Becoming a Monster

Chapter 475: Chapter 474: Mistaking Mercy For Weakness

Roy didn’t make a move.

For a moment, he thought he had misheard the monster’s words. Then he noticed where Noah’s finger was pointing.

At him.

Noah questioningly tilted his head slightly as he looked at him.

"Weren’t you the one so eager to fight earlier?"

The adventurers, the monsters. Roy felt those gazes pressing down on him. His eyes instinctively shifted toward the people standing beside him.

For a brief moment, none of them moved.

The elf’s expression tightened, clearly troubled by what Noah had demanded. The beastkin who had tried to reason with Noah lowered his gaze, the tension in his shoulders obvious. Even the others who had been eager to fight earlier now stood uncertain.

Roy’s stomach twisted. A cold realization crept into his mind.

Were they actually considering it?

He knew this mission had already gone beyond their expectations. Everyone present had felt the overwhelming pressure Noah carried.

Leaving one person behind in exchange for the rest escaping the forest... From a purely tactical perspective, it was the logical choice.

Roy’s jaw clenched at the realization. So that’s how it was.

But while the others hesitated, one man did not. The older man’s body had gone completely rigid.

The moment Noah pointed at Roy, the tension in his posture sharpened. His hand tightened slowly around the hilt of his weapon as he stepped forward.

There was no hesitation in his eyes.

No matter how reckless Roy had been... no matter how much trouble he had caused during this encounter...The older man had no intention of leaving him behind.

"That won’t be happening," the older man’s aura flared. Just like Roy, the old man controlled flames. Dark blue flames not only burned across his sword with greater intensity than what Roy could accomplish.

"M-Master..." Roy’s voice caught in his throat.

For the first time since the confrontation began, the title carried genuine respect. The older man glanced back at him briefly before turning to Noah.

"So you finally show your true colors."

Then his gaze shifted toward the others.

"And the rest of you? Will you accept this?"

His voice remained calm, but the intent in his eyes had turned ominous.

"How are you any different from this monster if you can abandon your own so easily? If you choose to leave..."

The older man’s expression hardened. His blue flames flared brighter.

"...Then you had better pray I do not survive this. Because when I return, you will have no place in the guild. There will be no place left in this world for any of you to stand."

Several of the adventurers exchanged uneasy glances.

They knew the older man’s reputation. If he survived this encounter and carried that accusation back to the guild, their careers would be finished. No guild would accept adventurers who abandoned their own.

But another thought followed quickly behind it. The mission didn’t say to fight the creature, only to verify its intentions.

From their perspective, the situation had escalated because of Roy.

He had been the one to antagonize the monster first. In fact, they believed that was the very reason the monster signaled him out in the first place.

Why should they all be punished for a mistake he chose to make?

"There’s no reason to complicate things. How about this?"

Several heads turned toward him. All ears were at attention.

He raised a hand and gestured behind him. Fenrir, Le, Arachne, and Kratos stepped forward.

"If you want him to live, then let him earn it. He will choose which of them he will face, and they will fight one another to the death."

"I will not interfere, and neither will any of you. At least I’m giving him a fighting chance. It’s better than what you gave those wolves."

Listening to how Noah was deciding his fate for him, Roy’s expression twisted with fury.

"You expect us to believe that?" he snapped. "There’s no way in hell we’re trusting a monster. How do we know you’ll actually let us leave if he wins?"

Noah’s gaze turned cold as it settled on him.

"I don’t care whether you trust me or not. Choose your opponent... or die. And if anyone interferes, then all of you die."

The adventurers exchanged uneasy looks as each of them realized that nothing they said would change the creature’s decision.

Roy saw it as well, and what unsettled him even more was the hesitation creeping back into their expressions.

"Why are you even listening to this thing?" Roy shouted. "It’s playing you."

"It fears the power behind the nation that sent us here. Do you honestly believe it would allow any of you to leave after seeing everything in this forest?"

He shook his head in disbelief.

"Think about it! If you leave, you return to the guild with everything you’ve learned. Even if it showed you mercy, do you think the guild would just ignore this after it killed me? They would send a far stronger force."

Roy lifted his sword and pointed it toward Noah.

"This creature understands that better than anyone. It knows exactly what will happen the moment you leave."

"Why would it allow witnesses to walk away unless it believed we were too afraid to stand our ground? This duel is nothing more than a trick to divide us."

His gaze swept across the group.

"You really believe it’s letting the rest of you go because of mercy?"

He scoffed.

"No. It will kill the rest of you before you ever leave this forest."

"You’re all just cowards."

Noah watched in silence without bothering to deny the accusation. Instead, he observed the adventurers as Roy’s words settled among them, and he could see the effect they were having.

Their hesitation remained, but their grips tightened on their weapons once more as doubt slowly began to push them in the direction Roy wanted.

Even the beastkin who preached about peace among monsters had raised his blades.

Seeing this, Noah lowered his gaze to the ground and remained still for a moment.

Then he chuckled.

The sound was quiet at first, but it gradually grew into mocking laughter that seemed directed more at himself than at the adventurers standing before him.

When Noah finally looked up again, there was no trace of amusement left in his eyes.

"So even when I show mercy, you take it as weakness," he said without emotion. "Your kind never ceases to amaze me."

He paused. The seconds in between that silence were nerve-wracking.

"Fine."

Noah did not raise his voice, yet every creature under his command reacted immediately. The ones surrounding the clearing began to spread outward while those closest to him stepped forward, their movements coordinated as though they had experienced this before.

"I don’t care which one it is," Noah said aloud, though the adventurers did not understand who he was speaking to. His creatures, however, did.

As he continued speaking, thin tendrils of energy seeped from Noah’s body and attached themselves to the monsters spiritually bound to him. The auras surrounding them exploded, nearly doubling in intensity.

"A message only needs one messenger... So make sure to keep one alive."

That was all the instruction they needed.

Fenrir was the first to move.

The time he spent idle wasn’t wasted. The massive wolf has already transitioned into werebeast form, increasing its strength, stamina, and regeneration prowess.

During the brief moment Fenrir had stood motionless, he had not been idle. He had been gathering his strength for this very instant. It was the same ability Noah had granted him after absorbing the Ant Queen’s core back at the college dorms.

The ground beneath his paws shattered as he launched forward.

The sudden burst of power was unlike anything he had shown earlier. His presence leapt from the level of a B-rank monster to something that rivaled an A-rank in a single explosive movement.

Out of everyone standing before him, Fenrir aimed straight for Roy. The attack came so suddenly that Roy’s breath caught in his throat.

For the first time since this confrontation began, Roy truly believed he was about to die.

Roy raised his sword instinctively, but the distance between them vanished far faster than he expected. The crushing, killing intent pouring from the wolf made him see the reality. If he faced that attack alone, he would not survive it.

The older man sensed the same thing immediately.

"Supports!"

The priest and the cleric reacted with little hesitation.

The priest lifted her staff and spoke a short prayer. A light burst outward before sinking into the bodies of the adventurers. The oppressive pressure from Fenrir’s approach weakened as the holy energy strengthened their bodies and sharpened their minds.

"Roy!" the older man shouted.

Roy’s thoughts cleared as the magic spread through him. He stepped beside his master and mirrored his stance.

The older man gripped his sword with both hands and aimed it toward the charging wolf as the dark blue flames surrounding his blade roared to life with even greater intensity.

Roy did the same.

The red flames along his own sword exploded with his mana.

When the two blades swung forward, the red and blue flames twisted together in midair and merged into a single torrent of violent purple fire that swallowed the space between them.