Chapter 24: To The Bitter End.

When he heard how Barnabas waxed high and low about his feelings for Tessa, he had to take a good look at Tessa and see if what it was about her that was worth taking such an intense beating for.

For the first time since he met her, he stopped looking at her as a powerful abomination in the form of a woman and started looking at a potentially beautiful woman.

Ever since he saw her open jaw and three-headed tongue, he had never been able to consider her something worthy of attraction. The fact that she forced them to eat human flesh and beat them mercilessly only seemed to reinforce that idea.

But now that he ignored her obviously negative features, he noticed other things about her that he missed before.

Tessa was no longer wearing the plate armor he first saw her in. She was now wearing the same trench coat and the form-fitting attire beneath it. This arrangement showed off her curves, enhancing her beauty.

It helped immensely that her body was pure muscle with no visible fat. So even though her breasts were modest, her thighs were thick, and her figure was sensually highlighted.

’Maybe she is beautiful,’ he thought unwillingly.

’But considering she is a titan and she is what she beats, then it is likely that her flesh and heart are as hard as the metal she eats. With a heart of metal, Barnabas stands no chance,’ he thought, chuckling.

His opinion of Tessa was mixed as he didn’t particularly hate her or like her. In fact, he should be grateful that she allowed him to become an Apostle when she could have easily picked someone who looked stronger.

But that positive point was somewhat negated by the fact that she broke his arms, belittled him verbally many times, and has been generous in her beatings. So at least once, he would like to beat her.

His opinion of her had gotten so bad that he would flinch if she looked at him sideways like she was doing right now. But no matter how much he wanted to beat her, he had to admit that she was beautiful.

Tessa caught them looking at her and examining her body, so she glared at them. She didn’t even wave her baton before the two of them immediately looked away and focused on other things.

She nodded in satisfaction when she saw this. Then she resumed beating Barnabas.

Eventually, Barnabas stopped saying nonsense, so she stopped beating the love-sick fool. In less than five minutes, all of the injuries from the beating were gone. But the impact of the beating on his energy reserves was long-lasting.

Because he spent so much energy healing his injuries, Barnabas couldn’t withstand the cooking for much longer. He quit early, so Tessa punished him by cutting off his arm.

She took the arm and waved it at Alex and Robert as she said, "Whoever lasts the longest will get to eat this."

For the first time since yesterday, when this training began, Alex wanted to eat human flesh. When he looked at that wiggling arm, he felt an interest in eating it from the bottom of his heart.

His interest only seemed to increase when he saw the look of pain and suffering on Barnabas’s face. The fact that the arm belonged to Barnabas seemed to fuel his appetite for it.

He didn’t even mind that the cut on the arm had produced red, string-like tentacles that were wiggling. Only the thought of claiming victory and eating the flesh of his enemy was important to him.

’We must endure and last the longest,’ he said to the gluttony worm.

’Yes. More food,’ the worm said in agreement.

’Oh! You agree?’ he said, surprised.

For once, he and the worm were in agreement about something. It took him by surprise, as he expected the worm to be shortsighted and give up now.

After all, there was no punishment for taking second place. In fact, there was a reward, so he didn’t expect the worm to have the foresight to hold on for something better.

Despite his surprise, he didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth. He said, ’That’s good. That’s very good!’

Then he withdrew his consciousness deeper into the Life Forge. This dulled the pain of his flesh cooking. As for the feeling of hunger, it had all but disappeared. ℴ

The painful feeling of hunger was still present. But it had been replaced by the more urgent feeling of pain from cooking flesh.

Whether the pain of the cooking flesh got strong enough to override the sensation of hunger or the worm decided that it needed its energy for something more useful, like healing his injuries, instead of wasting it on making him hungry, he didn’t know. But he knew that he liked this arrangement.

He liked being in sync with the worm both mentally and physically. However, as fate would have it, their cooperation was incredibly shortsighted.

Just three seconds after Barnabas quit, Robert said, "I quit."

Then Robert rose from the pot and left the boiling water, leaving Alex surprised for the second time in a short time. He had expected more from Robert, so he couldn’t believe that the enemy he was gearing up to battle to the death would give up just like that.

While he was trying to get used to the absence of his supposedly great foe, Tessa said to him, "Now it is you and the worm."

"Do you give up now and accept your reward? Or do you continue to persevere to hone your Will?"

Because "Take note that you won’t be rewarded for staying any longer."

Alex hesitated slightly before he said, "I’ll wait a bit longer."

As soon as he said this, the worm rioted within him. The pain of hunger returned, stronger and worse than ever before, and the worm took control of his body to force him out.