Lyle swore his life went through his eyes after he took a gander at the thing known as the Tower of Arthurian Knights.

He knew, then and there, that he would die facing that thing. Whatever that thing was, it was not natural.

That's why he wasn't at all mad at Zeke for getting rough with him, as well as everyone with a conscious, by pushing them away from the battlefield with a face full of magic walls.

Instead, he grew fearful as an explosion of unknown force happened right where Zeke was just at, possibly facing the ungodly creature all by himself.

He held his head as he watched everyone around him recovering from the forced pushback. Some looked injured, but were just minor bruises that their system enhanced bodies can handle.

At the very least Tigger, the only child around here, was covered by Kote who took advantage of everything. He held him tightly before releasing him after the magic constructs disappeared, leaving everyone in distraught.

"Lyle, we gotta go back!"

He was sure he heard something outrageous, only to find out that it was his partner Janet who spoke of such an outlandish thing. He looked at her, confused as though she just spoke another language.

"Are you crazy?" Lyle asked, just to be sure she was still sane. "I'm not even sure Zeke can handle that thing."

"Then that's all the more reason we gotta go back!" Janet pleaded, pointing at the direction of the large explosion, and the obvious different kinds of smaller explosions happening far away from them in the forest. "He'll be in trouble, or worse, he'll die!"

"And what can we do about it?"

Lyle said with finality as he stood up to face her, overreaching her height by a head or so. She looked conflicted by his words, her eyes widening at him in disbelief.

"Listen, I want nothing more than to help him too, but we'd just be in the way," Lyle said, feeling just a bit bad for saying it like that. However, Janet shook her head.

"But we can at least–"

"Zeke wouldn't want that either," Lyle interrupted her, knowing her feelings more than anyone else. "We're not even Journeymen yet, and literal professional Journeymen almost died facing that thing. An actual Journeymen actually died back there, unless you didn't see that guy's fucking head rolling back there?"

"Then that's all the more reason!" Janet pleaded, this time emphasizing each word. "We need to help Zeke! And what about Mikella?! She's still out there facing that asshole Tack!"

"Tack… bloody hell..."

Lyle wanted to curse at something, anything, for this shitty hand that they were dealt with. Facing a crowd of lunatics wanting to kill unarmed folks that can't fight back, then some creature from the abyss of the system itself came crashing down on them.

It was like the universe is telling them to just straight up die. It's wasting way too many resources to do so. It was unfair, and clearly not right.

But then again, Zeke and Mikella were still out there fighting. While they were having this argument, the otherworlders were panicking and distraught by the situation, pleading to them that they want to leave. Kote was handling them at the moment while Saang returned back to the others.

"You two, we got a problem," Saang said, once again bringing more shit to the pile on Lyle's mental state.

"What is it?" Lyle asked, raising a brow.

"We saw Janet deal with that Master on her own, so normally, considering the last time, the tower would start shaking and ready to explode. It's been a while, and nothing's happening. The tower isn't shaking or anything. I'm not sure how this specific tower is working, considering that it's way more different than the last one, but Zeke and Mikella said that once the master's gone, we can leave. The thing is, Mikella's gone, and Zeke's busy with that thing. How do we get out then?"

That got the two otherworlders, Lyle and Janet, to glance at each other. That was a good point, but a frown took place on their faces.

"H-how do we do that?" Janet asked the important question.

"I don't know!" Saang said desperately. "It's something only otherworlders can do, so if we want everyone out of here, we need everyone to learn how to do that! So, considering that they don't even know how to use Mana or Kinetic Perception right now, you two are our best bet!"

Lyle placed the palm of his hands to his eyes, wracking his brain on how this would work out.

But then his heart began to calm down. This was actually plausible, and if they managed to get all the otherworlders out, they can get a better plan of action to help fight against that thing, or at least leave it and Tack behind here while getting Zeke and Mikella out of here.

It was still a shot in the dark, but it was a better plan than to leave Zeke to die. Not that Lyle wanted that to happen, but he would be crazy to send Janet along with him to a fight with no plan of action. At least this way, they can actually support their friends by evacuating the only people that can't fight back.

"Okay," Lyle nodded, turning back to Janet who looked back with a solemn stare. "Let's figure out how–"

A horrid scream ensued from the other side of the massive crowd of otherworlders, causing Lyle's heart to jump up in paces before realizing that one of them was down on the ground. The poor otherworlder was screaming in pain, blood flowing out from his chest from what looked like a slash wound.

"Alright guys!" One man, his sword covered in the red blood of the innocent man on the ground. "That damn healer guy is gone! Let's get them all!"

To his shock and horror, Lyle spotted the same adventurers and tag-along knights with their weapons out, the ones that ran away from Zeke after killing their captain. They all crowded around the otherworlders, each of them too scared to even fight back even with weapons on hand.

Lyle's mind just… paused. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew this wasn't good. More and more of the actual invaders were surrounding the otherworlders, not caring a whiff about their lives, even as they begged and screamed for help.

Did they saw that huge creature and decided to go after the otherworlders now that Zeke was busy? Do they even know that if they killed them all here, these people would be stuck here forever?

They weren't even thinking about the situation at all. They were just trying to finish a job as though that mattered more than their own lives. The kinds of people that would just not care at all about the situation and do whatever the hell they want.

He's seen his fair share of greed and corruption before. He got over that. He had seen his share of grief and despair from the people who were affected by that. He had no other choice but to accept it and hope that it wouldn't happen to him.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

But this… he just couldn't accept this any longer.

His energies whirled in his core as Beast Soul reacted to his emotions. It didn't work like any other skill, and so he often tried to keep his emotions under control.

He didn't care about the ramifications anymore. He didn't even care if his skill would finally take over his mind, along with letting that Hyralc bastard do what he wanted. He tried to be a cool guy, trying his damn hardest to live in this cruel reality and doing the best he could to live under these circumstances.

But now he had enough. Who in the bloody hell could handle this crazy situation with a smile on their face?

Not Lyle. Not anymore.

He roared, and the sound was equivalent to that of a beast waking up from his slumber. The attackers stopped their rampage, including Saang and Kote who was trying to keep the attackers off while Janet went to try to calm the masses.

Janet took a step back, her eyes widening as Lyle's body creaked and cracked. His limbs exploded in size and mass, unleashing giant claws and muscle that seemed to be connected to his arms rather than being a part of it. Veins pulsed through his body as his legs followed suit, with spider legs coming out of his lower back with two giant feathery wings coming out of the upper half.

His teeth were replaced with sharp fangs, and horns sprouted from his head, revealing his eyes that were turning bloodshot, then turning entirely red and bloody, as though his eyes was submerged in blood and leaving the pupils in the front.

He saw nothing but red, and if there was one thing he was proud of–he knew who to attack.

He roared again, an unnatural sounding roar, as he launched straight at the attackers, to one of the guys that dealt the first blow with his bloody blade.

Winding his arm back, Lyle dug into the attacker's chest with his claw. The claw then enlarged itself, overcoming the entire upper part of the body and splitting the man apart with a single swing.

The lower half, where the legs still stood, tumbled to the ground as blood and viscera flew everywhere. The adventurers and knights looked back in horror at the quick kill before Lyle turned to the other attackers, opening his mouth and releasing hot steam between his sharpened teeth.

He growled with a deep, almost demonic tone. "If you want to die so badly, then I'll oblige!"

…..

Zeke gritted his teeth, tasting copper as blood dribbled down his mouth. At the moment, he was trying to pull the giant fist of the creature–the knight of his nightmares–off of his torso trying to dig into his insides.

Before this damn monster sucker punched him, he poured every available buff power into his Endurance and Vitality and pushed his Mythril Skin skill to its limit and beyond. With his gauntlets acting as a buffer by covering themselves in its energy, he managed to stave off the worst.

But even with all of his stats and energy put into it, it was barely enough to leave him hanging by a thread.

The knight-like creature flashed its red eyes at Zeke, noticing that its fist hadn't squished him. It outstretched its fingers and grabbed Zeke's arms and hurled him up into the sky.

It didn't even take the creature any effort as Zeke was chucked into the sky at neck-breaking speed. The throw was strong enough to even make the air resistance hurt him a little even through his buffs. Now he saw nothing but a small speck on the orange-like field below, and he kept it that way as he conjured up a floor with his Ethereal Manifest to take a breather.

Not a second later, the golem crashed through the construct like glass with a burst of speed. He managed to notice it in time before conjuring another floor to stand on, but not before the damn thing conjured its own floor to stand for itself.

The magical floor it created, however, was so drastically familiar to a certain skill. A skill Zeke had lost after entering into Arcelot.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Zeke cursed from deep within his heart. "You got Barrier Craft?!"

Cheeaaaaatteeeerr!

The knight launched itself at Zeke again, but Zeke had enough of an example and dodged out of the way, but that wasn't enough. The knight, even with its hefty size and mass, swung its arms way too fast for his liking. If it weren't for his constant training with Mikella, he wouldn't have developed enough battle sense to survive dodging even one blow, much less several at once.

Even in the sky, they conjured a barrier on top of a construct on top of another barrier. The two magical beings, one clearly more physically adept than the other, fought at the sky with no hint of any change. That is until Zeke had enough and dodged one body blow by ducking.

Its massive height was enough to leave Zeke enough room to do so, and without hesitation Zeke pulled himself up for an uppercut up its jaw. He poured all his power into his gauntleted fist covered in Mythril Skin and hit the body. But only his bones cracked, his skin broken, and his own blood stained the metal-like body.

Zeke cursed loudly before getting another face full of fist and managed to jump away and heal the damage. He still wasn't done healing his torso throughout the fight, proving that the knight can hit like a damn truck.

He felt his hand again, realizing that even with all the power, his hand was crushed beyond recognition.

Is it some sort of damage reflection? Tough body, high speed, quick casting, and now this? What the fuck am I dealing with?

Taking a gander at its face, his fist barely did a number. If anything, he can be proud that there was a dent on its armor from just one of his knuckles, but that was that. It felt like hitting a boulder with a normal punch, and his tired mind somehow counted it as a -1 hit point for pity.

Then he recognized exactly how the damn thing was able to move. The way it fights, using its hands, using physical power but mostly its speed…

Is it using Acrobatics?

That was Mikella's skill, which was also gained from the tower. The first tower that they have managed to conquer, or at least survived from. Finally, Zeke had an answer to the impossible question.

This creature was the personification of their tower. Somehow, one way or another, the damn thing got itself a will and manifested itself into this creature for the trial. Worse yet, Zeke remembered this creature.

The will it contained was the giant knight at the end of the tower, which the last time he saw it was when it tried to go after them after leaving the tower through the portal. The giant knight struggled to break free before the tower imploded onto itself, believing it to have died.

But it looked like that was just his imagination. Now it has returned, stronger than before.

Zeke…Parlow…the creature murmured. You… Cheaatteeerrr!

Gritting his teeth, he answered back.

"Yeah, I did. So what?!" Zeke shouted. "What the hell do you think I should've done?! There was no way we could've beaten you if we hadn't left!"

CHEEEEAAAATEEEERRR!

The monstrosity roared again as it launched straight after him, putting both its armored hands together to punch him straight down. Zeke dodged the easy attack, but failed to recognize that it was a feint. The knight unraveled its hands and pulled Zeke's leg with its right. With all its might, it threw Zeke all the way down to the ground, not giving him a chance to recover before crashing onto the warm dirt.

A crater was formed as a shockwave traveled across the forest ground. Dirt, debris, and wood broke and flew all over the place, nearly covering Zeke as he pulled himself out of the ground and breathing rampantly.

He looked up, only to see the damn thing coming straight after him like a cannonball. Zeke dodged out of the way, causing the ground to shake and quiver before an explosion of dust covered his vision.

Zeke desperately tried to gather his senses, trying to see the creature. But the golem managed to find him and punched with its full force. Zeke turned his hands into mithril and cross-guard against it, pouring more mana into his buffs and energy into his gauntlets.

It felt like trying to stop a train with his bare hands. His bones cracked from the pressure and blood flowed before getting launched straight at a nearby smaller tree. He crashed through that, then crashed through two more before landing on the ground, leaving behind broken wood as the trees fell over and crashed everywhere.

It was chaos and mayhem for the forest, but it left just enough of a clearing for Zeke to see the knight approaching.

Zeke forced himself to stand, using Restoration to heal his injuries. He doesn't have the time to make any rune spells before the knight could come over at close-range to beat his ass. He doesn't have his barrier to defend himself, nor can he rely on his fighting style without harming himself in the process.

He was shit out of luck. Because of that, he has to rely on his trump card. Somehow he was glad that he hadn't done this before.

As the knight started to go after him again like a maniac, Zeke breathed deep.

There was no point in holding back. Without caring about any subtlety, he connected to his attunement and let loose the stream of constant energy he was holding back.

He had no control, no way to divert it through himself. He let it flow, hearing the roaring of mana surge through his body as he glared at the knight. Bright azure and turquoise glowed on each eye respectively.

"If it really is you, then let me tell you," His voice deepened as his consciousness slowly faded away. "I learned some new tricks since the last time we met!"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.