Damien felt that Cal’s explanation was logical but deep down it was a wall he needed to surmount and it was not as easy as he made it seem. Despite that Damien knew if it was not today then it would be another day. To accomplish his goals he would go through a lot and if he wanted to get by without so much as taking a single life then he would be naive. To even be able to accomplish such a child-like ideology would take an incomprehensible amount of strength. Something he was not even close to achieving.
“Deep breaths… clear your mind.”
Damien quietly talked to himself so he could clear his mind from all distractions. The only thing on his mind was how he was going to give this Fiery Ape a quick death. He could only rely on his sword skill and his physicality to quickly overwhelm the beast.
‘Lighten my sword, rush with my full speed, aim for the neck and at the last second make my sword heavy to cleanly cut through. Okay, let’s do it.’
Damien laid out his plan and went for the execution in the next moment. He pushed off the brush they were hiding in, going in for a surprise attack. The Fiery Ape which stood 2 meters tall was quickly aware of his movements, but it made no difference, even if the ape was on the high ground in the tall tree. Damien blazed forward through the air with his plan echoing in his mind. He reached it face to face, swinging his sword to the neck of the creature. The moment he felt the fur touch his sword, Damien poured some of his Mana into it, drastically changing its weight to that similar to that of an Armored Wyrm.
His attack cut through without resistance. The sudden feeling of taking a life impacted him immediately. It was not just a feeling of morality being imposed upon, but rather an intimate feeling that he felt deep in his body. Damien was able to feel the very presence of its life be snuffed out. Just like if it were a flame that had been blown out. The feeling deeply impacted him, in turn distracting him from his attack. His sword continued past the Fiery Ape who could not even react to his movements and down through the tree. The force along with the weight of the sword decimated multiple trees and created fissures along the earth.
‘Oh no! I forgot to stop pouring Mana! Look at what I’ve done. But why can’t I stop this feeling inside of me?’
Yuki flashed down to his side and dragged him away from the devastating wake he left behind. She hurriedly stashed the corpse of the Fiery Ape before she had everyone evacuate the area.
“You idiot! Because of you we are going to be swarmed any moment now! Fiery Apes are a pack beast, but it would’ve been okay if it was a clean kill that didn’t cause a huge commotion.”
Damien was still recovering from his first kill so he was carried away like extra luggage at this point. The rest were in a hurry to leave, but countless howls were reverberating in the distance. They used their full speed to put distance around them. Unfortunately for them the howling of the apes came from every direction in no time. Silhouettes appeared on the trees around them, effectively encircling them. They stood on the ground examining the pack of Fiery Apes standing and swinging along the trees. Damien was on the floor with his mind lost in the incident. Yuki pushed him toward the middle of their group to protect him, as she had no words to offer him currently.
“There’s over 500 of them in this pack. That means they have a King Fiery Ape in their presence! At minimum it’s a Mid Sky Realm beast. We need to focus our forces in one direction and blast through. Who knows if more will come.”
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Damien came back to his senses with the loss of multiple lives reeked into his mind. His first sight was his friends covered in blood, but with no injuries to prove it was theirs. Yuki was dragging him which allowed her to use one arm to fight those close to her while she froze the others in the distance. Even with the help of Cal and Erik who were holding their own through the pack of beasts, the Fiery Ape King would appear at critical moments to back them off and disappear into the pack. Yuki noticed Damien was finally mentally conscious, so she put him on his feet with a look of disgust.
“Look who finally joined us. Must’ve been nice to relax while we are fighting for our lives! Get up and do something useful for us while you’re at it since you are the one that caused this.”
Damien felt the sting in her words and tried his best to understand the situation in mere seconds. His sword was placed in his hands, already deflecting the claws of some apes that swiped at them.
‘It looks like there’s hundreds of them. Everyone is holding their own, but we can’t escape. So we just need to deal with them all at once!’
“Yuki, have you tried freezing the entire area?”
“Obviously dimwit, but their king comes out and counteracts it with its fire breath. I couldn’t deal with him because I needed to help these two, but with you here, I can deal with him myself. Stay here and fight off the horde, I’ll be back. I know you have the strength to at least do that.”
Yuki jumped straight through the horde in search of their mastermind. Any ape that got close was frozen completely. Cal seemed to be running low on his Mana supply, while Erik was surprisingly doing well, slicing his opponents with each slash of his sword, along with manipulating the Earth to his advantage. Carnage was ensuing all around him and he was forced to decide what he needed to do.
‘If I don’t take their lives, then they will just keep coming back, sending fire to scorch us or put their bodies on the line to injure us. The choice is clear, I have to kill!’
Once his decision was made his Sword Dao Domain expanded out without raising the temperature. Damien controlled it so his friend would not be affected by the devastating heat it would have caused. Instantly every Fiery Ape that stepped into his domain was cut in their vitals, effectively dispatching them in a single stroke. Nora’s teachings were already paying off as each of Damien’s swings were flowing to the next, allowing him to increase the speed of his attacks along with its precision. It was the perfect complement for his Dao Domain and in a matter of seconds the tides of battle changed. Damien killed many of them and he felt each flame of life die out personally. This time he was ready for the feeling, but it rocked his mind nonetheless.
The Fiery Apes had no plan of recourse. They could no longer penetrate them in close range and every long range fire attack was stopped by Erik’s Earth Walls or Cal’s Black Orbs. They made a horde of hundreds come to a standstill, which is an accomplishment that can be claimed by few students. This standstill gave Cal a well needed rest, but the deadlock did not last long. An ear piercing howl was heard from the depths of the trees, shaking the core of every ape there. Instantly they all headed toward the direction of the howl, not caring of the 3 who they were just fighting. Damien watched them all leave with a bit of confusion, however it hit him right away that Yuki was the one who probably caused that call back for reinforcements.
“We have to go now! Yuki is fighting the king by herself and now they are all going to help!”
Everyone understood the direness of the situation and said no more as they blasted through into the middle of the retreating horde. The apes paid them no attention, even though they had willingly entered their encirclement. It only took a minute to arrive at the battle between Yuki and the King Fiery Ape. They both had wounds across the body, but Yuki appeared to be in a worse state. She had frozen her gashes to stop the bleeding. Damien and the rest of them came to her side to help her out. They were encircled once again by the entire herd, but this time the King Fiery Ape was leading the attack. He was two times bigger than the rest, his eyes were gleaming with blood red, and his head was set ablaze by a crown of fire. He was a fierce predator that rose to his position over time.
“I used a Hereditary Dragon Ability, but it wasn’t enough to fatally damage him. I misevaluated his ranking. He is actually a High Sky Realm beast. We have to escape, with the horde here, it’s going to be almost impossible to survive.”
Damien felt the despair in her voice. If she believed it was a dead end then there was not much they could do.
‘Yuki can’t freeze them in one fell swoop because their king easily negates it, but if someone can negate their flames with a Fire Dao that is deeper or stronger, then…’
“Let me try something, before we desperately retreat.”