Becoming a Monster-Chapter 71: Revaluation

As Noah’s determination surged, his creatures were imbued with the same fervor through their unbreakable bond. With a shared sense of purpose, Arachne and Fenrir charged forward, ready to confront what could potentially be their most challenging battle yet. However, the true test lay in the possibility that the creature they faced was not merely another formidable foe like the Zombie King, but a zombie that had transcended its limits and evolved into something far more formidable.

Screech!*

As Fenrir and Arachne closed in on the giant zombie, their approach triggered a visceral reaction from the undead abomination, a scream so chilling it could rival the haunting wail of a banshee if such a creature existed.

Despite his earlier bold declaration, Noah found himself momentarily shocked by the unexpected turn of events. His eyes widened in disbelief as he witnessed the zombie spring into action, taking off into a run that defied its monstrous form.

He noticed that the zombie’s arms served more than merely granting it longer reach. As it made its way towards them, it leaned over and supported itself with its hands, alternately moving its arms and opposite leg in a manner reminiscent of a bipedal creature. However, in Noah’s eyes, the creature resembled more of a gorilla.

Though the creature’s movements appeared slow and deliberate, it covered ground with alarming speed, closing the distance to Fenrir and Arachne in just three strides. Noah’s surprise deepened as he realized that, despite its apparent blindness, the zombie showed no hesitation or difficulty in locating them.

Deep down, Noah was feeling hesitant to join the fight because of his penalized stats, but that fear spurned him more to charge.

"Argh! I didn’t choose to become a monster tamer to have my creatures fight all my battles for me!" He gripped the handle of his sword, positioning it at his waist, the blade trailing behind him as he took off towards the battle.

A second later, Noah’s speed began to increase after using his exchange skill for a percentage of Fenrir’s agility instead of his strength. The added agility would help him maneuver more swiftly in the fight, allowing him to avoid the zombie’s clutches more effectively. He felt it was crucial to preserve Fenrir’s strength for delivering powerful blows, especially after obtaining his new perk that increased the lethality of his teeth and claws.

Arachne was the first to engage, displaying her aggressive nature as she leaped atop the creature’s chest. Noah wasn’t sure of Arachne’s weight, but because of her exoskeleton, she had to be easily over 200 pounds, yet the zombie didn’t struggle to support her weight at all.

She sank her fangs close into the zombie’s collarbone, instinctively injecting her venom before proceeding to use the zombie’s size against itself. Instead of jumping away when she sensed the hand coming from behind her, she deftly maneuvered over the creature’s shoulder to reach its back, finding another suitable location to inject the zombie with another dose of her venom.

"Awhhooo!" Meanwhile, Fenrir wasted no time in joining the battle, his powerful howl signaling his instinctual urge to hunt. With a ferocious snarl, he lunged forward, clamping his jaws around the zombie’s thigh with bone-crushing force while the zombie was distracted by Arachne. A dark, vicious red liquid began to ooze from the wound, the liquid was borderline black and incredibly thick.

"Grrrr!" Fenrir’s frustration boiled over into a menacing growl as he tightened his grip on the zombie’s leg, his sharp claws digging deep into the creature’s flesh. With a determined snarl, he attempted to twist his head, his powerful jaws straining against the zombie’s resilient muscles. It was impossible to tell unless you were Fenrir himself, but his jaws, capable of easily crushing bone and even chewing through most steel, were having a hard time breaching the zombie’s muscles.

"Back down Fucker!" Noah roared towards the zombie when he saw it raise its arm to attack Fenrir after ignoring Arachne’s attempts to distract it. Temporarily, not even longer than a second, its arm froze, allowing Fenrir to swiftly withdraw, albeit bringing with him a layer of the zombie’s skin.

Boom!

Noah’s pupils dilated as he witnessed the destruction the zombie caused to the ground after Fenrir escaped. The earth trembled, and the grass, almost reaching the middle of his shins, was completely flattened under the blow, leaving a crater where the impact occurred.

Soon after, the zombie reached behind it to grab Arachne, who attempted to bite through the back of its cranium. However, only a loud thud could be heard as her fangs failed to penetrate its tough skull. The bone was just too dense for the spider’s current stats.

Sensing the danger created by the zombies approaching hands, Arachne retreated from the giant’s body while Fenrir targeted the same leg again. Unable to penetrate the thick muscle with his teeth, Fenrir resorted to change his method of attack. He stood on his powerful hind legs and began to claw ferociously towards the flesh it had previously bitten.

Once again, Noah’s timely intervention froze the zombie in its tracks, granting Fenrir the opportunity to retreat to safety before the creature could unleash another devastating blow. The land within a couple meters surrounding it quaked under its might.

Thud!*

By now, Noah had closed in on the zombie, his heart pounding with each step. Overexerting his muscles, he swung his sword, aiming for the monster’s knee, hoping to deal significant damage. Throughout the fight, Noah was unable to gauge the zombies’ resilience from Fenrir’s and Arachne’s interaction thus far. Yet, as the blade barely pierced the undead flesh before the creature ensnared his sword within its tightened muscles, Noah grasped the vast disparity in strength between them and an evolved creature.

Noah could feel an attack coming, but he also expected it. Planting a foot firmly on the zombie’s leg, he propelled himself backward with a powerful kick, wrenching his sword free in the process. Relying on his sensory hairs, Noah was able to discern the incoming direction of the monster’s attack. This allowed him to evade the creature’s grasping hand by mere inches.

A trace of death flickered through Noah’s mind as he narrowly avoided the zombie’s lethal grasp, mindful of the destruction of the zombie’s unnatural strength. Yet he couldn’t allow the near death experience influence his action, especially now that the zombie was reaching for him again.

Noah swiftly pivoted, extending his hand to shoot a web aimed at the zombie’s arm as it hovered in front of its body. With the intention to intertwine the zombie’s arm to its body, Noah’s heart raced within this pivotal moment. However, frustration boiled over when his shot missed, only managing to hit the zombie’s stomach.

"Fuck that penalty!" Noah cursed, feeling the weight of his slowed reaction time despite his keen awareness of the zombie’s movements. Though his spidery vision enabled him to easily track the arm’s speed with his eyes, his own bodily motion was too sluggish to keep up.

"Arachne! Stop trying to use your venom, help me tie him up!" I’ll focus on the legs, you handle the arms!"

He quickly attached a web to the zombie’s unharmed leg as Fenrir re-engaged, targeting the previously wounded leg again. As Fenrir stubbornly attacked, Noah couldn’t help but notice the thick, sap-like blood flowing from the zombie, surprised that he hadn’t seen bone after Fenrir’s relentless assault.

With the web secured, Noah planted his sword in the ground, using the momentary respite to shoot another web at the same leg. Targeting the creature’s ankles, he darted around the zombie’s side in a circle.

His plan was straightforward: immobilize the legs, then restrain the arms. With the monster defenseless, they could take their time finishing it off.

Arachne quickly caught on, climbing to the zombie’s shoulder to tether her web before leaping down to join Noah, mirroring his movements as she attempted to encircle the zombie.

As they continued weaving their intricate web, it became increasingly difficult for Fenrir to interfere, removing him from the battle that only aided to leave Noah and Arachne as suitable targets.

With the first layer of the circle of webs completed, they moved on to another. Arachne, with her remarkable speed, was almost finished with her second circle.

The relentless movement of its targets, coupled with the tightening web, seemed to agitate the zombie further, eliciting another loud screech as it aimed for the source of the sound, its primitive instincts driving it to target the slowest moving target in its proximity, which happened to be Noah.

Noah’s smile widened in contempt as he watched the zombie about to step towards him. He didn’t believe that the zombie was smart enough to notice the webs encasing it, considering how tough its body was. He watched in anticipation for the zombie to trip and fall over.

"Oooof!"

As the zombie pressed forward, the strands of webbing held firm, yet it continued its relentless advance, indifferent to the constraints. Noah felt the forceful tug on his arms as the webs remained connected to him, a sensation quickly escalating into searing pain as his shoulder dislocated. With a grim determination, he severed the connection, but the ordeal was far from over. He didn’t hesitate to cut himself off from his webs, but the problems continued to grow from there.

Attempting to create distance, Noah found himself almost pulled towards the zombie once more as it reached for him. The same scene repeated itself, this time with Arachne. She was midway through her circling motion when the zombie unintentionally snatched her from the air through the use of her web, hurling her towards the dormitory building.

Reacting swiftly, Arachne detached herself from her webs, but the momentum sent her hurtling towards the building. Noah’s heart raced with worry until he saw her shoot out a web towards the building, using it to brace herself mid-air and prevent herself from crashing into the unforgiving surface.

The impact of Arachne’s landing caused a deafening crash as glass shattered from three surrounding windows, and the frame of the window she landed near collapsed from the force. The plan that Noah thought was a genius move, turned out to be the worst possible move he could have done.

Bang!*

Grimacing in pain, he attempted to reset his dislocated arm, recalling techniques he had read about. But before he could focus fully, a loud bang echoed, followed by a pained whimper that sounded like Fenrir.

His heart sank as he looked up to see the zombie standing alone, Fenrir nowhere in sight. In the distance, he could hear Fenrir’s growls of distress as he struggled to rise. Noah’s stomach churned with dread as he realized that Fenrir’s mouth was dislocated, and one of his arms twisted unnaturally at the joints.

His heart began to pound harder than ever when the thought of all of them dying here began to run through his mind. Death had scared him before, but he hadn’t realized that he wasn’t afraid to die before because he never had anything to lose. Tears began to fall from his face unknowingly, and he unconsciously wiped them away. It took for the tears to keep flowing to realize what was happening.

"Am I crying...?" The realization calmed his mind enough for him to think properly, the pounding of his heart quickly brought to his attention due to the stifling sensation he felt in his chest. It wasn’t hard for him to figure out what was happening. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

’Even if I was to die, is this how I want my end to be? I feel like a fucking cliche! I’d be embarrassed to go out like this when it’s my fault! No one told me to stay and fight; there was still a chance to run. I could’ve spammed my webs and used all my magic to make it stronger, I can’t use conserving mana as an excuse when I still have the potion..."

His breathing was becoming heavier the more he realized how much he could’ve done to prevent this. Out of the corner of his eye, his gaze fell on his bag, and his eyes grew incensed. He remembered the piles of cores he’s collected that he was saving to use later.

"Fuck, I deserve to die, STUPID!" In his rage, he jerked his arm hard, popping it back into place, but he was too upset to even flinch.

Soon, his eyes began to undergo a subtle change, the red of each pupil growing in size and emitting a soft glow.

The serious and frustrated expression on his face turned crazed, radiating his intent to kill.

"I’ll admit that I deserve what’s happening right now, but I was doing perfectly fine until you came along. This is far from over!"

"GRRWWWLL!" A roar ranged out like an enraged beast, but the beast turned out to be Noah himself. His pupils nearly fully red, with only a small outline of black remaining. His teeth bared, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the zombie before him.

Without hesitation, Noah took off for the zombie, its attention now focused solely on him after his pressuring roar. In one fluid motion, he tore the sword from the ground, his grip on the weapon surprisingly steady, as he was able to hold it much easier than before.

a swirling mist of black and red began to emanate from the sword’s handle, casting an ominous aura around him as he was about to start round two.

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