Eli started to move again, continuing around the outside edge of the volcano making his way toward the dungeon. He was making decent progress despite all of the interruptions to his journey, yet he felt like he was doing ok on time. With his increased body and improvements from the system it shouldn't be an issue to not be killed by whatever the system was going to do to the area. He decided not to rush too much and to drag out his time until the last minute before the dungeon, it is a level 10 dungeon so he needed to level up before he got there as much as he could. After climbing and crawling over a rocky area the trees changed into more jungle than forest, filled with vines and branches that crossed into the canopies of other trees. Everything was more dense, more trees, less light and the air was more humid with no wind, this really felt like the Amazon but with more magic.
There was more magic in this jungle area but it was also more stagnant, Eli could feel it crawling slowly through the trees and vines, almost as if it was dormant in some way. He decided to be a little more cautious since this was a new environment, this would also allow his magical senses to get used to the new area. After about another 10 minutes he felt like he had a good feel for the place when things started to shift, he couldn't see anything but his surroundings felt off, like there was suddenly less space around him. After a few more careful minutes of walking he noticed something large on a burned tree stump, smoke and smoldering brush, trees and vines surrounded it. He took a long look at it, he was walking up on it from behind. It was covered in fur and had big shoulders and was clearly taller than him while sitting down, the fur was red and seemed to be smoking a little. The system finally let him identify it.
"Fire Fur Ape level 8"
"A primate with fire abilities and great strength"
This one was going to be tricky, so far he was stronger than the monsters he fought but this furry guy seemed like it could have strength to match his own. Adding in this thing could use fire abilities and it might be wise to have a plan, however, right as Eli had this thought it leaned back and turned its head towards him with a wide grin on its face. Without time to plan he rushed in and leaped to take a sweeping kick and the beast's head, it smiled more and adjusted itself to catch the leg.
He saw this coming and withdrew the leg and made a swing for its head with his mace, this was a move he had always seen in movies and was finally getting a chance to see if it worked. His angle and leverage were not great for the swing but he was just testing the monster to see how it reacted, and it moved again and adjusted its already reaching hand to catch his mace instead. He activated his smash skill with all his might, even adding some of his internal magic to the skill aside what it took from him normally to activate and when it contacted the apes open palm there was a crunch and both were knocked back a couple feet.
Eli looked at his mace which had some ash on it, and looked up at the ape and smirked. The ape looked at its hand and was shocked to see its 2 smaller fingers on its right hand broken with blood trickling out and getting singed on its fur. The fingers were bent out like it had been holding a firecracker in those fingers and it went off. It did not seem to be in pain as much as shock that it was hurt at all. Eli however felt something in his body that was new to him, he could feel his magic missing, not like a half empty glass of liquid but more like a balloon with less air in it. When he attached his internal magic to the skill it had taken a large chunk, he felt like a quarter of the pressure from his magic was gone. This meant that he could not just keep using the skill like that unless it was going to hit a more vital area like the head or neck or maybe its heart.
They continued to look at each other, both changing their stances and plans for the next encounter, then the ape made the first move taking a leap at him with both hands together over its head. It was clear that it was no longer going to underestimate his opponent and would instead be bringing all the strength it could muster. The distance between them vanished and its hands came down, but Eli had seen this coming and knew that if he was going to survive this ape's strength he was going to need to dodge its swings and not try to block them. So he rolled to his left and took a swing at the monster's right hip, since its legs were shorter than its arms he thought he could try to limit its speed and movement so he would have the positioning advantage but it dodge him just as easily as he had dodged it. He hopped back a step to dodge a single back handed arm swing and Eli used the precarious balance from that swing to try and get in close and go for its knee this time but the ape jumped over it and back a step.
The next 20 seconds was a series of dodging from both of them that looked more like an improvised dance than a fight since both had the strength to move and change direction quickly enough but not enough perception and agility to get an advantage. It would seem their strength was pretty similar as well so he started to scramble for a way to get the upper hand and the only thing he could think of was that he might be able to take a hit better. Since Eli had been putting points into vitality and endurance he would take less damage and recover faster than the ape would so maybe taking a hit to make a hit would work better. There's only one way to find out eli thought and stepped into a down swing from the ape's left hand in order to connect with the apes stomach with his mace. He used smash but not the beefed up version that he had used before while using his left forearm to block the downswing and they both connected at the same time. There was a small crack and a loud thunk and they both took a little hop back to get some distance.
Eli was sure his arm was fractured and looked at where he had been standing, there were two footprints crushed into the ground creating small craters. The ape was now holding his stomach with his left arm and glaring at him with rage and pain in its eyes. There was a small indent in his stomach that he could see between its fingers. Both were starting to breathe heavily, Eli breathing the humid air in and out like it was thick soup and the ape creating a cloud of smoke filling the area and it was beginning to be difficult to see long distances. There was something he could do with that but he was too focused on fighting to let his mind follow that thread so he just went back at it. They started their dodge dance again while eli looked for a hit he could take while delivering one stronger than he took and after another 20 or so seconds the opportunity came where he took a hit from the apes right fist to his left shoulder letting that spin him and swing his mace wide and hard coming into its thigh muscles with a thud.
However the ape had his own plans and also took the hit and used the change in his balance to lower himself down and try to headbutt Eli right in the forehead. This would have hit him, had he not overcommitted to his spin swing and lost his balance staggering to the side and wincing in pain since his shoulder was fully dislocated and he couldn't move his left arm at all. He almost fell to the ground but managed to hop a step and right himself, when he turned to see the ape, its face was at Eli's eye level and he knew he could try something new here to give him an advantage. Eli had used his light node to make his body glow when in the darkness while talking to the system, now he would try to overcharge that to act as a makeshift flashbang and confuse the ape while its head was low and it couldn't cover its eyes quickly. He mentally reached for the light node and while staring it in the eye, pulled out some light affinity magic and used his will and his mental control over his body to have it pour out his own eyes in an attempt to make the light more directed and concentrated.
The ape howled in pain and started stomping around, while Eli suddenly realized that maybe he should do more testing cause now he couldn't see anything. He could hear the ape stomping around and falling over while screaming and then he assumed it was rolling on the ground, at least that is what it sounded like. He did his best to push the pain of his eyeballs melting to the side and focus on his hearing and magic senses to understand what was happening with his panicking opponent.
Eli moved away from it with a quick blind jump in the opposite direction landing him face first square into a tree and breaking his nose causing blood to pour down his chin and neck. He then stood with the tree between him and the ape and tried to sense what it was doing. He could place its position relative to him, but it seemed to be using a magic skill that made it seem like a large blob to his senses. The magic felt like fire, like a burning inferno but only on the outside of the ape, its insides didn't have this flavor of magic, and then he realized what it was doing. It must have set its fur on fire to try and keep him at bay.
When the ape finally stopped moving it must have thought that its flames stopped him because it didn't seem particularly on guard just keeping a bit of the flames going as a precaution. Eli picked up a rock and prepared for a strong baseball pitch, again he could not see the ape but with the extra fire and the smoke that was already there on top of the flashing light thing he did he was hoping that it would see the rock coming. He threw with all of his strength and just a touch of his internal magic to try and hold the rock together after he gave it his all. He heard a thud and another howl which made him think that he made contact with the ape, especially since afterwards he could sense it moving again and some magic moving in his direction.
It missed but not by much and he could feel the heat of it on his legs like it had been fire-like and was now burning on the ground next to him. He took another step to the side and got ready to throw again, this time imagining that the magic he attached to the rock was sharp like a ball covered in small spikes. Another thud and howl followed by another chunk of fire-ish magic thrown at him, but this one glanced at his hurt left shoulder and his arm began to burn, he could tell the worm skin wrapped around him was blunting the damage and pain but it still hurt like hell.
Eli could not be sure what it was that was burning him since his vision was still shot but it felt like it was burning his arm, actually burning the skin away so the nerves stayed intact and just wouldn't stop. He gritted his teeth and grabbed another rock, didn't wind-up or put magic in it he just threw it not being able to fully focus on his magic while in this much pain and while it wasn't full it didn't have its usual pressure that helped him push it into things. He started running as soon as the rock left his hand, first to the side then toward the ape, grabbing his mace from under his left arm he jumped up high.
He hoped he was jumping high enough to evade the apes' line of sight in case its vision was returning, as he got closer he did his best to estimate where its head was and prepared a full smash with another quarter of his internal magic going into it. His mace came down with a thud on the ape and it fell to the ground, while Eli rolled on the ground trying to put himself out. His vision was slowly returning as his previously melted eyes were reforming, he could see greyish shapes and outlines but nothing else.
Feeling like his energy was pretty much spent, breathing heavily and not really certain what he was looking at, he started to just smash anything on the ground that looked remotely like it could be the ape until he got a notification that it was dead. It took a few minutes but it finally came and even though his vision was still only half recovered he could see it as clearly as ever.
"Combat Completed"
"You have defeated Fire Fur Ape"
"650 Experience earned (bonus for enemy being more than 20 percent above your level)"
"Congratulations"
"Magic level increased from 5 to 7"
"You have gained 2 free stat points"
"Your Skill 'Smash' has leveled to common 2"
"Your Weapon Skill Hammer has gained attribute: weight balance"
He decided to sit and wait for his eyes and arm to heal before doing anything else. As usual he was astounded at the pace his body healed when not fighting. He was back to mostly full health in about 20 minutes except his shoulder wouldn't relocate itself, so he had to slam it against a tree until he hit it at the correct angle and it went back in. After his eyes were mostly healed he walked around where the ape had been rolling around and he had guessed right it had set itself on fire. Also, he found that the fire that was thrown at him ended up being some kind of gel that burned like napalm, he was sure he didn't want to find out where it had gotten the gel. He went over to the body and found out that it was pretty much dead from his blow after the jump, he had been smashing its feet and legs the whole time while he was still blind. Eli scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, then he poked the body and a loot window opened. He accepted the loot prompt.
"You have received 500 system credits"
"You have received 4 regeneration patches"
"You have received ape underwear"