Seven-tails howled in rage as blood pooled around him, soaking the dirt as his grip on his magic faltered. The pain was clear on his face, and for the first time, I saw doubt flicker in his eyes.
Unfortunately, this attack didn’t seem to stop the monkey from gathering his magical energy!
Blinding blue light flashed over the behemoth’s form as it exploded outwards.
The monkey trembled in anger as he held both of his arms in the air, causing a massive mountain of ice to shoot up towards the sky.
This was the largest attack the monkey had created yet, and it had to have been at least ten meters wide—almost half the size of the entire clearing. This mountain of ice shot towards me at an impressive speed, quickly reaching my position before I even had a chance to steady myself.
I wrapped my body in aether, somehow slipping away from the attack as I narrowly dodged the pillar of ice by just a few inches. Even though I had avoided the blast, bone-chilling cold from the attack could be felt creeping across my skin.
I gulped when I saw the monumental spear of ice right next to me, for it extended up twenty meters into the air!
If that thing had hit me, there was no doubt that I would have been pulverized. Seven-tails had put his full attention on this single attack though, and he hadn’t spotted Six-Tails approaching from behind the giant pillar of ice he just created.
This lapse in concentration allowed Six-tails to jump from behind the ice, appearing high in the air above Seven-tail’s position. I was surprised to see that there was a small black object now in the monkey’s hand.
Even more interesting, was that a lit match had suddenly appeared in the monkey’s other hand. The monkey then brought the match towards the black object—lighting something on fire. When I looked closer, I realized that the black object was a bomb!
The bomb’s wick had been lit, and Six-tails quickly threw it at the black-furred monkey's position.
This bomb flew at Seven-Tails with a resounding speed, and by the time it had reached him, the wick had already been burned away.
Seven-Tails erected a barrier of ice just in time to block this blast, but it was instantaneously shattered as the explosion spread across its surface. His attention had been completely taken by this surprise attack, so he had failed to spot the four-tailed monkey approaching from behind him.
I watched with bated breath as Four-Tails stabbed his spear directly through the hulking behemoth’s chest. The spear pierced directly through the monkey's heart, digging through tough black fur and sinew as the tip shot out through the other side.
I had thought that the four-tailed monkey had initially fled with the rest of the monkeys, but I now realized that he must have been hiding somewhere in the vicinity—waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
This was a seemingly fatal blow, but remarkably, Seven-Tails was still standing!
The hulking monkey coughed out blood as he roughly snapped around, spinning on his heels as he lashed out at this sudden attacker. My eyes widened as I watched the monkey’s meaty fist collide with Four-Tails, sending the monkey flying off into the distance.
Four-tails flew for dozens of meters before he smashed into the burned husk of a collapsed tree. As I looked at his down form, I realized that he wasn’t moving!
In the moment Seven-Tails launched this attack, Six-Tails had reached his position.
Before the black-furred monkey could even turn around, I watched as Six-Tails stabbed into a torso with a spear of his own. This spear dug into the other side of chest, digging deep into his flesh and causing the larger monkey to howl in pain.
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Seven-Tails roared, grasping the spear in his hands as he tried to pull it out, but Six-Tails held an iron grip on the handle—pushing it forwards with all of his strength.
Seeing that this massive beast was still standing, I sent a wave of my aether towards his form. Instead of blasting the monkey’s body with my power, when the wave reached his position, I wrapped it around the spear that Six-Tails was holding.
I directed all of my remaining strength onto this spear, launching it straight through the monkey’s black fur!
The wooden handle of the spear splintered and exploded from the force of my aether, but it had already blasted cleanly through the monkey’s chest. The force was so great that the destroyed spear continued to fly through the air for many meters until it pierced into a tree off in the distance.
Seven-Tails looked down in shock, seeing the gaping hole that was now present in his chest. Four-Tails’ spear was also still piercing through the other side of his chest, its blade now soaked in blood.
The seven-tailed monkey coughed another spurt of blood as he collapsed, crimson vitae flowing out from the opening Six-Tails had made in his torso.
The hulking monkey had collapsed to the ground with a thud, his sticky blood spilling out onto the charred dirt below. I watched as Six-Tails then retrieved a sword from the air using his strange power, promptly stabbing it down into the monkey’s corpse.
The dull sounds of metal piercing into flesh permeated throughout the area, and Six-Tails had only stopped after he had stabbed the now desecrated corpse a dozen times.
‘Better safe than sorry.’ I thought in wry amusement, floating downwards to levitate above his position.
The burned clearing in the forest was now a field of frost and desiccated icy spires. Rugged spears and shattered blocks of ice littered the terrain in all directions. After six-tails had finished making sure the brawny creature was dead, he turned to look up at me.
“Flying pup, you strong!” he laughed, several patches of blood staining his once white fur.
He held up his sword as he pointed the blade towards the now mutilated corpse of the black-furred monkey.
“Monkeys have two hearts.” he said, which explained why Four-Tails’ earlier surprise attack had failed to kill the monkey outright.
‘Two hearts?! These monkeys have incredible resilience. That icicle I launched at Seven-Tails would have killed any ordinary man.’ I mused, not really too surprised. After all, that behemoth of a monkey was eleven feet tall—its body more substantial than even the largest bear.
Six-Tails seemed to suddenly remember his fallen friend, and he turned towards where Four-Tails had been flung. He took off in that direction, his fast movements sending dirt flying.
The four-tailed monkey had created a trail of impacted dirt and debris as he flew towards the forest, and Seven-Tails ran past it as he reached his downed figure. I followed behind the frantic monkey, inwardly not expecting our ally to even be alive.
Six-Tails quickly reached the monkey’s position, and he dropped down until he was level with them.
“Four Tails! Wake up! We win fight, Seven Tails dead!” he shouted, shaking the smaller monkey in a way that was reminiscent of how he woke me up this morning.
Unfortunately, no matter how much Six-Tails stirred the monkey, he would not rise. Six-Tails grew visibility concerned as his frustration mounted. He let go of the smaller monkey’s form, letting him drop to the ground as he held out his hand in the air.
Suddenly, a small glass vial appeared in his hand.
When this vial appeared, blue light quickly shined off the monkey’s wrist—not quick enough for me to miss it in the brief moment it had shown. I strained my eyes to see that the light had come from this same silver-bracelet he had been wearing earlier.
‘That must be how he’s using that power!’ I realized, peering towards the strange bracelet with an inquisitive gaze. I would have to ask the monkey more about it when all of this was finished.
The vial that appeared was small, perhaps not much larger than a few inches, and it was filled with some strange, mystical liquid. The substance was red in appearance, and it shimmered and swirled within the glass as if it had a mind of its own.
Six-Tails held this vial over Four-Tails’ collapsed form, and then crushed it. Glass shattered as the red liquid exploded from his hands, dripping from his fingers and right onto Four Tails.
Once the mysterious liquid made contact with the monkey’s white fur, it began to bubble and sizzle with intensity. Strangely, instead of staining the monkey’s fur, it was almost immediately absorbed into it.
In only a few seconds the entirety of the red liquid had disappeared, and I looked on in keen interest at what happened next.
The next thing that happened wasn’t seen though, but heard. I soon heard the sounds of bones cracking and shifting—seemingly coming from within the monkey’s chest. The crunching sounds continued for a long few seconds before stopping.
Four-Tails abruptly sat up, panting heavily as if he had just re-emerged from water. His head darted around as he tried to collect his senses, but he eventually calmed down when he spotted me and Six-Tails next to him.
‘Is that a healing potion? Where did he get that?’ I wondered, never having seen such an item in this world. Previously, I had read about such things from Picea’s tomes of knowledge, but they were presumably no longer manufactured in this day and age.
“Four-Tails, you alive! We kill old seven tails, good job!” Six-Tails exclaimed, his excitement apparent.
Four-tails beamed back at the larger monkey with a sharp-toothed grin, “We strong!” he replied.
Six-Tails merely nodded his head sagely, “We strongest monkeys.” he said, as if it was obvious. He then turned his head to look deeper in the forest, in the direction where Seven-Tails had initially appeared from.
“Now it is loot time!” he exclaimed, greed showing in his shining blue eyes.