[Alpha Ralfot]

The massive Ralfot even had a unique prefix! Considering the stupidly large size of the thing, it did seem to warrant the particular moniker.

"It's... an Alpha Ralfot with a few Ralfots scattered about. Taniel, it... knows we are here and isn't happy."

"Demon-cursed luck."

It took Elania a second to realize he wasn't referring to her but swearing. She didn't have time to fully appreciate the ramifications of her race being a swear word when the [Alpha Ralfot] began to charge.

"It's coming!"

"Obviously, I'm not deaf!"

Elania readied one of her javelins, but she was quite doubtful that the rampaging Alpha would notice the puny weapons. She found herself wishing she had a real weapon.

'A rocket launcher or a machine gun would be perfect.'

Unfortunately, while this world seemed to have magic in abundance, useful items were in short supply.

"Get back, let me deal with it."

Right. If the monk thought he could handle the two- or three-ton bull rushing them he didn't have to tell her twice, and she scurried back to the passage to watch whatever plan he had come up with.

A bit of doubt filled her as he just stood there for a moment. Then he started to do monk-things, starting with his arms stretching out to trace a circle in front of him before clasping them together at his chest. His hands flashed into a blur, moving so fast that Elania couldn't track his fingers.

'Oh, I've seen this before on Netflix. It's like Iron Fist! Magic Kung Fu!'

A faint orange glow surrounded Taniel as he continued to stand in the same spot. Elania loved kung-fu tv shows and Chinese martial arts movies and was fully expecting the monk to go full Shaolin on the charging animal.

She wasn't disappointed.

A second before the thick curled horns reached Taniel, he stepped forward and punched, fist impacting directly between the two protrusions of bone and into the beast's forehead. A shockwave of sound erupted from the impact point with a resounding thunk that Elania could feel in her chest.

'Wow. Scratch Iron Fist, maybe One-Punch Man?'

Elania couldn't believe her eyes, the punch had stopped the charge entirely and the massive Alpha Ralfot fell back a bit before shaking its head, seeming a bit disoriented. She found herself gawking as it slowly regained its feet. She had not entertained the idea that it might not be dead after the massive impact. 'It must have a really thick skull!'

The disorientation didn't last long as it suddenly surged forward again in an attempt to trample Taniel. He wasn't prepared for a second 'epic monk punch' and was forced to dodge backward to avoid getting skewered by the massive horns. Taniel landed a few normal punches before spinning around the beast's attack, but those hits had nowhere near the oomph of the first, and Elania began to get worried as his dodges turned into more of a frantic scramble than deliberate evasion.

Moving forward, Elania cast one of her javelins, aiming for the beast's flank. She doubted it could do more than bother the bull, but it was the only place she could aim without risking hitting the monk.

The bull bellowed in pain and spun as the projectile embedded itself in a hind leg. She'd thrown the javelin with as much strength as she could and was surprised by just how deep the projectile penetrated.

'It's the 'Power. I'm a lot stronger than normal.'

The Alpha zeroed in on her and charged. Elania didn't waste any time, pulling out another javelin and throwing it with the same extraordinary force as before, aiming for an eye. She wasn't quite that good yet, and she let out a curse as the point struck one of the massive horns instead and shattered.

That didn't slow it down at all. Her eyes widened as it quickly devoured the space between them in a stampede of one. She locked down her shock and surprise at the Alpha's speed and came up with a plan.

"Elania! Get out of there!" Taniel was sprinting after it, an orange glow forming around his fist again as he did so, but he didn't have a chance of catching up in time.

'Nice to know you care at least a little.'

Elania braced herself, and just before the Alpha smashed into her, she hurled herself to the side in a powerful leap. There was a massive crunch and the whole cave seemed to shake, stone and dust spilling from the already damaged passage.

'Just call me Elania of Rivia!'

Elania was just a little giddy; the Alpha had done exactly as she wanted, smashing its head into the cave wall, leaving it stunned and disoriented. As she pulled herself back onto her feet, Taniel caught up to the Alpha and smashed a glowing fist into its side.

The blow was enough to cause the Ralfot's body to lift up off the ground before settling again, and Taniel followed up with a flurry of blows that seemed like overkill, thrashing what Elania quickly realized was a corpse even without the system message.

[Your party has defeated an Alpha Ralfot!]

[You have gained a level.]

[You have gained a level.]

[You have gained a level.]

[You have gained a level.]

'Those punches must have been strong enough to rupture its internal organs.'

The loud rush of a stampede drew her attention to the herd of Ralfots, they didn't seem to want to stick around after their Alpha died, and the dust cloud they kicked up began to spread and fill the cave.

"Taniel? Elania? Are you alright, what happ---"

Tanyan had hurried through the crevice next in a hurry to see if he could help. Elania shook her head; she wasn't sure she would have wanted to be stuck in that narrow passage while the cave was shaking.

"I'm alright."

She answered, then looked to Taniel, who was manhandling the [Alpha Ralfot] corpse. She watched as he forced the beast over onto its side before drawing a knife and starting to carve away at its chest. She wasn't sure what he was doing or even if he heard Tanyan's question. Elania took a step forward and frowned; what was he doing?

"Taniel?"

"Stay back demon, this one isn't for you."

He shoved his arm into the bull's chest and pulled out a red glowing rock, but Elania had lost interest in what he was doing and was pissed off at how he ignored Tanyan's question. Plus, he'd dropped back to calling her a demon again after she had just helped him beat the thing!

She reached down and set her hand on his shoulder, "Tanyan wants---"

To Elania's complete surprise, Taniel whirled around and punched her in the face. Hard. It lifted her into the air, and she flew backward. She realized with dawning horror that her nose and front teeth were shattered. He wasn't stopping either, he was sprinting after her, and the orange glowing energy she had seen him use on the Ralfot was accumulating around his fist.

“Did you think you’d get away with that? Trying to collapse the cave on them?”

That was bad. She didn’t have time to process the words he spit at her even as another fist came flying toward her face. Elania rolled away the second she touched the ground; Taniel's fist exploding the rock just behind her in an eruption of stone fragments. He wasn’t holding back.

'He's trying to kill me!'

Outrage warred with anger, and Elania gained her feet and tried to punch him back. The levels in combat mastery had helped her learn the flow of combat, and she had done very well against the Darkwalkers, but she quickly found that she was ill-prepared for this kind of fight.

Taniel seemed to move fluidly around her awkward punch, and a rapid flurry of jabs and punches followed that was very one-sided. Taking advantage of her graceless movements, he grappled her and locked her elbow joint before painfully forcing her forward and slamming her already bloody face onto the ground. She let out a scream of pain, and she could hear Tanyan distantly shouting.

"What the hell are you two doing!?"

Elania struggled against his joint lock, and she felt a blow slam into her back. She was stronger than him; she could feel him struggling to keep her pinned down despite the massive advantage his combat technique gave him. Pressing with all the strength in her free arm, she wrenched herself around as hard as she could. A sickening snap of her elbow followed an audible pop of her shoulder, the searing pain threatening to overwhelm her.

It gave her the leverage and position she needed, though. She only had a split second to see the surprise on Taniel's face as she kicked him in the side with a knee. Somehow despite the close quarters, he managed to intercept it with his arm, but the power of the blow was enough to send him hurling off her.

He landed with a roll and then did a fancy monk stance. She was in too much pain to be impressed, only having managed to roll onto her knees as she felt every single bone fragment in her arm trying to wiggle its way back into place along with her face trying to reconstruct itself.

Then he started for her again. She wasn't sure what to do as she fumbled for her borrowed knife to try a mana attack. She knew close combat was not going to work; he was a bonafide fucking Shaolin-super-monk and she was not ready for this kind of fight.

A frantic plan to try and drop him with her aura and then melt his face off with a blast thankfully wasn't put to the test when Tanyan interposed himself between them. Taniel's fist came to a stop inches away from Tanyan but the [Holy Monk] didn't flinch or offer any resistance.

"Peace brother, unless you mean to kill me."

Taniel was frozen, and Tanyan reached up to the other monk's still clenched hand and pried his fingers open. A glowing orange orb fell into Tanyan's outstretched palm. The color around it flared brighter for a moment before it slowly turned a deep ethereal blue.

Whatever it was taken from Taniel, it suddenly caused the fight to go out of him. Tanyan opened his arms and took a step forward to catch the other monk in a hug as the other man collapsed.

Elania let out a curse as she felt her shoulder pop back into place, with the needles in her elbow settling into a dull ache. She was idly aware of the rest of the novices having arrived through the collapsed passage and the trio was goggling at the bloody battlescape.

Tanyan looked back at her and frowned as he set the other monk down. "Are you alright, Elania?"

"No."