Becoming a Monster

Chapter 455: Chapter 455: Preparation Is Power

Their training under Thalric was still ongoing. However, their training time was reduced to two days a week after the surge of undead attacks. But during that time, Ishii was able to get a glimpse of what he lacked the most.

Insight.

It wasn’t that he needed to develop the ability to plan three steps ahead. What he lacked was the ability to read the present fast enough to ensure the best outcome.

Even then, his initial views on the matter were wrong. Because he was still looking at it through the perspective lens of a samurai code of conduct. Nothing was fair in war.

The dueling skills he prided himself on were also hindering him. Thalric made sure to beat that into him the first day of training without hesitation.

In their first bout, Thalric showed them just how strong he was, taking on all seven of them by himself while the adventurers under him tested the rest.

Ishii’s speed was close to Thalric’s own, but he was overpowered by his strength. And because of that, Ishii used his unique trait to drain Thalric’s strength and his agility to make up for that weakness. It was solid judgment, one that Ishii felt he would make every time if forced to choose again.

But that was the problem. It was the correct choice in a duel. He had not considered the others. And he did not consider that Thalric was also efficient in magic.

Could Bailey keep up with Thalric’s speed? Could Alicia?

If he drained Thalric’s strength and speed, that meant Thalric would shift his fighting style, making it so that the fight became something that both he and Paul could no longer control.

In that moment, Ishii realized winning his own exchange did not mean winning the battle.

A samurai measured victory by the blade in front of him.A protector measured it by the people still standing behind him.

That was what he lacked.

What was even more eye-opening was that later in the fight, when he tried to reconcile his mistake, Thalric completely resisted his skill, showing that he could’ve done so since the beginning.

There was a lot that he learned from that day.

One, he needed to hone his body in preparation for fighting against an opponent who could resist his strongest trait.

And two.

Until the day his strength allowed him to end an enemy in a single exchange, he needed to think beyond himself. His ability was not meant to secure duels. It was meant to shift the balance of the battlefield.

____

As the troll staggered in front of him, Ishii didn’t rush to use his unique skill. His blade flashed low instead, slicing across the back of the troll’s ankles, intending to cut it down.

His attack was nothing more than a probe to ascertain the troll’s strongest and most discerning attributes.

Through the guild, they had learned that a troll’s regeneration was tied to their constitution, stamina, and their mana.

As long as their body had energy, the regeneration would continue to act. As long as their vitality was high, their wounds would continue to regenerate. And as long as they had mana, the rate of their regeneration would be overwhelming.

Ishii’s eyes sharpened from the resistance under his sword. Blood streaked into the air, but the wound wasn’t deep enough. It was already beginning to mend.

But that was fine. In terms of strength, he was aware of where he stood.

He only needed to know if he could penetrate its flesh without the aid of his skill.

Because that meant Bailey could wound it. Alicia could wound it. Raven, even without transforming, could wound it.

They did not need him to overpower this one.

After the initial cut, his body continued to move, running past the troll and away from the fight.

Behind him, he heard the first troll recover, its heavy steps turning toward the others instead of him.

Ishii’s gaze shifted to the second troll.

He adjusted his grip; this time, he leaned into his stance. If this were before, he would’ve targeted the creature’s strength and constitution, ensuring that he could cut through its defenses. But would doing so guarantee that he could kill it through its regeneration?

No. This time, using what he had learned, he targeted what he believed to be the troll’s weakness. He could feel his skin become filled with vitality as its constitution.

His body trembled under the rush of energy surging through his body. He felt as if he could fight for days, and he drained his stamina next.

With this, even if he couldn’t finish off his opponent in time, by the time the others were done, the troll would have little left to regenerate with.

_______

On the other side, Paul met the first troll head-on.

The bronze hue of his transformed body deepened as he advanced, fur gleaming like burnished metal. The hammer in his grip shifted with him, its surface encasing itself in the same bronze sheen that armored his flesh.

The troll roared and swung.

The attack was slow, but the arc was massive. Its reach swallowed space all around it, making it nearly impossible to retreat.

Paul, however, had no intention to.

At the last instant, he dipped his shoulder. His boots dug into the earth, and the earth shot up to answer, covering everything from his thighs down, anchoring him to the ground.

His fur hardened, turning as rigid as forged steel as the troll’s palm crashed into him.

The impact was louder than thunder. The sound could possibly be heard even from miles away. Dust erupted afterwards.

For a moment, it looked as though he might be driven back, but he didn’t move.

When the dust cleared, faint cracks laced across Paul’s bronze hide.

They began to mend almost immediately. One would possibly mistaken him for the true troll.

After enduring the awe striking blow, the hammer in his grip brightened. Light flared along its surface until it shone so fiercely it bordered on blinding.

When he swung, his momentum was carried with it. The pressure alone made others feel as if they were the ones about to be struck.

The hammer connected with the troll’s shin. The bone shattered without resistance. The sound of the bone shattering was overlaid with the trolls’ anguished roar.

The troll collapsed, catching itself with one massive arm before fully hitting the ground. It snarled, teeth bared, preparing to lash out the moment Paul stepped closer.

But Paul didn’t advance. Instead, two more arrows drove into its thigh. Another pierced its cheek.

Riley’s shots never missed. And yet... They looked almost harmless.

The troll snarled in renewed rage, wounds already twitching as regeneration began to stitch them closed.

To anyone watching, it would seem like Paul had wasted his opening. Like he should’ve pressed forward and finished it alone.

And he could have. But that wasn’t his role.

Paul and Raven were their anchors, their safeguards when things went wrong. They weren’t meant to exhaust themselves in the first exchange.

That was where Riley came in. To ensure that they could feel out a troll without having to waste energy and resources to do so.

With the troll’s movement crippled, the real strike began.

Alicia’s eyes glowed intensely. Four small knives floated around her, engulfed in flames.

Each one shot into the air with a trajectory different from the other. Their targets, the arrows themselves.

The first blade struck the shaft embedded in its cheek. The steel barely met the oil-soaked wood before it caught into flames. Fire rushed down the shaft and poured into the arrowhead lodged beneath the flesh.

But the flames were off... It was too large. It was as if there was something else coated onto the arrows besides the oil. Or there was something else acting as an accelerant.

Unaware, the troll wouldn’t have known that these flames fed off of mana.

The second and third hit its thigh. Then the fourth knife struck the arrow buried in its chest.

That one detonated into heat so bright it washed the troll’s face in orange light,

Its regeneration recoiled as fire spread beneath its skin, burning through the channels where mana pooled to fuel its healing.

The regeneration it relied on now fed the flames, allowing them to grow.

The creature staggered back, clawing at its own chest as the flames pulsed brighter from within.

Raven’s eyes narrowed. Even through the chaos, she noticed it.

”Why is the one in its chest burning brighter than the rest?”

Riley didn’t stop moving as she answered. Another arrow was already forming between her fingers.

”Resin,” she said calmly. ”From a hearth-tree grown near Beastkin’s borders. The city uses it as an accelerant. You only need to feed it a little mana when the flame dips, and it’ll keep burning longer than normal wood.”

Her gaze never left the troll.

”I wasn’t sure how effective it would be against regeneration like this. So I only made a few.”

Another arrow was nocked, one that was identical to the one in the troll’s chest.

”I wonder why no one else knew about this... I would’ve prepared more.”

Raven just watched the arrow impale into the troll’s face, the fire already burning instantly turned ablaze, enshrouding its entire face.

Raven’s eyes glinted in approval with Riley’s savagery; all women should be just as steeled to completely kill their enemies.

”Not anyone can do what you can. How many did you make?”

”Hmm, about thirty or so.”

”....”