Boom! Bang! Che!
The noise of the battle between the party and the five gorillas echoed throughout the forest.
Neo could feel the intense energy ripples from the fight, even from his position a fair distance away. It was clear their enemies were overwhelmingly strong.
Though the powerful shockwaves reached him, Neo had nothing but motivational quotes to offer. Not that he could share them even if he wanted to.
After all…
Hee! Hee! Hee! Hee!
Neo had his own problems to handle.
And there seemed to be no solution in sight.
How does a mortal fend off three common-grade monkeys by himself?
No, the real question was: how does a mortal avoid doom when faced with three common-grade monkeys alone?
How would he manage his escape?
Was it even possible?
Neo felt things were moving too fast. He had barely spent a day in the Spirit Realm, and now he was already facing common-grade beasts on his own?
And why the hell was his mind wandering in this situation?
Neo and the three monkeys stared at each other in silence…
The monkeys looked at him curiously, as if wondering who this exceptionally ugly and bald brother was.
Neo could almost read their thoughts. He even considered whether he should strip down and join in their hee hees.
Neo didn't mind becoming comrades with a group of primates if it meant surviving. He would do anything to avoid death.
He had studied the beasts and deduced that they were newly born monkeys, so their knowledge was still extremely limited.
'Could I really pull this off?'
Neo was about to execute his plan…
Suddenly, the tallest monkey sniffed the air. Its large nostrils puffed like hideous balloons before deflating again.
Instantly, a crazed, bloodthirsty expression appeared on its face.
It started to snarl and growl, prompting its brothers to sniff the air as well.
'It's over…'
Bang!
The tallest monkey pounced forward, closing in on Neo rapidly.
It stopped abruptly and twisted, causing its tail to whip towards him at a shocking speed.
Neo held his spear firmly and attempted to parry the tail whip, hoping to angle it slightly away from him to create an opening for attack…
Dang!
But he failed.
Neo was the one to get parried, sent flying to the left towards the shortest monkey, which was already waiting with flared nostrils.
Neo felt the wind against his face as he tried to regain his balance, but the force of the tail whip was too strong, and he couldn't recover in time.
Bam!
A tremendous impact hit his shoulder as the monkey slapped him sideways.
His body was completely lifted off the ground, flung right towards the last monkey.
Not again!
Gritting his teeth to endure the pain, Neo twisted his body and attempted a thrust once more.
He saw his spear rapidly approach the monkey and felt a glimmer of hope as the beast remained unmoving.
Then, it moved so fast it blurred. The monkey appeared behind Neo and roughly yanked him forward by his neck.
Neo was flung towards the shortest monkey once again.
The monkey's tail slashed out, the attack too swift to dodge or parry. Neo ended up with a large wound across his stomach.
Hee! Hee!
Neo was being completely toyed with by a bunch of newly born monkeys.
He was so weak that they couldn't take him seriously.
They gradually tightened the circle around Neo, sealing off all escape routes…
Neo was in serious danger.
He had to create an escape route for himself!
Neo swept his spear in a large arc, forcing the two monkeys before him to leap back. He had created space for himself and now needed to utilise it wisely.
Whoosh!
The third monkey, unaffected by Neo's last attack, whipped its tail at him once more. But this time, Neo was ready.
He sidestepped to the left, evading the attack, and pivoted with the momentum, flowing into a sharp slice targeted at the beast's tail.
Neo had come up with that move on the spot, his neurons firing like crazy.
Slice!
His attack struck the tail and severed it cleanly.
Now!
Neo pounced at the beast, which was still recoiling from the pain of having its tail cut off.
He had to keep his distance from the remaining two monkeys for as long as possible!
He reached the wounded monkey and thrust his spear at its eyes.
The monkey swept out its palm in a heavy slap, but Neo dodged by ceasing his own attack, albeit barely.
He raised his head after dodging and saw a black foot inches away from his face.
It was then he realised… he had messed up.
He had made the mistake of looking away from his target during the battle. Neo still didn't know much about fighting and had instinctively looked downwards while dodging the palm attack.
He was about to suffer the consequences of his costly mistake…
Boom!
Neo's face caved in slightly as he was flung backwards.
Unimaginable pain shot through his body, rippling through him in waves of pure agony as he flew towards the raging monkeys behind him. Neo wanted to just succumb to the pain and let go, but still…
Neo ignored the pain and did something absolutely crazy.
He threw his spear at one of the monkeys charging at him from the far left!
The monkey halted abruptly and leaned slightly, allowing the weapon to skim past its neck. It stretched out its hands and lunged at Neo.
Neo suddenly dove down, ducking right under the grab and passing through the space between the monkey's legs.
Damn!
Neo had landed awkwardly on his ankle. His body wobbled, and he almost fell forward.
But he absolutely couldn't mess up now.
Rolling sideways, Neo narrowly avoided the powerful tail of the monkey. He landed beside his spear and picked it up smoothly, his eyes locking onto the part of the forest with the most trees like a honing device.
Finally!
He had escaped the encirclement!
'Just a bit more,' Neo told himself, taking off like a rocket and dashing for the forest.
Roar!
He heard the beasts roaring behind him and pushed himself harder.
He had to go harder, faster—he had to get away!
Finally, after what felt like hours, Neo had lost the monkeys.
He knew running in the thickest part of the forest made it more difficult for the large monkeys to follow, especially when there were no suitable branches for swinging.
'Am I really alive?'
Neo couldn't believe it. He had actually survived.
In one piece?
Neo thought of the multiple bloody wounds on his body and smiled wryly.
Maybe not in one piece…
He was wounded so badly that the only reason he wasn't screaming like a child was that he had been used to agonising pain for a long time.
His pain tolerance was insane because of that. But that didn't mean it didn't hurt. It hurt just as much as it would for anyone else; he was just able to endure it better.
But at least he had survived.
He was just about to try to locate the party when he realised he couldn't hear any noise of battle anymore.
'Had he run so far away?'
Neo's heart palpitated, and he subconsciously glanced around.
It was then he noticed that it had gotten quite dark. Yes, even darker than before.
Neo could barely see a few metres in this ominous darkness.
And just when things couldn't get any scarier, a cracking sound reached his ears.
Neo's head snapped to the side, his eyes widening in horror.
Right before him, a tree had just morphed into a humanoid wooden beast!
One with a gigantic wooden cock!