Chris's absence was felt as a vacuum of competence that Theo and Darkness were not slow to notice. Without the silver-haired thief to coordinate the flanks, detect traps with absolute precision, and, above all, keep the crusader's eccentricities at bay, the duo found themselves reduced to a strange dynamic. Theo, despite his accelerated growth, still felt like a novice who was just beginning to connect the dots of his combat style, and Darkness... well, Darkness remained an impenetrable metal wall that couldn't land a blow even on a static target.
Doing simple missions became the norm to avoid disasters. While Chris resolved her personal matters, Theo and the crusader dedicated themselves to clearing Axel's surroundings of minor pests. During those days, the closeness between the two grew. However, to the misfortune of Theo's mental stability, this trust caused Darkness to lower her social defenses. Her masochistic side, previously contained by noble etiquette or Chris's presence, began to sprout with alarming frequency.
Theo tried to ignore her. Every time a monster hit her and she let out a sigh that sounded far too pleasant, he would avert his gaze and focus on his sword. At first, he admitted to himself that seeing such a beautiful woman in that state of vulnerability was stimulating, but with the passage of hours and days, the constant bombardment of innuendos and moans began to wear down his patience. He was reaching his limit—a tension accumulating under his skin like static electricity.
Upon reaching level 14, Theo felt his body responding better to his commands. Darkness, for her part, was already bordering on level 19, approaching the power she held when they originally met. With that slight increase in confidence, they decided to accept a mission in a cave in the nearby hills. The objective: ten giant bats that had turned the place into their nest, scaring local miners.
The cave was a pit of shadows. The only illumination came from veins of glowing stones that emitted a dim, bluish radiance, casting long and distorted shadows on the damp rock walls. The constant dripping of water and the smell of guano created an oppressive atmosphere.
"Stay alert, Darkness" - Theo whispered, unsheathing his sword. - "The bats could appear at any moment."
But Darkness was not listening like a professional warrior. Her hands trembled slightly as she stroked the pommel of her unsheathed claymore. Her blue eyes scanned the darkness with a feverish intensity.
"A lonely place..." - she murmured, with a voice that echoed in the cave like a shiver. - "Dark, far from civilization... where no one can hear a lady's screams... Theo, you have finally brought me here to reveal your true face, haven't you?"
Theo grit his teeth, feeling a vein throb in his temple.
"Darkness, please. We are on a serious mission" - he said, trying to remain calm but with growing frustration. - "Leave your fantasies at least until the end of the mission, please."
"Oh, what coldness!" - she continued, ignoring him completely. - "You ask me to be quiet so that the silence of the cave is more terrifying... You plan to use your adventurer's strength to submit me in this forgotten corner of the world... What a wonderful disgrace!"
Theo's patience snapped. He stopped dead and looked at her with a contempt that was no longer feigned.
"Do you really think I could submit you, Darkness?" - he snapped bitterly. - "You are at a higher level than I am, your armor is made of Adamantite, and your physical strength is ridiculous compared to mine. How do you expect me to do all that you say if you are much stronger than me?"
It was the worst mistake of his short life in this world.
Darkness let out a gasp so loud it echoed in the cave. Her face flushed a deep crimson and her legs seemed to falter.
"Yes! That's true!" - she exclaimed, almost breathless while feigning. - "Of course I would resist! How could a still-pure woman like me let a beast like you profane me! Ah~ Theo, I will truly defend my purity with all my might!"
Theo looked at her and something inside him—perhaps fueled by accumulated frustration or by the latent influence of the skill he was about to invoke—simply clicked. He remembered that Darkness always backed down when reality surpassed her fantasy, but at that moment, he no longer wanted to be the spectator of her mind games.
'If you want to be forced, then I will be the one to force you' - he thought with a darkness that didn't entirely belong to him.
"Inner Beast" - he whispered.
There was no shout. Only the sound of his joints cracking and the air heating up around him. Theo's eyes turned yellow, his pupils slit, and his stature increased slightly, giving him a predatory presence that filled the space between them. His strength skyrocketed, leveled by days of intense training, until it surpassed the threshold of what Darkness expected.
Before she could react, Theo moved with blinding speed. He grabbed Darkness's wrists with a single hand, pinning them above her head against the cold rock wall with a sharp thud of metal against stone. His leg wedged firmly between hers, immobilizing her and eliminating any room to maneuver.
Darkness let out a muffled cry of surprise. The change in Theo was so radical that her brain took a second to process it. The calm and analytical boy had vanished; in front of her was a hunter whose aura burned and whose gaze demanded submission.
Theo used his free hand to grab the crusader's chin, forcing her to look directly into his eyes. With the skill active, his social inhibitors had disintegrated.
"Listen to me well, Darkness" - Theo said, with a deep, dominant voice laden with real threat. - "You think this is a game. You think you can push me to the limit day after day with your nonsense and that I'll just stand by and watch. You've been provoking me to exhaustion."
Darkness was trembling. For the first time, it wasn't just out of excitement; there was a trace of genuine fear mixed with the deepest shame she had ever felt. Seeing Theo's yellow eyes, looking at her as if she were prey about to be devoured, excited her to the point of delirium, but it also made her feel small—vulnerable in a way she had never experienced.
"Theodore?.." - she stammered, her breath hitching against his face.
"Certainly, a few days ago I wouldn't have done anything to you" - Theo continued, tightening the grip on her wrists just enough for her to feel the pressure. - "But you've pushed me to the limit. And if you don't want these fantasies of yours to end up as a reality you can't handle, you're going to start behaving. Understood?"
Their faces were centimeters apart. Theo could feel the heat emanating from Darkness's body through her armor. Her lips were parted, her eyes full of a jumble of submission, excitement, and panic. Theo, caught in the frenzy of his own skill and the beauty of the woman in front of him, felt the impulse to close the final distance. The desire to claim what she so loudly asked for became almost unbearable.
But just as the air became too heavy to breathe, the senses of the Inner Beast triggered an alarm in his brain.
Fwap. Fwap. Fwap.
Through Foresight, Theo saw a group of giant bats moving rapidly toward them from the ceiling of the adjoining gallery.
"Damn it..." - Theo growled, releasing Darkness so abruptly that she fell to her knees on the ground, her body weakened by the overstimulation of the last few minutes.
The frustration and anger at the interruption clouded Theo's judgment, but instead of paralyzing him, they turned him into a whirlwind of contained violence. He turned toward the darkness just as the first giant bat, with a three-meter wingspan and fangs like daggers, lunged at them.
"You disgusting bastards!" - Theo roared, launching into the attack.
The first giant bat emerged from the gloom like a nightmare specter. Its leathery wings thrashed the stagnant air, kicking up a gust that smelled of mold and old blood. Theo, wrapped in the aura of the Inner Beast, did not retreat a single centimeter. His night vision allowed him to see them clearly, and his mind, now operating with the coldness of a predator, calculated the exact angle of interception.
With a cry that was more of a roar than a word, Theo propelled himself forward. The rock floor cracked under his boots. The bat tried to bite his shoulder, but Theo ducked with inhuman flexibility and, in an upward movement, pierced the creature's chest. Dark blood splattered his trench coat, but the cleaning enchantments repelled it instantly, leaving the garment impeccable as the monster's corpse hit the ground.
"Nine left!" - Theo exclaimed, spinning on his heels.
Darkness remained on the ground, hands braced against the damp rock, trying to regain control of her own body. Seeing Theo move that way—so wild, so efficient, so absolute—kept her in a state of trance. It was like seeing the personification of powerful and uncontrollable violence.
The other nine bats dived down from the stalactites. They were dangerous creatures, strong enough to lift an adult man into the air, but against Theo in this state, they were mere sacks of meat.
Theo activated his thief skills in conjunction with his physical enhancement. He used a feint to lure two of them and, as they approached, performed a 360-degree spin, decapitating both in a single circular motion. The speed was such that the bodies continued flying for a couple of meters before noticing they no longer had heads.
Taking advantage of the bats flying low, Theo jumped onto the cave wall, using it as a platform to propel himself toward the ceiling. He grabbed one of the monsters by the neck with his free hand and slammed it against the ground while using his sword to impale another in mid-flight. The cave filled with agonizing shrieks and the rhythmic sound of steel slicing through flesh.
Theo felt no fatigue. The frustration accumulated from the situation with Darkness channeled into every blow. He was tearing through them. In less than three minutes, the cave floor was littered with torn wings and inert bodies. Darkness had barely managed to stand and unsheathe her claymore when Theo plunged his sword into the last bat, which was attempting to flee into the depths of the grotto.
Silence returned, heavy and dense. Theo stood over the last corpse, his chest rising and falling sharply. His yellow gaze scanned the place once more before the glow in his eyes faded.
"Deactivate" - he whispered.
The recoil was immediate. His muscles, which had expanded under the pressure of the skill, contracted, causing a dull pain in his joints. The regained height and sensory clarity vanished, leaving him with a throbbing dizziness. But what hurt the most was the consciousness of what had just happened.
'I'm an idiot' - Theo thought, covering his face with one hand while sheathing his sword with the other. - 'I almost lost control. I can't use the Inner Beast to give 'lessons'. The skill doesn't distinguish between discipline and desire... I let myself be carried away by the impulsivity of the skill'
He turned toward Darkness. The crusader was standing a few meters away, looking at him with a mixture of emotions that Theo couldn't quite decipher. She was pale, her armor had some marks from the pressure of Theo's hands on her wrists, and her breathing was still irregular.
"Theo..." - she began, taking a hesitant step toward him. - "I... what happened earlier..."
"Don't say anything" - Theo cut her off, with a tone of voice that denoted a deep shame of himself. - "I behaved like an animal. I shouldn't have acted like that, let alone use my skill that way with you, no matter how much you were provoking me. It was... it was a mistake."
Darkness looked down, fiddling with her fingers.
"But... you really seemed..." - she tried to say, perhaps looking for him to admit that her fantasies had a real basis.
"We're going back" - Theo declared, turning to walk toward the cave exit. - "The mission is accomplished. We have the proof from the bats. Let's go."
The trip back to Axel was the most uncomfortable Theo had ever experienced. The forest, which used to be a place of training and peace, now felt like a hallway that was too narrow. Neither of them spoke. Theo walked three steps ahead, feeling the weight of Darkness's gaze on his back. He knew she was processing the experience of having been physically dominated in such a real way, and he was processing the fact that, for a few seconds, he had really wanted to cross the line.
After arriving at the guild, they collected the reward in silence. Luna looked at them with curiosity, noticing the charged atmosphere between them, but had the prudence not to ask.
When it came time to split the loot, Darkness tried to refuse her share, claiming she hadn't done anything in the fight.
"Take your half" - Theo said, holding out the bag of coins and looking at her with a firmness that admitted no reply.
Darkness accepted the money, her fingers brushing against his for a brief moment. A shiver ran through both, but Theo withdrew his hand immediately.
"Tomorrow... tomorrow I'll be busy and I don't know when I'll be free" - Theo said, without looking her in the eyes. - "So take advantage and take the day off." - After saying that, he walked away without waiting for a response.
Theo walked toward his apartment, feeling that the night air was not enough to cool his internal agitation. Upon entering his room, he collapsed onto the bed without even taking off his boots.
"That skill... it's a curse if I don't control it," he reflected while staring at the ceiling. "And Darkness... if I stay in a party with her, this is going to end very badly. Or very well. And I really hope it's the latter."
With his mind full of doubts and his body exhausted, Theo closed his eyes.
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I hope you enjoyed the chapter