Chapter 12: The Final BattleKaran Kal faced his enemy. The silence that had once divided their society.
But now it was the sworn enemy trying to destroy their society.
'If I kill that bastard, the discontent among these fools will settle.'
The scar on his face throbbed painfully.
It was a wound inflicted by his subordinate.
That bastard had judged his leader to be past his prime.
The reasoning was sound - his forces were openly dying while he remained idle.
The subordinate thought he'd been cowed by the mages.
One midnight, the subordinate led his faction in a surprise attack.
The scar came from that night.
Of course, Karan Kal had that bastard torn to shreds and fed to Zipel.
Since that day, those who openly expressed discontent disappeared.
But this only suppressed the dissatisfaction.
To completely eliminate discontent, he needed to kill the mages.
"Die!"
He swung his axe.
The blade flew toward the mage's face - a face he wouldn't mind chewing apart.
He thought the tedious battle had ended.
Until his back suddenly burned.
'There were still mages left?'
He thought he'd killed them all, but apparently some mage still lived.
Karan Kal bit his lip. It was too late to turn around now.
'Then I'll at least kill you.'
Even if he died, he would kill this Mage first.
He didn't stop.
The axe blade split the Mage's shoulder.
A fatal wound. The kind that would kill instantly.
Yet the Mage continued his incantation.
"That's why I told you... There's no killer among us..."
The Mage completed his spell. A translucent barrier formed around Karan Kal.
A Shield.
"What..."
"If... you survive... please erect... my statue..."
The Mage's breath stopped. Simultaneously, a tremendous explosion rocked the cavern.
Dust filled the air.
Karan Kal pondered the Mage's intentions.
Why had an enemy saved him?
As the dust cleared, Karan Kal understood.
At the cavern's edge stood the true caster of the magic.
A grotesque monster resembling a lump of bloody flesh.
That thing. That creature was the one using magic.
The mastermind who turned us against each other!
"Cough. Damn... monster bastard... hiding in the shadows and manipulating us!"
Rage consumed him. From the Chieftain until now, they'd danced to this creature's tune.
Fury dominated his mind.
"Kill that thing! Tear it to shreds and feed it to Zipel!"
His subordinates charged.
Whoosh. Boom.
A Flame Sphere flew in. It struck a subordinate directly.
His entire body burst into flames. Horrifying death cries echoed through the cavern.
"Magic!"
"So that thing was the real culprit."
The subordinates finally realized.
The mages hadn't killed their comrades.
It was this strange monster before them.
The monster unleashed magic wildly.
Not as powerful as the mages', but strong enough.
Boom.
Boom.
Each Flame Sphere claimed a subordinate's life.
Though individually weak, its terrifying firing rate proved deadly.
With each flash of the monster's body, another subordinate fell.
Boom.
Another subordinate collapsed.
Only two remained.
"Die!"
Using his comrade's death as a stepping stone, the last subordinate reached the monster.
He swung his sword, ready to mercilessly hack the creature apart.
But reality defied expectations.
Tentacles sprouted from the monster's body.
Puny, fragile-looking tentacles compared to the sword.
When tentacle met blade, the sword bounced away.
'What?'
Karan Kal gaped in shock.
This scene blatantly violated the common sense that strength comes from size.
The monster moved. It leaped. Its target - the subordinate's face.
"Gack!"
With a single choked scream, the subordinate died.
His head torn off. Only one subordinate remained.
"H-hyek!"
The last subordinate panicked. He tried to turn and flee.
Karan Kal grabbed him. The struggling subordinate. He lifted him like a child and threw him at the monster.
The monster disappeared beneath the subordinate's body.
Boom.
Magic scorched the subordinate's back.
Karan Kal raised his sword straight.
Aiming for the monster's weakness.
The massive Core occupying most of its crimson torso.
Destroying this would kill the monster.
He thrust his sword.
The blade pierced through the abdomen, severed the spine, and emerged from the back.
Then pierced the monster's body beyond.
Something squishy burst with a splat.
The sword tip had destroyed the Core.
"It's over."
Karan Kal smiled triumphantly.
Finished. The monster was dead.
He flung the subordinate's body away.
The monster's limp corpse came into view.
Karan Kal swung his sword. Chopped the corpse into tiny pieces.
After confirming the kill, he checked his subordinate's condition.
"Ggggeeeeehhhk!"
The subordinate gurgled toward death.
The wound too deep. Beyond recovery.
A waste, but unavoidable.
"Kehek."
He mercifully ended the subordinate's suffering. The subordinate died with a final death rattle.
"The losses... too great."
He'd killed the cause. But the damage proved catastrophic.
Both factions annihilated.
The city lay in ruins, only foundation stones remaining.
Who knew how long restoring their former glory would take?
At least ten years. Perhaps they'd never recover, facing destruction instead.
'I should have believed their words from the start.'
Had they talked and cleared misunderstandings, this ending wouldn't have come.
"Haaaaa."
He sighed deeply, filled with bitter regret.
Sluurp.
Something moved quietly behind him.
Too absorbed in despair, Karan Kal didn't notice.
The thing pounced. It was the monster he thought dead.
Tentacles coiled around Karan Kal's arm.
The sword arm. Overwhelming force tore the limb off.
The monster swallowed the arm. It melted away.
"How?"
Wasn't it dead? He'd clearly destroyed the Core.
Had even minced the corpse to confirm the kill.
Chopped it into shreds.
Yet the monster before him now stood intact.
Completely unharmed, just as before.
The monster approached. Karan Kal could only watch helplessly.
Accumulated damage.
Final arm severed.
Exhausted, he lacked even the strength to twitch a finger.
"I wasn't... the one meant to survive..."
At death's door, he regretted.
The Mage should have survived, not him.
That one could have truly killed the monster and rebuilt the city.
"Ah..."
Tentacles coiled around Karan Kal's neck.
Overwhelming power. Even at full strength, he'd have lost to this disparity.
He accepted death.
Crunch.
His neck snapped. Karan Kal's body went limp.
The final pillar supporting the city had fallen.
* * *
"Phew... That was close to being fucked."
Lucky to be alive. I sighed in relief.
Too many near-death crises.
Just off the top of my head - three instances.
'If that mage had survived, I'd be dead.'
When the fake Core exploded, if he'd used magic instead of hacking me apart,
I'd have certainly died.
Swords can be dodged, but magic can't.
And if the Hobgoblin hadn't let his guard down while I regenerated,
I couldn't have recovered.
Or if he hadn't lost his will to live and fled, prolonging the fight,
I'd have strangled myself.
My victory came from stacked coincidences.
I reaffirmed - I must evolve and expand my Trait slots. Only then will I survive.
"But I won anyway!"
I raised a tentacle triumphantly. Killed both the Hobgoblin and Mage.
No more obstacles blocking my dungeon clearance.
Liberation washed over me. My days trapped in this dungeon were numbered.
"Better eat quickly. Time's tight."
Prime food lay scattered everywhere.
Devouring all this might make me stronger by one, maybe two levels.
First, I crawled toward the Mage Goblin's corpse.
The time of Predation continued.
* * * * *
Time passed.
The Underground City became a ghost town.
Streets once bustling now saw no travelers.
Crumbled buildings found no one to repair them.
The desolate Underground City.
"Huff... huff... huff."
The last surviving goblin ran through the streets.
Having fled endlessly, his breathing came ragged.
As the panicked goblin raced mindlessly,
Fate abandoned him. Tripping legs sent him sprawling.
"Keeeeeehk!"
The goblin crawled across the ground. Too weak to rise.
He couldn't even remember his last meal.
A presence blocked the weakly crawling goblin's path.
Fist-sized stature. Crimson skin.
A body flowing like slime.
"Kiiieee..."
The goblin trembled in terror. This thing. This creature ate all his kin.
Now it would devour him too.
The final goblin tried to flee.
"Gack."
But the last goblin couldn't escape.
Crimson tentacles seized him.
His body melted. Thus died the Underground City's final goblin.
[Predation has reached LV4.]
[Skill Metamorphosis acquired.]
[Metamorphosis: Freely change body size. Maximum size depends on your Level.]
A new skill. I immediately tried using it.
No change. My body remained the same.
'Probably because I'm Level 1?'
Must be. No other reason the skill wouldn't work.
"Great, another useless skill."
Like Swarm Consciousness, another unusable skill.
'Doesn't matter. I can leave now.'
I consoled myself. Now I could escape outside.
I'd evolved considerably by devouring beauties.
The last Underground City goblin just died, after all.
[Dungeon Cleared.]
"Yes!"
Finally outside! I cheered victoriously.
[Hidden Dungeon Cleared.]
[Calculating Dungeon Clear Rewards...]
[Cleared Dungeon Solo.]
[Overwhelming Achievement.]
[Rewards Granted.]
[Learned Monster Language. Can now learn language systems from monsters with communication structures when devoured.]
[Acquired Telepathy. Can transmit thoughts to targets without mana consumption.]
[Obtained Evolution Voucher×3.]
I dismissed the message window. No time to read now.
I raced across the Underground City. Headed for the cave entrance.
I chose my birthplace cave as the exit.
Passed through familiar terrain.
The rock where I once hid to catch rats.
The tiny crevice where I was reborn as a monster.
Beyond the crevice, light appeared. I chased the light.
Blinding brightness temporarily blinded me. Gradually, my eyes adjusted.
"Buildings..."
Skyscrapers loomed in the distance. I'd returned to human society.
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