Chapter 25
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 25
Chapter Title: The Seven Steps
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The red-robed figure kept blinking, wondering if this was all just a dream.
Was this reality?
Was it really happening?
Yet the boy and the monster before him felt utterly alien, like something out of a nightmare.
A demonic beast that shouldn't exist in this place.
Clearly, all the participants—including himself—were fated to be brutally slaughtered by it.
They would fight back, of course... but everyone had instinctively sensed defeat.
Then that boy appeared.
Deyan Pador.
The blood of a renowned sword family, yet infamous not for his swordsmanship but for being a weakling. And now, he was showing more courage and strength than anyone else.
Why?
The red robe had first noticed Deyan's peculiarity back in the carriage.
The boy's sharp, gleaming eyes resembled those of the pinnacle experts he knew.
They were not the eyes of someone wallowing in despair over their lowly status.
That hunch proved right. In the second trial, while others fought desperately, he remained utterly composed from start to finish.
And the red robe had even seen him unleash a bizarre mana in an instant, secretly stirring up a spray of water without anyone noticing.
So he knew the boy was hiding his true nature, concealing his power just as he hid his own identity.
But that was all.
He never imagined the boy would put on a show like this against that monster.
The beast boasted overwhelming power that didn't belong here.
Yet even he, still holding back his full strength, was being pushed back. The gap in power was evident.
And still, the boy pressed on relentlessly, staring only at his foe, undeterred even by wounds on his own body.
Could a boy's gaze hold such resolve?
Only those who had crossed countless brushes with death could manage that.
And Deyan was doing it.
"I don't get it..."
How could that boy stand against the monster?
The famous continent's greatest genius.
Could Ed do something like this?
He didn't know.
But one thing was certain: among everyone he'd seen, not a single one exuded the same aura as that boy.
Not that alien energy.
Not those movements.
Not even those eyes.
Everything defied common sense.
"What... are you?"
He'd thought himself the biggest secret here.
But now, the red robe wondered if he'd uncovered a secret no one else had ever glimpsed.
How could an acrobat perform death-defying feats without fear?
Perhaps the premise needed redefining.
They'd already stepped onto the wire, knowing hesitation meant death—so they pressed forward.
Thus, the acrobat extends limbs toward the void without a second thought.
Because it's the only path to survival.
Deyan was the same right now.
This was a life-or-death high-wire act.
In his eyes, the rotten demonic spawn—still brimming with power—fired off another volley of spheres.
Five this time.
Chunks of demonic energy boasting ferocious destructive force came hurtling at him.
Deyan didn't flee from them.
He had to advance.
His form weaved between the spheres like a spiraling ring, slipping past unscathed.
This sensation, the thrilling shiver rippling through his flesh.
In battles where life hung in the balance, he always felt this heightened rush.
Shiiiek...!
And escaping such razor-thin crises often revealed the enemy's openings.
While the monster fired its spheres, Deyan targeted its cannon-like stationary body and closed in right to its face.
He spun his body, slamming a kick into the monster's jaw with his heel.
Eat your fill, you bastard.
Thud...!
"Kieeeek!"
The sphere detonated inside the monster's beak, engulfing it in smoke.
But if it ended here, it wouldn't be one of Ian Pador's planted beasts.
Bwoom...!
In the next instant, the beak pecked like a predator's bill, trying to tear into Deyan's flesh.
He gripped a dagger like a short sword to block the beak.
"Kiek!"
The monster's beak gaped open right in front of him.
The thing's breath was foul.
In that moment, a long tongue hidden inside lashed out like a tentacle, coiling toward Deyan.
"...!"
This bastard had a hidden trick?
Deyan barely twisted his head aside and pulled back. At the same time, he drew needles and jabbed them into the tongue, sprouting barbs all over it.
The monster roared in agony and swung its arm.
"Hup!"
Even a glancing blow.
Deyan's body launched airborne—whoosh—toward the fainted Andrew.
He landed on the outer wall, yanking free the spear left by its sleeping owner, then hurled it straight at the monster.
But alas, the spear sailed past the monster's side.
Convinced it had dodged a lethal strike, the beast's eyes narrowed slyly.
Yet the monster didn't charge recklessly either.
Proof it was tiring too.
'After all that rampage. It'd be weirder if it wasn't.'
Deyan eyed the beast's movements while checking his remaining daggers.
Eight in total.
Plenty to kill this monster!
Twang...!
The monster's arms extended. Deyan slid between them, slashing the monster's forearm wide open with a dagger.
He could have severed it clean off, but his level wasn't there yet—and besides, severing wasn't his goal.
Deyan halted the slash midway, embedding the dagger at a precise point.
Then he discarded it without hesitation. The monster's arms converged on his position, and the ground erupted upward.
This threw off Deyan's balance, sending him tumbling through the air amid flying debris.
Unfazed, he reverse-stepped off a airborne rock to dodge a sphere and flung another dagger.
Two daggers pierced the monster's chest.
Hit.
But success came at a cost. While airborne and unable to maneuver, the monster fired more spheres to blast him away.
"Cough...!"
Deyan twisted to block them, slamming into the wall.
'Damn it. Struggling against amateur attacks that wouldn't even pierce my protective aura... What a sorry sight.'
The monster no longer roared. It simply glared at Deyan.
Now it understood.
The look in the monster's eyes was no longer that of a predator eyeing prey.
It was the wary gaze of one beast facing another that threatened its life.
Cautious now...
Until moments ago, its carelessness had let him seize the advantage. But things were different now.
Fur bristling, vigilance heightened.
The monster would fight Deyan cleverly from here on.
Time was short.
This freak had a grotesque body capable of regeneration.
The longer this dragged, the worse for Deyan.
Four daggers embedded in the monster?
Two in each arm, two in the chest.
Four total.
Four left.
Enough.
"Kieeeek!"
Like a beast's howl as the starting gun, Deyan charged.
As boy and beast closed like rams locking horns.
Shwick...!
Deyan dove low, stamping the monster's instep.
A deafening screech rang out as he springboarded upward between its legs.
In that interval, the monster twisted to grab him.
Its hands converged to crush him—but Deyan laughed.
The difference between human and monster?
Humans know how to think.
The spot where he and the monster stood was the outer wall where he'd deliberately lodged the spear earlier.
Exactly as planned. He'd thrown it there for this very moment.
Deyan planted his foot on the spear shaft precisely behind the monster.
Using the spring, he flipped through the air once more.
The monster's hands sliced empty air, clapping together harmlessly.
Deyan harnessed the rotational force of his soaring body to hurl his final dagger into the enemy's throat.
Dark Spirit Flying Dagger Technique
Eight Stars
"Kueeeek...!"
Eight daggers.
Eight vital points.
With completion... the enemy was done.
The monster staggered, then collapsed mid-stride, its massive body toppling as if its breath had been snuffed out.
Thud...!
Deyan, with his slight frame, had felled a monster several times—nay, many times—his size.
Yet he felt no surprise.
It was only natural.
Clang!
Startled?
The red robe had dropped his sword—more precious than life itself to a knight.
"What are you?"
"...?"
Eyes wide, as if beholding an otherworldly being.
Ah... well.
Seeing such a stark contrast, anyone would think him inhuman.
"Deyan Pador. You must have known my name already, right?"
"That's not what I'm asking!"
The red robe staggered back.
"How is that possible? This makes no sense. That monster was beyond us— even knights would have struggled against it in most cases. But you... you."
"Who decided that 'level' anyway?"
"What?"
"Strength is relative. Just because you think so doesn't make the world agree. Trying to view everything through your own lens is what makes your world so narrow. From my perspective, there are at least three others in this age group who could handle that monster."
Maybe not on this continent, but...
At least in the martial world, there were.
Guys like that.
The Sword Sage of Mount Hua, the Fist Saint of the Black Dragon Society, the Heavenly Demon of the Demonic Cult. Even they would dispatch this beast.
In a world like that, such monsters were a dime a dozen.
But perhaps that exceeded the red robe's common sense?
The red robe repeated himself like a mute.
"How... how?"
Seeing it wouldn't do, Deyan cut him off.
"Anyway, let's talk. Perfect timing. I needed a private space for just the two of us."
"You... with me?"
Deyan smirked at the red robe, whose voice trembled.
"Yeah, it's just you and me here, isn't it? Those two over there are out cold, oblivious to the world."
Deyan's gaze shifted to Andrew and Inschtain, both slumped with heads bowed in deep unconsciousness.
"You saw what I did to the monster."
"What do you even want to talk about with me...?"
"Calm down. You think I'm gonna kill you or something?"
The red robe fell silent. Deyan sighed, folding his arms.
"If I wanted that, I'd have done it ages ago. No need to save you from the monster either. It's simple."
"What the hell are you?"
"I've said it over and over—your memory's terrible. Deyan Pador. If anyone's spilling their identity, it's you."
Deyan's unfathomable eyes fixed steadily on the red robe.
"Merina Charlot."
At that name, ripples spread through the red robe's pupils.
Merina Charlot.
Why was that name coming from this boy's mouth?
No one here should know the red robe's true identity.
That was how it was supposed to be. So how did this boy...?
"How do you know that name...?"
As the red robe panicked at hearing a name he shouldn't...
Something rippled behind Deyan.
What was that...?
A shadow...?
Before the red robe could process it, the rippling shadow stirred.
"...!"
It was the monster Deyan had just felled.
He'd overlooked it.
The hole from Andrew's desperate spear throw had already healed.
Meaning the monster could regenerate even from Deyan's attacks.
He was wrong.
They'd faced a monster they could never beat from the start.
One step.
Fresh flesh sprouted on legs reduced to bare bone.
Two steps.
Torn arms reattached.
Three steps.
The daggers in its chest fell free.
Four steps.
Mangled skin smoothed over.
Five steps, six.
Muscles writhed; the dangling head reconnected, beak restored.
The monster's eerie eyes slowly turned... and locked onto Deyan.
The beast took another step.
As the red robe's eyes began to sink like a wrecked ship...
"Seven steps."
"...?"
"It took seven steps."
Deyan smiled.