Doomsday Pillars

Chapter 74 - Second Stage

Alex's group was in trouble as they were cornered in front of the temple. A few dozen mutated monkeys were on the way while at least twenty monkeys were jumping down from the trees.

Somehow, within such a short window, Aria had still managed to aim at the falling monkeys and shot three of them in the head. Theo had also tried to follow up using the M16 assault rifle.

DARARATATATTATA...

The bullets injured the monkeys a bit, but they still charged at the group. 

M16 assault rifles were the most widely used automatic rifle. It used 5.56 rounds, each around 55 grains and the cartridge had light recoil.. It was the best for beginners as it could shoot faster and more accurately. However, it came with a low stopping power, so the bullets had only stopped the mutated monkeys only for a moment. 

Aria's AWP sniper rifle, on the other hand, came with 308 bullets. It weighed 208 grains, had moderate recoil and high stopping power. These bullets were able to pierce the monsters' tough skin. And if the bullets hit the critical area, it could turn into an instant kill.

Out of the twenty mutated monkeys that dropped from the trees, Aria had killed three of them, Theo had managed to hurt and stopped four of them, and Rama had thrown his steel spear, skewering two at the same time. Rama was worthy of his peak stage mortal realm strength and perception. The others could only wait for these monsters to drop to the ground, but surprisingly...

SPPLLATTT!!!

A fast lashing object managed to throw seven of these apes a few meters away. It was Cindy with her 3-meter bullwhip. Thanks to her lashes, only four monkeys were able to reach the close combat distance range. And because of that, these four monkeys were easily dismembered by the focus fire of the others.

Cindy was ecstatic for she gleefully shouted at Alex, "Did you see that! I did that, I did good right!"

"Watch out! Keep your focus!" Alex couldn't tell if having her in the team was a blessing or a curse.

Alex knew the level of these mutated animals from his previous life. Later, once the scanner was available in the Doomsday Pillars, people would be able to tell the monsters' strength level. Rats and cats were low-level beasts, about levels 10-15. Red mutated zombies were level 15-20 and these mutated monkeys were about level 25-30. Some mutated monkeys could even reach the peak of stage one mutation. Hence, fighting unarmed and without any techniques or weapon, a peak stage mortal realm might not win in a one on one with these apes.

Now, the fourteen peak stage mortal realms humans weren't just fighting hundreds of these peak stage one monsters, they were fighting the monkeys in their habitat.

These mutated monkeys weren't easy to fight because of their species too. They were the long-tailed macaque. These monkeys jumped from tree to tree using its arm and tail. 

Jerry found it very hard to kill them, his daggers also were ineffective against them. A direct stab on the torso didn't do much damage even if he cut their arms! The monkeys could still fight. Hence, Jerry needed to stab soft critical parts; either the eyes, neck or groin to kill them.

"My saber broke!" Darius shouted and Oscar threw him one of his own. 

Currently, normal weapons weren't durable enough to be handled by a peak mortal realm and use them against the mutated monkeys' hardened bodies. The weapons would chip, bend, or even break after a few cuts.

Sergei's M4 semi-automatic shotgun with its 12-gauge shells, however, was extremely effective. Unfortunately, it only held six shots, and once those were used up, the monkeys charged at him, forcing him to use it as a bat to hit the larger monkeys.

Aria had already shot twelve bullets. She tried to change the clip before the beasts closed in.

As for Alex, he saw more monkeys than trees were closing in. About a hundred were starting to converge in their location either on the ground or from the trees. The situation had become critical.

"Gather up!"

The group made a small circle formation. Rama and the four masters covered five directions using their spears and shields, holding a defensive formation. Although Alex had made the others reach peak stage mortal realm, he could see his group were becoming anxious at the sight of hundreds of monkeys heading toward them. 

Fortunately, the sudden defensive formation made the monkeys' advances stop.

"Everyone stop attacking!" Alex shouted.

Alex slowly walked out of the circle formation, raised his two katanas, and stared at the monkeys before kneeling and dropping his weapons on the floor.

"Are you sure about this?" Jerry asked.

"Yes. We need to take the risk, follow me."

The others were hesitant, but they trusted Alex so all dropped their weapons as well. 

Alex recalled his own experience of fighting against these monkeys in his previous life. And even after reincarnation, these mutated monkeys still followed their basic animal instincts aside from being smart. Alex understood this from the fact that these monkeys had hid on the trees and hadn't attacked from the front because of their calculative nature. They wouldn't suddenly attack until they felt they were the dominant power. 

What Alex had done and the others was in fact an act of surrender, which slightly diffused the monkeys' aggression.

One of the mutated monkeys cautiously moved closer while acting in a way that it thought intimidating. Since Alex and the others kept the submissive act, the mutated monkey eventually believed he was in full control of the situation. And finally, what Alex had been waiting for revealed itself.

Within the seas of grey mutated monkeys, an all-silver furred monkey showed up. This was a second stage mutated animal. The first second stage Alex had ever seen since this Doomsday started. He remembered that this one should be at least a level 40 mutated animal. 

This Silver Mutated Monkey obviously was their leader. Even though its physical size wasn't much bigger than the grey monkeys, everyone could see its iron-like muscles, sharp fur, and viscous eyes. 

Slowly, it walked closer to Alex.

GRRRRR... GRRRRR... OOH...OOH

Once it had entered the range Alex desired, he suddenly said, "You are one stinky monkey!"

Alex raised his finger and took out his trump card from his storage rings. The medium grade golem. The three-meter black golem suddenly materialized behind the silver monkey, raised both arms and then slammed it with full strength.

BAMMMM!!!

The dust settled and the second stage silver monkey was now lying down in the ground. And before it even had the chance to stand up, the golem pounded the monkey's back with its rocky large foot. The golem quickly snatched the monkey's arm, rock foot still on the monkey's back, and then pulled!

The silver monkey shrieked in pain until a solid crunching sound entered the ears of all the onlookers…

SPLATTSS...

Both the silver monkeys' arms were forcibly removed and its blood decorated the ground. The golem, however, wasn't done as it raised its large rock feet once more and slammed it on the monkey's head.

CRAAAKK...

The whole thing took only less than five seconds. It wasn't because the second stage monkey was weak, rather the golem was too strong. Before they had entered this forest, Alex had filled the power gauge of the golem to 100% capacity, which had cost him almost 200 spirit stones.

This golem was a rank two, a medium grade artifact. Because of its full capacity, it had the same strength as a peak earth realm human or a peak second stage animal. The sudden ambush and the golem's greater strength made short work of the mutated silver monkey.

OOH... OOH... OOH... OOH... OOH... GRRRR...

The hundreds of mutated monkeys turned into madness, the whole forest seemed to shout. The group quickly picked up their weapons, and Alex took out another item from his storage ring. It was a flare. He lit the flare and threw it into a pool of liquid on the ground, the black liquid then turned into a blazing fire spreading like a fiery dragon all the way to the forest's entrance. A path had opened up.

When the group had entered the forest, Alex had been sneakily pouring gasoline starting from the entrance. They actually had this in plan in case the situation became too much for them to handle. It came in handy for they could easily find the way back and it also succeeded in scaring the monkey, making them open up a path.

"Now! All move at full speed!"

The whole group followed the fire trail, a peak mortal realm could sprint 100 meters in 6 seconds, at full spee, it only took them 40 seconds to arrive at the entrance. Since the monkeys had lost their leader, the chasing monkeys became reckless and rash. 

Mission accomplished... Monkey killing time...