With one of his two targets now dealt with and the other one unarmed, Gaston was doing exceptionally well.
Especially considering that he was the one with the toughest assignment out of his crew.
The only reward his efforts got him however, was a charging Blue Ape whose speed far surpassed Gaston's imagination!
In Gaston's experience, the Blue Apes were in a similar situation to them when it came to using magic techniques.
He didn't know if it was exactly the same, but in effect, their weapon would occasionally glow whatever color their most dominant element was, and whenever that happened, they knew that they had to avoid the next attack.
That's why when Gaston turned around to face what he thought would be a regular Blue Ape running towards him, he was almost shocked when he discovered that there was slight white glow beneath the Blue Ape's feet, which made it move far faster than usual!
By the time he turned around, the Blue Ape was already on him, swinging a lightning-fast left hook towards his head!
Too late to react, in part because of the slight pause in his movements due to his surprise, the hook connected almost perfectly, as Gaston only managed to turn his head slightly to offset some of the power behind the punch.
If this was a human's punch it might've been enough to leave with only a bruise, but this was no human.
The blow knocked him flying nearly ten meters to the right, leaving a deep imprint on the left side of his face, right below his eye.
'Motherfu-'
Gaston stopped himself from letting his anger overtake him, as he knew far better than to allow that in such a situation.
Opening his eyes that were now almost devoid of emotion, he found his vision to be okay, but the world was spinning for him a little bit.
The good news was, that he got knocked towards Siegbert and Nicolaus's little battlefield, as he managed to see Siegbert some 10-15 meters away from him.
He looked to be doing well, unharmed as far as he could see while his opponent had various cuts all over it, which was always a good sign.
There was no time to observe more however, as he had his own opponent to face.
After the Blue Ape used a never-before seen magic technique to make itself faster and catch him by surprise, it didn't let off the gas.
Immediately chasing after him whilst he was tumbling away, it got itself in position to use it's magic technique on it's left hook again, whipping it towards Gaston's head as soon as he got up from the ground.
Even whilst he was dizzy however, he didn't allow himself to fall for the same trick twice.
Gaston ducked back underneath as soon as he saw movement in it's left shoulder, and used it's momentum against it to successfully tackle it to the ground.
He had absolutely no way of keeping it there for long, but that wasn't in his plans regardless of the fact.
Instead, he quickly freed his hands from pinning the Blue Ape to the ground, and instead moved to grab his prized punch dagger from the inside of his chest, and used it to stab towards the side of his opponent!
"Punchi, punchi!"
The Blue Ape barely reacted by the time the 3-inch blade penetrated it's left side twice, but as soon as it did, it immediately got itself out of the position.
Rolling away from Gaston with ease due to it's overwhelming strength, it wanted to get up and go after him once again.
This time however, Gaston was the one on the chase.
Holding his punch dagger in his left hand, Gaston threw it quickly and accurately at the Blue Ape's left knee, making it fall back down to it's knees immediately after getting up.
Once again, Gaston charged towards it, this time however throwing himself right on top of it's head, with his fingers immediately going for it's eyes the moment he brought it to the ground.
"AAARGH!"
The Blue Ape managed to close it's eyes in time, but that didn't stop the human on top of it, as he used all his physical strength to dig his fingers inside and through, making the Blue Ape scream in agony in the process.
It tried to use it's hands to push Gaston away by desperately grabbing and pushing at his face, but Gaston was relentless.
He kept digging his two thumbs into it's eyes, even after he felt the eyeballs explode, he kept going deeper, with it's brain his ultimate target.
As this brutal scene was unfolding on the battlefield, the Blue Ape that he thought he didn't have to worry about anymore, had managed to push the tree-imbedded halberd all the way through and out of it's shoulder.
Standing up, with one hand still on it's stomach, it slowly approached Gaston, ready to take him down with it.
It had picked up either it's own spear, or the thrown away one from the start of the ambush at some point, and was now about to use it to kill the still unsuspecting Gaston.
If they were isolated from the others, it might've been successful in it's attempt, but thankfully for Gaston, he wasn't alone on the battlefield.
Seeing Gaston in danger out of the corner of his eye, Siegbert, who had his own opponent injured and holding itself up with the help of a tree a few meters away from him, took the time to provide some help.
Pulling out the bow from his back and notching an arrow on it in almost the blink of an eye, he took aim at the Blue Ape behind Gaston and let loose!
A series of actions all done before the Blue Ape had even gotten within striking distance of Gaston.
Meanwhile, Gaston, still in the dark about what was happening behind him, was fully focused on the Blue Ape underneath him.
Squirts of blood already spraying onto his face, with one final push his thumbs finally pushed all the way through, and the Blue Ape instantly went limp.
His face was all scratched up, especially his mouth which the Blue Ape grabbed at some point and kept pulling to it's right, leaving a fairly noticeable cut on it.
He was about to let himself take a breath, when he heard a body fall not more than three meters behind him!