Lord Of Beasts

Ethan had been searching for the Boss Beast for so long, yet he hadn’t encountered a single creature.

No Elite Beasts.

No Common Beasts.

Nothing.

The centre of the Rocky Plains seemed to be empty.

Suspiciously so...

Ethan wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and narrowed his eyes, scanning the endless stretch of cracked stone that rolled toward the horizon like a petrified ocean.

Not a single shadow moved.

Not a single sound carried across the plains.

Just heat... and silence.

”This is weird...”

His voice sounded strangely small in the vast emptiness.

Normally, he could barely walk five minutes without something trying to rip his throat out. A rock worm bursting from beneath his feet, a Gravetail Scaler launching from a cliff face, or some other nightmare lunging at him from behind.

But here?

Nothing.

His instincts prickled.

The kind of cold unease that crawled along the back of his neck.

’Something’s wrong.’

Even so, boredom had begun creeping in.

After days of relentless fighting, the sudden quiet almost felt unnatural.

Like the calm before a storm.

Then the ground trembled.

Ethan froze mid-step.

The vibration travelled through the soles of his sandals and into his bones.

It was subtle at first, then rapidly growing stronger.

His eyes widened.

For a moment, he wasn’t even sure whether he should be irritated or relieved.

”Finally... something.”

At first, he assumed it was another Lithoserpent Larva.

Those rock worms had popped out to attack him more times than he could count.

But almost immediately, he realised he was very, very wrong.

The shaking intensified violently.

This wasn’t the short, sharp vibration of the smaller worms; it was much deeper and heavier, like something massive was tearing through the earth itself.

Ethan’s instincts screamed.

’Move!’

He threw himself to the side as the ground exploded.

BOOM!

Stone burst apart in a violent eruption as debris and dust blasted into the sky. A colossal mass of stone-plated flesh tore upward from the ground, carving a crater into the plains.

Ethan stumbled back several steps as the creature rose higher...

...and higher...

...and higher.

His eyes widened.

”...Holy shit.”

’It’s fucking massive.’

The Lithoserpent Larvae had been quite big, and though dangerous, they were manageable.

This?

This was something else entirely.

The creature towered over him like a living pillar of stone. Its cylindrical body was wrapped in thick layers of jagged rock plates, overlapping like armour forged from the bones of the earth itself.

Then its mouth split open vertically.

A grotesque maw lined with rows of thick, blunt teeth - the kind meant for grinding and crushing rather than tearing. It tore through the ground so easily that, without a doubt, it could pulverise its prey into nothing but paste.

Ethan stared up at it.

’A mega giant rock worm.’

It was easily the largest creature he had ever seen in his entire life.

A system window then appeared before him.

{Boss Beast Status}

{Race: Lithoserpent Burrower

Growth Stage: Mature

Beast Rank: D

Strength: 31

Speed: 25

Stamina: 24

MP: 15/15}

Ethan slowly exhaled.

”...Now that’s a fucking D Rank beast.”

The stats were high.

But honestly?

They were about what he expected.

What truly made his stomach tighten was the creature’s sheer size. It probably weighed over a ton, and even if their stats were equal... that mass alone could crush him like an insect.

His eyes narrowed slightly as another thought crossed his mind.

’So it goes from Lithoserpent Larva... to Lithoserpent Burrower.’

Did beasts evolve between ranks?

Or was this simply a mature version of the same species?

’Does every beast change like that?’

If so...

What would Wolfy become someday?

What about Talon?

Would they grow into completely different creatures?

Something bigger?

Stronger?

More monstrous?

Ethan blinked.

Then slapped his own cheek.

”Focus.”

Now was not the time to get distracted by such questions.

Now was the time to survive.

”Alright...”

MP stirred within him.

”Wolfy!”

The young Ulfen appeared beside him in a flash of mana, landing lightly on the cracked stone. The beast immediately lowered its body into a ready stance, yellow eyes locked onto the gigantic worm.

Ethan’s hand instinctively twitched.

For a brief second, he considered activating Beast Assimilation with Talon.

The speed would be invaluable, and without using that skill, he was essentially a normal human trying to fight a giant beast.

But he stopped himself.

’No...’

He frowned slightly.

’That’s a bad move.’

If he assimilated with either of his beasts, he couldn’t summon them, leaving him with only one beast supporting him.

And what did assimilation really give him right now?

Twenty-five percent of his beast’s stats was quite a substantial boost, but it was not game-changing.

Meanwhile, he’d lose an entire combatant.

’Three fighters are better than two.’

Even if he gained some of Wolfy’s balanced stats and instincts or Talon’s speed and vision, the difference wasn’t enough to make up for losing a full beast.

And the MP drain?

It was the same regardless: 1 MP to activate and 1MP per minute.

His eyes flicked back toward the massive Lithoserpent that could crush him with a single hit.

A slow grin spread across his face.

’Besides...’

He cracked his knuckles.

’I’ve never been afraid of putting myself in danger.’

As long as he didn’t die in the tower, he’d wake up in reality alive and well - any damage he sustained would simply disappear.

So if risking his neck meant a better chance of winning?

Yeah, he’d take that gamble.

Ethan rolled his shoulders.

”Alright...”

He looked up.

”Talon!”

A sharp screech split the air.

The Skyrend Hawk materialised above him in a burst of wind and feathers, wings spreading wide as it immediately took to the sky.

Ethan pointed toward the massive worm.

”Keep its attention!”

The hawk shrieked and began circling overhead.

Ethan lowered his stance, studying the gigantic beast carefully.

From the larvae he had fought before, he already knew two effective methods for killing Lithoserpents: weaponise gravity in some way to deal impact damage, or flip it onto its back and attack the soft underbelly.

His eyes slowly travelled up the towering body of the Burrower.

”Yeah... pushing that off a cliff isn’t happening.”

Even flipping it felt ridiculous.

The thing was simply too large.

And even if he somehow managed it, the armour plating, even on its underbelly, looked far thicker than the larvae.

”I doubt I could even damage it...”

Suddenly, the Lithoserpent reared back, and Ethan’s instincts exploded with warning.

”Shit-!”

The creature that had just been observing Ethan opened its massive maw.

Then it roared.

The sound was catastrophic: a violent shockwave burst outward like an invisible explosion.

His ears instantly exploded with pain.

”AGH!”

Blood instantly trickled down the sides of his head.

The noise was overwhelming and disorienting, like standing beside a jet engine inside a cave.

But then the shockwave hit.

Bang!

Ethan was thrown backwards like a ragdoll.

His body slammed into the rocky ground and rolled across the cracked plains before finally skidding to a halt in a cloud of dust.

His head spun violently.

”Fuck...”

His entire body trembled and was covered in cuts and scrapes after sliding across the hard, rough ground.

’If that roar hits me a couple more times... I’m screwed.’

Ethan could only imagine how it felt for the Ulfen standing beside him, who had much sharper senses, but it seemed to have avoided the brunt of it.

Not that he was in any position to be worrying about others...