The beast pushed its face out of the mess of rocks, and the first thing it saw was the dusk tree being carried out of the cave by Delilah.
"Don't think you can get away with what's mine." It uttered with a vicious glint in its eyes as Roy blocked her fading figure from its eyes and gave it a calm, unwavering look.
"You will have to step over my corpse if you want to touch a single hair on her head," Roy said as he stabbed the moonlight sword into the ground, waiting for Delilah to get far away so that he could go all out.
He didn't like to think about it, but she was weak even though she had leveled up twice tonight. The aftershock of their battle was enough to cripple up, and he didn't want to see her hurt.
The eyes of the beast twitched as it mistook his action for a taunt.
"You have gone too far." As it spoke to Roy, the red markings on some parts of its body began to grow. Its fur also grew and changed colors, turning a deep red. "You have forced me to go all out."
『Ding! The Shadow Monster Sunfire Ape has used a forbidden technique 』
『Its Agility has increased by 30 points』
『Its strength has increased by 40 points』
『Its defense has tripled』
『Its vitality has decreased』
『Its HP has decreased to 10000 points』
『It has been affected by the overlord debuff』
『Every few minutes, it would lose 1000 health points until it stops circulating the forbidden art』
'So it sacrificed its hp for extra points in stats. It just made things easier for me.' Roy thought with a smile.
Roy's eyes widened as, in the blink of an eye, the monster appeared before him. He noticed it in time as he twisted his body out of its punch's way before grabbing the hilt of his sword once again, pushing it out of the ground, and brandishing it upwards.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sword glided down the muscular and wide chest of the beast, producing eye-blinding sparks. The hand Roy was using to hold the sword trembled, and his expression took a grave turn.
'It feels like I hit divine steel made of defensive force, not some thick flesh. Its defense only increased by three times, but it's already this strong. It's ridiculous!'
The red ape felt pleased with the change in his expression, and it said, "Why are you surprised? You should have expected this. I am a 20-year-old aura beast who has lived for a hundred years. I have countless ways to sweep the ground with a youngling like you."
Roy rolled his eyes. "You're delusional." he spat at the beast as he used his sword to parry its attacks.
They clashed a few dozen times in some seconds before the rd ape clawed at him with all its strength. Roy raised the moonlight sword to defend himself. The claw of the beast smacked the sword with mountain-destroying strength, but Roy was gripping the hilt so tightly that it didn't leave his hand.
The impact pushed him away.
He slid backward, leaving dozens of meter-long skid marks on the ground before coming to a stop at the edge of the cavern. His hair was in a mess, and his clothes were covered in dirt, but there wasn't a wound on his body.
The red ape clicked its tongue in annoyance before it spoke, "You are like a cockroach that refuses to die. I can't be bothered to deal with you."
Those words did nothing to annoy Roy. The response the beast got from him was non-existent.
"You aren't strong enough to harm me, much less kill me."
His words were like a thousand pointy needles that stabbed the beast. It felt pained!
The black ape plucked a hair from its body and dropped it. The red hair fell to the ground like a feather and when it came in contact with the rock, it underwent a massive change. Absorbing the rocks scattered on the floor, it transformed into a reddish-brown version of the ape.
Roy inspected the clone and found out its stats as a whole weren't nearly as good as the red ape, but its defense was as good as its.
'If I don't go all out, it will take time to put it down.' he thought as his killing intent began to surge.
"Go and stop him!" The red ape commanded before disengaging from the fight and heading towards the mouth of the cave on all four, leaving its back exposed to Roy.
"Where do you think you're going?" Roy said as he swung his sword mightly.
The roar of the sword was released and flew toward the red ape like a punishment from nature, but it was blocked by the clone.
"The likes of you can't stop me." uttering these taunting words, the red ape left the cave.
It smelled the air a few times and caught onto Delilah's sweet and flowery lust-inducing scent.
"She shouldn't have gone too far."
It ran into the trees to catch her as its clone kept Roy busy.
"Shadowless!"
Out of his shadow, a doppelganger emerged. It looked just like Roy, save for the fact that it didn't have blood or flesh and was ink-black.
It bowed towards him, "Yes, master, what would you like me to do?"
"Don't let it get to her," Roy said to Shadowless as he pushed the enemy's clone back with an exploding bolt of thunder.
"Your wish is my command, master."
The red ape was unaware that a shadowy being had started to stalk it.
Shadowless didn't have to use any brain power to track it down as the 20 years old aura beast had left deep footprints in its wake.
He followed them to get to the beast.
No one knew that an intense staredown was taking place back in the cave!
The clone of the red ape and Roy stared at each other before sprinting toward one another.
One strike will determine the winner!
