Becoming a Monster

Chapter 467: Chapter 466: The Battle Teams

Ailetta’s words came out lighthearted, almost teasing. It was difficult to tell whether there was sincerity beneath them, but there was no mistaking the satisfaction in her gaze. If she was going to share Noah, then Arachne needed to surpass who she used to be. Weakness had no place beside him.

As Arachne adjusted her approach, Ailetta did the same.

Two pairs of eyes glowed from her shadow as the forms of Nightmare and her ice troll, Hubris, emerged from under her.

The tension picked up. And just when they were about to start what would be the final round, Arachne suddenly lost her spirit to fight.

"You can’t." She stated bluntly.

The statement felt as if it came out of nowhere. Even Ailetta felt that she was mishearing things.

"What do you mean? These babies are a part of me. There are no rules stating that I couldn’t use th-"

"She’s right, you know." Both of them turned immediately to the voice. Noah stepped forward, placing himself just close enough to stand between them without fully blocking either side.

"Let’s call it a draw for now."

"Bu-"

"Le... Even if what you’re saying is technically correct, the same can be applied to Arachne."

He looked off to the side. Arachne’s subordinates had already begun stirring the moment that Nightmare and Hubris emerged. And after nearly six days passed, Arachne’s numbers increased from three to seven.

Her royal guard was the most restless among them. He had not taken a single step forward, not until his Queen commanded it, yet the intent to battle radiating from him was unmistakable. Anyone could see that he was holding himself through sheer obedience alone.

Among the others, the original two spiders had grown significantly. They were nearly twice the size they had been when they first emerged, their frames thicker and more imposing with every passing day. Their growth had not yet reached its limit either, a consequence of the behemoth spider whose remains had served as part of the foundation for their creation.

Arachne was an outlier when it came to building an army. Her ability to create soldiers did not follow the same restrictions as the others. It allowed her forces to grow steadily so long as she had the resources and energy to nurture them.

And although her subordinates were their own independent beings, they were still products of Arachne’s power.

If Ailetta was permitted to call upon Nightmare and Hubris simply because they were extensions of herself, then there would be little reason to deny Arachne the same advantage.

At that point, the spar would cease to be a test of personal strength and instead become a contest between their factions.

Noah didn’t necessarily find a problem with that option either. But this was never the purpose of the fight.

—

The first duel ended in a tie. Afterwards, the two agreed that whenever they fought to determine the position of First Queen, the duel would be restricted to their own physical abilities. Outside of those matches, their spars carried no such restriction.

Their other spars were different. Those were conducted as full engagements, where their subordinates were allowed to participate as well. These battles served a different purpose. They were not simply meant to test which of them was stronger, but to deepen their understanding of their own forces and improve the coordination between leader and subordinate in the midst of combat.

After reaching that decision, the following battle proved far more intense than either of them had anticipated.

Ailetta had only recently succeeded in guiding several of her abyssal slimes into reshaping their bodies. By using cores from the creatures they hunted and using her advanced abyssalith slimes as the base, she had begun forming crude golems that resembled Noah’s constructs. The attempt was promising, but the method was still unstable, and the creations were far from ready for true combat.

So she relied on her usual system of combat. Relying on numbers instead of individual quality.

Her way of fighting wasn’t good or bad. But when used for sparring, she put herself at a disadvantage from the start.

Unlike the previous fight, which had been a direct clash between the two Queens, this battle forced Ailetta to divide her attention at intense moments.

Although Ailetta could command her slimes, they still possessed a faint consciousness of their own. Their instincts sometimes pushed them to act independently in the midst of battle, especially when violence intensified.

One slip-up could mean the difference between a serious injury and a lethal one.

The same couldn’t be said in reverse.

Even if Arachne’s spiders tore apart the abyssal slimes, the creatures would simply collapse into formless masses before reforming again later.

Or if they were completely destroyed by Arachne’s and her royal guards’ miasma, it would only mean that her mana reserves would be crippled. And that could be recovered in time.

The imbalance became obvious as the fight dragged on.

In the end, the first battle under the new conditions ended in Arachne’s victory.

It wasn’t necessarily because Ailetta was weaker. Her greatest strength lay in manipulating the dead and recycling fallen bodies into new assets, yet that advantage had been effectively sealed away by the rules of the spar.

Afterward, the two were forced to reconsider the structure of their duels.

However, their discussion didn’t last long.

Fenrir had been watching the entire time. He was tired of the current training he was doing. He was more interested in their fights. And now the wolf could no longer tolerate standing on the sidelines.

He stepped forward without hesitation and declared that he would be joining the next battle. The title of Queen meant nothing to him, and he had no interest in their internal rivalry.

He simply wanted to prove that he was stronger.

It was the best way to gain Noah’s acknowledgment and to prove that he could lead his subordinates better.

Pride or recognition from others was secondary.

In that regard, he was not alone.

Kratos shared the same sentiment. The towering golem had remained silent during the discussion, yet the intent radiating from him made his stance clear. If strength was being tested, then he had every reason to participate.

Only Eve chose to remain outside of it.

Unlike the others, she had never shown much interest in combat.

Fighting was something she would do if necessary, but it wasn’t something she sought.

So while the others began preparing for the next clash, Eve quietly tried to step away from the gathering.

She did not get far.

Ailetta noticed immediately and reached out, pulling her back without much ceremony. The decision had already begun forming in her mind the moment she realized that even Kratos wanted to participate.

Kratos was different from the others. Her, Arachne, and Fenrir had a force of their own. Even Eve and Pandora at least had one or two subordinates. Kratos, however, stood alone, and forcing him into a battle structured around subordinates would place him at an immediate disadvantage.

Ailetta decided to change the structure of their spars.

Instead of continuing with individual duels, they would form teams.

In this way, everyone would get what they wanted. Fenrir and Kratos would have the chance to prove themselves, while Arachne and Ailetta could continue testing each other through leadership and coordination.

At the same time, these battles would reduce the need for separate training sessions, allowing them to sharpen both individual skill and group combat in a single exercise.

It was, in Ailetta’s mind, killing three birds with one stone.

The results were immediate.

Their clashes escalated quickly as strategies evolved and new combinations of abilities were tested. Not to mention their control over their mana was faring better each day.

And with the daily dosage of Noah’s blood, their potential was steadily increasing far more than what a normal creature would experience.

The forest surrounding their territory did not remain untouched by these clashes. Trees were shattered, and the ground itself was reshaped by repeated waves of power.

Within only a few days, an entire section of the forest bore the marks of their training.

None of them realized the scale of the disturbance they were creating.

But others did. The goblin village was living in constant fear. During the day, they would never venture out. If not for the trolls taking control of the outer forest, they would’ve left the forest entirely by now.

Each day, each collision was enough for them to believe the story that their goblin kin had brought back to them. And now they feared that power would come for them one day.

They didn’t realize the commotion they were causing. It was because of this that Thalric’s guild was receiving so many spikes of energy within the forest.

Back within the territory, only two groups remained uninvolved in the escalating battles.

The cats and the dogs had been left out entirely.

However, Noah did not consider that a problem. They didn’t have a place in those battles.

If anything, watching his companions develop their own training structure gave him an idea.

After the first day of these team battles, the two respective leaders approached him together. Both groups wished to become stronger and asked Noah to train them so they could be as useful as the others.

Only after observing Ailetta’s and the others’ progress did he structure something similar for them.

The first clash was pitiful.

Noah’s view on what was considered strong was skewed compared to his own creatures and the creatures he encountered.

Witnessing the two groups go at it felt like children were at war. Their attacks were slow, their coordination was that of creatures who moved as if they weren’t aware of their own capabilities.

And as he watched, he started to realize the problem.

Their two leaders were barely stronger than the rest.

The moment he determined this, he felt that gnawing feeling working its way up again. This feeling was even stronger than the feeling towards the creatures outside his home.

Because, since the moment he took them in, he subconsciously considered them one of his own.

This couldn’t go on.

He was determined to make the two leaders worthy of their positions.