The Monk scowled when looking down at his missing left arm.
But he was not discouraged. He had seen his body heal and reconstruct itself from worse.
'If I can close a hole in my skull with fresh new bones, and heal every bone in a broken body, then I surely can regrow an arm... It's more about how much energy it'll consume.'
The Monk had already spent what felt like over half of his energy was consumed, just from healing his previous injuries and the few techniques he had used.
'I keep overcharging every martial art with Origin Energy, I really need to work on the proper use and consumption of each technique...'
He knew the flow of breath required for each technique, he knew the perfect movements and positions of the muscles. But he had no clue how much Origin Energy he was supposed to use.
'I have a long way to go...'
The Monk slowly straightened his back, looking at the 3 stronger demonic beasts in the distance.
All other beasts were too scattered to pose any threat to him, they all seemed to be retreating.
'Seems like those three just used the others to tire me out. Very human tactics, honestly...'
The Monk scoffed, he had hoped that Beasts would behave differently. But really, what else could he have expected?
'They're called 'Demonic Beasts' for a reason, I guess...'
Still, Mo Yangling's confidence didn't fall in the slightest.
"You won't be taking us down with those unrefined techniques of yours..." The bladed caterpillar in the distance seemed quite keen on bringing down the Monk's morale.
In truth, it had also taken quite a bit of damage. Most of its bladed teeth were ruined, they'd take years to grow back out.
'Out of the three Beast Generals, I am the strongest, yet he still managed to injure me like this.
This Cultivator's strength is indeed overbearing, that stupid Snake was right. High-Level Demonic Beasts are not even able to stand up to him.'
The Caterpillar immediately moved its senses towards the other two Beast Generals present. Its mind was already building up a strategy and studying the Monk's abilities.
'He also seems to have learned healing arts, most of the injuries he's received are already no longer there...
He'll make for good nourishment for whoever ends up consuming him. For now, I better keep my distance though.'
The Bladed Caterpillar twisted its body and nodded towards the other two Beast Generals.
One outwardly appeared to be an exceedingly large dark spiked ball, a beast that had its small body hidden underneath a strong and hard-to-approach carapace.
The other looked like a giant cyclops-like being, with flaming hair and enough belly fat to feed an entire city.
"KRASH'TUL! VOR'RAKH THROG'NAAL NARZ'TARGH!" (Brothers! Kill that human!)
This time, the Monk's eyes widened as he also understood the beast's words.
'No time to celebrate my linguistic achievements.'
The Bladed Caterpillar continued flying above, its gigantic body casting a shadow over the battlefield as the Cyclops rushed in first, and the other Beast sunk its spikes further into the ground.
The Monk's eyes widened as he saw countless dark spikes rising from the ground in odd patterns.
'The hell kind of attack is this?'
The monk scowled as he took a stance, but before he even flexed his muscles he felt the ground behind him shifting ever-so-slightly.
The monk knew to follow his instincts, so he immediately rolled to the side, enhancing his stride as he dodged a darkened spike coming out of the ground right from behind him.
'Shit, this spiky bastard was the one to interrupt my technique earlier too...'
The Cyclops gigantic body immediately passed through the many spikes that were used as a distraction previously and one of its arms immediately descended upon the Monk, attempting to swat him like a fly.
In an instant, Mo Yangling decided to use the only other one-armed style he knew how to use. The Dragon Claw Style.
The Monk's fingers immediately curled, his arm starting to look almost akin to a claw as it was covered in Origin Energy.
'Tearing Dragon Claw!'
The Monk immediately swiped his claw at the Cyclops's arm.
A move that would have only caused scratches to appear in his last life now extended forward into 4 gigantic claw projections which immediately cut the monster to pieces.
The Cyclops was cut into 5 pieces and sent flying away, guts and blue blood spilling all over the battlefield as the Monk immediately turned to block another spike rising from the ground.
'Shit, I can't afford to be swapping techniques any longer! I need to quickly stop fucking around and master one of them...'
The Monk immediately resolved himself, his dragon claw keeping its form as he immediately turned to block a gigantic rolling blade that had been shot from the skies.
The rotation of the blade made the Monk's joints ache as he batted it to the side, but he didn't have much time to worry about his joints as he felt the ground all around him shifting.
This time, dozens upon dozens of spikes rose from the ground and tried to impale him from all sides.
The monk's expression twisted with frustration as he immediately turned his dragon claw towards the ground.
'Snap!'
The dragon claw crashed into the ground and immediately cracked the earth, causing a charged earthquake which quickly broke the spikes of the Demonic Beasts.
'I should deal with that one first... It's way too annoying!'
The Monk immediately set his sights on a new target, but before he could dash towards it, he heard movement form behind him and immediately turned around, his claw swiping at... a smaller Cyclops?!
Mo Yangling scowled as he watched every piece of that Cyclops turn into a smaller version of it in real-time.
'What the fuck is this bullshit!?'
He was immediately annoyed by it, especially when he had to swipe his claw at the sky as well, deflecting another whirling blade from the Caterpillar.
Many of the Cyclops clones rushed in, but he quickly clawed away at them, further cutting them apart into smaller and smaller pieces, only to see those pieces turn into smaller Cyclops as well.
One of the clones had gotten close enough to punch at the monk's head.
Mo Yangling immediately guarded it with his forearm, only to feel his bones cracking slightly and his entire sleeve rip off.
'Shit! Each clone is still this physically strong?!'
The Beast seemed to be using a specific method to strengthen every part of its body. One that was certainly more effective than the monks.
The Monk was, however, still stronger, he kicked the clone away, causing it to fly off and flip in the air a few times before being caught by other clones.
"You can't defeat the Great 'Many Eyes' that easily, human!" The Cyclops spoke from a hundred mouths, gloating its unusual power with a confident smirk.
"..." The Monk stood still for a moment, his eyes twitching with anger.
"Shut up..." Mo Yangling muttered as he looked at the dozens of Cyclops versions now surrounding him.
"You're not leaving this place alive today, human!~" The Caterpillar in the sky mocked him as well, it's voice booming over the battlefield.
From the distance, the monk heard that odd spiked beast buzzing at a strange frequency as well, almost as if it was agreeing.
The Monk felt veins bulging on his forehead as he turned and swiped away another twirling blade, sending it crashing directly into the Cyclops clones to the side.
"Let's see you try and kill me then! I'll take out that stupid porcupine of yours first!"
The Many-Eyed beast shuddered slightly at the sheer intensity of the Monk's voice.
'Shit! Of course, he'd target 'Death Stinger' By now he must've realized that a fight against me will always be one of attrition...'
The cyclops immediately moved some more of its clones towards the flank, defending the Death Stringer which still buzzed in the distance.
The monk immediately charged his legs with an ungodly amount of Energy and dashed, his clawed hand cutting right through the Cyclops as he headed straight for... The opposite direction?
"He's fleeing you fucking idiots!" The Bladed Caterpillar's guttural voice boomed through the sky as it's gigantic body quickly moved to follow the Monk.
The Cyclops immediately scowled, its many eyes now squinting as it quickly brought itself back together into one large Cyclops and started sprinting after the monk.
The Death Stinger also hummed dangerously, its body immediately entered the ground and started following them through it.
But the Monk paid them no mind as he managed to widen the distance between him and his enemies more and more with each stride he took.
'This kind of strategy always calls for a strategic retreat. These beasts would all be annoying to fight individually, all of them together will just be the end of me...'
In the distance, the large figure of a White Snake rose from the ground right in the monk's fleeing path, its mouth open wide and trying to swallow the injured man.
Mo Yangling just scoffed at that attempt.
"Where'd you get the confidence, stupid snake!"
His clawed hand immediately swiped forward, the scowl on his face twisting as he used the same attack as before, this time using a little less Origin Energy.
'Tearing Dragon Claw!'
Despite being more focused on his Energy Usage, the claws of the dragon still extended forward, tearing the Snake apart before it even managed to react properly, as the monk passed straight through it.
"GRAHK'TOL, NARZ'TARGH KRAZ'VULK RAK'THAAR?!" (Shit, how is a human this fast?!)
The caterpillar's voice seemed beyond frustrated as it tried to glide faster and faster in the wind.
The monk smiled as he felt them getting further and further away, his movement greatly enhanced by his great Origin Energy.
But he was also feeling lower and lower in energy by the moment.
'No matter, these beasts won't follow me much further. I am close to reaching human territories, and I doubt they want to start a war with just the three of them...'
The Monk continued dashing forward, each stride greater than the last as the beasts were left behind further and further.
"Stupid Human! You better never show your face around these forests again!"
In the distance, the Bladed Caterpillar shouted out for one last time, before eventually turning around, its gigantic body parting the clouds.
The monk just smiled as he continued to dash into the distance.
'Good, I was just about to run out of energy anyway...'
When the monk finally stopped, he could feel the blood draining from his stump. The Monk grasped at it with a complex gaze.
'I better heal this before heading into human civilization...'
Hello there! Here's today's chapter!
Starting to publish at an earlier hour from now on.
Anyhow, hope you are liking the small fights and exchanges, I always liked writing fighting scenes in general :))