CHAPTER 57: THE CROWNED MONSTROSITY [1]

Destiny is quite a cruel thing.

Honestly, I don’t know if it exists or not. Neither did I ever care about such bullshit.

I mean, they say you die when you are destined to die. But I believe you die when you give up.

Rael Von Ashborn was a noble who was never supposed to be alive. He was destined to die before the story even began.

His only role was shown in the backstory of Viola and his father.

But I defied that possibility. I defied my destiny.

And maybe that is the reason,

That is the reason why that bitch is so obsessed with marrying me off to death like an unwanted and troublesome son...

... because there is no other explanation for my current, completely fucked up situation.

My plan wasn’t the most perfect one but it was the most efficient one I had in this situation. One which should have been more than enough to kill some stupid overgrown green pigs and escape without losing much.

I even took some variables into account.

And everything had been going according to it.

I had taken five of them already, so only four were left. And even they were all frozen after Bearlo punched the orc chieftain with assistance of my cloak.

Hell, even the orc warrior who had been so dominant was frozen.

Obviously, I wasn’t one to miss the opportunity.

I immediately threw one of my cards flying towards its eyes.

Normally, that bastard would have dodged or deflected my attack with ease like earlier when I tried that but this time he was caught off guard and my card pierced his eyes cleanly.

"Take that, bitch."

With such polite words, I pulled the trigger to free the poor guy from its more than disgusting life.

With a loud boom, his head popped like a balloon, spreading green blood and disgusting brain matter everywhere.

I almost celebrated when the remaining three orc extras attacked me. But unlike before, they didn’t have any rhythm or co-ordination in their attack.

I weaved through them easily.

Then I dealt with them one by one.

It didn’t even take me a few minutes before all three were down.

I mean, with their leaders down, they didn’t resist much either.

Just then, my instincts screamed as I felt a very ominous energy from a distance.

I turned my head immediately.

Then I saw it,

The monstrosity.

Just behind Bearlo who was now standing beside corpses of four orcs.

"BEARLO LOOK OUT."

I yelled to alert him but it was too late. The head slammed into Bearlo’s back as he was thrown skidding into a far cave wall.

I knew the injury wasn’t enough to put him down.

So I looked at the orc leader... or whatever the hell it was now.

But something was strange.

Its limbs were bent in the wrong way and a creepy smile was plastered on its face.

But most of all what stood out was the crown on its head. It had completely dug into the brain of that green pig.

I immediately understood what had happened.

That crown was some kind of eldritch parasite... and the injury to the orc leader—its host—awakened it.

For god’s sake, it’s my first day in the forest.

If that wasn’t all, that bastard, that crowned horror started munching on the remnants of its kind.

Within a second he gulped them all down before, its eyes locked onto me, the creepy smile still plastered on its face.

Before, I could react, it was already in front of me. Its claws swing at me at blinding speed.

I could see my life flashing before my eyes.

Death, whispering sweet nothings like a toxic ex, reached out to embrace me.

But right before it could press its lips to mine...

I was yanked backward,

My cloak had pulled me out just in time.

The claws met the empty air.

I didn’t waste the opening and pushed off with a backflip and landed a few paces away.

Phew.

That was close.

I knew I wouldn’t have died... But even with my rings, that hit would’ve left me looking like a chewed-up art project.

The crowned freak didn’t give me a moment to reflect or even curse fate before it lunged again with the same damn claw attack.

But this time, I was ready.

I vanished with [Voidsteps], reappearing a few meters away mid-motion. My hand flicked forward, sending an already formed card whistling through the air straight at its ugly mug.

But of course—because fate is a bitter, drama-loving hag—even the monster gets more plot armour than me. It deflected the card like it was swatting a fly.

Not that it mattered.

That wasn’t my real move.

I was already behind it, fist pulled back with mana pulsing through my arm.

I punched.

The air screamed as my knuckles connected with flesh.

But the bastard still had enough sense to twist mid-air and block with its arm.

Still, the punch sent him flying back before he smashed into the cave wall with a satisfying crunch.

Ugly as it was, its strength was still only early E-Rank. And that...

That, I could handle. One-on-one with some effort and a lot of creative swearing.

But more importantly...

I wasn’t alone.

My eyes flicked to the crimson bear, still standing there, frozen. His body trembled ever so slightly.

"Bearlo!" I shouted, voice raw. "Snap the hell out of it!"

His eyes shifted toward me and for the first time, I saw it.

Helplessness.

A shadow of it, buried beneath all that crimson fur and brute strength.

I didn’t blame him.

In the twisted hierarchy of this messed-up world, beasts were cannon fodder. Low-tier mobs, born to die in the background.

And that thing?

That was a monster. Not just any but an eldritch one. Wrong in all the ways that don’t need explaining, your body just knows. Your instincts scream.

Hell, even I was feeling it. That crawling pressure under the skin. That itch in the soul.

But I had stood under Astravore’s full-burn SS-Rank aura. So, yeah, this low-level freak didn’t even make the top ten.

Bearlo nodded as the smirk on my face deepened.

If fate wanted me dead today, it would have to try a hell of a lot harder.