Born in Blood-Chapter 575: Monster

Just as the fist was about to hit Liam from above, cracking his neck and crushing his organs, something happened.

No, it wasn’t a clone.

There was no time for that.

No, it wasn’t a Void attack.

There was no time for that.

No, it wasn’t a White Matter puppet that could take the hit for him.

There was no time for that.

Instead, what had happened was so stupid, it was almost funny.

The punch... simply slipped off!

Had the scene been a movie, the same move would be repeated over and over again from different angles.

All showing the same thing.

The punch, which would’ve killed a Rank 5 cultivator in one go, ricocheting off and hitting the air.

The monster looked utterly incredulous, but only for a moment before realizing what had happened.

There was something different about Liam. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

He was covered by something!

A suit of something wet and soft-like.

But the surprise hadn’t ended there.

On Liam’s hand, there was a huge glove.

It looked blocky and sort of ridiculous, with hundreds of little bumps on its surface.

Liam formed a fist with the glove.

Then, taking advantage of the slipped punch, rushed straight at the monster.

What followed next was a strike with 150% power.

The Knock Back Glove amplified Liam’s power to a devastating amount. He had physically felt one or two of the monster’s organs rupture.

As it fell back, the dozen-eyed beast vomited out heaps of blood and guts.

Liam wasn’t about to let it get off that easy.

Of course not.

His Dusk Blades appeared on his hands next, while the gloves — which were now on cooldown – entered his ring.

The dual blades practically buzzed with raw excitement and joy as it shredded through the monster’s soft, fleshy eye tissue, spraying lines of red across the chamber walls.

Sense of vision, gone.

Immediately after, Liam bombarded the monster with Chaos.

One after the other, booms echoed within the chamber — extending the monster’s disorientation — followed immediately by a flurry of slashes and cuts with both the Dusks and Black Blade.

After a while of this, the monster fell limp.

Liam didn’t put his guard down. Just to be sure, he fell back, made sure the monster was just below the chandelier, then severed the chain that held the weighty chandelier up.

SHING!

BOOM!

Now, the chandelier was like an anchor, pinning the monster to the ground and making sure it didn’t move.

And it didn’t seem like it was going to move any time soon, with its wings cut off, its sword arm chipped, and its muscular arm hacked off.

Liam didn’t even catch his breath... well, he didn’t need to catch his breath, but he was still tired. His face was paler than usual, and his mental energy was quite low – barely a quarter filled.

Still, he took this time to search for the monster’s mental organ via his own mental waves.

Did it have a sea of consciousness?

’I’m gonna find out.’

The mental waves had emerged from the monster’s eyes... but that didn’t mean the mental energy had been produced there.

Liam’s sharp mental energy penetrated through the monster’s thick flesh and probed within. To his surprise, there was a thin layer of protection... or was it? It seemed like a cracked, almost corrupted mental barrier that teetered on the edge of broken.

And his previous thought proved true.

It did have a sea of consciousness.

Which meant one thing.

This monster was no monster at all.

It was a human.

***

Most likely, what the monster was, was a severely experimented and biologically altered human being.

’No wonder it could speak like one.’

No other living thing in the animal kingdom came with a sea of consciousness... but there were very few exceptions, such as the Kitsune.

Of course, not all Magical Beasts required a sea of consciousness for mental attacks. However, their capabilities were limited and unable to expand beyond that small scope.

That aside, Liam wondered if he should kill it.

It was incapacitated, and all it would take is a decent amount of pressure to shatter its already ruined mental barrier.

But he stopped himself.

This monster/human... the only thing that was keeping it relatively sane was its mental barrier.

It most likely separated his human side with his monstrous side.

Which meant that, if Liam shattered it, all that would remain is a monster which may or may not go berserk.

He could kill that too, but still.

Why not take advantage of the situation?

Liam obviously wasn’t planning on becoming friends with the thing... but he could probe it for some information. Especially since it seemed offended at Naxathra’s mention.

Which was Liam’s next point.

Naxathra obviously did this to him.

Whether or not the Dreaded made sure his methods of torture and genetic modification were forgotton by the monster, Liam was interested enough to find out.

Speaking of which, the monster/human hybrid ogre beast was making groaning noises.

"Wakey wakey!" Liam said, the odachi in his hand was aimed straight at the monster’s throat. "No sudden movements, alright? Let’s be civil here."

The hybrid creature made a low groaning noise.

"I also have a corrosive wave of mental energy wrapped around your mental barrier, just a centimeter from contact. I can kill you mentally and physically in a heartbeat."

"So much for being civil," the monster said, its tone pained from all the damage it suffered. Honestly, any intimidation it had before had disappeared.

"Can’t blame me," Liam said. "Alright, first things first. Are you a human?"

"No."

"Were you human, I mean?" Liam corrected.

Silence.

"Yes."

"Do you remember anything significant from your time as a human?"

Silence.

"No," it responded with more pain in its voice. It seemed like even thinking caused it pain.

Most likely on purpose, all things considered.

Naxathra probably wanted its attacks to be smart and calculated like a human’s, but not enough for it to attempt any form of escape via communication with those who challenge the Tomb.

What a monster.