Becoming a Monster

Chapter 304: Chapter 304: There’s No Second Time

Noah’s hand was still raised, ready to inflict judgement to the three at any moment. But his face turned to the voice approaching, his eyes showing that he already predicted their interference.

His gaze looked unimpressed, and yet his voice was full with annoyance as he addressed them first. ”Something told me you’d still try to stop me. Even when they tried to kill me first, I’m still seen as the monster here...”

Noah chuckled, but his eyes were devoid of humor.

The others weren’t sure how exactly to respond. In their minds they were screaming, ’you are the monster here!’.

They couldn’t blame Noah for defending himself, but they also couldn’t judge the others for attacking him. He was a monster above monsters. They wouldn’t be surprised if any sane human being would attack Noah just from the sight of him and his creatures.

None dared to speak immediately, but another round of agonized screams of someone else losing their life urged Mark to step forward before there was no one left to save.

”You’re not wrong. They did attack you. But isn’t this enough? Forget about rather they should leave or die. I’m asking you, no, I’m begging you, don’t kill them all. We need as many people as we can to help defend this place so we can survive.”

”Survive?” Noah repeated with a bitter tone. ”I don’t think you understand, none of you do. If I le-”

Noah’s attention snapped behind him, his hand suddenly shot out three slings of thin webs. On the other end of those webs were the three people who recovered enough to see that the monster was distracted, trying to run away before they were detected.

The webs attached themselves to different parts of their bodies. It would’ve been simple and effective for Noah to simply bind them in his webs to prevent them from fleeing.

But his mood was gradually growing worse.

A quick tug was all it took, it was barely noticeable in his movement, yet the following scene showed just how much force was behind that action. One was caught by the leg, flipping mid-sprint, slammed face first into the ground. If not for the additive attributes he had gained from his gear, his face may have been crushed flat from the impact alone.

Another was dragged backward by the shoulder, the stretching of his arm made it noticeably longer than before as it was ripped out of its socket, his cries turned into squeals the moment he slammed atop his own arm. The last, snatched at the waist, flailed, coughing hysterically amongst stifled tears.

As if nothing happened, Noah returned his gaze, continuing his conversation. ”If I were to let these ants live, what do you think they would do? Run, warn others? Crawl back with more ants to try to kill me?”

The others knew it was true. Even just a bit a go, Grant had already ran away, most likely telling the others and preparing to attack Noah the moment he approached.

”So tell me, what will you do if I say no? Will you fight me to save them?” That very question stirred something within all of them, both Mark’s group and the creatures by Noah’s side responded in kind, the only difference was, only one group stood with confidence.

But Mark, out of all the others, stood his ground. ”We won’t do anything....we can’t do anything. But Noah, even though they don’t deserve a second chance...please think about the others. The ones who aren’t out here fighting you. The kids, the sick, the weak, the ones hiding behind those walls. should they die for this? That’s the future waiting for them if you kill everyone.”

Noah didn’t answer right away. Kids....Despite his loathiness of humanity, kids were still beings that would make him feel guilty about killing.

He looked at Mark, truly looked at him for the first time, and something unreadable passed through his expression.

It wasn’t regret, or rage, it was something colder....he was tired.

”Fenrir, Kratos,” Noah called his creatures, his voice much lower than the chaos and the noise actually transpiring around him, and yet his creatures responded within the same breath that he uttered their names.

Fenrir was in the middle of about to swallow a body that was still struggling to escape his jaws, while Kratos gave up shooting his explosive energy spheres. He was focused on killing any and all humans who tried to escape.

Even if Noah whispered their names, the intent that was sent to them though their bond was enough for them to understand.

Kratos had already finished an older man whose face was impaled by the ends of Kratos tail before he disappeared, returning to Noah’s side.

Meanwhile, with a low growl of disappointment, Fenrir opened his mouth, following the sight of a mangled figure falling to the floor, gasping in horror as they scrambled away with the use of just their arms. They barely were able to gain any distance when someone approached Fenrir, roaring in rage to protect the person that just fell. A sword was in their arms that defied logic, a great sword that was as wide as the person’s body.

The sword released a red sheen on the edge of its blade that came hurtling into Fenrir’s arm.

Blood sprayed out, for the first time they were able to injure the beast. This stirred on the man’s emotions even more as he attempted to pry the sword away to do it again.

But Fenrir behaved as if the sword embedded into his skin was a mild inconvenience. He simply walked towards Noah while the man frantically held onto the sword for dear life. When the man finally saw where Fenrir was taking him, the man made the quick decision to let go. His body tumbled along the way, he lost his sword, but he was relieved that he wasn’t brought into the encirclement of the rest of them monsters. Instead, his eyes shot over to the sight of his comrade still crawling away. His sobs were beginning to grow distorted, something was wrong with him, yet no one understood the terror of his wounds.

Seeing his creatures returned, Noah turned. Instead of facing Mark, his gaze went towards the three people that were on the other ends of his webs. Their pathetic states left them as useless threats, yet....

Splurt!*

”Noah!”

”Why?!”

Different voices screamed as Noah pierced the hearts of the three with three spiked blades that shot out of his arm made of slime. As the blades rescinded back into his arm, the tips of the blades were shown to be in the shape of a hand, a hand that twisted into place three individual cores into the palm of his original hand.

But the action warranted a drastic reaction out of the others, believing that perhaps Noah had decided against letting everyone leave.

Noah didn’t answer at first. He stared at the cores in his palm. This would be the first time he obtained a core from an awakened human. They were whiter, purer than the essence of beasts or undead. But weaker. Disappointingly so. Even awakened, they were still...pathetic.

”Noah?!”

Hearing his name again, finally, he turned back to Mark and the others. He could see that they were braced for action, yet none of them actually made an attempt to wield their weapons. At least now he was sure that they were sincere when they said that they wouldn’t confront him if he decided to kill them all. That moment alone had probably saved their lives.

Still, after making eye contact with them, Noah still didn’t address them yet, he simply was waiting for something.

And he didn’t have to wait long. His body stirred when he felt something appear next to him.

Looking down, a silver chest appeared next to the bodies of the three people he just killed.

From his experience with chests. The chest usually dropped near the last creature that was killed by him or his creatures. He was still in a hurry, and he didn’t want to have to go out of his way to retrieve his loot.

Unlike all the other times, this was the first time Noah ever simply opened a chest without performing his ritual. With practiced ease, he withdrew all of the gold contained within before he reached for attribute orb inside. The orb quickly dispersed in his hand, feeling his stamina sharply spike. Even for a silver chest, the orb still raised his stamina by fifty points. It showed that even the value of silver chest was better in quality now that their strengths were higher.

This time there were only two other items with the chest, including a piece of gear that he simply placed with his ring without bothering to inspect.

The entire process took about a minute at most before he finally addressed the others.

”I only returned the favor. Instead of worrying about them, how about focusing on making sure it doesn’t happen again?”

__________________________

On the other end of the mall, behind fenced doors inside of one of the biggest stores within the building, Grant was still heaving to catch his bearings after explaining what he encountered.

He was barely standing while in front of a big group of people. A lot of them were unfamiliar faces, but there was one that understood Grant’s fear.

An even greater fear reflected in her eyes.