Free Web NovelChapter 19: Ascendant rank [1]
Let’s break down how I was now able to overwhelm the beast, even though it was way stronger than me.
At the beginning of our fight, when we exchanged attacks for the first time and I noticed how hard the Fire monkey leader’s skin was and how fast it was despite its huge size, I came up with a plan.
The first part of the plan was to decrease the creature’s speed, since it was just too fast, and with that speed its attacks were also too strong. So the best way to handle it was to restrict its movement by targeting its joints.
The joints were the few parts of its body that weren’t hard. If I kept attacking them continuously, it would eventually limit the beast’s range of motion and cause enough pain that the surrounding muscles would tense up to guard the area, leading to stiffness.
The second and final part was to break through its tough skin. So instead of attacking random areas of its body, I chose to hit the same spots over and over with as much strength as I could, places like the arms, the left side of its chest, and the shoulders.
Doing that would build up fatigue over time, eventually breaking the skin and letting my katana cut through cleanly.
In short, even a bigger enemy could be beaten as long as you restricted their movement.
That was exactly what was happening now.
The Fire monkey leader could no longer move the way it wanted. I could see the pained expression on its face whenever it attacked or tried to block.
Despite the fire surrounding its body, its skin, once pristine and untouched, was now covered in slash marks, the blood evaporating almost instantly from the heat.
The beast no longer carried that look of confidence. Now it had a troubled expression. It had probably realized the tables had turned, that the overwhelming strength it had counted on to bring me to my knees was no longer a threat.
It had likely also figured out what I had been planning from the very beginning, but it was already too late.
It was running out of steam while I still had a temporary boost in strength.
I was going to win, and the Fire monkey leader was going to lose.
I knew the boost from my Main Story wasn’t permanent and had a countdown, so I had to finish the beast before it ran out. I kept attacking, each strike aimed to land a fatal blow.
No longer caring about pride and only about survival, the Fire monkey leader finally called out to its subordinates watching from the trees.
"Oo-ohh! Oooh-oooh!" It called for help, then looked at me with a grin, as if to say
"you’re cooked!"
That bastard.
"You fucking bastard, now that you’re losing you’re calling for help? Coward!" I said, my blade carving a horizontal arc across its chest.
The situation had gone from winnable to genuinely dangerous. If the others decided to jump in, I wouldn’t be able to finish off the leader. My body was in no shape to fight multiple opponents at once, even with the temporary boost.
I had already started planning my escape route in case they came down, but the fire monkeys stayed exactly where they were, not moving an inch.
The Fire monkey leader screamed again in frustration, but none of them budged, and the moment it realized that, its expression dropped from relief to horror.
Meanwhile I smiled, understanding exactly what was happening.
The other monkeys didn’t want to help, because what kind of leader calls for backup in a 1v1 duel against something weaker and still loses?
On top of that, there were other males in the group who coveted the leader’s position. Being the leader meant more mates and authority over the whole troop.
Basically, being a leader gets you bitches.
The same way human society works.
What better opportunity to seize that position than right now?
So they were content to let their leader die at my hands. And honestly, that was fine by me.
Realizing it was on its own, the beast lunged at me with pure desperation, no longer fighting with the intelligence it had shown earlier, which gave me plenty of openings to exploit.
That’s what happens when you let your emotions take over.
I dodged its punches easily and slashed the back of its left knee, dropping it down onto one leg.
The Fire monkey twisted its body and tried to hit me with its flaming tail, but I blocked it by raising my katana, then slashed downward, severing the tail clean off and sending it rolling across the ground, the flames dying with it.
Pained screams and screeches echoed through the forest.
It swung its arm back, claws nearly grazing me, but it stopped short, the arm trembling. The joint had been damaged too badly to move.
Without waiting for another attack, I brought my katana down again, cutting into the same wound I had opened earlier and severing the arm entirely, sending it flying into the air as blood sprayed from the stump.
"Kughhh!!!" The beast howled in pain, the fire around its body finally dying out completely.
My katana kept drawing black arcs, cutting into the beast over and over until it was limbless and unable to move. Its screams only made me smile wider.
My face and entire body were red, soaked in both my blood and the Fire monkey’s. My snow-white hair had turned partially red from it.
I looked down at the beast.
It knelt on what remained of its legs, in a pool of its own blood, its demonic horns shattered.
Its head hung low and still.
’Still alive after all those fatal wounds...’
I could hear its heavy breathing.
"Well, it was a good fight, and thank you for making me feel alive, even if just for a while." I raised my katana. "Now give me my soul fragments!"
The blade came down, slicing its head cleanly from its neck. The head rolled across the ground while a fountain of blood sprayed from the open neck before it slumped down beside its severed head.
I leaned back and looked up, arms hanging low and lazy at my sides. Not at the trees, not at the monkeys, but at the blue sky visible through the gaps in the leaves. It looked beautiful.
A breeze passed through, swaying my hair and carrying small droplets of blood with it. It brushed against my wounds, making the pain even sharper than it already was.
My body was broken, covered in wounds and blood. It hurt so much that even breathing felt like being stabbed in the lungs.
But I couldn’t care less about the pain anymore.
At that moment...all I could care about was the beautiful blue sky above me.
It didn’t take long for the system to whisper in my ear.
[You have slain a Mid Common Beast, Fire Monkey Leader!]
[Congratulations Yves, you have met the conditions for Ascension.] ƒrēewebnovel.com
[You have ranked up.]
[Your soul grows stronger.]
