X-Rank Hunter

Chapter 15: Tree-Merger Apes (2)

What the heck! It hurts!

As Jim opened his eyes he immediately noticed that he was sent flying pretty far away. The traces of where he passed through could be clearly seen.

Thankfully, his broken ribs of where the gorilla struck him were healing on its own until it was completely healed as if nothing happened in the first place.

He underestimated the boss gorilla and became conceited with his own strength making his guard down and allowing his enemy to attack him from behind.

Damn, why do I'm acting like this? Just because I became stronger I look too highly on myself?

Tsk! That damn gorilla didn't even hold back a bit... Luckily, I have an incredible healing ability, if not, I might really be as good as dead by now.

Jim gritted his teeth and stood up facing the apes coming towards him.

However, Jim could not see any of them, he could only see the branches on the trees swaying around and only felt and heard their presence.

Damn, this is troublesome!

Jim knew it! He already fought them many times before and always managed to barely escape.

No, he really didn't fight them at all, he just accidentally stumbled to at least one of them whenever he was facing some weaker beast. Every time he fought some weaker beast, one of the apes would always suddenly barge in and hunt him down instead.

Fortunately for him, he always managed to barely escape.

Thanks to the illusions that were taught by his mother, it really came in handy for escaping!

It really was not completely useless after all.

But this time, there were a lot of them and Jim didn't plan to escape as well.

As Jim was focused in front of him, the huge tree behind him of where he bumped into and made his flung to stop, suddenly moved its branches intending to grab him with that. Fortunately, he reacted on time and jumped instinctively after he heard a movement behind him.

As he was in the midair he shot the tree with his 'Blood Bullet'. But to his frustration, it didn't have any effects at all, the tree didn't even wilt nor the beast possessing it was affected.

As he landed on the ground and was surrounded by many trees, another batch of attacks immediately followed close. The branches of the trees were moving fiercely while Jim couldn't help but evade them all.

What the... these damn monkeys didn't even give me time to breathe properly!

Swing, strike, left, right, above, below.

Dodge, bend, jump, dash, slide, tumbling, bartikal.

From every direction, the trees fiercely attacked, and he was surprisingly able to dodge them all. Even he himself couldn't believe what he was doing and how fast he moved and reacted towards those barrage of attacks.

Everywhere was dangerous, even the below-ground was without exception. The roots of the trees were just popping out anytime anywhere. If he just lost focus for even a mere second, Jim was more than sure that he would get hit by those attacks.

Jim had no way to inflict damage. His blood ability was useless against them. He still yet to create a summon that could fight. So what else could he do? It was now impossible to escape given the fact that he was surrounded by lots of them.

If only there was a fire! Jim could turn the table. But unfortunately for him, his awakened ability seemed to not mean to control elements, he was even having a hard time creating a seemingly low-level illusion with his World Energy so what else could he really do?

Thump, thud, pasak,

The trees continued to attack while Jim continued to dodge. He knew he could stand a few attacks, but there were a lot of them. He didn't know what would happen next if he ever got caught by any of those attacks.

But to his horror, the thing that he was afraid to happen, happened just after he thought about it.

A sudden attack from all sides at the same time was launched by all the trees surrounding him. From below to all sides up to above, Jim had no way to dodge! He could only wait for all the attack to land on him and defend himself, crossing his clenched hand as he covered his chest.

Sapol! Pasak! Pasak!

All the branches of the trees that simultaneously attacked him were now entangling him and some of them even pierced through his body. His spread arms and feet were helplessly entangled by a strong branch of the trees.

Blood dripped out from his every wound dropping to the ground or was flowing from his body down to the branches of the trees that were entangling him.

Jim couldn't help but cough a mouthful of blood!

However, though Jim was already cornered and many wounds were opened on his body, he could feel that it didn't hurt just what it was supposed to. He knew well how painful it was to be pierced by something to any part of one's body since he already experienced it many times before, and Jim had a piercing on the left part of his belly and left shoulder and both legs and arms but the pain was still not too much.

It went without saying, his newfound ability had a pain reduction!

He could even feel that his other wounds were surely getting healed. Except for his wounds that were being pierced by the branches of the trees, all the other wounds he had were already healed!

Kieeeeek!! kieeeek! kiieeeeeek!!

The trees, no, the shriek of the apes could be heard around him and the joy on their voices was far too obvious. Jim could only grin inwardly waiting for the apes to come out from their trees they were possessing and grab the opportunity to suck them dry all at once.

"Why are you all being so harsh? I'm just an F-rank you know and this is my first time having a real fight. Can you be a little more gentle to me?" Jim revealed a worried and desperate face making the apes laugh even louder.

However, he didn't lie in there. This was his first real fight since all the fights he had before couldn't even be called a fight. It was more like a one-sided beating!

He never killed a beast even once in many brawls he suffered, instead, he was always the one who almost got killed.

At least that was what he thought.

But unfortunately for Jim, what he was expecting did not happen. The apes didn't even bother to come out from their trees and even prepared to launch yet another attack from all sides.

What the heck... this is overkill!

Well, there was nothing more to expect from a beast, their nature was to kill after all.

But what he didn't expect was for those beasts to possess some kind of damn wisdom making them even harder to deal with. If they were just a normal beast, they would probably attack with their own using only their brute strength and knucklehead.

But those beasts, however, were different. They all acted as one and didn't bother to let their guard down for a single moment.

They probably thought of Jim as a dangerous main character and considered him as a threat to the antagonists like them. That being said, even for a short moment, they didn't get careless and leave their turf.

"The hell... Am I finished here?" For the first time after he gained his ability, Jim finally felt uneasiness in his heart. He didn't feel frightened though. He could feel that there was still another way.

Kutob!

Ugh. What's happening?!

Jim could feel it! His heart was beating wildly as it pounded his eardrums. As his heart continued to beat that way, he was slowly losing control over himself until his eyes became expressionless and his body refused to move.

The apes had finished preparing their attacks and several sharp branches were pointing towards Jim who just finally lost himself as if he was unconscious.

Pasak!

All the apes finally launched their attacks and all of them mercilessly pierced through all parts of Jim's body except for his head.

From his hands to his shoulders down to his feet, several branches were pierced! To Jim however, it was hard to tell if he was still alive or not. If anyone would see him in that state, no one would ever suspect that he was still alive.

However, his heart was still beating as fine as normal. The same went for his breathing, it was still calm. As if he was not injured at all

He was not showing any expressions though.

The apes knew it as well, that Jim was still alive and well since they could feel his heartbeat through the branches of the tree that they used to pierce him.

One of the apes then, probably the strongest among them prepared a final attack. This time, the branch was five times thicker than before and that ape was intending to pierce Jim's heart.

Jim who remained expressionless remained motionless. As if he was not in himself and didn't know what was about to happen to him.

Then the ape finally launched its attack and it mercilessly pierced Jim's chest to his heart going past his back!

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