Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Lily moved first.

Because of course she did.

She lunged forward with her staff, swinging it in a wide arc meant to keep me at a distance.

Too bad for her — I'd already closed the gap.

With a half-step inward and a lazy pivot of my body, I caught the shaft of her staff with one hand and shattered it with the other.

Effortlessly.

Just to be clear, I didn't snap it.

I didn't break it.

I shattered it.

With a single chop, I shattered her staff into splintered fragments that scattered through the air like shrapnel.

She gasped.

I stepped in, slammed a shoulder into hers, and knocked her back — almost sending her off balance.

Her eyes widened.

Because now she remembered.

There was a difference between knowledge and power.

She knew how to fight.

I was a fighter.

She was trained.

I was forged.

And she may have been good.

But I was better.

…However, Lily Elderwing wasn't done yet.

She stepped back, regained her footing, and spread her arms as the broken fragments of her staff disintegrated into a shimmer of light sparks.

Instantly, thin threads of silvery-blue light streamed out from her body, stitching together into a glowing rectangular shape above her shoulder.

Her Origin Card manifested.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I swore I felt the temperature dip.

Her violet eyes flashed bright.

And suddenly, she was gone.

Well… not gone.

But she moved so fluidly, it felt like she vanished.

The next punch I threw missed entirely.

And before I knew it — she was behind me, ducking under my guard and jabbing an elbow into my ribs.

I grimaced — not as much from pain as from sheer irritation.

I swung again.

She twisted low beneath my arm and spun, sweeping my leg with a wide arc of her heel.

I didn't fall but I did stumble.

My eyes narrowed.

This infuriating wench…She was reading me like an open book.

I attacked high — she dipped low.

I swept sideways — she pivoted right.

I feinted — she countered.

Every move I made was instantly anticipated.

It was almost as if she was gazing at what hadn't even happened yet… and reacting before it did.

…Because that's exactly what she was doing.

Her Origin Card let her see five seconds into the future.

The outcome of every strike, the direction of every movement, the course of every blow — she saw it all.

She flowed like water and struck like wind.

Her attacks were a graceful blend of Muay Thai's aggression and Kung Fu's poise.

Her footwork was light and quick, and she capitalized on even the tiniest openings in my defense by dealing swift elbow and knee strikes with surgical precision.

At the same time, she evaded all my blows, either whirling around my reach or countering with forceful palm thrusts.

And yet…I still pushed her back.

Because just knowing what was coming…Didn't mean she could stop it.

I fought like a beast in a cage — relentless and feral.

Every swing I hurled carried enough weight to crater stone.

Every punch I threw sent soft shockwaves in the air.

I didn't try to outmaneuver her.

I just overwhelmed her.

My onslaught was brutal and violent and unrelenting.

And Lily was barely keeping up.

Because she knew that if even one of my attacks landed, she'd be down on the ground.

She couldn't afford a single mistake.

"You weren't this good before.

You were never this good.

You always hated fighting," I snarled, my lips curling up into a smirk.

"Have you been sparring with your new boyfriend?

How sweet.

Unluckily for you — I'll not be nearly as gentle as him.

"I sidestepped a quick jab from Lily, who didn't rise to my bait, and reached inward — deep into the marrow of my soul — summoning my own Origin Card.

Luminous golden particles exploded from my body, flaring like sparks from a forge.

They spiraled into a radiant Card that hovered above my right shoulder, its surface etched with blazing runes.

In the next second, the earth beneath our feet shuddered — obeying the will I'd suddenly decided to impose on it.

With a thunderous crack, the ground around Lily erupted.

Massive hand-like constructs made of stone, soil, and tangled roots burst forth — each one the size of a carriage and twice her height.

Their fingers snapped toward her like the wrathful fists of buried titans clawing their way out of the underworld.

Lily gasped and hopped back a few steps, trying to get as far away from these hands as possible.

The first hand missed, grabbing nothing but empty air.

The second hand pounced from her flank — she vaulted over it with a breathtaking grace expected from someone who could see what wasn't yet.

More hands lunged to seize her, but none managed to even land a touch.

She darted across the clearing — ducking, spinning, flipping, rolling.

Each dodge she made was perfect.

Every step she took was precise.

The giant earthen hands slammed down one after another, all failing to catch her by inches, as she kept slipping past them like a phantom.

Watching her move like that felt like witnessing poetry in motion.

…But even the most beautiful of poems have to end.

Because what if she could see the future?

If I made the future inescapable — then what could she do about it?

Nothing.

Therefore… I did exactly that.

All the hands I had conjured — all eight of them — suddenly turned and converged in her direction at once.

Lily might've realized how hopeless it was to keep resisting by this point, but she still didn't stop fighting.

She leapt over the nearest incoming hand, then used it as a launchpad to jump even higher into the air.

But even a seer couldn't dodge what came from every direction.

One hand eventually caught her mid-leap — its stone fingers clamping around her calf.

Then, it yanked her down.

Lily screamed as it slammed her into the earth.

Hard.

Thwaaam—!!

Then it whipped her around and flung her sideways, smacking her into a tree trunk with a meaty CRACK that echoed like thunder through the forest.

Her body bounced off the bark like a ragdoll.

But before she even hit the ground again…I was already there.

I strode forward and wrapped a hand around her throat, lifting her off her feet as the earthen hands around us crumbled back into dust and chunks of stone.

Lily's back pressed against the tree.

My grip tightened on her neck like a vice.

She squirmed and tried to pry my hand away, but she wasn't nearly strong enough.

In the end, her nails could only weakly scratch at my arm.

And before she could retaliate any further…I started battering her face with my fists.

—Thwack!

Thwack!

Thwack!

Each punch landed with bone-jarring force.

Each blow was a message I didn't have the words to scream at her.

—Thwack!

Thwack!

Thwack!

Her face went from flushed to bruised… to bloodied.

Her skin split and swelled.

Her eyes fluttered.

Her breath hitched, turning wet and shallow, as she could only gasp between the hits.

—ThwackAfter the seventh punch, I stopped.

Fingers still clamped around her throat.

Fist now painted red with her blood.

Chest heaving like a war drum.

Lily coughed, spraying even more blood down her chin.

Then, she looked at me through one half-swollen eye before choking out a whisper in a cracked and breathless voice, "F-Fe… feeling better n-now?

"…And just like that, my rage came roaring back.

I balled my fist, drew my arm back — ready to cave her face in… when she moved.

With all the strength her battered body had left, Lily raised both legs and kicked me square in the chest.

The hit wasn't clean, but it was enough.

Caught off-guard, I stumbled back, crashed to the ground in a messy roll, and came up on one knee.

Gnashing my teeth, I snapped my head up… only to freeze in my tracks.

Because right then, I saw something massive tore through the cover of forest from our left.

Whatever it was, it was huge.

Eight feet tall, at least.

Hulking, powerful, and inhumanly quick for its large size.

All I spotted was a blur of four limbs and eight twitching, segmented spear-legs that each ended in a sharp spike.

Obviously it was a Spirit Beast.

And it plowed straight through the tree I'd held Lily against just a moment ago.

THWAAAM—!!

The tree exploded into splinters and dust.

I shielded my face, squinting through the cloud of debris.

Then the dust settled.

And I saw it.

The thing that had attacked us.

It was an abomination of nature.

An insult to biology.

An amalgamated nightmare!

That thing had the broad, muscular body of a gorilla… but its spine was covered in glossy black chitin.

Eight crimson eyes glowed scarlet like embers across its face, mandibles twitching below its jagged teeth.

Enormous spider legs sprouted from its back — long, segmented, and sharp — spasming like living spears eager to impale us.

Its fur was pitch black, but patchy and uneven — wet with some kind of fluid and dirt, clinging to its twitching body like fungus to rot.

And pinned beneath one of its spear-like limbs… was Lily.

My heart sank.

Her body had gone limp.

Blood and dirt smeared across her face.

She wasn't moving.

But she was still alive.

That beast hadn't hurt her yet aside from colliding straight into her with the force of a speeding boulder.

And then, just when I thought this situation couldn't get any worse… the situation got worse.

The surrounding forest shook.

Shrieks erupted from the trees.

And very soon, more monsters emerged.

These ones were smaller than the spider-gorilla — but no less vile.

They resembled monkeys.

Well, if monkeys had mossy-green fur, four arms instead of two, several glowing eyes, and barbed tails that could shoot spiderwebs.

They scampered into the clearing with clawed limbs and spiderlike motions.

Some came swinging in from the trees on web-like slings, shrieking and drooling.

And in the blink of an eye, we were surrounded.