The Incarnate Snow Beast King had originally planned to teach this boy a lesson. That was all he was doing through this beating.
Perhaps it could be considered as courage to refuse to bow down to someone of his power level, but there were some situations where such courage was useless.
It would only lead to an early death.
And so, he wanted this boy to realize the consequences of becoming too inflated, of facing a Beast King like him and still assuming he could still wriggle his way out of the situation.
But as time went on, he became a little annoyed and at the same time grew a slight admiration for the boy. Unlike the others, he could clearly see Damien’s expression during the entire fight.
Not once had he shown even an ounce of resignation. Every time he was hit, he would glare at the Beast King without fear. This kind of attitude wasn’t something just anyone could possess.
This kind of attitude was something birthed through endlessly toeing the line with death.
When he saw Damien glaring at him even though he was embedded in a wall and his regeneration was slowing down, he didn’t know what to do.
Now, he didn’t really feel like killing the boy. He was a seedling with too much potential to die over a small conflict like this.
As the Beast King was wondering how to proceed, Damien’s thoughts were filled with unbridled fury.
When had he ever been in such a situation? He had never been forced into a corner like this even when facing the most hopeless battles in the past. There was never such a major gulf.
Truth be told, he was humiliated. He had already been forced to run away and hide from those assassins at the auction, and now he was once again forced by the circumstances in such close proximity.
It hadn’t even been a month since the last encounter.
Damien wasn’t an idiot. He understood the concept of knowing when to attack and retreat, but even if he understood it didn’t mean he enjoyed it.
His pride wasn’t obvious on the surface, but it festered and grew deep in his bones. Such pride disdained this situation. It disdained to become a cornered rat.
Damien’s fury grew as he thought about the humiliation. The purple in his eyes slowly became polluted with red.
“Haa…haa…”
Each time he inhaled, small gusts of wind swirled around him, and when he exhaled, they were blown apart.
‘I refuse. I refuse. I refuse.’
Faint cracking sounds were emitted from his body as his bones slowly restructured. His labored breaths became clear and unhurried.
‘I refuse this. I, Damien Void, refuse to be reduced to a mere punching bag for a higher existence.’
Damien’s internal body was going through a myriad of changes at the moment without his knowledge. The faint cracking sounds became more and more pronounced until even those bystanders could hear them clearly.
Boom!
Blood suddenly spurted out from his forehead as two protrusions grew from his skull. They were like spiked horns that curled and slowly wrapped around his head like a crown.
His eyes flickered constantly, his cross-shaped pupils becoming vertical slits of a reptile. His teeth and fingernails elongated into fangs and claws.
Damien suddenly felt like millions of ants were crawling around beneath his skin. The sensation was extremely uncomfortable, causing him to grit his teeth in strain.
Slowly but surely, his skin seemed to flip, revealing something akin to an inky black carapace, or rather, scales.
These scales inverted from his skin and covered his entire body, working their way up his neck and stopping at his chin, leaving his face uncovered.
Crack!
The cave wall he was embedded into began to crack and splinter, falling to the ground below.
Boom!
Blood once again splashed from Damien’s body. This time, from his back. Once again, protrusions exited his scale-covered skin.
They were a pair of wings made entirely of bone, with a thin layer of black skin covering them. Their 10-foot wide wingspan caused the surrounding rocks to break away to make space to contain them.
If one looked closely, they’d be able to faintly feel a sense of incompleteness from these wings, as if they exited his body prematurely. In fact, even the crown-like bone horns adorning his head gave off the same feeling.
Boom!
The wings flapped once, impacting the stone wall and causing it to collapse completely. However, Damien didn’t move. He was suspended in the air by the flapping of his massive wings.
His blood-red draconic eyes glared at the Beast King as killing intent thicker than anything he had shown before burst from his body.
Seeing this, the Beast King frowned. “Boy, do you understand what you’re about to do? Even if I had some positive feelings towards you, I won’t let you off if you willingly attack me.”
But Damien didn’t respond. He flapped his wings and vanished, appearing directly in front of the Beast King.
Raising his arm, he cocked it and threw a rapid punch, but before the punch even landed, he teleported to the Beast King’s back. Carrying the momentum forward, his punch finally landed with an even greater impact.
Boom!
Not even waiting to check the Beast King’s condition, he vanished and reappeared at the Beast King’s side, throwing another heated punch.
His fists became coated in mana that suddenly burst. On one side, there was a flash of black lightning that oddly warped the space around it, and on the other, a crimson flame that gave off immeasurable heat.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of punches continuously landed on the unmoving body of the Beast King. His seemingly indifferent attitude made one doubt the actual force behind the flurry of attacks, but the environment clearly showed its damage.
The ground was sundered entirely. The snow that was originally present had melted and turned into a small river that soon evaporated under the heat of Damien’s fists. The ground itself had been caved in by the aftershocks of the numerous impacts.
Even the clouds in the sky weren’t spared, being ripped to shreds by the tumultuous winds that were kicked up by Damien’s sheer speed.
Luckily, the battle was taking place in the air, otherwise, things wouldn’t have been so simple. Most likely, the entire area would have been annihilated, leading to another massive avalanche.
Under Damien’s constant attacks, the Beast King stood indifferently, not an ounce of expression on his face. But inwardly, he was extremely surprised.
‘I’m actually feeling…pain?’
Even if his body was outwardly frail, he was a beast. His body was naturally extremely strong, and it became even stronger through the tribulations by which he entered 4th class. To feel pain from the attacks of a lower being was unheard of.
Sure, Damien’s attacks weren’t actually damaging him, but he could feel the heat of those crimson flames very clearly within his body. He even got the faint feeling that his blood began boiling.
‘I can’t let this go on for much longer.’
Originally, he had planned to simply stay still and tank the attacks to crush Damien’s fighting spirit, but if he let this go on for too long, signs of injury might begin showing on his skin.
It wouldn’t be dangerous, but for a Beast King to be injured by a lower being, that too a human, wouldn’t he lose a great deal of face?
Under this line of reasoning, he slowly raised his hand, intending to make a real move for the first time. When suddenly, he sensed something from the edge of his perception.
Throwing out a semi-heavy kick to throw Damien away, he turned his head in that direction.
“Which one of you Beast Kings is hiding in the corner right now? Since when did people of our status need to do such things?”