Within five minutes of entering the forest, Neo had already spotted a suitable target.
He eyed the dumb looking common grade gorilla slowly lumbering through the forest and smiled coldly.
'It will be you!'
Neo gripped his spear tightly and pounced at the beast.
Leaves crunched beneath his feet, and the wind parted as he moved. The gorilla was startled by something suddenly emerging from the forest.
When it realised its target was a puny human, it flared its nostrils and pounced as well!
It was it's natural instincts to kill these tiny beings, it didn't know why and how, all it knew was that it was what it should do!
As the two closed in on each other, Neo's speed suddenly increased.
It wasn't a drastic surge, but his speed went up by at least 20%!
Neo reached the startled gorilla and thrust his spear. He had just used his mind to enhance his body, managing to catch the beast off guard with his burst of speed.
Though body Spirituals were the ones with the strongest physiques, both the mind and pure paths also had ways to boost their physical abilities, albeit to a lesser degree than the body path.
For the mind path, it was through mental enhancements. With this, Neo's body performed 20% better!
That was enough to allow him to go toe to toe with a common grade gorilla like this one!
He performed a basic thrust at the creature's chest, and the super fast strike lashed towards the beast like a whip.
Seeing this, the gorilla managed to react in time, throwing a quick jab at the spear.
A yellow glow coated the knuckles of its hand, shielding it as it neared the blade of the spear.
Neo smiled coldly at this. His simple thrust suddenly shifted into a long thrust!
By lowering his grip at the base of the spear, Neo was able to manoeuvre the spearhead above the gorilla's punch and aim for its face!
He also managed to keep his distance by pushing his base grip forward, causing the shaft to slide through his other hand, thus increasing the weapon's reach!
The gorilla was so shocked it almost yelped.
How had the spear seemed to twist around its hand?!
Relying on instincts forged in countless life and death battles, the gorilla twisted its head away at the last moment!
A sharp cut was left on its ear as the blade sliced through it, but at least it had saved its life.
But Neo wasn't finished. In one smooth motion, he tilted his spear and swept it downwards diagonally, returning to his base grip.
The gorilla was shocked once more!
Why was it still in mortal danger?!
In an instant, a powerful yellow aura bloomed around the creature's body, enveloping it in a protective casing.
Its already formidable defence was crazily boosted by this aura. Most common grade beasts wouldn't even be able to scratch it in this state!
Yet...
Puchi!
Neo's grey, glowing blade tore through the yellow aura, leaving a large, gaping wound in the gorilla's chest!
The beast screamed in pain as blood poured from the massive wound.
It reeled backwards, hurriedly putting distance between itself and Neo.
How was this puny human so strong?
Why was his spear everywhere?
Neo pounced after the beast and thrust his spear again.
He struck three times in rapid succession, leaving holes in the creature's shoulder and stomach.
Neo was dominating the beast! It was completely overwhelmed!
The gorilla suddenly slapped its huge palm at Neo.
Neo leapt backwards, evading the blow. The wind generated by the palm swept up dead leaves and fluttered his hair.
If that rage-filled slap had connected, it would have surely wounded him!
Whoosh!
Another slap came for Neo. The beast seemed to have abandoned defence in favour of a crazed offence.
Neo calmly evaded all the blows, maintaining a striking distance between them and attacking whenever he saw an opening.
Whether the gorilla liked it or not, it was losing blood at a dangerous rate.
Unless it ended the battle soon, it was going to bleed to death!
The gorilla lunged at Neo aggressively, and Neo swiftly leapt back.
Thud!
"Ugh!"
He had crashed into a tree again. Neo's eyes widened as he saw a huge palm closing in on him!
Dodge!
He leapt to the side and swept his spear in a wide arc. As the gorilla hurriedly leapt backwards, Neo instantly pounced, closing the distance between them.
He took a strong step to the left, then suddenly pushed off his right foot, spinning to the other side and appearing behind the gorilla mid-sweep!
Neo bad learned this feint in the Overlord spear manual and had taken him days to master!
But it was worth it. Neo was able to land another clean hit on the beast!
Puchi!
Another large wound was inflicted on the beast's back!
The way Neo suppressed the creature was so effortless, it was shocking.
Whenever the beast attacked, he cleanly evaded and countered!
Seeing another opening, Neo sprang in for another strike.
He narrowly dodged a double-handed slam from the gorilla, twirling to the left and slicing at its ankles.
The beast hurriedly blocked the spear with its aura-covered hand, but Neo suddenly pulled back his base grip at the last moment.
His spear tip glided past the outstretched palms of the gorilla, and time seemed to freeze...
Then Neo thrust!
Shuuu!
The strike was swift and instantaneous. A bloody hole was pierced through the beast's throat.
Blood spurted from its neck as its eyes widened in shock.
Neo wasn't done. He pulled back his spear and sliced at the creature's neck.
'Sharpness' covered the blade, and the gorilla's massive head was cleanly decapitated.
Neo watched as the huge, lifeless body of the common-grade beast slowly collapsed to the ground and took a deep breath.
Power!
This was power!
He had single-handedly killed a common-grade beast in a fair fight!
Neo hadn't even needed to use the concept of weightlessness.
His enhanced body was already sufficient for most situations. Combined with his spearmanship and the concept of sharpness, he had completely bested that beast.
Neo looked at the dead creature's body and smiled.
He had done it!
He had become stronger!