THE ETERNAL REAPER’S REGRESSION

CHAPTER 2: THE SILENT SLAUGHTER

The air in the arena was thick with the scent of ozone and the metallic tang of blood. The Chimera’s six eyes—two on the lion, two on the goat, and two on the serpent—all locked onto me with a single, unified intent: consumption.

"Kill him! Tear the slave apart!" a voice screamed from the front row.

The lion head let out a roar that shook the sand beneath my feet. It didn't wait. It lunged, a mountain of muscle and fur hurtling through the air.

System, I commanded, my mind sharp as a razor. Overclock perception. Burn the remaining Sin Echoes.

[Perception Overclock: Activated.]

[Drain Rate: 5 Echoes/Second.]

The world froze. The roar of the crowd stretched into a low, guttural drone. The Chimera’s descent, which should have been a blur of lethal speed, slowed until I could see the individual droplets of saliva flying from its fangs.

"Too slow," I whispered.

"What is he doing?" a guard near the gate gasped, his voice sounding like a slow-motion playback. "He’s just standing there!"

"He’s given up!" another shouted. "Look at him, he’s closed his eyes!"

I hadn't closed my eyes. I was counting the heartbeats of the beast. Three heads, one heart. The lion was the primary driver, the goat provided the lateral balance, and the snake was the defensive anchor.

As the lion’s jaws snapped inches from my face, I didn't retreat. I stepped into the beast's blind spot—the narrow pocket between the lion's neck and the goat's shoulder.

"He disappeared!" a noble screamed from the VIP box. "Where did the brat go?"

"Down there!" someone yelled. "Under the beast!"

I wasn't just under it. I was its center of gravity. I grabbed the coarse fur of the lion’s mane with my left hand and jammed my right shoulder into the base of its jaw. Using the Chimera’s own massive forward momentum against it, I pivoted.

CRACK.

The sound of the lion’s neck snapping was like a dry log splitting in a fire. The beast’s entire body jolted, its coordination shattering instantly. The goat head let out a panicked bleat, and the serpent tail whipped around frantically, searching for a target that was no longer there.

"Did... did he just break its neck with his bare hands?" a voice whispered, the slow-motion effect beginning to flicker as my Echoes ran low.

"No way! That’s an F-Class slave! It’s a fluke!"

I didn't care about their commentary. The beast was collapsing, its massive weight threatening to crush me into the sand. I slid beneath the ribcage, the Star-Devourer tooth humming with a dark, hungry vibration.

"Go to sleep," I muttered.

I thrust the tooth upward. It didn't meet resistance. It didn't hit bone. It slid through the "invincible" scales of the beast like a hot wire through wax. I felt the hot spray of the heart’s blood drenching my arm as the tooth found its mark.

[Target Heart Destroyed.]

[Lethal Blow Confirmed.]

The Chimera shuddered once, a long, violent tremor that sent dust billowing into the air. Then, it went still. The silence that followed was heavier than the beast itself.

"He killed it," a woman in the stands said, her voice trembling. "In ten seconds. He killed a Grade-3 Chimera with a... is that a piece of bone?"

"Check the System!" a gambler shrieked, tearing at his hair. "The odds! My gold! There’s no way he won!"

I stood up, pushing the massive lion head off my legs. I was soaked in black and red gore, looking more like a demon than a boy.

[Enemy Slain: Chimera (Grade 3)]

[Calculating Experience Points...]

[1,500 XP Awarded.]

Suddenly, the blue screen turned a violent, bleeding red. The air around me began to ripple.

[Warning: Void Reliquary Intercepting Data...]

[Unauthorized Conversion in Progress...]

[XP converted to Forbidden Evolution Points: 15.]

"What are you doing, System?" I asked, watching the numbers climb. "You’re not supposed to be able to touch the base code."

[Forbidden Evolution: Strength +3, Agility +5, Soul Density +7.]

I felt it instantly. My skeletal muscles knitted together, densifying. The ache in my broken ribs vanished, replaced by a cold, pulsating power. I wasn't just Kael the slave anymore; the "Livestock" was beginning to develop teeth.

"You! Slave!"

The voice boomed from the VIP box. I looked up. A man dressed in crimson silks—Lord Valerius, the overseer of the pits—was leaning over the gilded railing. His face was a mask of fury and suspicion.

"What is that weapon?" Valerius demanded. "Show it to the guards! You’ve smuggled an artifact into my arena!"

"I found it in the mud, My Lord," I said, my voice projecting clearly across the sand. "Perhaps your cleaners are as lazy as your beasts."

The crowd gasped. Faceslapping a Noble was a death sentence.

"You dare?" Valerius snarled, his knuckles whitening on the railing. "You think one lucky strike makes you a warrior? You think because you killed a drugged beast you can insult the Peerage?"

"I don't think," I replied, cleaning the tooth on a scrap of the Chimera's fur. "I know. And if the beast was drugged, you should probably ask for a refund. It didn't put up much of a fight."

"Guard!" Valerius bellowed, pointing a finger at me. "The boy is clearly using forbidden magic. This match is void! He has cheated the house and the gamblers!"

"Cheated?" I laughed, a dry, harsh sound. "The only thing cheated here is the death you promised these people. Are you going to give them their show, or are you going to keep whining like a slapped child?"

The crowd, ever fickle, began to murmur. "He’s right! Give us a fight!"

"If he’s a cheater, prove it! Send out something he can't cheat!"

Valerius looked around at the surging crowd, then back at me. A cruel, calculated smile spread across his lips. He sat back down and signaled to the Master of the Gates.

"Fine," Valerius shouted. "If the slave wants a show, we shall give him a finale. Since he finds Grade-3 beasts so 'easy,' let us see how he handles the Arena's Pride."

The heavy iron gates at the far end of the arena didn't just rise this time. They were blasted open from the inside.

"The Pride?" the maimed guard at my gate whispered, his face turning ghostly pale. "No... he’s sending out the Iron-Grip Manticore? That’s a Grade-5 Slaughter-Class! That’s for execution of High Knights!"

"Two rounds back-to-back?" I called out to Valerius. "You’re getting desperate, 'My Lord.' Running out of monsters already?"

"I am running out of patience, trash!" Valerius roared. "The Manticore hasn't been fed in a week. It won't just kill you—it will savor every bone it breaks. Release the beast!"

A roar, ten times louder than the Chimera’s, echoed from the tunnel. The ground didn't just vibrate; it cracked. A shadow twice the size of the previous monster began to emerge, draped in rusted iron chains that it snapped like threads.

[System Warning: High-Level Threat Detected.]

[Class: Grade 5 Manticore (Iron-Grip Variant)]

[Calculated Survival Rate: 0.0001%]

I looked at the Star-Devourer tooth. It was vibrating so hard my hand was shaking. It wasn't fear. It was hunger.

"Only one Manticore?" I looked up at Valerius and held up two fingers. "You should have sent three. This won't take long."

Valerius turned purple with rage, but he didn't get a chance to respond. The Manticore cleared the tunnel in a single bound, its venomous stinger whipping through the air with a whistle that promised certain death.

I didn't move. I waited for the beast to close the gap.

"He's insane," someone muttered in the front row. "He's actually going to try and fight it."

"No," I whispered to myself as the Manticore’s shadow fell over me. "I’m going to harvest it."

The Manticore lunged, its massive iron-clad paws aiming to pin me to the sand.

[Forbidden Evolution Points: 15 Available.]

[Apply to 'Void Step'?]

"Yes," I hissed.

The beast's claws hit the sand where I had been standing a millisecond prior, shattering the stone foundation beneath. I appeared ten feet in the air, directly above the monster's spine.

"What?!" Valerius stood up, his chair flipping over behind him. "Where is he?"

I looked down at the Manticore, my eyes glowing with a faint, violet hue. The "Livestock" had just become the hunter.

"Down here, Valerius," I said, my voice echoing with a power that wasn't human. "Watch closely. You wouldn't want to miss the 'luck' this time."