My SSS-Rank Gluttony Talent: I Can Evolve Limitlessly-Chapter 37: A human… or something worse?

The orc king stirred.

A low growl vibrated in his throat as his massive limbs twitched beneath Riley’s boots. Then—with a thunderous roar—Kraghur’s body surged back to life.

Riley leapt off just in time.

BOOM!

The orc king erupted from the ground in a burst of rage, his massive frame quivering with fury.

Veins bulged across his thick neck and temple, pulsing visibly beneath his coarse skin.

Growl!!

His nostrils flared as another beastly snarl sounded from his throat.

And then—it happened.

The tattoos that ran along his arms suddenly ignited with a fierce, red glow.

Each line pulsed as though they were alive, sending energy surging through his flesh like magma.

Riley’s brows lifted.

He took a step back, eyes narrowing as Kraghur’s muscles began to swell rapidly, expanding like an inflating balloon.

His whole body grew larger—denser. Veins popped all across his limbs like writhing snakes, as though his flesh could barely contain the raw power flooding through him.

"...That’s the same thing the other orc used," Riley muttered. "But this one’s... more powerful."

A chorus of guttural cheers erupted from the crowd around them.

The orc spectators had risen to their feet, chanting wildly in their barbaric tongue.

Saliva flew from their jaws as they howled and beat their chests.

To them, this was it—the true form of their king!

They felt like whatever that strange human used the first time wouldn’t work again, and it was finally over for him!

Kraghur’s gray skin deepened a shade, shifting toward an almost obsidian hue.

Then, as the tattoos pulsed again, thick, brown gauntlets erupted from his fists, coating them like shells.

The transformation didn’t stop there.

With a growl, Kraghur raised his already enormous club, and the very earth responded.

Rocks sprouted from his hand, crawling like a parasite up the weapon’s shaft and coiling around its spiked head.

In mere seconds, the crude weapon had become an enormous, jagged mass of dense, reinforced stone.

A terrifying upgrade.

"GRAAAAAHHHH!!" Kraghur bellowed.

With newfound power, he charged again.

Riley’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Thud!

Thud!

The earth trembled with each of the monster’s thundering steps.

He was fast.. Much faster than before.

Swoosh!

The stone-covered club swung in a wide, explosive arc. Riley darted to the side just in time, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow.

WHOOSH—BOOM!

The club struck the earth—and instantly, jagged spikes of stone exploded from the ground around the impact point, spearing upward like a trap sprung from the depths.

Riley’s eyes narrowed. His lips tugged into a wry smile.

’It would surely hurt to get hit by that.’ He thought.

Without hesitation, he sheathed both daggers back into their sheaths. The steel clicked softly against the scabbards on his hips.

"Time to change methods."

Kraghur didn’t give him time to breathe. Snarling, the enraged beast swung his left fist, his stone gauntlet a blur aimed straight at Riley’s head.

But Riley didn’t dodge.

With a flash of movement, he stepped into the attack and caught the orc’s fist with one hand.

Boom!

A shockwave rippled from the contact, and Kraghur’s eyes widened in disbelief.

The orc hadn’t expected resistance—certainly not from this small, dagger-wielding human who had danced around his attacks like smoke. But now... Riley was holding him in place?

It couldn’t even understand how that was possible!

Before the thought even finished in Kraghur’s mind, Riley twisted his body.

He twisted the orc’s entire arm, forcing the massive joint past its natural range.

CRACK!

Kraghur grunted in pain, the sound low and choked as his arm bent at an unnatural angle. With a heavy thud, his massive knee hit the ground, the pressure forcing him down.

[—200!]

A crisp notification flared across Riley’s vision.

"Don’t underestimate my strength," Riley said, pinning the massive monster to the ground with one hand.

The orc king struggled, muscles bulging as he tried to push himself up—but it felt like it was being held down by a rock, and its broken arm made it very difficult to fight back. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Riley scoffed at his futile effort, stretching his other hand at the orc.

Thwick!

A thin, sharp brown spike shot forward from his palm—straight into Kraghur’s eye.

[—84!] [Critical Hit!]

The orc roared in agony, staggering back. Blood trickled from the ruined eye, but still—he didn’t fall.

Riley’s eyes narrowed as another notification flashed above the monster’s head.

’The damage is too low.’ He thought, his face squeezing into a slight frown.

Normally, a critical damage above eighty would have been considered quite high, but in this case where the monster had three thousand health points, it barely did anything.

Then, without warning, he released Kraghur’s broken arm.

The orc king lunged immediately, driven by blinding fury. His surviving eye burned with murderous intent as he roared and threw himself at Riley like a berserker.

But Riley was already moving.

He clenched both fists—and stepped in.

WHAM!

With perfect timing, Riley punched straight into Kraghur’s face, aiming directly for the already damaged eye.

CRACK!

His knuckles slammed into the embedded spike and drove it even deeper inside the orc’s skull.

Kraghur’s entire body flew backward like a missile—launched from the sheer momentum of Riley’s punch.

BOOOOOOM!

The enormous orc crashed into the dirt a dozen meters away, tumbling like a ragdoll before skidding to a halt in a crater of broken stone.

[—570.2!] [Critical Hit!]

Another notification exploded into Riley’s vision.

"...That’s more like it." He muttered, staring at the thin prick on his hand.

[—10]

Since he directly punched the spike, he also sustained some damage.

However, his physical and magical resistance were just so high that it barely affected him.

The crowd was silent.

Tens of orcs—women, elders, children—all stood still with wide eyes, staring at the scene before them.

Their king, their invincible champion, the one they knew to be undefetable... lay sprawled across the dirt, barely breathing.

And standing there, at the center of the field, calm and composed—

Was a human.

The orc king grunted, slowly rising up on his feet.

One half of his vision was completely blind, while the other was very dizzy from the hit.

He gaze suddenly met with that of Riley, and he shuddered, subconsciously taking steps back.

He couldn’t help but wonder... how the hell was this person so strong, was he really a human... or something far worse?