Reborn As An Evolving Monster

Chapter 12 The Difference Between A Lord And A King

?The Monster walked towards the group.

More and more of its body could be seen, in all of its glory.

[Esteemed Crab King: [D] Rank Monster.]

It was about 7 meters tall.

As large as a bus is long.

Its shell was golden.

Mark ran towards its long foreleg and slammed both his fists against it.

A small crack appeared.

'Too strong... Cer, shoot its eyes. Bat, poison it from behind. Light, attack its eyes. Nor, distract it. Kalès, try breaking its shell somewhere.' Mark ordered telepathically.

The King's eyes shined red.

'Its eyes changed color! Is it a Skill or...?' Mark asked himself as he quickly jumped back.

The Monster's claws were much sharper than those of the previous Crab Monsters.

Slash-

Light stealthily attacked the Esteemed Crab King's right eye.

'Perfect. The only part not protected by that hard golden shell...'

The large Monster stepped back as its vision was clouded by its own blueish blood.

Kalès jumped up toward the Monster's head.

With all his strength, he lowered his huge hammer on the Esteemed Crab King's head, right between its eyes.

A huge hole appeared in the shell, but only a couple of small blood drops spurted.

'So even his strength isn't enough to damage it much. Even Kalès could only break the shell...'

Mark noticed that his Underling was breathing heavily.

It was the first time Mark had noticed something of the sort.

'Kalès. Step back until you recover some Endurance Points.'

A succession of Abyssal Bombs exploded on the hole in the king's defense.

The huge Monster ignored the attacks.

It swung its giant foreleg and pushed aside the closest enemy, Nor.

The Underling was launched away and rolled on the ground for over 20 meters.

But Nor had inherited the resilience of the Wererhinos.

Therefore, a second later, he was already up and running toward the Monster head-first.

Bat bit the king's injured eyes, trying to inject as much venom inside of it as possible.

'With a body that huge, poison might not be the answer but...'

Mark raised his arm up.

'I'll use all my Mana on this...'

14 black arrows appeared above him.

Fwoosh-

The next second, all of them flew towards the king's head and eyes.

Some of them penetrated its already injured eyes.

The majority of them hit the king's unprotected head.

The rest missed their target completely.

The Esteemed Crab King immediately coughed up a bit of black blood.

'The more arrows I throw at once, the harder it is to aim...' Mark thought as he sprinted towards the Monster.

Nor hit the king's hard shell with his horn, but that horn's tip barely made a hole in the enemy's shell.

Obviously annoyed, the Esteemed Crab King opened its mouth.

As if sucking in all the air around it, the Monster seemed to ballon up.

'Shit-'

The next instant, an extremely powerful stream of water was poured at the group.

Mark, Nor and Light were pushed away.

Nor, who had taken the stream head-on, lost a massive amount of Health Points before turning to dust.

[Your Abyssal Underling has returned to the dead.]

Light, on the other hand, already had low Health Points due to his low Vigor Stat.

'Fuck... Light, you step back. Kalès, come.'

Bat was still injecting poison into the king's eye.

Cer, on the other hand, had run out of Mana Points.

Kalès and Mark both ran towards the king.

Both were aiming for the same spot.

The Monster quickly tried to cut them into two using its extremely sharp claws.

Mark, thanks to his high Agility Stat jumped up, avoiding the attack.

He continued running towards the king's injured head.

Kalès, on the other hand, was not so fortunate.

He blocked the attack using his Warhammer but the Monster's pincer destroyed it.

The sharp golden claws cut Kalès' stomach as he stepped back.

A water stream fell on the injured Kalès and pushed him away with great strength.

'Mm... Shouldn't have used that Life Force Skill previously. It's too risky...' Mark thought as he climbed on the Monster's head.

Instead of attacking, he enjoyed the view of the battlefield for a bit.

'Kalès, step back. Light, come back in but be cautious. Cer, wait for me to get out of the way before attacking.'

Right after that, Mark extended his hand towards the Monster's injured head.

'A King, huh? King of the crabs...'

A Fire Bomb appeared in front of it.

'Is that why you only attacked after your Underlings died?'

Mark shot three Fire Ball, as that was all his current Mana Points enabled him to do.

'Sucks to be a king then!'

The pain obliged the Esteemed Crab King to shake its body.

It tried reaching Mark, but it couldn't get close to his position with its limbs.

Mark repeatedly stabbed the Monster's unprotected head with his sharp claws.

Every time he stabbed it, massive amounts of blood poured out.

Every time he stabbed it, he could stab a bit deeper the next time.

But the Esteemed Crab King could not suffer such humiliation.

It suddenly turned its body upside down to squish the bug that was on its head.

But as it rolled sideways, Mark simply jumped down.

He landed on the ground safely.

The Monster was now upside down.

Hunger-

Its delicious and unprotected stomach was left bare for all to see.

'Fighting alongside my Underlings feels right. I guess that's the difference, huh? Between a Lord and a King.'

[You have defeated one Esteemed Crab King. 1250 Gold Coins and 2500 Experience Points earned.]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

'This guy was huge... But weak. The arrows were not that useful. Mmm, they do much better against Monsters without shells or scales. I'll need to remember that...'

Saliva started dripping down Mark's mouth.

In front of him, was a glorious feast.

'You guys protect me.' He ordered telepathically.

Mark started biting on the Esteemed Crab King's foreleg.

'For the first time... It tastes good!'

Taste was something Mark had just acquired after evolving into a Weretiger.

He devoured the king, 14 crabs and many other Monsters.

'Well...' Mark thought as he stood up. 'That was a great fucking meal.'

He stared at the lake that separated him from the rest of the Floor.

'How do we cross it now...'

The lake stretched from one end of the Floor to the other.

The distance to the other side was about 50 meters.

On that other side, was what looked like a dense forest.

'Guess we could swim but-'

Light howled and Mark turned towards him.

The next instant, Light started running and jumped.

'What the...? Really?'

He managed to cross the whole river in one jump.

Kalès and Cer did the same.

Of course, Bat didn't need to, as he could fly.

'Alright. I guess I'll try it... Worst-case scenario, I'll just have to swim.'

Mark ran as fast as he could.

His feet hit the ground with a "BAM".

Mark jumped using all the strength he could muster.

He happily noticed that he had jumped a lot higher than he thought he could.

A second later, he unhappily noticed that he had jumped way further than he should have.

Mark passed his Underlings and landed on the ground dozens of meters further.

'Ouf... Didn't think I would-^'

As soon as he hit the ground, his feet sank into it.

'Huh?'

Mark wasn't on the ground.

He had landed on something that looked like a flat tail.

As Mark followed that tail, he found its main body.

It looked like a chameleon.

And the chameleon was not happy.

It lifted its tail and threw Mark up and away from it.

'WHAT?'

He was launched into the air.

'What the hell was that?'

Mark moved his limbs to try and stop spinning.

'How is that tail so strong?? Are chameleons actually strong animals??'

He went past the forest and fell just outside of it.

[You have lost 10 Health Points.]

'At least this body is tough...' Mark thought as he got up.

He looked around.

'Where did I land-'

Grunt-

'Shit...'

Four Monsters were staring at Mark.

They stood on two legs and slowly approached.

When the distance between them and Mark was about 10meters, they started banging on their chests with their fists.

'Gorillas, really??'

Mark wasn't really scared of the Monsters.

Still, it had been a while since he wasn't the one with the advantage in numbers.

'Come here. Quickly-' Mark ordered telepathically.

Before he could finish his thought, a strong punch hit Mark's stomach.

"Argh-"

He immediately fell to the ground and coughed up a bit of blood.

[You have lost 120 Health Points.]

'What the hell was that?'

[ Elite Mutated Gorillas: [D-] Rank Monsters.]

'One rank weaker than the king. Four of them and... I'm fighting alone??'