Lewis was glad he decided not to underestimate the tidal apes, having trouble seeing how he could have beaten them in a straight fight. Their magic is simply too potent, and that was outside of their river. He didn't want to imagine the massacre that would have ensued if he had stumbled upon them first instead of the nature apes.
But just as he was thinking that, another kill notification popped into his vision, added to the long list of notifications he had been receiving as the apes died in his traps, the latest to succumb finally pushing his EXP over the edge as he gained another level.
Congratulations! You have reached level 18 (+1 STR, +1 DEX, +1 CON, +2 INT, +1 Free)
He felt the rush of strength, although it had become far less intense as of late, his power having grown so much that these relatively smaller increases are less noticeable. But he would never be able to get over how the system can simply reach into his body and make him stronger. The sensation was simply far too bizarre to ever feel normal no matter how often it happens.
He retraced his steps back to the river, making sure none of the apes had survived, but his traps seemed to have done excellently, even the pit trap, with the stakes only piercing a few centimeters into some of the apes bodies, but the mushroom toxin was extremely potent. If anything, it seemed like these dangerous plants had been placed here specifically to be used, being unusually effective against the apes.
But as he surveyed the damage he had inflicted, he realized that the tidal ape general was nowhere to be seen.
This was a risk he had considered, having expected that some of the apes might not follow him into the jungle, but he was glad all of them did, except for the most important one, the general.
Moving past the pit trap and out into the river bank, he noticed the sole figure still within the water, the general also spotting Lewis as he exited the jungle.
The tidal ape general let out a disappointed sigh, having no doubt expected its underlings to deal with the lone human and have returned by now. It rose from the water, being carried up to the surface like it was riding an elevator, before standing on the surface of the water like it was solid ground.
Lewis waited for him to attack, but when he didn't, he decided to see if this one could talk too.
"Aren't you going to come out of the water?" He asked, still holding his last spear as he waved it to point at the large river.
The tidal ape simply chuckled, a surprisingly light sound, before replying.
"I don't know what you did to survive a combined assault from my minions, but you definitely seem to have the advantage on land." She replied in a shockingly feminine voice, making Lewis's eyebrows to shoot up his forehead, not having expected this ape to be a female.
"At least, you believe you have the advantage on land. But you haven't seen anything yet. Unlike my lesser brethren, I am a true queen. There is nothing you can try that can overcome the sheer gulf of power between us." She declared, the water under her feet rising up as a throne of flowing water formed around her.
Clearly, the self proclaimed queen saw herself highly.
"A true queen, eh? That's some big talk from a mere general who's too scared to leave her little pond to face a far weaker opponent." He replied, giving her an unimpressed look, which seemed to make her visibly mad, her fangs being bared with a hiss.
"Don't misunderstand my inaction for inability. I was simply curious as to the being that could so easily dispatch my minions. They may be weaker on land, but we aren't fully aquatic beings, they are still more than competent no matter the environment. Besides, I know you didn't face them in an honest contest of strength but instead used underhanded tactics. But such tactics are useless against me. I'm simply out of your league." The water queen announced, before the currents shifted and she sank into her watery throne.
Lewis was momentarily surprised as the general disappeared, but he didn't have time to waste as the waters churned and splashed chaotically, obscuring the rapidly moving form of the queen, as she shot towards him under the waves. She was being carried along by a tight tunnel of water that created its own current and allowed her to move at high speed, firing out of the water in her protective bubble, shooting straight at Lewis on the shore.
But Lewis was quick to react, extending his arcane nullfield in a concentrated whip once again, the field being far easier to control in the form of an arm's width appendage compared to having it in a dome around him.
Just like before, he used it to intercept the manipulated water, slapping against the localized current in an attempt to disrupt its shape. But unlike with the water projectiles, the waters were too fast and in a state of constant flux, so any mana he managed to remove was immediately replaced by the flowing waters. He was able to slow her trajectory, but the tube of water emerged from the river and collide with him on the bank.
Luckily, the moment he realized his more surgical use of his field was useless, he switched to pushing it outside of his body, successfully disrupting the flow of water right before it reached him, leaving the ape general to fly towards him, her control over the water ending as it splashed down around her.
Not wanting to waste the opening, Lewis thrust his spear forward at the incoming general, the tip sinking into her abdomen before the entire shaft exploded into splinters, the arcane nullfield having removed its magical toughness alongside the general's control over water.
The two tumbled over one another as they slammed into each other, rolling along the sand as the churning waters created deafening waves behind them, but Lewis was quick to get back up, making sure his nullfield was still enveloping the water queen as he eyed her shallow injury. The spear, like the spikes in the pit, had been coated with the fast-acting toxin. Seeing how the ape general wasn't immediately getting up and was instead lying in the fetal position with her hands over her stomach, it was clear that she was being affected by the poison.
I expected this to be a lot harder. He thought, watching the ape general struggle while being slowly killed by the toxin, expecting to receive a notification any second, just like the other tidal apes. Except, that's not what happened.
The tidal ape generals body glowed with flowing water mana as it circulated in her body, concentrating around her shallow wound as a flow of liquid exited her wound. A liquid with the mana of the mushroom toxin.
She expelled the toxin from her body?
Lewis was stunned as he silently watched the water queen stand back up, her injury rapidly healing as her triumphant gaze landed on Lewis. She clearly tried to exert control over the water again, but found that it was being blocked.
"I don't know how you are doing this, but it won't save you. Your little poison trick might work on my minions, but I am a true queen. Do you have any idea how deep the water goes, what lives in their depths? I don't need water to drown you, my body alone, tempered by the crushing pressure of the depths, is more than enough." She hissed out, her white hair sticking to her body for the first time, making Lewis realize she must have been doing something to avoid it from getting wet even when diving under the water before.
Still, despite enveloping her in his arcane nullfield, the mana suppression will only work if she stays close to him, so he needed to bait her into a close-quarters fight, something she seemed more than eager for as her eyes blazed with hatred.
"I'm not supposed to hit a lady, but I'm sure beating up a monkey doesn't count." He taunted, getting the desired reaction as the generals face flushed with outrage, she released a piercing hiss while showing her prominent fangs, rushing at Lewis with no attempt to use her water magic.
He was ready for her as he swung his fist, ready to end it all with a single hit when the water queen moved in a strange, eerie way that didn't seem like it should be possible. Her form seamlessly flowing out of the path of the strike as her body sidestepped and kicked at him with her foot, the lower limb grabbing onto his thigh with an iron grip as she yanked him off balance.
The entire thing happened so fast that Lewis was on the ground before he even knew it, the ape general letting out a bestial cry as her fist slammed down on his chest, the impact somehow distributing the force all throughout his body, like a stone being tossed in calm waters, his very bones seeming to vibrate from the rippling impact as he tasted blood in his mouth.
He tried to protect himself by raising his arms defensively, but he was in a bad position, stuck on the ground with the ape general delivering impossibly powerful blows to his body, each one seeming to shake the very foundation of his body, the force rippling outwards to his extremities. Each strike made his insides feel like they were going to tear themselves apart.
After three strikes, the resonating force of the previous blow never fading before the next appeared, compounding the effect, he knew he needed to get her off of him and get up, so he did his best to focus on his mana detection despite the feeling of his brain hammering against his skull. But with his nullfield still covering the area, making his surroundings a mana dead zone, it was easy to spot the one source of mana within it all.
The ape general was leaping around him, delivering those devastating blows to various sides of his body so that he wouldn't be able to target her and get her to back off. It was a good strategy to beat him to death without him fighting back, but unfortunately for her, he didn't need his eyes to see the mana in her body and track her position.
His hand moved from his face right as the dexterous tidal ape landed on the opposite side of him, just in time for unravelling strike to explode the ground beneath her feet, the water queen being too late to move out of the way as her next swing was aborted as gravity reasserted control over her, pulling her into the recently formed pit, her body disappearing from view as her eyes widened at the last moment.
Lewis, his body still reverberating with the powerful shockwaves rippling through his body, his own internal liquids seeming to be compounding the damage by echoing the general's attacks, like a wave sweeping up all the water into itself. Truly, having a body that was 70% water was a bad idea when facing a powerful ape general specializing in manipulating water. Sure, he had blocked her control over water in the surroundings, but internal magic use was still very much possible.
He didn't think it was possible against him, since his own body radiated anti-mana and housed his spirit, but clearly she only needed a tiny portion of the mana to reach inside just long enough to agitate his internal fluids, the same way a water projectile will still come shooting through the air even of the mana shaping it is removed.
It was yet another weakness that might have gotten him killed if he had been more arrogant and overconfident in his anti-mana capabilities.
His body still reeling from the small internal shockwaves, he rolled over to find the newly formed pit in the sand had already been covered over by the surrounding sand, burying the second ape general alive. His strike had formed a pit only just wide enough to fit a person, so most of the power had gone into making the hole as deep as possible. So right as he realized this might be enough to kill her, he reshaped his nullfield's bubble to entomb her while underground, not wanting her to be able to harness the water in the ground to get herself out.
And its a good thing he did, as the moment the nullfield snapped around the source of mana he could sense buried several meters underground, a powerful wave of water mana exploded from her figure, trying to push back against the encroaching sand and even managing to survive his nullfield's presence for a few moments. Yet even then, the sheer amount of water mana she was unleashing was overcoming the arcane nullfield's ability to erode it, the sands beginning to shake as the tidal ape general created water from her mana, conjuring it into existence to push back against the sand and try to dig herself out, with Lewis doing his best to strip her mana away and keep her trapped.
This went on for a few tense minutes as the water queen seemed to have managed to form a bubble of space within the sand by compacting it with her water magic, turning it wet and compact, but Lewis would constantly accost her attempts to dig out, the generals attempts gradually lessening as her mana ran low and her lungs burnt from the lack of air.
When the ground had stopped shaking an the mana below ground had faded from his detection, he finally received the kill confirmation and collapsed onto the sand.
You have slain Tidal ape general - lvl 32 (+420 TP)