Chapter 53: When the Prey Takes Command [Part 1]

Chapter 53. When the Prey Takes Command [Part 1]

"H-How..." Raven stammered.

He never finished.

A roar rolled through the trees.

Then another.

The bushes shook. Branches snapped somewhere beyond the clearing, followed by the heavy thud of something enormous striking the ground.

More guests.

How lovely.

The first Ironmaw Direwolf emerged between two trees, its armored shoulders scraping bark from both trunks. Three more followed. Then six.

And behind them...

Well.

I stopped counting.

The undergrowth seemed to be vomiting monsters.

Garr spun toward the noise. Darius drew his sword halfway, while Elia gathered Light Mana around her fingers.

Raven, meanwhile, looked entirely too pleased with himself for a man who had just discovered he’d personally killed his own apprentice.

Garr noticed.

He marched over, seized Raven by the collar, and yanked him forward.

"You dumbshit! If you want revenge on him, don’t drag us into it!"

So Raven had acted alone.

Again.

That was an old habit of his. Assassins preferred making decisions in private, apparently including decisions that could get their companions eaten.

During the war, Rey had frequently been the one forced to smooth things over afterward.

He’d listened to Raven’s reasoning, explained it to the others, and somehow persuaded everyone not to murder one another before reaching the Dark Lord.

An exhausting job.

I had no intention of applying for it.

Raven knocked Garr’s hand away. "I smeared the repellent on us. The monsters will only attack him."

Garr glanced at his sleeve.

Then at me.

His shoulders relaxed.

"Fine."

He stepped aside.

"This is between you and Raven. We won’t interfere."

Darius said nothing. He merely caught Elia by the wrist and pulled her farther from the clearing.

Elia looked back at me.

Her lips parted.

For one ridiculous moment, I wondered whether she might object.

She didn’t.

Raven adjusted his collar and smiled.

"Since you said the curse got you, show us how much you can endure before you go completely mad."

The horde charged.

There were too many to dispatch casually.

I could kill them.

Certainly.

A sufficiently large Abyssal spell would turn this entire section of the hunting ground into a magnificent graveyard.

But that would consume a considerable amount of Forbidden Energy.

And four hostile SSS-rank heroes were standing behind me.

Even if my curse never flared, exhausting my reserves in front of them would be an exceptionally stupid way to die.

No, thank you.

I preferred my death to be dramatic and preferably several centuries away.

So... Why not experiment?

[Voidwind Manipulation]

Wind curled around my legs and slipped beneath my cloak.

My body grew lighter.

The first direwolf lunged.

I stepped sideways.

Its jaws snapped shut where my throat had been a heartbeat earlier.

The second came from my left.

I ducked beneath its claws, felt the wind of the strike brush my hair, and slid between its armored forelegs.

A third beast slammed into the space I’d just abandoned.

The collision shook the ground.

I accelerated.

The world stretched into sharp fragments of motion.

A snapping jaw.

A claw descending.

A flash of sunlight across gray armor.

I slipped past them all.

Then I spotted the largest direwolf.

Its shoulders rose above the others, and thick plates covered its neck like overlapping shields.

Perfect.

I planted one foot against a smaller wolf’s shoulder, vaulted over its head, and landed beside the giant.

Its jaws opened.

I reached out.

My palm touched its armored flank.

Just for an instant.

[Abyssal Formation Creation]

"Absolute Command."

A formation unfolded beneath my hand.

Not the clumsy geometric arrangements favored by this era’s magicians.

Layers of microscopic runes interlocked inside a rotating lattice, each one adjusting to the monster’s mana flow.

My design.

Modern magical theory.

Years of research compressed into a single touch.

Forbidden Energy surged through the armor, followed the beast’s mana channels, and plunged straight into its core.

I kicked off its side and leaped backward.

The wolf snapped at empty air.

Too late.

The formation was already inside.

It shook its head.

Once.

Twice.

Then its eyes fixed on me.

Waiting.

The first stage had succeeded.

Now...

"Evolve."

The formation tightened around its core.

My Forbidden Energy mixed with the monster’s natural mana.

For a heartbeat, the two energies seemed to accept one another.

Then the core resisted.

Violently.

The direwolf screamed.

Its back arched. Armor plates lifted from its flesh, exposing dark seams beneath them. Its claws lengthened until they gouged furrows through the soil.

Its jaws stretched wider.

New fangs forced their way between the old ones.

The beast grew.

And grew.

Its armored hide thickened unevenly, bulging across one shoulder while jagged ridges erupted along its spine.

Blood trickled between the plates.

Then the system appeared.

[Evolution Failed]

"Tch."

The direwolf stood before me, larger and considerably uglier than before.

Its right foreleg was too long.

Its armor had fused into an asymmetrical shell.

And its teeth... It looked as though somebody had tried to build a wolf from spare weapons and lost patience halfway through.

But... Its core remained intact.

Its obedience held.

I pointed toward the horde. "Go."

The mutated direwolf turned.

Then launched itself at its former pack.

Its jaws closed around another wolf’s neck.

Armor cracked.

The victim shrieked as the larger beast dragged it sideways and slammed it into a tree.

Blood ran down the trunk.

Another direwolf attacked the mutant’s flank.

The mutant twisted, caught its attacker beneath one oversized foreleg, and drove its elongated claws through the creature’s armor.

The hunting ground erupted into chaos.

Excellent.

My own personal monster-on-monster demonstration.

The project was called the Core Imprint Project. It was my second unfinished project.

A rather respectable name for something that would probably get me arrested.

The concept was simple. I’d taken my Mind Corruption Formation, refined its structure, and developed a more advanced version capable of imprinting commands directly onto a monster’s mana core. Instead of merely influencing its thoughts, I could establish control at the source of its power.

Then, because apparently controlling monsters wasn’t ambitious enough, I’d added another function.

Evolution.

By injecting a measured amount of my Forbidden Energy into the core, I intended to strengthen its structure and force the monster beyond its natural limits. A B-tier creature should theoretically evolve into an A-tier one.

Theoretically.

My newly acquired servant was currently demonstrating the difference between theory and practice by tearing into its former packmates with one oversized foreleg and a mouthful of horribly uneven fangs.

At least the obedience function worked.

Unfortunately, that was also why I couldn’t publish the research.

A formation capable of rewriting a creature’s obedience?

Ugh, the possibilities.

And by possibilities, I meant every ambitious noble, military commander, and royal laboratory trying to get their hands on it.

Someone would inevitably adapt it for humans.

Then they’d come looking for its creator.

Me.

I’d spent my previous life avoiding people who thought researchers were resources to be owned. I had no intention of becoming somebody’s personal brainwashing machine in this one.

Besides, completing the evolution function required hundreds of controlled experiments involving direct mana injections into monster cores.

Precise injections.

Repeated measurements.

Careful adjustments.

Exactly the sort of research that demanded a healthy, reliable mana capacity.

And what did I have?

A damaged mana capacity.

Spectacular.

I’d developed a project that required extensive core experimentation, but I had a body that made such experiments dangerously difficult.

In the end, the research had stalled.

Still, I watched my hideously mutated servant attack another direwolf.

At least today, I finally had fresh test subjects.

Thank you, Raven.

Your attempted murder was proving remarkably educational.