Chapter 1423 - The Hunter, the Swordsman, & the Monk (9) (Patreon)

A few dozen kilometers away from the battle between the monk and hunter, a hole in space opened up as a swordsman walked out with tired but measured steps. Getting out of the sealing skill used by the monk had proven more annoying than initially expected, but not too long ago, the skill had started to slowly fall apart. Through his profession, the swordsman had taken a peek at the battle outside and decided to delay his return a little longer.

Now that he was back, he used some mana to raise a platform of stone. Sitting down, he had a tired look, as his body was nearly empty of energy, and in his current state, getting involved in the fight would be most unwise.

Plus, at this juncture, he was far more interested in what the hunter had done.

“Has he been holding back on us all along?” the Sword Saint asked himself out loud, while also throwing the monk a look. “Transcendent... but not from a skill. I sure missed a lot.”

The Sword Saint had become able to observe right as the monk had seemed to activate some berserker skill, though clearly, it was far more than that. It was as if the monk had changed his entire Path and gained an entirely new skill set, which perhaps wasn’t too far from the truth. As he’d already surmised, Transcendent power was at play, something that did make him curious, seeing as the Eastbound Monk was decidedly not a Transcendent.

And then there was Jake. Jake had been, to put it nicely, absolutely pummelled by the monk after he powered up. Beforehand, going by the large hole in the monk’s chest, the hunter seemed to have held the advantage, but now that the monk was fighting like a berserker, Jake could barely even survive. It got bad enough that the Sword Saint considered whether he should step in, but in the end, he’d decided to remain an observer until the monk and hunter finished their fight.

He was glad he did, for if he had stepped in, perhaps he wouldn’t have been able to witness the current scene. The Sword Saint had always known that Jake was hiding some trump card. Something he never usually showed. Now, he finally had a chance to witness it, and as he did, he found it perplexing.

Unlike the monk, Jake didn’t seem to experience any great changes. Instead, his energy felt less powerful and more subdued after he dodged what would likely have been the monk’s killing blow. His emotions seemed muted, yet he gave off an otherworldly feeling. As if he were partly disconnected from the world.

Clearly, the monk was also perplexed by the change in Jake, but he nevertheless tried to quickly finish the fight. He had to. The Sword Saint knew that what the monk had done wasn’t something that came for free, and he would have to pay a grand toll for his actions.

Breathing heavily himself, the Sword Saint relaxed as best he could as the two appeared to exchange some words before suddenly, Jake’s calm and subdued demeanor disappeared and was replaced with one of violence. The Sword Saint’s eyes opened wide as he for a moment thought the hunter had been affected by the bloodlust, but he quickly realized that wasn’t the case, because when the Sword Saint was about to rise to his feet, the eyes of the hunter darted straight to him.

For a brief moment, they made eye contact, and the message in the hunter’s look was clear:

Wait your turn.

Stopping himself, the Sword Saint remained seated and observed, respecting Jake’s reasonable request, as in the blink of an eye, the intensity of the bloodlust surrounding Jake rose to rival that of the monk before seemingly being suppressed entirely. Not in quantity, but sheer intensity and quality, as while the monk’s aura was born of violence and death, Jake’s was fundamentally different.

It was one of instinct. Based on the concept of the innate violence and bloodlust all things were capable of displaying. The Sword Saint wasn’t quite sure what word to describe it with, but if he had to choose one, he’d say it felt...

Primal.

--

The Eastbound Monk had reached a level of power that few, if any, B-grades at his level had ever been capable of displaying before in the history of the multiverse. Through the Path granted to him by the Wheel of Samsara, practically all of his skills had been replaced with passive ones that only sought to boost his stats, increase his resilience, control over the bloodlust aura, heal his wounds, and overall grant him power.

Practically none of them had any active components, as why would they? He was a creature of pure violence, one that didn’t have a mind to think about executing active skills. Of course, reality was different.

Due to what could be argued as a flaw in the system, the monk hadn’t lost all of his other skills from before he changed his Path. Some had remained, namely the ones he’d created himself. This granted him both a body and stats that surpassed all others, at the cost of lacking active skills, even though he still possessed powerful active skills. An existence that should not be allowed, yet through Transcendent power, it did.

Considering that, and having pulled out the Wheel of Samsara, few would believe that the Eastbound Monk had anyone who could even begin to rival him in the system event. Perhaps some could buy time and wait him out, but fight him head-on? A foolish sentiment.

Yet that was exactly what happened as the Transcendent Artifact-empowered monk encountered an even more unreasonable existence as he stood and had the absolute bloodlust from the hunter wash over his body. The aura of violence honed to the absolute appeared petty in front of the hunter, and the monk didn’t even have a chance to try to guess what the hunter had done before a beast in human form born for violence was upon him.

The monk moved to block, but had his arm grabbed as he was thrown through the air. Tumbling through the sky, he stabilized as quickly as he could, looking up to see the hunter gone right before he was kicked in the back and sent flying yet again.

For a moment, the monk thought the hunter was playing with him, but he quickly realized that wasn’t the case after the wound on his back started cracking and leaking blood. The hunter's seriousness was further demonstrated when he charged straight at the monk, intent on facing him head-on.

In response, the monk didn’t back down but faced his foe using all his abilities while pushing his absurdly enhanced body to its limits. He managed to dodge several of the erratic blows from the hunter, once more giving rise to the false belief that the hunter, driven by intense bloodlust, was acting recklessly when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Each strike was full of purpose and practically perfect, always leaving space to react and dodge should the monk counter, while doing the most damage possible should it land. Due to that, and despite the monk’s best efforts, the result of their clash was him getting repeatedly struck and his flesh ripped into by the smiling hunter.

His strikes were perhaps the one area where the hunter was playing around. Rather than use his weapons or something like Touch of the Malefic Viper to inflict additional damage, he fought barehanded, and while each strike did contain plenty of destructive potential, the piercing blade of a katar would no doubt have done more.

The monk was full of questions regarding what the hunter had done, but he didn’t have the slightest break to try to uncover anything as he was repeatedly forced back in a method of combat where he should have had the advantage. It was evident that the hunter was far faster than the monk, as if he’d used a boosting skill far beyond what his body should be capable of handling. Yet the sensation given off by the hunter was that, despite his injuries, he’d never been more full of life and energy, and based on his smile, he was thoroughly enjoying himself while clearly looking down on the monk, assured of his own superiority.

But... despite the change and the incredible power displayed by the hunter, the monk had no desire to back down as he kept meeting his opponent, still building up power himself, still believing that victory remained within reach.

--

Jake had truly banished all conscious thoughts as he simply reveled in the violence of tearing into the monk. His hands would rip off flesh, his nails cut down to the bone, and his punches fell like hammers capable of crushing the sturdy body of his opponent.

Usually, the monk healing himself constantly whenever he took damage would have made him a nightmare, but to the current Jake, it was a dream. It allowed him to keep attacking his prey for longer and embrace the violence even further.

Their melee stretched across the sky and reached the ground, where they tore up the terrain as the bloodlust seeped into the soil and rock, powerful enough to affect even the environment, leaving lingering effects that would infect any other living being unfortunate enough to wander close. Not that the hunter or monk cared, and it wasn’t as if there were any living beings in this entire world besides a monk, a hunter, and a swordsman observing from afar. Jake’s next prey, and while the swordsman gave off the aura of a crippled man, the hunter wasn’t fooled by his feeble appearance.

For now, the monk remained the priority, though, and while the man did keep healing, there had to be a limit. A limit Jake sought to find sooner rather than later, as his body felt lighter and more powerful than ever before with Primeval Origin Energy coursing through it.

Every ruthless strike brought him closer to victory as the monk tried to defend as best he could, failing at every juncture. His arm was broken and mangled, only to be put together a second later, and Jake even managed to vault over his opponent, breaking the monk’s neck before proceeding to tear his lower jaw from his mouth.

Despite every injury, the monk recovered as Jake’s hands were already a deep red, almost black, color from all the blood. From the start of this stage of the “fight” till now, only a dozen seconds had passed, and in those seconds, the monk had effectively already died roughly nine times. Yet every time a wound would leave him crippled, it healed while the more inconsequential wounds remained as reminders of the violence inflicted upon him.

Jake hoped to go on forever, even if the suppressed conscious part of him knew that wasn’t possible, and unfortunately, the fun had to come to an end at some point, doing so prematurely as the monk annoyingly changed the rules of the game.

Just after Jake tore an ear off the monk and was about to take his eyes, the man suddenly let out a loud roar that was powerful enough to force the hunter back temporarily. Jake instantly charged again but was met with a wall of dense red energy that slowed him down before stopping him fully as it took a fully corporeal form.

Having his momentum stopped, Jake allowed his mind to reawaken, having had his fun by proving his own superiority over the monk. Clearly, the monk no longer wished to brawl with him, but was instead using what could be his final trump card.

The dense bloodlust energy further condensed around the monk, forming a figure dozens of meters tall that surrounded his body, as an avatar of sorts. It didn’t resemble the monk, though, but had six arms and three heads. Each had horns that took the shapes of different forms of crowns, and the more Jake looked at this projection, the more real it felt.

What struck Jake as odd was the aura given off by the projection. Despite consisting purely of bloodlust energy condensed from sheer violent tendencies, it didn’t have a single hint of killing intent or negative emotions. Instead, it gave off a calm, serene feeling, completely at odds with the monk encased in the projected figure.

The six arms of the massive being moved in unison as the monk within directed them. He took a stance as his aura finally reached its zenith, making Jake smile, even though he did find it a little disappointing that the bloodlust aura was gone.

Right as he thought this, the monk struck, his blow faster and stronger than before as the avatar of energy’s fist descended. Jake dodged it casually, but the figure had five more fists, making it a bit more tricky to dodge, but not impossible... at least he thought so for a moment before the monk’s absurdity once more came on full display.

Right in front of his eyes, the massive projected figure with six arms and three heads seemed to split into three different versions of itself, all of them attacking with six different punches. Eighteen blows in the very same instant, and while Jake was near his peak of perfection at this moment, even that proved too much as he was struck and sent flying back.

The power behind the blow would have been enough to break Jake’s bones if his body had been in its usual state, showing just how powerful the monk’s final trump card was. Honestly, it was a relief. Jake had feared the ending would have been too boring and anticlimactic, but at least it seemed like he could have a bit of fun.

Stopping himself mid-air, he stepped down and teleported into the sky, but the monk was right after him, teleporting repeatedly. Clicking his tongue, Jake reckoned he’d have to create further distance, so he did just that.

Stepping down yet again, this time his footfall did not land on a platform of mana, but instead directly upon one of the white lines crossing the world. It bent, cracked, and a second later, Jake was over a thousand kilometers away, standing on the same white line that had stretched into the distance.

With his bow in hand, Jake took aim and began shooting. The monk was surprised by Jake teleporting so far away, but still gave chase quickly. Clearly, he believed in the projected form to protect him from the seemingly regular arrows that flew through the air, which was why what happened next came as a surprise to the monk.

Rather than be repelled when they encountered the corporeal projected avatar, they instead pierced straight through it before continuing toward his body. In an instant, he was struck twice, though he managed to avoid the next few by dodging with his physical body.

While it was incredibly minuscule, the arrows Jake had shot contained faint traces of Primeval Origin Energy, making them far more durable and permanent than anything else he could create. They were effectively treasures in their own right, used as disposable methods of attack.

Three more arrows hit the monk before he reached Jake, each remaining embedded within his body as they refused to disappear. They had purposefully been aimed at his joints and muscles to make it harder for the monk to move around, as while he could heal any injuries hampering his movements, he couldn’t heal away Jake’s arrows, and while he could try to tear them out, doing so would require valuable time he really didn’t have right now.

Right as the monk was about to reach Jake fully, he smiled and unleashed an Arcane Powershot, aiming to blow up the entire projection or at least learn just how durable it could be.

The arrow roared forth, but right as it was about to reach the monk, the projection raised a palm towards it as Jake’s eyes opened wide. Jake’s Primeval Origin Energy-empowered Arcane Powershot disappeared the second it encountered the palm, as the destructive energy traveled through it and to one of the other six arms. The monk himself also suffered, as his entire right arm was shredded and torn up like ribbons, but he still followed through as a projected palm descended upon Jake, carrying all the power of his own attack.

Well, I’ll be damned.

Jake was struck head-on and blasted toward the ground, impacting it a fraction of a second later as the entire terrain exploded. The Sword Saint, sitting now over a thousand kilometers away, had to jump into the air as the platform he was sitting on was blasted away by the massive crater that formed around Jake.

When the dust started to settle, Jake’s embedded form within the crater was revealed, blood dripping from his mouth as he was even more of a mess than before. There were barely any unbroken bones left in his body, and quite frankly, it was a miracle he was even alive.

Still, Jake slowly forced himself to rise. As above, the monk didn’t hesitate to charge down again, intent on fully reclaiming momentum or even ending the fight. Jake couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he felt the state of his own body as he looked up, sighing, accepting to end things here.

His heart let out a loud beat as he raised his hands, the white lines crossing the world appearing clearer than ever before. With a grin, Jake grasped hold of two of them and infused his energy as he twisted and forced them apart, intending to break the feeble world... which he did.

A cracking sound, a brief flash, and then... nothing. The charging monk was sent flying into the air, limp, the projected figure gone as the entire left side of his body was swallowed by a void spanning several kilometers that opened up in the virtual world.

Reality had shattered, the world in chaos as it tried to repair itself, making the white lines appear through to even the Sword Saint and monk as if the tapestry of reality itself had cracked and been torn open, and the one responsible for it all?

Gone... as a system message appeared in front of the swordsman and the barely lucid monk:

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