"Hiss—"
"Gurgle..."
"Clack... clack..."
Not far away, several low growls, hisses, and the sound of carapaces scraping against rock—noises uniquely characteristic of predators excited by the discovery of prey—rapidly approached.
Several pairs of eyes, flickering with eerie green, dark red, or deathly white light, lit up in the darkness from different directions outside the bushes. Like will-o'-the-wisps, they simultaneously locked onto the thicket where the trio was hiding.
The air grew thick with the mixed, fishy stench of various monsters.
There were three of them.
One was a lizard magnified several times in size, its back covered in hideous bone spikes and corrosive saliva dripping from its mouth—a Level 25 Spine-back Lizard.
Another was a stout, humanoid monster composed of rock and moss; it was slow-moving but possessed immense strength—a Level 24 Moss-rock Golem.
Finally, there was a slender black shadow gliding silently through the darkness, identifiable only by its deathly white eyes and a massive maw filled with sharp teeth—a Level 26 Shadow-eater Beast.
They had clearly been drawn by the noise from earlier.
"W-We've been found! There's more than one!"
Alvin's face was as pale as paper, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Run! Get up! Split up and run!"
Leonard let out a low, beast-like growl. Using the last of his willpower, he struggled to climb to his feet, but his weak, trembling legs caused him to stumble.
Leah only let out a despairing whimper. She lacked even the strength to stand and could only fruitlessly shrink her body back against the rock.
The Spine-back Lizard was the first to attack. It let out an excited hiss, its thick hind legs kicking off the ground as it pounced toward the bushes like an arrow from a bow, its mouth agape and dripping with acid.
The Moss-rock Golem approached from another side with heavy steps, swinging its stone fists.
The Shadow-eater Beast silently merged into the nearest shadow, preparing for a fatal backstab.
It's over.
This thought surfaced clearly in the minds of the three students.
Their final shred of will to struggle collapsed.
Leah even closed her eyes in despair, waiting for the pain of being torn apart or swallowed to arrive.
At that critical moment—
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several faint whistling sounds of objects cutting through the air erupted from a particularly dense patch of shadow to the side, moving even faster!
They weren't arrows or throwing knives, but several slender wooden strips that looked ordinary, even somewhat withered and twisted!
However, the moment these wooden strips flew out, they seemed to be imbued with a bizarre and powerful life of their own!
Like flexible and tough dark tentacles, they traced unpredictable, cunning arcs through the air, wrapping themselves with pinpoint accuracy around the most critical parts of the three monsters!
Two wooden strips coiled around the neck and forelimbs of the Spine-back Lizard like venomous snakes. They tightened suddenly, yanking its pouncing momentum to a violent halt and leaving it hissing and struggling in pain.
Three thicker strips acted like giant pythons, binding the swinging stone arms and the short, thick neck of the Moss-rock Golem. The powerful binding force caused even this immensely strong monster to stall, letting out a muffled roar of fury.
Two more extremely thin strips, almost merging into the darkness, shot out from an impossible angle. They snared the feet and torso of the Shadow-eater Beast just as it emerged from the shadows to pounce on Leah, pinning it firmly to the ground.
"Screee?!"
"Roar!!"
"Wu—!"
The three monsters were caught completely off guard. Terrified and enraged, they struggled desperately, biting and spitting acid or shadow energy.
But those seemingly fragile wooden strips were exceptionally resilient. Their surfaces faintly glowed with a dark, light-devouring shimmer that neutralized all of the monsters' attacks.
Furthermore, they began to coil tighter and tighter. The Spine-back Lizard's eyes bulged, the rocks on the Moss-rock Golem's body began to crack, and the Shadow-eater Beast let out a shrill shriek of pain.
This sudden, bizarre scene caused Alvin, Leonard, and Leah—who had been waiting for death—to snap their eyes open. Their mouths hung open, but they couldn't make a sound. Their faces were masks of extreme shock, confusion, and disbelief, as if they were witnessing a hallucination.
Then, a figure slowly and calmly stepped out from the dense shadow where the wooden strips had originated, entering the area illuminated by the pale glow of the fungi.
It was a tall, well-built male.
He wore a simple wooden mask that covered only the upper half of his face. The craftsmanship of the mask was somewhat crude, but the edges were polished smooth. Behind the hollowed-out eye sockets, a pair of calm eyes seemed to watch them.
Even in this dim light, his shoulder-length golden hair—brilliant and dazzling like flowing liquid gold—was enough to capture everyone's attention.
"Y-You are...!?"
Alvin finally found his voice and stammered. The intense impact of surviving a brush with death combined with the incredibility of the scene before him made his voice crack and distort.
The masked man tilted his head slightly, seemingly glancing at the three terrified and disheveled students.
The mask made it impossible to see his full expression, but the lines of his exposed jaw seemed to soften for a moment, and a hint of an inscrutable curve hooked at the corner of his mouth.
His voice came through the mask, sounding somewhat deep, yet oddly possessed a magnetic quality that could soothe the soul. His tone was steady:
"Me? I'm just a passing Tentacle Rider. So, what my name is doesn't matter."
"'Ten... Tentacle Rider'?"
Leonard and Leah looked at each other, seeing the same bewilderment and confusion in each other's eyes.
They racked their brains but couldn't recall ever hearing this title mentioned by academy professors, nor had they seen it in any adventurer biographies or bestiaries.
Could it be some kind of hidden ancient profession?
Or a self-styled title used by a solitary powerhouse?
Looking at their blank faces, Greg confirmed one thing.
It seems this world doesn't have any Kamen Rider easter eggs; they don't even know this meme.
Indeed, this masked man was Greg. To hide his identity and minimize any connection to Catherine, Greg had fashioned this disguise.
While making the mask, he had also figured out how to use the Tentacle Entanglement skill.
It was simple: as long as he held onto those tentacle-like branches and covered them with a layer of his own dark attribute mana, he could control them as easily as his own limbs.
And due to the nature of dark attribute mana, his Tentacle Entanglement was far more formidable than the original version.
Not only was it incredibly durable, but it could also continuously weaken the bound enemies.
The only drawback was that because his skill proficiency was only Level 1, he couldn't control many branches at once. However, that didn't matter much.
It was currently enough.
And right now, it seemed his plan to hide his identity was quite successful.
After all, these people would never associate the powerful person standing before them with that fool Greg Sass, who was once known as the ultimate product of nepotism.
"I really am a master strategist!"
However, just as Greg's painstakingly crafted mysterious identity was about to take root in the trio's hearts, it was ruthlessly shattered in the very next instant.
"G-Greg-senpai... y-you ran too fast... I... I almost couldn't keep up..."
The voice of a girl, clearly panting and sounding a bit aggrieved and anxious, drifted from the edge of the shadows in the direction Greg had come from.
Accompanied by slightly messy footsteps, Silvia appeared within the range of the dim light, jogging toward them.
Her long pink hair was somewhat disheveled from the continuous running and stress, and a few strands clung to her sweaty forehead and cheeks. Her fair face was flushed from the exertion.
It was clear she had worked quite hard to catch up.
However, at this moment, all Greg wanted to say to the hardworking Silvia was:
"Fuck! (And not the botanical kind!)"
Rate on N.U.
