"FUCK!" Alex screamed as he went flying back. He was lucky not to hit a tree but the hard impact still rocked his damaged organs.
He quickly looked to the new challenger to see it beating its chest like a gorilla. It was over 3 meters tall similar to the Merebear but its fur was all white. Its exposed chest was a contrasting black that made it look like an exotic animal from Earth.
Its large tail swung behind it, wagging like it was happy as it grinned at Alex. Alex gritted his teeth and got up as the big ape-like monster known as a Giant Monkey, ran on all fours toward him screeching.
"OH, OOH, AHH, AHH!!" It yelled out, almost like it was trying to communicate with him.
This was one of the few monsters on his list he felt would be tough and it had to come at him at the worst time possible. He knew he would struggle because this creature had more intelligence than the average 2nd Ring!
It used its cunning and dexterity to beat its opponents. It was a slippery opponent and that was not a good match for Alex in his current condition. He gritted his teeth as the Giant Monkey punched out towards him.
The wind whistled around its fist as Alex dodged. The beast aimed for his left side which was going to be a problem and managed to barely get by. Just as he thought he was safe for a moment, a giant tail hit him in the face and sent him flying back.
He found himself tumbling into a close clutter of trees and he shook his head to get rid of the dizziness. His nose bled and was probably broken as well and he blinked a few times toward the beast.
It came close to the trees and reached a hand in between since it was too big and Alex was able to get out of range. He quickly retaliated with his claw and cut its palm. The Giant Monkey pulled its hand back and screamed.
It went through a few different ways between the trees but was unable to get itself to Alex. After several wounds to its hands, it screamed and began pounding on the tree trunks. The trees shook and sent leaves and twigs coming down towards the two of them while Alex quickly got himself prepared for another fight.
He took the small shield from his ring and tightened it around his injured hand. It was already irreparable at this point so he might as well destroy it completely if it meant living another day.
He also pulled out the hidden blade that was jammed on the underside of the bracer so he now had another weapon. Blood came out of the monster's hands as it worsened its own wounds trying to knock down the trees.
Alex waited as the enraged beast finally broke down a tree in front of it. It came down slowly towards Alex while it tried to reach its large hand toward him again. Alex took this chance to slash at its wrist, dying its lovely fur in red and it screamed as it pulled its hand back again.
The one good thing that came out of Alex's opponent being more intelligent, was that it reacted to pain and emotions differently. The pain affected it more and prevented it from using its full strength in its punches, afraid of hurting itself more.
Just like humans, other intelligent beings never wanted to get hurt and it took a lot of determination to do things like Alex did to remove his sword. He was able to ignore his pain better than most after getting beat up every day for the last few months.
He made a break for it, moving out of the tree cluster and making his way to his Kusarigama that was knocked away no thanks to the new challenger that interrupted him. Seeing its prey run away, the beast quickly pursued. Although Alex was injured, his legs had been pretty much okay so although he was slower, he was able to get to his weapon before the monkey could catch him.
He ripped the sickle out of the ground, hurting himself in the process but he gritted his teeth and swung his chain weapon strangely. It was almost as if the weapon floated around him waiting for his command.
He was actually just moving it at such a high speed that his eyes and the beast's felt tricked. When the Giant Monkey was close enough, He fiercely swung out his weapon with a warcry as the wind whistled loudly.
The blade went straight out towards the monkey's head while the sickle swung close to the ground at its legs. It was so fast the monkey didn't have time to dodge as the blade end stuck into its cheek and the sickle managed to cut off the end of the monkey's tail.
Blood gushed out from both wounds and it stepped back as it screamed in pain. Not giving it a chance to recover, Alex pulled on the chain that was in his hands and quickly swung it back before sending the ends out again.
This time, the monkey was more prepared and managed to swat away the blade, only earning a cut, but the sickle sunk deep into its thigh. It screamed but grabbed the chain and then yanked Alex toward him.
Not expecting this, Alex widened his eyes as he swiftly came in front of the monkey. The beast opened its jaws wide as Alex came into its range. Alex quickly thought of a counter as he swung his chain weapon again to pull it out of the beast's grasp. It made him spin horizontally but he used that momentum to swing his weapon around him like a mummy before sending the blade end into the open mouth.
The monkey didn't expect this as it began closing its mouth but the blade was too fast at such a close range. The blade sunk deep into the back of the beast's mouth making it open its mouth further to scream. Before it could pull out the weapon, its face suddenly moved to the side as the sickle part sunk deep into a tree pulling it taut.
The monkey didn't pay attention to that as its pupils trembled when he saw two sharp claws that reflected the little bit of moonlight that reached the ground. Alex held his arm out in front of him like a certain superhero with an "S" on his chest as the claw weapon sunk into the beast's wide eye.
He felt resistance but pushed forward and broke through. His arm sunk all the way up to his shoulder, deep into the skull of the beast as he took his injured arm and stabbed the other eye.
The beast let out a cry as its skull got pierced, not before activating a skill that rippled the air with immense pressure from its cry. The wail made his ears bleed and his head rattle and the entire forest might have been able to hear the scream.
When its voice died, down, it slumped onto its knees and its head fell forward thanks to the extra weight of Alex. Alex struggled to pry his arm out as the beast fell head first into the ground.
"Ugh!" Alex groaned as the head squished him down to the ground. He gritted his teeth and slowly managed to wiggle his arm out of the eye socket of the beast. He was covered in blood and injured badly but he needed to quickly move before other creatures got here.
The scream was super loud and Alex was temporarily deaf right now. He managed to get out from under the head of the beast and quickly cut off its ears and grabbed the tail he cut off before putting them in his ring. He looked at his handiwork panting and still a bit dazed.
Just as he was about to leave he managed to hear another screech in the distance.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" He couldn't help but curse and grit his teeth when he heard how close the screech was.
He looked around him panicking slightly as he looked at the dead monkey again.
'Fuck!' He cursed in his mind and ran toward it.
- - -
Out from between some brush, a Giant brown scaled gecko flicked its tongue in the direction of the monkey and bull. The bull still couldn't get up and was breathing hard as it laid on its side depressed.
The monkey was slumped over not moving so the monster moved up to the monkey and sniffed it with its tongue. It turned its head to the side a few times to get a better look at it. It went around a few times to make sure it was still dead before it looked at its face.
Its eye socket was missing a ball and the other was bleeding out of its iris. Its mouth was also wide open still in shock. As it looked at its next meal curiously the wind blew causing the clanging of metal.
The Giant Gecko suddenly flared up a flap of skin on the sides of its head similar to Dilophosaurus from Earth's history. It hissed loudly to reveal incredibly thin and sharp teeth like a snake while a dark liquid dripped off of them.
The chain of Alex's Kusarigama moved around in the wind but the Gecko didn't know what it was so it ignored it. The fans on its head went back down as it looked at the monkey.
Before it could even register, a sharp object entered its vision before stabbing through its eye straight to the brain. The monster screeched again and bit down on the head of the monkey thinking that it was the one who attacked as its senses quickly dull before it fell off to the side dead.
Through the eye socket of the monkey, Alex's bloody arm retracted into the skull. After a few minutes and the grotesque moving of the Giant Monkey's skull, he came out of its mouth. He was covered head to toe in brain matter and blood that was a mix of his own and the monkey before he looked at the Gecko.
It twitched a little as Alex held his ribs in pain. His breathing was irregular but he still reached down and pulled off the fans and pulled out its teeth. Thinking for a bit, he also carefully reached deeper into the holes of its teeth to pull out a sack.
It was squishy and full of a black substance but he carefully put it away in his storage ring. With that done, he quickly moved to the Bull and put it out of its misery. He took the broken horns and put them away before dashing off slowly.
He would come back to his base another time since it was too close to the battlefield. He needed to rest and wash up so he went straight to the river and dove in. He kept an eye on his surroundings as the water reflected the moon beautifully.
Only the sound of running water broke the silence of the night and he splashed water over his face. His hair and growing facial hair stuck to his face as he brought out his first aid kit.
He was naked as he sat on the bank of the river. He was so tired that it was hard for him to focus on his surroundings so he only hoped nothing was stalking him. He wheezed with every breath. He had a feeling a lung might have been punctured but it was time to do first aid anyways.
He furrowed his brows and his wheezy panting increased as he prepared himself for the amount of pain he was about to go through. He took an object from his ring that was similar to a piece of bamboo but was called a Hollow Reed here.
There was a bit of cotton and leather around it as he sunk his teeth into it before he straightened his back. Then, he began to twist his body from side to side slowly. His broken ribs ground together as he felt them echo in his head.
He soon began twisting his body further unnaturally and his muscles rippled underneath his skin like something was moving within. He screamed into the hollow reed as tears came out of his eyes. The pain was unimaginable as he was forcing himself to put his broken ribs back in place.
He was using his muscles in a way that shouldn't be possible normally and it was causing some internal bleeding. He fought to keep himself awake as he spent a long time trying to move his ribs back into place.
He spat blood out of his mouth several times onto the reed in his mouth before he finally got everything into place.
*Cough!* *Cough!* *Cough!* 'Fuck' Alex thought as he spat out the reed and wiped off more blood from his mouth.
He almost passed out several times but this was only the beginning. He reached back gingerly to touch the giant gash that went from his left shoulder to the bottom of his right.
This wound from the Rock Bull wasn't as bad, but it still needed medical attention or it would get infected. He scrunched up his nose and gritted his bloody teeth again as he put his arms out to his side.
It hurt just to lift them but he did it anyway. All of a sudden a loud crack echoed in the forest as Alex screamed back into the hollow reed he inserted into his mouth again. His right arm was now bent unnaturally like his arm was badly broken.
His elbow pointed in front of him and he cried as he continued to break that arm until it reached toward his back.
Now, it was like he had an arm facing the wrong way, but could also be used to effectively sew up his wound.