Chapter 217: Fighting The Monk [3.]

The monk’s closed eyes tracked Kael’s movement with unsettling clarity. The instant Kael’s straight kick drove toward his chest, the monk shifted his weight to the left, allowing the strike to whistle past his ribs.

At the same time, his right hand rose, his fingers brushing lightly against Kael’s extended leg. It wasn’t a forceful strike.

The monk simply redirected the momentum by a fraction, yet that tiny adjustment was enough to throw Kael’s balance off.

Kael immediately understood what had happened.

Rather than fighting against the momentum, he allowed his body to rotate with it. His torso twisted, his planted foot pivoted, and his other leg came around in a vicious axe kick aimed at the monk’s head.

The monk’s response was just as smooth. He lowered his body, and Kael’s heel tore through the air directly above his shaved head before crashing into the ground.

Kael landed in a crouch.

He didn’t stay there.

The instant his feet touched the ground, he surged forward again. He wasn’t going to give this monk even a moment to breathe. His hand formed into a spear-like shape as he thrust it directly toward the man’s throat, the compressed earth energy surrounding his fingers making the strike sharp enough to pierce through flesh and bone.

The monk swayed.

Kael’s fingers passed within a millimeter of his carotid.

Kael’s knee followed immediately.

The monk glided sideways, almost as though the ground beneath his feet had become water, and the knee carved through empty air.

"Violence only begets violence, Benefactor," the monk said, his voice warm again. "Even the sharpest blade cannot cut water."

Kael ignored the monk’s sermon, responding instead with a hook.

The monk tilted his head backward.

Kael’s fist scraped across his chin.

It was the closest he had come to landing a clean shot against the monk’s face.

Kael gritted his teeth.

"Then why don’t you be like water?"

His fist pulled back.

"Stand still and see if I can cut through you or not."

Kael dropped low.

His leg swept across the ground, his shin hardened by earth energy until its edge became as sharp as a blade. The attack was aimed directly at the monk’s legs.

Yet strangely, the monk didn’t jump.

He stepped into the sweep.

His foot came down directly over Kael’s ankle.

Then he pressed.

CRACK.

Kael’s expression twisted.

The pressure wasn’t merely enough to stop his leg. It was heavy enough to grind the bone beneath the force.

A grunt escaped Kael’s throat.

The monk’s other hand was already moving.

His palm descended toward the crown of Kael’s head.

Kael’s instincts screamed.

He immediately threw himself sideways.

The palm slammed into the ground where his head had been a moment earlier, the impact sending a violent tremor through the earth.

Kael rolled away and came back onto his feet.

His armor had been gouged where the monk’s foot had dragged across it. The nano-material was already repairing itself, the damaged surface slowly knitting back together, but the sting beneath it remained.

Kael glanced at his ankle.

Then at the monk.

How can a normally sized human being be this heavy?

His eyes narrowed.

Could he secretly be a fatty hiding behind that fit body?

The thought barely lasted a second before he pushed it away and refocused on the battle, as the monk was already advancing. This time, he didn’t meet him head-on.

As the monk approached, Kael sidestepped, forcing the man to turn his body to follow him. The moment the monk passed, Kael twisted around and drove a compact elbow backward toward his kidneys.

Earth energy surged into the strike.

The attack wasn’t flashy in any way, but the force compressed into Kael’s elbow was enough to crush bones and rupture organs if it landed cleanly.

The monk sensed it.

His body twisted at the last possible moment.

The elbow struck his ribs instead of his kidneys.

BANG!

The monk’s body shifted from the impact.

Kael’s eyes sharpened.

At least it connected.

He followed immediately with a straight punch aimed at the sternum.

The monk brought both palms together.

Kael’s fist was caught between them.

For an instant, the monk’s hands seemed to absorb the entire force before redirecting it upward. Kael felt his attack being guided away from its intended trajectory, yet the strike still managed to scrape across the monk’s collarbone.

The monk’s expression shifted.

Only slightly.

Kael noticed it.

And then he smiled.

His attacks had barely grazed the monk’s body, but that was still a lot better than earlier, when the monk had simply been avoiding everything. Now Kael was forcing his way through those impossible gaps.

Perhaps the man’s fortune wasn’t absolute.

Perhaps no matter how favorable luck was, it couldn’t guarantee victory in every single exchange.

That realization gave Kael confidence.

But he didn’t become careless.

Instead, he chose to retreat.

Kael broke away from the monk, creating several meters of distance between them. His feet slid across the ruined battlefield before he finally stopped.

Across from him, the monk stood calmly.

His robes were torn in several places. Blood stained his side. A shallow mark crossed his collarbone.

Yet his expression had already returned to its usual serenity.

"Amitabha." The monk brought his palms together, that same irritating warmth returning to his voice. "You fight with remarkable intent, Benefactor. But intent is merely a leash."

The monk’s head tilted slightly.

"The right way is the path of the Buddha, which exists beyond intention."

Kael nearly spat blood.

He had heard enough.

There was no point responding.

At this point, the monk was obviously trying to get under his skin. Whether the man realized it or not, every sentence sounded like it had been designed to provoke him into making a reckless decision.

Kael wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction.

Instead, he raised his hand and activated Aura of Destruction.

The moment he did, the atmosphere shifted, a subtle aura spreading outward from Kael, silently crawling across the battlefield. Wherever it passed, the surrounding environment began to deteriorate.

Stone weakened and eroded. Even the air seemed to carry a faint sense of decay as the aura slowly ate away at everything within its range.

Kael deliberately kept it compressed.

Ten meters.

That was all.

Rather than allowing the Aura of Destruction to spread across a massive area, he condensed it around himself, concentrating its destructive nature into a much smaller radius.

The result was considerably more dangerous.

The space surrounding Kael became a domain of silent erosion.

The monk immediately sensed the change.

His expression flickered.

For the first time since the beginning of the battle, genuine confusion appeared on his face.

His fingers moved toward his wounded side.

The injury from Kael’s Meteor Bullet, which had already started to knit together as his natural healing factor kicked in, suddenly seemed to pause.

In fact, that wasn’t even the worst of it. The wound wasn’t just failing to heal, it seemed to be actively deteriorating, the flesh slowly breaking down until it began bleeding once again.

The monk stared at his bloodied fingers.

His brows drew together.

"What is this?"

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