Chapter 453: Arrogance.
The threat wasn’t empty posturing or intimidation; it was a simple statement of fact delivered with the certainty of someone who had left trails of destruction across multiple regions.
The Golden Mane responded exactly as Arthur had expected from a creature drunk on wounded pride and aggression. The beast’s throat swelled as he unleashed a roar that shook leaves from nearby branches, the sound carrying enough force to make the Golden Beetle instinctively step backwards.
The roar shook the trees around them, causing monsters kilometres away to flee in panic, scattering in all directions.
The golden mane was a powerful, superior-rank creature; it wasn’t at the bottom of the food chain in the rank. It was most definitely near the top.
The roar was clearly intended as both challenge and intimidation—a declaration that this particular Golden Mane feared nothing and would bow to no intruder, regardless of their reputation or demonstrated power.
Arthur’s smile was sharp enough to cut heads as he processed the beast’s defiant response. The creature had just made a fundamental error in judgment, one that countless others had made before meeting their final moments under the hands of Arthur.
"Do you think you’re so special? I know fury, too. I know hunger, too. I know madness, too!"
Each statement was punctuated by a step forward, and Arthur’s approach was slow and measured. But where the beast moved with confidence, Arthur moved with the certainty of an apex predator whose confidence oozed out of his body like heat.
"Oh..." Arthur paused, his smile widening into something that would have given nightmares to anyone capable of recognising genuine danger. "And I’ve killed plenty of creatures more powerful than me, too."
Arthur wasn’t boasting; he was simply stating reality as he understood it to be.