Chapter 72: They’re Made of What!!
The jungle exploded into chaos. Branches snapped and leaves flew everywhere. Monkey-like creatures rushed through the trees at incredible speed.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
Nobody ducked beneath a swinging tail. A monkey flew over his head before landing on a nearby branch.
Its body was now clearly visible. Dark gray fur, massive arms and skin that looked more like stone than flesh.
At that exact moment...
the system appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[MONSTER IDENTIFIED]
Entity Type:
Rock Monkey
Classification:
Jungle Beast
Threat Level:
MEDIUM-HIGH ⚠︎
Skills:
• Stone Skin
• Branch Leap
• Tail Whip
• Boulder Fist
Description:
A territorial jungle predator whose body is reinforced by mana-infused stone armor. Extremely resistant to physical attacks.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s eyes widened. "Oh. It’s a Rock Monkey."
Nearby, Ethius had already charged one. His daggers flashed.
SLASH!
SLASH!
Nobody immediately shouted,"Dude! It’s a Rock Monkey!"
Ethius didn’t even look back. "Rock what?!"
CLANG!
His daggers struck the monkey’s chest.
Sparks flew.
The monkey didn’t even flinch. Ethius stared. The monkey stared.
Ethius slowly looked at his daggers. "...That can’t be good."
The monkey punched.
BOOOOM!
Ethius jumped backward just in time. The ground shattered where he had been standing.
Nobody pointed dramatically. "I told you! They’re literally made of rock!"
Ethius landed beside the group. "...Okay. That’s actually a problem."
Another Rock Monkey dropped from above.
THUD!
Then another.
THUD!
Then three more.
THUD!
THUD!
THUD!
Julias raised his sword. "There are too many."
Nobody tightened his grip on his crowbars. "I think we need explosive power to defeat them."
Mayra nodded. "My fire magic should work."
Ethius suddenly paused. Then a grin appeared on his face. "Wait. I have an idea."
Everyone looked at him.
The assassin pointed toward Mayra. "Can you use fireballs repeatedly?"
Mayra nodded. "Of course."
Ethius then pointed toward Julias. "And you."
Julias raised an eyebrow. "What about me?"
"When Mayra launches the fireballs, smash them with your sword."
Nobody blinked. "...What?"
Ethius grinned. "Trust me. I got a plan"
Mayra seemed to understand first. "Oh."
Julias slowly nodded. "I think I get it."
Ethius pointed at Mayra again. "Then use wind magic afterward."
"To boost the flames?"
"Exactly."
Nobody’s jaw dropped. "...That’s actually smart."
Ethius smirked proudly. "I know."
The nearest Rock Monkey suddenly charged. "KEEE-KAAA!"
Nobody pointed. "Less talking! First look at your surroundings guys!"
The battle resumed instantly.
Mayra lifted her staff. Several crimson magic circles appeared.
FWOOOOSH!
Three fireballs shot forward. The Rock Monkeys barely reacted.
Then....
Julias moved. His sword glowed green. "Mountain Cleaver!"
BOOOOM!
The blade smashed into the fireballs. The impact scattered the flames forward like explosive artillery.
The monkeys finally reacted. But it was too late.
BOOOOOM!
The fireballs exploded directly among them. Flames engulfed several Rock Monkeys.
The creatures screeched. "KEEEEE!" But they weren’t finished. Most of them emerged from the flames. They were burned. Yet still standing.
Nobody pointed. "They’re tougher than they look!"
Ethius shouted. "Phase two!"
Mayra immediately understood. She slammed her staff into the ground. "WIND BURST!"
FWOOOOOOOSH!
Powerful wind currents surged forward. The burning flames suddenly intensified. The firestorm doubled in size. Then tripled.
The jungle glowed orange.
BOOOOOOM!
This time the explosions hit much harder. Several Rock Monkeys were thrown backward. Cracks appeared across their stone-like skin. They looked smaller than golems. But still kinda looked like Golem monsters.
Julias grinned. "There we go!"
Nobody immediately activated Zigzag Teleportation.
FLASH!
He vanished.
FLASH!
Appeared beside a damaged monkey. The creature turned. "Too slow MonkeyBoy!!"
SLASH!
His crowbar struck directly into one of the cracks.
CRACK!
The monkey screamed. The crack spread further.
Nobody jumped away. "Hit the damaged spots!"
The others immediately followed the idea.
Ethius became a blur.
SWISH!
SWISH!
SWISH!
His daggers targeted every visible crack. Unlike before they finally worked.
SLASH!
Stone fragments flew. The monkey roared in pain. "KEEEE!"
Ethius grinned. "Now we’re talking."
Another monkey swung its tail.
WHOOSH!
Ethius ducked. The tail shattered a tree behind him.
BOOOOM!
"...Still hurts though."
Meanwhile..
Julias became the front line. Every monkey that approached got a sword to the face.
CLANG!
CRACK!
BOOOOM!
One creature punched him directly.
Julias blocked. The impact pushed him backward several meters. "Damn. These guys hit hard."
Nobody teleported above another monkey.
FLASH!
Then swung both crowbars downward.
SMASH!
The cracked stone armour shattered completely. The monkey collapsed.
The system appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Rock Monkey Defeated]
Experience Awarded
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody pointed proudly. "First one down!"
The system responded.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ONLY 37 REMAIN]
(ꈍᴗꈍ)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody froze. "...Eh..37 monkey left?"
Julias froze. "...What..37!?"
Mayra froze. "...huh?"
Ethius froze. "...WHAT?"
The monkeys screeched from every direction. The group slowly looked around.
More shadows moved among the trees. Dozens of glowing eyes stared back.
Nobody pointed accusingly at the jungle. "This place has way too many monkeys!"
A Rock Monkey immediately threw a giant rock at Nobody. The rock was going at great speed in the direction of Nobody.
BOOOOM!
Nobody teleported away.
FLASH!
"...And they’re sneaky bastards too!"
The team continued fighting. Mayra launched more fireballs. Julias turned them into explosive blasts. Wind magic amplified the destruction.
Ethius targeted weak points. Nobody jumped around the battlefield, causing chaos.
It seemed the Rock Monkeys were being pushed back. The creatures began retreating through the trees. One after another.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
Nobody noticed first. "...Wait. They’re running. "
Julias lowered his sword slightly. "They are. I guess they are finally scared of us."
Ethius frowned. "That’s suspicious."
Mayra nodded. "Monsters don’t usually retreat unless...."
A deep roar echoed through the jungle.
KRRRRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
The sound shook the trees. Birds scattered into the sky. The remaining Rock Monkeys immediately stopped.
Then all of them turned toward the same direction. Fear appeared in their eyes.
Nobody slowly swallowed. "...Guys." Nobody pointed deeper into the jungle.
The trees there were moving. Not because of the wind. Something enormous was walking through them. It was jumping with its tail. Its height was huge.
CRAAASH!
A giant tree snapped in half. Then another and another.
The system suddenly flashed red.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[WARNING] ⚠︎
Elite Entity Approaching
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at the notification. Then at the shaking jungle. Then back at the notification. "..."
"...I knew the monkeys weren’t the boss."
