Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires

Zaroth was taking ragged breaths, staring at the ground.

'Zaroth? Zaroth!' Luna's shout echoed in his mind, but he wasn't in a condition to hear her.

His heart was beating so fast it was going to burst, his mana core was going to crack any moment.

Before he realized it, he had begun to bleed from his eyes.

Mana scarcity, it seemed that he had pushed himself too far while fighting Radan.

'And this is just the sixth round. Fuck, what am I going to do in the other rounds?' he cursed in his mind.

A second later, he felt a gentle hand on his back, his wounds slowly began to heal.

"Are you okay?" the healer, a woman wearing a white robe with a red cross, asked as she looked him in the eyes.

He took a moment to respond. "Yes."

"Good. When you get home, you need to rest. Do you understand?"

He slowly nodded. Seeing that he was okay, the woman sighed as she left him and went to heal Radan. Despite winning, Zaroth was clearly the more injured one.

With a grunt, he stood up, threw a quick glance at Radan, who was still kneeling on the ground, unable to move due to the heavy weight of his armor, and went out of the arena, ignoring the stares the silent audience were giving him.

'How do you feel?' he heard Luna's worried voice in his head.

'Terrible. I went all out with the exception of using you, and I barely won,' he answered, frustrated.

'So early in the tournament, I almost lost? I was feeling confident this morning, too. It seems I have become too cocky.'

'Your opponent was just strong. It's based on luck if you're going to be matched against strong opponents or weaker ones, so don't beat yourself up over it.'

He sighed as he sat on a bench on his way home and massaged his forehead.

'You're right… at least I now have an idea of what skills I should try to learn now.'

It was made crystal clear during the fight with Radan, he had to keep his distance while using his beasts to exhaust his enemy. He couldn't attack from afar because Radan neutralized all ranged attacks with his gravity magic, and he couldn't get close to attack because if he was hit by the greatswords, he was as good as dead.

'I need to be able to get close to the enemy without fearing an attack, so I will need some kind of defense skill.'

At least he had a new goal in mind.

*****

'It has been a few days now, she has yet to realize that I have replaced her father,' the black thing that had taken the role of a father watched as the girl silently eat the dish it had made.

It didn't have much experience when it came to cooking, but if it was going to play the role of a human, it needed to know the basics, at least.

"Ah," the girl opened her mouth as she stared at the food she had dropped from her fork to the ground. Then she shifted her gaze from the food to her father, and the corners of her eyes began to tear up.

Usually, in a moment like this, the girl seemed to be expecting some kind of punishment, but the monster wearing human skin didn't exactly know how to act, so it had to pretend.

"Emily, be more careful next time," it spoke coldly.

In the few days, the thing had learned that the girl's name was Emily.

She was a quiet and timid girl, meaning that she rarely talked, which suited the being fine, as it didn't like conversing of any kind.

Emily got up and was about to clean the mess until the creature stopped her.@@novelbin@@

"It's fine. You're late for school anyway. Go. I will clean things up."

She looked at her father with doubt in her eyes, but in the end, nodded and went out.

Shifting its gaze to the food on the ground, a sigh escaped from the man's lips.

"Seriously, how hard is it to not spill? I'm not human, and even I don't have problems with that!"

*****

Back straight, eyes focused, but at the same time relaxed. The hands slightly moving at the side as it took a step forward, not too fast, not too slow.

It mimicked the action of breathing as it made its chest rise and fall gradually, taking slow and controlled breaths.

It hadn't been a long time since it entered the man's body, but the monster was quickly adjusting.

It was still far from perfect, but it was confident that it would not arouse suspicion.

Reaching the spot at the outdoor café, the thing sat on the chair as it shifted its gaze to the park, waiting for somebody to appear.

"Hello, can I take your order?" a woman wearing a short skirt and a shirt apron, with a pen and notepad in her hands, asked.

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The thing parted its lips as it remembered what it had been practicing for some time now. It was fine if it was happy, angry, tired, or similar, but it was important that its voice carried at least some degree of emotion.

"Just water," it spoke, making its voice sound a bit tired.

The woman nodded as she went out of view to bring the water.

It adjusted the bracelet on its wrist. It was strange. Originally, it thought it was only for the students, but quickly realized that these magical bracelets everyone wore were essentially for communicating and paying for services inside the capital. It took some time to learn how to use it effectively.

Looking at the time, the thing shifted its eyes to the park. If its calculations were correct, then it was supposed to see its target just—

A tall man with raven-black hair and white pupils came into view. It was Zack. He regularly came to the park at this hour, it seemed that the scenery helped him relax.

The thing had learned its lesson. It knew that Zack was able to tell if something or somebody was staring at him, so it wasn't looking directly at the man but to the side. It was using its peripheral vision to keep track of him.

While it had decided to prolong attacking the man as much as possible, it didn't mean that it wasn't going to try and learn as much as it could about the him.

"Here you go, sir," the woman appeared in view, placing a cup of water on the table.

The thing flashed a fake smile as it took a sip.

Once, it had tried to gather information in the form of a raven and had failed, but what about now?

It was posing as a human—a father, no less—meaning it shouldn't arouse any kind of suspicion.

"Enough useless thoughts," it muttered as it concentrated on Zack and his movements.

The monster had been observing Zack for some time now, and it had come to a certain conclusion after seeing what the man was capable of.

Sooner or later, Zack was going to become its new vessel.