Chapter 11: Battle!

The monsters neither ran nor walked, but moved forward briskly towards their prey. They seem to be enjoying this as they seem to be toying. 'Yes, they could've just rushed and killed the human but where was the fun in that!' The monsters thought as they smirked at the idea.

The terrified human's face showed an expression of horror. He hastily raised himself from the mud and got up, almost tripping himself over again as he 'haphazardly' picked up the pole he dropped in the beginning. Looking at the scene, the monsters mused as they hastened their speed to catch up with their 'escaping' prey.

Cackles and sharp laughter resounded as the monsters leisurely gave chase. But just as they were having their fun, their prey suddenly stopped. The human stood in place and suddenly turned around, facing towards them. Their prey then began sprinting towards them while screaming in his human language.

It then suddenly registered to the monsters that the human, with his 'battle cry,' was trying to make his last petty struggle. They were shocked at first but then they snickered. They suddenly remembered that their prey was a dumb human who tripped over himself! They berated their prey as they stood in place sneering. They would like to see what this human was capable of. Of course they still remained cautious as they held their weapons up.

When the human was only a meter away from them, he suddenly threw the pole he was holding so dearly towards them. They were surprised but this led them to despise this weakling even more. What did he hope to achieve when he threw the pole? It wasn't even straight and was instead horizontal.

Puffing up its 'chest,' one of the 'fishmen' came up intending to block and swat away the pole. However, what happened next was out of its expectation! When it tried to parry the pole, a strong force suddenly swept over. The fishman couldn't help but cry out loud as it was caught unprepared and was therefore knocked to the ground! Likewise, its fellow comrades also didn't expect this as they looked at it falling to the ground helplessly. They stood stunned and shocked.

Anger took over them! The two fishmen looked up towards the human who made their 'brother' suffer but they were shocked silly by another surprise. . The human who was a meter away from them before, suddenly appeared in front of their faces! 'How—?!' This was one of the 'fishmen''s thoughts before it was sent flying backward by the human's kick.

The remaining 'fishman' got punched in its big round eyes and some kind of liquid quickly flowed out. 'How could this prey have so much power?! He was running for his life just a moment ago, so how did it turn out this way?' The fishman thought as it staggered back. It then tripped over its comrade who was struggling to get up after being hit by the pole. What happened after that, was them falling together.

Meanwhile, the fishman who was sent flying with a kick also tried to stand up and was intending to vent out its humiliation and anger at this daring prey! But alas, its fate had already been decided. Just after it managed to stand up, two humans suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stabbed it in its two eyes.

"Screech!"

Pain. Unbearable pain! The 'fishman' felt it was better to be dead than to continue feeling this pain. Fortunately, its wish quickly came true as the two humans pinned it down on the ground with their body weight and made a mush out of its insides!

"Huff..."

"Huff..."

"Dad, quickly take its crystal and use it! I can't anymore... You go help brother."

As you may have already guessed. This was Titus, Lee and Uncle Brown duking it out with the monsters.

Lee was out of breath as he said so. He was dead tired. He was already nearing his limit when they killed the first monster. Thus, killing this second one stripped him all of his remaining energy/strength.

Uncle Brown did not stay idle as he immediately reached out his hand into the monster's body and got the crystal. He was also exhausted but at least, he had a much better constitution than Lee. Even if he was old, the human body has its own wonders in giving this filial dad the strength to protect his family. [1]

Without hesitation, Uncle Brown broke the crystal and inhaled the fog inside it. Similar to what Titus felt before, Uncle Brown felt his fatigue go away. He felt rejuvenated. He also felt his strength increase by two folds. After the fog and the 'energy' within it settled down, disregarding the pleasure, Uncle Brown quickly rushed to Titus' side.

When Uncle Brown arrived, Titus was dodging and running around. He couldn't fight back despite regaining his pole because, unlike before, he didn't have the 'element of surprise' anymore. He was currently 'kiting' them. [2] These fishmen totally went berserk after the humiliation they've felt.

The hunters had now become the hunted!

Titus caught a glimpse of Uncle Brown out of the corner of his eyes. Realizing that Lee and Uncle Brown's battle went smoothly, Titus took a risk to open up an opportunity for Uncle Brown to enter the battle. Titus stopped and rushed forward. Seeing the human doing the same thing again, the 'fishmen' immediately became alert. When they saw Titus throwing the pole, their rage burned more intensely. This human dared to use the same move on them!

"Uncle Brown, hit one of them with all your strength towards me while they're busy!"

Uncle Brown was stunned as he didn't expect Titus to suddenly call out but he immediately followed Titus' instructions. With his newfound strength, he propped up the pole in his hand and got into a golf stance. He swung the pole back first and like a pendulum, swung it to the front with double the strength! The scales were indeed tough, even with twice the strength, the vibrations from the pole still made him drop it to the ground. Achieving his mission, Uncle Brown backed away for now.

The fishman was sent flying towards Titus who in turn made a fist and carefully aimed it at one of the fishman's eyes. This would have been entirely impossible if it was before the assistance of the crystal, but now he was confident that he could do this much. However, it seemed that this was also the limit. He couldn't increase his senses nor speed to pierce both of its eyes with his arm in one go. But this was enough to kill this fishman in front of him. He used his arm like a spear and pierced through the fishman's eyes and into its brain. This was with the help of his own strength and its own momentum as it flew through the air.

Another one was killed!

Seeing its comrade being brutally killed, the remaining fishman's anger was converted into fear. It immediately turned tails and tried to escape. Of course escaping now was nothing but futile. Since his hand is already inside the fishman, Titus took the liberty to extract and crush the crystal from it. He inhaled the fog and powered up once more! 

However, unlike the first time, Titus only felt his strength increase by half compared to the previous two-fold increase. Precisely, he now had two-humans-and-a-half worth of strength. He decided to set aside the pondering for now and rushed towards the escaping fishman.

He picked up his pole and what happened next... I'll leave it up to your imagination. 

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(Hello, author here! I have a trivia regarding the story. This is something that I wasn't able to fit in the story or chapter/s hence this little segment! More may or may not come in the future... 

Some of you may be wondering why the MC, Titus, dove into the mud when he could've just lured the monsters directly? Well that's because he was covered with the monsters' blood and if he didn't cover it with mud, he would alert the monsters and would not be able to launch a surprise attack!) 

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Proofread by: @lynn

Author's Note:

[1] Like the mother who lifted a car to save her child. Here's a link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1190759/Mighty-mothers-superhuman-strength-lift-1-400kg-car-run-schoolboy.html

[2] Kiting is a term primarily encountered in MMORPGs referring to a popular method of killing mobs (monsters) or other players by staying at a distance.

[@] The quotation marks ('') on the word/s fishmen/fishman are only meant to emphasize that the word, will be used from now on that's why ('') didn't appear anymore later on the chapter.