Welcome (4)
If asked who was the most grueling adversary I had fought to the death so far, the sabertooth tiger took the crown without question.
Its beastly ferocity, monstrous physical mass, and sheer, absurd regenerative power had pushed me to the brink. If not for Fast Tree Sloth's timely intervention back then, I would have died several times over.
Yet surviving that ordeal had spurred immense growth. Without the trial of that battle, I never would have brought down the Earth Guardian. Since then, I had crossed paths with all manner of bizarre creatures, yet I had never tasted defeat. Even when a beast appeared that looked beyond my ability to beat, I bolted immediately rather than picking a suicidal fight.
Fwooosh!
Aura billowed like roaring flames across the blade of the Heavenly Demon's Sword. I stared blankly at the Chief Gorilla, who had caught that very blade between mere fingers.
I had swung with every ounce of strength I could muster, yet he had pinched it effortlessly. Had he blocked it with his palm or caught it in his fist, my mind might have accepted it. But it was his fingers. The baseline strength enhanced by devouring the giant eel, fused with the explosive physical power harnessed through internal energy—all of it combined had been stopped dead in its tracks by just three fingers.
"Urk...!"
It wouldn't budge. No matter how much force I poured into pulling it free, the blade remained frozen. While I strained with veins bulging across my neck, the Chief Gorilla wore a look of utter serenity—a silent, suffocating pressure declaring the insurmountable chasm between us. There was a reason he had spoken with absolute certainty about taking one of my arms.
Twitch!
"Whoa!"
Just as I threw my whole weight into yanking the sword back, he released his grip. The sudden rebound nearly sent me tumbling backward in an unsightly heap. Barely managing to steady my footing, I looked up to face him again. He was already standing there with his massive, muscular arms crossed over his chest.
"Bu gou."
In the middle of this clash, there was no time to pull up the Gallery interface for a translation. Still, one thing was crystal clear: he was looking down on me. With that realization, I steeled myself to fight with far greater caution.
"Kyuuu! Kyu!"
Out of nowhere, Wonmo, who had been quiet until now, rushed forward. It seemed the little cub had firmly designated the Chief Gorilla as an enemy. Just as I opened my mouth to tell him to fall back, someone else intervened.
Tap.
"Kyuuu?"
"..."
Before I knew it, Fast Tree Sloth had slid down from my back. Ppareumbo stepped in front of Wonmo and waved a claw, gesturing for the cub to step back. Wonmo looked bewildered at first, then glanced back toward me.
"Wonmo. Listen to Ppareumbo."
"Kyuuu..."
Only then did Wonmo retreat, and Ppareumbo went so far as to nudge the little cub all the way back inside the cave. Afterward, the sloth didn't climb back onto my shoulders, choosing instead to stand at a distance and watch. Keeping clear was likely far more practical if he needed to jump in.
He seems to grasp the situation.
The Chief Gorilla's royal guard remained motionless as well, silently spectating. This was a duel strictly between the Chief Gorilla and me. Ppareumbo appeared to understand the implicit rules. Or perhaps, true to form, he was merely waiting to intervene the second my life hung in the balance.
I could afford to put a little trust in him. Gripping my sword and shield tight, I glared at the Chief Gorilla. The beast still stood motionless with his arms crossed. For an ape with virtually no bridge on his flat nose, he looked insufferably smug.
"Hmph!"
If he wanted to be careless, I'd make him pay for it. Digging my heels into the earth, I lunged with a piercing thrust. It was an attack executed without an instant's warning—and a thrust, not a slash. A straight thrust maximized the peerless edge of the Heavenly Demon's Sword to its lethal limit. If he tried to catch it with bare fingers like before, he would suffer a gruesome wound.
Swish!
My blade pierced dead center into the Chief Gorilla's abdomen. Or at least, that was how it appeared to the naked eye.
What the...?
The tactile sensation was completely wrong. I had undeniably stabbed straight forward, yet the feedback felt nonexistent—as though my sword had cut through empty air. The jarring disconnect between what my eyes saw and what my hands felt was profoundly eerie.
Shwaaa—
The moment that doubt crossed my mind, the Chief Gorilla shifted. His figure wavered like a shimmering desert mirage before vanishing into thin air. Panic seized me. I hastily yanked my sword back and scanned the clearing.
Where did he—!
Chills!
A prickling dread crept up the back of my neck. I had only lived in the Forest of the Four Seasons for barely two weeks, but one lesson had been hammered into my bones: never ignore an ominous premonition. When your survival instincts scream, you listen. I chose to trust that instinct without hesitation.
Slash!
Spinning on my heel, I swept the blade in a vicious horizontal arc. The fiery aura flared wildly in a crescent of light.
"Hmm."
Turning around, I saw the Chief Gorilla standing right there. Unlike moments ago, his arms were uncrossed. By all appearances, his ambush had been foiled. I didn't let the opening slip away. He was still underestimating me.
"Haaah!"
Bellowing a battle cry, I chained slashes, thrusts, and cuts in rapid succession. Whether startled by my sudden ferocity or merely amused, the gorilla didn't retaliate—he simply weaved and dodged.
Swish!
Again. I had cleanly sliced through his silhouette, yet felt no resistance. At the same moment, his form blurred like an illusion and dissolved. What kind of footwork technique was this? Could Fast Tree Sloth pull off something like this too?
Whirling around, I cleaved the air behind me just in case.
Whoosh!
Nothing. The gorilla wasn't there—only empty, vacant air. At that exact instant, a prickling chill struck the back of my skull again.
He had outmaneuvered me completely. But spinning around to slash again was out of the question—my spine couldn't twist three hundred and sixty degrees. I had to settle for the second-best option.
The shield!
Snapping my twisted torso back, I thrust the shield forward. Fortunately, the bet paid off. The Chief Gorilla's massive fist was already hurtling straight toward the center of my shield. Just how much destructive force was packed into that blow? This was a monster that had caught an aura-clad blade between three fingers. If the impact sent me flying, I needed to prepare a Breakfall immediately—
Tap.
Yet mocking all my frantic preparations, the collision was absurdly anti-climactic. No shockwave slammed into the shield. There was only the dull, gentle sensation of contact—as if he had merely rested his knuckles against the wood and iron. He had touched his fist to my shield, and that was all. Baffled, I looked up into his eyes. The Chief Gorilla's expression was as placid as a calm lake.
Why...?
Before the question could even fully form in my head—
Thrum!
A bizarre, heavy resonance transmitted through the face of the shield.
CRACK!
The sound of a dry branch snapping violently rang in my ears. Right after, the shield slipped downward. I had been gripping the handles with all my might, yet it dropped limply toward the ground. Confused, I glanced down at my left arm. And realized why the shield had fallen. It wasn't that my grip had loosened against my will.
Dangle. Dangle.
The bones in my arm were completely shattered; nerve and muscle could no longer relay my brain's commands. I stared blankly at my useless limb swinging like a pendulum. That shock lasted only a heartbeat before the agony, previously suppressed by adrenaline, surged through my nervous system like wildfire.
"Aaaarrrghhh!"
The pain of snapped bones was beyond imagination. Only yesterday had I suffered through broken ribs, but this was on another level entirely. Dropping my sword, I clutched my dangling forearm. It felt as though searing needles were stabbing straight into my brain.
H-how? He only touched his fist against the shield...!
First the mirage-like footwork, and now this imperceptible strike. Everything defied reason. The Chief Gorilla's martial prowess lay entirely beyond common sense.
"Khh...! Haaah...!"
"..."
As I ground my molars together to endure the searing torment, the Chief Gorilla watched me calmly. His eyes seemed to ask: Do you want to continue?
I answered his question with an action. Reaching down with my good hand, I picked the Heavenly Demon's Sword up from the dirt.
One arm was broken, but the other remained intact. Squeezing out every drop of mana circulating in my body, I condensed it into the blade.
Vrrrrm—
Perhaps spurred by sheer survival instinct, the flickering, fire-like aura began to compress and solidify. I refused to die here. The desperate longing to survive pushed my focus to its absolute zenith. Just as the wild aura began to take coherent shape, the Chief Gorilla moved.
At first, it was nothing more than a slight bend of his knees. The moment I registered the motion, I tried to react, but—
Whoosh!
Before my brain could even process the displacement, he was already standing right in front of my face. A speed rivaling—or perhaps surpassing—Fast Tree Sloth. I slowly tilted my head up at the ape towering on two feet. Had I ever been this thoroughly overpowered in my life? It was a suffocating pressure that smothered even the faintest spark of defiance.
He pulled his right arm back. Not curled into a fist, but open-palmed—winding up for a palm strike. If that palm strike hit me flush, I was dead. I had to move, somehow, if I wanted to live. Yet paralyzed under his crushing aura, my legs refused to budge. It felt eerily similar to facing the sabertooth tiger, yet fundamentally different.
I can't die like this...!
I struggled desperately, biting down on my own tongue to shock my nervous system into action. Fortunately, the jolt of pain worked; my feet finally shifted an inch. Next was my arm. Within an illusion where time seemed to crawl to a standstill, I forced my right arm upward.
Fwoooosh!
The problem was that this stretched moment of time applied to the Chief Gorilla as well. His drawn-back arm snapped forward like a bullet. A hand as massive as a gorilla's palm filled my entire field of vision. Just as my heart sank into despair, bracing for death—
BOOOOM!
The Chief Gorilla's palm grazed past my ear by a paper-thin margin. An explosive gust of displaced air detonated beside my head, deafening my ears and whipping my hair violently back.
CRRRUUUMBLE!
My surviving eardrum caught the cataclysmic ruin unfolding behind me. It wasn't just things falling over—it was the roar of complete and utter obliteration. I prayed fervently that the trajectory hadn't clipped the cave.
"..."
"..."
I was frozen solid, rooted to the ground. Only my pupils could move. Trembling uncontrollably, I shifted my gaze toward the Chief Gorilla. For reasons beyond my comprehension, he was smiling.
Thud.
Lowering the arm that had whipped past my cheek, the Chief Gorilla rested his massive hand onto my shoulder. Even the simple gesture of resting his weight felt as heavy as lead.
Pat, pat.
He tapped my shoulder a couple of times, almost as if telling me to relax. His declaration that he would take my arm had been genuine. But he had never claimed he would take my life.
Lifting his hand from my shoulder, the Chief Gorilla spoke in the language of the Central Plains.
"Huanying ni."
Welcome to the Forest of the Four Seasons.
"Xinshou."
Rookie.
I had no idea how I understood it, but that was precisely what his words seemed to say.
"Zou ba."
Turning his back, the Chief Gorilla barked the order to his royal guard. The spearmen cast me a single passing glance before falling into step behind him. I stood there like a statue hammered into the dirt until the entire troop vanished into the foliage.
"...Haaah."
Only after they had been gone for quite some time did I manage to exhale. I couldn't even bring myself to worry about my broken, dangling arm. To be exact, I didn't have the luxury. My thumping heart felt on the verge of exploding from my chest.
It felt as if some invisible weight was physically pressing down on my entire body. If the sabertooth tiger had provoked a primal, instinctual terror, the Chief Gorilla exuded something cultivated and deliberate.
Just who...
A profound curiosity welled up about whoever had taught martial arts to a gorilla. What kind of master could raise an ape to such terrifying heights of skill?
Shaking the chaos from my head, I forced myself back to reality. The priority right now was fixing my broken arm. Leaving it untreated could lead to severe, permanent complications.
Will an Elixir even heal this...?
Carefully cradling the shattered limb so the bones wouldn't shift or twist, I turned around—and froze in my tracks.
The Chief Gorilla had unleashed that palm strike right past my cheek. I had clearly heard the roar of devastation behind me. I had assumed a couple of trees had toppled over. The reality shattered that assumption completely.
A whole path had opened up.
It had been a dense wall of ancient, overgrown forest just moments ago. Yet with a single palm strike from the Chief Gorilla, dozens of colossal trees had been sheared in half or uprooted entirely, carving out a straight, barren highway through the woods that stretched far into the distance. The sheer absurdity of the sight made my head spin.
...Even Sun Wukong couldn't pull this off.
Wait, was the Monkey King a monkey with a tail rather than a gorilla? Whatever.
Can I really survive here?
Either way, my resolve had taken a serious blow.