Chapter 40: Who Is The Real Monster Here?
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CLASH!
Jack was thrown into the snow-covered ground; some of his bones seemed to have cracked, and he vomited a mouthful of blood. His eyes seemed sharp and wolf-like, yet his energy reserves were quickly going down.
Rick was pushing him to his limits. But it wasn’t because he was much stronger than previous opponents, but because Jack had to multi-task with Fenrir, spending his Mana helping and rescuing the people around the dungeon while also protecting his sister.
If he could go all out without using Mana for these other tasks, he would have already crushed the opponent before him. Spending too much
Mana not only weakened his strength but also made him sluggish.
Something that Rick, a Wolf-type Half-Beast used to completely overwhelm him with fast, speedy attacks and the usage of his unique Demonic Abilities.
“What’s wrong, Jacky? Feeling a little sleepy?” Rick laughed, slowly walking towards Jack. “Then… Allow me to send you to your eternal sleep!”
The white werewolf rushed forward with all his strength, fully knowing Jack was almost at his very limits. He wanted to finish him off quickly and end this bastard once and for all. Since he learned he awakened new powers and somehow survived that Dungeon Raid, he had been dying to meet him again and crush him, reminding him of his place as trash.
“DIE!!!”
Rick’s claws grew into gigantic metallic blades as he loaded them with Demonic Energy and Mana and unleashed a deadly slicing attack against Jack, attempting to slice him into pieces.
The attacks were so intense that the snow exploded everywhere, and cracks all over the floor appeared one after the other. Rick didn’t stop; he continued hitting Jack with his attacks constantly, making sure he wouldn’t be able to survive!
“DIE! DIE! DIE YOU BASTARD! YOU DAMN FUCKING PORTER! HOW DARE YOU BECOME AN A-RANK HUNTER? YOU SHOULD HAVE FUCKING DIED!”
Rick’s powers erupted into a gigantic beam of demonic energy coming from his jaws, unleashing itself against Jack with all his strength and completely blowing the entire landscape into a massive explosion.
“Hahhh… Hahhh…” Rick began gasping for air, smiling at the scene.
There was blood and guts spread everywhere—even legs, fingers, and an ear. He even saw an eye over the snow-covered landscape. A malicious smile surged on his lips. Jack had died miserably, torn apart to shreds.
“Hahahah… HAHAHAHA! I WON!” Laughed Rick. “I killed a fucking A-Rank Hunter all by myself, boss! I know you saw it! And now, I’ll make sure to eat all of his little bits!”
The white-colored werewolf licked his lips, quickly grabbing an arm on the floor and munching it with it, drinking the blood, eating bones, muscles, and tendons, and swallowing it all while wagging his tail happily.
“Oh man, this bastard tastes much better than I expected—GUH?"
However, something was wrong. The moment Rick ate the arm left behind by Jack, he felt something inside his stomach. The arm was not quite dead yet. It began squirming, biting his own stomach, and then sliding through his throat and down his mouth!
“GUAAGH…!”
Until he suddenly vomited it! But it wasn’t exactly an arm anymore. It was a red-colored snake, overflowing with shadow and demonic power. The aura of this snake was that of nobody else but Ouroboros, a Demon that was a rival of Leviathan!
“W-What…?”
Ricky couldn’t even comprehend what was happening! However, his reality became even more insane as he saw all of the bits and pieces left of Jack transforming. They melted into shadows and red demonic energy, fusing together into a shapeless mass of wolf jaws and snake-like heads.
“W-What the fuck?!”
Not even his boss, the Incarnation of Leviathan himself, was able to do something so insane. Rick panicked so much that before he realized it, he was vomiting blood and countless smaller red snakes, which continued multiplying inside of his own stomach!
“COUGH… AAAGGH! W-What is this?! What sort… of power…?!”
Rick quickly jumped away from the snakes biting him, tearing them apart into pieces with his claws and looking at the distance, seeing the large mass of wolf-like heads and snakes taking the slight shape of a human, two red eyes opening in between.
“JACK…! What… what are you?!”
Not even the insane Demonic Human could comprehend what Jack had become.
“A human,” Jack answered. “I can’t believe the combination of Self Division, Regeneration, and the powers of Ouroboros could shape this... It is certainly very convenient that I was able to devour a Fragment of that Demon’s Soul.”
“HUH?! Y-You devoured Ouroboros Soul Fragment?!” Rick was shocked.
Demons were almost as strong as constellations—beings that defied logic and were above mortals; they were beings that possessed supernatural powers that sometimes simply didn’t make any sense. The abilities Ouroboros Soul Fragment Jack acquired were {Endless Self-Devouring} and {Ouroboros Embodiment}.
By devouring himself, he was able to constantly regenerate anew, and this worked excellently with self-division and regeneration. He let himself be torn to shreds right after activating this power and waited for the nasty bastard Rick to eat a piece of him to begin this strategy.
“Yeah, it could be said I am a Half-Demon, something you Demonic Humans will never become.” Laughed Jack. “Now, how does it feel to be eaten from the inside out, Rick?”
“Y-YOUUUU- GUGH! AGH…!” Rick tried to attack Jack furiously, but he suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood, and more and more snakes came from his coughs.
Not only that, but they were spreading all inside his body!
However, it had one terrible drawback. Activating Demonic Powers consumed his very soul. If he overused them, his soul would be completely destroyed, and he would die even if his body could regenerate like this. He couldn’t mess around with this power for too long.
Because of this, he left a clone of himself inside of Rick as he regenerated back to his human form and then became a black werewolf by activating Fenrir’s powers, which didn’t cost his soul as a demon's powers did.
"I've almost run out of Mana at this point... If I move rashly, I might actually get killed," Jack thought, looking at Rick struggle in agony. “How long will this bastard take this before dying?”
“JAAAACCCCKKKK…!”
Rick, however, had more willpower than Jack expected. While he was getting eaten alive from the inside out, he kept moving faster and faster; his entire body started overflowing with Demonic Power, as his body grew two times in size and a new pair of gigantic, muscular arms grew above his shoulders.
“RAAAHHH…!”
“What?!”
Jack was surprised. Rick still had some more surprises below his sleeve. The white werewolf jumped towards Jack and crushed his head with his two legs, pushing him down into the snow with all his strength. His entire body exuded a dark red aura, and his eyes were glowing bright red.
“I’LL KILL YOU BEFORE I DIE!”
Rick’s four arms began overflowing with Demonic Energy and Mana, as he started pummeling Jack with countless fist attacks with all his strength!
Jack pushed himself to his very limits, punching Rick back with all the leftover strength he had and trying to intercept and evade his fists, but his opponent was too fast. Each of his fists hit his face and body so hard they disfigured his muscles, and his bones were barely holding before shattering completely.
Rick continued growing more and more berserk, the more damage he was taking from the snakes eating him from the inside out, while vomiting blood and his own guts. He went all out. Jack’s strength was already gone, and he was now completely overwhelmed.
“Anna… Dammit…!”
However, something suddenly came from behind Rick. Jack could only see it as a flash of azure light, but it was something solid and incredibly sharp.
CRASH!
Jack was left flabbergasted as he saw a gigantic icicle spear pierce Rick’s chest! It came from an incredibly long distance, so fast that it gained an immense amount of power once it impacted. He was able to save his own life by a hair.
“T-This is… What… Whe… where?!”
Rick groaned as he looked behind him, only to find, in the distance, two girls riding a black wolf. He didn’t even understand how they attacked him from such a long distance, so precisely, and so strongly.
Normal magic would have shattered the moment it hit his anti-magic fur, but this magic... it at least had A-rank or higher to pierce through him—no, it was surely S-rank if it could deal so much instant damage to his own body!
“T-This is…! F-Fuck…”
Rick couldn’t move anymore. Not only was his chest pierced, but the icicle spear also started freezing his entire body, and before he knew it, he was a frozen corpse. He died so miserably that, for a moment, even Jack pitied him a bit.
“What in the world... Anna?” Jack was barely alive, standing up and going back to his normal human form to be greeted by his sister, one of Fenrir’s Doppelgangers, and Dan Baihe.
“Baihe, goddamn, you killed him!” Anna was shocked, pointing at the dead werewolf.
“I-I did it?!” Baihe was shocked.
“Brother!” Anna quickly saw her brother resting over the snow, quickly unpacking her health and mana potions and forcing him to drink them one after the other. “Drink them! Quickly! Why do you never bring potions, dummy?!”
“A-Anna… I am so relieved you’re here.” Sighed Jack, hugging her back. “Did Baihe do this?”
“Yeah!” Anna said, hugging him back. Her privilege activated, and it enhanced his automatic health and mana regeneration speed by 300%, making him feel better almost instantly.
“Amazing, she was really that strong." Jack said. “Nice to meet you; I am Jack, Anna’s big brother.”
“I-I’ve seen you on TV…” Said Dan Baihe. “Y-You’re the A Rank Hunter, Jack, isn’t it?! I didn’t recognize you earlier, but it is really you!”
“You don’t need to sweat over it. You’ve really saved my life there; you have my thanks.” Jack said. He smiled slightly.
“I-It is nothing! Please don’t mind it; it was an accident, actually." Sighed Dan Baihe. “I was practicing my magic, and then... that just happened.”
"Woah, we’ll have to train you once this is all over.” Jack contemplated.
Anna smiled as the two interacted; in the future, she read, both of them were mortal enemies. They never had the opportunity to talk like this, and Jack had to kill her before the entire Stronghold City was frozen completely.
This was a different future from the one she saw. It still seemed small and insignificant, but slowly, she was going to change the entire future of this world and all of these characters that didn’t deserve such endings.
“Hehehe…”
But before that, Anna had to loot the high-quality body of a werewolf-like demonic human.
POOF!
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