Mo Yangling's eyes narrowed as he eyed all of the beasts around him.
Various species he couldn't recognize, variants of animals he was familiar to.
'It really does feel like an alien world... So much to explore!'
Mo Yangling's thoughts faltered for just a second, he didn't allow himself to be distracted for too long.
The beasts all now surrounded the Monk, but they were too scared to approach him directly it seemed.
That stalemate was broken by one of the larger beasts in the backlines, a creature that resembled a massive caterpillar with blades for legs and crooked, sharpened teeth adorning every corner of its mouth.
"VOR'GRAHK NARZ'TARGH, THULK'RAZ ZOR'KRAAGH!"
It shouted, its voice crackling like thunder as it resounded in the ears of everyone nearby.
The Monk didn't need a translator to understand what the order was.
The beasts around him immediately rushed in.
Horns, hooves, teeth, and spikes surrounded the monk from all directions. But the monk was not deterred, he had just the right technique for that after all...
'Vajra Fist: Whirling Vajra'
A movement that was very much constructed to deal with several opponents at once, also the monk's favorite to use against the trainee monks.
His core immediately shifted against the attacks coming in from all sides, in a fluid movement, his origin energy moved along his arm and torso as the back of his palm forcefully closed the maw of a bear-like Demonic beast.
The Beast's momentum was turned against it immediately, as its gigantic body was then used as a battering ram, hitting a good portion of demonic beasts around the Monk.
But the movement didn't stop there. It was not really a technique as much as it was a form of constant circular movement.
All of the attacks surrounding Mo Yangling were quickly starting to be parried in that same peculiar manner, with the circular motion of the Monk sending their momentum against themselves.
Spikes cracked and splintered into other beasts, hooves were deflected to crush the skulls of their allies, and teeth were forcefully broken off and sent flying as the Monk's movement itself gained more and more momentum.
'The 'Whirling Vajra' is a technique that centers around the user's ability to build up momentum using the strikes of surrounding enemies.
To a mortal, such a move is limiting and rather dizzying to use, but for someone that's already transcended the limits of regular humans?'
The Monk's body seemed to turn into a blur as he continued to circle around the beasts.
Using that momentum, he constantly moved his center of gravity and hopped around the battlefield using the attacks of the beasts around him.
A bear-like monster with metallic fur swiped its claw towards the Monk at a downward angle.
The bear's paw scooped up dirt as it headed towards the Monk, who was stuck in mid-air redirecting the attacks of a few less-intelligent monsters.
'Hmm, so they've no care for their comrades, huh?'
The monk didn't panic, however, instead, his body spun against the wind pressure created by that gigantic paw.
His aim was to completely sidestep the beast's paw, and he surely would have managed to do so, was he not impaled in the side by an exceedingly long thin spike that extended from the ground.
The Spike also impaled at least 5 other lesser beasts, but the monk didn't have any additional time to think about that.
The spike was sturdy, a lot more so than the monk had expected, it had managed to completely stop his circular momentum, breaking his technique as the Bear's paw directly collided with his entire body.
'Fuck, I need to get more used to fighting beasts!'
The monk had managed to put up his guard just in time, thankfully. But he was still sent flying towards the sky, his body spinning around uncontrollably as Origin Energy enveloped his body for protection.
He was not going to be allowed to get back on land that easily, though...
A flock of large flying beasts immediately descended upon him. They were all massive, each easily being the size of a house, with a beak that looked to be made of wood, and a body made of spiky vines.
Their green, glowing eyes shone with intelligence as they moved like a hail of gigantic bullets towards the Monk's back.
But Mo Yangling was not going to let himself get taken advantage of that easily.
Using the spinning momentum received from the Metallic Bear's attack, he met the birds with a twisting open palm.
'Vraja Fist: Diamond Palm Strike!'
The Monk's palm shot forward, his skin shone like a diamond as a blue aura projected in front of him taking the form of a gigantic palm.
A majority of the flock of flying beasts were seemingly not expecting such an attack, and their beaks were immediately crushed against the great momentum of that Palm Projection.
'Seems like the intelligent ones are stepping in! I've probably killed enough lower beasts for them to realize that I wasn't even getting tired doing it...'
By that time, the monk had managed to stabilize himself using that palm strike, so he strategically allowed himself to fall right on top of one of the birds from earlier.
It immediately tried to shake him off, but one of the monk's arms clenched the beast by the neck tightly, not allowing it to even control its own flight trajectory.
'Still, this is a lot more troublesome than I imagined...'
The monk could easily adapt his martial arts to the weaker beasts, as he outclassed them physically by a very long shot.
But the more intelligent the beats were, the stronger they were.
While he was still stronger than them, the gap between them became smaller and smaller, and it could eventually be breached by their overwhelming numbers.
Unfortunately, the monk was not given enough time to make up a plan of action, as the Beasts from below immediately started bombarding the sky.
A flurry of earth spikes, bone spikes, and even beast carcasses were being thrown at the Monk.
Mo Yangling gripped the thorny bird's neck even harder as he steered it to dodge the attacks.
The bird itself was intelligent enough to not be too keen on dying, even when being directly ordered to do so.
'Fear of death is something that intelligence only amplifies after all...'
The monk decided to use that to his advantage. Using the Bird as footing, his free hand immediately moved as he took a stance.
He pointed towards the beasts on the ground with an excited look on his face.
'One Finger Zen: Pointed Strike!'
All of the monks at his monastery had at least mastered a single one-handed style of fighting. After all, how else were they going to keep training when one of their arms was broken?
Mo Yangling was no different in that matter. Rather, he was even more adamant about it than most, having also served as an instructor.
But with the advent of Origin Energy, the Finger Technique which used to be more simple and meditative in nature in his past life, became quite destructive.
A thin line formed from the Monk's finger into the ground, piercing everything in sight as he poked a hole right through the blanket of beasts in the forest below, its crushing power quaking and permanently scarring the earth.
Normally, the entire One Finger Zen style was more focused on piercing power. Achieving more whilst expending less effort...
So what was going to happen when the Monk charged that move with enough Origin Energy to match the Vraja Fist?
Well...
Where that slender line of energy had touched down, an explosion of Origin Energy shot through the earth.
That energy engulfed from that single point, and expanded instantly into an explosion that swallowed up hundreds of beasts.
That blast of energy seemed to shake all of the Demonic Beasts present. But it also shook the Monk slightly.
'Shit, I'm expending too much energy like this! I accidentally put even more Origin Energy into it... But at least I got a majority of the stragglers to fuck off.'
The explosion itself was not even the best part of the attack.
The sheer shockwave had scattered the beasts below even further, and the small earthquake that it had created scared off the majority of the lower level ones.
The sheer stench of blood and guts in the field was enough of a bad omen for them to cause enough fear to force them to flee.
After all, the one commanding the beasts was not the Forest's King, it was not powerful enough to make them all want to kill themselves.
The monk was about to celebrate slightly, but then his instincts blared at him and he immediately looked to the side.
The gigantic bladed caterpillar from earlier was now barreling towards him, gliding through the air with its edged appendages as it inched closer and closer, trying to swallow up the monk entirely with its jagged maw.
'As if!'
The monk's entire stance changed as he let go of the flying beast's neck underneath him.
'Arhat Fist: Big Flood Strike!'
Arching at an extremely wide angle, his punch hurtled forward to meet the beast directly.
From his fist extended forward a gigantic wave of water-like Origin Energy, which aimed to completely overwhelm it.
But not everything was going quite according to plan...
'Shit, this thing's much stronger than that stupid snake!'
It seemed to completely swallow up that wave unleashed by the Monk's Martial Art, eventually being forced to bite down on it as its gigantic body crashed into the Monk.
The flying beast was immediately turned into a splatter of blood on the ground below them, and Mo Yangling was sent flying as well.
His body crashed into the ground, forming a large crater as he bounced off of it like a rock skipping water.
The monk dug his feet into the ground to stop his momentum. He looked up to the beast, which continued to glide in the wind.
The beast's jagged maw seemed to twist into a smile as some of its teeth cracked.
"Hmph- That martial art was quite formidable... I was aiming to swallow you whole, yet you managed to get away with losing just an arm."
The Monk raised an eyebrow, before looking down at his side, his eyes widened to see his left arm missing.
'Tsk... He must've swallowed it up alongside my technique...'
The monk was a bit annoyed by that point, his body was filled with bruises and injuries, and his Origin Energy was not exactly limitless either.
'I'll focus on regrowing my arm and whether it's possible later. For now, I'll try to finish this!'