Becoming a Monster

Chapter 284: Chapter 284: Is This All?

When Noah and Arachne merged, it was no different than when Arachne entered his body back when his original ability was still known as soul cage.

However, the moment Arachne entered into his body, his entire form took a complete overhaul. Each of his four spider appendages became twice as long, twice as dense, while he also acquired two additional, longer legs that were capable of spinning webs.

His entire exoskeleton took on an overhaul, the once spiked armor dissolved around his entire body before it took on another shape. Not even an inch of his skin was visible, and his entire exoskeleton became fully connected, warping until soon it took on the form of armor of the gear that Arachne’s armor consumed.

The armor was completely black, but unlike Arachne’s armor that was also illuminated by the violet energy contained within the slime, Noah’s armor shone with his violet energy within every seam.

His fingernails extended twice their length, becoming claws that leaked with an estranged liquid, that when it touched the ground, it didn’t corrode it, but the grey pavement turned black. Even as the sunlight shone on it, the blackness seemed to deny any form of light, as if it swallowed any color, any life within its domain.

Behind him sprouted an abdomen even thicker than Arachne’s own, but it was also longer, acting as a tail as it swayed behind him like a pendulum. With the abdomen acting as a secondary support to form and circulate his webs, it was hard to imagine the strength of his webs now.

Noah tilted his head up, watching the Kaiju that was also looking down onto him. The monster was now more perfect than Noah had thought before. Its tail was now almost eight meters long, the underside of it glowed with the same energy as its veins from before. Its body stood completely upright, its posture was that of both dominance and complete trust in its own power.

Noah’s lips curved slightly, his smile was cold, but genuine as the two stared each other down.

No one dared to interfere with their showdown, and the Kaiju not once thought to be distracted by anyone else. Noah’s presence threatened its very existence, and it couldn’t understand why. And at the same time, it felt an overwhelming desire to consume him. The other zombies were either too weak or their instincts were still that of a lower existence to sense it. Its body began to grow feverish as it focused on that feeling.

Soon, that desire completely took over. One second it was still standing on the shoulders of its dead brother, and the next it was in front of Noah, its fingers pointed as it was planning to stab its hand directly into Noah’s chest, aiming straight for his core.

And then, it stopped.

With its ascension, its instincts were honed to perfection for battle. And its instincts halted its attack before it could understand that it stopped.

Noah didn’t move an inch, nor had he yet to blank. But the Kaiju could feel that all of its actions were in the palm of Noah’s hands.

Seeing the creature’s wary behavior, Noah was even more satisfied with the creature. The creature had more awareness than its appearance implied.

From the creature’s aura alone, it wasn’t completely inferior to Noah’s own.

But power wasn’t everything, and the creature seemed to be aware of it even though it didn’t understand it.

Finally, Noah took a step forward, causing the Kaiju’s’ aura to flicker, its body quickly tensing every muscle to retaliate even though its instincts were still telling it not to.

Noah’s hand raised; his staff suddenly materialized into his grip. A subtle shift flickered within his aura as his spirit grew.

”What are you waiting for?” Noah’s cold voice surprisingly caused the Kaiju to take a step back. It could understand him. And it made the Kaiju recognize what it was that caused it to feel threatened by Noah’s presence all this time, superiority.

It was a subtle effect that was caused by Noah’s new empowered class; a class meant to lead creatures of all species to evolution.

The Kaiju roared in defiance; its cry so painfully loud that those whose stats weren’t high enough how to cover their ears from the pain of the eardrums threatening to burst.

The creature had yet to move. And for the first time, Noah blinked, and in that moment, his body finally moved. Two of Noah’s spider appendages suddenly shifted to one side, two strong objects collided into them.

Within that one second, the Kaiju had started its attack. But it had failed to realize that although its plan was feasible, it was too tunneled on Noah’s main set of eyes that it failed to realize that his other eyes were always watching.

Despite its failed attempt, now that it began its attack, it was going to relentlessly continue until one of them was dead.

The Kaiju jumped back when another leg came stabbing towards it. Instead of pursuing, another one of Noah’s appendages maneuvered on his side opposite of the creature. The creature used itself as a decoy, using its tail to circle around for an ambush.

Its tail was even stronger and faster than the attacks employed by its hands, but along with half of Arachne’s stats, Noah also was imparted with her skills. The skill to parry an attack while mitigating the damage became an almost impenetrable defense when paired with Noah’s Sentinels ability.

The Kaiju was disappointed in another failure, its body disappearing again while its tail was the only part of him still visible. It noticed Noah had still yet to move, and it was going to use that to its advantage. Its tail circled Noah’s body within seconds in order to constrict his movements.

Within that time, it appeared above Noah, diving down from Noah’s perceived blind spot. It wasn’t counting for its tail to hold Noah; all it needed was a moment to finish it. As it was in Noah’s blind spot, it also wasn’t able to see the glow within Noah’s eyes, each one of his pupils were shiny brightly with a supernatural focus.

Noah already accepted that his opponent was faster than him, a disparity that he could easily gap if he were to implement all of his abilities.

But his goal wasn’t to destroy his opponent outright. If he was going to encounter stronger opponents in the future, he needed to test out all of his capabilities in order to further improve himself. And he also wanted to test his potential vassal’s limits.

As his gaze perceived the world in a slower state, his eyes had already followed the Kaiju’s tail, locating its position.

The Kaiju noticed Noah looking up towards it. It was startled, but it continued through with its attack. Noah didn’t move from his position, by this time it already believed that it was too late for Noah to react.

But then it startled, Its tail gave up on its encirclement to stab into the ground to leverage its body in the air. Its hands flew out in front of him as it was caught unprepared. It didn’t understand how, but Noah was in the air with it, all Noah’s spider appendages piercing towards different parts of its body.

Its hands quickly shifted towards the most dangerous points of attacks while bracing itself for the incoming damage. The attacks were inches away from it. The Kaiju was prepared to suffer tremendous damage.

However, the moment the attacks landed, each leg phased through its body, it was as if the Noah attacking him, was a ghost.

Meanwhile, Noah was still looking up from the ground, analyzing both the creature, and his own ability.

”If this is all it can do, maybe it isn’t worth having.” He thought to himself. So far his anticipation for obtaining the creature was waning. If its strengths were just based on physical attributes alone then he felt he was wasting his future vassal. He could make any creature stronger, but what truly set them apart was their own unique traits.

Yet even in that disappointment, Noah’s expectations didn’t completely fade. He didn’t want to be let down, he looked towards the creature as if it was an unpolished gem that just needed a trigger to unearth its worth. Not only was it a unique zombie, but it also went through a mutation. And what he learned from his own experience is that when a creature evolves, it gains powers that embody its traits. When it mutates, the creatures would gain traits that cover one of their perceived weaknesses.

Noah didn’t believe that this was all the creature had to offer.

He continued to watch as the Kaiju stabilized itself when it touched the ground. Its stare looked towards Noah with more caution than before, fear of the unknown was penetrating through its eyes.

”Are you done?” Noah’s voice was low, but coupled with his penetrating glowing eyes, the fear that was creeping into the Kaiju’s heart was prevailing over it. Fear was a foreign concept to the creature that while it didn’t realize it, that fear was drawing it closer to explode.