Chapter 50: Chapter 50- Parasite

On each one of the monsters inside the cafeteria, a creepy, humane smile could be seen as clear as day. Their faces were twisted beyond recognition and the blood covering those smiles made them even more nightmarishly scary.

With everything that happened, Talon forgot about that smiling monster mystery. Even though it was clearly a very alarming detail. Now that he saw them, he realized something important.

There still was a terrifying monster lurking on the campus with the ability to turn other monsters' faces into smiles and perhaps even control them.

Staring around him with a dark expression, Talon pulled his spear out at the same time as the monsters rushed toward him.

*Swish* *Swish* *Swish*

Using his swift moves, Talon sliced through all of them precisely in one continuous motion. At this point, his mastery over the spear was on the professional level. It was close to becoming simply an extension of his own arm.

Exhaling a small breath, he stared down at one of the decapitated giant cats. Then, he crouched down and looked closely at its smile. The more he looked at it, the more terrifying it seemed.

"So vile..." He murmured coldly.

As he was about to turn away from the head, he suddenly noticed something. Quickly, he looked back at the monster's eyes as he squinted. There, he could see something squirming around inside its eye. Something that looked like a worm or a parasite of some sort.

At first, it was barely visible which is why Talon couldn't notice it. But, it slowly grew bigger and bigger inside its eye. Eventually, the thing pierced through the monster's eye and came out squirming wildly.

"Woah..." Talon retreated as he looked at the worm with disgust. The creature was translucent in color with a long thin body and a pair of mandibles that closed and opened frantically.

The monster slowly made its way out of the eye as blood leaked out before it fell to the ground moving left and right.

It looked like it was searching for something in a hurry. However, as seconds passed, its movements started slowing down till it finally stopped completely and the monster seemingly died.

"..." Talon stared at it for a while before he turned around him. From each and every monster he killed, a similar worm came out and fell on the ground before dying.

"Are these... Parasites?" He asked Acrypha.

"It seems so. Now the weird smiles make some sense. This monster controls the brains of its targets through these small parasites and alters their appearance." Acrypha nodded her head.

"Why would it do that? How does controlling creatures help it thrive?"

"How does a parasite thrive?" Acrypha asked back, hinting at the answer.

It didn't take Talon a second before he finally realized what she meant. "It eats away its target's brain."

"Exactly. This monster uses its parasites to consume its targets from the inside out. Slowly, and painfully."

"What the hell is that?" Talon asked.

"Foreseeing licker. It's a creature similar to humans in appearance and known for being very fast and lethal in its attacks. It can't hear, but it compensates for that with its extremely sharp eyes." She explained in a normal voice.

"Oh, so it can't hear me?" He murmured as he peeked again at the abomination.

"It can't hear anything. Don't worry, as long as it can't see you, it won't hear you."

"What's its level?"

"That one is rather weak... It's level 18."

"18 is weak?!" Talon blurted out as he almost choked on his own saliva.

"Foreseeing Lickers at their peak can reach level 60 or even higher."

Rubbing the back of his head, Talon looked at the monster again as he contemplated what to do next. He had two obvious choices, either to fight it or to simply escape and leave it on its own.

'But, a level 18 monster... The rewards will be really generous.' He thought to himself as he sucked in a deep breath.

Talon wanted to feel that same sensation of power he felt when he killed the Silver Bear. The rush of excitement it gave him was simply too good to resist. Not to mention the fact that Talon needed every single status point he could come across.

"I grew way stronger than before after killing the Silver Bear. I think I can fight it." He decided as he looked at Acrypha.

The latter stared at him silently for a moment. She could clearly see the mixed emotions in his eyes at that moment. However, it was clear that Talon was determined to fight this monster and kill it.

Acrypha's beautiful eyes shone for a second as she closed them and murmured. "Suit yourself. But, know that this is going to be a brutal fight if you don't kill it in one single move. Your life will be in far more danger than anything you experienced so far."

Talon gave her a long look before he nodded his head. "Ok... Ok..." Picking up his spear, He slowly started crawling from his hiding spot. Since he knew that it was deaf, he wasn't too worried about making noise. What he was worried about was making anything move too much to grab its attention.

If its eyes are as good as Acrypha said then Talon needed to stay in its blind zone perfectly the whole time. Luckily, it was very occupied with the food it was eating.

'One step at a time.' Talon's entire focus was put into choosing each step he took carefully. He made sure to keep the monster's blind zone in mind.

'Yeah, just stay in your place and don't move. Only one meter left.' He thought to himself as he carefully maneuvered his way to his target.

From up close the horrible smell that the monster exuded almost made him cough. It was by far the worst thing that Talon ever smelled in his life. Like rotten, burnt corpses left to rot outside for ages.

(A//N: I added PS and golden ticket goals. Once accomplished, I will post extra chapters ???? Thanks for your support as always.)