The SSS Beast King: Rebirth of the Legendary Predator
Chapter 54: A Flicker in the Dark

Chapter 54: A Flicker in the Dark

[Devourer of Radiance]-There was once a story parents told their kids when they weren’t listening to them, a story that still haunts those who heard it. That there lives a snake, one that will devour the world light and put it in an endless darkness. This skill allows you to drain the light out of anything that comes in contact with your hand.

Drain the light? So that was what he did. But what is considered someone’s light? It isn’t light literally, it wouldn’t make sense for humans to hold light inside, we’re not stars. So then it had to be something else.

Hope? Maybe the skill drains your will. It was an option, many say hope is their guiding light. But if it was, then what did he do to make my body feel so weird? It couldn’t be that he drained my will.

Life force was the only answer that met all the conditions. It could be considered a light, and it had the power to cause all of those effects on my body. So this skill... drained the life force out of everyone you touch. Or could it be more than just life force? Well, I’ll just have to stick with what I know for sure since I can’t test it.

To think there existed someone with this power, I wonder who his beast is. However, this ability does remind me of someone else. I just can’t remember who it was. Their face is blank to me, as my memory of them is surrounded by a long fog.

Maybe if I was able to figure out who it was, I could think about their other abilities, and weaknesses in case I have to fight him. This could decide if I win or lose, and there was no way I wasn’t going to use such an advantage. I should have the skill for one day and two uses.

And this skill, was perfect for gaining influence, since its power and mystery, people are going to get more attracted to it, trying to figure it out. I mean, even I copied it since I was interested in its nature.

I wanted to try copying Dusk again, but this was good enough. And Dusk seeing his skill would have made him suspicious, and I don’t want him learning anything about my powers, that would be catastrophic.

Speaking of it, how did Eclipse know I was copying him? He couldn’t even hear me copying his skill from that far away, so there had to have been another way he did it. But this was something that was impossible for me to solve at the moment.

I got a skill, so now... I should be ready to finally put my plan into plan. I smirked, my eyes sparkling with anticipation.

[...]

We gathered around a fire that burned for eternity. The tension in the room steals its air from burning even brighter. I watched as others arrived, this time alone, as their teammate were already in the elimination round.

With the corner of my eye, I noticed the sun join the crowd. As he also saw me, he squished himself through the gaps, his body rubbing against the others, and escaped the ocean, then he headed toward where I was sitting while waving.

"Dusk! Where were you?" Eclipse’s usual ecstatic tone was something I never adapted to. How could someone have this much energy, it seemed impossible to me, but I guess with powers like his, he can afford to act like this.

"I was in my room." I wanted to have a quiet place to think about the twist of the other game, truly, if not for my quick thinking, I would be in the elimination round right now. Maybe if Moon had nominated me for the first elimination round, I would have been scared of that thought, but I now know they work and feel, so I would have been fine.

"Vague word, as always. Also, you wouldn’t perhaps be aware of the presence of a celestial entity in this room that orbits the earth with its beautiful light." Was he talking about Moon? Well, that was something only Eclipse could come up with. Celestial entity? That’s funny thinking of how Moon thinks he’s on a higher level than anyone in here.

But he was right, I didn’t see him anywhere. I would have expected him to be here since his teammate is at risk of elimination. He wasn’t that heartless. But that wasn’t the only reason I thought it was impossible for him to not come. He would never miss out on a lot of information.

But as I was looking around, I saw a shade of pink between the sea of heads. My eyes trembled, as I realized who that was. "Anri, how is she here?" She was inside the cabin, so Moon had to have been the one to remain on the correct side. I clenched my fist in anger, I couldn’t figure out how she was here, she should be in the elimination round.

And the fact that Moon wasn’t here made it even more weird. I bit my lip, looking at her face filled with guilt. It wasn’t like the one from before. She buried her face inside her hand, as sweat slowly dropped from her hands, she also looked tensed for whatever reason. "Just what did you do this time..."

I tried getting up to ask her, but Eclipse grabbed my hand. My eyes widened, seeing his serious face. This was the first time in a while, he had made this kind of face. One where he wasn’t smiling. So I just sat down, not wanting to strike up a fight. Was he in on this? He Anri, and that bastard were they all on this? But why, doesn’t he want to win this scenario, why would he help an opposite team? But it was something, it wouldn’t be the first time he did something that I couldn’t understand even if I tried.

Soon enough, after getting my mind caught up in this web with no ends, a screen appeared, showcasing a passage of underground tunnels and rooms. The stone bricks looked worn down, so it had to have been created a long time ago. Water was dripping from the ceiling, and on the ground water splashed. So maybe it was somewhere underwater. But this wasn’t what caught my attention.

What did was a boy among the crowd the nominees. His white hair looked almost silver from the screen, like a metal used to shape a blade. His violet eyes looked like a lilac that had just sprung. On his head, was a white bandana that held his hair up. He wore a glove on his right hand, covering up most of it. There was no one else that it could be, only him. So he had joined the elimination round? But why, what do you gain out of this, Moon?

It made sense now why Anri felt guilty. She blamed herself that Moon decided to take her place, in my theory, because something happened in the second game that put them on bad terms. So after that Moon taking her place confused her even more, not knowing if she should be mad or grateful. Should she be happy, I mean, through this it was clear that Moon cared for her.

...Or not. "Has king not been to your liking that you now try to be a knight in shining armor." This was all a trick. He didn’t make this decision because he cared for her, but because he would gain something I didn’t know if he competed. But I couldn’t step into his mind to figure out what it was.

This was already something weird of him to do, so the fact that on paper he didn’t gain anything, made it even more illogical. Also, what was with the sudden accessories? Especially that glove, he wouldn’t be wearing it if it didn’t mean anything. And why only one one hand?

I’ll just have to figure it out by watching him in this game.

[Welcome to the elimination round, Fading Light. In this game, you would form teams of five, each having a captain who will hold a lantern. This lantern will be the heart of the team, meanwhile, the captain will be the body of the heart. But, the light of the lanterns slowly loses its light, and the first four teams to fully lose it will be eliminated. To feed your lantern more light, you can either hunt the fireflies inside the ruins or steal the lanterns of others to gain some of theirs. But to do that, the lantern has to be in your hand for at least ten seconds. Something to note is that the brighter the light, the stronger the captain, so if the lantern is about to die, the captain will be weakened. And the longer the game, the faster the lanter loses its light, so the longer that game lasts, the harder it gets. Good Luck!]