Becoming a Monster

Chapter 466: Chapter 465: A Duel for Top Queen

A storm was brewing. One that Noah was completely unaware of. Even if he had been, it wouldn’t have changed a single thing.

Every day was a day for improvement. He didn’t prepare only when danger presented itself.

No, to be exact, it was because his life was always in danger that he was always preparing.

The entity within him was a constant reminder. Growth was not optional. Strength was not something to pursue later. Every day counted. And with the way his life has been, he was pessimistic that there would always be additional trouble out to spite his existence.

——

Another day has passed.

Training had already become routine within his territory. Not just for him, for all of them.

And when they weren’t training, they would spar.

An area just beyond the inner boundary of their territory had been designated for unrestricted combat. There, they fought with nearly everything they had.

With Noah’s ability to heal them, as long as they fought without killing intent, the injuries they sustained could easily be recovered.

Surprisingly, the idea had not come from Noah.

It had come from Arachne.

Ever since Noah accepted her feelings, Arachne no longer stood at his side as merely a subordinate. In her mind, she stood as his Queen, alongside Ailetta.

But that acknowledgment had ignited something within her. If she were to be Queen, then she would be the first. And to her, that meant only one thing.

Strength.

The strongest deserved precedence. Barbaric as the logic was, it resonated with Ailetta as well. The two had not argued about it; they’d simply decided to settle it.

But that was also when Arachne laid out the condition. They would fight outside the dungeon’s influence. She was well aware of the dungeons’ effects by now.

The zone benefited the majority with their mana control, power, and capacity. For a creature like Ailetta, whose power revolved around her magical prowess, the dungeon wasn’t just helpful; it gave her an advantage.

Arachne wouldn’t accept a loss like that. If either of them were to claim the spot as the top Queen, then it had to be through their raw ability.

Ailetta still agreed. Then she raised the stakes. The victor had to be addressed as First Queen until the title was taken away.

This small clause proved to be the trigger for something, turning a spar into a dangerous war zone.

When the other creatures heard of their battle, it spread faster than any rumor ever could.

Eve made sure of that.

They gathered quickly to watch the fight. The cats and dogs weren’t excused from this either. And Bolas had finally left the territory for the first time in decades.

Noah didn’t push to stop them. To him, this was a healthy exchange. They would grow in strength and possibly grow as a family. And with their rivalry, he understood that this wouldn’t be their last duel.

He just stood at the edge of it all. He left the rules all up to them.

—

The first duel didn’t go as expected.

Instead of making any rules, the two started immediately. Arachne attacked first.

Besides the creatures that were contracted with Noah, Arachne basically moved in a blur.

The skill ”Elusive” that Noah received in the past, allowing him to enhance his agility in bursts, was now being used by Arachne with just the control of her mana.

There were very few who could keep up with Arachne’s speed, and even Ailetta would have struggled in the past. However, Ailetta had not remained idle these past few days.

From the very start of the spar, her eyes were glowing. Not only the ones upon her face, but the single eye embedded within her chest shone the brightest of them all.

Every movement Arachne made was perceived moments before it was fully committed. It was not a prediction in the conventional sense, but a precise calculation from perceiving Arachne’s actions faster.

Tentacles surged outward to intercept her advance. What should have been a probing exchange immediately escalated when Ailetta released nearly ten at once, attempting to establish dominance over the field early.

Arachne didn’t attempt to use her signature technique. She already understood that against Ailetta, whose spiritual perception and magical acuity surpassed her own, illusion and subconscious manipulation would collapse before they ever took root.

The same applied to using her eyes to induce subtle influence. Those methods were bound to fail unless she processed more mana to overcome the disadvantage.

Instead, she relied on what she knew would not betray her.

Speed, her armor that nullified a percentage of both physical and magical properties. And her miasmic energy, which would siphon away at Ailetta’s mana little by little.

A sharp sheen glinted along her bladed appendages as she met the incoming tentacles head-on. Instead of deflecting them, each sweeping motion of her limbs sliced cleanly through the reaching extensions. It was not a single decisive exchange, but a rapid back-and-forth. Each tentacle that threatened to reach her was severed.

They reformed in mid-motion and struck again, only for Arachne’s limbs to cut them down repeatedly.

What unsettled her wasn’t the pace of the exchange, but the lack of resistance. The tentacles didn’t harden to withstand her strikes, nor did they exert overwhelming force to crush through her defense. They were cut with surprising ease, almost as if Ailetta was not investing true effort into making them durable.

Arachne could not immediately discern what Ailetta was attempting. The most logical explanation was entrapment. If she committed too deeply, the tentacles could shift formation, restricting her movement at a critical moment. Avoiding them entirely would require additional bursts of mana into her legs, and she had already calculated that such expenditure would accelerate her own depletion.

From her perspective, pressing forward and cutting through them was the more efficient option.

But Noah, who observed the spar from the side without interfering, understood the broader picture.

Ailetta was not attempting to overwhelm her. She was prolonging the exchange.

The mana required to sustain the perceiving ability within her eyes was immense, but it was being carefully measured. Only three pupils were actively engaged.

In contrast, each strike Arachne made to sever a tentacle demanded a sharp expenditure of mana and physical force. The more frequently she cut, the more she paid.

What Arachne didn’t yet realize was that the greater drain didn’t come from her attacks alone.

Ailetta’s single eye was subtle. Its influence constantly pressed down on Arachne’s psyche. Arachne’s own mana was flaring in response, instinctively warding against interference.

She was defending herself by manipulating her mana, and she didn’t recognize that she was doing so.

Bolas had picked up on Ailetta’s scheme almost immediately. A low scoff escaped him as he repositioned himself, barely containing a chuckle.

”How does it feel,” he asked lazily, ”to have two women fighting over you?”

Noah did not look away from the spar.

He could tell Bolas was joking. The tone was light, merely meant to provoke a small reaction.

So Noah gave him one.

”It’s not bad at all,” he replied as if he didn’t pick up on the implication. ”Having people who love you is a good feeling, no matter how they choose to display it.”

Only then did his gaze shift slightly toward Bolas.

”But I’m sure you wouldn’t be able to understand.”

The response landed exactly as intended.

Bolas went quiet.

For all his age and accumulated wisdom, he was reminded once again that his tongue was not sharp enough to contest Noah in the battle of words.

A serpent’s tongue did not compare to a devil’s shamelessness.

—

The exchange between the two Queens was reaching its climax.

Arachne’s movements remained fast, but the sheen that reinforced her strikes began to waver at the edges. Her timing remained as accurate as before, yet she was forced to relent faster with each interaction unless she wanted to be overwhelmed.

It was subtle. But not subtle enough to escape notice.

Her strikes weren’t as clean as they were before.

She finally understood what Ailetta was aiming for.

Her eyes narrowed. Frustration was clearly visible on her face. That emotion was directed at herself for not noticing before. She prided herself on being physically stronger than Ailetta, yet she had allowed herself to be played.

She realized one of the lessons Noah told her. Strategy is only needless when you have overwhelming strength. A strength that she doesn’t have.

What frustrated her was that if she had used her head, she could’ve used Ailetta’s move against her. Instead of pressing the attack, she should have relied on her speed to create the illusion of attacking. That way, the strain on Ailetta’s eyes would be greater than the strain placed on herself.

—

Across from her, Ailetta maintained her composure.

A small smile curved faintly at the edge of her lips, though she concealed the strain behind it. To an outside observer, she appeared steady. But the exertion was mounting.

The miasma was gluttonous by nature.

Each time it seeped into her through a severed tentacle or grazed surface contact, she had to allocate mana to suppress it or forcibly shed the corrupted portion before it spread deeper into her structure. Neither option came cheap.

The repeated exchanges were beginning to accumulate cost on both sides.

The battlefield between them had become less about visible damage and more about invisible endurance.

Arachne adjusted her stance.

Ailetta noticed the change and smiled even more.

”My... look at you, you’re growing up so fast.”