After a momentary tense silence, Leiu raised White Edge and got ready to continue killing them. His Health had mostly recovered, and since he didn't use much Mana, a single Mana Potion was enough to recover it all.

Sui recovered one-third of her Health and was already holding her bow. Elena readied herself as she saw Leiu continue his onsslaught so she began casting again, however, before she could finish, a loud screech came from behind.

The Crazy Apes threw stone rocks the size of a fist at the Players, forcing Elena and Sui to divert their focus on them.

Rocks were thrown at the four of them, it seems that each ape focused on a Player: Leiu dodged out of the way and launched himself toward Chul, whereas Sui fired her arrows at the projectiles while fearfully backing away.

Chul, whose attention was split between the Crazy Apes and Leiu, inwardly cursed before deeming the former more dangerous. Elena and Sui wouldn't be able to fend off against the enemies by themselves, so getting rid of the Crazy Apes first was a priority, and after that, they would be able to gang up on Leiu.

As Chul swung his sword at the thrown rocks while backing away, he saw Leiu swiftly circle to his rear and unleash a white beam of light from his sword.

Much to Leiu's surprise, when the skill hit its target, nearly half of Chul's remaining Health was gone. Furthermore, thanks to hitting the target in the back, Chul was stunned.

[Invisible Strike]

The two quick thrusts killed the defenseless Chul, causing him to drop one piece of equipment. Leiu snatched it away before rolling to the side and then launching an Icicle at the screeching Crazy Apes, thus making stop throwing rocks and jump to another tree.

Barely five second later, Leiu heard a cry from a distance away. Two Crazy Apes had cascaded upon Sui, attacking her, and eventually killing her, with their disproportionately long arms.

Elena was better off thanks to her offensive Fire-aspected spells. She barely dodged the rocks and even managed to almost kill the Ape attacking her.

As for the remaining Ape, it leapt down from the tree branch, falling on the ground with a thud and then lunging itself at Leiu. Before it reached him, the Crazy Ape laughed and threw a rock at him, which hit Leiu's chest, dealing some damage but not managing to stop him from retaliating.

When the enemy was in-range, Leiu extended his right hand and thrust his blade, accurately piercing through the ape's chest. As a ghoulish cry came out from the monster, Leiu twisted the sword before pulling it back and slashing diagonally.

Even two grievous wounds, the Crazy Ape was still not dead. It flailed its arms and tried to retreat but Leiu was relentlessly closing in and hacking down with White Edge.

'Just die already!'

The Health bar of the ape kept decreasing rapidly until it reached 0%. No matter how much the ape had struggled with its body, it could not shake off Leiu. At this point, only 15 seconds passed since he had first struck the ape, its body finally fell to the ground and White Edge was taken out of its chest.

The two Crazy Apes which had attacked Sui, seeing their kin die, came over while letting out screams of anger and rage. They picked up rocks from the ground and kept frantically throwing them at Leiu, deeming more dangerous than Elena.

When they were relatively close, one of them stopped in its tracks and kept throwing the rocks while the other descended upon Leiu.

'I can't keep dodging forever. I need to use cover and bait them to come down.'

As he hastily backed away and using some of the trees on the way to block the rocks, Leiu saw Elena, who was her on her last leg. With a plan in mind, he sprinted towards her with the Crazy Ape right behind him.

...

"Shit! I'm going to die."

Elena was busy from the very beginning dealing with this ape so she didn't notice what happened to her comrades. Only when she turned her head and saw two of her remaining companions dead on the ground and a hooded-man running at her with alarming speed did she realize that things were turning for the absolute worst.

She was worn out from the fight, she couldn't even finish the struggling ape as all her mana was depleted, moreover, only 30% of her Health was left. Seeing the pointlessness of fighting back anymore, Elena turned desperate and chose to spring into a mad sprint.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Unfortunately, as a Mage, her Agility were pitifully low, so Leiu was able to catch up to her in a couple of breaths. Instead of attacking her with White Edge, he actually sheathed it and grabbed her wrist with his hand.

Then, Elena's body was thrown by the immense strength of Leiu. She could only see her vision twist and turn before the face of the Crazy Ape came into view.

After flinging her body at the enemy, amidst her the girl's loud shriek, Leiu jumped after it.

Unlike him, Elena was neither prepared nor able to control her body, so, upon crashing into the Ape, she lost what little Health she had left and died.

Decisively, Leiu looted the fallen equipment and then used this self-made opportunity to get close to the confused Ape, using [Invisible Strike]. White Edge stabbed through the thick head of the monster, dealing critical damage and ending its life.

Besides another Ape standing up above, Leiu saw no signs of the one Elena had been fighting. He wasn't sure if either fled or it succumbed to the burn wounds inflicted by the Fire Spells. Still, even with one enemy left, Leiu could only dodge the barrage of rocks thrown at him.

Dark Sword Mastery (Basic Lv3=>4) : When wielding a one-handed or two-handed sword ; You deal 18% more damage.

A blue message popped up but Leiu totally ignored and kept evading the projectiles It was starting to get really annoying as this Crazy Ape kept chasing him even though he ran quite a distance away from the initial place of the battle.

'It's still chasing me?! Damnit!'

Once he found an relatively open space in the woods, Leiu stopped in his tracks and used [Black Empowerment]. Thereafter, he raised his head and looked at the Crazy Ape, which had no nearby tree to jump towards.

He expected it to turn around and flee, however, it surprisingly jumped down and rushed at him with both arms open wide.

...

'It's finally over.'

Leiu breathed a sigh of relief and sheathed his sword. Killing the last Crazy Ape was relatively easy as it couldn't rely on the trees in this open area.

While catching his breathe and using Health Potions to recover his Health, Leiu checked the System Logs.

Carving Shot (Normal) : Basic Lv1=>2 : You heavily swing your sword horizontally dealing 135%, there is 11% chance of stunning the target for 3 seconds.

Cost : 10 Mana.

Cooldown : 30 seconds.

Invisible Strike (Rare) : Basic Lv4=>5 : You can slash a second time with a fast speed: The attack would deal 160% the damage of the first strike.

Cost : 3 mana

Cooldown : 15 seconds.

You looted 'Standard Iron Leg guard'(Normal) : +15 Vitality | -10% movement speed

+3 Silver

You looted Crazy Ape's heart 1/3

You looted Crazy Ape's heart 2/3

You looted Crazy Ape's heart 3/3... Quest complete!

You looted 'Crystal Staff' (Rare : +15 Intelligence / +5 Wisdom

Bonus effect : +15% Mana regeneration in combat. Effect increased to 25% outside of combat.

Leiu let out a chuckle as he saw the rewards. Chul's Leg Guards and the assassin's dropped gloves were lackluster, but Elena's was unlucky enough to lose her weapon.

The previous fight was difficult as he pushed himself to the limit causing the Stamina to deplete even faster, he was even profusely sweating. If it was not for the Health bar in his vision, he would have thought he was in reality and not in a game.

Leiu did not equip the leg guards as it was not suited for him. First, when he equipped them, they were uncomfortable to wear, secondly, they decreased movement speed, which wasn't something he wanted.