Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

Chapter 178 : Battle Against the Night group (8)

With eyes filled with rage, Eric—now an ape—charged at Anna with a mad roar.

Due to his towering height of at least three meters and considerable weight, every step Eric took caused the ground to quake and fissure in his wake.

In what felt like the blink of an eye, he was in front of Anna, his right fist descending upon her with such force that the air seemed to ripple in its wake.

But as he swung at Anna, branches wrapped around his arm, halting the attack and giving Anna a chance to move away from the menacing creature.

Eric glanced at the branches holding his arm in irritation and, using his other hand, tore through them as though they were mere nuisances.

Freed from the branches, he charged again at Anna who was distancing herself from him. Just as he was about to hit her again, branches appeared to block his path, forming a kind of shield.

His fist tore through the shield, but Anna wasn't there anymore.

Eric's gaze swept across the room, and the instant he spotted Anna, he began charging at her again.

"Tsk, what a fool," Rangyl, who was observing the fight, clicked his tongue in disdain.

Being the one who inscribed the tattoos on each member of this Night group branch, he knew very well how they functioned.

'There are two transformations, the half transformation and the full transformation. Not everyone can achieve the half transformation, but this idiot can, so why the fuck would he go for the full one?!' Rangyl facepalmed.

As the name implies, the half transformation is when an individual transforms partially, gaining the capabilities of monsters or beasts.

The full transformation, however, is when an individual completely transforms into a monster or a beast. Although in this form, people are physically stronger or faster than in the half transformation mode, the downside is that they also inherit the low intelligence of a monster or beast.

Explained like this, it is evident that the half-transformation mode is better, since you still retain your intelligence. Knowing the role intelligence plays in a fight, someone who has fully transformed is actually less dangerous than someone with half-transformation.

The lack of intelligence is the actual reason why Eric is constantly trying to hit Anna but keeps failing due to Amelia's interference. Yet, he is still charging at Anna instead of trying to get rid of Amelia first.

'Plus, they can't regain their human form until they are either dead, exhausted, or unconscious. So even if he kills those two, he will still continue to rampage. Either that or I stop him,' Rangyl sighed with an annoyed expression. 'What a chore.'

Although he was thinking this, for Rangyl, stopping Eric was the easiest thing to do; after all, he just needed to order the ape to regain its original form. He was the one who drew those tattoos, so he was technically the master of all those who bore those tattoos.

'But if I use my control over them, my god might scold me,' Rangyl glared at the ape who failed to hit Anna again, and his face contorted in anger. 'All of that because this idiot couldn't think before acting. In a sense, he was as dumb as a beast even before transforming into one.'

Meanwhile, through multiple evasive maneuvers, Anna managed to regroup with Amelia.

"What do we do now?" Anna inquired with a labored breath.

"You aren't in a good state to fight, so just rest and try to recuperate a little. I will take care of him," Amelia answered.

Anna stared at her for a moment, then nodded her head and said, "okay. Though, you should be cautious. His fur is thick, as you have seen, my daggers couldn't even scratch him. I'm not certain that your plants could pierce him."

Even though she was trying to evade the ape, Anna had sometimes tried to deal damage, but had to stop when her daggers threatened to break.

"Good thing I don't need to pierce him; a simple contact would be enough," replied Amelia with a smile.

"Just a contact, what do you mean?" Anna inquired, but Amelia wasn't focused on her anymore to hear what she said.

reserves, Amelia enlarged the branches of her plants and sent them towards Eric, who was charging at them. As they traveled towards their target, the multiple branches fused and formed into one cohesive lance with a sharp tip. 

In a split second, the sharp tips of the branches were upon the ape, ready to skewer it.

With a mad roar, the ape extended its arm and punched out in an attempt to defend itself. Yet, just as the two attacks were about to meet, the branches forming the lance separated again, and the ape's fist met empty air.

Before it could react, the branches coiled around the ape and immobilized it. However, due to its thick fur and strength, the branches couldn't compress it like the other creatures a few minutes ago. Worse, multiple cracks began appearing as the ape struggled to get free.

Seizing the opportunity, Amelia dashed towards the ape. Before it could escape from its botanical confinement, she was already in front of it.

After a powerful leap into the air, Amelia extended her arm and pressed her palm against the ape's face, murmuring under her breath:

"Cell Destruction"

After that, she used the ape's face as a trampoline, bouncing off it and swiftly flipping backward.

Crack!!!

An instant later, the ape broke free from its prison, blasting the branches to splinters.

It attempted to chase after Amelia but suddenly staggered and came to a halt. A deep guttural growl escaped its throat as it clutched its chest, its eyes reflecting pain and confusion before collapsing on the ground.

A small patch on the ape's flank began to ripple, its form undulating as if caught in a surreal dance with an invisible force.

As seconds passed, the distortion intensified. The ape's thick fur seemed to dissolve into an unseen void.

Gradually, the ape's body appeared to vanish into the very air, leaving behind an ephemeral trace of what once was, like an elusive wisp dissipating into the air.

"...."

"...."

Under the astonished and shocked gaze of Anna and Rangyl, the vanishing act extended, the dissolution continued its insidious journey, progressing relentlessly from one extremity to another.

A few seconds later, the ape, Eric, had completely disappeared from the face of the world, not even a nail remaining in the place he had just been.

Meanwhile, the one who had caused this, Amelia, calmly walked back and rejoined with Anna, who had her mouth wide open from shock, her usual coldness nowhere to be seen.

"What in the name of the gods was that?!" Anna stuttered.

"Just another use of my Cell Master ability," Amelia shrugged like it was nothing.

Amelia's ability allowed her to heal herself or others by ordering the cells to multiply, but in the same manner, she can order the cells of someone to destroy themselves. For that to happen, she only had to touch the person and inject her mana into the person's body, exactly like what she does when healing people.

The only difference here is that, contrary to the healing aspect, she couldn't control the destruction aspect, so once she ordered the cells to destroy themselves, it's over, no one, not even herself, could stop the process.

Another point would also be the fact that the destruction aspect of her ability consumed too much mana on her part, so she avoided using it carelessly.

"Another use of your ability? What does that- sigh, we will talk about it later," in the end, Anna decided that it was better to forget about her questions for now. After all, there was still another enemy standing.

Amelia nodded her head, then focused on Rangyl, who was muttering something under his breath.

"This power, it's the...no, it can't be, but everything points at the fact that it's it....still..."

Rangyl kept mumbling incoherent things, affirming something, then contradicting himself, as if he didn't want to accept what he saw for what it was. However, he eventually recognized and accepted that only one power could achieve the thing he had just witnessed. A power their entire organization, from the lowest-level member to even their gods, was searching for.

'Yet, this power is in the hands of a brat, especially such a weak one. How can she be so feeble with such a gift?!' Rangyl began pulling at his hair in disbelief.

Staring at the girls, especially at Amelia, he said:

"You have a formidable power, the most potent of them all, so why, why, why, WHY ARE YOU SO WEAK?"

The words that had commenced as a murmur transformed into a shout at the end as Rangyl couldn't control his emotions anymore.

A suffocating aura wafted from his body and crashed onto the girls, causing them to collapse on their knees while coughing blood.

As the pressure emitting from his body kept increasing and was slowly but surely driving the two women into the ground, a profound transformation seemed to occur inside Rangyl's body.

His skin blackened to the point one would think that he was pulled straight from the depths of a lightless abyss, then black, lusterless scales appeared around his arms, and if the girls could see under his robe, they would witness that those scales covered his whole body.

As the transformation continued and a bulge appeared at the back of his tail, suggesting that a tail was about to appear, Rangyl heard the voice of someone ringing in his head.

'You fucking idiot, what are you doing ?!!'