CHAPTER 154: MORE MONSTERS

The force transferred from the monster to Oliver’s arm through the sword was tremendous.

If he hadn’t reinforced the sword with enough mana, it would have snapped in two like a toothpick.

To relieve the pain, Oliver shook his right hand, which was holding on to the sword, and stood up.

Just like him, the monster recoiled from the strike and stood up.

Now, he could see a hint of caution in its eyes.

Although monsters were less intelligent, they still had the instincts of a beast. Just from the previous exchange, it understood Oliver was not someone it could take lightly.

It growled and stared at Oliver.

"What are you looking at, son of bitch?"

Oliver ignored its intimidating roar and asked.

He didn’t expect an answer.

He was just angry.

The monster sensed the contempt in his words and dashed forward. This time, it used more mana to strengthen its body.

A pale blue glow appeared on its deep blue skin.

Oliver saw this and channeled mana behind him to create golden tentacles.

When the golden armour was active, he was capable of creating tentacles that looked and functioned like blood tentacles.

Oliver gazed at the charging monster once the golden tentacles fully formed.

Instead of retreating, he stood his ground and beckoned the massive monster.

Within a second, the human-like palm curled into a fist and moved to strike his face. It was using the entire momentum of its charge in a single strike.

Oliver scoffed at it and used the golden tentacles to effortlessly pull himself to the side, effectively avoiding the punch.

*THUMP*

The rock-solid arm of the gorilla-like monster smashed into the empty ground.

It threw the mud and soil into the air and created a small crater at the point of impact.

For a moment, the monster had to close its eyes to protect them from the scattering dust.

Oliver used this opportunity to slip behind the monster. The golden mana acted like his limbs, propelling him towards the exposed back of the creature.

He smiled, seeing the creature stumble and close its eyes.

An opportunity.

He couldn’t let it pass by.

Thinking about the injured little koi, his anger flared.

He decides to bestow the monster the most painful death it can.

So, he moved like a phantom and targeted its spine.

Like all creatures, the monster’s spine had nerves connecting its brain and muscles.

If he could sever the spine, he could, in effect, paralyse the creature and let it experience a fate worse than death.

Monsters were creatures with the best regenerative powers. So, the paralysis wouldn’t last long. But to counter that, he just had to cut the nerves again.

It would all work out fine if he could rip all the nerves and tendons of the monster.

Oliver was more than happy to do that again and again.

With that intent, his sword drilled into the exposed back of the monster, right where the spine was.

As someone with greater intelligence, it didn’t take him much time to find a strategy to gain an overwhelming victory.

The sword, reinforced with mana, pierced right into the thick, deep blue skin and muscles covering the spine and drilled forward.

Then it slipped in between the spine, just like how he used to do it when butchering mana beasts.

Because of the monster, not sensing the danger and not actively reinforcing its body with mana, the sword effortlessly severed the spine, making the lower half of its body slump to the ground.

The five-meter-tall monster suddenly felt its lower body turn jelly as it fell face-first onto the ground.

"RAARRRR."

As it sensed its predicament, the monster released a blood-curdling roar.

Instead of taking out the sword, Oliver pushed the sword deeper into its body with a smile.

He certainly enjoyed debilitating his enemies.

"Shut the fuck up," Oliver shouted and took out a mana grenade.

As long as the sword was there, the monster wouldn’t be able to heal itself.

He has a few seconds before the monster realizes it can use its arms to throw him off.

So, hurriedly, he picked one mana grenade and pulled its pin.

*Click*

The grenade clicked as he pressed it.

It was now active.

"I think I like explosions nowadays."

Oliver muttered and pulled the sword towards him.

It made a giant gash across the back of the monster.

*Rawr...*

The monster growled in pain and pushed the ground with its arm.

Oliver felt like he was about to be thrown off.

He grabbed the sword tightly while using the blood tentacles to dig into the wound he had just created.

He felt the red blood pulsing inside, spurting towards him.

The muscles and tissues were trying to stretch and heal as the wound expanded.

The regenerative power of the monster was tremendous.

Seeing that, Olive pushed the grenade into the wound, through the blood and muscles, securing it right in between the spine he cut apart.

Then he released the grenade handle and jumped back.

’One.’

’Two.’

He counted in his mind as being moved far away.

As he fled, he could see the monster heal the injury and stand up.

The spine and nerves he severed were mended within three seconds.

Still, Oliver smiled.

The monster was eyeing him as it stood up, preparing its next attack.

"Three."

He counted as the monster charged at him in unbridled fury.

’Four.’

Monster lifted its arm.

’Five. Time’s up.’

Oliver noticed the abdominal cavity of the monster expanded instantaneously.

Before the monster could reach Oliver, an explosion rocked its body.

A cloud of blood, flesh, and charred bones splattered out of its back, propelling it forward.

The open mouth of the monster spewed blood.

Then it stumbled and fell.

The backside, below the shoulder blades of the monster, was missing large chunks of flesh and blood.

Even a few bones in the spine were missing.

Oliver saw this and walked forward.

The monster has yet to die.

It was looking at Oliver.

But this time, instead of confidence, its grotesque face was showing unimaginable pain and fear.

The huge body writhed in pain as it looked at Oliver, paralyzed.

Oliver ignored that and walked forward.

Even after the explosion, the monster was alive. He found its durability fascinating.

He slowly stepped towards the collapsed body of the monster and looked at the wound.

The explosion had taken a large chunk of the spine, muscles, and blood. Even the internal organs were bleeding and were in a mess.

And yet, he could see the flesh and blood squirm and heal and wound.

If left alone, the monster might just survive.

’The monster is more monstrous than me.’

As an unkillable cockroach himself, he knew how difficult it was to heal the injuries.

If he didn’t have enough blood, he could also die.

And still, the injured monster was healing its body quickly.

’Is this its ability?’

Oliver couldn’t think of anything else.

Initially, he thought the aquatic water monkey’s ability might be related to the water element, because it looked like it came from the water.

But now, he had to re-evaluate his initial thoughts.

The aquatic monster didn’t use any water abilities at all. Instead, its regenerative power was off the charts.

Oliver’s eyes flickered.

"This is great."

Oliver said and stepped closer to the monster.

The golden mana armour retreated, and he released a tendril of blood towards the body of the monster.

Blood was spilling out and pooling beside the creature.

He used the tendrils to suck up blood.

To defeat the monster, he had used about ten thousand litres of blood. He needs to get it back, right?

So, he slurped up the blood and stored it inside his body.

Oliver was like a vampire, using the monster like a blood bag.

As it healed and released more blood, he slurped it all up and stored it within him.

Within seconds, he refilled the blood sac.

The monster felt the change in the level of blood it had. But it was incapable of doing anything against Oliver.

It lay on the ground, feeling the pain coursing through it.

Once Oliver was done with refueling, he lifted the sword to finish his job.

Now his enemy debilitated, it should be easy to do that.

But suddenly he felt as if someone was watching him.

Snapping his head to the side, he looked around. The golden mana and armour reappeared on his body.

However, he couldn’t see what it was.

Then he turned his head to the sky.

The feeling of being observed was vague. So, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact location it was coming from.

As he scanned the sky, he spotted a red glow above, signalling the presence of an enemy.

The golden armour was asking him to focus on the location.

And he did without hesitation.

Squinting his eyes, he tried to peer into the sky.

But he couldn’t see anything.

Other than a vague red glow in the air, he couldn’t see anything.

Usually, the red glow covers the bodies of his enemies, showing their silhouette.

That was the function the armour provided.

But this one didn’t seem to have any silhouette or particular shape.

The amorphous glow of red light momentarily flickered and disappeared before Oliver could dig deeper into it.

"What the heck?"

The gaze was extremely uncomfortable.

However, the moment the red glow disappeared, he stopped feeling the gaze.

"How could anything disappear instantaneously? Was it a teleport ability?"

He muttered and robotically stabbed the sword into the head of the nearby monster.

The fact that some watched him or tried to watch him made him extremely uncomfortable.

If he had known who or why, he wouldn’t have been this irritated.

With a slight twist, he ripped apart the brain of the monster.

As he was doing that, he remembered the times he felt similar gazes.

The most recent one was when he first came to this gate.

When he was returning after buying the rock eel, he remembered feeling a similar gaze, one he couldn’t pinpoint the source of.

Other similar situations were when he saved Arthur in Dragon City and when he collected the dragon core.

One of them was done by demons, while the other was done by a group of villains that targeted Lin Yue’s sister.

Anyways, all those were concerning.

Oliver lifted the sword and wiped the blood.

Although a thousand questions flowed through his mind, he suppressed them all and was about to sheath the sword and call down Root, who had flown up into the sky.

But unexpectedly, he sensed more blood scent drifting in the air.

His eyes looked down the hill.

The smell was coming from the forest below.

’Don’t tell me...there are more monsters!’ Oliver thought in shock.