Ghoul Evolution

Chapter 29: Monkey-slaying

Oliver was still internally complaining about Theo coming along and ruining his plans when the lightning struck again.

KRAAAAK!

Caught off guard, he slipped and rolled across the ground before scrambling back to his feet.

The monkey was still perched on the branch as electricity danced around its body while its oversized red nose twitched slightly.

For some reason, it looked incredibly pleased with itself. Or maybe it was just pleased after watching Oliver roll around on the floor.

Both Oliver and Theo wanted to finish this fight as quickly as possible.

But unfortunately, the beast didn’t give them any time to recover and as soon as Oliver stood up, another bolt descended from above.

KRAAAAK!

Oliver body instinctively threw itself sideways trying to dodge it and the lightning struck barely a few feet away, leaving behind a smoking crater. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

He had barely dodged it this time.

"What the hell?!"

"Don’t stop moving!" Theo yelled back as tried to shorten the distance between himself and the monkey.

As soon as Theo had tried to do that the monkey suddenly leapt to another tree and before it had even landed fully, another lightning bolt came crashing down forcing them to dodge again.

The strike was mainly focused on Oliver’s direction, and he barely managed to avoid it.

For some reason, the monkey seemed oddly interested in shocking and frying him as nearly every lightning bolt was aimed in his direction.

’The fuck’s wrong with my luck.’

Furthermore, every time either of them tried to get closer, it jumped to another branch and every time it attacked, it made sure to do so from somewhere safe.

Only after dodging several more lightning strikes did Oliver finally begin noticing something strange.

"Why does it keep moving as soon as we shorten the distance?" he asked while narrowly avoiding another bolt.

Theo ducked behind a tree as lightning shattered a branch overhead.

"Maybe it’s not that confident in physical fights in short range and so it’s protecting itself."

"It’s staying out of our reach?"

Oliver looked up again and he realized that the monkey wasn’t jumping around randomly, but carefully maintaining a specific minimum distance.

Whenever they moved closer, it retreated. Whenever they approached from one direction, it shifted somewhere else.

The damn thing was actually thinking. It was not exactly as smart as a human, but it was definitely a lot smarter than the beasts he had fought until now.

It attacked him yet again and Oliver couldn’t help but yelp, "Why me?!"

The monkey simply bared its teeth from atop the branch. Theo, who had just been ignored even though he had been closer suddenly frowned. "Wait..."

"What?"

Theo kept his eyes fixed on the beast. "I think it doesn’t like your flames."

"My flames?" Oliver blinked as another bolt descended from above.

KRAAAAK!

Both of them immediately scattered in opposite directions. Once the danger had passed, Oliver shouted back, "That doesn’t make any sense! I haven’t even used my firecraft against it yet!"

Theo thought for a moment before replying. "Some beasts are more attuned to essence than us humans." Another lightning bolt struck the ground nearby, forcing both of them to keep moving.

"They can sense things we can’t. Some are especially sensitive to elemental essence."

Oliver frowned as he glanced toward the monkey. "So you’re saying it can somehow sense my flames?"

Theo nodded. "Probably. Not exactly your flames. But it can likely tell that your attribute is dangerous to it."

Oliver looked back toward the beast and the monkey was staring right back at him. Not Theo. Just him. As another spark of electricity danced around its body, Oliver felt that Theo might actually be right.

"Just great," he muttered.

Theo then pointed toward the beast. "Use them."

Oliver looked at him. "What?"

"Your flames." Another lightning bolt crashed down nearby, but Theo didn’t even flinch. "It’s keeping its distance because that’s where it has the advantage. Force it to move."

Oliver immediately understood what he meant. The monkey liked attacking from afar and if he could use the flames as decoy and force it to abandon those comfortable positions, eventually it would run out of good places to stand and will be forced to confront them one on one.

"Ok then, I will first make it lose it lose its distance, and then i will attack it with my sword." Oliver asked while dodging another strike.

Theo looked at him for a moment before saying it plainly.

"Your swordsmanship is too bad for that."

"..."

Another bolt struck the ground between them and Theo continued as if he had just stated an obvious fact.

"You just know how to stab things."

"..."

"That’s not the same thing as knowing how to fight with a sword."

’Was this really the time to belittle me, man?’

Oliver wanted to argue but unfortunately, he couldn’t as the kid wasn’t wrong.

Most of his fights so far had consisted of panicking, surviving, and somehow coming out alive. But to actually fight with a sword was a completely different matter.

Theo pointed toward the monkey again.

"I’ll deal with that part. You just keep forcing it to move."

Oliver clicked his tongue in annoyance as being told he was bad by a kid several years younger than him didn’t feel very satisfying.

Still, in the end, Oliver raised his hand and summoned his flames.

As he had further improved his physique and attributes with more essence shards, it was now easier to summon and fight with his flames.

As soon as he had willed it, a stream of fire shot toward the branch the monkey was on at that moment. The monkey reacted instantly and before the flames could reach it, the beast leapt away and landed on another tree.

The attack missed completely but Theo’s eyes lit up.

"There. Keep attacking."

Oliver didn’t understand what he was seeing. Still, he launched another burst of flames and the monkey jumped to dodge again.

Only after repeating it several times did Oliver finally begin noticing what Theo had already seen. The monkey was no longer choosing where it wanted to stand. It was choosing where it could stand.

And for the first time since the battle had begun, it looked genuinely annoyed.

He focused again and another stream of flames surged toward it. The monkey was already ready and immediately prepared to jump away again.

But this time Oliver was ready too.

The moment the beast pushed off the branch, Viperlash appeared in his hand. The whip shot through the air like a striking serpent before wrapping itself around the monkey’s tail.

The beast let out a loud screech in anger and instead of trying to free itself immediately, it suddenly grabbed onto the whip. A moment later, electricity exploded across its body.

KZZZZZT!

The current that it had unleashed raced directly through Viperlash and into Oliver.

"Aaargh!"

His entire arm spasmed from the shock but fortunately, the whip wasn’t very conductive and most of the electricity failed to properly travel through it. Even so, the jolt was painful enough to nearly force him to release his grip.

The monkey’s eyes lit up as it increased the current. Clearly, it had decided that electrocuting Oliver was more important than escaping.

Unfortunately for it, that decision proved fatal as Theo had been waiting for exactly this opportunity. ƒгeewebnovёl.com

The moment the monkey stopped moving and focused entirely on Oliver, the young boy exploded forward. He sprinted toward a nearby tree before stepping onto the trunk and pushing himself upward.

In the span of a second, he was already airborne.

Only then did the monkey seem to realize something was wrong and its head snapped toward Theo. But, by then, it was too late as Theo had already attacked it with a sword strike.

The movement was completely smooth and natural, one moment the sword was raised and the next—

SLASH!

A plain brown beautiful arc cut through the air as the monkey froze.

For a brief moment, nothing happened, but then a thin red line appeared across its neck.

Its eyes widened for a second but then it didn’t move at all, and a second later, its head slid from its shoulders. The body followed shortly after and fell down too.

THUD.

Both crashed onto the forest floor below and silence returned to the orchard.

Theo looked at him and said with a low voice, "Great job."

Oliver stared at the corpse for a few moments while rubbing his numb arm. Then he looked toward Theo, who had already landed and calmly called his sword back.

He then looked at the monkey’s cut head and then back at the corpse.

"..."

Theo raised an eyebrow as he asked, "What?"

Oliver simply shook his head and kept staring at him.

"Nothing."

Internally, however, he was beginning to understand that there was a massive difference between knowing how to swing a sword and actually knowing how to use one.

’Yeah... I definitely need to learn how to use a sword from this kid.’