Chapter 187: Fun [1]
Silver 2... No—
The gorilla felt closer to Silver 3.
I should have been able to easily sense the rank, but surprisingly, the core of the gorilla-type monster before me was a little unstable.
The monster felt like it was at Silver 2, while at the same time its core showed signs of being at Silver 3.
Hm.
Some exceptions like this were stronger than their original rank.
The monster, though it looked like a gorilla, was far from it.
It had four hands on its shoulders—two at the front, while the rest were on the back.
Then there were the two legs of the monster, which shared the same structure as its hands.
The creature’s biology was a little weird, though I wasn’t one to discriminate against individuals based on their looks.
"Graahhh!"
The monster roared as I observed it from a safe distance... five feet, to be exact.
Swoosh!
One second I was standing at a distance, and the next—
My body was already before the monster, which surprisingly reacted to my speed with its fast reflexes and stopped its charge midway to defend against my sword that was aimed to decapitate its head.
Using the limbs on its shoulders, the monster deflected my sword with its fist, making me jump away from it.
The moment I jumped back, another of its limbs had already shot in my direction, the speed of its charge—faster for a mere Silver 2.
I didn’t panic.
As the limb appeared closer to me, I raised my legs midway and pressed them against the incoming attack.
Using the force behind the attack, I bent my knees and launched myself even farther away.
Though the events took place in less than a second, my reflexes were trained enough to handle everything with relative ease.
Landing on the ground, I loosened the grip on my sword, observing the creature, which, seeing its prey escape, roared in anger once again.
At first, I was planning to use the teleportation passage and head to Tamyr immediately, but at the last moment I chose to travel the distance by land.
The reason wasn’t something complex.
I could have hunted the monsters at Tamyr itself, but surviving and returning through the wild was a fun in itself.
Shifting my balance to the right, I didn’t wait for the monster to appear before me.
Willing more mana through the muscles in my legs, I charged at the monster, which too had its gaze fixed on me.
One.
Two.
Three—
Screech.
Within a few seconds, my sword clashed with the monster’s front limbs, but was deflected by its nails, which were closer to claws in their shape.
Sliding a few steps, I charged once again.
This time, the monster, recognizing the threat that I posed to its survival—or maybe just because it had warmed up—used all of its limbs to attack me.
Though their speed was fast, my eyes were able to track their movements with ease.
Jumping in the air, I used the limbs as support to jump higher, before twisting my body mid-air, my sword once again ready to cut the thick black neck before my eyes.
But—
At the last moment, the monster turned its head unnaturally to directly look up at me.
I could even feel the faint cracking of its bones.
My eyes widened slightly in surprise, but I didn’t let it affect my momentum, as my sword was already on its way to cut the monster’s neck—the only difference being that the back of the neck had disappeared, and now the monster’s ugly face greeted me from below.
Willing more mana through the bones and muscle cells in my forearms and shoulders, I brought down the blade—
Huh?
The monster did a crazy acrobatic move, turning all four of its hands to the extreme back and placing them on the ground.
With its huge body now turned into a curved bridge, the monster—
Tsk.
I had to change the arc of my sword midway, as the monster did a backflip, moving its legs in the direction of my body.
My sword crashed against the ankles of the monster, throwing me away from the sheer power behind the impact.
My body flew in the air, though I quickly managed to pierce my sword into the ground below, halting my flight midway.
Were monkeys always this flexible?
Well... I had certainly received my lesson.
The gorilla before me was about seven feet tall, which, coupled with its massive limbs, could pack massive power in each of its strikes.
But the surprising part was its legs, which had even more attack power in them.
Still... I wasn’t a weakling either.
Though the gorilla seemed to have an advantage over me... the reality was different.
The monster staggered a few times, trying its best to balance itself, as the legs of the monster were injured at the joints.
Even if I had only defended, the strength behind my sword wasn’t something that a Silver core could easily dismiss.
And every other attack that had brushed against the monster’s body had left its muscles brewing with pain.
Though the blood hadn’t leaked from all wounds, I could see the discomfort in the monster’s eyes.
Haa...
The fight had drawn too long.
Closing my eyes once, I began to actively exert mana pressure on my surroundings.
The air began to vibrate slightly, as the mana particles in the air made contact with my own mana.
The monster, which was originally finding it hard to balance its body on the injured legs, now stumbled to the ground, as its ’fragile’ legs could no longer bear the combined burden of the monster’s weight along with my mana pressure that directly tried to suppress its core.
Within a second, the tide of the battle had entirely shifted in my favour.
Not that the creature had ever stood a chance.
My legs moved, and with every step, so did my mana pressure.
As the monster was unique in its biological framework, I wanted to play with it for a while, but now the playtime was over.
Mana pressure was one of my biggest cards, which could easily help me fight opponents of the same rank or even higher.
Though I had intentionally not used it in my fight against Victoria.
I wanted to defeat her in a field that was somewhat fair for the vice president.
Well... that was, in its own way, a mercy from me.
Spurt!
The head of the gorilla rolled down, as I stood above its body, swinging my sword in a wide arc to shake off the blood that had tainted the blade.