The group scattered around to avoid the incoming monkey.

“They are called night monkeys. They both move fast and learn fast. They mostly live as a tribe. That big thing is probably their tribe leader but not every monkey can evolve like that. If they do, they’ll likely become the leader.”

‘Thanks for the information.’

Elius said while rolling to the side, but he suddenly felt something and called his staff. The staff immediately extended and collided with something. It was an arrow.

‘The hell? They have weapons?’

“They probably killed some low-rank adventurers and looted them. As I said, they are quick learners. In some cases, you even might encounter a monkey that can use magic.”

‘What is their count?’

“Currently, 114 monkeys have surrounded you.”

Elius turned towards the big monkey that just jumped in the middle of them, but arrows came flying from behind him as soon as he turned his back to the forest. Everyone seemed okay, so there was no problem.

“We should get rid of the little ones first!”

Elius shouted. Ian was already running between trees, stabbing monkeys one by one, even before he did.

“I’m good.”

Liam said with a smile while attacking the big one. Since he could cover himself with earth magic, arrows were bouncing back from him. It seemed monkeys didn’t know how to strengthen the arrows with mana. No one hesitated to kill them since it was a real-life situation, where a single mistake could lead to their demise. Elius quickly created a strong wind around the closest tree to make monkeys fall, and he trapped the ones who fell in a giant water sphere.

‘Damn, I’m actually feeling so bad to kill them like this.’

“Dying by drowning is not a pleasant feeling.”

‘You don’t say!’

Ruvyn was constantly shooting arrows. Even though they had been killing them, it didn’t seem like their numbers were decreasing.

‘We should gather them in one area.’

Ruvyn thought while stepping back a little to look at the situation. He saw Eldron next to him. Eldron quickly cut one of the monkeys jumping on him and swung his glaive towards the group of monkeys ahead of him. An arc of fire appeared and flew towards the group. The monkeys who got hit by Eldron’s flames turned to ashes even before they could scream.

‘He can’t gather them.’

Then he saw Neil. He smiled with a prideful expression and sliced monkeys while muttering something to himself.

‘Tch. He won’t do it either.’

Ruvyn sighed, Ian was out of sight, and Liam was busy with the big one.

‘What a dysfunctional group.’

He desperately began to move toward Elius while shooting arrows. Elius was still trying to make monkeys fall from trees, but they were pretty stubborn.

“Elius!”

“What?!”

Elius answered without turning back.

“We should gather them at one place.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I’ll push them from behind with the wind, and you find a way to gather them together.”

Ruvyn dived into forest. As he said, monkeys began to fly towards the battlefield one by one. After seeing that, an idea popped up in Elius’ mind.

‘If he can push them, then all I have to do is pull.’

He stood in the center and reached his hand forward. A wind sphere began to form. It was constantly spinning, but the spin wasn’t just for decoration. The more it spun, the more power it gained, and eventually, it turned into a vacuum that pulled everything around, in the middle.

Poor monkeys that couldn’t cover themselves with mana were desperately gathering around the wind sphere. The wind sphere was like a magnet right now. Even the leaves of nearby trees were torn off and pulled into the vacuum.

It was unintentional, but Ruvyn could see the monkeys more clearly thanks to that. Soon, almost 80 percent of the monkeys were waiting for their deaths. Elius couldn’t move all this time because he was constantly pouring mana into the sphere to create a vacuum.

“That is all I can do.”

Ruvyn came next to Elius while breathing heavily.

“Finally!”

As soon as Elius heard Ruvyn, he snapped his empty hand’s fingers. A tiny flame got caught in the wind, and it grew instantly. A few seconds later, with the effect of the spinning wind sphere, a tornado of flame formed. The monkeys who got caught up in the vacuum burned to death with a scream. It was like a scene from hell.

Even the big monkey paused for a second and took a step back after seeing that huge flames. Elius dispersed the fire to not to burn the whole forest. The small number of monkeys who were lucky enough not to get caught up ran away with fear. Now only the giant monkey and the six kids were looking at each other. The monkey was angry, and he gave a hateful look towards them. Liam successfully held him back until now, but he couldn’t even put a scratch on the monkey.

“Hey, hey, don’t give us a look like that. You are the one who attacked first.”

Liam said while raising his sword and running towards him again. But something was different now. The monkey was quicker, stronger. He roared and quickly stopped Liam’s sword with his hand and raised it in the air. Liam didn’t let his sword go. He was also hanging in the air.

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“Put me down!”

Ruvyn quickly shot three arrows to the monkey’s arm to help Liam get back his sword. But the arrows, even though they involved mana, bounced back.

“Huh?”

Monkey furiously shook Liam, but he wasn’t letting his sword go. Eldron approached the monkey from behind, his glaive engulfed in flames, and he slashed the monkey’s back vertically. At the same time, when he swung his glaive, Ian appeared next to him and stabbed the monkey’s back of the knee.

“…”

“Why doesn’t my blade go in?”

Ian asked curiously since only the tip of his blade went in.

“What a hard skin he has.”

Eldron was preparing to strike again since his first attack did nothing more than a mere superficial scratch. Monkey turned around while roaring and slammed Liam towards them to the ground.

‘Damn. They are so unorganized.’

Jay was watching them between shadows with joy. Liam’s grip loosened with the impact, and the monkey finally snatched the sword away. He roared again and swung the sword towards Liam, who was still lying on the ground, with great force.

*CLANG!*

The collision sound of the sword and Eldron’s glaive echoed throughout the forest. He was barely holding the sword back, the veins on his arms popped up, and he was about to lose all his strength.

“What are you watching?! Move!”

Elius came quickly and shouted while supporting Eldron with his staff. Liam rolled away hurriedly before getting crushed by his own sword. With that, Elius and Eldron also retreated. They surrounded the monkey, but none made the first move since the attacks were ineffective. Monkey was getting angrier and angrier as time passed by. He raised Liam’s sword and repeatedly slammed it to the ground to show how angry he was. Elius took a deep breath.

‘Let’s try this.’

His left eye began to glow, and blue flames surrounded his eye. He rushed towards the monkey. Now there were little blue dots on the monkey’s body. After the monkey raised the sword one more time to slam it, Elius quickly tried to attack the blue dot at the side of the monkey’s body, but as soon as he got into attacking motion, the dot disappeared.

‘Huh?’

The sword that would hit the ground suddenly changed its trajectory and went towards Elius. It was fast, and the force was too great, so Elius bent down to dodge instead of trying to deflect it. With that, Elius saw a dot again on the monkey’s body, but before he could do anything, the monkey’s empty hand struck his side. He flew away and hit a tree.

“Uggh.”

Thanks to the monkey’s dull senses, Neil was behind him. He had a weird smile mixed with pride on his face.

“Fools, step aside. There is nothing my katana can’t cut.”

His katana began to emit a light-yellow glow, and he attacked the monkey’s back. For the first time, the giant monkey screamed in pain. His scream was deafening. Even the trees trembled.

“Eh? It actually worked.”

Neil was surprised because no matter how strong he acts and how much he says things like ‘I can cut anything,’ he knew he wasn’t strong enough, and he knew that everyone praised his skills only because he was the prince.

The reason he didn’t want to join a team was for this. He didn’t want to show his weak side to the others when they were on missions because he feared they’d abandon him if he did. He didn’t want to experience the feeling that he did ten years ago again, so he isolated himself. But right now, when everyone was helpless, he was the only useful one.

“Why are you so surprised, idiot?! Cut his hand. I want my sword back!”

Liam quickly ran towards the monkey, who was busy screaming in pain and grabbed his arm to hold him still. He used the earth element to make himself heavier, so the monkey couldn’t shake him off this time. Seeing that, Eldron also ran and hugged the monkey’s other arm. They were pressing down the monkey, but it still wasn’t enough. The monkey roared even louder and bent his knees.

“Damn, he is going to jump!”

Ruvyn yelled to warn them, but before the monkey could jump, Elius was already behind him. He quickly jumped, clenched his fists, and hit the monkey from above with his explosive punch.

“Sit!”

The monkey fell face down with the explosion. Liam and Eldron were still holding him tightly. Before the monkey could do anything, roots from both sides began to grow and entangle in the monkey’s body. Now the only free part was his head.

“Fucker! If you could control roots, why didn’t you do it earlier.”

Liam shouted to Elius.

“I literally just realized I could do that.”

“Heh, thanks to me.”

Neil slowly walked and stopped next to the monkey’s head with a smile. Their eyes met, and Neil saw the hatred in the monkey’s eyes.

“I see, you are full of hatred. Let me illuminate the darkness inside you.”

He slowly raised his katana.

“Umm, maybe a little faster!”

Eldron was about to reach his limit because the monkey was constantly struggling. Neil finally swung his katana and aimed at the monkey’s neck. The struggling stopped, and his head fell off.

‘What a twist! I wasn’t expecting them actually to kill it.’

Jay appeared while clapping.

“Nice! Good job!”

Jay leaned in to check the monkey’s headless body after the bleeding stopped. The wound wasn’t clean. The places where the katana had touched seemed to burn from overheating.

‘What kind of light does that?’

Jay straightened back with thoughts on his mind. Then he walked towards Liam and slapped the back of his head.

“Idiot, how could you let your weapon taken away. You caused an increase in the level of the danger.”

After seeing how Liam was getting scolded, Neil grinned.

“What was that? You are as guilty as him.”

Jay turned towards Neil. Now it was Liam’s turn to grin.

“Eh? What did I do?!”

Neil shouted.

“You could have slit his head ten times instead of talking. Next time, stop spouting nonsense and focus on swinging your katana.”

After that, Jay lectured everyone, especially about team formation and acting organized as a group. Teams without a system wouldn’t last much in the outside world. Everyone needed a role in the group.

“We will move again in three hours, so sleep or not, up to you. I’ll be right back after scanning the area.”

Jay disappeared again.

‘Hmm, I can even control roots to some extent even before mastering earth element. Can I create structures like how Mr Idarin does after mastering it?’

“Are you asking me? Or thinking to yourself?”

Elius paused for a second.

‘Both.’

“Yes, you can.”

‘By the way, how is the chakra analyzing going?’

“It is extremely slow. I don’t think I can fully analyze it without a source of knowledge.”

‘Hmm…’

Elius shook his head. After that tiring fight, he sat under a tree and closed his eyes in the meditation pose. Then, a few hours later, with the first ray of lights, they began to move again.