“Hiss—”
“Gurgle, gurgle...”
“Clack... clack...”
Nearby, low growls, hisses, and the sound of chittering carapaces scraping against rock—all carrying the distinct excitement and cruelty of predators scenting prey—rapidly drew closer.
Several pairs of eyes glowing with eerie green, dark red, and ghostly white light lit up in the surrounding darkness like wisp-fires, all locking onto the bush where the three were hiding.
A foul stench, a mix of various monsters, pervaded the air.
There were three monsters in total.
One was a giant lizard with fierce bone spikes along its back, corrosive saliva dripping from its mouth—a LV25 Spine-back Lizard.
Another was a stout, humanoid creature made of stone and moss; slow-moving, yet possessing immense physical strength—a LV24 Moss-rock Golem.
The third was a slender, dark shadow gliding silently through the darkness, nothing visible save for its pair of ghostly white eyes and a gaping maw filled with razor-sharp teeth—a LV26 Shadow-eater Beast.
They had clearly been drawn over by the noise earlier.
“T-They found us! And it’s not just one!”
Alvin’s face was as pale as paper, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
“Run! Get up, quick! Split up and run!”
Leonard let out a low, almost beastly growl. Summoning the last shred of his willpower, he struggled to get to his feet, only for his limp, exhausted legs to buckle.
Leah gave a hopeless whimper, lacking even the strength to stand, futilely shrinking her body back against the wall.
The Spine-back Lizard launched its attack first. Letting out an excited hiss, its thick hind legs slammed against the ground, hurtling toward the bush like an arrow shot from a bow, its acid-dripping jaws gaping open.
The Moss-rock Golem approached from the other side with heavy steps, swinging its massive stone fists.
Meanwhile, the Shadow-eater Beast slipped silently into the nearest shadow, preparing for a fatal strike from behind.
It’s over.
The thought flashed with brutal clarity through all three of their minds.
Their final sliver of intent to struggle crumbled away.
Leah closed her eyes in despair, waiting for the agony of being torn apart and devoured.
Right at that critical juncture—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several faint whistles of rushing air shot out at blistering speed from a patch of unusually deep shadow to the side!
They were neither arrows nor throwing daggers, but several ordinary, slender, and somewhat withered, twisted wooden sticks!
Yet the instant these sticks took flight, they seemed imbued with an eerie and powerful life!
Like supple, resilient dark tentacles, they arced through the air in unpredictable, tricky trajectories, wrapping with flawless precision around the critical body parts of all three monsters!
Two sticks coiled around the Spine-back Lizard's neck and forelimbs like vipers, tightening abruptly to yank its forward charge to a dead halt, forcing a pained hiss from the struggling beast.
Three thicker sticks wrapped like python coils around the Moss-rock Golem’s swinging stone arms and stubby neck. The immense binding force froze the naturally powerful monster mid-motion, wringing out a muffled roar of fury.
Another two extremely thin sticks—almost invisible against the dark—snaked out from an impossible angle, binding the feet and waist of the Shadow-eater Beast just as it emerged from the shadows to pounce on Leah, pinning it firmly to the ground.
“Skree?!”
“Roar!!”
“Wuuu—!”
Caught completely off guard, the three monsters thrashed, bit, and spewed acid and shadow energy in a furious panic.
Yet those seemingly fragile wooden sticks proved astonishingly tough. A dim, light-absorbing dark shimmer flowed along their surface, neutralizing all of the monsters' counterattacks.
What was more, the bindings grew progressively tighter. The Spine-back Lizard’s eyes bulged from the pressure, the rock surface of the Moss-rock Golem cracked, and the Shadow-eater Beast shrieked in agony.
This sudden, bizarre turn of events caused Alvin, Leonard, and Leah—who had been awaiting death with closed eyes—to snap their eyes open. Their jaws dropped, but no sound came out. Their faces were pictures of shock, bewilderment, and sheer disbelief, as if witnessing a hallucination.
Then, a solitary figure slowly and unhurriedly stepped out from the deep shadow where the sticks had originated, entering the faint, gloomy glow of the nearby fungi.
It was a tall, lean, and erect man.
He wore a simple wooden mask covering only the upper half of his face. While the craftsmanship appeared somewhat crude, the edges were polished smooth, and behind the carved eyeholes rested a pair of calm eyes.
Even in this dim light, his shoulder-length golden hair—dazzling like flowing liquid gold—was enough to command everyone's attention.
“Y-You are...?”
Alvin finally found his voice, stammering. The shock of surviving and the sheer absurdity of the scene before him warped his tone into a squeak.
The masked man turned his head slightly, as if glancing at the three shaken, disheveled students.
The mask hid his full expression, but his visible jawline softened for a moment, and the corner of his lips curled into an elusive smile.
His voice resonated through the mask, sounding slightly deep yet carrying an oddly comforting, steady magnetism:
“Me? I’m just a passing Tentacle Rider. So, my name isn't important.”
“‘T-Tentacle Rider’?”
Leonard and Leah exchanged looks, seeing identical confusion in each other's eyes.
They racked their brains, but could not recall any academy professor ever mentioning such a title, nor had they seen it in any adventurer memoir or monster index.
Could it be some hidden ancient class? Or perhaps a self-proclaimed moniker used by a lone powerhouse?
Seeing their blank expressions, Greg confirmed one thing.
“Looks like this world doesn't have Kamen Rider easter eggs. They don't even know this meme.”
Indeed, this masked man was Greg. He had put on this disguise specifically to conceal his identity and minimize any contact with Catherine.
Moreover, while crafting the mask, he had figured out how to utilize the Tentacle Entanglement skill.
Namely, as long as he held onto those tentacle-like twigs and coated them in a layer of his own dark mana, he could manipulate them as easily as his own limbs.
Thanks to the dark mana, his Tentacle Entanglement was vastly superior to the original version.
Not only were the tentacles exceptionally durable, but they could also continuously weaken any enemy bound by them.
The only drawback was that because his proficiency was still at LV1, he couldn't control many branches at once. Still, that didn't matter much.
It was more than enough for now.
And judging by current results, his plan to hide his identity was going quite smoothly.
After all, there was no way these students would ever connect his current powerful self with the foolish Greg Sass, who had once been known as the academy's biggest student with connections.
“I really am a master strategist!”
However, right at that moment, before Greg's painstaking effort to establish a mysterious persona could fully take root in the minds of the trio, it was ruthlessly shattered in the very next instant.
“S-Senior Greg... Y-You ran too fast... I-I almost couldn't keep up...”
A young girl's voice—panting noticeably, sounding both aggrieved and anxious—carried over from the edge of the shadow where Greg had come from.
Accompanied by somewhat scattered footsteps, Silvia trotted into the dim glow.
Her long pink hair was messy from continuous running and tension, a few strands clinging to her sweat-beaded forehead and cheeks, while her fair face flushed red from exertion.
It was clear she had worked extremely hard to catch up.
Yet at this moment, Greg only wanted to say to the hardworking Silvia:
“Fuck! (And not the plant!)”
Rate on N.U.
