Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain-Chapter 417: Battling monsters - 3

Holding a sword in both his arms, Rio charged ahead in a straight dash, rushing right into the oncoming horde of monsters. His speed, unparalleled, and movement of his arms, unpredictable.

The metallic edges left a shadow of red lightning streak as they swept the blood of monsters and sliced their bodies in swift strikes. Katherine couldn't help but freeze for a few seconds, her gaze fixed upon the dance of death in front of her.

In a matter of mere minutes he had littered the flattened forest with corpses of creatures who kept coming nonstop after smelling blood and hearing the howls.

She had never quite seen a sight like this. Even amongst the hundreds of arena battles she'd been part of, or various other tournaments and rankers she had seen on recordings. There was just something different.

The way he moved, unimpeded amongst the dozens of beasts surrounding him. Dodging their attacks with a hair's breadth, and changing between his skills and spells every now and then without showing a single opening - it was all just so mesmerizing for her.

It made her wonder just how many times he must have practiced or fought in situations like these to get so good at it.

His body didn't feel tired, there was no hesitation in his attacks, _ there were moments when he didn't even look and jumped on instincts, dodging death with a smile. It wasn't even about strength or skills anymore, it was like he could sense his whole surroundings, predict how these hungry beasts would react, and what method could slay or slow them down.

"You gonna stand there looking all pretty, or you gonna help?" Rio's voice came, suddenly breaking her trance.

She looked at him one last time, before rushing forward to help him. Sun was going down slowly, and they needed to wipe these animals and find a shelter too.

While Rio slayed the horde of Hermies, Katherine took the lead in fighting against another batch called Pyareha.

When these two groups died, the ground trembled once more. But this time, it felt different.

Rio watched as layers of floors started cracking and were sent flying as corpses of creatures he slayed started getting sucked into something. Disappearing in a straight line, before a crackling munching sound came behind _ signaling something just ate them all.

"It's Varsha." Katherine said, right as Rio grabbed her by the waist and flapped his wings, jumping high in the air.

Right that moment, the floor between their feet cracked and turned into a giant hole. And then like magic, it started rising to, trying to catch up with the prey that had flown away. It's speed, making Rio feel a breath of hot air against the soles of his feet.

Rio looked down and saw a disgusting sight, _ down there a centipede-like creature was following him like a worm wriggling on the ground. But unlike a normal centipede, its exoskeleton was translucent, meaning all its organs were visible to the naked eye. And so were the barrage of bones and beasts it had swallowed just now.

Rio watched as all those corpses were crushed to pieces as part of its stomach rotated in circles, like a ring with sharp spears attached on corners, acting as teeth. Slicing up the food and tearing it into smaller pieces.

Once the cutting and chopping was done, all this food was then pushed further back, in a large sack of liquid where it probably melted and got digested.

And whatever waste and pieces of bones this beast couldn't handle, they were turned into fine powder and sprayed from its back like shit. And something even more weird, this shit show had a speed high enough that could propel the body's whole movement up and forward. It was literally jumping up and diving down like a fish in water by spraying shit. (Like what the fuck)

Overall the sight of this whole fucking process was pretty noseaus to look at. So to save his stomach, and stop the taste of vomit lingering in his throat, Rio just threw a ball of hell flames into the monster's portal-like mouth. Watching them travel down into its transparent stomach and melt everything from inside out.

"You've dealt with them before?" Katherine asked, seeing Rio use the right way to kill this monster without her help.

"Nah, I've just seen something similar." Rio said remembering the days of the dungeon when he was sleeping once after being dead tired, only to wake up to being swallowed into some beast's mouth. And how he had to cook it's inside, eat them to regain some mana, and then crawl out.

[... Bruh can you not remember all the shitty things you did to survive. Even Benders and Bear Grylls would vomit hearing them.]

[I already cleaned my head after scanning your memories once, so shut the flashbacks will you.]

???

Rio clicked his tongue and cursed the damn system who jumped up with a complaining tone.

"Ahemm humm"

Rio was about to teach his system some lesson, when Katherine's coughing sound pulled his attention. He looked at her face, which didn't seem all that colder and deadpan up close _ wait, close _ fuck.. It was only now did he realize he was still holding her in his arms.

"Sorry." He said and let go of her, shaking his head to clear out whatever thought came into it.

[She smells nice, doesn't she?]

'...' Fuck telepathy

Rio cursed and muted the damn system, who had no sense of privacy and is always snooping and sneaking around in his head.

"Let's be careful, Varsha always walk in groups. So since one attacked us, the rest won't be far behind." Katherine said, her face and demeanor back to being emotionless, though if one could hear closely, they would notice her heart beating wildly like never before.

The duo looked away from each other, turning their backs to face the other _ and without saying anything, just started slaughtering the sucking centipedes. One who burned their insides, and the other who froze it whole.

"There's the leader." Katherine said, pointing her sword and slashing at a tendril that shot in her direction.

Unlike others of its tribe, the leader of Varsha didn't just have a sucking hole like an empty mouth, it had a dozen or so tendrils flying over its edges. They worked similar to tongues of a toad as they could stretch and stick against the surfaces. Pulling what they held, right into it's mouth.

Katherine tried to freeze them, while jumping and dodging them swiftly as she moved over and under them. Her hands constantly shooting a fog of ice that slowed their movements so she could slash them with her sword and cut them down.

Rio looked at her and wanted to help, but just then another monster blocked his path. It fell straight from the sky, creating a heavy crater on the ground. Sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

Rio looked up and saw an enormous, beast-like creature with bulging muscles and a grotesquely oversized chest, with two sharp hands. It was cracking its knuckles and licking its lips looking his way.

Its skin was as pale as snow and appeared soft—almost too soft. The moment it moved, though, a ripple passed through its cotton or jelly-like exterior, as if its entire body absorbed all force and stored it within.

"Why am I even surprised at this point." He said, already used to the twisted combinations of this planet. Like the hell was this thing, king Kong meets barbie. A berserker plus slime.

Who the fuck made these abominations. Cause sure as hell they weren't born normally. (Okay, guess he couldn't stop himself after all.)

"That's Rthulk. Physical attacks won't work on him. The more you hit him, the tougher he'll get. Try magic." Katherine's voice came from nowhere, as she introduced the monster.

Not like she needed to, as Rio already understood these things when the monster fell from the heavens and just rippled and absorbed the impact of it all with a smile.

'hmm wait, why does this remind me of that black superhero in a leopard suit?'

[Panther, it was a panther suit.]

'Yeah that one.' Rio said and looked at the monster with a 'gentle' smile, which somehow caused it to stop in it's track as a bead of sweat rolled down it's forehead for some reason.

[Host…]

'Say system, if I peel off its skin, can you make me that armor too?'

[...]

The Rthulk seemed to have sharp instincts and suddenly wanted to run away from this tiny two legged animal, who was smiling like crazy, but alas it was two late.

Rio just clapped his hands, forming ripples in space that swallowed the beast. Directly transporting it into the underground headquarters of Eclipse, with a note sticking on its head.

[Peel off the skin. _ Shiva.]