“Oh, it’s already too late for that. They always surround their prey before they attack. You got the entire male troop here. You’d better get ready.”
[Really? But they don’t seem all that aggressive, except for that one.] I pointed at the one in the clearing, which in hindsight, was a really bad idea. Because it triggered something in them and they all began shouting at the same time.
“Uhuhuh! Uahahaha!”
“Uhuhuh! Ohohoh!
They began jumping up and down while shouting so loudly I nearly had to cover my ears. Then I felt something behind me and turned around just in time to see one of the smaller Mountain Apes try and pull on my pants.
As soon as I turned to look at it, it turned around and fled, but I could see the rest of them moving closer. Two of them jumped at me from up high, one of which grabbed my hand and the other landed on my back. I shook wildly to get it off me and grabbed the other one with my free hand and threw it away.
But that action then triggered the rest of them and they all of a sudden swarmed, jumping on my legs, back, and even face.
One of them wrapped its legs around my neck and started pounding and clawing at my face. I had long since activated the Elemental Avatar so the damage was minimal, but I could barely move. More and more of them quickly joined the fray, completely burying me underneath dozens of hairy bodies while shouting in my ears at the top of their lungs.
They tore my clothes away like they were paper, and even as I struggled on the ground, I couldn’t get them off me. I would punch or throw one of them away, and two more would take their place.
They also began clawing and biting me, but seeing they couldn’t really hurt me, they suddenly decided to take their frustrations out on my exposed balls. I had quite enough. A stupid monkey trying to bite my junk off? No thank you!
[Get-! Off of me!] I shouted and powerful flames sprang to life along my entire body. Many of the apes standing too close to me immediately caught fire and I could finally move again after they jumped back.
Encased in a cloak of flames I gasped for air and stared at the damn beasts who embarrassed me so. But just as I thought the flames might keep them at bay, I got hit in the back of the head with a massive rock. I barely had time to turn to see who it was, when another one hit me in the side, nearly making me lose my balance.
The apes would jump up and down on the spot, crouch, bring their hands down between their feet, and then spring back up, pulling their hands from the ground and a massive stone would dislodge itself from the floor and fly at me.
It was some kind of very primitive Earth magic. They shouted all around me as they bombarded me with rocks and stones, some of them blunt, but there were quite a few among them that were sharp, in the shape of a lance.
I lifted my hands to protect my head and crouched down, after which a dome of stone formed around me, blocking the assault. It was too much. Hundreds of stones struck me in a matter of a few seconds, and I could feel warm blood trickling down my neck and back. Even my forehead had a gash, spilling out my precious blood from the cut, and right into my left eye.
“Quite a few of them seem to be in the Nascent Soul Realm.” The old ghost casually commented.
[I can see that!] I hissed through gritted teeth. Forget seeing, I felt it. At least three of them were attacking my Soul directly, which was one of the reasons why I was so slow to react.
The other reason was that I was overwhelmed. When attacks came from all sides at once, I lost my focus for a moment. At least when it was only the Soul attacks I could take a few seconds to stabilize my mind and push back.
Their attacks were crude and nowhere near strong enough to disable me, but they gave me a damn strong headache! They distracted me from thinking clearly while under so much pressure, and I could hear my stone shell cracking at a rapid pace under that constant bombardment.
I released some Ice magic and froze the cracked pieces of stone together, but that would delay them for only so long. I could easily kill them one by one, but not when they all attacked me at once. And I could see more and more Cores appearing with my Magic Eyes. They were getting reinforcements.
I took a deep breath and sent more Qi to the surface of my skin to protect me. I then blasted my shell apart, sending shrapnel in all directions. The assault was halted momentarily, just enough for me to stand up and form another shell around me. At least then I had some space to breathe.
Almost immediately the attacks restarted, with even greater force than before. The wild shouts of the Mountain Apes were partially blocked by the layer of stone, but they were still too loud for my tastes. I cast a Sound Barrier, and immediately, everything went quiet. Only the ground shaking told of the ongoing attack.
[Finally, some peace and quiet.] I gasped, feeling exhausted. The mental attacks were still going on, only now there were four of them at once, trying to rip my Soul apart.
[Fucking… monkeys!] I pulled another layer of stone from the ground, strengthening my shell, and then pulled on smaller rocks and encased my entire body in them. Golem Armor. One of my most prized creations from the Before.
The stone dome collapsed inward and stuck to me as well, and out of it emerged my, four meters tall, stone killing machine!
[All of you…] I spat out, looking at the four Nascent Soul Mountain Apes, blood clouding my vision. [ All of you are going to die!] The Qi inside me surged and shifted to the Earth Element, pouring out and into the ground like a flood.
[Field of Thorns!]
There was a low rumble as the ground shook and suddenly became alive. Millennia old gray stone split and cracked, moving like thousands of snakes, as it shot out of the ground in random directions all around me. More than a third of the apes closest to me were instantly impaled, the stone splitting further and branching outward inside of them like a parasite, piercing their bodies in dozens of places.
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Their attacks immediately halted, but it was just getting started. [You think your Earth magic is powerful?!] I grinned. [I deem it worth less than shit.]
Two long blades of stone lifted out of the ground and my stone hands merged with them as I empowered the stone with Qi and my telekinetic powers fully took hold.
The four-meter-tall stone giant took rapid steps forward under my command, spinning the arms around like a blender as the blades cut through and sliced anything that blocked my path.
The four Nascent Soul Apes stopped their mind attacks and jumped out of the way as I rushed at them.
Their shouts changed to ones of alarm, and the weaker members dispersed, climbing high and into the safety of the trees. I didn’t care much for the weak ones since they could barely hurt me, but the Nascent Soul ones I would not let escape.
I spun my stone arms around and then quickly disconnected one of the blades, launching the nearly two meters long sword at one of the escaping apes. The heavy stone struck it in the back, nearly breaking it in half, and pinned it against one of the tall Ironbarks. It struggled and shouted, clawing at the stone on its back, but its legs didn’t seem to respond anymore.
[One down…] I looked at the remaining three, one to my left, and two to my right. The two began screaming and shouting while beating their chests and showing their yellow teeth as they began quickly gathering Qi.
I hurled the other blade in their direction, but then immediately ran the other way, my heavy steps shaking the earth as my lumbering form closed in on the lone ape. It too shouted and gathered its Qi, after which it sent it all to its hands and jumped at me, fingers spread wide akin to claws.
I pushed the Golem forward to intercept the beast while I jumped out the back completely naked. Unfortunately, Telekinesis quickly lost its effectiveness the further away something was, but that wasn’t the reason it was simply torn to pieces as soon as the Mountain Ape go the hold of it.
The beast was just too damn strong, and common stone simply couldn’t be enchanted well enough to resist its attacks for more than a few seconds.
I landed on the ground and covered myself with another layer of stone just in case, but I had to abandon that form just as fast, as one of the other two struck the ground with its fists, producing a rumbling fissure of cracked earth that turned into stone spikes as soon as it reached the place I was at just a moment prior.
By the time they pierced my newly formed armor, I was already in the air, forming a Greater fireball between my palms.
[Hah!]
I released the flaming sphere from my hands, and it shot out like a cannonball toward the two. But as expected, they were fast enough to react, jumping sideways from the explosion, avoiding most of the scorching flames, only getting their leg fur slightly singed.
I scanned the ground quickly and found my torn clothes, after which I snatched my Space Pouch and pulled out the Toothpick. I didn’t hold too much hope in it being able to help me, but with a glaive in my hand, my defense was strengthened further. It was like a shift in my mindset to one of invincibility, and my brows furrowed as my gaze and resolve strengthened.
I landed on the ground and stood upright, completely ignoring the frightened apes behind me. I only had the eyes for the three up front.
They slowly came together, walking on all fours, with Qi wildly circulating inside their bodies. They were still far from running empty.
A stone struck my head from behind for the second time, but I didn’t even flinch. It bounced off my super-reinforced skull like striking hardened steel. All those long weeks and months of training were showing their effectiveness.
A second stone struck my back, and then a third, and a fourth. It seemed they were slowly regaining courage, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I swiftly turned around, Toothpick in my left hand, and right palm spread wide open.
[All of you… burn!]
A column of flames exploded from my opened palm, twenty meters long and five wide, setting dozens of Mountain Apes aflame together with their surroundings. They screamed and shouted as they were turned to blazing torches of boiling blood and melting flesh.
Their Souls fed my insatiable lust for death and I nearly lost myself in the intoxicating feeling of Soul absorption.
“Hey, hey, hey! No, stop! You are eating me too!” Long Dong suddenly shouted from inside my mind.
[Then get back in the mask!] I growled back, too preoccupied with killing to bother carefully manipulating things.
After that short fiery attack was over, I turned around to see the remaining three Nascent Soul Mountain Apes already jumping at me, their fists and claws, as well as teeth, ready to fall upon me.
[Haaah!] I swung the Toothpick at the first one so hard, that as the blade struck it in the side and cut in, the wooden handle just exploded in my hands into tiny wooden splinters, and showered the other two with it.
The first ape was thus blasted away from me and fell down somewhere behind the bushes in the distance, while one of the other two landed on my chest and brought down its fists on my shoulders, triggering the same technique it did previously on the ground.
I felt foreign Qi invade my body and all my bones felt like they were going to break at once as I was thrown to the ground. The feeling lasted for a few seconds of excruciating pain, and only my will stopped me from crying out loud. The foreign Qi was then quickly neutralized and brought under control by the much greater quantity of my own Qi.
The beasts were strong, there was no doubt about it, probably somewhere in the middle Nascent Soul Realms, while I was just a beginner, but that didn’t mean I would just fold over and die!
I stood back on my feet and blocked the incoming claw attack from the other beast with my forearm. Its fingers dug into my skin, but I managed to resist. I could feel the foreign Qi trying to invade my body, but I was ready. I responded with a swift kick into the lower abdomen empowered by my Null magic. The attacks seemed to hurt the Claw Ape as it screamed before it went tumbling to the ground away from me.
I barely had the time to take a breath when the Earthquake Ape was back at it, trying to strike me with its fists. I leaned back, avoiding its punches and claws, and gripped it by the wrist, pulling it up and over, and slammed it on the ground.
I then quickly pointed at it with my finger and blasted out a Solar Point straight at its face, point blank.
The attack was quick so I didn’t have much time to gather my powers, but it was still enough to fry one of its eyes, and probably blind the other.
The Earthquake Ape cried out in pain and rolled over, after which it started banging on the ground with both fists while expending massive amounts of Qi. I felt a tremor like no other, and soon stone spikes began shooting out of the ground randomly all around me. I moved and danced, jumping around the place to avoid being pierced.
I didn’t know if I could block them, but I honestly didn’t care to find out. I then suddenly remembered I could fly, and just jumped in the air, remaining floating there at a safe distance.
The Earthquake Ape was quickly draining its energy reserves in a panic, so I slowly flew up above the forest canopy, and did something that only worked on a stationary opponent like it.
10X gravity!
My body plummeted down at great speed as I straightened my legs and empowered my entire body, ready for impact.
There was a loud boom as I impacted the ground, crushing the ape beneath my feet. The tremors immediately stopped, and I could feel another Nascent Soul join the horde.
The Claw Ape was already madly rushing at me at that time, but I just slowly took out a Spirit Stone Shard and drained it of Qi. The Claw Ape jumped in the air, hands outstretched, and fingers full of immense power.
After speeding up the decay of Spirit Qi, I coated my hand with the remaining Golden Qi.
I punched out.
The Claw Ape landed on my chest and struck. A successful attack, it sank its claws into my shoulders and neck.
I smirked. The pathetic little creature did just as I predicted.
[Checkmate.]
It died.