Martial Monk (Part 2)

In the multiverse, there was a group of people known as monks.

I don't know whether you're from Earth, but I still have to remind you: the monks here are different from the martial monks of Shaolin Temple. Personally, I think "cultivators" would be a more accurate name.

Through training brutal enough to border on self-torture, monks could acquire many incredible abilities. Not only were they proficient with a wide variety of weapons, their hands were generally as hard as steel. The more powerful the monk, the more terrifying a weapon his fists became.

At the same time, a monk's training gave them a resistance to spells that ordinary people did not possess. You could simply think of it as resistance to magic—any spell cast at them would have its effect greatly diminished, or even fail entirely.

A few monks would take vows through something akin to a magical ritual. It felt a little like the heart-demon oaths from immortal-cultivation novels. Through their vows, they gained more and stronger abilities, but such monks were relatively rare, and constantly upholding harsh vows was difficult as well.

Some monks who had taken vows found them unbearable and chose to break them. They were known as oathbreakers, and monks in this state tended to become exceptionally dangerous.

Because most monks leaned toward order, they generally would not go looking for trouble with adventurers. They merely cultivated themselves in pursuit of greater strength and inner peace. But oathbreakers had their desires suppressed by years of self-discipline; once they broke their vows, it was like stomping the accelerator to the floor. They simply could not restrain any of their desires.

The result was that nearly all such monks fell into criminality. Though they might not be as capable as orderly monks, a criminal with no bottom line who had been tempered a thousand times over was clearly far harder to subdue.

On top of that, monks were incredibly fast. They might rush right in front of you during the brief instant you lost focus and unleash a barrage of "Ora!" So if you are a mage hoping to study spells as well, be sure to watch out for these beings known as mage slayers.

—Excerpt from the Notes of Demon King Atlas

Fists like steel that could contend head-on with a sword's edge without losing ground; a large, thickly muscled body, yet footwork as nimble and swift as a gale; plus spells that were almost completely ineffective—these traits made the four think of a type of person they rarely encountered: monks.

Pei Renli remembered reading that most monks stayed secluded within monasteries. Occasionally, monks who wanted to improve their strength through adventure would join adventuring parties, but their numbers were far smaller than those of common classes like warriors—even fewer than spellcasters.

After all, very few people could endure the monk's self-torturing, grueling training from childhood. Former monks—or rather, people who had once hoped to become monks—far outnumbered genuine monks.

But knowing all that had no decisive effect on the battle. And due to the nature of monks, Pei Renli and Eve, the two mages, had nowhere to begin. Once they realized this, not only did Pei Renli stop casting spells, even Eve halted as well.

After all, magical attacks were useless against him, and with only Kaya at the front...

To be honest, she really couldn't beat Anton.

From the moment they made contact until now, barely more than ten seconds had passed. Kaya had gone from launching attacks at the start to gradually being forced into passive defense. If not for her nimble movements, along with Koura's arrows more or less interfering with the opponent's actions, she would have been struck by a fist long ago.

Kaya wore no heavy armor, only leather armor protecting the vital areas of her chest. Tough leather offered some protection against cuts from sharp weapons, but it provided practically no defense at all against blunt impacts like fists.

If she were hit, Jixiu—who had been smashed to death with a single punch—was a good point of reference.

If this continued, Anton would soon deal with Kaya at his side and turn his sights on the other three behind her. When that happened, it would be a tiger loose among sheep. With Pei Renli's physical abilities, he would not even have time to run.

Thinking this, Pei Renli immediately stretched out a finger and left a string of flashing runes in the air. Just like with Knock, he wrote two full rows—eight runes in total—before stopping.

The flashing runes transformed into spell power the next instant. Pei Renli casually patted Koura's shoulder beside him, then pointed at Anton.

"Cat's Grace!"

A pale green glimmer of transmutation magic flashed over Koura. She understood Pei Renli's meaning at once, lowering her shortbow and drawing the two daggers at her waist. While Anton's attention was focused entirely on Kaya, her rabbit ears flicked, and she charged forward.

Spells had little effect on monks, but since affecting him directly was difficult, it was better to buff an ally first.

Pei Renli's own physical abilities truly were lacking. Though he had worked hard to keep up with the school's training schedule, no amount of effort could let him catch up in a short time with people who had trained day in and day out for ten years. This was not a problem effort alone could solve.

To prevent himself from being left helpless whenever physical ability was required, Pei Renli had prioritized learning this type of spell. If his body was inadequate, then he would make up for it with magic. After all, no one knew what sort of style the next Demon King Arena would take, so he had to make every preparation he could.

Cat's Grace could greatly increase the target's agility. Koura was already a nimble demi-human, and with Cat's Grace strengthening her, she was like a tiger that had grown wings.

When she charged at full speed, she moved so fast that she was almost impossible to see. To Pei Renli, whose dynamic vision was still lacking, Koura's body blurred—and when it became clear again, she had already rushed behind Anton.

Making full use of her agility, she stepped on Anton's belt and pushed off. Her entire body landed lightly behind him like a cat, and the dagger in her hand stabbed toward his neck.

It was hard to say exactly to what extent a monk's body had been trained. What if he had practiced something like an iron-head technique? Stabbing for the head would not be reliable, so aiming for the neck was safer. Besides, when arrows had flown toward his neck earlier, Anton had blocked them.

With all his attention drawn to Kaya, no fear whatsoever of magic, and Koura charging under the spell's enhancement at such incredible speed, Anton only felt a weight appear behind him. Before he could react, pain shot through his neck.

Like Kaya, Koura seemed to be the type who did not lack money. Naturally, the weapons she used were no poor quality—not to mention this was a sneak attack.

Yet her dagger only pierced into the flesh before it became difficult to push any deeper. Even pulling it back out was not easy.

The instant the dagger stabbed in, Anton's muscles immediately reacted. He forcibly clamped the dagger between his flesh, preventing it from inflicting greater damage.

This also made Anton temporarily give up on hammering Kaya and reach behind his back with one hand.

Koura knew that if those hands caught her, she would likely be torn apart on the spot. She kicked hard with both feet and, borrowing that force, barely managed to wrench out the dagger. She flipped backward and landed steadily, while those rough, massive hands brushed past her hair by a hair's breadth.

Pei Renli nearly popped his eyes out at the sight. He had blocked a sharp dagger with nothing but muscle strength—was this really fucking human?

But there was no time to dwell on that now.

Because Anton had been stabbed twice, his attention immediately shifted toward Koura. Kaya, who had been struggling desperately to resist him moments ago, gained a chance to catch her breath.

Just as she was about to regroup and charge back in, she felt someone pat her. Pei Renli's voice rang out behind her.

"Bull's Strength!"

Just as before, a pale green glimmer of transmutation magic flashed past. Kaya, who had been slightly out of breath, immediately seemed to gain a great deal of strength under the spell's enhancement. Without even pausing to thank him, she lunged forward and joined Koura in pincer-attacking Anton from both sides.

Two against one, with magic boosting them as well—the situation was far better than when Kaya had faced Anton alone. But every time Anton threw a punch, the surging gale it generated seemed almost tangible. They still could not afford the slightest carelessness.

And there was nothing Pei Renli could do now. After buffing his teammates, he could only stand where he was and watch.

Since buffing his teammates was so effective, couldn't Pei Renli keep applying buffs?

The truth was, Pei Renli did not know any more buff-type spells.

With Cat's Grace and Bull's Strength providing agility and strength boosts respectively, that was temporarily enough for Pei Renli, who needed magic to compensate for his lack of physical ability. He had not planned to learn more.

Learning spells took time. Even with shortcuts available to him, Pei Renli still had to choose carefully.

Compared to him, Eve behind him was still firing off Magic Missiles. Even if they dealt no damage, they could at least interfere a little; compared to spells from the Enchantment school, they were not completely useless.

She had more magical power than Pei Renli, so of course she could afford to do that. Pei Renli currently felt that he had only about half his magical power left, so he had to conserve it as much as possible.

Whether it was Cat's Grace or Bull's Strength, both were spells that only lasted for a short time. Once their effects ended, Pei Renli would have to find another chance to buff them again. Naturally, he had to save his magical power.

At the same time, as the only one with nothing to do, he had to come up with a solution as quickly as possible.

Come to think of it, he was buffing his teammates and treating Anton like a boss from a game, but Anton was still a person. He wasn't blind, and he wasn't stupid.

The tank could withstand the blows because of the buffs cast by the mage. Therefore, killing the mage first before dealing with the meat shield was clearly the optimal choice.

Thus, after forcing Kaya back for the moment with two booming punches, Anton ignored Koura behind him, allowing her dagger to leave two long, narrow wounds across his back. He planted his feet and launched himself straight at Pei Renli in a huge leap.

Because Bull's Strength and Cat's Grace required physical contact with the recipient to take effect, Pei Renli had stood too close in order to buff Kaya quickly. This was an extremely dangerous distance.

His massive body was hurled into the air by his formidable muscular strength, like dark clouds pressing down overhead. By comparison, the 178-centimeter-tall Pei Renli looked like a middle schooler waiting to be flattened.

"Force Ram!"

At the critical moment, Eve behind him activated her spell.

A hammer-shaped force field as thick as a log shot from her fingertips and struck Anton squarely in the chest.

The blow knocked him askew, so he did not land directly on Pei Renli, instead crashing down nearby.

Koura and Kaya hurried over to rescue him, but the distance between the two of them was simply too close. They might not make it in time at all.

Pei Renli hastily drew his shortsword and swung it with all his strength, intending to intimidate Anton into staying back. But such feeble resistance was almost meaningless against a monk whose fists were like iron.

The slightly rusted shortsword was, unsurprisingly, caught in Anton's hand. Every finger seemed forged from steel, squeezing the blade until it creaked.

Then, with a slight exertion of strength, Pei Renli's only weapon was twisted apart like a pretzel, leaving only a hilt with half a bent blade still attached...

Were this guy's hands hammers or something?!