Chapter 159: Chapter 159 - Devouring(Part 2)

Point-of-View: Argent Stryker

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"Hey, come on, fight me!" Grinned Izzy cheerfully.

"U-uh, no thanks, I’m good...," Came the nervous response.

Today’s the 34th of Sextillis, 2016, the sixth month of the year. And things have been surprisingly peaceful in the last few months, it’s actually made me kinda nervous that something could go wrong at any given moment.

Larrk has been continuing to spend most of his time down in the Labyrinth...naturally, Izzy has been challenging him to fights constantly, and while he did accept all of them at first, lately he’s been turning her down.

His logic is that he wants to power up as much as possible through eating Monsters before fighting her again, because of course, he’s lost every single fight they’ve had.

The first time they fought remains the closest he’s gotten to beating her...since he showed her most of what he can do during that first fight, the element of surprise is long gone.

But that said, he was consistently putting up a decent fight against her, their fights rarely ever ended without her sustaining at least a few minor injuries during the battle.

She’s been pretty grumpy over the fact that they haven’t fought in a while, the last time was four months ago. It’s especially tough for her lately since he’s definitely started to make some real progress in getting stronger, he’s gotten pretty used to eating Monsters at this point.

And he’s now down to the forty-second floor, and most of the time he’s down there by himself. Even with Izzy by my side, I didn’t go much deeper than that when I was living down in the Labyrinth for those two years or so.

At this point, he’s killed a fair number of Catastrophic Grade Monsters and eaten them...though he hasn’t been defeating them in direct fights, he’s mostly been staying in the shadows, floating around and then killing them with sneak attacks.

But how he kills them doesn’t really matter, it doesn’t change the fact that he can eat them regardless of how they were killed. On that note, his Elemental Magic has grown more potent right across the board.

He’s also tried gaining new abilities by eating specific Monsters, like eating Spectres to try and gain their intangibility power...but so far, that hasn’t really been working.

He hasn’t given up on it though, and he’s also eating a lot of poisonous Monsters for the same reason. So, yeah, he’s been pretty busy with that, and except for sleeping, he spends most of time down in the Labyrinth. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

On another note, about five months ago, he decided to move out of the hotel he was staying at and bought an apartment to stay in instead, since he plans on remaining in this town for the foreseeable future.

He got one with three rooms, and lives there with Rosary and Prysm. I decided to get myself a two room apartment to live with Izzy...but she insists on sleeping with me, so only one of those rooms really gets any use.

We’re pretty much a couple now though, so I definitely don’t try to discourage that anymore. And, well...it’s been great, though I’d rather not get into the details.

Anyway, since Larrk hasn’t been willing to fight Izzy for a while, she’s been challenging the rest of us. Rosary accepted her challenge once, and briefly put up a good fight before being easily defeated once Izzy decided to take it a bit more seriously.

Prysm has turned her down every time, and I’ve accepted a few times, though I’ve just frustrated her since I try to avoid hurting her. She gets pretty annoyed when I stop short or deliberately miss with my attacks.

And then there’s Ilex, who Larrk introduced us to shortly after we moved to this town. He’s pretty timid and nervy most of the time, but he seems to be a decent enough guy...he was surprised when Larrk informed him that Izzy is a Monster, but he didn’t show any malice or fear towards her, not any more than he shows around people, anyway.

It wasn’t very long before Izzy pressured him into accepting a fight with her, and then his personality abruptly changed in the middle of it, and he actually managed to put up a decent fight against her.

He was defeated in the end, of course, but that one fight was enough for Izzy to constantly challenge him after that. The two of us live in the same apartment building that Larrk lives in with Prysm and Rosary, on the same floor as well.

And Ilex often visits them in order to go on Labyrinth quests with them, and Izzy always hears him coming thanks to her sense of hearing. And she never misses an opportunity to challenge him, which was what’s happening right now...

"You’re pretty strong, and you can get even stronger if you fight me...so there’s nothing to lose, and a lot to gain!" Izzy tried to persuade him.

"N-not true, I could literally l-lose my life...that’s way more than I’m willing to lose," He shook his head as he backtracked.

"Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve gotten pretty good at assessing how much to hold back in order to avoid killing humans. And if I miscalculate and end up injuring you a bit too much, Larrk or Prysm could just heal you," She pointed out objectively.

"Just so you know, I heal myself better than I can heal others," Larrk chimed in with a weary yawn.

He, Ilex, Rosary and Prysm had just gotten back from the Labyrinth, having traveled across the thirtieth to thirty-eighth floors. Despite having made it past the fortieth floor, he still visits the higher floors from time to time, since he’s been targeting Monsters with specific abilities.

"I’ll hold back, like, a lot, so come on!" Remarked Izzy eagerly.

"G-give me a break, I literally just got back after several hours in the Labyrinth, I’m too tired," He groaned in dismay.

"Oh, is that all it is? Okay, then, in that case...tomorrow, once you’re nice and well-rested, let’s fight!" She declared enthusiastically.

I feel really bad for him, poor guy...

"...fine. But this is the last time, at least for several months," He relented with a weary sigh.

"Alright, sweet! I can’t wait!" She grinned triumphantly.

"Anyway, uh...I almost forgot, while you guys were in the Labyrinth, there was a pretty interesting news report. I watched it on TV when it was announced, and I got a newspaper reporting on it...here, check it out," I remarked, taking out the newspaper and handing it to Larrk.

"Hm? What’s it about?" He responded curiously as he took it from me and glanced at the page detailing the report, while Prysm and Rosary peered over either one of his shoulders.

"Huh? Is this for real?" Frowned Rosary skeptically.

"It is kinda hard to believe," Added Prysm in agreement.

"The capital will be sponsoring and hosting a friendly tournament that’ll involve both the Knight Order and all the Guilds in the nation?" Muttered Larrk, reading the headline warily.

"My first thought is that this is some kind of trap...it seems way too obvious though. And look at who proposed the idea in the first place, that makes it a bit harder to believe that this is a devious plot," I pointed out.

"Aries Velenet, huh? Yeah, it is pretty hard to imagine that it’s a trap if she’s behind it. Then again, people change...who knows, maybe when you two attacked the castle and killed a bunch of Knights, that made her turn against Commoners like most other Nobles," Larrk shrugged in response.

"I suppose that’s not impossible, but...it just seems pretty unlikely. Maybe this is her way of trying to bridge the gap between Commoners and Nobles, by having Knights and Adventurers compete against each other," I surmised optimistically.

"Yeah, I guess I can see her doing that. Well, whatever, it doesn’t really matter to us all that much...after all, you and I can’t exactly compete without being recognized. Rosary is probably assumed to be dead thanks to the encounter with the Frost Dragon, Prysm is likely to be recognized too and since she only had the Light Attribute, she can’t compete anyway, and Izzy would struggle to hide the fact that she isn’t human, her wig would fly off if she moved at full speed, plus she isn’t registered at any Guild since her Status Bar crystal is fake," Countered Larrk with a shrug.

"Oh, too bad, there might have been some strong opponents in this competition," She sighed in disappointment.

"That’s not all of us, though...Ilex could probably compete without a problem," Pointed out Rosary.

"N-no, that’s not a good idea...I can’t keep my aggression and emotions under wraps during a fight, mouthing off to a Noble would probably earn me a death sentence," He shook his head immediately.

Yeah, he’s probably right...heh, but it’d be quite funny to see...

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