SSS-Rank Evolving Monster: From Pest to Cosmic Devourer-Chapter 74: But don’t tell me what I should do

"W-Wait, Venom Fang Overlord, where are you going...?"

Boar’s anxious voice echoed across the scorched, trembling forest floor. His hooves shuffled uneasily, stirring the ash. Regret seeped into his words—he hadn’t meant for things to spiral this way. Maybe... maybe he shouldn’t have told Ricky everything.

"...Big Sister Dark Shadow was right after all..."

His heart panged with memory. He could still see her clearly—the calm and composed Dark Shadow, even when the twenty knights of the Radiant Knight Order surrounded the ancient stone courtyard from all directions.

There had been no chance of escape. The trap had been perfectly sprung.

Yet none of them surrendered.

No matter how hopeless the odds, they had fought with tooth and claw, pride and fury. Until the last breath. Until the final blow.

But even heroes fell.

Boar’s gaze dimmed.

They had been overwhelmed—captured, not slain.

The enemy delivered a cold ultimatum instead: If the Venom Fang Overlord doesn’t present himself at the Radiant Knight Order’s Headquarters within three months, both prisoners will be executed in public.

Ricky’s name was now a death sentence—for himself and those tied to him.

Boar’s trembling gaze drifted toward his own battle-scarred hide. The only reason he had survived was because of that—the miraculous gift he had awakened upon stepping into Stage 2.

Elemental Mimicry.

The ability to completely transform his body into any mineral he touched.

And so, in the face of certain death, Boar had plunged his body into the earth, merging with stone and sinking hundreds of meters deep beneath the battlefield.

There he remained—a statue entombed in silence—waiting, hiding, hoping.

Until now.

Until he felt that familiar tremor return—Ricky’s approach.

Aboveground, the air still burned with the remnants of conflict.

Ricky spread his wings, ready to take to the sky, when Boar’s confession caught up to him.

He froze.

Slowly, he turned back.

His compound eyes, usually cold and calculating, now glinted with a glacial fury. The sheer stillness in his expression made Boar instinctively take a step back. The air around Ricky felt heavier—charged with suppressed wrath.

That gaze pierced deeper than any weapon.

"...What do you want me to do?" Ricky said, voice low and razor-sharp. "Stay here while my companions are publicly executed?"

Boar opened his mouth to respond, but no words came.

"Fine, let me hide," Ricky continued, voice thick with scorn. "Let me watch them die while I curl up in the shadows. And then what? What if they return again? What if they barge into my home, into our home, and steal everything precious to me once more?"

His wings fluttered slightly, not with the intention of flight—but like a predator restraining itself.

"Should I hide until time erodes me to dust? Is that the path you think I’ll take?"

Boar winced as Ricky’s tone shifted—icy logic giving way to the heat of conviction.

"I’m no prisoner of fear. I don’t cling to life like some rat in a burrow," Ricky said, voice rising with an edge of fire. "I would rather live one day with dignity than spend a thousand years buried in cowardice."

His words struck with the force of thunder.

For a fleeting second, even Boar—normally the most cautious among them—felt something awaken within. His heart pounded harder. That fire, that unbreakable defiance... it was infectious.

But the moment passed.

Rationality wrestled back control.

"No..." Boar whispered, shaking his head slowly, painfully. "No, you’re letting your emotions cloud your judgment."

He looked up at Ricky, eyes brimming with urgency. "Acting rashly right now—it’s suicide. What good will your bravery do if it ends with your corpse hanging from their gates?"

He took a deep breath, voice soft but firm.

"Wait. Grind. Grow stronger. One day... we’ll stand as Tyrant’s Brutes. And when that day comes, we won’t just break their gates—we’ll flatten their entire headquarters a thousand times over."

The two stood there beneath the scarred canopy, shadows dancing across their bodies as firelight flickered and smoke twisted into the heavens.

Silence fell between them, heavy with emotion, conflict, and an unspoken truth: vengeance had a price, and time was the currency they didn’t have.

Ricky heard Boar’s words and felt the urge to roll his eyes.

Did this boar really think he was that reckless?

He wasn’t some hot-blooded fool charging into a slaughter. He wasn’t rushing headfirst into the jaws of death without a plan.

No—this was calculated. Cold. Necessary.

He was going to storm the Radiant Knight Headquarters, yes—but not because he’d lost control.

He was going because saving Dark Shadow was non-negotiable.

And if things really turned to shit?

Well, he still had the Inheritance Space—a secret sanctuary where he could disappear, even if the sky fell.

That, Boar didn’t know.

Ricky’s compound eyes narrowed. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the Radiant Knight Order’s actions weren’t as straightforward as they appeared. The siege on the courtyard, the timing of their ultimatum, the precision—it all reeked of deeper intent.

Even if he stayed hidden, they would come again.

Whether he liked it or not, those bastards had marked him. They would come hunting.

So be it.

If war was inevitable, he would choose the battlefield.

Might as well probe their strength now—see the cards they were hiding behind their vague smiles. Before they grew bolder. Before they sank their fangs into something else he cared about.

A thousand thoughts flashed and burned through Ricky’s mind like meteors in a midnight sky. Yet, on the surface, his expression remained unchanged—frozen in that trademark, razor-edged calm.

He gave Boar one last look—cold, unreadable—and spoke with an indifference that cut deeper than fury.

"If you want to stay here and hide, then do so. But don’t tell me what I should do."

Then his crystalline wings unfurled.

With a sharp crack, he launched into the air, slicing through the smoke-choked sky like a shard of light piercing the gloom.

Boar stood frozen, dust swirling at his feet.

He opened his mouth, wanting to protest, wanting to say something—but the words never came. They caught in his throat, swallowed by the rising wind and the weight in his chest.

He knew.

Instinctively, in that primal place inside his beastly heart, he knew the time had come.

Hide and live, the voice of reason whispered. Or follow and die.

"...Fuck..." Boar muttered, breathless.

The word tasted foreign on his tongue—raw and bitter.

The first curse of his life.

And perhaps, the first step toward something more.

Although Ricky didn’t turn his head, his senses painted the picture behind him with perfect clarity.

Boar stood rooted like a statue, motionless beneath the crimson glow of burning clouds. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

A flicker of disappointment crossed Ricky’s compound eyes, quickly buried beneath his usual cold exterior.

Sigh... I expected too much.

He hadn’t truly planned to drag Boar into battle—not against the Radiant Knight Order. The decision was never about power, but posture. A test of spirit.

Had Boar chosen to follow, Ricky would’ve simply sent him into the Inheritance Ground to train and wait.

But now...

This choice didn’t make Boar an enemy. It didn’t mean betrayal.

It just meant that in Ricky’s heart—Boar’s place would no longer be the same.

People change. Priorities shift.

Ricky didn’t blame him. Everyone had their own fears, their own path to walk. And Boar had no idea what Ricky was truly capable of.

If he knew... he might’ve made a different choice.

Just as Ricky prepared to push forward, wings buzzing with renewed force, a sharp sound rang out behind him—a wild, thudding gallop over scorched earth.

"Wait... I will follow the Venom Fang Overlord!"

The voice cracked with emotion, raw and defiant.

Ricky didn’t stop. He didn’t need to look. His antennae curled slightly, registering the presence that barreled toward him.

A ghost of a smirk threatened to curl at the corner of his mandibles—but didn’t.

Behind him, Boar came charging across the ash-choked ground, his hooves thudding like war drums. His entire body looked like it had been carved from twisted drywood—bark-like skin, knotted joints, and hardened hooves that kicked up embers as he ran.

Having transmuted himself into this wooden form, Boar had become lighter, faster—more agile than his bulky natural state allowed. It was his desperate solution, a last-minute gamble.

Flames licked at his path, but his spiritual field surged outward, scattering them with each stride.

Please... don’t let this bite me in the ass, Boar thought grimly, his breath ragged.

The pain didn’t matter. The fear didn’t matter. All that mattered now was catching up.

And then... he did.

Ricky glanced his way as Boar came alongside, his pace steady, his form firm. The mosquito’s gaze was unreadable—neither warm nor cold—but after a long pause, he gave a silent nod.

He said nothing.

He didn’t need to.

Side by side, the two figures streaked across the dying skies—a boar made of drywood and a mosquito clad in crystalline shimmer, flying with flames and smoke in their wake.

Their destination: the headquarters of the Radiant Knight Order.

...Assuming they could find it.

Ricky frowned mid-flight, one antenna twitching with annoyance.

"Hmmm... which direction is this damned place..."

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