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Chapter 34: A Plot Twist (II)
Elisse immediately turned red. "Bran, shut up!"
He only laughed.
Zayn’s cheeks heated up a bit... she didn’t deny it.
Zayn exhaled deeply and glanced around at the others then, his eyes landed on Tobias, who was kneeling beside the monster’s remains, muttering to himself.
Zayn frowned.
’Tobias does a lot of damn weird things sometimes... and this? This is just another one of those moments.’
Normally, he’d let it slide, but something about the way Tobias was acting made him pause.
The hero wasn’t just looting the monster’s remains for valuable materials — he was searching for something specific.
His hands moved quickly, methodically, pushing aside ruined flesh and slicing through the thick hide with practiced ease.
His brows were furrowed in deep concentration, lips barely moving as if he were calculating something in his mind.
Then, Tobias’ hand stilled.
His fingers curled around a small, glowing core, still slick with the creature’s blood.
His eyes narrowed, an unreadable expression crossing his face.
———
Tobias held the monster core in his palm, feeling its faint hum of energy.
It was weak — far weaker than it should have been for a B-rank monster.
That was the first red flag. 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝘤𝑜𝘮
The second?
This fight had been too easy.
The party had struggled more against an E-rank dungeon boss than they had against this monster, which, by all accounts, was supposed to be a B-rank threat.
That doesn’t make sense.
His mind raced through possibilities.
Was it already weakened when they encountered it? Had someone else fought it before them? Or worse —
Was this a distraction?
A sound caught his attention. The faintest rustle of movement.
Then, he noticed it.
A single tentacle, still twitching with life, had silently coiled itself around Zayn’s left leg.
It wasn’t from this monster though.
Tobias’ eyes widened.
"Zayn!"
Zayn had already noticed.
Without hesitation, he threw Elisse, who was still weak from exhaustion towards Bran.
Bran, caught completely off guard, barely had time to react before the priestess slammed into him.
"What the hell — ?"
Then, the ground beneath them erupted.
Zayn was launched into the air, the tentacle that had grabbed him pulling him upward.
Two creatures, identical to the one they had just slain, burst from the earth, their slimy, elongated forms writhing as they locked eyes with the party.
The air instantly grew heavier.
Kara clenched her fists, cursing under her breath.
Bran’s grip on his axe tightened. Elisse, still caught in Bran’s arms, looked up in horror.
Tobias exhaled slowly, adjusting his glasses. "I knew it."
Zayn felt his stomach churn as he rocketed into the sky, thrown upward by the sheer force of the monster’s tentacle.
The wind howled past his ears, and the world below became a blur of colors — green from the trees, brown from the dirt, and the grotesque mass of writhing tentacles that was their opponent.
His heart pounded erratically.
’Damn, this thing had a hell of a lot more power than I gave it credit for.’
He could already feel the descent beginning, his weight shifting as gravity called him back to the battlefield.
His breath hitched.
If he hit the ground at this speed, he’d break something — if not outright die and turn into a flesh pancake.
Then, an idea struck him.
"The Forge," he muttered under his breath, reaching inward toward the one advantage he had that no one else did.
Now’s as good a time as ever to use it.
The Soul Forge flickered to life at his command, its presence familiar yet foreign.
Even now, he didn’t fully understand it, but that didn’t matter.
He saw the collection of souls stored within, waiting to be used.
His fingers twitched as he grasped at the nearest one — a goblin soul.
Not exactly the most powerful creature, but in this moment, he wasn’t looking for power.
He needed something light.
Something nimble.
Something that wouldn’t crash when it landed.
As soon as he activated the soul, his body became enveloped in an orange glow.
A rush of energy flooded through him, and suddenly, everything felt different.
His limbs felt lighter. The air didn’t resist him as much.
His instincts sharpened, and as he turned his gaze downward, he realized that his trajectory was perfect.
One of the two remaining monsters was directly below him.
A wide, grotesque head covered in pulsating, slimy flesh.
A weak spot.
A target.
Zayn’s grip tightened around his sword, adjusting his angle mid-air.
"Alright, let’s see how you like this," he muttered under his breath.
Then, he dove.
He cut through the sky like a falling star, his body perfectly aligned with the monster’s head.
The goblin’s soul allowed him to shift midair, ensuring that his attack would land exactly where he wanted it to.
The monster didn’t even have time to react.
THWACK!
Zayn’s sword pierced deep into its skull.
The impact sent a tremor through his arms, but he held firm, driving the blade in as far as it would go.
The monster let out a guttural, choked cry, its body spasming violently as black ichor spilled from the wound.
Zayn grit his teeth as he adjusted his stance, bracing himself on the creature’s slimy head.
It was still moving.
He needed to finish it.
Using the goblin’s enhanced agility, he twisted his body, ripping his sword free before driving it down again — this time, directly into the monster’s exposed core.
Yes it was in the head.
The result was instantaneous.
The monster convulsed one final time before its entire body slumped forward.
It was dead.
The moment the first monster fell, the second one reacted.
A tentacle lashed out, aiming to wrap around Zayn and drag him into the depths of its writhing mass.
But Zayn saw it coming just in time.
With a burst of movement, he jumped — springboarding off the now-dead monster’s head just as the tentacle slammed into it.
WHAM!
The force was enough to crush the corpse beneath it, but Zayn was already airborne again, flipping backward and landing in a crouch a few feet away.
