Rushing away from the river, Lewis held a definite advantage over the apes, as his spirit boosted body would allow him to run fast enough to lose them in seconds if he wanted to. The apes being forced to leave their domain behind, running on their own two feet instead of surfing the waves, making it very obvious that they are significantly physically weaker than the nature apes, but that was always to be expected.
The nature apes weren't magic users at all, but instead seemed to focus entirely on buffing themselves through rigorous exercise, permanently increasing their attributes and using their nature mana to accelerate that process and refine their bodies, likely even gaining levels simply from working out.
Now, you might wonder how that's possible, after all, Lewis himself has gotten a massive influx of stats when he discovered and aligned his spirit, but didn't receive any levels from it. But you have to remember that his spirit technique isn't actually a permanent modification to his body. It's marked as such in his status window. His base stats are therefore still visible, with the spirit physique bonus being specifically listed for the boosted stats. As such, he gained the benefits of the increased stats the same way a temporary buff or external aide would be listed, not granting him any further levels to reflect his current power.
Many beings can also gain levels from performing tasks that aren't linked to killing, like the nature apes. For example, many beasts can gain levels simply from eating plants; this is similarly true for none combat classes as well, they gain EXP by performing class specific tasks, like healing or even blacksmithing.
But for the tidal apes, it was clear that they specialize in controlling water and hunting the fish and sea creatures beneath the water, so making them surface on dry land was already a massive blow to their power, greatly limiting their lethality and making it so that Lewis might even be able to take them all on right now and still win. But then he would have wasted all the time he spent preparing and luring them out, not to mention he was determined not to underestimate them.
And its a good thing he didn't as the moment he entered the jungle and began heading for his first trap, his mana detection warned him just in time to dodge out of the way of an icicle that looked like a stalagmite aimed right at the back of his head.
What? They can use ice magic too?
He hadn't been able to properly see how they used their skills, apart from water manipulation, since they were constantly diving underwater. But being able to fire off shards of ice was very troublesome, especially since ice requires far less water to be deadly, meaning they weren't as helpless as he would have liked despite leaving the river. But more importantly, this jungle was halfway to being a rainforest, with plenty of moisture in the air, despite it still possessing the more chaotic attributes commonly found in jungles. Like dense undergrowth and a high diversity of plants and vegetation.
Needless to say, Lewis didn't even bother disrupting the mana in the ice shards as they wouldn't split apart mid air like the water projectiles, instead doing his best to dodge as he kept up his frantic act, purposely stumbling and not running at full speed to allow the many angry apes to keep up with him, although they were still far faster than any normal human. Their flexible limbs allowing them to grab hold of lower branches and swing themselves forward or take sharp turns to close the distance.
But Lewis wasn't too worried as he reached his first trap. It was the closest to the riverbank and would be the most unexpected, so he made sure it was a large one to catch as many of the unsuspecting apes as possible.
The area was starting to fill up with small plants sporting large leaves that did wonders for obscuring the jungle floor. As Lewis ran through a dense patch of these plants, running in a specific wavy pattern on the only solid strip of ground, the apes didn't suspect a thing and followed suit.
Unfortunately for them, the moment one of the apes stepped foot on that large patch of dense undergrowth, the entire section collapsed inward, dropping it and the closest other apes inside, even the tidal apes that noticed the trap were too late to abort, having been running at full speed to catch up with the fleeing attacker. A couple tried jumping the length, but it was large enough that they failed to reach the other side and fell in all the same.
The drop was significant, but what made it truly deadly for the dozen tidal apes that fell into the pit was the many sharpened spikes that pierced their bodies and impaled them to the ground. The poor idiots had fallen for the oldest trick in the book, defeated by gravity and some pointy sticks. Not all of them died right away, but they were definitely in a bad spot, the depth of the pit making it unfeasible for them to be able to climb out without help. Something Lewis was determined not to allow, as he needed the apes to keep chasing him.
Besides, even if they tried to get the fallen apes out, they wouldn't survive. Their bodies were already convulsing as the toxic green mushroom juice entered their bloodstreams and began attacking their immune systems and infecting their blood. Lewis hadn't been sure if the fall would be enough to completely impale the apes, so he coated the stacks in the poisonous mushrooms to make sure they wouldn't be climbing back out of that hole.
"HAHAHAH, bunch of stupid monkeys. You gonna give up now?" Lewis shouted, turning to stick his tongue out at them and giving them the middle finger. He doubted they would know what it means, not knowing if the common apes were intelligent enough to understand speech, but the general was, so they likely had some concept of mockery even if they couldn't speak themselves.
But he needn't have worried, as his extremely childish and overexaggerated taunt seemed to have gotten across just fine, the tidal apes turned red in the face from anger, those that had stopped themselves from falling into the pit looking up at him with hate filled eyes as they swung on the branches to circumvent the trap and resumed their pursuit with even greater intensity, determined to avenge their fallen kin and put this human in his place.
So far so good, let's see how you fair against my next surprise.
Lewis picked up the pace as a growing number of ice shards and water projectiles impacted trees and rocks behind him, his winding path making it difficult for the apes to hit him. He was forced to dodge out of the way of multiple projectiles, relying on the sense he got from mana detection to spot them without looking behind him. It was one of the benefits of the skill that Matt's [Mana sight] couldn't replicate.
But his method of avoiding the ice shards being thrown at him was disappearing, as the tree cover was coming to an end, while he ran by some of the larger trees the jungle had to offer. As he reached the beginning of a wider path, he reached out with a blade of his arcane nullfield, slicing through a steel vine and severing its mana reinforcement, making it snap under its own strain, the mechanism being engaged as he continued running past like nothing happened.
The tidal apes didn't seem to notice as their furious cries filled the jungle, the creatures seeming far more alert about the state of the ground as they were constantly checking their footing and swinging on nearby branches as much as possible to avoid another pitfall trap. But it was for that exact reason that they failed to notice the large bus sized tree trunk swinging down from the side, attached to the two larger trees by sturdy steel vines and now no longer supported by the counterweight Lewis had just severed, the massive obstacle came slamming through the widened path, catching the front group of apes that were preparing to fire a barrage of ice projectiles at Lewis.
They didn't see it coming before it was too late, the massive tree trunk slamming into them with enough force to break even their tough bones. But it wasn't the impact that was the most devastating, after all, some of them could have survived the trap by being furthest away when the obstacle arrived, the momentum being reduced by the impacts of their kin. But the reason Lewis was certain they would all be down was because of the extra gift he had added to the massive log.
Instead of being flung away by the swinging tree trunk, the apes were stuck to it like glue, their pale skin draining even further as their blood was stolen by the thorned plants he had discovered. The things were surprisingly effective at sucking the blood out of anything that gets too close, the apes blood hardly even dripping to the floor as the vampiric plant drank greedily of their crimson elixir, using it to rapidly grow and expand, burrowing ever deeper into the apes flesh and extracting every last drop of blood, constraining them permanently to the giant swinging log trap.
Lewis had glanced back to see the impact, but his eyes bulged when he noticed the blood thorns growing so rapidly and killing the tidal apes within seconds. He had expected that a simple swinging log trap wouldn't be enough to kill the tidal apes by itself. Despite them clearly specializing in water magic, he expected them to have rather tough bodies by default, so threaded a few of the blood thorns into the large log for added damage.
He expected them to pierce their skin and drain a bit of blood, perhaps exacerbate their wounds, and make it so that they take longer to recover or even slowly die from their injuries, with the thorns stopping them from recovering. But he had never expected the blood thorns to be able to not only absorb all their blood, but also grow so explosively to the point of burrowing into their bodies, the plant visibly moving under their skin as it bursts out in areas.
The other apes, too, were extremely shocked by the scene, slowing to an immediate halt after their vanguard had been caught by the swinging log, leaving only ten or so apes left.
For the first time, their eyes seemed to shift from hatred to fear, unsure about what dangers would be sprung on them next. It was at this point that Lewis could only hope that they didn't get scared and refuse to follow him further.
Luckily, it seems like their hesitation only lasted a moment as they soon rushed around the now calmly swinging, body-covered log. Lewis did not even have time to taunt them again as they split up, fanning out as they wanted to avoid being caught in another large trap.
Fortunately, the rate of ice shards being fired at him had drastically reduced, allowing him to run the open stretch with little need to dodge.
Still, he wasn't too worried about the apes spreading out, because the next section of the path actually led to a large mountainous boulder wedged between two hills.
A boulder he had painstakingly carved a tunnel through using his unraveling strike, meaning the apes would be forced into a narrow passageway. However, he had spent extra time making it look somewhat natural, opening it up big enough to fit a truck through, so the apes didn't realize how much danger they were in as they chased after him, although he could feel their eyes scanning all around them before rushing inside. Still, nothing seemed out of place to them. If anything, it seemed like their luck had finally turned since the tunnel was actually a dead end.
When Lewis reached the end of the tunnel, he turned around to face the last surviving apes, his spear still held in his grip. The apes all gathered, preparing to finish him for good. But the air in the tunnel was surprisingly dry, none of the previous heavy humidity for them to condense into ice spikes. They had been so desperate to finally catch what they believed to be a cornered prey, that they completely missed the fact that they had walked into yet another hidden trap.
Along the walls were sponge moss, a plant that greedily absorbs all the moisture from the air, but it was what this moss was attached to that was the issue.
Within the middle of the tunnel, the light had dimmed to the point that it was hard to see, but a sturdy wooden frame had been inset deeper into the wall, making it appear that it was just normal stone. However, the moment Lewis turned around and punched at the supposed dead end, the entire tunnel shook, having been purposely weakened in specific spot to collapse inwards upon the first disturbance. Something that his widely spread out unravelling strike more than qualified as, the entire structural integrity turning to dust as the weak point in the center broke passed the flimsy wooden support and released several tons of rock and rubble atop the tidal apes.
They didn't even have time to scream before the entire tunnel fell on top of them, Lewis rushing out of the dead end, which was actually just a few centimeters of rock that was easily exploded from his devastating strike, despite him having greatly spread out the energy of the punch, like when he had killed that reanimated bear. He couldn't figure out how to overload his skill with excess mana anymore, but he could still fine tune the cone of destruction from the skill. It was how he had been able to carve the tunnel in the first place without it collapsing in on him straight away... Although it had been close at times. Still, it had given him a few levels in the skill and worked as intended in the end, so a win all around.
Stepping out into the other side of the mound of dirt and rock, he waved away the cloud of dust, making sure none of them managed to get out before nodding in satisfaction.
Now, where is that tidal ape general?