NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 350 – Ape Attack
Jason sits back and laughs. To force things to match how he feels they should be? Classic arrogance, a common trait among cultivators. More impressive than the arrogance is that in theory they might just gain enough power to do so.
Jason shakes his head. He is still a good bit away from that level of power no matter how you slice it. Plus, now is time to rest and he figures getting as many nights of sleep as possible could save him trouble later.
After that bit of introspection, Jason’s journey proceeds at a decent clip. Not much disturbs him and Lily till even the main road seems small, then the fun starts. Maybe it is something to do with the natural magic of the road or how often people travel it but mostly only pests had been annoying them. Now out in the wilderness, taking advantage of the path laid out for him Jason has found excitement.
An ape twice his height attacks from the side, too bad Jason had heard it coming and with great finesse dodges out of the way. Not expecting this, it takes the ape a moment to realize that it didn’t have Jason grappled. Enough time for him to slide around its back while using one of his throwing knives to slice both achiles tendons.
The ape falls over but Jason isn’t done with it and proceeds to stick his throwing daggers into key points around the body so as to prevent it from attacking him. Once fully locked in place, Jason finishes it with a simple slice across the throat. Then he gets the message he was waiting for.
{Skillful Movement: +2 Agility}
A lovely message informing him that his work had paid off. Sure, Jason could have handled the ape in a more straightforward manner. That wasn’t the point though, the increase in Agility was. While he hadn’t ever gone too much into using his toughness to fight, Jason also doubted he had too high of a cap in the first place, so of course it starred first.
Still, now that he was hunting those elusive stars it was going to take more than his usual combat style. Not even this time was good enough. While Jason doubted his strength had too high of a ceiling either, it was about 20 points down to start with, so would require more work as well. That meant fighting in a way that not only required great finesse, but overbearing strength.
The ape was just a stepping stone towards that goal and of course you generally don’t find stepping stones all by themselves so not too long after Jason and Lily are once again interrupted on their trip. Though this time, the monster was polite enough to not attempt a sneak attack.
More so because it had just recently killed some form of deer and was munching on it in the middle of the road. Of course, it might not have been the centipede’s kill. While they are predators, for some reason Jason just can’t see one a thick around as his own chest being able to manage killing a deer in such an open area. Then again, as Jason looks closer at the mandibles a slight green glint catches his eye so maybe this is just where the deer died after being poisoned.
Either way, as compared to the random wildlife Lily had been fighting since the ape, this was a Jason sized challenge and just right for his own training. With a spring in his step, Jason dashes at the monstrous centipede as it turns toward him and brandishes its mandibles.
Jason shifts his shoulders slightly to the left and dodges them as they clash closed. Then up and under as he slams an uppercut into the underside of the monsters. This doesn’t result in quite the armor crunching that Jason had expected, but he had still felt there was some give to the exoskeleton that shouldn’t have been there.
This does not a happy centipede make and so it waves its head around as the poison gets sprayed everywhere. Quite forcefully as well and going by how even the supernaturally tough surface of the road begins to sizzle Jason is doubly glad he focused so much on dodging. As while the highly acidic poison did end up with near total coverage, it wasn’t all at once.
By staying close in and just out of reach of the many legs, Jason is able to dance with death. Then just before it finishes he jumps back, hopping between a few areas still untainted. Jason laughs, “It seems this won’t be quite as easy of a fight.”
He isn’t wrong either. While not uncommon, centipede monsters in the area generally don’t grow quite this large. Not that this centipede is the exception to prove the rule either, it just isn’t from the area having accidentally migrated as it followed a herd of pseudo-deer that it had taken a particular liking to.
The centipede, unsatisfied with the results of dumping out most of its poison and ruining the delicious deer it had been chomping on, strikes out at Jason. The maw extends outward towards him in a way that seems to defy gravity. Though only seems to, as once Jason sways to the side it curves back towards the earth.
The centipede’s landing causes a solid thump even with the weight distributed across so many legs. Still, the move requires a moment to recover and Jason doesn’t feel like giving it that moment. So if an uppercut wasn’t going to cut it, an elbow drop might just do the trick.
Jason slams down on the back of the bug quite viciously, his elbow sending cracks skittering across the exoskeleton. Not enough to fully break it and expose the insides to the outsides, but close enough to be impressive.
