Chapter 14
Chapter 014. The Trap (2)
“You’re pretty sharp for a rookie.”
Despite having been punched across the room, Deodia still had the nerve to act smug.
Anagin, uninterested, replied flatly.
“Not that sharp. You’re about the same level as Bender, so it’s no surprise you’d pull the same kind of stunt.”
Bender, who robbed others in order to receive a god’s blessing. If Deodia was on that level, it was no surprise that he was cooperating with a monster ruin.
In a way, it fit perfectly. Too perfectly.
“I’m not like him.”
“Really? ’Cause to me, you look exactly the same.”
“Oh, I’ll show you. You’ll see the difference.”
When Anagin disagreed, Deodia grabbed a handful of pills from the pouch on his belt and chewed them down in one go.
The reaction was instant.
Muscles swelled, skin hardened, and veins bulged like ropes.
Deodia grinned, satisfied, then kicked off the ground and lunged, drawing a thick, short-handled axe and swinging it in a wide arc.
Crash!
It was a crude weapon—short shaft, heavy blade.
Anagin snatched up Bender’s sword from the ground and blocked it, sheath and all.
“Wow. You got uglier.”
The two struggled, weapon against weapon, pressing for control.
Anagin spoke sincerely as he met Deodia’s glare.
The man hadn’t been handsome to begin with, but whatever those pills were, they’d made things much worse.
“I’m scared you’ll show up in my dreams. So what is it? Side effect of the drugs, or were you just born that ugly?”
“Let’s see if you can still talk like that after I chop your limbs off!”
Deodia gripped the axe with both hands and pressed down. Anagin’s footing slid back, slowly but surely, until he began losing ground.
Deodia had seized the advantage through brute strength and mass. He then focused power into one arm.
Not just raw muscle, but something deeper. The Energy(Γι) of a Gigant.
He concentrated the Energy into his weapon through the Yul(εὐ) technique—imprinting the flow of Energy into his arm, then into the axe.
A faint light coursed along Deodia’s arm, seeping into the thick blade.
What came next was obvious, Bender’s sword, and Anagin himself, would both be cleaved clean in two.
But that never happened.
The instant Deodia began channeling Yul, Anagin shifted the sword’s balance, letting the force flow past him like water.
He slipped free of the pressure with fluid precision, and Deodia’s axe cleaved only air, utterly missing.
Thanks to that, Deodia hadn’t even managed to crack the sheath, let alone slice Anagin in half.
Anagin slid the sword back into his belt, clenched his fist lightly, and drove quick blows into Deodia, who had turned to follow him.
The ribs.
The back.
The temple.
Each strike rang out, a sharp and heavy impact echoing through the chamber.
But Deodia merely staggered, seemingly unfazed.
‘Then I’ll just hit harder.’
As he’d done for the last twenty years, Anagin chose the simplest solution.
If strength wasn’t enough, add more strength.
He tensed his arm and hammered the next punch in even harder.
Of course, Deodia wasn’t just going to take it.
He was a Gigant too. His reflexes were fast; he twisted his body and swung his axe toward Anagin.
Anagin moved faster—dodging, closing in, and striking even harder.
“Ggh…! Your fists are decent, but you can't handle a sword, can you?!"
Whether it was his endurance or the power of those pills, Deodia kept taunting even as he took the blows, trying to shake Anagin’s composure.
Unfortunately for him, it didn’t work.
"Otherwise, there's no way you wouldn't use a sword! A punch like that? A hundred times—"
Crack!
Before Deodia could finish, Anagin slammed a fist straight into his open mouth, cutting him off mid-sentence.
And he added, deadpan.
“Don’t talk. Your breath stinks.”
Deodia staggered backward, his face flushing red and purple with rage.
Realizing things weren’t going his way, he swung his axe wildly, not to strike but to herd Anagin into a corner, restricting his movements rather than aiming to wound.
Anagin went along with it, stepping just where Deodia wanted him. At that exact moment, Deodia lunged forward, reaching out with one massive hand.
He’d lost in speed and technique, so his plan was simple: grab him and crush him with brute force.
But Anagin twisted his torso smoothly, slipping past Deodia’s grasp.
"Where are you going!"
With a shout, Deodia adjusted his movement mid-lunge, dropping his hand from shoulder level to Anagin’s waist.
He had predicted Anagin would dodge and planned accordingly.
“I’ll slam you into the ground!”
Like a fisherman catching a slippery fish, Deodia turned his body and grabbed Anagin by the belt, ready to hurl him.
Thunk!
But he couldn’t.
The moment he tried to lift, a heavy, dragging force ran from his fingertips through his whole body. The motion froze completely.
Why?
The answer lay in the small Interspatial Bag strapped to Anagin’s belt, an incomplete one that still reflected the full weight of its contents.
Not impossible to lift, but unexpectedly heavy. The surprise stalled Deodia for a split second, long enough for Anagin to act.
Whap-whap-whap!
He drove his fists into every opening Deodia exposed while leaning back to throw him.
One blow to the arm.
Three to the ribs.
Two to the neck.
Each punch landed harder than the last, stronger even than before.
“…!”
Deodia made a soundless cry, his body jolting as he stumbled back, trying to escape.
Anagin didn’t let him.
In panic, Deodia swung his Energy-infused axe reflexively. The weapon carved into the floor, the walls, even the ceiling—leaving deep gashes everywhere.
But Anagin only weaved past the strikes, closing the distance again, faster and faster.
Deodia lashed out once more, reaching to grab him but this time Anagin didn’t dodge. He clasped Deodia’s outstretched hand, interlocking fingers like a grip and with his other hand, seized his elbow. Then—
Snap!
He broke it clean.
“Graaagh!! You son of a—!”
Deodia screamed, cursing through the pain.
But before he could finish his words, Anagin’s fist was already moving.
[Face Crusher]
Crack!
The same blow that had taken down Bender.
The sound of splintering wood echoed through the Ruin as Deodia’s neck twisted sharply, his massive frame thrown back.
“Ghhhk…”
Deodia collapsed.
Maybe it was his bulk, maybe the effect of the pills but unlike Bender, he wasn’t completely out. He groaned, crawling weakly across the ground, trying to drag himself away from Anagin.
His words were right. He was different from Bender.
'Well, there wasn't much difference.'
Anagin approached Deodia to finish him off.
It was then.
Deodia’s shattered jaw hung loosely as he suddenly twisted his head and flung something toward Anagin.
A small bead-like object.
Anagin barely had time to wonder what it was before—
A blinding white light exploded outward, slamming into his eyes.
‘A magic tool?! One that blinds with light?’
Even with his eyes shut, Anagin immediately understood what the object was. In that moment of blinding white light, Deodia turned and ran.
Tap-tap-tap!
Though his sight was paralyzed, Anagin’s hearing remained sharp. He caught the sound of retreating footsteps and sprinted after them. Within moments, his vision began to return.
“Ghh—! Hah—ghhk!”
Fueled by the restorative pills he had swallowed earlier, Deodia had recovered enough to move again. He ran desperately, doing everything he could to put distance between himself and Anagin.
But because Anagin had started chasing the instant he heard movement, Deodia didn’t get far.
“Ghh—hah—ghhk!”
Still, Deodia didn’t stop. He kept running, as if he had somewhere to escape to.
From his pocket, he hurled glowing spheres that burst into flashes of light and thunderous explosions, trying to shake off the pursuer who was rapidly closing in.
Anagin shielded his eyes and ears as he ran, undeterred.
The trick no longer surprised him. Once you knew what the tool did, it wasn’t much of a threat.
Even so, it did slow him down.
Just as Anagin braced his legs and poured on more speed, Deodia suddenly dove headfirst into a massive pit in the ground.
‘A secret passage?’
Anagin guessed as much, but before he could confirm, he leapt in after him.
Catching Deodia came first.
The tunnel was as wide as Deodia’s bulk, sloping steeply downward. Once Anagin began sliding, gravity took over, sending him racing down faster and faster.
And when he reached the end.
“Huh?”
Something strange caught his eye.
At the bottom of the pit, something red was flickering—licking, moving.
It was—
“A monster?”
Anagin muttered as he shot out of the tunnel’s mouth.
Just as he said, right before him loomed a massive monster serpent, its jaws spread wide, waiting for him.
Even larger than the serpent he had encountered on the road to Dysis Polis, larger than any snake he’d ever seen, even back home.
The monster snapped its jaws shut and swallowed Anagin whole in a single gulp.
“Hahaha! Serves you right!!”
Deodia, who had reached the chamber first, roared with laughter as he watched the serpent devour Anagin.
He had already taken more pills, fully healing his injuries.
“You must have built up quite a grudge in such a short time.”
A voice spoke from behind Deodia—smooth, strange, neither clearly male nor female.
The figure wore a heavy robe that concealed every trace of their body, making it impossible to discern their gender or even their build.
Deodia frowned at the sight.
The tone reeked of mockery.
No— it was mockery.
The robed person dealt in rare things—monsters, pills, and other forbidden items—and just like the serpents they bred, they were cunning and venomous.
Deodia wanted nothing more than to split their skull with his axe, but he didn’t.
He was still in the middle of a deal. Until payment was made, he had to cooperate, whether he liked it or not.
More importantly, this was their nest, the lair of the monsters they raised. Fighting here would be suicide.
Shhhhhh...
Seven giant monster serpents slithered around them, each the size of the one that had just swallowed Anagin. Fifty medium-sized serpents coiled between the rocks, and beyond them, hundreds of smaller ones hiding in the dark, unseen but surely there.
How did Deodia know?
He had seen them before during his regular meetings with the robed person, catching glimpses in between
“You’ll understand once you dealt that guy yourself, Monster Merchant.”
Deodia spoke the title sharply.
It wasn’t the robed person’s real name, but everyone who knew them called them that — the Monster Merchant.
“He’s a truly infuriating bastard, though I suppose that doesn’t matter now. What’s important is something else.”
“You’re talking about your bonus, I assume?”
The Monster Merchant’s voice slipped out from beneath the shadowed hood, a voice that sent chills crawling up Deodia’s spine every time he heard it.
“That’s right. You remember our contract, don’t you? The success bonus for bringing in a Gigant?”
Just as the bones, flesh, and organs of monsters could be turned into medicine, monsters, too, found Gigants and practitioners to be potent ingredients, far more valuable than ordinary humans.
That was why the Monster Merchant had constructed this fake Ruin and hired Deodia.
Having a local celebrity like Deodia occupy the place made it all look legitimate and it lured in more practitioners eager for treasure.
It had worked well. Plenty of them had come here. And now, nearly all of them had been devoured.
“That one you just saw? You’d better triple my share for him.”
“Is he really worth that much?”
Hissss! Shhhhaaa!
The giant monster serpents surrounding them hissed all at once, their razor-edged cries echoing through the underground.
The sound was chilling, but Deodia didn’t flinch.
“Don’t try to cheat me! You saw him yourself. That one’s not normal! He’s different from the usual trash you’ve been feeding these things. He can’t use his Energy(Γι) properly, but his fundamentals are solid—someone trained him right. And more than that, he’s the one who took down Bender!”
“I know.”
“You know? How?”
The Monster Merchant said nothing.
A heavy, suffocating silence seeped from beneath the robe, that same sinister presence that always clung to them.
After a long moment, the robed figure finally spoke.
“Fine. I’ll acknowledge it.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Deodia smiled, satisfied.
After a long dry spell with no worthwhile prey, he’d finally landed a big catch.
“Since we’re talking business, how long do you plan to keep running this place?”
“What? Tired of it already?”
“Not tired. Just not seeing much profit anymore.”
“So, the rumor’s true, then? You’ve made contact with Erysichthon?”
The Monster Merchant’s tone carried a hint of knowing mockery.
Deodia froze, lips pressed tight. The question hit a little too close.
“I thought that was just a boastful rumor, that you were spreading stories. But you really did reach out to them? You think taking my pills will buy you their favor?”
The sneer in the voice was unmistakable.
Deodia said nothing, jaw clenched hard.
The Monster Merchant chuckled softly, almost soothingly.
“Don’t worry. I was planning to shut this place down soon anyway. We’ve gathered plenty already. Still, it’s such a sha—”
“—shame, isn’t it?”
A third voice echoed through the underground chamber, cutting them both off.
Both Deodia and the Monster Merchant turned toward the source.
Deodia’s eyes widened, it came from the serpent that had swallowed Anagin.
It wasn’t his imagination. The voice was echoing from inside the serpent’s belly.
“Both Bender and you are all the same. You call yourselves practitioners, but you’d rather beg than train?”
The serpent’s eyes bulged wide—
Shhk!
From within its gut, a blade pierced through, slashing upward from the inside and splitting its stomach open.
Fwoooosh—!
A torrent of thick, blackish-red monster blood gushed out, raining across the stone floor in sticky streams.
Through that downpour of dark crimson, Anagin stepped out, the sword resting casually across his shoulder.
He smirked.
“Well, that figures—you’re just that kind of guy.”