The Taste of Power

The man who had once been human drew his arm back once more, intent on slaughtering the annoying creatures that kept using Provocation. But when my summoned creatures formed a defensive wall and layered themselves in front of Yeonhee, he pulled out the weapon he’d been holding and shot back into the sky. My gaze naturally followed the weapon as it rose with him.

‘...That’s a rather peculiar spear.’

The long trail he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠left on the ground as he came to a stop had been carved by a short spear that was barely over a meter in length. The tip was simple yet sharply tapered in a standard shape, but extending about twenty centimeters from either side of the blade were extremely thin secondary blades. If you didn’t dodge them cleanly, you’d lose a limb. I suspected that the reason Nepy had been sliced apart in a single blow during the first attack was because of those secondary blades. The performance was only possible because the harpy had an unusually narrow waist, but the sharpness of those extra blades was no joke.

‘High-speed flight from a harpy combined with a spearman’s thrusting attacks… This is going to be a pain.’

“Haa— You filthy vermin… I’ll carve every last one of you apart!!”

“Uwooooooo!!”

The battle between us and the man who had used an Evolution Stone to force a second awakening began with Deonni No. 1 and No. 2’s roar.

“Kikikik— What a pointless struggle. What good is raising your strength if you can’t even graze me? Kkukuk.”

“Everyone, capture that bastard!!”

Shweeeeee—!

Because Provocation had a fairly long cooldown, we had no choice but to endure his attacks with our bodies until it came back up.

Slash— Shuk—!

“Grrrrk…!”

The thirty summoned creatures had formed a formation centered around Yeonhee, but they were completely helpless against attacks combined with high-speed flight. The lizardmen unit that had raised their arms in a cross-guard had their heads and arms severed in one go, turning into chunks of meat that fell apart instantly. At least the early-numbered summons like No. 1 only lost their arms, but it wasn’t much of a consolation.

“Filthy! Lowly! Monster! Trash! How dare you block me!!”

Thud— Thudud— Thududud—!

He moved like a bolt of lightning along the narrow alley walls, relentlessly raining down spear strikes. Whoosh— Whoosh—! The summoned creatures’ attacks kept slicing through empty air, and the man laughed at them like a lunatic.

‘Tsk… As expected, without Provocation our current summon composition makes it hard to deal with an aerial unit.’

I needed to cover for the summons’ shortcomings, but my own abilities would be useless if I couldn’t hit him either. It was truly regrettable that we didn’t have anyone capable of landing a guaranteed stun or bind on a single target.

‘He’s too fast. That skill shouldn’t be something he can spam like this. The Evolution Stone really is broken!’

I could finally understand why incidents related to Evolution Stones never stopped. The man had given up his humanity and reached a realm that most people could never touch no matter how hard they tried their entire lives.

“Kyahahahahak!! This feels fucking amazing!!”

Looking at his eyes rolling back in ecstasy, I could tell just how much satisfaction and pleasure he was feeling. At the same time, his body was rapidly transforming into something inhuman, yet he himself seemed completely unaware of his own condition.

The man who was becoming a monster activated high-speed flight once again and this time flew straight toward Yeonhee.

Shweeeee—!

‘Not on my watch—!’

Whirl—

“Try grabbing my arm again, you bastard!!”

Clang——!

‘Ugh!’

I tried to stop him from targeting Yeonhee, but instead I took a counterattack to the chest. It seemed he had been aiming for me from the start when I came in to defend. He must have been waiting for revenge after I grabbed his arm and left it bruised last time. What a petty son of a bitch.

Fortunately, thanks to Ran’s Acceleration buff on my body, I was able to react to the first strike. I breathed an internal sigh of relief and was about to throw a bomb onto his escape route when I saw the corners of his mouth tear upward in a grin and realized I had missed something.

Crack—!

‘Shit…!’

It was his tail. A tail that looked like it had a fist-sized iron ball attached to the end smashed straight into my jaw. What I hadn’t noticed was that the tail had suddenly burst out from his back. The moment it struck my chin, I saw that the surface of the tail was covered in dense scales.

Just like… ‘a Lizardman’s tail?’

I had no idea why a Lizardman’s tapering tail would have an iron ball attached, but that was exactly what his tail looked like, and it was extremely effective for unpredictable attacks. Exactly half of my jaw was blown off, and my health dropped by thirty points in an instant. It was a good thing my jaw had gotten thicker after my class change; if I still had my original body, that would have been the end of me.

‘That was way too close! Uuup— Something’s coming up from inside…’

The moment I was hit, something inside my body churned and struggled to get out. I spat it toward the man like I was vomiting.

Fwoooooosh—!

“Uweeeek—! What the fuck is this!!”

The Grey Mold trait I had stolen activated after my health dropped. The man, who had been standing right next to me, inhaled quite a bit of the grey smoke.

Flap—!

He staggered violently once, then desperately flapped his wings to try and gain altitude again.

“Where do you think you’re going!!”

Chiriririr— KyaAAAAAAAA—!

Jeombaki and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bone warrior had their Provocation cooldowns back up. The man, who had been about to fly away without looking back, creaked his head around against his will. That was the true terror of Provocation—forcing attention regardless of the target’s intent.

And at that moment, the re-summoned creatures all charged at him at once.

— Kwooooooo!!

— Shwaaaaaaaa!!

Orcs, Lizardmen, and zombies piled on top of him, crushing him to the ground. The newly re-summoned creatures threw themselves on top of the pile, completely pinning him down so he couldn’t move an inch.

“Got him! You evil bastard!”

It looked impossible for him to escape. With dozens of summoned creatures on top of him, their combined weight had to be several tons.

Shwaaaaa—!

But we had overlooked one thing: he wasn’t a normally awakened being. Something like thin threads, resembling cigarette smoke, flickered in the air and emitted light. Everywhere those threads passed, summoned creatures were sliced into dozens of pieces, spraying blood like fountains.

‘Fuck… What the hell is that?’

Dozens of tentacles resembling the secondary blades on his spear had sprouted from his body and were writhing freely, searching for their next prey. Most of the summoned creatures were now at least incapacitated.

“Kihihihik— This is it!! The power I wanted!! Overwhelming— Aaaah!”

Whether from extreme pleasure or not, his pupils kept shaking left and right, and his pants were soaked with something sticky.

‘Eat this, you disgusting fuck.’

But the visible summoned creatures weren’t all I had. He had overlooked me, who had been waiting in stealth.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaaaaaang—!!

“Gweeeeeeeeeeeek!!”

Slice!!

There was no longer any room to hold back. I threw ten bombs from behind the laughing madman and detonated them, then took one of his arms with Flame Slash.

‘I was aiming for his neck, but he dodged it.’

“Chehwa!”

Slash— Stab— Stabstab!

Chehwa had been diligently carving away at the monster’s body with her blades for a while now. Whoosh— Whoosh—!

“Dieeeee!! Die, you fucking dog!!”

Annoyed by Chehwa’s attacks, the man swung his spear wildly at her while still bearing the full damage from the bombs. In response, Chehwa simply stopped in place as if she had never moved.

‘Smart girl. She remembers exactly what she was told.’

Yeonhee had taught Chehwa only one thing: when the enemy attacks, do not engage directly. Chehwa was executing that order perfectly. When he attacked, she stayed still in her incorporeal state, then resumed attacking during the brief lulls. From the opponent’s perspective, it must have been maddening.

If all the spectres in the Dungeon of Nargul behaved this way, the dropout rate for D-rank hunters would rise by at least several dozen percent.

‘Hoo… That was brutal.’

The bomb attack had been the decisive blow. One of his arms had been severed by Flame Slash, and his movement speed had noticeably slowed.

“Grrrrk… Damn it!”

“Kwooooooo!!”

Deonni No. 1, who had lost both arms, let out another Warrior’s Howl. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠The summoned creatures—most of whom were missing at least one limb—charged at him again. Those without legs crawled with their arms to grab him. Those without arms bit into his hide with their teeth. Their persistence was almost obsessive.

They had seemed somewhat cute when I saw them at home, but on the battlefield they were practically indistinguishable from zombies.

Slash— Slice—

Every creature that charged was cut down by the monster’s thin blades, but Yeonhee did not hesitate to resummon them. As the saying went, there was no defense against a dogpile. The number of summons was simply too much for an enemy whose mobility had been crippled.

“You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠evil…! You evil bastard!! Why did you do that to the children!!”

Yeonhee kept resummoning them even when it was no longer necessary, as if venting her rage. When the man had first been cornered by my attacks, there had still been a glimmer of hope on his face. But as the summons kept dying and reviving over and over, his expression eventually turned to one of exhaustion.

“Goddamn it! Stop! Stop it, you filthy things!”

Not long after, the man’s movements suddenly became erratic. He could no longer land a single hit on the lizardmen or orcs.

‘He used too much power when he was buried earlier. He had already been spamming skills before that…’

Boom! Thud! Thwack—! Thwackthwackthwackthwack!!

“S-stop! I-I was wrong, I’m sorr—”

To think that being surrounded by dozens of monsters and beaten to death with bare fists would be the last moment of his life… Could there be a more miserable end?

“Khek— Cough— S-save m—”

By now, his eyeballs were being gouged out on their own, and tentacles were beginning to crawl out from the sockets. The monster who had once been human desperately recalled his past memories and begged for his life.

“Everyone, stop! That’s enough now…”

Yeonhee called off the summoned creatures. The ones that had been killed and resummoned at least twice were still licking their lips with lingering hunger.

“Keheuuuu… Grrk… Kehehek…”

Step—

I walked closer to him. Yeonhee couldn’t bear it and turned her head away. The monster had been beaten so badly that his skin was practically fused to the ground. It seemed he had tried to protect his face until the very end; he was gasping for breath as he looked up at us.

“Y-you… What did you do to the kids…? Did you really turn that child into that thing earlier?”

“Kehek… Sbuh… Huuk— How many orphanage brats did I use…? Kihihihihik… Kulk—”

‘Orphanage… Tsk.’

Even while struggling to regulate his breathing, the monster began answering Yeonhee’s questions in broken fragments.

“Don’t know… That kind of thing… Whether the brats die or not… Kukhuk—”

“H-how could a person do something like that to innocent children… How could you!!”

When Yeonhee trembled with rage and made a disgusted face, the man rolled his one remaining eye and said,

“Kihihik— How did I do it, you ask…? I ground them up… ground them up and drank them…”

“...What…?”

“Kuhuhuk… You know what? The sound of those brats screaming as they were being ground up was—”

Crunch—!!

Before he could say anything worse, I stomped on his head and crushed it completely. There was no point in trying to interrogate a lunatic like this in the first place. I hoped Yeonhee would realize that now too.

‘Whoa… The system is showing some flexibility? It’s even giving me a choice.’

Of course, my choice was to obtain the fragment. I could get the harpy’s skill anytime I wanted by going to the Harpy's Spawning Ground.

‘Do not steal.’

‘They gave me three at once… Ha…’