25 Battle in the Eastern Swamp (2)

"Kill it!", Mei Mei roared with tears flowing down her eyes

She shot random bolts at the beast, but they just harmlessly bounced off it. It roared again in anger while looking hatefully in Kai's direction. Before it could get up, Su Fang thrust his spear with all his might towards the [Fungus-Ape]'s neck. The angle came from its new blind-spot, so it didn't see it coming.

The [Fungus Ape]'s flailing helped to deflect the spear and altered its direction towards its shoulder .The emerald spear was lodged in the beast's shoulder. The [Fungus Ape] pipped the spear out violently and foul-smelling green blood oozed out of the wound.

The beast fell into a deeper state of rage and started swinging its large four arms around in Su Fang's direction. Su Fang was too close to the beasts and didn't have enough speed to dodge so it knocked him in the chest, throwing him back several meters. He landed heavily on the ground and spat out a mouth full of blood, but seemed to still be alive.

"The hide is too hard, aim for its vitals!" Su Fang yelled as he painfully got back to his feet.

Su Ling pulled out a box of thick, large needles and began throwing them at the beast with incredible strength. The needles were not strong enough to pierce the hide, so she focused her attacks on its vital areas including the open wounds on its face and chest,

Kai ran back to Su Fang and the rest hoping to convince them to retreat, but to his surprise, they were using his 'distraction' as a chance to fight back.

"Once it recovers from the pain and shock, it won't leave us alone. We need to kill it while we have the chance". Su Fang said with resolve on his face.

"The wound on the beast's neck is slowly healing, if we're going to kill this thing, then we need to do it now!". Kai said as he turned to face the enraged [Fungus-Ape] with a determined look on his face. Even Kai could see that the beast was vulnerable right now so it was their only chance. He would have just preferred to avoid the dangerous situation.

"Distract it and I'll will give it one last heavy attack!" Kai roared.

"Understood!" Su Ling immediately obliged and started to throw a flurry of needles aimed at the beast's vital spots, causing it to roar in even more pain. It stumbled towards her general direction, clearly angered by the constant attacks. Its balance and depth perception was off so staying out of its attack radius was a simple matter.

Kai didn't waste time and moved forward using [Hare Leaps Over Moon] to appear directly over the beast's head. Kai super-enhanced his fist and threw a punch aimed at its head, but its sporadic movements made Kai's attack fall on the open wound on its shoulder instead. The wound exploded with pieces of rancid flesh and blood, opening a large crevice from its shoulder down towards its chest.

Kai Landed on the ground awkwardly and could no longer feel his right arm.

The beast turned around and swung at Kai using its other three arms. The fourth arm was completely out of commission, considering the shoulder it was connected to was practically blown apart. Kai saw the attack coming and used [Twig] to drop himself onto the ground, immediately dodging all the swings from the [Fungus-Ape]. With his feet and back planted firmly on the ground, Kai kicked off the ground with force, propelling himself away from the beast.

Kai slid on the ground for a few meters on his back while looking at the beast. He had coated that punch with the [Corrosive Dragon Stance] so it was currently sizzling and burning away even more flesh and blood at a rapid and visible speed.

Kai was actually surprised by how effective the corrosive attack was.

"It's definitely worth the 2 Qi per attack cost. If I hit an open wound like I just did, I would then only need to survive while the corrosive poison kills my target for me"

Kai smiled as he looked at the beast howling in pain. He felt a lot more confident now that he knew how powerful [Corrosive Dragon Stance] was.

Su Ling and Su Fang were shocked by what they were seeing. Not only was Kai physically strong, but he was incredibly fast and nimble as well. They couldn't even see him when he jumped and suddenly appeared above the Ape's head.

What shocked them, even more, was the strange phenomenon that was going on with the beast's wound. It had been healing rapidly moments ago, but after Kai's attack, the wound got started to quickly erode the flesh and bone, increasing the severity of the shoulder wound.

"Don't get distracted, keep attacking. Focus on the open wounds!" Kai yelled

Su Ling kept throwing her needles into the now gaping hole on its chest. Where her needles hit, more green blood would spurt out. While she did this, Su Fang switched to his Gauntlet Crossbow and shot a few into the wounds as well. Mei Mei had long since fallen to her knees behind Su Fang with a despondent look on her face. She seemed to have been broken by the previous feeling of hopelessness.

After a few more minutes of concentrate attacks as well as the fast acting corrosive nature of [Dragon Subduing Stance] the [Fungus-Ape] slowly lost its strength and finally fell to the ground lifeless. Kai was only relieved when he got the long-awaited system message.

==[ 4 Qi absorbed from [Fungus-Ape [Grade-2] by [Dragon Subduing Law]==

Kai sat down as he breathed a sigh of relief. The [Fungus-Ape] was strong and had a tough hide, but all things considered, it was actually fairly easy to take down using just a combination of Enhanced punches and [Corrosive Dragon Stance]. Kai hadn't even taken any direct damage, except for the torn muscles on his right arm from using his super Qi enhancements

"Thank you Kai" Su Fang slowly limped up to Kai and sincerely thanked him.

"More lives could have been lost here if it weren't for you" Su Ling continued as she walked up to her brother to support him"

Kai looked over at the bloodied and disfigured corpse of Cai Lou and sighed with some regret.

He then turned his head to look at Mei Mei who was staring at Cai Lou's lifeless body with a blank look on her face.

"What happened, why are they...have they never fought [Grade-2] beasts before?"

Su Fang sighed with regret and shook his head. He was also terrified but he didn't understand how these people performed so terribly when faced with a [Grade-2] beast. Didn't they do this for a living?

Su Fang sighed as he shook his head in regret.

"We have only recently formed the Jade Serpent team. It's only been about one month now. My sister and I were originally regular members of the Black Rose, but we had a...falling out. That's when we decided to form our own team and this was our first mission..."

Kai was shocked. They were complete newbies so it's no wonder why they pissed their pants at the first signs of danger. Kai remembered how he had also run away earlier but could only scratch his head in embarrassment

"Let's get out of here first, we can talk about the rest once we're in a safer place," Su Ling said as she carefully looked around the area.

"Right, we also need to find Wang Li...or at least recover his body if we can"

Mei Mei was as good as broken so Su Ling put her on her shoulder while Su Fang carried the lifeless body of Cai Lou. Kai went back to retrieve their backpacks. One was completely destroyed but Mei Mei's backpack was still intact.

Kai then skinned the [Fungus-Ape's] moss-covered hide since it would probably be worth something. They couldn't take the whole carcass so this would have to do.

Su Fang was also able to identify a few more [Grade-2] beasts, and they were successfully able to go around them as they moved towards the outskirts of the swamp.

On their way out, Kai killed some well-hidden groups of [ Slime Vine] in their way and was able to get his Qi maxed out at [400/ 400] which he was pleased with.

They headed back to the carriage which was waiting by the main road. There they saw the figure of a man arguing with the carriage driver.

"Is that Wang Li...I figured he was already dead the moment he ran by himself..." Su Ling said with obvious disdain in her voice.

Su Fang didn't say anything and lead the group back to the carriage.

"They're all dead, I saw that thing smash them to death and we don't get out of here soon it'll come after us too!" Wang Li said in a panicked voice.

"I said shut up you, I get paid to wait here for 1 day and that's what I'll do. if anything dangerous shows up, Betsy here will get us to safety so just sit in the back there and wait quietly!".

The driver rubbed the ears of the large [Ceehorn] lovingly before shooting an annoyed look at Wang Li who wouldn't stop yelling.

At that moment the driver noticed a few figures standing behind Wang Li. "Looks like your team is back from the dead". he said sarcastically as he played with the [Ceehorns] ear.

Wang Li turned around, only to receive a punch to the face from Su Fang.

"You ingrate!. Not only did you abandon your comrades, but you also wanted to leave us out here?!". Su Fang roared

|Couldn't even wait for our bodies to get cold huh?" Su Ling chimed in snarkily

Kai was surprised by the sudden drama. This team seemed to be exposing their dysfunction for the world to see.

"You...you're alive?!" Wang Li said in complete shock.

Su Fang punched Wang Li again, but this time he knocked him out cold.

"Damned fools, one set back and they all lose their minds. Driver, thank you for waiting. Let's go back to the city please"

"No need to thank me, just doing what you paid me to do. Plus seeing that annoying guy get punched in the face was worth the wait."

The team headed into the carriage and went back to the city. On the way back, Kai asked them to explain the situation so he could understand.

Su Fang admitted that while he and his sister were veterans, their three followers were just greenhorns starting out. This was supposed to be an easy mission for them to gain experience fighting [Grade-1] beasts. They had all been trained with a decent body cultivation manual and were shown to have some potential.

"However it seems, in the end, it was still just potential that they had. They're not cut out for the harsh world of hunters". Su Ling said this while looking out the window with an expression that looked both annoyed and sad at the same time.

Kai decided to learn from their mistakes. He would look at a person's mental stability alongside their loyalty before he recruited them as his followers in the future.

'It would be a waste of time to recruit people who will lose their minds at the first signs of danger'. Kai thought, fully aware of the irony in his statement since he was the first to run away.

Kai had been frightened by the unknowns surrounding the [Fungus-Ape]. All Kai knew was that it was strong and fast. he did not know if it had any special abilities or any hidden tricks so he was reluctant to engage the thing in a direct fight until he was sure that he could kill it.

Kai didn't consider having a fear of the unknown as a weakness. This type of fear would help keep you alive to fight another day. But, if the fear made you lose your mind and all rationality, then you would be completely hopeless in Kai's eyes.

The group arrived back at the city in the afternoon. Mei Mei seemed to have recovered somewhat but still had an endless stream of tears rolling down her face. As for Wang Li, he was still out cold and slumped over Su Fang's shoulder.

"I'll take care of these two as well as Cai Lou's body. Su Ling, please go complete the contract with Mr. Kai. Thank you again for your help Mr. Kai".

Su Fang said with a slight bow.

"Yes brother, please come with me Mr. Kai," Su Ling said as she stared at him. She wanted to ask him a lot of questions but held her curiosity back as to not annoy him. If her suspicions were true, then he was not a person she would want to annoy.

"Actually, I really want to go take a shower first. I smell like a rancid vegetable garden..." Kai said as he sniffed himself.

"Of course, I was thoughtless. My apologies". Su Ling looked at Kai who had dry green blood covering his body. Su Ling hadn't engaged in any close combat so her clothes still looked clean and pristine.

'She got so serious all of a sudden, is it too soon after Cai Lou's death to joke around?'

Kai mocked himself and handed Su Ling his map. He asked her to give it to the receptionist at the Hunter's Lodge. Kai was planning on Breaking through to the Fourth Level of Qi Condensation and didn't want any of that seen by the map's weird recording function.