Chapter 48: Firehawk

While the seven other members of Team Bright were battling the male giant ape, Su Chen had begun a massive battle.

This was not his first time fighting a high-tier Vicious Beast.

He had fought one before when clearing the fifteenth room in the Hundred Refinements Pavilion.

However, battling an illusory Vicious Beast was one thing; fighting a real one was an entirely different matter.

In addition, different Vicious Beasts had different strengths and weaknesses.

The Giant Adamantine Ape was an incredibly ferocious Vicious Beast. It possessed an incredibly powerful body.

Su Chen retreated by activating the Snaking Mist Steps, slipping through the small cracks in the trees as he constantly placed Clear Wind Nets before him. The Giant Adamantine Ape’s method was much simpler.

It forcefully destroyed everything in its path as it charged forwards. Trees were overturned wherever it went.

It casually raised a tree trunk in its hand. Using it as a staff, it slammed it towards Su Chen. Such a simple attack possessed immense strength; even if it just brushed past, it was powerful enough to smash Su Chen into a human pancake.

Su Chen’s Clear Wind Net had just appeared when it was swept aside like a spiderweb by the Giant Adamantine Ape. The Giant Adamantine Ape didn’t even notice its appearance.

Su Chen had praised Iron Cliff’s ability to resist Origin Skills via pure physical force, but this giant ape wasn’t just resisting Origin Skills via pure physical force, but was instead suppressing them.

“AWOO!”

This tree trunk created a crater in the ground, and the giant ape pounded its chest as it howled fiercely. This howl seemed to contain a certain amount of scorn, as if looking down on Su Chen as an insect that only knows how to jump around.

“Fine, try this on for size then.” Su Chen gave up on using the Clear Wind Net and switched to the Erupting Firebird.

The Giant Adamantine Ape swung the tree trunk through the air again.

Boom! The tree trunk slammed into the Firebird, causing it to explode in a fiery blaze. The giant trunk in its hand was suddenly halved in size.

The giant ape stared blankly at the halved trunk in its hand before tossing it aside and bending down to pick up a new one. It had yet to stand straight, however, when another fiery flash appeared, halving the new tree trunk.

Su Chen smiled slightly. “It seems your weapon choice isn’t easy to use.”

The giant ape frowned and picked up another tree.

Just as Su Chen was preparing to destroy it with another Erupting Firebird, the Giant Ape threw the tree in his hand forwards.

Whoosh!

The giant piece of wood whistled through the air, whistling towards Su Chen.

“Holy crap!” Su Chen’s heart jumped. He hurriedly activated the Snaking Mist Steps to dodge it; it barely flew past him.

He had yet to recover when another massive tree flew towards him. Su Chen was unable to dodge it, so even as he retreated he slashed out with his blade while also simultaneously activating the Amethyst Battle Armor’s barrier.

Boom!

Su Chen was sent flying by the forceful blow, a brilliant light shining in front of him. Thirty percent of the attack’s power was reduced by his retreat, thirty percent was blocked by the barrier, and thirty percent blocked by the Amethyst Battle Armor itself. The remaining ten percent, however, was still enough to cause Su Chen to spit out a large mouthful of blood. The power of this strike could be easily seen from this.

“Awoo!” The Giant Adamantine Ape let out an enraged snarl, not at all satisfied.

“You are quite savage!” Su Chen rubbed his chest and winced in pain before turning around and running away.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of the ape. Rather, the ape’s infuriated howls were quite annoying; the howls allowed it to communicate with the other ape despite the distance between the two of them.

Its current howls were angered cries of provocation, so they weren’t that dangerous.

If Su Chen injured or frightened the ape, it would cry out in pain or fear, definitely inciting a reaction from the other giant ape.

Su Chen could only run further and further away from his teammates.

The ferocious ape chased after him relentlessly. The Beast Drawing Medicine’s fragrance slowly began to fade, but the flames of rage that had begun to burn did not decrease in the slightest.

As it chased, it constantly uprooted trees and threw them at Su Chen.

The trees whistled past him like arrows. Su Chen’s scalp tingled as he watched them fly by.

This damned ape, its strength never seemed to run out.

Boom!

Another tree trunk flew past his head. Su Chen narrowly dodged it.

“AWOO!” The giant ape howled at Su Chen, as if it were saying “do you only know how to run away?”

Su Chen turned around in midair and landed on the ground.

He pointed at the giant ape. “Are you having fun chasing me?”

The giant ape let out a furious howl in response.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Su Chen shook the blade in his hand. “Then you’d best understand that I’m not that...... Shit!”

Boom!

Another giant tree flew forwards.

Su Chen had yet to show off his strength when the giant ape had already made a move.

“Dammit!” Su Chen only had time to curse before slashing out with his blade.

While clearing the fifteenth room of the Hundred Refinements Pavilion, Su Chen didn’t have a single Origin Tool on him. His strength in the pavilion originated from himself and himself alone.

Now, with the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade, the Amethyst Battle Armor, and the Cloud-Stepping Battle Boots, his strength had clearly increased.

A wolf soul seemed to emerge from the blade as it slashed through the air. It let out a piercing howl and leapt towards the giant ape. The Thunder Blade simultaneously exploded with the majestic rumbling of thunder.

The giant tree slammed into the blade of light, releasing a brilliant light upon impact.

Under the massive explosion, the tree shattered. The giant ape was suddenly unarmed.

The Heavenly Wolf Blade continued forwards unopposed.

The Giant Adamantine Ape didn’t even try to dodge. When it swung its massive hand, the ape’s thick arm turned into a streak of golden light, exploding forth with an unprecedented amount of force.

The blade slammed into the fist. Su Chen felt as if he had slashed a mountain.

The force from the impact sent him flying as if it were a tornado.

“What the...... hell......” Su Chen had not anticipated this turn of events. He flew through the air, leaving behind afterimages in his wake until he came to a stop nearly a hundred feet away.

“AWOO!” The Giant Adamantine Ape continued to howl. Golden light began to shine this time from its entire body, and faint traces of purple could be seen as well.

This was the Giant Adamantine Ape’s innate Origin Skill, Adamantine Body.

The name “Adamantine” was not undeserved.

A moment later, the ape leapt forwards, flying through the air. It caught up to Su Chen after a few leaps, and its two thick arms slammed downwards like two giant pillars.

“Dammit!” Su Chen was stunned. He activated the Snaking Mist Steps again and flashed forwards again in a haze of smoke.

The giant ape’s attack slammed into the ground, generating shockwaves upon impact and leaving behind a round crater on the ground.

High-tier Vicious Beasts also possessed different amounts of strength.

The Giant Adamantine Ape’s strength was evidently much greater than the one found in the fifteenth room of the Hundred Refinements Pavilion.

Though the attack had missed, the giant ape leapt forwards once again, continuing to chase Su Chen.

Although it didn’t know how to fly, every leap brought it seventy or eighty feet forwards, so it didn’t make much of a difference. It flew through the air forcefully and imposingly; even the high-layer Blood Boiling Realm cultivators Su Chen had come across, such as Copper Deer, Smoke, or Li, would probably have trouble dealing with it. Su Chen didn’t have time to dodge, and the ape’s arms swept into him, shattering the four layers of Meg’s Guardian and the Amethyst Battle Armor’s barrier as well.

In midair, Su Chen sent an Erupting Firebird flying, slamming into the ape’s golden body. The Giant Adamantine Ape charged through the flames as if they didn’t exist, but the flesh on its chest had been mangled.

Out of all the high-tier Vicious Beasts, the Giant Adamantine Ape definitely possessed the lowest number of Origin Skills. It only knew the Adamantine Body.

But this skill alone was enough for the Giant Adamantine Ape to become extremely powerful both in terms of offense and defense.

Even the strengthened Erupting Firebird could only do limited damage to it.

Wanting to defeat his opponent with just a few strengthened Erupting Firebirds was delusional unless he also relied on a numbers advantage like the other seven in Team Bright.

“You’re quite tenacious.” Upon seeing this development, Su Chen no longer attempted to defeat his opponent head on. He turned around and ran.

It wasn’t that Su Chen wasn’t confident that he could kill the ape, but it was so powerful that he would probably have to expend an unreasonable amount of energy and effort to do so.

Since his duty was just to delay, why bother going all-out?

The person and the ape ran through the forest together.

According to the plan, he would only need to delay the Giant Adamantine Ape for the time it took a stick of incense to burn before the other members of Team Bright would come to support him.

But that time came and passed, and his awaited support had yet to arrive.

Su Chen didn’t mind. The Giant Adamantine Ape was proficient in both offense and defense, and it was stronger than they had estimated. It was not an easy opponent to deal with; perhaps the seven of them would need a bit more time to finish it off.

Thus, he remained patient and continued to dance around with the ape.

Soon, enough time had elapsed for another stick of incense to have burned, yet Team Bright still had not appeared.

Su Chen began to frown slightly.

Before, he still had patience.

But once the third stick of incense had burned, he could not wait any longer. He recognized that the situation had probably changed.

The man and ape pair had already been running around in the forest for quite some time. The Giant Adamantine Ape was also beginning to show signs of impatience and even of giving up entirely.

Su Chen had to apply another Beast Drawing Medicine to himself in order to attract his opponent’s attention again.

However, neither party had any intention of drawing things out this time.

Su Chen was becoming more and more agitated as he continued to wait for reinforcements. However, he couldn’t afford to be careless in the slightest.

After exhausting his last shred of patience, Su Chen finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“It looks like I’ll have to rely on myself to deal with you,” Su Chen muttered.

“AWOO!” the Giant Adamantine Ape howled as if saying, “if you have the balls, come at me”.

“Then try this one on for size.”

Su Chen stretched his hand forth.

An inferno began to appear in his hand.

Then, it began to take shape, rapidly taking on the shape of a bird.

It looked very similar to the Erupting Firebird in terms of general shape.

However, the transformation did not stop there. The bird continued to expand and feathers began to grow out of its body, followed immediately by eyes and sharp talons.

The inferno had assumed the shape of a hawk. The hawk flapped its wings, and the bird’s eyes, which were formed of coagulated flames, flashed with an intense brilliance.

Su Chen gestured with his hand. The Firehawk flew into the air, letting out a piercing screech as it charged the giant ape. It transformed into a powerful torrent of flames as it charged towards its target.

“AWOOOOO!!!”

When the Firehawk struck its target, the Giant Adamantine Ape let out its most pained cry yet.