F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 354: Primate Party

"Peter, Elara! Enemies!"

He roared, dumbfounding his comrades for a moment, but as his words settled, two figures slid inside right as the lid closed.

==

Gray Ateles Mortis Lv. 90

HP: 122,000 / 122,000

==

The monkeys were just as surprised.

However, they were quick to recover, drawing their swords made from dead branches and the legblades of the Rotblade Burrowers.

The two Ateles Mortises’ heads tilted eerily, and they glanced at each other, then talked in a series of low barks and raspy screeches.

"Kneel!"

Noticing the considerable disparity in levels, Peter didn’t hesitate and started the battle himself.

The gray-furred, long-limbed monkeys felt the words crash upon their minds, and before they knew it, their knees were threatening to touch the ground.

A translucent red qi wrapped around Peter’s blade as he slashed at the primates.

However, before his blade struck, the target was able to move, barely avoiding instant death.

The scarlet jian still touched the first Ateles Mortis’ neck, though the damage dealt was only moderate.

[- 37,500!]

The long-limbed monkey jumped back and touched its neck. The moment it saw the blood, its eyes widened, and it growled in fury.

The other Ateles Mortis, meanwhile, was already upon Peter, its lengthy yet flexible and muscular arms lashed like a whip, chopping down at him.

But a silver flyssa manifestation fell on the monkey’s shoulders, stabbing deep enough to make the Ateles Mortis miss, its crude legblade sword crashing to the ground instead.

[- 2,180]

"Tch." Elara clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction, rushing forward to help the Aziyan SSS-ranker, whose power seemed to be working but not as effectively on the gray-furred primates.

She could’ve dealt more damage had she had the choice of dropping the Sword Skill from a higher altitude.

She noticed that the wounded Ateles Mortis had already recovered and was en route to attack her, but Elara paid the primate no mind.

A black and gold blur dashed from the side to intercept it, clashing with the wounded monkey’s approaching blade...and sending it skidding back and crashing onto the spacious burrow’s walls.

Peter caught the interaction in his peripheral vision as he proceeded to attack the one in front of him, greatly shocked at the fact that it was defeated in a head-on clash by a human Bladeborn around the same level as he was.

Naturally, Daru’s physical attributes only played a part, but the true reason was Mountainsplitter and the fact that he had consistently been increasing Onimaru Kunitsuna’s weight through the Demon Essences he had collected in Limbo.

Nonetheless, anyone would be shocked to witness him overpowering a Swordspawn more than ten levels higher than him.

Daru didn’t waste his chance and pressed his advantage with a Full Moon Assault.

But the Ateles Mortis turned out swifter and more skillful than he expected.

It dodged the first two slash marks with a surprising Swift Tumble, then ran along the walls to evade the others.

The last slash caught up to the primate, but the projectile was easily deflected with a casual wave of its makeshift legblade sword.

The moment the Ateles Mortis shifted its attention back to its opponent, Daru was already in a thrusting motion.

The air around Onimaru Kunitsuna turned ghostly cold as it pierced the empty air.

The attack seemed to have come up short.

However, the true lethality of Spectral Thrust lay in its extreme piercing ability coupled with an invisible three-meter range from the tip of the blade.

[- 17,210]

"Hoh, it’s even able to dodge this..." Daru muttered as he used Swift Tumble to avoid the incoming counterthrust, impressed as his SS-tier Sword Skill failed to score a satisfactory hit.

Then, with practiced motion, he pivoted his feet and slashed down at the tall, long-limbed monkey.

His attack struck nothing but air, though. The Ateles Mortis had already stepped back.

Another counterattack came, but this time, Daru decided to block it, finding himself staggering a few steps back.

The monkey was still above him in raw strength, but this didn’t faze Daru.

He merely struck a ridiculous pose to deflect the long-limbed primate’s follow-up attack, sheathing his blade while at it.

In the next moment, his tachi flashed seven times, the first three cutting fairly deep into the Ateles Mortis’ left waist, right chest, and narrowly on the right arm before it reacted quickly enough to jump out of the rest’s way.

The ethereal sounds of shattering glass filled the burrow as the slashes struck the walls.

The next thing he knew, a shadow loomed upon him, crashing down with a stabbing motion.

Daru, however, Swallow Stepped to the side, black aura creeping out of Onimaru Kunitsuna’s handle and veiling its blade.

He slashed horizontally as he passed his foe’s torso

Sizzling, putrid gray blood that reeked of the odor of ammonia splattered onto the ground as the Ateles Mortis screamed in a mix of agony and fury, pressing its palm into its heavily wounded right waist.

[- 17,820!]

Daru got the enemy with a clean attack that time.

There was no time to even appreciate his neat strike, though.

A gray, blood rune had suddenly appeared on the long-limbed monkey’s forehead, and he felt danger as a faint gray smoke billowed out of its pores.

With a growling outburst, it shot forward.

Daru tightened his focus.

However, mid-way through its charge, an imperial voice echoed in the burrow:

"Halt!"

For a moment, the Ateles Mortis hesitated, and that hesitation allowed a silver tornado to pierce through its neck, effectively ending its life.

Daru lowered his weapon as the primate plopped forward, coughed in gurgles, twitched a few times, then grew still.

[You have obtained 41,520 Experience Points.]

A few meters away from the corpse of his opponent was the corpse of the other Ateles Mortis, slain by his comrades.

"Yohohow! You more than held your own against that thing back there, broski. Not bad, not bad at all..." Peter praised, though it was unknown to what extent his sincerity was. "It’s like...It’s like you’re not a normal S-ranker at all!"

"Hmph." Elara sneered. "Talk about stating the obvious."

Daru exhaled to reset his mental state, meeting the gazes of the two SSS-rankers.

This battle had ended in their victory.

However, they had the advantage in numbers this time. It was clear that it would be extremely dangerous to fight four or more of these Swordspawns at the same time.

Worse, the bastards are considerably faster than them, perhaps more so while traveling through the dead tree branches.

If even one of the deathly primates escaped and called for reinforcements, they were done for.

But for now...at least for now, they were safe.

The Hissing had never sounded so calming.