Chapter 335
Fodder
Note from me, the author: I've noticed that my dumbass sometimes accidentally refers to deadline creatures with the levels I gave ascenders. For example, I might refer to a spawnling as a novice accidentally, or a devilborn as experienced. First of all, I would like to apologise for that and I will try my best not to continue doing so in the future. But in the case I do, I want you guys to assume that whenever I refer to a deadline creature as a novice, I mean spawnling, and if I refer to it as an experienced level, I mean devilborn. What would help me is if I am informed when I do so and I will quickly rectify it, as such a thing can pull you out of the story. Thank you, and sorry once again.
…
IAM could only feel that the current situation was a bit unfortunate, but it was time to move on. He couldn't just weep and panic.
There was no way they could have known the effects of the flag... Actually, maybe they could have—through those indigo eyes Natsuki had revealed—but it seemed like it had its costs, and she would most likely not waste it on something like that.
But they couldn't have possibly prepared or accounted for such a terrible situation: surrounded by more than thirty deadline creatures, ranging from low spawnling to high spawnling. Thankfully there was no peak spawnling present, and only a relatively smaller number of high spawnlings among them.
If not for the glaring weakness those other creatures possessed, there was no way taking them down would have been as easy as before. Now, however, these new creatures would get to show the true might of high spawnlings.
Yet even now, one would notice that IAM wasn't the least bit worried about the situation. Even with so many bloodthirsty opponents brimming with power compared to the current him, there wasn't an ounce of fear within him.
He had been in far worse and far more turbulent situations than this. He had even died in real life, killed at the hands of the malevolent Mr. Graveyard. Compared to that, this imitation of reality—where true death could not even occur—could not cause him any real concern.
If the worst came to it, he would simply reveal his level and massacre all these creatures!
To accept and to deny.
This mantra echoed through IAM's mind, one that had aided him before and would continue to aid him in the future in similar situations where everything looked bleak and death seemed possible.
It meant accepting the situation one might find themselves in, understanding that what is done is done.
And then denying it.
To fight back with one hundred percent clarity and resolve. You could accept your situation, but you must always deny it. Take control of your life.
It is yours.
With this in mind, IAM began to study the situation closely, gazing at the state of the deadline creatures.
There seemed to be something slightly dazed about them. Multiple creatures that were normally more like lone wolves—and others that usually travelled in small groups—were now gathered together and standing almost side by side, which IAM had already labelled as unnatural behaviour.
Depending on the nature of the deadline creature, such a gathering would normally never happen. As mentioned many chapters ago, some deadline creatures were actually docile and would not harm or attack others without reason. IAM had yet to interact with such creatures himself, as one would naturally question what truly made them different from the others when most of their kind would kill humans on sight.
More aggressive creatures were even less likely to behave like this. They would normally assert dominance over one another or deliberately avoid each other altogether. Seeing them gathered so closely and so calmly only strengthened IAM's belief that the flag was acting as some kind of beacon.
Even then, there appeared to be a sort of hierarchy within the mass.
The high spawnlings were given space.
The surrounding creatures instinctively left room around them, almost as if they understood their place. Those high spawnlings were also easily identifiable among the crowd.
There were four of them in total.
Each one belonged to a different type of deadline creature.
One of them resembled a grotesque cross between a lizard and a butterfly. Its body was covered in a strange mixture of slime and scales, reflecting faintly under the dim light as shades of black and deep blue spread across its massive form. It was the largest creature among them all, stretching nearly twenty metres in length—roughly the same as five average cars parked end to end.
Its head, however, was immensely disturbing.
Where one would expect the angular jaws and reptilian snout of a lizard, there instead sat the head of a butterfly.
But it was not delicate or beautiful like a normal butterfly.
The head was bulbous and wet-looking, covered in thin hairs that twitched whenever it shifted slightly. Two massive compound eyes bulged outward from either side, their dark surfaces reflecting the fog and the faint shapes of the surrounding creatures in countless tiny fragments. Between those eyes, a long, coiled proboscis hung loosely like a fleshy spiral of tubing. Every few seconds it would twitch and slowly unfurl before curling back again, the tip glistening with a thick layer of sticky fluid that dripped occasionally onto the ground below.
Near its midriff were two wings that, in comparison to the size of its body, looked almost absurdly small. They were unmistakably butterfly wings, but their colours had long since faded into a dull grey, the fragile-looking membranes riddled with small tears and veins that pulsed faintly.
There was no way those wings could lift something of that size more than a metre off the ground.
But even the thought of this creature hovering a single metre in the air and drifting toward you was a deeply disturbing image to imagine.
It crawled on all fours, wriggling forward with the movements of a lizard. Its limbs bent low and wide, each step spreading its weight across the ground with an unsettling smoothness. The claws at the end of its hands and feet were long and slightly curved, digging into the soil as it dragged its massive body along. The scales along its limbs overlapped like damp plates, occasionally flexing as its muscles shifted underneath them. Every movement caused the slime coating its body to stretch and glisten, leaving faint, sticky trails on the ground behind it.
IAM then turned to the next one.
This one was pure white in colour and stood upright on its hind legs, though the legs themselves were slightly curled in an oval shape. They were short and stumpy, looking almost too small to support the rest of its body. But as if to compensate for that weakness, its arms were abnormally long.
So long, in fact, that they were nearly twice the length of its body.
They stretched high toward the sky before curving back down toward the ground, where the ends of its arms pierced into the earth. There were no hands or fingers. Instead, each arm ended in a circular, pointed blade-like structure, sharp and rigid, as if its limbs had been forged for nothing but stabbing through the flesh of its victims.
Using those blade-like limbs, it moved itself forward by pulling and dragging its body along the ground.
Its entire form was covered in thick white hair. The fur was so dense that most of its facial features were hidden beneath it. One might vaguely be reminded of a yeti or the abominable snowman—but this creature was no myth from snowy mountains.
This was something far worse... It was an abomination nightmare!
The hair hung unevenly from its body, clumped together in places and swaying slightly whenever it moved. Beneath those layers of white fur, something shifted, though it was impossible to see exactly what its face looked like. The few glimpses that could be seen through the hair suggested something twisted and wrong lurking beneath.
Then there was the third one.
This one immediately drew the eye for a completely different reason.
It was… pretty?
Its body had a humanoid shape, with long slender legs and arms that carried an almost elegant proportion. Beautiful lines ran across its body, thin ridges that shimmered faintly like crystals. Its skin carried a mixture of red and pink, forming patterns that naturally drew the gaze and seemed to shift slightly whenever it moved.
Its face eerily resembled that of a woman.
And not just any woman—an exceedingly beautiful one.
But it was a strange beauty. An alien beauty.
Something about it felt wrong.
Perhaps it was the unnatural clash of red and pink across its face. Or perhaps it was the way its eyes glowed like faceted crystals, reflecting light in sharp, glittering fragments while still following the same red and pink theme as the rest of its body.
Then there were its lips.
They were thick and abnormally large, stretched into what appeared to be a smile. But the smile extended far too wide, pulling across its entire face in a way that no normal mouth ever could.
It was definitely something that could be called pretty...
Yet the eeriness surrounding it completely stripped away any sense of attraction, leaving behind only a quiet, unsettling discomfort.
There was no instantly viewable weapon or obvious means for it to go stabby stabby or anything of the sort, as it stood there empty-handed. That alone made it slightly alarming, as one was left wondering how exactly it intended to attack.
Or for the more dirty-minded few… horny.
IAM kept a careful eye on it before turning his attention to the last creature.
This one looked like a worm.
Its long body wriggled across the ground in slow, nauseating waves, each movement pushing ripples through its flesh as it dragged itself closer. The motion alone was enough to make one feel uneasy, the kind of movement that instinctively made the skin crawl.
Where one would normally expect a face to be… there was only a single eye.
Its entire head was nothing but an eye.
The surface of it was a dull grey, cloudy and moist, constantly shifting with a thin film of liquid sliding across it. The eye bulged outward slightly, twitching as it focused on the surroundings with an unsettling stillness. But the true horror became visible if one stared just a moment longer.
Beneath the surface of that grey eye… were more eyes.
Dozens of them.
Tiny ones of different shapes, colours, and sizes pressed just under the translucent layer of the main eye. Some were bright yellow, others deep blue, crimson, green, or black. They blinked at different intervals, some widening while others narrowed, each one staring back in its own direction.
It was as if an entire swarm of eyes had been trapped beneath the skin, endlessly watching.
The sight alone was enough to make toes curl and goosebumps spread across one's body. Most people would turn and run far away the moment they realised what they were looking at.
The worm's body itself was a bright, fleshy pink, thick and glistening as if constantly damp. Small bumps ran along its length in uneven rows, some swollen like blisters while others hardened into short spikes that jutted outward. As it wriggled forward those bumps shifted and twitched, occasionally releasing faint wet sounds as its body flexed and contracted.
After taking all this in, IAM was just about to speak when Natsuki suddenly said,
"Step back for a second."
???
IAM stepped back while asking, "What are you going to do? We are massively outnumbered."
Her voice rang out calmly.
"It's very simple… I am currently a high novice. And I can say with confidence… any creature below mid spawnling… is nothing but fodder to me!"
Domineering words escaped those pink lips of hers as her sword began to float once again, hovering beside her as if greedy to draw blood.
One must remember that a large portion of their enemies were low spawnlings that had gathered with the others.
And yet, Natsuki had just declared them to be nothing but fodder.
But hearing those words coming from her of all people… after what she had already shown…
Was she about to reveal yet another fantastical sight?