'This is an opponent that would have very likely killed my past self, but with the procedure, I should be able to deal with it.'
'The fight might not be very easy, but I shouldn't be in danger as long as I'm careful.'
Slowly, the wheel stopped on an unfamiliar picture. It obviously was a beast Shang had never heard of.
On the image was a tiny monkey with a backward-facing baseball cap and skater clothes. The monkey was also playing on a modern drum set.
'There is one monkey species in the Ice Wyvern Zone, the Rumbling Yeti, but I don't think that this is one.'
A moment later, Shang's opponent appeared in the distance, and Shang lifted an eyebrow.
On the picture was a small monkey, but this definitely wasn't a small monkey.
This was a nearly three-meter tall, muscular ape. It looked more like one would imagine a troll would look like.
The jester lifted his hammer and struck the bell before vanishing.
The ape noticed Shang and immediately shouted with aggression and rage.
CRK! BANG!
A second later, a huge club made of stone appeared in one of its hands, and without waiting for a second, it began to charge at Shang. It was running on two legs and one hand, the other hand busy holding the club.
In comparison to the previous beasts, this one seemed to be very aggressive.
The Trash Bird had immediately fled.
The Spire Mire had been hidden.
The Climate Weasel had threatened Shang without charging at him.
The Pest Queen had been on the defensive.
But this ape immediately charged at Shang.
Shang narrowed his eyes and readied his sword. In the previous times, he had needed to show his speed early since he had been the one to initiate the confrontation.
This time, he could keep his abilities a secret.
The earth trembled beneath the ape's rumbling charge, its club swinging around aggressively with every step it took.
The ape reached Shang and immediately lifted its club to smash him into a fine paste of meat.
Shang pointed his left arm to the back.
BOOM! BOOM!
Two quick Blasts left Shang's left arm. At the same time, his entire body began to emit steam as a severely cold wind left his body.
Shang's arm nearly exploded, and his body had a dangerously high temperature.
But in exchange for all of this, Shang's speed reached a new peak.
Shang had never been so fast in his life.
BOOOM!
The club struck down on Shang's previous position, but he had already left it.
But Shang didn't retreat.
He was charging in!
Behind Shang, a chaotic storm of Fire and Ice Mana destroyed the parts of the ground.
The black sword shone under the light of Shang's world.
And then, Shang passed the ape.
The body of the ape seized and quickly fell to the ground…
In two pieces.
The intestines and organs of the ape were flowing out of its severed torso, and the ape tried to push the organs back into its body as it screeched in pain.
Shang charged to the side and circled the torso until he arrived at the opposite side of the ape's body.
Then, he quickly severed the ape's arms and put his own hand on the ape's head.
A couple of seconds later, only a couple of parts of a dried-up torso were left.
Shang's body had reached its peak again, and it was filled with life energy.
This was a beast a level above Shang, which meant that it gave a lot of life energy.
Filled with life energy, Shang had left the fight in a better condition than when it had started.
The cheering returned, and Shang only looked at the shriveled corpse of the ape.
'If my opponent doesn't get the chance to unleash their abilities, they might as well not have them,' he thought.
How powerful was the ape?
It had a weapon that could be reproduced endlessly by simply expending more Earth Mana.
Its speed was about average, but its destructive power was rather high.
Its flexibility was probably on the higher side since apes could move their bodies in very weird ways when compared to a quadruped.
However, it had no apparent ranged abilities, which was a weakness.
All in all, it was a very average beast.
So then, how had Shang been able to beat the ape this easily?
Surprise, explosiveness, initiative, speed.
Surprise, because the ape hadn't known how fast or how powerful Shang was.
Explosiveness, because Shang managed to create an extremely powerful attack. The quality of his weapon, the power of his body, and the added momentum of his speed made his attack devastating.
Initiative, because Shang went in instead of out. Instead of looking at how the fight went and watching his opponent, Shang had thrown all caution to the wind and went all-in before the first cards had even hit the table. It was a high-risk, high-reward gamble.
Speed, because Shang had used his absolute everything to make his charge faster. Not only had Shang destroyed his arm, but he had even gone beyond his normal usage of his passive speed-increase.
Shang surprised his opponent, moved the battle to a location where one hit proved fatal for any party, hit the ape before it could properly react with his speed, and unleashed a power that was beyond the ape's ability to resist.
One shot, one kill.
Even if the ape had the ability to kill a Zone Beast with its club, it would have been useless in the fight. After all, it had never hit Shang.
The ape's strongest aspect had been its offense, but its offense had never gotten the chance to come to light.
In the previous couple of fights, Shang hadn't had the chance to pull something like this off.
All of Shang's previous opponents had already noticed Shang's speed before he had even gotten close to them.
'This would have been a risky maneuver if my body had been weaker,' Shang thought. 'However, it would have given me a chance to win. It seems like, with enough luck, I could have maybe won against this opponent, even without the procedure.'
Shang looked at the leaflet that had appeared on the ground beside him.
"Mountain Tribe Ape," Shang read.
Shang read the leaflet, and another beast was added to his imaginary bestiary.
'Seems like they live in a Zone quite far to the north. The Zone is filled with high mountains, and it has a lot of Lightning Mana. Of course, due to the abundance of mountains, beasts with Earth Affinities are also very common there.'
The quote of the God was also quite interesting.
"Imagine a beautiful garden filled with lightning. Now, imagine a stupid, ugly, and immovable rock in the middle of your garden. That's what these things are."
'According to the leaflet, these things are living in tribes. I can imagine the trouble lightning beasts would have with these apes living on their mountains.'
Shang put the leaflet away, and the wheel returned.
"Level six: Powerful Early General Stage beast."
'I have already gone past teacher's score in the beast category.'
The wheel began to spin.
'This opponent was easy, but I doubt that the next one will be as easy.'
