“AH” the silverback demon ape flew a good 12 yards before crashing into a tree. The one who landed that surprise attack was none other then the newly arrived Josh Tyler. Standing near the injured Shi Xuegang was Da Chang who was currently treating the fallen prince, “Here”, the large man fed him some energy restoration pills.

Tyler stood in a combat stance with both hands up ready for any oncoming attack. “Grah, you little shit” the ape jumped down from the tree and landed on his feat bsforedashing at Josh once more. “You’re dead” the ape threw a powerful punch at the blond who dodged to the right and punched the demon hard on the stomach. “AH” stumbling back the ape gripped his midsection before falling to his knees.

“Wow, you got your assed kicked by this guy?” Josh turned to Shi Xuegang in slight surprise. The ape demon didn’t really put up much of a fight in Josh’s opinion considering he went down in a single punch. Shi Xuegang on the other hand chose to ignore him as he focused on his recovery.

“Hey, give the guy some slack, he was weakened after all” Da Chang supported the prince to his feat, “Can you stand?”. “Yes, I think so” struggling a bit, Shi Xuegang stood wobbly on his feat. Steadying himself the prince finally got back up however his previous injuries although lessened was still clearly tacking a toll on him.

“Y-you think this is over?” Stubbornly the ape got back onto his feat, “Take this”, and threw a second punch one which Josh caught. “Stubborn fool” the blond gripped the apes arm crushing his bone while turning around flipping and slamming the ape onto his back.

BOOM! The resulting impact created a small crater with many spider web cracks. “AH” the ape fainted soon after that.

“Hey brother Shi, your problem’s done” Tyler said cheerfully as he rejoined the other two. “Yes many thanks Josh” Shi Xuegang awkwardly thanked the man. While it was true that Josh may have helped him in his moment of need, something was still off about the man that held off Shi Xuegang from fully trusting him.

“So, how were you two able to wake up so fast” Shi Xuegang asked. “Huh? Um Josh here was the one who woke me up. To be honest I don’t know how it happened, Ha Ha.” Chuckled Da Chang who also scratched his head in embarrassment.

It was true, minutes prior Da Chang was still in deep sleep and only awoke when he was shaken awake by Josh. Shi Xuegang turned his head a looked at Josh wordlessly asking him the same question. Seeing this Josh also laughed and replied, “Well to be honest I had these on hand”, he opened his palms revealing a small indigo petal.

“It’s a petal from an awakening flower. It’s an alchemical plant from the shearing sun empire that I picked before I came here. Since lots of monsters in the wild use natural depressant drugs I though these awakening flower petals would come in handy”

“Well that certainly was convenient” Shi Xuegang accepted this answer as it was a plausible one. Many demon beasts in the wild did indeed posses the ability to relax their prey or sometimes even put them to sleep.

“Just ignore his rudeness, he’s a prince, they’re meant to be stuck up assholes” Da Chang mockingly described Shi Xuegang in hopes that Josh wouldn’t take offence to his cold attitude. Pulling Shi Xuegang aside he asked, “What the hell man? He saved you”.

“Look, I know he saved me and I’m grateful for that, but something just seems off about him. Call it the noble’s sixth sense but us aristocrats can tell when someone have or doesn’t have good intentions. It comes with the training and the usual political shenanigans” answered the prince.

“Can you at least be nicer?” Da Chang said with a frustrated sign. Shi Xuegang looked at the big man who was almost pleading. “Fine, we’ll see wha……..” He didn’t finish his sentence before he was cut off.

“Uh guys, something’s happening” Josh called out to the two and pointed at the body of the demon ape. Said body was currently emitting a black smoky aura while also twitching viciously.

“Somethings not right here” Shi Xuegang stepped forward when suddenly he gripped his waist. ‘Shit, my injuries haven’t healed yet’ he steadied himself and looked to his two companions, “Guys, I think whatever it is that smoke is making that monkey stronger. Brother Da, Josh, can you two handle it?”

“Just leave it to us, get some rest mate” Josh reassured the prince and faced to standing ape getting into a combat stance. “Looks like you hadn’t have enough” the blond man charged forward for an attack.

“Wait” Shi Xuegang and Da Chang called out but in his confidence in his earlier victory, Josh ignored them and went on.Josh threw a punch at the apes face when suddenly the ape caught his punch and kneed Josh in his stomach. “Gah” stepping back Josh was sick to be back on the offensive and swung another punch at the ape who dodged to the left and and went for his own punch.

No longer underestimating his opponent Josh tilted his head dodging the ape’s attack and punched with his spare left hand. This punch connected and launched to ape a few metres away but otherwise had no visible damage.

“Rah!” The ape screamed and charged at Josh once again. The two traded punches as the ape was starting to push the young man back. It was also difficult of the young man as the ape also took advantage of his smaller body and launched kicks at him.

“Shit this is harder than I though” Josh head butted the ape staggering him. Taking his chance he threw one huge swing at the ape’s face knocking out several teeth during the impact. Smirking Josh said “Well how’d you like that?”.

“He he he” the ape turned his head back to Josh and simply chuckled as if the attack did nothing. “Shit” Josh barely had enough time to dodge as the ape opened his mouth and shot and energy beam at his face. Luckily the attack missed and shot into the sky.

Not giving Josh a second chance the ape swiped at him knocking him over onto the ground. “Crap” Josh barely got up when the ape was onto him again. “Uh Uh Ah Ah!” The ape pounded his chest and leaped towards Josh when a lighting fast hammer slammed into the apes body and sent him flying into the night.

CRACK! The force of that one strike was so fast and so strong that it caused a sonic boom. The ape’s body disappeared so fast that it was already out of view in less then a second.

“You alright Josh?” The looming body of Da Chang bent over and extended a hand in friendship to him. “Yeah, thanks for that” Josh pulled himself up with the help of Da Chang.

“What I want to know is, how did that monkey just get up so suddenly and so strong?” Da Chang wondered as he gave Josh a second restoration pill.

Meanwhile Shi Xuegang was at the crater Josh previously slammed the ape into. ‘Nothing seems wrong so what happened here?’ He looked up to look at Josh, ‘the last person to come in contact with the monkey was Josh. Maybe he had something to do with it? Da Chang was too far away and too much of a simpleton to try something like this so it could only Josh’. Seeing Josh and Da Chang happily chatting the prince could only wonder to himself, ‘Question is, why would he do that?”

Elsewhere:

“All I’m saying is that you could’ve been faster at clearing those ants” Lin Zhenlan complained to a tired looking Wan Kun who trudged behind her with little motivation. ‘Jeezuz woman do you criticise everyone who held you’.

Wan Kun and Lin Zhenlan have been travelling for about a day now and they’ve so far ran into three bee hives and five ant hills hat they ad to clear out. In this whole journey Lin Zhenlan have switched between proper manner lady(when calm) and ill tampered brat(when slightly annoyed) a total of 15 times. Her constant back and forth and complains have been very taxing on Wan Kun’s mental state very fast.

“God even fairy Wei didn’t complain so much” Wan Kun’s master had even sealed himself deep into Wan Kun’s mind just to not deal with this girl anymore.

“Wan Kun have you been listening?” Lin Zhenlan yelled at Wan Kun who looked up at her only to see a distant pillar of energy. “What are you looking at?” Following his line of sight Lin Zhenlan also saw the same pillar of energy which quickly disappeared.

“What do you think that was?” She asked her companion. “I don’t know, probably some people fighting, looked like an attack of some sort” as soon as he’d said that a fast moving thing flew across the night sky accompanied by a loud boom.

“Ans that was probably the attacker” Wan Kun said before trudging on ahead. “Really? How could you tell?” Lin Zhenlan asked as she followed after him. “Scream was too inhuman” Wan Kun replied. “Well it could’ve been a person in extreme agony, they’re known to produce some inhumane noises” she replied.

Just as quickly as that their conversation shifted and Wan Kun couldn’t be happier.