NOVEL NEXT Chapter 78: Shameful
The boss twitched, her breathing sharp and erratic, and the alpha's ears pressed back against his skull, his entire body trembling under a sudden flood of dread, instincts firing off in blind panic, warning him that the thing standing in front of them wasn't prey, it wasn't prey at all, but something far f*cking worse.
"Oh well," Lanz said, dragging the words out with a grin that didn't reach his eyes, lifting his blade just enough for its edges to catch the faint light.
His voice took on that sing-song mockery that always made beasts (and people) regret hearing it. "At least I got to test my new skill on the dumb b*tches who thought leaving me out was a good idea."
[Quick Sever — Activated.]
His blade moved in a blur, an unbroken chain of cuts slicing through the air before the sound of the first even finished ringing.
Ten consecutive slashes landed before either beasts could react, shallow by design but placed with cruel precision across tendons, muscles, and joints.
The boss boar's scream came first, raw and guttural, her entire frame jerking as blood sheeted down her flanks in oblique rivulets, each one spilling from a wound that burned with white-hot agony.
Every cut seemed to set her nerves on fire, shredding the fine muscle fibers that allowed her to move, leaving her weight to drag painfully on half-cut ligaments that threatened to tear completely with the slightest twitch.
The alpha wolf stumbled next, claws digging into the dirt from the pain, his chest hitching with a choking, half-snarled cry that sounded almost human in its desperation.
His legs quivered violently, his body no longer fully obeying him, every shallow cut turning into a constant throb of pain that refused to fade.
Blood foamed at the edges of his mouth where he bit down too hard, trying to hold back another whimper.
His breathing turned ragged, every inhale stretching torn muscle, every exhale wet of blood.
Lanz didn't move.
He just watched them, chest rising and falling in an almost casual way, the corners of his mouth twitching in irritation at their refusal to just die already.
The wet sound of blood dripping into the dirt filled the silence, broken only by the occasional, pitiful whimper that slipped from one of them when the pain became too much to hold in.
But the both of them still refused to die.
Their chests rose and fell in short bursts, blood still leaking from their wounds in slow, ugly streams, staining the ground beneath them.
They weren't breathing for survival anymore — nah, nah, nah, they were breathing because their bodies hadn't gotten the memo that everything was already over.
"You've got to be kidding me," Lanz muttered, crouching slightly, staring at the mess he had made. "You f*ckers are still good after all that?"
His tone turned sharper, a hiss slipping through clenched teeth. "So Quick Sever is just good for shallow cuts, huh? Well, as expected of the name."
Neither the boss nor the alpha responded.
They didn't even twitch this time, which was almost insulting.
It was obvious what they were doing.
Playing dead was the last card they had, the only pathetic attempt they had left in order to survive, even at the cost of what little dignity they had left.
The mighty boss boar reduced to lying motionless in her own blood.
The alpha wolf — the one who had strutted forward first, confident and full of menace — now frozen in place, hoping the predator standing over him would just get bored and leave.
"Ohhh~~ but you poor, dumb things," Lanz mocked, a laugh breaking out of him before he could stop it. "You really thought that would work? You really thought I'd just walk away and let you rot in peace?" His grin widened into something cruel, his voice taking on that sing-song tone again that made every word feel like a taunt.
Sorry to break it to them, but this idiot got a system that pings him the second one of them actually dies. And guess what? No f*cking ping yet. 😔
He stood there for a moment, just listening to their strained breathing, letting the weight of his words sink in. Not that they could even understand it. But the mockery was still delivered perfectly.
His blade stayed ready, not that he needed it though — it's just that it felt right to hold it while watching them squirm.
It was a waiting game now, and Lanz was nothing if not patient when it came to making sure the ones who crossed him got the ending they deserved.
The silence stretched until it was almost unbearable, broken only by the sound of blood dripping steadily into the dirt.
Lanz tilted his head and sighed dramatically. "Alright then. If you won't finish dying on your own, guess I'll just have to speed things up."
Having said that, Lanz raised his blade, ready to unleash Crimson Slash, the Aged Blade Fragment humming faintly as mana gathered along its surface.
His grip tightened, his stance perfect, everything about the moment screaming that the fight was about to end in one final, brutal stroke—
Then he just stopped.
His arm froze in mid-swing, the mana dissipating into the air in a faint hiss.
His brow furrowed, then relaxed, then furrowed again, like he was having some intense internal argument about the whole thing.
"You must be thinking why I stopped at the last second, right?" he muttered, lowering the blade slightly.
A chuckle escaped him, sharp and unexpected, his shoulders shaking as if he had just told himself the funniest joke of the night.
His grin stretched wider, almost too wide, until it bordered on looking unhinged.
'Well, dear readers,' Lanz thought, his gaze flicking upward as if addressing someone far beyond the dungeon walls, 'after all this running around, all this bleeding, all this screaming, after such a long-ass fight with the boars and the wolves, wouldn't it be way more entertaining to just let these two idiots keep suffering for a while?'
He tilted his head, considering his own question, before snorting under his breath.
'No? Really? You all want the quick, clean kill? Wow. You're boring.'
He straightened up, resting the blade against his shoulder, his grin refusing to fade.
"Fine, fine," he said out loud, rolling his eyes so hard it looked painful. "I guess we'll skip the extended torture session this time. Whatever keeps the story moving, right?"
(Author: What am I doing, bruh? 😭)
End of Chapter 78.
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ALT SYSTEM — USER PROFILE: ZERO
Level: 16
EXP: 18 / 160
Next Reward: +10 Stat Points to a chosen stat
Global System Tracking: DISABLED
World Rank Association: UNLINKED
Stats:
STR: 20 | AGI: 10 (Affinity) | VIT: 8 | DEX: 5 | INT: 17 | WIS: 5
[Available Stat Points: 0]
[Derived Stat — MANA: 83 / 90]
Skills:
[Quick Sever Lv. 1]
[Crimson Slash Lv. 1]
[Phantom Stride Lv. 2]
[Instinctive Blade Lv.1]
[Predictive Guard Lv.1]
[Skill Fusion Menu: Active]
[Dev Tree: Tier 0 Access Granted]
[Developer Node – Fusion Core Anchor: Active]
Equipment:
Aged Blade Fragment (??? Rarity) (Bound)
Training Ring (+1 VIT)
Bag :)
Ring of Genorya - ???