A shift in the air. A warning too late.
The Zephyr Chitter Monkey vanished.
Not with a burst of speed—no. It was beyond that.
It moved like the wind itself—flowing, folding into the currents, blurring past sight. One moment, it was there; the next, it was everywhere.
Kei barely had time to register the shift before—
BAM.
A force like a cannonball slammed into his gut. His breath vanished, ribs caving in as his body lifted from the ground. His mind barely processed the pain before—
CRACK!
A second blow, spinning roundhouse, drove into his side, sending him hurtling like a ragdoll through the air.
The Fangcub barely had time to react before the Zephyr Monkey was already in front of it.
No hesitation.
And then it kicked.
A gale-force explosion erupted as its heel met the cub’s ribs, sending it skidding backward, paws digging trenches into the dirt. A windburst followed, whipping through the air like a blade, slashing into the trees behind it.
Before either could react, the monkey was moving again.
Its foot barely touched the ground before it was airborne once more, spinning, pivoting, redirecting force with perfect precision.
Kei barely rolled in time as a heel drop came crashing down, the impact leaving a crater where his head had been moments before. The moment his body moved, the Zephyr Monkey followed, wind coiling around its frame like a storm given form.
This was different.
Kei had fought Chitter Monkeys before. They were erratic, chaotic, hyperactive in their attacks. They fought in swarms, relying on numbers rather than technique.
This one?
It was a master.
Every strike, every motion, was calculated—fluid, lethal, and seamless.
The Zephyr Monkey didn’t just control the wind. It fought with it.
It didn’t need to force openings. It made them, using small, precise movements to shift its weight, redirect momentum, and strike before its opponent could react.
And it was merciless.
Kei barely dodged a sweeping leg kick, but the air that followed wasn’t just residual force—it was intentional. The displaced wind twisted into a spiraling vortex, sucking him toward the real attack—
A crushing elbow strike.
WHAM.
His head snapped backward, vision flashing white as blood sprayed from his mouth. His body lurched sideways, but before he could even hit the ground, a sharp knee slammed into his ribs, controlling his fall and ensuring he landed exactly where the Zephyr Monkey wanted him to.
The Fangcub lunged, fangs flashing with Aether-backed fury, but it was fighting against the wind itself.
The Zephyr Monkey leaned back—not dodging, redirecting. The wind followed its movement, pulling the Fangcub slightly off balance.
And that’s when the counterattack came.
A spinning backfist crashed into the cub’s jaw, launching it sideways. But the Zephyr Monkey wasn’t done. It moved with the force of its attack, flowing into another strike before the Fangcub even hit the ground—
A double palm thrust, reinforced by Zephyr Force, slammed into the cub’s exposed flank.
The wind detonated.
The Fangcub’s body shot across the battlefield like a bullet, crashing through tree after tree, debris flying in all directions.
Kei struggled to his feet, but his body wasn’t responding fast enough.
The Zephyr Monkey turned back to him, gaze cold. It raised one leg slightly, foot barely off the ground—
And then it disappeared.
Kei barely had time to react before—
BOOM.
A knee exploded into his sternum, lifting him into the air. A blur of blue and wind twisted around him before a palm strike hammered into his back, sending him crashing downward with devastating force.
The Zephyr Monkey was still mid-air.
But it didn’t land.
Instead, it used the burst of force from its attack to flip backward, seamlessly flowing into another technique. Wind gathered beneath its feet—
And it launched downward like a meteor.
Kei barely managed to roll as the Zephyr Monkey drove its foot into the earth.
BOOOOM.
The ground exploded.
The impact sent shockwaves outward, creating a miniature crater where its foot had landed. Air rippled from the force, dust and debris lifting into the atmosphere.
Kei knew one thing with absolute certainty.
He couldn’t fight this thing.
Not like this.
He had fought creatures that relied on strength. He had fought creatures that relied on speed. But this?
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This was hand-to-hand mastery at a level that shouldn’t exist for a mere level 5 creature.
It wasn’t just strong. It wasn’t just fast.
It was trained.
The Zephyr Monkey’s stance remained loose but lethal.
Kei had seen similar movements before. Muay Thai. Taekwondo. Kung Fu.
This thing wasn’t just an animal.
It was a martial artist.
And that meant brute force wasn’t going to cut it.
His mind raced. His lungs burned. His body screamed at him to move.
Wind twisted.
The Zephyr Monkey shifted its stance.
It was coming again.
And Kei had seconds—no, less—to figure out how to counter it.
Because if he didn’t—
He wasn’t getting out of this alive.
Something shifted.
Deep within Kei, something reacted.
His eyes burned—not from pain, but from something else.
Power surged. A pulse rippled through his status screen.
For a split second, the text glitched, flickering erratically, symbols shifting into something unreadable.
His Will twisted, something unseen trying to suppress it, to force it down, to shackle it before it could awaken.
But Kei had no time to pay it any mind.
Because in that moment—
The wind whispered.
No—
It taught him.
His breath hitched as the knowledge poured into him—not in words, but in feeling.
The Zephyr Monkey was fast. Too fast.
But its movements weren’t random.
It wasn’t teleporting.
It was riding the wind.
It bent the air currents around itself, using them to reduce friction, enhance acceleration, cut through resistance.
Every step, every motion, was synchronized with the flow of the wind, allowing it to move like a storm given form.
Kei had felt it. The pull, the redirection, the guidance.
Now, for the first time—
He understood it.
[Force Progression: 5% → 7%]
The realization struck like lightning.
The Zephyr Monkey wasn’t fighting against the wind.
It was letting the wind carry it.
And if it could do it—
Then so could he.
The Zephyr Monkey lunged, the wind roaring to life at its command.
Kei exhaled, muscles tensing.
And for the first time—
He moved with the wind.
Swoosh.
The Zephyr Monkey vanished, its form barely a blur before its foot whipped through the air, extending in a perfect, devastating arc.
A faint whistling followed in its wake—a whisper of the wind slicing apart the very space it traveled through.
[Force Progression: 7% → 10%]
Kei barely ducked, missing the strike by a fraction. The wind stirred violently around him, the displaced air pressing against his skin, tingling with residual energy.
He wasn’t safe yet.
The very same foot he narrowly dodged reversed direction instantly, folding inward as the Zephyr Monkey used the momentum of its missed strike to pivot—
And then—
Boom.
An axe kick crashed down, faster than his body could react.
[Force Progression: 10% → 15%]
Kei’s breath hitched.
Too fast.
His body couldn’t dodge in time—
But his Breeze Force could.
A burst of wind erupted beneath him, responding to his instinct with perfect synchronization. The sudden blast of force lifted him just enough—his weight shifting, his torso leaning millimeters away from the devastating heel that struck the ground.
CRACK.
The earth split beneath the impact. Fractures spread outward, dust and debris lifting into the air from the sheer force.
Kei’s mind raced.
The Zephyr Monkey’s martial prowess wasn’t just about raw speed. It was refined. Every movement was precise, utilizing momentum and footwork to seamlessly transition from one technique to the next.
Kei’s eyes burned.
It was happening again.
The wind whispered its movements to him, transmitting the mechanics behind its motion—how it positioned itself, how it redirected its energy, how it never wasted a single movement.
The Zephyr Monkey landed, its weight perfectly distributed across its stance. It had already recovered, body loose, foot sliding backward into another pivoting motion.
Kei’s instincts screamed.
Don’t let it reset.
His body reacted before his mind caught up.
His foot lashed out, aiming for the Zephyr Monkey’s ankle just as its weight shifted—before it could fully regain control.
A counterattack.
A counter born from observation.
A counter born from an innate understanding being whispered to him by the wind
Would it land?
Or would the wind itself betray him?
A shift. A moment. An opening.
Kei’s foot connected, a sharp impact disrupting the Zephyr Monkey’s balance just enough for him to roll away, repositioning himself for a better stance. His breath was ragged, body aching, but his mind remained sharp, calculating.
The Zephyr Monkey, more annoyed than anything, let out a sharp exhale, summoning the wind around itself.
Kei did the same.
[Force Progression: 15% → 20%]
A change. A struggle. A shift in power.
The Zephyr Monkey felt its control over the wind weaken—only slightly, but enough to notice. Kei, however, felt the opposite.
The wind responded to him. It bent toward him with a willingness he hadn't fully grasped before.
Both combatants readied themselves, but before they could move—
A roar split through the battlefield.
The Zephyr Monkey’s sharp instincts screamed a warning from behind.
The Fangcub—who had been ignored until now—made its presence known.
With Howl of Resilience reinforcing its body, the cub surged forward, activating Lunging Rend.
Its fangs clamped down onto the Zephyr Monkey’s arm with savage force, its Aether-filled claws slashing toward the monkey’s throat in the same breath.
Kei, wasting no time, summoned the Jagged Bone Club. With the wind now an extension of himself, he surged forward, aiming low—a precise strike toward the Zephyr Monkey’s leg to cripple its movement.
Neither human nor cub spoke a word, but in that moment, an unspoken trust bound them.
They were both outmatched, but together, they worked in perfect synchrony.
Yet, even as they attacked, something was wrong.
The Fangcub’s movements were sluggish, hindered by the surge of energy still struggling to settle inside its body from consuming the Zephyr-Blessed Ginger. It couldn’t sit still and let Kei suffer for its greed, but every motion came with resistance, as if its body hadn’t yet caught up to the power within.
The Zephyr Monkey reacted instantly, instinctively reaching for its Zephyr Force to fold into the wind—to disappear, escape, and counter.
But then—
A delay.
A split second of hesitation.
It felt its control over Aether slip.
The disruption was minuscule but present. A fraction of a second. But against two enemies acting in perfect unity, a fraction of a second was all they needed.
The Fangcub’s fangs bit deep. Kei’s club crashed into the monkey’s leg.
Their attacks landed—
But rebounded.
The Zephyr Monkey’s fur defense absorbed the damage. Their strikes failed to break through its natural resilience, and in the same breath, the monkey rode the wind, slipping free from their grasp.
It vanished.
But this time, Kei didn’t lose track of it.
Not anymore.
[Force Progression: 20% → 25%]
Even as it disappeared into the wind, Kei followed. His senses, deeply integrated with the currents of the air, picked up on everything.
The Zephyr Monkey had a method—a way it merged into the wind, bending the currents to carry it wherever it pleased. It wasn't just fast. It flowed. Kei had watched, observed, and now—he understood.
A flicker. A disturbance to his right.
The Zephyr Monkey reappeared, perched on a branch high above, its body still radiating tension.
THWACK.
Its head jerked backward.
A pebble.
A single pebble.
It had barely landed before Kei’s projectile struck home, disrupting its focus just as it was about to reactivate its Zephyr Force.
The monkey blinked, caught between surprise and irritation.
For the first time, it failed to sense an attack.
Kei exhaled, heart pounding, but a small smirk formed at the edges of his lips.
Even in the midst of his imminent death, he felt something else rising within him—exhilaration.
The wind around him pulsed, alive, excited. It whispered to him, guiding him, weaving its presence into his movements. He was beginning to hear its voice—not with his ears, but with his very being.
The Zephyr Monkey was trained in this element. It had mastered the wind.
But Kei was something different.
He didn't control the wind.
The wind chose him.
It responded to him as if he were its rightful wielder, wrapping around him in eager anticipation.
It wanted to dance at his command.
And the Aether?
The Aether was worse.
It didn’t just respond.
It offered itself to him, flooding toward him with unrestrained fervor, as if desperate for his attention.
That moment of realization clicked in his mind.
When he disrupted the Zephyr Monkey’s control over its Aether, that was not normal.
Something was happening.
Something he hadn’t fully grasped yet.
But whatever it was, the Zephyr Monkey knew.
And as its gaze snapped back toward Kei, its expression darkened.
The first true trace of caution flickered in its eyes.
Because in that moment—
It realized Kei wasn’t just some helpless prey.
He was learning.
And that made him far more dangerous than it had anticipated.
