TBATE: Born as a god (BEING REWRITTEN, CLICK PROFILE FOR NEW VERSION)

Lance Alea

inside the widow's crypt

My core was slowly but steadily creeping towards the stage beyond white. I figure it will take at least a few more years, but I'm really excited for it.

As we stepped into the widow's crypt, there was a distinct lack of snarlers. I thought this was weird, and apparently I wasn't alone.

Professor Glory voiced her thoughts, "That's odd, usually, we'd see a fair amount of snarlers already. Why don't I—"

All of a sudden, hideous noises began echoing all around us. Peeking out from behind the numerous boulders and from small caverns spotted around the walls of the cave were an uncountable amount of beady red eyes.

"Th-That's a lot of snarlers..." I could hear Roland gulp as his eyes widened. It wasn't just him that was shocked at the sight but everyone in the class. Even Curtis and Claire looked. I looked at Professor Glory and from her expression, I didn't think she anticipated seeing this many snarlers either.

"P-professor, are there supposed to be this many snarlers?" Asked an upperclassman

"No, this is weird. Usually, there aren't as much snarlers even on the lower floors."

I looked around, seeing even more snarlers around us.

"There are a lot of them but they aren't impossible to handle. However, since this is just a class excursion, I think it's best to go back up, just in case. Safety is priority right now." Just as Professor Glory started slowly ushering everyone back towards the stairs, a fireball flew past her and exploded in a crowd of snarlers.

"See? These nasty little beasts are weak. Professor, don't tell me you brought us all here just to go back? Even a small fire spell was enough to kill six of them," Lucas scoffed as he lowered his staff.

"I-I think we should try and train here, Professor." Curtis had a determined look on his face as several other students, because of Lucas' display, gained confidence as well.

"Alright. Split into teams and take up different parts of the floor." Said professor Glory as she turned to face Lucas. "And Lucas? You do something like that again, and there will be consequences."

Finally, a time to unleash a little.

I started slashing snarlers left and right, when suddenly I heard

"Teams, follow your leaders! We're getting back up!"

Two queen snarlers suddenly showed up.

We kept the minions away, but professor Glory was quite bashed up. Even so, she managed to kill the smaller queen snarler.

Upon seconds of hearing a loud crash, Professor Glory flew past the front line and landed hard against a wave of minion snarlers.

Allowing myself a few seconds to look back, a wave of nausea hit me as my eyes glued onto the sight of the bigger queen snarler, gorging on the corpse of the fallen queen.

"Why is that one so much stronger?" Professor Glory got up as she groaned, cleaving a few minions out of her way.

As I fended off waves of snarlers, my attention kept on drawing back to the queen snarler eating its former ally.

"Professor, does this usually happen?" I asked.

"Well, I've heard that some species of mana beasts do indulge in cannibalism but I've never really seen this particular case. Why now of all times, I have no idea." Shaking her head, she picked up her other sword and made her way towards her opponent.

As the queen snarler finished consuming her fallen comrade, a bizarre change occurred. Its once grey fur turned jet black and the small horn on its forehead that I failed to notice at first curved upwards, growing substantially. The once beady red eyes turned sharp and menacing—almost psychotic—as it began foaming from its mouth as well.

Professor Glory didn't say anything but I knew that there was a growing sense of doubt in her mind as the beast charged at her.