Chapter 130: Similar Thoughts
Chapter 130: Similar Thoughts
Andras moved.
A compressed blast tore through the space where his chest had been a moment earlier. The stone floor behind him erupted, fragments scattering across the chamber as he landed several meters away, sword already in hand.
He looked at Romeo.
There was no surprise in his violet eyes. Only calm.
"So," Andras said quietly. "You’ve finally decided to make your move."
Romeo’s expression hardened.
Andras slowly raised his sword. "I was wondering when you would attack. I have to admit, you were patient. And you chose the best possible moment."
Romeo’s eyes narrowed. "How did you know?"
"How could I not know?" Andras took a step forward. "You already sent assassins after me."
For the first time, Romeo’s expression shifted—only slightly, but enough. Andras noticed.
"The ones you sent were weak," Andras continued. "They died easily. I knew you suspected I remained unaware. But I knew. Your assassin confirmed it before he died."
Silence filled the chamber. Dust still drifted from the earlier blast, catching the faint blue light of the dungeon crystals. Somewhere deeper in the structure, stone continued to settle with soft, irregular cracks.
Romeo’s hand tightened around his weapon. "So you knew all along?"
"Yes."
"Then why didn’t you expose me?"
Andras’s smile widened by a fraction. "Because I wanted to see what you would do. You were useful to me." He paused. "But you’ve outlived your usefulness."
Romeo stared at him. Then he laughed—not the polite academy laugh, but something colder, stripped of warmth and calculation.
"So that’s how it is."
Mana surged through his body. The air around him trembled as densified energy began to gather along his arm and the edge of his blade.
"You wanted to kill me," Romeo said. "And I already decided the same. I know I’m weaker than you. I know you figured everything out. But if I die here..." His eyes sharpened with something closer to desperation than confidence. "I’ll still drag you down with me."
Andras regarded him for several seconds. Then a faint smile touched his lips.
"Our thoughts are alike."
Before either of them could close the distance, a deep rumble shook the dungeon.
Both men turned.
The Stonehorn Ravager’s massive body twitched. Blue light spread through the cracks in the floor as streams of mana poured into it from the surrounding structure. The energy crawled over broken scales and open wounds like living veins. Its fingers scraped against the stone. Then its enormous hand slammed down, and the entire chamber trembled as the creature forced itself upright. Crimson eyes reignited with a dull, burning light.
Andras’s expression cooled further.
The dungeon was feeding it mana, restoring enough of its strength to keep it alive—but not enough to erase the damage it had already suffered. The worst wounds remained. The creature had been forced back onto its feet, not made whole.
Romeo’s face twisted. He no longer had the luxury of a clean one-on-one fight. But he also no longer needed one. If the monster could pressure Andras, then even a weaker, wounded man might still find a fatal opening in the chaos.
The Ravager roared. The sound slammed through the chamber hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. Then it charged.
Andras moved first, intercepting the monster before it could reach them. Sovereign Predator Physique flared, sharpening his strength, speed, and recovery. Echo Step carried him inside the creature’s reach in a controlled blur. Black Thorn’s First Thorn cut toward a joint in a narrow, piercing line, aiming for the seam between reinforced plates rather than the densest armor.
At the same moment, Romeo raised his hand and fired a compressed blast—not at the Ravager.
At Andras’s back.
Andras felt the densification through Echo Resonance an instant before release. The warning was sharp and clean. He twisted hard, using the Ravager’s own bulk as partial cover. The compressed mana tore past his shoulder close enough to scorch the edge of his coat and leave a burning line of heat across his back, then detonated against the monster’s side instead. The impact staggered the Ravager and bought Andras a fraction of space.
Romeo was no longer trying to win cleanly.
He was trying to create a killing opportunity, even if it cost him his life.
The Ravager recovered with the stubborn force of something being held together by external mana and swung. Its claws swept horizontally with enough force to shear stone. Andras slipped under the attack, boots scraping against cracked flooring, and drove a piercing cut into the softer seam beneath its arm. Dark blood sprayed. He immediately had to disengage as another compressed sphere formed in Romeo’s hand, the air around it tightening with densified mana. Echo Step flared again. Andras vanished from the line of fire an instant before the blast tore through the space he had occupied and forced the Ravager to turn its head toward the secondary threat.
That half-second was all Andras needed to reopen distance and reassess.
Two opponents.
One overwhelming in raw power and durability.
One weaker, already injured, but fully committed to mutual destruction.
Andras adjusted his approach.
He kept the Ravager between himself and Romeo whenever possible, forcing the monster to act as an unstable shield. Echo Resonance tracked both threats at once—the heavy, lagging surges of the Ravager’s mana as it prepared Earthshatter or wide physical strikes, and the sharper, tighter compressions from Romeo that signaled an imminent blast. Every time Romeo’s mana densified, Andras changed angle before the release. Every time the Ravager committed to a wide swing, Andras cut into the opening with a precise Black Thorn thrust and immediately relocated before Romeo could punish the commitment.
The chamber became a storm of shattered stone, densified detonations, and the sharp ring of steel.
Romeo’s breathing grew harsher. Blood ran freely down his side and dripped from his damaged arm, spattering against the floor with every movement. Yet he refused to stop. Whenever Andras locked position against the Ravager, Romeo fired. Whenever Andras created space, Romeo tried to close it just enough to threaten. His attacks were no longer efficient in the academy sense. They were sacrificial—timed to land in the exact moments Andras could least afford to ignore them.
He was no longer fighting to survive the dungeon.
He was fighting to make sure Andras did not leave it either.
The Ravager, sensing the greater threat, focused more and more of its aggression on Andras. Its crimson eyes tracked him preferentially, ignoring easier chances to crush Romeo. That pressure forced Andras to spend more movement on evasion, which in turn gave Romeo more chances to aim. The monster’s Earthshatter erupted twice more—stone spikes punching upward from the cracked floor in jagged clusters—each time preceded by the same readable gathering of mana around its legs. Andras was already moving before the spikes fully formed, but the constant need to account for Romeo’s line of fire made every escape narrower than it should have been. One spike still grazed his boot. Another detonated close enough that fragments cut across his sleeve.
Andras accepted the disadvantage and narrowed his responses further.
He stopped trying to finish either opponent in a single exchange. Instead, he bled the Ravager with precise Black Thorn thrusts—knee, underarm, the seam along the ribs—each cut placed where Echo Resonance indicated the mana flow thinned for a fraction of a second during movement. The dungeon’s support kept the creature standing, but it could not fully close the wounds Andras kept reopening. Sovereign Predator Physique kept his recovery sharp even as the fight stretched on and the strain accumulated in his arms and shoulders. Echo Step erased the most dangerous timings. Echo Resonance continued to feed him the order of threats: which attack would land first, which compression was fully formed, which joint was weakest in the current stance.
The Ravager stomped hard. Earthshatter flared with greater force than before. A dense cluster of stone spears erupted in a wide arc, turning the center of the chamber into a forest of jagged rock. Andras was already moving before the mana fully left the creature’s legs. He appeared at its flank in a blur of Echo Step, drove Second Thorn upward beneath the ribs, and twisted. The piercing line of Black Thorn Sword Style sank deep. Dark blood sprayed across the stone in a heavy arc. The monster convulsed, its roar shaking more dust from the ceiling and widening the cracks underfoot.
Romeo saw the opening and poured everything he had left into one final compression. The air around his hand distorted under the pressure, the densified mana glowing with unstable intensity.
"Die!"
The blast screamed across the chamber.
Andras did not retreat from the Ravager. He stepped in closer, using the monster’s collapsing frame as cover. The compressed mana struck the Ravager’s back and shoulder instead of Andras’s spine, adding catastrophic damage to an already critical wound. The impact drove the creature forward. Andras ripped his sword free, circled the falling bulk in the same motion, and drove the blade cleanly through the center of the creature’s chest. Something vital cracked beneath the scales with a dull, final sound. He twisted the blade once, hard.
The Ravager’s crimson eyes flickered—then went dark.
Its enormous body crashed to the floor hard enough to send a fresh tremor through the chamber. This time, it did not rise again. Whatever support the dungeon had been supplying was no longer enough.
Silence pressed in for a brief moment, broken only by the sound of settling stone and Romeo’s ragged, uneven breathing.
Andras withdrew his sword and glanced at the corpse long enough to test what mattered.
"System. Devour its talent."
[Ding!]
[Target detected.]
[Target: Stonehorn Ravager.]
[Beginning Talent Devouring...]
A few seconds passed. Residual mana still clung faintly to the fallen boss.
[Ding!]
[Devouring Complete.]
[Host has acquired Talent — Earthshatter (B-Rank).]
A faint smile touched his lips. Boss monsters could be taken. That was enough for now. He dismissed the interface and turned.
Romeo stood several meters away, barely upright. Blood soaked his side and stained the torn fabric of his uniform. His mana was nearly spent. His sword tip trembled against the stone. One arm hung almost useless, the shoulder clearly damaged from earlier impacts. Yet his eyes still burned with the same decision that had driven him to fire at Andras’s back while a Class B monster was still alive.
Andras walked toward him at an unhurried pace. Each step echoed softly against the ruined floor, steady and deliberate, as though the chaotic three-way battle had never threatened his control.
Romeo tried to lift his weapon.
Andras stopped. "Don’t."
His voice was calm. Romeo’s arm failed halfway. The sword scraped weakly against the stone and nearly slipped from his fingers.
Andras looked at him without emotion. "You’ve already lost."
Silence settled over the ruined chamber. The blue crystal light flickered faintly across blood, cracked stone, and the still form of the fallen Ravager.
Andras tightened his grip around his sword.
Now only one problem remained.
Romeo Ravenhart.