-, now seven serpents.

Her serpents seemed to be made out of a stronger material of slime than her previous form, allowing her serpent shaped tendrils to be able to be subjected to the zombie’s lightning without being immediately disintegrated. The density of the mana with her tendrils were enriched with so much compressed mana that it prevented the electricity from fully reaching her main body.

However, that didn’t make them impervious. The zombie’s lightning had grown stronger, making it almost impossible for the serpents to be subjected to its energy for too long.

The serpent’s strikes continued despite the stacking damage, each engaging in at different times, quick and coordinated to leverage their numbers.

But something was wrong.

The heavy thuds, the dust that repeated stirred while the ground heavily shook. It was the same sound as before. The serpents were beginning to miss. Some were swatted away, ingraining their imprints into the ground before rising up again.

The zombie’s eyes were clearer than ever before, its vision was filled with an awareness as if nothing escaped its grasp. Each second, its gaze would flicker, a hint of an epiphany enshrouded in its reflective eyes, as though it had just understood something from its engagement.

And every flicker brought about a change. The serpent’s attacks were losing their one-sided pressure. Whenever they went in to strike, latching onto the zombie’s body, the zombie would focus a laser of lightning into their exposed mouths that did far more damage than what had transpired. One out of the eight serpents were the first to experience this new strategy. Its head was the only one that was able to escape the zombie’s grasp as it disabled the snake to relinquish its fangs, eventually burning through a quarter of its form.

Afterwards, the zombie anticipated such moments, making the serpent’s advances come more to a standstill than before. Their strikes had to be quicker, aiming for small strikes that would do little harm rather than the effort to tear the monster apart as they did before.

But then the zombie’s behavior changed again. Its muscles tensed, its knees slightly bent, and before its next action, suddenly its head tilted out the way to avoid a dark violet thread.

Noah wasn’t just oddly standing by. His form this time had taken a shorter time to achieve than the others. His robust fur gone; his titan-like spider appendages gone.

His bulging muscles repressed, and his exoskeleton also gradually compressed down from its spiked hardened form. His exoskeleton became almost smooth in terms of appearance. Every part of its hardened shell now seemed as if it was formed more for comfort than defense.

It would take a fine eye to perceive the many fine hairs that eventually seeped from within the confines of every inch of his exoskeleton. His face reverted back to normal, however his main two eyes went through a change. Each pupil pulled, eventually separating to become two, each pupil still was as observant and as unique as when they were one.

His sight became broader. Depth, movement, even the faintest fluctuations in the air became clearer, as if he subconsciously used a diluted version of his skill to perceive the world slower.

The newly improved vision was quick to spot one of his spider appendages that swayed by his face. The ends were no longer consisted of spiked barbs at the end, and the slight curve straightened, making the legs more attuned to its role for stabbing. Each end held a deadly sheen that edged along the ends of its length, enabling his legs to become no different than a spear that was capable of slashing.

Each individual spider limb became thinner, adding in an additional segment to allow a more whip-like range of motion, making it possible to lash out in unpredictable patterns.

He flexed his fingers, feeling a quantitative difference as he glanced down towards his hand, a hand whose sleek and lighter form came to a surprise. The bulky gauntlet slimmed down, while his metal-like claws were now similar to extended scalpels.

Everything about himself was smaller, yet faster, instead of just being stronger, he was attuning himself to become more efficient.

As he quickly checked his changes, his other eyes were glued to the zombie’s movements. He scrutinized the leaps of progress it exhibited as its decision making became more refined. His scrutiny was what enabled him to see it. The zombie’s eyes were wandering, searching in between each deflection. And its gaze continued to settle on Ailetta.

Instinctively, Noah’s body was already lowering himself, his legs ready to spring, his spider appendages ready to propel himself.

The moment he picked up on the zombie’s minute changes, he acted. A web that was thinner, more compressed than his normal webs shot out. A web that seemed infinitely weaker, yet it shot out with a speed almost twice as fast.

After the zombie narrowly avoided it, Noah was already upon it. Noah’s attacks may not have been faster than Ailetta’s serpents whose speed was bolstered by his skills; however, Noah’s perception and his reflexes made his attacks much more dangerous.

Although the zombie was able to anticipate each angle and respond accordingly, its own predictions were seamlessly predicted. Each leg that it once moved to intercept, changed its course. The zombie had to swerve its face once again, a leg brushing against his face, removing a clean piece of skin without it. Another leg slashed down, its momentum intercept at the middle of its leg, but then its end joint still moved, allowing the sides of his legs to slice down, slicing through one of its eyes.

The zombie roared in pain while simultaneously, lightning began to fester before releasing in an outward burst. It scorched the ground while sending waves of heat along with it, but Noah was no longer there.

Noah didn’t need to see it, he felt it, the changes in the air, the subtle change in the temperature. Before his mind even understood what was going on, his body already moved away.

Boom!*

The moment Noah moved, the zombie was quick to try to seize the initiative, its eye glowing with that surreal energy again as it reverted back to normal. It didn’t dispel the lightning this time, realizing that Noah had avoided it because it would actually harm him. However, the amount of mana that was projected into it was less than before.

But again, it had to stop its advances as it adjusted to move.

Ailetta moved as if she was attuned to Noah’s wavelength, knowing when to interfere and when not to. At least on the surface that’s what it seemed. Unlike Noah, Ailetta wasn’t in a hurry to end the fight. She didn’t have the pride that would make her give up her advantage. As long as she won and she was able to gather enough data to improve herself, the way she came out as the victor didn’t matter.

So instead of intervening to ”help” Noah, she was only doing so to bid for more time, when the creature’s monstrous transformation would wear off. But Noah didn’t know that. Her attacks were more of distractions than actual threats.

Noah, however, didn’t know what she was thinking. He was entirely focused on the zombie’s body, its movements, and most importantly, its mana. His Nexus eye could see the once mountainous aura of mana was now less than half of what it was before. The lightning didn’t converge all around it like it did before, and so he struck again.

The zombie was prepared this time. Its early distraction now proved to be just a ploy as it predicted Noah’s ambush. Its gravity descended, and at the same time, its fist was glowing with energy. The zombie swung at him, if that fist made contact on even an inch of Noah’s body, he would surely meet the same state as the golem, maybe even worse now that it had become stronger.

Noah’s own fist came daringly soaring, mixed in with his spider appendages. The two looked as if they were about to have a mutual exchange.

But Noah’s gaze stayed determined, and within that gaze there was a noticeable difference within his eyes. Each pupil of his was glowing as the time within his perception slowed down drastically. The moment before impact, Noah slipped beneath the strike, his arm missing its goal entirely.

However, his continued movements showed that it was his true aim. A giant presence emerged from behind the zombie, its bulging dark silhouette aiming to embrace the zombie from behind instead of attacking.

The golem needed time to gather itself again, but now that it was whole, it was prepared to do everything in its power to help its creator win.

The zombie didn’t forget about the golems attempt to submerge it within its ooze, however it did forget about the golem’s presence, believing that it was destroyed from its earlier blow.

Before the golem could latch around the zombie’s body, the zombie ignored Noah’s attacks. Its missed swing curving to allow it to turn. The golems threat made it unfocused to Noah, not seeing Noah’s webs that shot out as a threat. A thread that was quickly attached to its arm.

And the moment it went to intercept the golem, Noah pulled, digging his spider legs into the ground, twisting his body alongside the inertia of his legs.

Noah’s muscles strained as he wrenched with all his might, his spider legs anchoring him to the earth, and his body twisting in perfect synchronization with the force he exerted. The thread attached to the zombie’s arm pulled taut, and the zombie, mid-turn, found itself caught in the motion.

That brief lapse of vulnerability was enough for the golem to complete its embrace. Its jaws dislocated as it fully opened its mouth to clamp down on the zombie’s neck and shoulder, determined to not let go even if the zombie attempted to repulse it like before.

The golem’s decision was right, the zombie’s body was already beginning to glow, this time it was its entire body. Noah was descending upon it, Ailetta’s serpents were always waiting, four serpents were quick to each lock onto its limbs, holding it in place to hopefully allow the golem to complete what it had attempted before.

Noah was feeling confident, ecstatic even, against a creature of such strength, him and his companions could fare equally against it as long as they collaborated. It wasn’t the exact kind of victory he desired, but it was one he could be satisfied with.

His thoughts were already thinking about what he should do with the zombie after the aftermath when his senses spiked.

The mana, almost all of the mana that was enveloping the zombie disappeared, being absorbed within the aura that was preparing his skill.

”Fuck...” Noah’s thought was one of acceptance and awe, his body still moving as he attempted to get away as fast as possible.

The zombie roared with power, his overbearing shout was mysteriously silenced, everything within a few meters around him became silent. A soft, almost imperceptible shockwave released through the air with the zombie at its center that traveled in a large radius that even managed to pass the boundary that Fenrir and the others stood on. And then following that innocent wave came an eruption of power that followed in the same path as that very shockwave.