Becoming a Monster

Chapter 478: Chapter 477: First Blood Goes To...

Ethanel’s shout was filled with distress, so much so that Gwen’s mind slipped to process it.

She didn’t understand what he had seen, but the warning alone was enough to make her react, and yet it came too late.

None of them had noticed it, as a massive shadow formed behind them without a sound and swept past in a single motion, leaving nothing behind where Gwen had been standing.

For a brief moment, Ethanel couldn’t process what he was seeing, but as his gaze followed the movement, he finally understood.

A massive serpent, its body far too long to track, was already retreating into the forest.

His concentration shattered instantly, and the ice shards dissolved along with the spell as his mind struggled to catch up with what had just happened.

"Gwen!"

The shout tore from his throat as he poured mana into his body and launched himself forward at a reckless speed, abandoning everything else in that instant.

He ignored the battle entirely as he chased after the serpent, because the only thought left in his mind was the possibility that she might still be alive.

She had been the one who held their group together, the one who gave their scattered team purpose.

Without her, everything would fall apart.

Behind him, his cry sent a chill through the two beastkin still locked in battle, and although they did not know what had happened, the weight behind his voice told them enough.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

—

The old man had already turned his attention back to Fenrir, having only caught a glimpse of the explosion and recognizing that the others were now locked in battles of their own.

It didn’t have to be said, but there would be no support. He would have to handle this himself.

Unaware that, in that brief moment, one of their own had already been taken, he raised his sword once more as lightning began to crackle violently along its edge, the energy gathering while increasing in intensity.

"Leave this beast to me," he spoke to Roy when he saw his student stepping up to help. "Handle the one approaching."

As he gave the order, his free hand lifted, and a swirl of water began to gather in front of his palm, the mass expanding steadily as the old man pulled moisture from the surrounding air to support completing his spell faster as it condensed it into a dense, rotating sphere.

He didn’t call out to the cleric, but his eyes shifted briefly in that direction as he measured the progress of the spell already underway, because after years of fighting together, and after surviving battles against enemies where survival was questionable, just like now, he did not need to ask what the man was preparing.

More importantly, he understood that the spell required time, and drawing attention to it now would only risk disrupting the spell or painting a target to the monsters around them.

What they needed was time.

Time to allow the spell to reach completion, whether it would turn the tide of the battle or simply create an opening for them to escape.

His gaze lingered for only a moment longer before returning to Fenrir, but in that brief glance, he caught the subtle shift in the cleric’s aura as it began to stabilize, signaling that the spell was nearly halfway finished.

That was enough for him.

With his decision made, the lightning gathered along his blade vibrated violently as he swung it forward, releasing the storm he had built up in the effort to subdue Fenrir.

The attack struck far faster than the earlier flames, leaving Fenrir no opportunity to evade as the lightning crashed into him head-on. The moment it connected, streams of electric energy surged through his body, crawling along the exposed exoskeleton and forcing the massive beast to halt its charge once again.

Unlike the flames, the lightning spread uncontrollably across the hardened plates beneath his burned fur, turning his own body into a conduit as the current coursed through him.

Fenrir’s exoskeleton was working against him.

The old man did not hesitate to press the advantage, and as the beast staggered under the assault, the sphere of water he had formed shot forward from his outstretched hand while continuing to expand until it reached nearly half his height.

His intent was clear, because if the lightning alone could not bring the creature down, then the water would carry that energy deeper into its body and force it through every part of him, tearing him apart from the inside.

Even if it did not kill Fenrir outright, it would remove him from the battle, and that alone would give them the time they needed to regroup, assist the others, and find a way to retreat.

However, as the sphere traveled forward, a sudden pressure settled against his senses, and he immediately understood that something else was approaching him directly.

The water had only crossed half the distance when another sphere appeared directly in its path, and although it was smaller, its presence was far more unsettling.

When the two collided, the outcome wasn’t what he expected; instead of erupting outward, the water twisted unnaturally as its structure gave way and collapsed inward, dragging everything into a single point before disappearing completely.

The old man’s eyes narrowed as he followed the space where his attack had vanished, and what he saw forced him to understand the situation far more clearly than before.

Noah didn’t seem to barely put in any effort, yet the attack had been intercepted so effortlessly that it felt less like a clash and more like his spell had simply been erased.

That realization settled heavily in his chest as his grip tightened around his weapon, because the advantage he had tried to create had disappeared before it could even take effect. And what was worse was that his initial assessment of Noah’s strength was perhaps not even close to what he assumed.

—

On Noah’s side, he found himself seriously considering whether he should step in directly.

From what he had observed during their first exchange, the group’s strength did not come from any single individual, but from the cohesion they maintained as a whole.

It was a common trope that he had witnessed during the time in his previous world.

Even so, he had not expected the older man to place Fenrir under such pressure on his own.

Although the older man was being reinforced by both the priest and the cleric, Fenrir was also benefiting from external support, yet the gap between them had not widened in the way Noah initially thought it would.

That alone told him enough.

The beings of this world were far more capable than he had given them credit for.

And it wasn’t that he underestimated them, because if that were the case, he would not have brought so many creatures with him to begin with, and every decision he had made up to this point had been rooted in caution toward the unknown strength the beings in this world might possess.

What surprised him was the fact that he had already encountered someone capable of standing against one of his main creatures on their own that wasn’t a monster.

That realization did not unsettle him in the way it might have before, because if anything, it reinforced the reasoning behind his actions and proved that his caution had never been misplaced.

If this was the level he could expect, then preparing for the worst had been the correct choice. However, that did not resolve the issue that now stood before him.

If anything, it made it more apparent that his understanding of this world was still incomplete.

Up until now, he had only heard in passing that something called a guild existed, yet he had no knowledge of how it operated, how far its influence reached, or where the adventurers standing before him fell within its structure.

Without that information, he had no reliable way to measure their strength or determine what level of power he should expect when even stronger individuals inevitably appeared.

"I should’ve asked about that first..." he muttered under his breath.

Beside him, Ailetta was too focused to comment as she let out a quiet hum. Because, unlike the others, the holy field didn’t merely suppress her. The purification of her mana was no different than having a part of her essence erased, and that loss couldn’t be recovered through rest alone.

Unless she was willing to expose her true strength and transform, altering the nature of her power so that the opposing energy would no longer affect her in the same way, she had no choice but to remain where she was.

Noah had already decided that one of them would live, but allowing them to witness that transformation would defeat the purpose entirely, because if word were to spread that a creature born of darkness could take on traits that mirrored their prized divinity, then this would no longer be seen as a simple conflict between man and monster.

It would be treated as a direct challenge to the foundation of their beliefs, and the Church would not hesitate to respond by devoting everything they had to erasing it.