They weren't willing to negotiate. Lewis felt his confidence evaporate as the nearly two-meter-tall bodybuilder apes swaggered over to him with confident steps. It might have been less stressful if they had simply rushed him like the lower-level apes had done. But their calm confidence made it clear that they felt no danger from Lewis, simply annoyance that he was intruding on their training session and picking on their juniors.
His mind raced as to what to do now. The apes not seeming susceptible to his biggest strengths, not even his unravelling strike likely to finish them off, their bodies too dense compared to anything else he had fought before, both in muscle mass and magical density. Even the slight mana leakage coming off from these creatures was tinged with a freshness that he associated with life and nature.
They didn't glow to his mana detection like with Laurence, but he assumed that they both had a similar method of overcoming his unravelling strike, namely simply wearing down the skill with their own mana before it could do any real damage. In this case, the nature ape's healing mana worked to simultaneously resist his destructive energy while also repairing any injuries.
Lewis wanted to bolt, realizing that these were the worst kind of opponents for him; he would have been far better off fighting magic-wielding creatures, but the apes didn't give him that chance as they attacked.
The level 18 ape suddenly sprinted at him, instantly closing the distance as Lewis's eyes widened at the sudden speed, bracing himself for a punch, but the ape instead twisted at the last moment, moving its body in a dexterous way that no human could copy as its leg swung around and clocked him in the side, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him rolling to the side.
The maneuver had been so unexpected that Lewis failed to protect himself at all, rolling on the ground for a few meters before catching himself.
He winced, expecting to feel a sharp jab of pain from his ribs, but surprisingly, that wasn't the case. He still felt the impact, and it would likely leave a mark, but despite how much larger and more muscular the apes are, Lewis's greatly increased constitution seemed to have allowed him to tank the hit with only minor injury. It felt sort of like someone had thrown a beanbag at him. He definitely felt it, and it would leave a mark, but it was hardly enough to break his bones.
Although the look in the eye of the level 21 ape made it seem like he was up for that challenge.
Realizing Lewis was tougher than he seemed, the two apes nodded at each other in some sort of silent communication before they began circling him, trying to fight him on two fronts, but he could see through their plan and moved to stop them.
Unlike what he had been used to until now, he no longer had a powerful attack that could one-shot an opponent, but clearly, neither did the apes, so it was going to be a case of who was the most talented and enduring of the lot. And after all the street fights Lewis had been in during his life, he was fairly confident that he held the upper hand in technique and strategy. Still, that was against humans. As he had already just experienced, apes are a lot more unpredictable and possess a raw power that he wasn't sure he could match.
He shot forward, fist primed to test out how durable these apes truly are to his most powerful skill, as he swung for the smallest of the two, aiming for its face and prepared for a drawn-out fight.
The nature ape didn't seem to know the extent of his damage-dealing capabilities, however, since it simply raised its comparatively massive hand to intercept the punch, its fangs bared in a vicious mimicry of a smile as [Unravelling strike] blasted into the ape's palm.
It's mocking gaze quickly shifted as the destructive energy invaded its body, but once again, the nature mana inside of it did a good job of acting as a vanguard, exhausting the energy before it could do more than crush some of the apes sinew and damage its muscle, all things that would rapidly repair with the flood of life attuned mana residing within it's body.
Still, that moment of confusion was enough of an opening for Lewis to duck under its arms and slam his elbow into its side. He tried to push more mana into the skill, but unlike before, he was no longer able to do so. It seemed like aligning his spirit had changed how he was able to control mana and interact with his skills, and he had no time to try and figure out how to reproduce the overclocked effect again in the middle of a fight.
Instead, he tried to go with a death by a thousand cuts strategy, taking advantage of the creature being on the back foot to land two more hits on it's body, including one to the leg before it managed to slam its much longer arms into him, pushing him back and off balance, right into the path of the larger ape that had come to assist its kin. But Lewis had been preparing for it, his mana detection giving him a rough feel for the apes position from the trace amount of life mana it exuded, so the moment it tried to surprise attack him from behind, Lewis turned the tables on the large monkey by suddenly crouching and sending his leg out in a sweeping motion, his unravelling skill activating from the contact with its ankle and toppling the larger ape to the ground with a surprised gasp escaping its lips.
Unfortunately, apes were more agile than humans, so instead of flopping face first into the dirt like he expected, the bodybuilder managed to tuck into a roll and was back on its feet a second later, although it's leg was still painful from the destructive energy that invaded it, he was back to normal by the time Lewis had recovered from his crouch.
Feeling like he held a slight advantage, Lewis rushed in again, his every hit not only applying all the force of his superhuman body and spirit physique, but also his destructive energy attacks invading their bodies and destroying the life energy constantly healing them.
However, the apes were also adapting to Lewis, beginning to dodge out of the way more often, and combining their efforts to strike back, occasionally using their flexible bodies to twist out of the way and retaliate using any of their four limbs like arms, punching Lewis in the gut with a foot, while simultaneously performing an overhead fist punch move, forcing Lewis onto the backfoot and increasing the number of injuries he sustained as the two apes began moving in coordination to suppress him, refusing to give him an opportunity to retaliate.
It soon became clear that Lewis was on the losing end, his unravelling skill no longer doing anything permanent as every spot he strikes is returned to normal seconds later, as if the apes have an endless supply of healing energy, none of them seeming to tire as they pummeled Lewis, forcing him to become more and more defensive as his back and arms were covered with cuts and bruises, his bones starting to feel like they might snap from the constant assault.
Thankfully, his toughness was second to none, allowing him to endure the attacks as he decided to trust his system-enhanced constitution and purposely stopped guarding against the ape's attacks, instead forgoing defense for offense. He leaped at the smaller ape, slapping at its face without even caring if his strike carried any weight, instead going all out with unravelling strike, hoping to overwhelm the creature's resistance through sheer bombardment.
The ape was surprised at first, but as Lewis moved faster and faster, his body leaping at the ape with next to no attempt to defend himself, all his focus went to putting his spiritual physique granted speed to the test, as his strikes hit several times a second. His unravelling skill activating for each hit, the ape finally began showing signs of fear as its larger body was now only to its detriment. The destructive energies were no longer being pushed back by the creature's life mana, and damage began to accumulate in its chest. It's flesh visibly deforming, the sound of wet squelching and bone breaking snaps making it lash out with urgency, trying to use its long arms to push Lewis back, but he tanked the hits, a punch even clocking him in the face as the other ape noticed its kin's urgency and struck him, but Lewis only bared his teeth and pushed onward.
His body was sore and hurting, but he could feel he was close as he targeted the ape's body in the same spots, unleashing one blast of destructive energy after another into the creature. But since he was so focused on it, Lewis also had his mana detection trained squarely on the regenerating ape, trying to peer deeper into its flesh, something that he had never been able to do before due to the natural resistance present in every living being that resists his attempts to see deeper into them with his skill.
The only times he could see more than the passive mana leakage was when someone was actively using mana or if it was apart of them, like Laurence, since he seemed to have turned his body into a mana sponge, his very skin cells soaking it up and shining to his senses, but seeing beneath the skin with any clarity was never something he had been able to do. Until now.
With every hit, [Unravelling strike] discharges a fist-sized sphere of violent energy into his adversary, attacking their bodies and energies in various ways. Simultaneously dissolving, twisting, and crushing their bodies, a complete chaos of destruction that seeks to unravel anything it touches. But it also retains its ability to destroy mana, turning the targeted area into a temporary mana dead zone, which is then rapidly filled back in by surrounding mana, like water always trying to level out.
But for that brief moment right after the skill invades the ape's body, his mana detection is able to slip passed the resistance and sense what is inside. He could feel the waves of life energy pushing in to smother the destructive energy and replace what had been lost. But with each strike, it's the mana that gets eroded first, the apes not seeming to fuse their life mana with their bodies, but instead simply employing it internally when needed, likely instinctually.
Thanks to this, for a brief moment, their natural defenses are lowered in that specific area, allowing Lewis to see the source of their regenerative power, and that's their hearts. For whatever reason, the smaller ape's heart seems to be the source of its immense reserve of life energy, and it seems to be producing more with every beat, the ape's wounds closing with greater speed the longer it was scared and on the losing end.
With his target in sight and the ape in too much pain to properly defend from the dozens of rapid fire shots to its chest and body, Lewis pulled back with his fist, aiming to deliver a full powered hit to it's heart and destroy its source of life energy, but right as he was about to punch, the level 21 ape, panicking at the injuries its friend was receiving, kicked Lewis in the back with both feet, knocking him forward at speed. But that simply gave him a bigger boost as he slammed into the smaller ape, fist driving into its chest after it had been thoroughly tenderized by the destructive energy, removing most of its protection as his arm slid into the chest cavity and grasped the beating heart, squeezing it with his significant strength and wrenching it back out.
The smaller ape collapsed to the ground with a hole in its battered body and blood gushing from the cavity. Its large, muscular body hit the ground with a dull thud as Lewis turned to face the last ape with a smile on his face and a still warm heart in his hand.
The larger ape's eyes were wide as it failed to comprehend what had just happened, but Lewis didn't give it time to think, tossing the bloody heart of its kin at its face. The organ was twice the size of a human heart as it bounced against the ape's head, blinding momentarily and allowing Lewis to close the distance.
His body was bruised and hurt from all the hits he had taken, so he wasn't about to give these apes a chance to get away now. He had figured out their weakness; he just needed to attack them fast and hard to overwhelm their regeneration while targeting their hearts.
But with its brethren dead, the ape didn't seem nearly as confident fighting Lewis as it was moments earlier, stumbling back as it attempted to get away, so Lewis kicked at its legs to immobilize it, leaping at the creature and assaulting it with quick jabs, each one stabbing into the ape and causing a spike of pain that distracted it from the constant assault. He bobbed and weaved, avoiding its long arms as it tried to get him away, but Lewis stuck close, making sure not to give the ape a single moment of peace as he put his increased speed to work, moving at blurring speeds, always targeting the apes heart, his strikes seeming to be doing far more damage as they removed a lot of the life mana before it had time to be used, making its chest vulnerable to as damage accumulated without being repaired. He was making much quicker work of the ape as his fist sank deep into its chest after a powerful blow, grasping for the heart but pulling at its major arteries instead. So he simply yanked anything he could reach from the ape's chest in a messy display of raw power, blood covering his body from head to toe as the light dimmed from the creature's eyes.
He breathed deeply, wincing at the ache in his body as he dropped the bloody body parts and stepped back from the corpses. His face and body bathed in a layer of thick warm blood, most of it not his own.
Congratulations! You have reached level 17 (+1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CON, +2 INT, +1 Free)
Skill: Unravelling strike has reached level 13
Seeing as he had gained yet another level, he realized he had now amassed a combined 6 unspent free points and was greatly tempted to dump them all into constitution right away.
But he hesitated.
He wanted to keep them in reserve in case he needed to add them to his spirit stats. After all, his main priority here was fixing his spirit physique, so perhaps putting those extra points into spirit would give him a boost to his control over his technique and better allow him to do whatever it is he needs to do to remedy it. On that note, he leaned down and touched the larger ape's body, closing his eyes briefly as he entered the system shop, but unlike every other time he had tried to open that door at the back of his mind, this time he wasn't able to. As if some sort of invisible wall had been erected.
Information: System shop cannot be accessed when inside a secret trial.
Well, that sucks. So much for selling their corpses for points. I bet their hearts might actually have been pretty valuable too... At least when they were functioning.
Shaking the dripping blood of his hand from having plunged it inside the apes open chests, he was about to walk into the jungle to find a spot to breath and recover from the fight, cursing his inability to purchase a healing potion from the system shop for the duration of his time in the trial, but he wasn't too badly hurt and felt his injuries already beginning to heal. Maybe even accelerated by the amazing-tasting fruits he had eaten.
But right as he was about to leave the scene of the crime, he suddenly realized he was alone, which should be a good thing, except that a few of the apes had still been alive when he had brawled with the bodybuilder apes.
His heart skipped a beat when he heard something getting closer, the low grunts of another ape sounding as a creature a head taller than the huge level 21 nature ape stepped into view. Its body is even more buff than the others, its hair a dark black, and eyes filled with a clear intelligence. Feeling a rising suspicion, Lewis identified the newcomer.
[Nature ape general - lvl 30]
Skill: Identify has reached level 10
Shit! I shouldn't have let those weaker apes get away.
Without hesitation, he opened his status and dropped all 6 free points into constitution, bringing it to 122. The familiar pulse of freshness suffused his body as the bruises dulled and faded, but Lewis had a sneaking suspicion that he would soon be getting a lot more pain and bruises.