Why can't humans do it too?

He had probably found another crucial piece of evidence that the monster hadn't fully regained its senses—the supplies prepared by the forest elves stationed there were still safely stored away.

There were even some plates scattered around a table that had fallen to the ground, with food scraps on them that were no longer edible due to blood and filth, but the monster didn't think to destroy the food and water.

Despite the sabotage operation intended to prevent the two from being rescued, after killing them, he forgot all about destroying supplies and instead focused on arranging the heads of the forest elves in a provocative manner.

At most, he's just a beast of hatred, Sull concluded.

Finally, he was able to eat a normal meal, but he didn't dare to eat too much. He ate slowly and carefully.

As he chewed, he couldn't help but laugh. All he had to do was open his eyes and see the mangled flesh and severed limbs surrounding him and within his field of vision, the uncollected corpses, and the nauseating smells lingering around his nose.

Suer felt that he was probably crazy, or that his nerves had become so numb that he could still swallow food even in such a disgusting environment.

He wanted to laugh out loud, but in reality, all he did was stuff another piece of food into his mouth and take a sip of water.

“Let’s go in that direction,” Xin Ke said softly with her eyes closed, slowly eating the food she had found. “I think I know where we are—going this way will lead to an abandoned city of forest elves. I can use the remaining inscriptions there to kill that monster.”

The forest elves' territory was this woman's domain. With the last piece of food in his mouth, Suer replied in a deep voice:

"……it is good."

--------------

Xin Ke left a message at the ruins of this outpost. She and Su Er dared not stay here for long. They left a guide for the other forest elves who came here to redeploy after receiving news of the outpost's destruction. Their ultimate goal was the abandoned city she had mentioned earlier.

Just like when they came, Suer and Xinke helped each other up and limped along again. Their slow steps were backed by the sentry post that looked like a picture of hell. These idle forest elves had even built a lot of stairs while building the sentry post, which became the source of Suer's pain at this moment.

One step, two steps, three steps...

The monotonous sound of footsteps echoed in their ears, and Suer even had the illusion of being hypnotized; he wanted to sleep… Closer, almost there, just one last step down…

The ear that could no longer hear twitched slightly, but Suer didn't hear anything. The twitching was just instinctive; his muscles were tense instinctively—something was wrong!

Stab it!

There was absolutely no time to react. When Suer realized what was happening, all he saw was his own blood spraying through the air with the howling wind.

It's that monster! The monster that slaughtered all the forest elves in the outpost! The monster whose tail was cut off by Suer and Xinke!

It perfectly concealed all its presence, hiding right outside the sentry post!

We've been waiting for this moment!

Chapter 112 Control

He waited patiently, even deliberately creating the illusion that he had left after massacring the outpost. Even when he noticed that Suer and Xinke had entered the outpost to rest and eat, he did not rush to launch an attack and expose himself, but chose this opportunity.

The moment when two people, having been vigilant throughout their rest period, were about to leave the outpost, merely subconsciously believing that there was no other danger besides those disgusting corpses... was within those few seconds of walking down the stairs and about to leave.

It worked.

The tearing pain in his shoulder took a few seconds to reach Suer's mind. The twisted monster's sudden attack had not only torn his flesh apart, but had also taken away a small piece of flesh.

Waves of pain crashing over his head made Su'er's face turn pale quickly. He frantically tore at his robe, while Xin Ke tightly bound the wound on his arm, at least to stop the bleeding.

Trembling with pain, Su'er's gaze was fixed on the monster, but strangely, it did not take advantage of the sneak attack to launch a series of attacks. Instead, it allowed Xin Ke to give Su'er emergency treatment.

“…Ah,” a frantic, trembling voice cried out as the monster used its tentacles to lift the chunk of flesh from Suer's body before its hideous bat head, breathing deeply, “…My precious!”

The monster even squeezed out blood from the flesh due to the force of its tentacles, which dripped onto the ground beneath it. The monster then hissed and lowered its body to lick the blood.

This frenzied behavior continued for a long time before the monster seemed to have satisfied its desires and gradually regained its rationality. Its convulsing, ugly body gradually calmed down, and it moved its tentacles and slowly turned its body until its terrifying face could see Sul and Xinke from the side.

“…Rare, precious…my treasure…how resilient…”

"……unique……"

"...noble and pure..."

The dense clicking sound, like the chirping of insects, gradually gave way to the harmonious sounds of life amidst the eerie noise. The slick male voice was so nauseating, yet Su Er recognized it instantly.

It's like a child learning to speak, whose words progress slowly from simple to fluent, but now the process has been accelerated countless times. Surrounding this strange harmony is a sound of flesh and bone separating.

It wasn't an illusion. The face that had previously appeared only on the twisted monster's back, close to its neck, belonging to a vampire, was now writhing on its own body, constantly pulling itself forward, each step accompanied by a sound like flesh and bone tearing.

In the end, the vampire's face arrived where it belonged, standing side by side with the bat's head in front of the body, like a melted candle, the two partially fused together, flesh and blood stuck together.

The previously tightly closed eyes were now fully open, and the tightly closed lips began to move. Every word it spoke was uttered by it and the bat's head next to it, the smooth male voice blending with the hoarse chirping of insects.

“Forest, forest spirit… monkey!” he stammered, his twisted monster’s gaze sweeping over Xin Ke before settling on Su Er. “I, I remember… you… my treasure!”

"?"

Amidst the discomfort and nausea rising in his stomach, and the constant throbbing pain from his wounds, Sull wondered if the monster had gone completely mad... How could it be its treasure?

But the greed and desire emanating from it constantly proclaimed the truth of its words to Sul, and it had even already locked Sul into its possession. The blood and soul of the forest elves that it had been so eager for before had now become trash that it couldn't even be bothered to look at.

“Perfect…so perfect…such a noble soul…” The twisted monster’s words became more and more fluent, but Suer was even more certain that this monster, which had been mutated from a vampire, had not yet regained its rationality as a vampire—its face still carried a dazed look, and even a clumsy, dazed expression.

A pair of trembling tentacles forcefully stuffed the torn piece of flesh from Suer into its mouth, driven by a frenzied and irrational hunger. It didn't even remove the blood-stained tentacles, but kept chewing and swallowing them!

Even though tears streamed down its face from the pain of being swallowed, and it whimpered, the monster never pulled its limbs out of its mouth—it still felt pain, and even cried because of it.

He no longer knew whether this frantic murmuring was due to the instincts and preferences of a vampire or the desires he had developed after the mutation. All he knew was that this was the best, and probably the last chance.

The body that Okan had casually healed did not turn into a body of steel. At this moment, in his chaotic thoughts, Suer inexplicably began to wonder if it would be better for him to become a body of steel. He could already feel that magical and strange sensation that made him feel uncontrollably swollen.

After that beastman Asano Shirasu, Suer finally felt this magical ability again, an ability that gave him a sense of security in this world—the invisible thread appeared, extending from his body to the body of the monster in front of him... no, to its soul!

Tension, anxiety, and panic.

The elves can neutralize this special magic, something that Suer had already confirmed with Okan. The monster in front of him was a vampire with the ability to cast magic, and the elf inside him was not restrained like Xin Ke. It had simply lost its reason and was driven by instinct, making it unable to cast magic. In fact, it had even unconsciously cast some simple spells in a moment of desperation.

Will it still be able to control itself after this?

For some reason, the image of Asano Shirasu breaking free from the invisible thread between them with just a moment of hesitation flashed through his mind. Su Er pursed his lips and stared motionlessly into the monster's eyes.

The incessant chirping of insects fell silent, and for a moment, only the sound of the wind blowing through the area remained.

One second, five seconds, ten seconds...

The invisible thread never broke—he succeeded.

Chapter 113 Greed

Feeling slightly dizzy, Suer couldn't control her body and instinctively fell backward onto the ground.

It hasn't broken, it still hasn't broken.

There wasn't even the slightest struggle.

Concentrating his consciousness amidst the pain, Suer watched as the monster before him raised its tentacles and swung them up and down as if following his will. He then watched it obediently turn in circles, as docile as a well-trained puppy... but it was definitely far more terrifying than a puppy.

"Only some evil god could keep such a terrifying monster as a pet," Su'er thought with a wry smile.

He wanted to control the monster and break off all its tentacles, but he was also afraid that the pain would cause the monster to break free of his control—wait a minute, did he really control the monster?

Feeling uncertain, Suer closed his eyes, wanting to feel it more clearly.

If orcs, whose aptitude for elves is only slightly better than that for humans, can break free from their control so easily, can this monster, whose body is imbued with elf energy, really be controlled so easily?

"So it's a successful activation?" A curious voice asked from beside her. Xin Ke had been quietly observing the scene since she finished bandaging Su Er's wound, and only asked the question after seeing the monster do something that defied common sense.

Although the flow of spirits within her body was restricted by the lock ring, the woman could still see spirits in the air that Suer couldn't. She was 100% certain that there had been no unusual movement of any spirits just now. It even seemed as if Suer and the monster were acting out some kind of drama in perfect harmony. After remaining still for a period of time, the magic was declared to have been successfully cast.

Is this really magic?

Having witnessed the whole thing for the first time, Xin Ke silently made a judgment in her mind. She remembered the words spoken by the god of the moles, the wariness of Su Er's soul... Had she been a little too arrogant in the past?

"I guess it's a success?" Su Er answered uncertainly, unaware of what Xin Ke was thinking. Just now, he had roughly discovered something.

Just as he had sensed before, this twisted monster, despite possessing a large number of spirits, did not show any desire to break free or resist—on the contrary, it welcomed and craved this connection, without any rejection whatsoever.

It loves the blood of Suer and the trace amount of soul contained within it, and at the same time does not resist the strange connection brought about by this blood and soul.

It's possible to break free; the thread could be snapped with just a little force, but the thought of even that wouldn't cross their minds.

This twisted monster craved only such blood and flesh, such souls, and more, more...

Startled awake, Suer realized that while he was lost in thought, the monster had unknowingly moved close to his body. It was the strong, pungent stench that brought him back to his senses.

Four dazed eyes stared at him so closely, as if they were looking at a moving lump of flesh, devoid of any vitality.

Goosebumps rose on his skin. Suer shifted back and handed his dagger to Xinke.

"Should we kill it?" Xin Ke asked casually, seemingly regretfully twirling the dagger in her hand. "This mutated vampire is quite a rare and interesting subject. It feels a bit like a waste."

"To take it a step further, wouldn't it be a good thing to keep it for us to hunt or for it to protect us?"

Xin Ke's words subtly seduced Su Er.

Although it sounded very tempting, Suer ultimately shook his head vigorously.

"No, it's still too dangerous." With his mind in control, he turned the monster over on the spot. While guessing where its heart was, he pointed to the hole on the side of the monster that was so rotten that it kept spewing out dark red blood mist.

I carefully observed the position of my abdomen's rise and fall and the location from which my heartbeat came.

"Putting aside how long the control effect of my ability can last, it's already a huge target, isn't it? Keeping it around would only add another layer of danger," Suer said in a somber tone. "Besides, I always have a sense of dread... If we keep it around, it might be quietly devoured at any time... Let's just kill it."

Under Suer's control, the monster had exposed its soft belly, and all its tentacles were stretching out as far as they could, like a lamb to the slaughter. But neither Suer nor Xinke would regard the quiet creature as such a fragile creature.

"Hmm~, Mr. Monkey is more cautious than I thought~", Xin Ke deftly twirled the dagger in her hand, gripping the hilt as she carefully approached the lying monster. "I thought you would use it as leverage in negotiations with me... Are you really not going to reconsider? With a monster like this in your hands, even if I go back on my word in the future, you'll have the power to fight back, you know?"

"...Could you hurry up?" Sue interrupted her weakly. "Is it really that funny to make jokes like this?"