Chapter 30 · You Don't Play Fair
"Hahahaha. It's starting. It's finally starting. The most perfect masterpiece is about to be born!"
Inside a laboratory deep within the mountains, Charles lay sprawled over a monitor, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Dikas and Diri, who were confronting each other on the screen. He licked his lips as if he were some kind of pervert.
After more than ten years of experiments, the results were finally about to arrive. The excitement of creating the most perfect "organism" had already driven Charles into a frenzy.
"Number Three, Number Four, head to the experimental site now. Once the experiment is over, bring back my most perfect masterpiece intact."
The next moment, Charles's head twisted into a bizarre angle as he looked toward Number Three and Number Four in the corner and issued his orders. In particular, when he looked at Number Four, the madness in his eyes made it tremble uncontrollably. It knew that its failure on the previous mission had already left Charles dissatisfied.
If it failed again, then even though it was one of the only two successful test subjects Charles currently had, it would still be mercilessly treated as a failure. Once its value had been completely extracted, its soul would be torn out and it would become an experimental specimen.
"Yes, Lord Charles!"
"Yes!"
Thinking of the consequences of becoming a failure—especially with Lord Charles's most perfect masterpiece about to be born—Number Four did not dare hesitate in the slightest. It immediately walked over to Number Three, who moved like a machine. The next moment, a flash of light passed, and Number Three and Number Four vanished from the laboratory.
Charles paid no attention whatsoever to the vanished Number Three and Number Four. He merely turned his head and looked back at the screen, where the two had already begun slaughtering each other. The sight of them abandoning all technique and fighting like beasts, flesh flying everywhere, brought a sickly flush to Charles's face.
Several minutes earlier, inside the Underground Kingdom of the Giant Rat Tribe.
After understanding Dikas's resolve, Diri also fell silent. The black aura around his hands grew increasingly dense. In the perception of the two, everything around them seemed to sink into absolute stillness, and even the air began to solidify.
Suddenly, a short sword appeared in Diri's hand. Its silver-white blade flashed lightly, and the reflected light made Dikas instinctively narrow his eyes. At that instant, Diri shot forward, the short sword aimed straight at Dikas's heart.
Bang!
In a flash, the sparks from the clash between blade and claw illuminated the pitch-black room for an instant. Both of them saw the calm hidden beneath the other's madness. Dikas displayed his frenzy openly while remaining utterly calm inside; Diri, on the other hand, suppressed his madness within, allowing it to emerge only in the instant of attack.
"Heh!"
The next moment, Dikas's enormous mouth split open. His neck suddenly elongated, and he lunged down toward Diri's head. At the critical moment, there was not a trace of panic in Diri's calm eyes. In an instant, his left hand seized Dikas's claw while his right hand raised the sword above his head.
Crack!
The short sword caught in Dikas's bite shattered instantly. The broken fragments scattered in all directions like arrows. But using the sword to block Dikas for that fraction of a second, Diri immediately merged into the shadows and reappeared a short distance away.
The instant Diri emerged from the shadows, the surrounding darkness began twisting continuously, transforming into a series of spears that shot straight toward his body.
"Shadow Armor!"
Faced with the sudden attack, the magic essence within Diri began to surge wildly. The shadow beneath his feet instantly detached from the ground and transformed into a suit of pitch-black armor, completely enveloping his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The instant the Shadow Armor formed, a relentless rain-like barrage of impacts rang beside Diri's ears. The force sent him flying backward, and he crashed heavily into the wall, his entire body sinking into it as cracks spread outward in every direction.
Boom!
"Cough, cough!"
The next moment, the entire wall collapsed. Diri's body fell to the ground, and he struggled to climb back up. The mask on his face had already disappeared, and great mouthfuls of blood sprayed across the floor with every cough.
"Diri, stop struggling. You and I are destined to become one. Come on! Let us become the 'most perfect' organism!"
Across from him, Dikas's nearly three-meter-tall body advanced step by step. His towering figure stood before Diri like a mountain peak. With a sick, frenzied smile on his face, Dikas extended an arm toward Diri below him.
"In your dreams!"
Diri struggled to raise his head. Even while half-kneeling on the ground, there was still not the slightest trace of surrender on his face.
"Powerless, useless struggling!"
Dikas looked at Diri and smiled disdainfully. From the moment Diri became a test subject, he had already been destined to become Dikas's nourishment. The strongest corrosive and devouring abilities of the ancient human hero within Diri had already lost their effect the instant Dikas adapted to the bloodline genes of the ancient human hero.
Dikas also possessed the ability to control shadows—and his was even stronger than Diri's. Under his control, Diri had already completely lost control over every shadow except his own.
As for everything else, whether it was the amount of magic essence or his modified body, Dikas could easily crush Diri, whose body was still that of an ordinary human. In other words, the outcome of this battle had been decided long ago.
Squelch!
"Cough!"
The next moment, Diri suddenly saw a black blur flash before his eyes. A sharp pain immediately erupted in his chest, and great mouthfuls of blood surged from his mouth. Lowering his head in disbelief, Diri saw a massive black tail covered in scales piercing through his chest.
"You... you... you don't play fair."
Diri shakily raised a finger and pointed at Dikas, whose face was full of cold laughter. Dikas had actually distracted him by talking, then launched a sneak attack.
"Fair play? That's nothing more than a boring idea of you humans."
Dikas casually flicked his tail, pulling it from Diri's body. He looked disdainfully at Diri, who had collapsed on the ground and died with unwillingness filling his face. He was a monster, the King of the Giant Rat Tribe. How could something belonging to humans possibly restrict him?
"Naive human."
Looking at Diri, who was still twitching on the ground and struggling to crawl back up, Dikas slowly raised his left foot. The next moment, bright-red blood splattered through the air.