CHAPTER 156: FIGHT DIRTY

Below the hill, Oliver saw the monsters latched onto the hill, trying to climb up.

However, once they noticed the distinct smell of the little koi on him, they turned towards him.

Their grotesque, bat-like heads turned with precision to lock onto his position.

Five A-rank and eight B-rank monsters, standing together, looked like a mountain.

Oliver raised his sword and dashed towards the nearest, weakest one.

The monster was B rank and was slightly smaller than the rest of them.

Oliver decided to take out the weakest link first.

His body glowed golden as his figure blurred in their vision. With an explosive kick, he launched himself towards the monster.

This time, Root was not observing his combat. Thus, he felt comfortable using blood in conjunction with mana.

Mid-air, blood tentacles covered in golden mana emerged from his back. They extended like grappling hooks and struck the monster.

"RARR!"

The monster was taken off guard.

Before it could react, Oliver tugged on the blood tentacles and pulled himself forward. The sword in his hand glowed golden and pierced into the shoulder of the monster, and hit a bone.

*Thud*

An immense force was transferred to Oliver’s hand. The bone was harder than metal.

"RAWRRR!"

The monster screamed in pain and slapped Oliver.

The giant palm moved like a whirlwind, slamming towards Oliver.

He had to quickly release the grip on the sword and duck to avoid it.

Fortunately, his blood tentacles, combined with the golden mana, were even easier to control. He used one of the five to pull himself to the ground and avoid the palm of the monster.

Oliver expected the attack to fail, so he was prepared.

He crouched and dashed between the monster’s legs and found his way to its blind spot.

Before the nearby monsters could obstruct him, he used a tentacle to pull out a grenade from his waist. Then, he hardened the blood on the tip of the tentacle.

Hardening the blood was one of his abilities. It could fuse the blood into a hardness comparable to bones.

Though he wouldn’t be able to retrieve the blood after it was solidified, it became sturdy and sharp enough to be used as a weapon.

The tentacle tip that solidified with a grenade inside became similar to a missile.

With the warhead inside, it flew and struck butt crack of the of the monster. This time, enhanced with mana, it was sharper and sturdier.

Oliver was not kind.

He drove the tentacle straight through the weakest part of its body into its abdomen.

Then, with an evil grin, he leapt away.

"BOOM!"

A muffled explosion rocked the body of the monster.

Before it could understand what happened, its stomach and internal organs disintegrated into just a lump of mangled flesh and blood.

The explosive release of heat, light, and air force their way through either end of the monster’s body, releasing blood and gore into the air.

Oliver had dodged far away to avoid it.

But the other monsters who came forward to help their companion had their body covered in blood and filth.

They paused simultaneaously, clenching their butt, looking at Oliver like he was a monster far worse than them.

"One dead, twelve to go. He he he he..."

Oliver chuckled.

The S-ranked monster was running towards them, destroying the forest. He could sense the ground and air around him thump with each step it took.

Oliver didn’t have much time left.

"Who is next?" He eyed the pack of monsters.

The rest of the B-ranked monsters were of similar size. He couldn’t immediately grasp which one was stronger or weaker.

"Ah! Who cares? I will take down as many as I can. I am going to rip a new one on all of you." He said and ran towards the monster with the bloody golden tentacles dancing behind him.

For a second, the body of the monsters trembled, with hesitation and fear clouding their mind. This was the first time they came across a human like Oliver.

They knew he was a difficult foe to defeat because of the dead monster lying a couple of feet in front of them.

Caution and fear clouded their mind as the glowing golden form of Oliver neared them.

Still, something seemed to be preventing them from backing away. Shaking their head, relinquishing all unnecessary thoughts, they too came running forward.

The giant bodies left deep footprints on the ground below as their mana-reinforced bodies dashed.

Despite the monsters working to achieve the same goal of killing Oliver, he could see the lack of cohesion in them. They were not like humans, capable of carefully planning and executing complex tasks.

They were randomly running towards him, each intending to rip him apart.

"GRRR"

"RRRRR"

They released roars and grunts as Oliver reached before them.

The first one to attack Oliver was a ten-meter-tall A-rank monster. The giant hand of it, which could crush Oliver to a paste, blazed through the air.

It whizzed and struck the place where it predicted Oliver would reach the next second.

Oliver saw the attack coming from a mile away and used the tentacles to do a vertical jump.

The tentacles acted like springs, launching up towards the monster’s face.

When the shocked monster had realised it, a hardened tentacle came towards its eye, threatening to pierce its eye and possibly blind it.

Each attack of Oliver’s was deeply disturbing and nefarious. And above all, he was unpredictable.

The monster could never have expected Oliver would make that move, disregarding all his safety.

It widened its eyes in shock, but realising its predicament, it forcefully shut its eyes and transferred a large portion of its mana to protect its eyes.

Oliver scoffed, seeing that.

He knew he couldn’t pierce the eye when it was defending itself.

But he didn’t need to.

"Monsters are monsters." He muttered with a smug smile and shifted the tentacle.

The hardened tip suddenly lost the connection with the rest of the tentacles and flew towards its eye, powerlessly.

Meanwhile, the rest of the tentacle shrank.

Oliver provided more blood and mana into it.

The shrank tentacle turned into a viscous, glue-like substance with half-coagulated blood. More water from it was squeezed out until it became the same consistency as honey, but stickier.

It was another ability of his–to turn blood into glue by clearing the water in it.

Oliver controlled the glue tentacle and twisted it towards the snout of the monster.

The smooth, hairless snout of the creature became his next target.

Just as the flying tip of the monster struck the reinforced eyelids, the glue tentacles drilled into the nose of the monster with great precision.

The monster did not even sense it as it crawled through the nasal cavity into the back of its throat.

The attack was precise and quick.

Suddenly, it felt the hardened tip bounce off its eyelid easily while a lump formed on its throat, blocking its airway.

The aquatic monster could hold its breath for many minutes, and even absorb oxygen through its skin when they were underwater.

It wouldn’t suffocate and die immediately.

However, there was a big problem.

They were not underwater. Their skin wouldn’t be able to absorb oxygen directly from the air.

Secondly, to sustain itself in combat while not breathing, it would have to spend a large amount of mana.

The monster felt a chill crawl up its spine as it noticed more and more glue-like blood flowing into its throat, towards the lungs.

It opened its eyes and tried to find the body of Oliver.

The glue-like substance was sticking to its throat, nasal canal, and opening to its lungs. It needs to be cleared immediately.

With the thought, it searched for Oliver.

A few seconds of panicked search later, it saw the trail of blood glue connecting it with Oliver.

Angrily, it tore it away.

With the tentacle broken, Oliver fell to the ground.

The monster was relieved to see him fall to the ground.

It closed its eyes, opened its mouth, and tried to cough in the hope of pushing out the glue attached to its throat and lungs.

However, the glue was too sticky.

While small lumps of it were forced out, it struggled to breathe in air.

Oliver saw it gasping for air and smiled.

He quickly grabbed a grenade and threw it right into the open mouth of the monster.

The open mouth of the monster was huge; it was an easy target for it.

Once the grenade fell into its throat, it stuck to the glue inside.

Before it knew what happened, the grenade exploded.

The monster felt its brain turn to mush under the explosion, taking it out in a single second.

The large, ten-meter-tall body of the monster toppled over chopped wood, stiff.

The damage the grenade did to the monster was minimal, but the concentrated blast near the brain was enough to take it down.

Oliver’s lips curled into a smile.

The entire battle had only taken a few seconds.

So, he turned to look at the rest of the monster approaching him, his gaze paralysing them.