Chapter 16 : Enlightenment

The final moment had arrived!

Ragna ran toward the Ape King while preparing for another Mana Strike. Mana Strike's cooldown was only 5 seconds. It was enough to be used as an opener and finisher inside a combo.

The giant ape was still lying on the floor. It had no power to stand up. The damage was too severe because Ragna had destroyed its internal energy system.

It was at this moment, an unexpected thing suddenly showed up!

Strange rays of red light began to slowly converge into the Ape King's body. It was similar to the time when the Ape reached 50 percent of health. The differences were that the quantity of the light was slightly lower than before, but the quality was far purer.

Ragna felt an unprecedented sense of danger coming. He knew that whatever it was, it wouldn't be good for him. He quickly accelerated, trying to prevent the light from disturbing his fight.

The strange light didn't envelop the ape unlike before, it only gathered at the ape's head. Its snake-pupil eyes were glowing brightly with red color. The sight was truly terrifying.

It slowly stood up even though it had lost the majority of its health. It was as if it didn't receive any damage before. Its health was still at 2 percent, though.

Ragna didn't even slow down for a bit. He unhesitatingly kept charging forward. 'Whatever will be, will be' , he thought.

The change in the Ape King's eyes was becoming more and more apparent. Ragna was just a distance away from it. He had entered its attack range.

It was at this moment the rays of red light suddenly materialized on top of the Ape. It converged, forming into the image of a terrifying monster. The monster was half ape and half snake, it looked countless times more horrifying than the Ape King in front of him.

The Snake-Ape Monster was staring at Ragna's moving figure. It looked at him silently with a cold and murderous gaze.

The Snake like pupil inside the Ape King's eyes glowed brightly. At the same time, the Snake-Ape Monster's illusion behind the Ape also let out a bloodcurdling roar!

GRRROAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRR!!

The roar seemed to awaken the fear inside Ragna's body. He quickly slowed down. He was unable to move forward. In fact, he was unable to move even an inch of his body!

Ragna was overcame with fear. He felt like he was just a mortal inside a terrifying hell. The hell was filled with strange monsters. They spat blazing fire right at Ragna's face, completely obliterating him in an instant!

Ragna was stunned while trembling heavily. He could only stand foolishly while watching the Ape King's eyes!

The Ape slowly brandished its fist. It punched out with all its might into Ragna's motionless figure.

Ragna saw the punch getting closer and closer to him, yet he couldn't even do a damn thing. He was powerless, he was gutless to do anything... He was already drowned in fear.

In fact, he already surrendered..

All of a sudden, thoughts flashed inside his mind. He suddenly remembered everything that he had gone through in order to reach where he was right now.

When he first came, he was surprised to see a moving golem statue trying to kill him. That time, he died because he wasn't prepared. He was a coward.

But he quickly recovered. At the second time, he was already able to think with a clear mind resulting in his struggle to run away. But, he failed again.

Deep inside his heart, a seed sprouted. It was him doubting his choice to run. He slowly understood that life couldn't be faced by running away.

Sure, you might run away once or even twice, but it would bite you sooner than you might expect.

He was starting to accept the real character inside his heart.

Unyielding! Never surrender before anything!

Ragna's eyes flashed with determination. He was enlightened regarding his path of life. Now, the word 'Surrender' wouldn't even exist inside his dictionary.

This damned Ape wanted to subjugate me? NOT A CHANCE!

CRACK!

He was able to destroy the shackles created by the fear inside his mind! The Snake-Ape Monster's Illusion was destroyed!

Unfortunately, the punch was already right in front of him. There was no time to dodge!

Ragna closed his eyes. He felt that his surrounding went blur. He felt like he was the only person who existed inside this world. Everything went clear, he could feel every single minute of detail of his body. He could even feel the flow of energy inside his body!

He entered the trance-like state again!

He moved his hand slowly into the direction of the incoming punch. The punched touched his palm, but he didn't get blasted away. He was controlling the energy inside the Ape King's punch!

Ragna felt his health decreasing at a quick pace. Even though he was controlling the fist, he still took an abnormal amount of damage for every second he had contact.

He slowly redirected the direction of the punch into the spot beside him. His movement wasn't too slow nor too fast.. It was flowing like water.

BAM!

The punch slammed into the platform. The ground trembled heavily. That punch was released with the Ape King's remaining energy. It was incomparable to its normal punch.

The platform which could endure the entirety of their fight even became dented!

Despite having dodged the full brunt of the attack, Ragna was left with only a sliver of his health remaining. It was apparent that the punch contained an indescribable amount of force.

Ragna heard a ringing sound, but he currently didn't have the luxury to read the notification. He had to finish the fight!

Ragna quickly charged toward the limp looking Ape King. The Ape King had used its ultimate skill and used its remaining energy to send out a punch. It was in its weakest condition.

He jumped toward its face. In his right hand was the energy that he had slowly charged while running. Strangely, the amount of energy didn't really match. It was far greater than it should be. On closer inspection, there was another source of energy other than from inside his body!

Ragna didn't really care, he only had one goal in his mind. It was to destroy the Ape with his fist!

Mana Strike!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM !!!

Everything went silent before the sound of a loud explosion could be heard. The intensity of power was far greater than his normal Mana Strike. Even the destruction it inflicted was greater than when he punched the Ape King's back.

The ape let out another blood-curdling shriek before turning into motes of red light. It couldn't even fathom why it could lose to a mere human. Their levels were the same and it even had a HUGE amount of advantage, but eventually it still lost..

Why...?

The ape still couldn't find the answer before disappearing into nothingness.

Ragna clenched his fist and punched into the air above him! It was the declaration of his victory!

He had won the fight!