Becoming a Monster

Chapter 427: Chapter 427: Inevitability

The fight ended with inevitability.

Without their leader and without the shaman’s help, there was nothing they could do against creatures whose traits made them nearly invulnerable to physical attacks. Blades, if they penetrated the goblin golem’s armor, would only sink into the slime’s ’flesh’ underneath, just for it to reform later.

Each of their attacks carried traces of Noah’s miasmic energy. Even shallow cuts refused to close properly on living flesh, the corruption lingering and spreading. Goblins who survived the initial blow quickly found their limbs numbing, their strength bleeding away faster than panic could carry them.

Nightmare was worse.

Its body had grown denser, larger, its silhouette warping unnaturally as it moved. When it had fought alongside Ailetta, fear had been scarce, its enemies too distracted, too focused on survival. But now, under Noah’s gaze, terror had nowhere to go.

Every goblin that looked at Nightmare broke.

The eye in Noah’s chest left a deep, irreversible scar on their psyche. That fear fed Nightmare endlessly, thickening its form, sharpening its outline, until its presence alone crushed resistance. A goblin barely had time to scream before Nightmare’s weight flattened it into the ground. Another was seized by massive, clawed hands and crushed slowly, deliberately, bones collapsing one by one.

When Nightmare had the chance, it only killed in the most dramatic ways possible, farming the opponent’s fear as much as it could.

Unlike when it made the ice troll into a shadow, its skill wasn’t refined enough for that yet. It could only bind a single shadow to itself; trying to do so still would only lead the soul being taken away, without any real way to contain it within the shadows.

So it slaughtered them without hesitation. The power-up from their fear was temporary, but the pleasure their fear brought would be relished for a long time.

The ice troll was right behind it.

When Nightmare preyed on fear, the ice troll was born to exploit pride, the only emotion that it held onto when it lost everything else.

Its trait was designed to provoke, baiting stronger enemies into overconfidence before activating its true strength. Against equals, it would play the fool, allow arrogance to fester, then crush them beneath overwhelming force.

But these opponents didn’t deserve that ritual.

Goblin poison meant nothing to a body without flesh. Their crude weapons chipped uselessly against its crystalline armor. Only the remaining hobgoblins had the awareness and coordination to attempt flanking maneuvers, but even that only delayed the inevitable.

Because the hobgoblins weren’t given the option of choosing their opponents.

Nightmare took particular pleasure in hunting them. Their sharper minds made their fear richer. The power within them, mixed with their fear, gave it a boost that the others couldn’t.

So with the troll only having to face the much weaker regular goblins, it became something else entirely.

A raid boss.

It lifted its massive ice club and brought it down again and again, smashing goblins into pulp or sending broken bodies through the air. Each swing erased another life. Or if they were unlucky enough to live, they had to inevitably watch the frost giant close in on them to deliver the final blow.

From beginning to end, this was nowhere close to a battle.

The goblins that remained broke completely, scrambling for the tree line to flee. Most never made it.

Only one did. That was because, at the last moment, a golem whose blade hovered inches from the goblin’s spine suddenly stopped its attack.

Ailetta watched everything through Noah’s eyes, remaining silent until the goblin vanished into the forest before speaking.

’Is there a reason to let it go?’ Her voice wasn’t worried at all, merely curious about Noah’s decision because she knew that it couldn’t get away if he didn’t want it to. But her curiosity still led her to ask. ’If we’re going to finish them all off anyway. Why not kill it now?’

’We could,’ Noah replied. He had already undone his demonized angel transformation, though tendrils still extended from his body, slipping into corpses to extract their cores as he spoke. ’But I don’t plan to attack their village anytime soon.

’We are much stronger now, but our success can be mainly attributed to the dungeons’ influence. It’s also because our enemies underestimated us.’ He continued. ’How big is their population? What other monsters reside in this forest? Before we make a move that big, I want our base fortified, I want us all to be stronger. So even if the worst happens, we can handle it.’

Within Noah’s soul, Ailetta considered his words. Yet something still bothered her. ’But if we take the initiative,’ she countered, ’we could eliminate an entire faction. That’s fewer enemies to worry about later. And if I absorb all their corpses, my strength would grow enough to support you even more.’

Noah listened patiently. He didn’t believe his reasoning was flawless, only cautious. He only had so much information to base his plans on. But that was also the reason for his decision.

’The drake said there are creatures out there far stronger than itself,’ Noah said quietly. His gaze shifted westward, toward the direction Amara and the others had gone. ’Inside the dungeon, we’re stronger than the drake. That doesn’t mean we’re stronger than them.’

He exhaled slowly.

’What if wiping out the goblins drives other creatures out of the forest? What if destroying the balance here draws something we’re not ready for? I won’t bow my head to anyone, and even if an enemy is stronger than me, I won’t back down without a fight.’

His eyes hardened.

’But I want to make sure that when that fight comes... we’re ready.’

__________________

While Noah and Ailetta cleaned up their fight, the "other" Noah was traveling back to their home after securing the troll’s bodies. Because the troll’s bodies were too big for everyone to carry, Noah was forced to drag the rest himself.

The cores were lodged inside his body. Despite being more than a mere copy of the original Noah, there were still things he couldn’t replicate. Equipment was one of them. Rings, weapons, and tools remained exclusive to the true body.

It was an acceptable limitation.

Power mattered more.

Meanwhile, as the group made their way back, Noah’s main body was going somewhere else. The drake had yet to finish its fight. But halfway there, he undid the fusion. Not because he felt he didn’t need it, but because he didn’t want to risk the strain it would put on Ailetta’s soul.

"We could’ve stayed like that until it was all over," Ailetta quietly objected. "You don’t have to be so careful."

"But I do have to be," he replied. "If something happens to you, there’s no power worth that cost."

There was silence between the two as they advanced. If not for the distant sound of ongoing fighting, the silence may have become awkward. Ailetta lingered behind Noah. Besides love, her obsession with him was only becoming stronger.

She was willing to do anything for him, and to do so, she needed to get stronger. Devouring would only gain her gradual strength, what she desired more was to evolve just as Noah had. But to do that, she still needed to deal with the lingering Ailetta inside of her.

_______________

Ahead of them, the forest trembled again. The smell of burning trees and thick smoke was becoming a problem.

This caused Noah to become agitated. Burning the forest wouldn’t harm Pandora, but the forest was still part of his territory.

Why was the drake drawing the fight out?

_________________

"Weaklings, come over here and fight me!" The drake raged towards the lizards, who retreated again past the trees, and they sat on fire.

Despite the drake’s presence, they were more wary of Pandora.

And its silent helper.

After their second attempt to fight the drake, they realized just how oppressive the forest really was. If it were just the roots themselves, they could still fulfil their mission. But when they could no longer decipher real from fake, their mission had gone from difficult... to impossible.

Hearing the drake taunt them only made their expressions worse. If the drake was truly as strong as it portrayed itself to be, then it should leave the forest protections and fight them alone.

Despite at first only having to worry about the forest, they were suddenly ambushed by a giant serpent that never made an appearance until their second attack. They couldn’t understand how such a creature went unnoticed. It struck so quickly. One of their smallest, fastest warriors vanished in an instant, swallowed whole before anyone could react.

Then the serpent was gone. Vanished right under their gaze the moment the tree’s shade touched it.

After realizing that the monster was lurking within the forest as its cover, they were left with their only option.

Burn everything.

Their losses weren’t that bad, but not achieving anything had made those losses meaningless. The leader didn’t want to go back with nothing to show for it. Even a mouthful of the drake’s scales would suffice at this point.

The trees here didn’t burn so easily, but with their group, as long as the drake continued to standby and watch, eventually the fire would spread even further.

Before they ignited more flames, two figures suddenly appeared, two that they never saw before.

"So that’s why this fight isn’t over yet." Noah looked towards the drake with a hint of disdain.

"You really are just an overgrown chicken."