Crushing Victory

Just as the Alpha Ape descending from the sky was about to tear the dazed Lloyd to shreds with its gaping maw, Ye Chen drew his revolver and fired without a moment's hesitation.

Bang!

To save Lloyd's life, he played his trump card, the Blood Bullet, right at the start of the encounter.

As for this action, it was an instinctive move driven by Ye Chen's nature; he hadn't thought about it at all, his body simply moving on its own.

The crimson Blood Bullet slammed into the Alpha Ape's massive torso, then detonated violently against its flank.

A horizontal shockwave erupted on impact, instantly sending the ape flying into a nearby pine tree, saving the wide-eyed Lloyd below just in time.

Snap!

The tall pine tree proved fragile under the giant ape's exaggerated weight, snapping into countless pieces. The Alpha Ape's body continued to careen into the trees behind it, knocking down five more pines and carving out a ten-meter-long trench in the snow before finally coming to a halt.

Ye Chen spun his revolver and holstered it, then raised his longbow with an arrow nocked, his gaze fixed on the swirling snow mist, ready to snipe at any moment.

"Lloyd, stand behind me to the right! Shoot as soon as it appears!"

Ye Chen's words jolted the shell-shocked Lloyd back to his senses. He recalled everything that had just happened and couldn't help but gasp in horror, then followed suit by raising his longbow, waiting for the moment a dark shadow would emerge from the mist.

Thud!

Accompanied by a tremor in the earth, the silhouette of the Alpha Ape lunged out from a corner of the fog once more.

Ye Chen and Lloyd, having prepared themselves, released their bowstrings one after the other before the Alpha Ape could react, firing arrows stained with Ye Chen's blood.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Both of them had steady aim; Ye Chen struck the Alpha Ape's shoulder, while Lloyd hit its thigh.

However, only the former's arrowhead successfully pierced the target's flesh, while the latter's arrow acted like a standard projectile, leaving only a shallow graze on the target's fur and failing to have any effect on the Alpha Ape.

As expected, the Blood Spirit Art only takes effect when it's in my hands!

Gaining a deeper understanding of his own Spirit Art's properties, Ye Chen immediately ordered Lloyd to flee, as the current battle was no longer a level in which the other could participate.

"Fall back! But don't get too far from me! If it turns to chase you, I won't be able to protect you in time!"

Lloyd gritted his teeth. Although his face was full of reluctance, he retreated to the side decisively so as not to drag Ye Chen down.

As for the Alpha Ape hit in the shoulder by the blood-stained arrow, it rolled several times on the snow, stumbled for a moment before coming to a stop, and then reached up to clutch its shoulder, roaring in agony.

"Ooh—!"

While it struggled to pull the arrowhead from its shoulder, Ye Chen keenly noticed that the large bullet wound he had left on the ape's flank, as well as the piercing arrow wound he had just inflicted on its shoulder, were being completely filled by Abyss Matter.

However, this also caused the pitch-black areas on the giant ape's body to shrink significantly.

It seemed that the regenerative speed of this creature tainted by the Abyss had a limit; as long as he kept inflicting large-scale wounds, it would eventually exhaust itself to death.

Grasping the key point, Ye Chen quickly nocked a second blood-stained arrow and fired it directly at the Alpha Ape's thigh.

The latter, no longer daring to be careless, pushed off the ground with both hands and rolled backward, dodging Ye Chen's second shot.

"Ugh-ooh-ooh-ooh!"

Having successfully dodged, the Alpha Ape landed on all fours, kicked up a terrifying cold wind, and charged at Ye Chen at full speed, claws bared.

The youth fired his third, fourth, and fifth arrows without haste, but they were all evaded by the leaping and dodging Alpha Ape.

No matter how massive its size, it was still an agile ape. The difficulty of hitting such a high-speed, evasive target with a bow and arrow was simply too high.

Realizing the problem, Ye Chen decisively discarded his bow and arrows and drew the long blade from his waist.

The next second, the Alpha Ape reached Ye Chen, its fierce and manic face revealing a clear intent:

It wanted to engage in close-quarters combat with Ye Chen and push its savage strength to the limit!

However, even with the Alpha Ape within arm's reach, there was no wavering in Ye Chen's eyes.

The beast raised its massive fist high and swung it toward Ye Chen with all its might.

Ye Chen moved with a calm expression, sidestepping the ape's punch. His left hand whipped the revolver from his coat, aiming the muzzle directly at the Alpha Ape's head.

This move by the youth instantly triggered the Alpha Ape. The scene of the Blood Bullet easily shredding its flesh earlier flashed through its mind, causing the ape to instinctively raise its arms and protect its face in terror.

Although Ye Chen's revolver was now only loaded with the remaining five standard gunpowder rounds and no more Blood Bullets, posing no real threat to the ape, he had drawn the gun specifically to provoke this nervous, defensive reaction.

Because, from the start of the fight until now, Ye Chen had only fired two Blood Bullets and had never used standard bronze ammunition.

The reason he did this was twofold: first, because standard rounds had virtually no effect on the ape, as its physical durability far exceeded that of Goda, and hitting its head would likely be useless; second, it was to create the illusion that the revolver still contained more Blood Bullets. As long as the ape remembered the terrifying outcome of being hit by one, it would surely feel wary every time Ye Chen raised the muzzle.

And at such close range, wariness meant openings.

This was the core of Ye Chen's other strategy:

Bluffing and playing mind games!

Seeing the Alpha Ape shielding its face with its arms, Ye Chen clamped the revolver—with the safety already disengaged—between his teeth, gripped his blood-stained blade with both hands, and slashed down at the ape's exposed left leg.

The sharp, crimson Blood Blade cleanly sliced through the prey's flesh, carving out a wound deep enough to reveal bone and causing the Alpha Ape to shriek in pain.

Yet, just as it was shocked and enraged, spreading its arms to launch a counterattack, Ye Chen would release the revolver from his mouth, grip it in his hand, and once again present the threatening precursor to firing.

"Eek!?"

Catching sight of the cold gun barrel pointed at it, unease surged in the Alpha Ape's heart once more, forcing it to protect its head with its hands again and rely only on its remaining leg to kick wildly at Ye Chen.

However, the Alpha Ape was clutching its head with both hands, forced to support its body with one leg while using the other to attack. This awkward posture caused its counterattacks to suffer significantly in both speed and power, and the wild gusts of wind kicked up by its legs could at most graze the hem of Ye Chen's clothes, failing to produce any real effect.

The youth bit down on the revolver grip he used for intimidation, gripped the hilt of his long blade with both hands, and moved with agile, steady steps. He continuously dodged the ape's fierce kicks and swung the slender Blood Blade, tracing circles of bright crimson blade-flowers that relentlessly tore wound after wound into the Alpha Ape's right leg.

Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!

The Alpha Ape kicked violently at the figure before it for a full minute, yet not only did it fail to achieve any results, but most of the flesh on its right leg was ruthlessly carved away by that nimble figure, spilling warm ape blood onto the white snow.

"Wuwawa—!"

The Alpha Ape began to howl in agony. By now, it finally understood that Ye Chen was far from an ordinary person in both courage and skill, and that its brute force alone could not contend with him; thus, the thought of fleeing quickly sprouted in its mind.

However, the tip of Ye Chen's blade remained stuck to the Alpha Ape, refusing to give it any room to escape.

It was obvious that the youth would not let his prey go. Besides, the Alpha Ape had been the one to initiate the close-quarters combat, and now that it wanted to withdraw from its opponent, such behavior seemed far too capricious and naive.

After all, what the two sides were engaged in right now was no game, but a genuine battle of life and death.

The Alpha Ape wanted to back out, but how could Ye Chen possibly give it the chance?

Swish, swish, swish!

Ye Chen's blade continued to shave away the Alpha Ape's skin and flesh, soon threatening to sever its kneecap in two.

Unable to strike back or break free, the Alpha Ape could only continue to roar in impotent rage, making meaningless resistance.

However, it seemed the outcome of this deathmatch was about to be decided.

Yet, just as the Alpha Ape's aura weakened to a certain point, a new development suddenly appeared before Ye Chen's eyes.

The pitch-black sludge that had originally covered the Alpha Ape's body suddenly converged toward its throat, and in a very short span of time, it caused the ape's throat to swell several times over like a balloon, eventually growing into a fleshy tumor the size of its own head.

Gazing at this bizarre scene, a bad premonition instantly sprouted in Ye Chen's heart.