Novel Full Chapter 502: Sleep In Peace I
Chapter 502: Sleep In Peace I
Jaws opened wide, lined with rows of jagged teeth dripping with saliva, breath hot and rancid as it descended toward his face.
The beast’s mouth filled his entire vision.
And it was already closing.
The moment the beast lunged, Damien reacted on instinct.
He twisted sharply on the bed, palms slamming into the wooden frame as he used it as leverage. His body lifted cleanly into the air, rotating sideways as the creature’s massive jaws snapped shut where his head had been a heartbeat earlier.
Damien’s heel connected with solid force.
BOOM—!
The kick landed squarely against the side of the creature’s skull, releasing a concussive thud that echoed through the clearing. The beast was sent flying backward, its enormous body tearing through trees like paper. Trunks snapped, branches exploded, and the forest screamed as the creature crashed to a halt dozens of meters away.
Damien landed lightly on his feet, knees bending to absorb the impact. His eyes were already locked onto the monster as it struggled to rise.
“…You’re big,” he muttered.
Moonlight spilled over the clearing, finally giving him a proper look at what had tried to make a meal of him.
It resembled a hippopotamus—but only in the vaguest sense.
The creature stood taller than any hippo Damien had ever seen, its body long and lean rather than bulky. Thick, overlapping scales covered its hide, each one jagged and uneven, like poorly forged armor plates hammered directly into flesh. Protruding bone spines jutted from its shoulders and spine, curving backward like crude blades.
Its head was massive.
Wide jaw. Reinforced skull. Rows of serrated teeth—too many teeth—packed tightly together in a maw designed for grinding, crushing, and tearing indiscriminately.
Its eyes glowed faintly red with mana.
“…Not a carnivore,” Damien noted flatly.
That made it worse.
Herbivorous mana beasts were almost always more dangerous. Stronger jaws. Greater mass. Less restraint. They didn’t eat meat but they surely killed anything with flesh and then leave it to rot.
The creature roared.
The sound was deafening—low, thunderous, vibrating straight through Damien’s chest. The ground trembled as it charged again, each step cracking the earth beneath its weight.
Damien stepped forward instead of back.
The beast swung its head, jaws snapping sideways like a living guillotine.
Damien ducked under the attack, pivoted, and drove his elbow into the creature’s neck.
CRACK—!
The impact sent ripples through its scaled hide, but the beast barely staggered. It whipped its tail around with terrifying speed, bone spines slicing through the air.
Damien jumped.
The tail passed beneath him, gouging a trench into the earth. Damien twisted midair and brought his foot down on the creature’s skull again, driving it into the ground hard enough to create a shallow crater.
The beast shrieked, more enraged than hurt.
It surged upward, slamming its full weight into Damien.
This time, Damien skidded backward several meters, boots carving grooves into the dirt.
He exhaled slowly.
“…You’re persistent.”
The creature opened its mouth again—but instead of immediately attacking, it let out a strange sound.
Not a roar.
Not a growl.
It was low, rhythmic, and resonant—almost like a horn call reverberating through the forest.
Damien’s eyes narrowed.
“…So that’s it.”
The sound echoed outward, rolling through the trees, carrying far beyond the clearing.
A call.
Not of rage—but of summons.
The beast charged again.
Damien sighed.
He vanished.
One moment he stood in front of the creature—the next, he was already at its side. His fist slammed into the joint beneath its foreleg, where the scales were thinner.
The beast howled as its limb buckled.
Damien followed through mercilessly.
Bang!
A punch.
Bang!
A kick.
An elbow.
Each blow landed with insane precision, targeting weak points, joints, sensory organs. The creature thrashed wildly, uprooting trees, flattening undergrowth, but Damien stayed glued to it like a shadow.
Finally, he planted both feet firmly into the ground and drew back his arm.
Essence surged.
His punch landed squarely against the creature’s skull.
BOOOOOOM—!
The impact was catastrophic.
The reinforced bone cracked inward, scales shattering as the force traveled straight through the creature’s head. Its massive body lifted off the ground, flipped once, and slammed down lifelessly several meters away.
Silence returned to the clearing.
Damien stood still for a few seconds, then rolled his shoulder.
“…Annoying.”
He dragged the corpse back toward his bed and dropped it unceremoniously beside the wooden frame, as if it were nothing more than an inconvenience that had been dealt with.
Only then did he sense it.
A familiar presence.
Luton’s essence drifted back into the clearing, the slime emerging from between trees, its surface faintly shimmering from a night of uninterrupted feeding.
Damien turned to it, arms crossed.
“You wandered off,” he said flatly.
Luton wobbled.
Damien opened his mouth, ready to scold it—but paused.
He glanced around.
The forest floor was littered with faint trails of blood that didn’t belong to the creature he’d just killed. Broken branches. Drag marks. Signs of multiple struggles.
“…You were busy,” he admitted.
He sighed, rubbing his face.
“…Just don’t wander off too far next time.”
Luton bobbed happily.
Damien gestured toward the massive corpse. “Eat.”
The slime surged forward eagerly, bouncing toward the fallen mana beast but then the ground shook.
A deep, rolling vibration rippled through the earth, strong enough to rattle the trees and make loose dirt slide from roots.
Damien froze.
His eyes lifted slowly toward the dark forest beyond the clearing.
The vibration grew stronger.
He could hear it now.
Heavy footsteps.
Many of them.
Trees cracked in the distance.
Branches snapped.
Low, guttural sounds echoed through the forest—dozens of overlapping calls, all answering the same signal.
Damien exhaled slowly.
“That noise wasn’t rage,” he muttered. “It was a call for help.”
Luton paused mid-bounce, then slowly turned as well.
The vibrations intensified.
The forest floor began to rise and fall rhythmically, as if something massive was approaching en masse.
Damien rolled his neck once.
“…They really won’t let me sleep in peace.”
He clenched his fists.
A faint, dangerous smile crept onto his face as shadows began to move between the trees.
“Fine,” he said quietly. “I’m awake now.”