Chapter 480

"Come on, ugly." Arthur snarled, shifting position as the orang utan add moved to the left of the boss. This one was thinner, sleeker than the others and gave him a very 'female of the species' vibe, though that might be human-centric thinking. He had no idea if orang utan's flipped the script. After all, certain animals did, where the males were smaller and weaker and only useful for carrying seed until they exploded everywhere with it.

Which, if you asked certain members of the Thorned Lotuses, human men were the same. Of course, they were quick to add a 'not you, of course, boss' if Arthur was around, which never left him as reassured as they probably expected it to.

A swipe with one hand, and then another. Long fingers, tipped with claws came at him. He wondered where their weapons were, but chose not to ask. Probably an add later on, if he didn't finish this fight fast. That was the way these things went, after all. You either fell to exhaustion or fell to the boss, but in all those cases; you fell.

Jan at the corner was up and fighting, battling the other ape add-ons that had come for her. She cut at them with both hands, the creatures wincing at each moment where they interacted with her aura. She took those moments when they flinched to cut them down, though it seemed that there were more adds than Arthur had realised at the beginning.

All well and good, but injuring the orang utan add was not doing much. He needed to kill it, do enough damage quickly enough that they could not heal the injuries from their regeneration. It was frustrating, but he bought himself another half-dozen breaths with his weapon, scoring a few light strikes before his Refined Energy Dart formed.

Then, he released the attack, this time at the boss. It was not expecting the shift, the way it came from his third eye location and exploded at its leg, taking it down to one knee. A perfect time to kill it, if the creature was not smart enough to already bring its weapons up to guard against an attack.

It did mean it left the add vulnerable to a more mundane attack. A quick switch of angles by shifting his backhand upwards brought the weapon tip down and Arthur thrust, plunging into the monster’s stomach. He ripped sideways as he stepped, tearing open its stomach and leaving it screaming as its entrails fell out.

Another step, a pullback of his tip and he slammed it forwards, into the vulnerable head to end the monster’s life. By that point, the boss had reformed its leg and thrown itself at Arthur, furiously swinging its weapons. Arthur managed to block two cuts before a third caught him on the arm, ripping the spear out of his arm as it skipped off and impacted the haft.

Luckily, he still had a grip on the spear with his other hand, even as he let himself to collapse to the ground and roll away. As he dodged, frantically throwing himself backwards over a shoulder as he rolled to get up, he realised why the creature was so aggressive suddenly.

It thought he was out of time with his Reinforced Energy Dart. It had timed his attacks, knew how long it took him to reform one, and because of that, it intended to end him before he could utilize the ranged attack again.

Understanding and a plan formed in the wake of one another. It would require a trick, but he was good at that; the only question was whether he could carry it out. Blocking another swinging blade with the haft of his spear, letting the tip dig into the ground as he raised the weapon upwards with his other hand. At the same time, he stepped on the outside of his opponent, such that the creature could not strike him with his weapon on the other side.

Numbed fingers grabbed at the kris hilt, pulling it free. He near fumbled the change, and was punished by a kick to his stomach. It drove the air out of his body and lifted him off the ground, sending him skipping back a little. Half-folded over, his spear fallen out of his other hand, he watched as the creature swung its sabre at him.

Only to scream in pain, as Jan, having rushed over slammed her parang down on the limb. It cut deep, causing the boss to scream in pain and drop his own weapon. At the same time, Arthur released the Refined Exploding Energy dart from his Pocket Simpanan, the stored attack slamming into the boss’s core. It tore through the creature’s armour, exploded and left it deeply wounded.

A weak strike was caught by Arthur’s kris, pushed aside and grabbing hold of the forearm, Arthur held it close to him as he stepped deep and started stabbing with the kris, plunging it over and over again into the exposed section of armour in the monster’s torso.

While it thrashed and attempted to free itself, Jan began cutting into the monster’s leg, only to scream in sudden pain. She staggered to the side, swinging her weapon wide to drive back the orang utan adds that had struck at her while she was busy with the boss.

Blood, viscera and the smell of the grave filled Arthur’s nostrils as he hunkered deep and close to the boss, his weapon acting like a sewing needle as it plunged in and out of the monster’s body. He switched targets after a half-dozen strikes, punching downwards to the monster’s exposed legs.

The kris – a wavy dagger or short-sword like weapon traditionally – was meant to pierce and stab, slipping in and widening the wound due to its wavy nature. Arthur kept plunging it into the boss’s legs, a part of him wondering if the Yin poison in the cursed kris would work on it.

No way to tell, and he had to keep moving, his feet shifting, his body twisting and pulling the boss so that the adds could not get to him. At the same time, he could feel his own opponent weakening, the blows from its free hand – injured and cut and missing a weapon – growing weaker as it struck his shoulder and the top of his head.

One, another, then suddenly, it stopped. He kept stabbing a couple more times before he stopped, the sudden dead weight of the creature pulling the massive beast away. Arthur let go, looking for Jan, a pit opening in his stomach as he realised that his focus had left her vulnerable.

His fear was won out, for he could not see her at first. Not till the orang utan, pulling back now that the boss was slain, revealed her body. Jan had been laid low, still, blood on her hair, on her face, a leg broken, an arm cradling her broken in at least two places, including her upper arm. Her weapons were discarded around her body.

Stumbling over, realising how battered he was, Arthur could only hope that she had survived. Thankfully, the event was over and the organ utan humanoids were pulling back, leaving him and the Jan alone. Dropping down by her side, he checked her pulse, relief pulsing through him as he realised that she still breathed, if threadily.

She lived – now the question was, would she continue to do so?