Chapter 1092: The Menace
Abyss Tyrant stood with what appeared to be casual indifference. His face was a skull mask with two deep sockets housing lightless eyes. It was nearly impossible to discern what he was thinking—or if he was thinking at all.
He stood in the middle of the tunnel, his staff positioned behind him. Right now, Abyss Tyrant possessed only two hands, ivory lines stretching over sculpted muscles across both arms, his broad chest, and stoic abs. His skirt swayed subtly in the silence.
The Tyrant’s head remained motionless, even as the tunnel began trembling with subtle vibrations. He seemed utterly unbothered.
Instead, he raised one hand and studied its claws, which gleamed with a sinister sheen.
Then he dropped his hand and leaned forward, lowering his body and cracking a spider web of fractures into the tunnel floor.
Like a missile, Abyss Tyrant shot forward, becoming a streak of black light as he blazed across the tunnel and collided with something that was also approaching—though at a far more leisurely pace.
The collision was brutal, unleashing a cyclonic shockwave that exploded in all four diagonal directions. The monster was hurled backward, tumbling through the air, while Abyss Tyrant merely skidded back a few meters and stopped himself by clawing into the ground.
As he straightened, the monster also came to a halt and slowly began to rise.
The abomination seemed carved from midnight itself, darkness draping around it like liquid shadow. There was an eerie kinship between the two beings, save for the amber glow in its eyes—a light that burned with vicious, predatory intelligence.
It was humanoid, sheathed in dark, slate-gray feathers that glistened like layered scales, each ridge drinking the dim light with a subtle sheen. Muscles coiled beneath its feathered hide, taut and poised, as though every sinew was sculpted for both silence and sudden violence.
Its head belonged to a great owl, crowned with sharp feathered crests that flared like a war helm.
The creature opened its hands, revealing long, cruelly curved talons of obsidian black.
It crouched low and exploded forward as though springs coiled in its legs. In one leap, it devoured the vast distance between them, descending upon Abyss Tyrant with talons poised to gouge out his eyes.
Abyss Tyrant was faster—he caught the creature’s wrist mid-flight and whipped it sideways, smashing it into the tunnel wall. Without missing a beat, he drove his leg straight toward the monster, but the abomination was quick—it had already taken flight, leaving Abyss Tyrant to pulverize the wall itself.
He slowly withdrew his leg, lifting it slightly as rubble and dust cascaded down.
His lightless eyes remained fixed on the owl monster as it scrambled to its feet, amber eyes blazing with tension.
Despite his blank expression, Abyss Tyrant looked utterly terrifying—like a merciless predator.
The creature had no idea what it was facing.
It moved to strike—but it was already too late.
Its eyes widened as clawed hands engulfed its face. Time seemed to inhale sharply, and as it exhaled—with lightning brutality, Abyss Tyrant seized the creature’s head, crushing its beak with his palm and driving the abomination straight into the ground.
The air rippled. Shockwaves detonated through the earth, and stone fragments erupted upward as the creature was hammered into the tunnel floor.
He didn’t stop there. Swiftly, another hand emerged from beneath his arms and found the creature’s leg. He swung it around while his upper hands demolished the monster’s face with thunderous punches.
He slammed the creature against the wall, drove crushing blows into it, smashed it onto the ground, raised his leg, and stomped on the abomination’s back—ruthlessly snapping its spine.
The creature released a ferocious, guttural shriek of agony. But it was granted no reprieve from the pain. Abyss Tyrant hoisted it up again, hurling it overhead and smashing it into the ground.
He seized it by the leg and battered it left and right, back and forth—wielding it like a grotesque flyswatter.
"Ah!! Aghhh!!! Ahhhhh!!!! Pleasuuuu aaahhhh!"
Abyss Tyrant paused mid-swing, just as he was about to smash the creature into the ground again. There was a subtle shift in his eyes, as if he had heard something amiss.
He looked left and right. Seeing nothing, he was about to resume the creature’s demolition when he heard the cry again.
"I said!! Pleassseuuuu, noowwww!"
At this point, a subtle frown creased Abyss Tyrant’s skeletal socket.
He focused on the half-dead monster in his grasp and tilted his head.
Seeing that their eyes met, the abomination nodded its owl head vigorously.
"Yessuuu, yessuuu! I am the one! It is meeeeee! Pleasuuuu, don’t kill—me mean no harmmuuu!"
Abyss Tyrant tilted his head sideways—left, then right. He would be blinking now if he possessed eyelids.
Abyss Tyrant tentatively released his grip on the monster, watching as it gasped wearily and struggled to its feet.
"Ahh! My entire body aches! Why is it so difficult to communicate with monsters?! Argug!"
The owl monster dusted its feathers. Though grotesquely stained with black, putrid blood, it seemed unbothered. It fussed more over the stains and dirt on its plumage than its mangled hand and crushed beak.
"You brutish creature! You have no idea how long it took me to grow these new feathers. Don’t go smashing me on the ground like some mindless savage, you dysfunctional imbecile!"
Abyss Tyrant’s eyes flared darkly, his claws gleaming with wicked intent.
"Oh, oh? Violence is not the answer, my lord. Let’s not choose violence, shall we?"
It touched its beak gingerly.
"Damn, it hurts so much to speak."
Abyss Tyrant continued staring for several moments. Then he extended his arms backward, opening his fingers.
Barely a heartbeat later, the Staff of the Forsaken Crescent spiraled through the tunnel and landed squarely in his grasp.
He swung the crescent edge toward the monster, stopping mere inches from its throat.
"Lord Commander, sir! As I have said, I shall not dare attempt anything foolish. It has been made crystal clear that I was, for a moment, pompous—utterly stupid. I deserved punishment, but you have punished me thoroughly."
It sniffled, almost sobbing as it glanced at its mangled hands.
"My hand and spine aches unbearably, sir. I will absolutely not do anything rash. In fact, I didn’t mean to do anything at all! I was merely amusing myself. I can’t remember the last time someone ventured down here—I simply wanted to play around... but Lord Commander, sir, you took my playfulness far too seriously."