“I heard it,” Nagaar said.

“You do know that you don’t count right? You’re basically an extension of my own thoughts. I think, therefore you are. Before I absorbed you, did you have any consciousness?” Alex said while continuing his brawl with the chimp. His meteor strike had been largely useless. The monkey had seen him dive and easily dodged to the side.

“Not really. It was more of a long restless slumber. I don’t remember any details, yet at the same time, I didn’t feel like I had lost all consciousness. It was rather torturous.”

“That would suck. I would be so bored, honestly. I don’t know how you did it,” Alex empathized.

“I didn’t really have a choice, did I?”

“I guess not. Still not ideal.”

The monkey swiped at his head and Alex narrowly dodged getting decapitated. He extended his palm to push the monkey away.

“Yeah. As much as I like talking to you, which is so much, I really need to focus. I’m barely able to keep in this fight with my full attention and if I’m not careful, I’m going to die. That is probably the thing I want to avoid most. So, you’ll probably have to force a conversation on me some other time. That is, unless you want to go back to your forced nap again.”

Nagaar didn’t respond. Alex took that to mean that he did in fact not want to be forced back into that position existence any time soon. And Alex could respect that. Especially because he got some peace and quiet.

Alex was caught unaware as he was relishing in his moment of silence. A claw to the face was apparently a good way to get centered back in the moment. Alex recoiled in pain and missed blocking yet another attack, this time to his midsection. He missed the block, but he was quick enough to grab hold of the monkey before it could pull back.

Alex channeled his rapidly increasing energy stores into his arms. In an overhand motion, Alex slammed the monkey down. It screeched before wrenching itself from his grip. A series of blows followed so fast that Alex could barely react, only blocking some of the strikes. He was constantly on the back foot for this entire exchange, but suddenly, Alex found an opening. He bopped the primate on top of its head, staggering the foe.

Alex grabbed the back of the monkey’s neck and began to pummel in its face. Blood began to spray and Alex felt like he was in the splash zone for the koolaid Shamu. Hit after hit landed only dazing the monkey even more. It was clearly struggling to react as Alex encountered barely any resistance to his onslaught. The monkey had been struggling in his grasp, but after while longer of Alex’s relentless attack, it started to go limp in his arms.

Alex started smiling. He had finally bested this dumb monkey. He was going to win and just in the nick of time too. He was unsure how much more fight he had left in him. This was by far the most difficult foe Alex had faced yet.

Suddenly, Alex felt an intense pain in his mind. A ringing sounded louder than anything he had ever heard. His vision split, then split again, and again, and again. He had sixteen copies of the monkey in front of him. Alex’s vision was akin to a fly’s. It was extremely disorienting. Blood flowed freely from his nostrils and he could feel himself start to sway. During the confusion, he had lost his grip on the monkey who was now facing him with bloody wounds to match his own.

In his confusing sight, Alex could see the monkey stumble forward towards him. Neither he nor the monkey were in great shape, and Alex could tell that this was going to be close either way. It was a matter of who landed the killing blow first, and likely the next blow would be the final.

Another staggering step, then another, then another. Slowly, Alex’s demise approached. He was clutching his head. The pain was excruciating. He wanted to come up with a plan, anything, but was unable to formulate a thought. Every second that ticked by, Alex was coming closer to oblivion. If the monkey didn’t finish him off soon, then his mental barrage would.

Alex screamed. It gave the monkey the extra willpower it needed, and it began to charge forward. It was much, much slower than it had been, but it was much faster than its speed moments before. Alex barely registered that the monkey’s approach had picked up in pace.

“Allow me. I can see you are next to useless right now. Give me control and we will come out victorious,” Nagaar said.

Every word sounded like it had come from the devil himself. Alex could hardly focus and he was feeling…scared. He hadn’t felt this scared in a long time. He remembered being pinned under that tree, facing off against people who could kill him with the flick of their wrists. He wasn’t even able to run away. He was completely powerless. But, that wasn’t the case anymore. He was helpless in a sense, but he had gained power that he could’ve only dreamed of before. The oppressive power unleashed on him had been matched by one of nearly equal measure, one he had controlled. He wasn’t helpless anymore, not by a long shot.

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Nagaar wanted to take control. Alex was unsure what that would entail. Would the snake take total control if he submitted? Would it be for only a moment? What would be the repercussions after the fact? There were too many risks and Alex would rather die right here than lose himself.

“No,” Alex said barely audibly.

“NO!” he roared a moment later. This outburst had been enough to snap him free. Not completely, but enough that he could see the monkey taking its final steps towards him. He had mere moments to react before disaster struck.

The monkey was upon him, grasping Alex’s throat. He felt the life being squeezed from him. All of his hard work was about to be wasted.

“No.” Alex said as his vision started to darken. In his last moments of consciousness, a jagged shard of metal exploded from the monkey’s back. Its grip slackened around Alex’s neck returning his vision. Alex coughed as air filled his lungs again. The monkey coughed as well, but his was full of blood. They both fell to their knees. Alex regained vigor, as the simian lost it.

The Primate King looked at Alex in pure hatred. Blood dribbled down its chin and it was surely using the last of its willpower to remain upright. It glared at Alex and bared its teeth. The monkey let out a primal roar and attempted to bite at Alex’s face. Alex pushed the spear through more, which forced the monkey back. It screamed louder this time and took a few swipes in Alex’s direction. He dodged them easily and returned with a swipe of his own. With all the energy he could muster, Alex swung his arm directly at the primate’s neck, swiftly decapitating it.

The king’s head fell to the side, its body held upright by the shard of metal originating from Alex’s chest. He retracted it from the monkey’s body, and it slumped over to join the head. The sand was wet with blood, becoming a darker shade of red. Alex couldn’t even get out of the filth, exhaustion taking over.

----------------------------------------

When Alex awoke, night had already fallen. He looked around, inspecting his surroundings for any potential threats. Alex had always laughed in movies when the protagonist would pass out after a fight in an extremely dangerous location, but would wake up totally fine. Now though, Alex was glad that nothing had happened. He had literally fought to his breaking point, and if an enemy decided to attack after his fight with the Primate King, there wasn’t anything he would be able to do.

Not that he was going to bank on that happening every time he got into a particularly grueling fight. He got lucky this time, but he needed to keep control of himself to deal with the aftermath of a fight. There was no way this was going to be his last fight like this. There was at least one more like this on the way since he had to face off against the Sand Drake. Likely, these types of fights would occur more often than not.

Alex checked his status screen to see his gains from the fight and was pleasantly surprised when he saw the results.

Alex Sullivan

Race- Human

Rank- Private

Grade- F

Class- Shift

Level- 56

Strength-351 (415)

Agility- 269 (320)

Intelligence- 128 (158)

Durability- 527 (646)

Endurance- 326 (386)

Health- 1,430/6,460

Stamina- 899/3,860

P.E.- 708/6,460

Alex put his free points into agility since he had felt a severe lack in combat prowess due to his inadequate speed. He could see the blows coming in most of the time, but was unable to react fast enough to do anything about it. Luckily, his durability had been steadily increasing without much need for him to put any of his free points there. He was starting to get skewed to be an undying brute, but Alex was ok with that. Dying was something he wanted to avoid after all.

He was happy with the five levels he had gained. His goal of taking on the Sand Drake was starting to be more than a wild fantasy. He was steadily closing in on its level. Yet, he still felt like he was still a long ways from actually putting up a good fight. He was twenty two levels lower than it, and he still felt like he had only barely defeated the Primate King which had only been eleven levels higher than him. Alex still had work to do.

First, Alex needed to get some rest. His health and stamina were still extremely low. Not wanting to go back to the oasis, Alex pulled out his crystal compass and started his way back to alpha site. It was about time he got some actual rest.

The light on his compass started to glow as soon as he picked it up and he followed it through the desert. Even though it was night, Alex felt calm knowing that his compass would take him straight to his campsite. He channeled his energy into his legs to give him a little more pep in his step.

Why haven’t I run into any animals out here? I’ve been walking for like five hours already. It seems kind of weird.

Suddenly, two giant claws shot out of the sand.

Why did I even ask? Everything was fine.

Alex identified it.

Fire Venom Scorpion

Level 29

Wait. Wasn’t that the same level as the one that flung me halfway across the desert? Is today my lucky day?

Alex cracked his knuckles and started shadow boxing. He was exhausted still, but he suddenly felt like he had just drank twenty liters of Mountain Dew. He was on top of the world. Did he feel bad that he was about to beat down on a creature nearly half his level? Not in the slightest. Alex was going to teach that scorpion a lesson.

He blasted himself fifteen feet in the air, then blasted himself back down to come crashing into it. With his fist extended, Alex was prepared to mete justice upon the transgressor. A smile spread across his face, so wide, he felt like he was going to split.

The second Alex collided with the scorpion, his smile faded.

“What? There’s no way! It’s not fair! I needed this to last longer.”

An explosion of scorpion meat and gore covered Alex head to toe. He had hit the scorpion directly in one of the chinks of its chitin and punched straight through. It died instantly.