Chapter 98: The Vindictive Woman
Just when Seraphina Sterling was only half a body length behind Silly Monkey, she suddenly clung to the rock with one hand, while her other hand shot out, grabbed his leg, and yanked down hard. Silly Monkey, with victory already in sight, was caught off guard by the sudden attack. His body slid down abruptly, but only a little, and he immediately steadied himself.
Seraphina Sterling seized that opening, propelling herself upward with a powerful leap. Where she had been half a body length behind Silly Monkey, she was now level with him!
This change left the onlookers stunned. A sneak attack midway through, and with such perfect timing—this girl was truly no ordinary person! These men were all instructors; they had witnessed this assessment play out countless times, but they had never seen a scene like this.
However, they didn’t think Seraphina Sterling’s move was dirty. After all, no one had ever said sneak attacks weren’t allowed before the assessment!
The two of them struggled on the rock face, grappling for position, neither giving an inch!
Silly Monkey felt that he, a grown man, had been sneak-attacked by a little girl—and in front of the other instructors, no less. He had been utterly humiliated. To save face, he showed no mercy, his punches vicious and powerful, giving Seraphina Sterling no room to breathe!
Rock climbing wasn’t Seraphina Sterling’s forte, but close-quarters combat was something Terrence Grant had drilled her in countless times. Each session left her covered in injuries, her entire body a canvas of blue and purple marks. Old bruises would heal only to be replaced by new ones—she still had some now! In her eyes, Silly Monkey’s moves were far more welcome than this detestable rock climb!
She deftly neutralized his every attack and retaliated in kind, preventing him from gaining the slightest advantage!
The more Silly Monkey fought, the more shocked he became. ’This isn’t a girl, this is a female King Kong with a delicate appearance!’ How could someone with such slender arms and legs have so much power! A moment of carelessness just now had earned him a blow to the stomach, making him grimace in pain.
But this alone wasn’t enough to defeat him!
Suddenly, Silly Monkey gripped the rock face with both hands, lifted one leg into the air, and swept it fiercely toward Seraphina Sterling’s arms. If she couldn’t dodge, both of her arms would surely break. But if she let go with her hands, she would fall from the cliff—this wasn’t some gym training session with safety measures!
The people below were also shocked by Silly Monkey’s move. Hughes subconsciously glanced at Terrence Grant. Neither of those two outcomes was something the young master wanted to see.
Terrence Grant, however, merely narrowed his eyes, the sharp blade in his hand spinning even faster. ’A person who could snipe even king wouldn’t be stumped by a small crisis like this!’
Silly Monkey thought he had backed his opponent into a corner, but who would have known that as Seraphina Sterling released her hands from the rock face, she would kick off with her feet, leap up, and deftly wrap her legs around his waist. Now his two hands had to support the weight of two people. He’d lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot—that was Silly Monkey for you!
’Yes! Brilliant!’ Hughes couldn’t help but exclaim in his heart. ’She handled that crisis beautifully!’
The Psycho Doc’s mouth twitched. "No way, that works too?"
"Do you believe me now? This girl is no small fry! We absolutely cannot let our guard down. One slip-up, and we could end up in this exact situation!" Stoney was reminding everyone. They were instructors at the base; if they lost to a little girl, how could they face the trainees they were supposed to be training?
"The able should do more work, so I’ll have to trouble you to carry me up," Seraphina Sterling said with a slight smile, infuriating Silly Monkey to the point he wanted to kill someone. ’To hell with "the able should do more work"!’ he thought. ’This is an assessment! An assessment! An assessment!’
Silly Monkey gripped the rock face with one hand and attacked Seraphina Sterling’s thigh with the other. ’She wants me to be her free labor? Dream on!’
’I was waiting for that,’ Seraphina Sterling thought with a faint smile. She pressed down on his shoulders with both hands, instantly unwrapping her legs from his waist to dodge his attack. At the same time, she used her arms’ strength to propel herself to the top of the cliff.
Of course, just before that, her shin had kicked viciously into Silly Monkey’s arm. Her favorite philosophy was an eye for an eye, blood for blood! ’You like kicking other people’s arms, don’t you? Now you can have a taste of what it feels like!’
After being hit, Silly Monkey’s grip loosened, and he began to plummet down the rock face, making the onlookers’ hearts leap into their throats. Fortunately, Silly Monkey was an experienced climber. After sliding for some distance, he managed to grab hold of a protruding rock, saving himself from falling off the cliff!
’Never mess with a woman!’ he thought. ’Her desire for revenge is too strong!’ Silly Monkey decided that from now on, he would cherish life and stay far away from women.
The crowd couldn’t help but let out a collective sigh of relief. This wasn’t a rock-climbing assessment; this was a deathmatch! If they hadn’t seen the outcome with their own eyes, they would never have imagined that Silly Monkey could lose at rock climbing, his own specialty! And to a little girl, of all people!
Having witnessed the first confrontation firsthand, the other three instructors raised their guard.
Winning the first round hadn’t been easy for Seraphina Sterling either. She was seen chugging GULP GULP GULP, downing more than half a bottle of mineral water.
"You only beat that Silly Monkey by a fluke. That monkey is too dumb! It’ll take real skill to beat me!" the Psycho Doc said, shooting Seraphina Sterling a look, his tone anything but friendly.