I Can Copy And Evolve Talents

Chapter 1321: The Dawn of Worldly Wounds [Part 1]

It wasn’t so easy to identify a shapeshifter. They were unique monsters that Rughsbourgh had heard plenty about—creatures of Acheronix, according to the old texts. And now that he thought about it, the beast’s nature explained everything. Its impossible speed, its perception operating leagues beyond what a creature of its caliber should possess. Shapeshifters were renowned for these traits.

Rughsbourgh’s eyes glimmered with twin stars as he regarded the creature.

Then he turned away from it entirely.

He faced the people who had scrambled to distance themselves from the carnage, his voice carried by the space itself. Distance was pointless when a Ruler chose to speak.

”Since I’m feeling in a very good mood—suddenly feeling benevolent, even—I will propose a very good deal to you all.” He swept his gaze across them with a beaming smile. ”All I need is one person. Provide me with the Tamer of this beast, and I shall absolutely forget that I came here to destroy your city. I’ll just find another way around my goal.” He spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimity. ”So, what do you all say? Where is he or her... or them, however they prefer to identify themselves...”

The crowd was silent.

If there was anything Rughsbourgh had successfully managed to do, it was to drive home the terrifying disparity between himself and them. He had done that simply by killing the Trickster without breaking a sweat.

This was the same man they had watched dominate an entire battlefield of monsters by himself. A powerhouse of wreckage. The Trickster had been a legend among the defenders of Drywall.

And yet—sliced like dice.

”H—he is not here...” A voice, trembling, managed to escape the silent crowd.

Rughsbourgh tilted his head slightly, looking at the person who had spoken and completely ignoring Mr Fluffy behind him.

He extended his hand, gesturing for the young man to step forward.

As he did, Mr Fluffy rushed at Rughsbourgh—and tore at empty space. The man was already standing in front of the crowd. The survivors startled and staggered backward, some stumbling over each other in their haste.

The young man finally emerged. He looked rough, still bearing the marks of battle—a gash across his forehead, dust caking the blood on his arms.

”The Tamer, he’s not around here.”

Rughsbourgh raised his brow. ”Are you lying to me?”

The young man shook visibly. His face had gone purple with fear, the color of a bruise spreading from his neck to his cheeks.

”No sir. I wouldn’t sir. This is just the truth.”

Rughsbourgh glanced at the rest of the crowd. They nodded in agreement, murmurs rising from their midst—desperate confirmations, overlapping pleas.

”Agh! Okay! That’s enough.”

They went silent instantly. Every eye fixed on him.

He vanished. At the same instant, Mr Fluffy descended in a swirl of claw strikes—and met nothing. Rughsbourgh appeared above the shapeshifting beast, standing as though he had an invisible ground beneath his feet, arms crossed with casual disinterest.

The beast surged away with a speed that left white blurs in its wake. It landed on a crumbling wall, bipedal legs coiling, then launched itself toward the air to collide with Rughsbourgh.

The man merely shook his head.

”How do I explain to a monster what it means to be a Ruler class?” He turned toward Mr Fluffy’s direction, unmindful of the creature barreling toward him, teeth bared. ”Oii, beast! There’s nothing you can do. As long as we are surrounded by my space, you’re within my palm.”

Rughsbourgh raised his hand and clenched it—the motion completing a heartbeat before Mr Fluffy’s crude teeth would have gnashed his face off.

The beast froze mid-air.

He studied it with keen eyes, walking a slow circle around the suspended creature as though examining livestock at market.

”Hmm, what a shame. You’re so premature and undeveloped.” He glanced toward the back of the beast, searching. ”No tails yet. That means you’re as useless as an ordinary beast rank. You might grow some potential if I take you in.” He paused, considering. ”But this amount of rage, this hatred spilling from you... I suppose you don’t have any intention of becoming my friend.”

Mr Fluffy snarled, held in place by the very space itself. Its muscles strained against the invisible prison, accomplishing nothing.

”I see... such arrogance.” Rughsbourgh leaned closer, just outside the range of those teeth. ”Have you heard of me before? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you.”

The beast snarled again, vicious, unrelenting. If it could move an inch, it would snatch away a portion of Rughsbourgh’s face without hesitation. The man was careful enough not to get too close—even frozen, the creature radiated killing intent like heat from a forge.

He glanced down at the crowds, then returned his gaze to the beast tearing at the space with growls and gnashes, wishing he would just push his head a little further forward. The creature looked rabid.

”Since you are not going to be my pet, you’re weak and undeveloped, you have a very bad temperament, and your Tamer isn’t around either...”

He shook his head. Almost sad.

”That’s a bit unfortunate. Now I have no choice but to kill you.”

Rughsbourgh raised his hand—

And the entirety of Drywall shook.

The tremor hit like an earthquake erupting from beneath, threatening to tear the ground apart. Out of caution and confusion both, he stopped mid-movement. The space holding Mr Fluffy in place released, and the beast went crashing down to the rubble below.

Rughsbourgh glanced at the released creature with a small frown, then slowly—deliberately—he raised his head to look at the sky.

The sky had darkened. Not gradually, not like clouds rolling in. The darkness had descended all at once, plunging the entire land into a strange, lightless atmosphere.

Everyone was looking up. Even Rughsbourgh.

It did not take ten seconds after the darkness descended for rain to begin falling from the sky.

Rughsbourgh’s frown deepened.

This was winter. And after winter came summer—a season where the day star dedicated itself to burning everything beneath it.

Rain was not supposed to exist here. No rain should be falling at this time of year.

The other survivors—residents of Drywall who had managed to live through the slaughter—knew this too. Confusion rippled through them, whispers rising, people backing away from the sky as though the rain itself might be an attack.

But it was the beast’s white coat that Rughsbourgh noticed first.

Mr Fluffy’s flawless white fur was being beaten by the drizzling rain, and its color was... darkening?

Rughsbourgh touched his cheek as the rain pelted him. He looked at his fingers.

His eyes froze.

There was no doubt about it.

A rift had opened in the sky.