Chapter 129: Retribution (3)

Terrence stopped all his attacks now that Irad was lying flat on the floor with the fading protection of his Jumbo Golden Gorilla’s Skill dissolving away.

He stepped forward, his heavy boots echoing softly as he looked down on Irad’s battered condition. With that kind of relentless, overlapping assault, surely it had damaged his enemy all over, both externally and internally.

Just as he wanted, Irad faced a massive, crippling injury. Coughing dryly, blood trickled down the corner of his lips as Irad glared up at Terrence, his ancient golden helmet completely shattered and gone.

"Now what... You got what you wanted," Irad said sarcastically, his broken tone wavering from the intense pain he was enduring. "Do you want to say something?"

Terrence didn’t rush his movements. He simply sat down on the edge of the wooden platform, letting his feet dangle down toward the lowered floor of the bidder level. Then, he exhaled a long breath as he deactivated his Iron Skin.

Avery and Noir sat quietly beside him, but their heavy glares were still locked onto Irad with hostile intensity, as if expecting the man to launch a desperate attack out of nowhere.

"I never liked you," Terrence said, his voice terrifyingly calm. "But I like how you look right now. You are much more suited to this condition."

Irad’s eyes lowered as he bit his trembling lip, enduring the agony while desperately clinging to the remaining shreds of pride he had left.

How could he be defeated so easily like this? He knew far more about beasts than most people, which was precisely why he had always excelled in combat against other tamers or even wild beasts in the field.

Yet Terrence, who had only recently awakened, had put him down without breaking a sweat. Even though Irad had gained a slight advantage earlier in the fight, it still didn’t mean he was ever overpowering Terrence.

Terrence had simply been caught off guard by the sudden barrage of attacks at first, but that was all. Once Terrence grasped the situation and chose to ignore all rules and laws—even summoning his beasts indoors in public—he became relentlessly eager to win using everything at his disposal. ℴ

Irad knew he used to be that exact same kind of person. Because of that, he could see a shadow of his younger self in Terrence—the side of him that hadn’t yet been corrupted by the comfortable luxury wealth provided.

But then, why should he complain now? He had brought every bit of this upon himself.

Brought this on himself...

"You still have to pay for what you did to my mother," Terrence muttered, a bitter, cold smile touching his lips. "At long last, I can finally achieve that."

Irad let out a raspy, painful laugh. "But at what cost, Terrence? You committed a massive crime today. I never thought you would ever do such a reckless thing when you were always all about justice, justice, and justice. You were always so obsessed with following the central government law."

Terrence snorted in pure disdain. "Well, I accept that I was completely wrong on that part. I know that I was a total fool back then, which is why I stopped following it."

Irad’s eyes shook violently as he weakly raised his head, facing Terrence, who sat there looking so comfortable and terrifying that Irad desperately wanted to close his eyes and forget reality.

Terrence’s gaze was expressing something entirely different this time. Looking into those cold eyes, Irad felt with absolute certainty that Terrence was ready to do whatever he wanted right now.

"How...? What on earth happened to you, Terrence?" Irad wheezed, his voice trembling. "You were never like this."

Terrence shook his head slowly. "I was always like this. To be honest, I had originally planned to kill everyone the moment I obtained enough power. All I ever had in my head was the absolute desire to erase every single sign of the Lee Family’s influence. Including you... even if, unfortunately, we are blood-related."

Irad could understand it all now. The dark truth was staring him right in the face.

"But you know, I thought to myself that it would be too troublesome to breed unwanted enemies right away," Terrence continued softly. "To become public enemy number one overnight. I knew that reality well... Which is why I endured it all until now. All of the self-restraints I forced on myself."

Irad’s eyes shook even more than when he was terrified earlier. The sheer malice radiating from the young tamer suffocated him.

Without letting Terrence continue his speech, Irad desperately summoned his beast.

Directly above Terrence, space itself cracked open, and a massive creature spawned out from the distorted void. A gigantic gorilla materialized in mid-air, its thick body covered in shimmering golden fur and skin.

The heavy air pressure of its sudden spawning forced Terrence to roll to his side. The golden beast immediately launched a heavy, crushing fist down toward him, but Noir instantly lunged forward, protecting Terrence with a newly cast Iron Skin.

BANG!

The impact was heavy, but for an S-Rank beast like Noir, it was practically nothing. He stopped the Golden Gorilla’s downward strike dead in its tracks, the gorilla’s massive fist getting crushed straight from the raw power of the intercepting blow.

The Golden Gorilla winced violently and screamed in agony, immediately withdrawing its shattered hand with a broken wail.

Before it could retreat, Avery flew straight toward its chest like a white streak of light. Upon impact, the massive Gorilla Beast was sent flying backward across the room, smashing violently into the reinforced wall and leaving spider-web cracks spreading across the stone.

Irad was completely lost for words as Terrence rushed forward with explosive, aggressive intent, his eyes burning with absolute murderous resolve.

"This should be it," Terrence muttered coldly. "I have come for retribution."

Then, everything went pitch black for Irad.

...

Meanwhile, outside the grand establishment, all of the wealthy clients had successfully escaped and evacuated from the chaotic building.

The junior managing personnel finished counting the crowd of displaced guests and paused, assessing what he should do next.

"Hey," he called out, waving his hand toward two heavily armed guards standing nearby. "Follow me. Let’s go back inside and support the Manager."

The guards nodded without hesitation, and the three of them stepped back into the building. But the very second they crossed the threshold, a heavy, horrifying atmosphere enveloped their entire senses. Goosebumps erupted across their arms as an icy chill ran straight down their spines.

Rushing forward to look for Irad, they scrambled up the stairs toward the middle level of the auction hall. But the moment they reached the platform, they were struck completely lost for words by the horrific scene before them.

Not a single one of them made a sound as they slowly walked down to the lower level, stepping right up to Irad’s lifeless body.

Bathing in a wide pool of his own warm blood, Irad had lost his head.