I'm just a passing Touch Rider

"Hissss-"

"Gurrr..."

"Clack... clack..."

Not far away, low growls, hisses, and the scrape of armored shells against stone rapidly drew closer, carrying the excitement and cruelty peculiar to predators that had spotted prey.

Several pairs of eyes glowing eerie green, dark red, or deathly white lit up like ghostly flames in the darkness beyond the bushes. From different directions, they all fixed on the thicket where the three were hiding.

The mingled stench of several monsters spread through the air.

There were three monsters.

One was an oversized lizard with vicious bone spurs growing from its back and corrosive saliva dripping from its mouth: a Level 25 Spineback Lizard.

One was a squat humanoid monster made of rock and moss, slow-moving but immensely strong: a Level 24 Mossrock Golem.

The last was a slender black silhouette that glided silently through the shadows, with only its deathly white eyes and enormous, tooth-filled mouth clearly visible: a Level 26 Shadow Devourer.

They had clearly been drawn over by the noise.

"They... they've found us! There's more than one!"

Evan's face was white as paper, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

"Run! Get up! Split up and run!"

Leonard let out an almost bestial growl. Summoning the last of his willpower, he struggled to rise from the ground, only to stumble on his weak, aching legs.

Lia merely let out a hopeless whimper. She no longer had the strength to stand and could only shrink back in a futile attempt to retreat.

The Spineback Lizard attacked first. With an excited hiss, it drove its powerful hind legs against the ground and shot toward the bushes like an arrow loosed from a bow, opening its acid-dripping jaws.

The Mossrock Golem approached from the other side with ponderous steps, swinging its stone fists.

The Shadow Devourer silently melted into the nearest shadow, ready to launch a fatal attack from behind.

It's over.

The thought surfaced clearly in all three of their minds.

Even their final will to struggle crumbled.

Lia even closed her eyes in despair, waiting for the pain of being torn apart or devoured.

At that critical instant-

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several faint whistles cut through the air as something shot out even faster from a particularly dense patch of shadow to one side!

They were neither arrows nor throwing knives, but a handful of slender wooden strips that looked utterly ordinary, even somewhat dry and twisted!

Yet the instant those strips shot forth, they seemed to gain a strange and powerful life of their own!

Like supple, resilient dark tentacles, they traced unpredictable, treacherous arcs through the air, wrapping around the three monsters' most critical body parts with unerring precision!

Two strips coiled like venomous snakes around the Spineback Lizard's neck and forelegs, then tightened sharply, forcibly halting its leap and leaving it hissing and struggling in pain.

Three thicker strips bound the Mossrock Golem's swinging stone arms and short, thick neck like giant pythons. Their powerful grip made even the immensely strong monster falter and let out a muffled roar of anger.

Two more strips, so thin they almost blended into the darkness, emerged from an impossible angle. They wound around the ankles and waist of the Shadow Devourer just as it materialized from the shadows to pounce on Lia, pinning it firmly to the ground.

"Hiss-raa?!"

"Roar!!"

"Awooo-!"

Caught completely off guard, the three monsters struggled desperately in shock and fury, biting and spitting acid or shadow energy.

But those seemingly fragile wooden strips were extraordinarily tough. A faint, dark gleam that seemed to swallow light flowed over their surfaces, neutralizing every attack.

And they kept tightening, until the Spineback Lizard's eyes bulged, stones cracked on the Mossrock Golem's body, and the Shadow Devourer let out agonized shrieks.

At this sudden, bizarre sight, Evan, Leonard, and Lia, who had been waiting to die with their eyes closed, instantly stared wide-eyed. Their mouths hung open, but no sound came out. Utter shock, bewilderment, and disbelief filled their faces, as though they were hallucinating.

Then a figure slowly stepped out of the dense shadows from which the wooden strips had shot, moving unhurriedly into the pale glow cast by the fungi.

He was a tall, straight-backed man with a slender build.

He wore a simple wooden mask that covered only the upper half of his face. Its workmanship was somewhat crude, but its edges had been sanded smooth. Behind its eyeholes, a pair of calm eyes seemed to watch them.

Even in this dim light, his dazzling, shoulder-length blond hair, like flowing liquid gold, was enough to draw every gaze.

"Y-you're...!?"

Evan finally recovered his voice and stammered out a question. The overwhelming shock of surviving and the unbelievable sight before him made his voice twist and crack.

The masked man tilted his head slightly, seemingly glancing at the three shaken, bedraggled survivors.

The mask concealed his full expression, but his exposed jaw seemed to soften for an instant, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a slightly inscrutable curve.

His voice came through the mask, somewhat low, yet strangely resonant and soothing. His tone was steady:

"Me? I'm just a passing Touch Rider. So my name doesn't matter."

"A... Touch Rider?"

Leonard and Lia looked at each other, finding the same bewilderment and confusion in each other's eyes.

They racked their brains but could not remember any Academy professor mentioning that title, nor seeing it in any adventurer's biography or Monster Compendium.

Could it be some hidden, ancient profession?

Or a title used by a powerful lone wanderer?

Looking at their blank expressions, Greg confirmed one thing.

Looks like this world doesn't have any Kamen Rider Easter eggs. They don't even get that reference.

Indeed, the masked man was Greg. He had adopted this disguise to conceal his identity and minimize any connection to Catherine.

And while making the mask, he had also learned how to use the Tentacle Bind skill.

All he needed to do was grasp those tentacle-like branches and coat them with his own dark-attribute magic. Then he could control them as easily as his own limbs.

And thanks to his dark-attribute magic, his Tentacle Bind was far more powerful than the original version.

Not only could it take a hell of a beating, it could also continuously weaken the enemies it bound.

Its only drawback was that, with his proficiency still at Level 1, he could not control many branches. But that hardly mattered.

What he had was already enough for now.

And judging by how things looked, his plan to hide his identity was working pretty well.

After all, these people would never connect his current powerful self with that idiot Greg Sass, once known as the ultimate beneficiary of connections.

I'm a real mastermind!

Yet just then, before the mysterious identity Greg had painstakingly constructed could take firm root in their minds, it was mercilessly shattered in the very next instant.

"S-Senior Greg... y-you ran too fast... I... I almost couldn't keep up..."

A girl's voice, clearly breathless and tinged with both grievance and anxiety, came from the edge of the shadows in the direction Greg had arrived from.

Accompanied by somewhat uneven footsteps, Sylvia jogged into the faint light.

Her long pink hair was slightly disheveled from the sustained running and tension. A few strands clung to her lightly sweating temples and cheeks, and her fair cheeks were flushed from exertion.

She really did look as though keeping up had been quite an ordeal.

But at that moment, Greg only wanted to say one thing to the exhausted Sylvia:

"Fuck! (Not a plant.)"

(To everyone who's read this far, please leave a free five-star review and tap the update request button! We're almost at 110,000 characters, and there are only eight reviews. It's just too sad! I'm begging you-I'm counting on you all for those positive reviews and update requests! This book's performance during its current trial period is pretty good. Of course, the better it does, the more motivated I'll be to keep updating!)

(Also, the gray-haired character's design image wouldn't pass moderation. Let's see if you can view it when I put it here.)