The Sound Of Despair

A single hit and it was over, so Sturm had to channel his inner Muhammad Ali and float like a butterfly. No matter how powerful he could or would become, one had to always pay respect to the greatest. Most people on Earth knew the first part of Ali's famous saying, but the second was rarely mentioned.

'The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.' There was truth to that, as Sturm had already proven by using the gorilla's own arm to step out of the ape's field of view. Now, he would take it a step further. While locking eyes with the opponent and maintaining the high guard above his eyes, Sturm decided to release the lightning matter covering Licht's orbs. 

Instantly, a bright light flooded the destroyed camp, like a special force had thrown a flashbang into the site. Even Sturm had to squint his eyes, and that was without directly seeing the source of light, so in comparison, the giant gorilla got utterly blinded. It had just adjusted itself to face in the tiny human's direction when the light burned its eyes.

The monstrous white ape roared in pain and started wildly lashing around itself, further destroying the camp until the area was almost flattened. Those wild attacks were undoubtedly intimidating, but they posed little threat to Sturm. In the state it found itself in, the ape probably knew less about where it would attack than Sturm did.

<<It is mostly ignoring everything in front of its chest while spinning around, probably because it is paranoid about attacks from the back.>>

It was a smart choice since it would be much quicker to react to an attack received from the front than from the back. Subsequently, attacking from the front would be much riskier for Sturm, but he would not shy away from it as long as the risk was calculated. 

Just ten quick steps brought him in front of the magic beast's giant, muscular chest and abs. The muscles served as a natural defense, and it was doubtful if a strength of 19 would be able to punch through it. If Sturm did not follow the ape's rotation, then he would enter its attack zone. 

<<If the chest and stomach are impenetrable for me, then that only leaves…>>

Any Krav Maga instructor would be proud of Sturm's following attacks. There was a specific sensitive zone that males would try to protect at all costs, as it determined their capability to have future offspring. Even a tier 10 bronze maclawco overlord was not spared from having that weak point, and Sturm made use of it.

During his time as a professional fighter on Earth, the man once called Mike had invested hundreds of hours improving his hand and eye coordination with speed and double-end bags. That experience was made full use of, as Sturm kept delivering quick but also powerful lightning-infused punches directly onto the two crown jewels in front of him.

The [Fists of Mjölnir] dug deep with every punch, and while Sturm was the one delivering the punishment, a tiny little part of him felt bad for the terrifying monstrosity. Even Schatten and Licht were gnawing on their paws inside the lightning space, turning their heads around to avoid looking at the display. It was a purely instinctual reaction, as they did not watch with their eyes but through their mental connection with Sturm.

{Hey, Licht. I know you got a lot less arrogant with the boy, but maybe you should start looking down on him a little bit more again,} Schatten tried to convince Licht.

In response, the tiger clutched his hind legs tightly together and glared at the wolf. {Maybe you should heed your own advice, as you would be doing the world a favor by not producing any offspring. We should shut up now; if we miss the perfect opportunity, then castrating us is the least our contractor will do to us.}

If the silver-white gorilla overlord had been angry at being blinded before, then he went absolutely apeshit when Sturm demolished his most treasured parts. The beast did not just increase the speed and strength of its attacks but also started rolling and throwing itself around in a desperate attempt to protect its lower body.

In Sturm's mind, the [Black Room] kept analyzing the beast's muscle movement, which allowed him to predict and dodge more effectively. During the gorilla's wild thrashing, though, the angles at which Sturm could evade suddenly kept dropping in number rapidly. At this moment, it did not matter that all of the ape's attacks had been seen through because the only thing it amounted to was that Sturm knew he would be hit.

The outcome was unavoidable, and the cause was nothing more than a lack of speed. Sturm's body simply could not keep up with his thoughts, and not even the [Avatar of Thunder] enhancement was enough to make up for the discrepancy. 

It was not the ape's fist nor his leg or tail that was threatening his life, but one of the two ivory tusks attached to its jaw. Sturm had no more than a fraction of a second to come up with a way to avoid being impaled, like some of those mercenaries had been years ago.

There was no time to dodge, and deflecting it would require tens of times his strength. If Sturm had been just a little bit stronger, then this situation would have never arrived. In the end, even after all that training, all the hardships he had endured, he was still too weak. 

Being weak meant dying in this world, but there was something Sturm had, which he did not have on Earth—reliable comrades. As the faster one of the beasts, Licht had already been informed by Sturm the second he saw that his escape routes were vanishing. Just a simple push with its legs was enough to catapult Sturm out of the tusk's trajectory. 

Even though the landing was hard, it was many times preferable to death. The raitiger, on the other hand, instantly felt the innate suppression caused by the gorilla's superior tier. Still, the training and experiences with Sturm had taught him to somewhat ignore the fear. However, that did not mean it felt comfortable, and the distraction could still cost him his life if an attack randomly landed on it.

Having done its job, Licht retreated into the lightning space, where he saw a rare glimpse of respect in Schatten's eyes. It had saved him as well, after all, as their lives were attached to their contractor's. 

It was the second time death had just been centimeters away, but Sturm still kept his calm. Everything was still under control, and not all cards had been played yet. Enraging the tier 10 bronze beast was an intended maneuver, albeit it ended up being a little bit more effective than they had expected. 

As a highly resilient beast that had endured extremely paralyzing poison for hours and still managed to fight and later escape from nobles, the ape soon recovered its composure and focused its wrath on the two-legged ant instead. Sturm covered the bright lightning orbs again as it exposed the surrounding traps, and he needed the gorilla to chase.

If it lost its ability to reproduce, then it had to at least make the cause for it suffer a painful death. So the beast got up and moved towards the edge of the camp, during which it never stopped staring at Sturm in case the boy tried to leave. There, it tore out a tree, including its roots, and brandished the makeshift club in eerie silence, like it was saying it would beat Sturm into a pulp.

<<This is unexpected. Do you want to keep me at range? Maybe we have underestimated you, but I'm sorry, that is still not enough.>>

With a reach of over seven meters, there was no doubt Sturm would find it more difficult approaching the opponent. Luckily, he did not plan to do so and let the gorilla engage instead. 

It did not take long for the oversized ape to lose its patience and charge at him while flailing the club around. There had been enough time for Sturm to move into a strategic spot, where he once again took up his fighting stance, further enraging the maclawco overlord.

Schatten kept informing Sturm of the exact spots he had planted dark lightning traps, and just between the ape and his current position, there were three of them. After the white gorilla stepped into the first one, it showed no visible reaction and simply kept approaching. However, the second trap showed more promise, and the beast's muscles contracted for a split second. 

When the gorilla stepped into the third shadow imbued with dark lightning, Sturm was already on his way to the next spot. In its rage, the beast did not realize that slowly more and more electricity started flowing through its body, gradually impeding its movement. The only thing in its mind was squashing the bug with its makeshift club, but no matter how hard it tried, the pesky thing avoided each strike.

No less than twenty-eight dark traps later, and the six-meter-tall gorilla lost control over its body. Towards the end, Sturm had used its inhibited mobility to further strike it with the [Fists of Mjölnir], lowering the time for the electricity to overpower the beast. Additionally, every time it seemingly trapped the boy, he would remove the bright lightning orb's cover and blind it to escape.

A whole hour had their tag game lasted, and the pressure Sturm's mind had accumulated was too much. The beast was still not dead, but Sturm still dropped to the ground and closed his eyes with a relaxed smile. He would not be able to kill the tier 10 beast, but there were two companions whose sharp claws and teeth would be enough for the job. 

{We have a few seconds until that tailless monkey recovers control of its body, let's get to it.}

A white tiger and a black wolf jumped out of Sturm's tattoos and pounced on the beast, venting their frustration of not being to help more directly with their contractor's fight.