A Chapter 22 Separation(7)

  19th Blue, 2043

  Endless forest

  Luthor Dugavu(POV)

  The rage was a flame within the furnace that was my chest. It's fury had smothered the exhaustion I was supposed to be suffering from into small scattered embers. Every move I was making projected strength and power! Using my right foot as a pivot, I spun around, capturing a furry head within my palm and effectively halting the sneak attack that would have been lethal should the outstretched dark claws have found purchase upon my skin. Adding another palm, I squeezed, drawing out a pained scream that sounded like music to my ears. If I had been fuelled by logic instead of rage, I would have ended it's life instead of this torture. I gazed directly into it's crimson pupils, which were glaring at me with hatred and pain. Claws ripped through the air as it tried to scratch at my face, ignoring the arms connected to the palms inflicting the pain. Barely a second later, my right palm disengaged in a blur of experienced motion and unsheathed the dagger strapped to my waist. Then, in one smooth motion, I thrust it deep into the monkey's brain through its left eye, ending its pointless struggles. With a flick of my hand, the corpse accurately struck a lunging monkey, effectively derailing it's posture and momentum, with Aila's flaming bullet burrowing through it's skull barely a second later. I flicked off the warm red coating my hand and fingers, splattering the blood onto the ground and roots around me, though, most still stubbornly clung to my skin.

  With a small movement, just the tilt of my head to the side, a gust of wind caressed the skin of my cheek as a dark claw attack swept mere inches away. Our eyes had been forced to adapt to the low light environment, making it so that earlier mistakes due to wrong visual interpretation had almost dwindled. I pivoted on my left foot, spun around, raised my hand, this time my palm enclosed around my gun, not the semi-automatic, since it was still gathering energy to recharge, but my pistol. Upon squeezing the trigger, the dark muzzle flashed with light, with a tunnel carving itself through the monkey's skull, out the back of its head.

  My gaze traveled upwards, even as I leapt across the roots, occasionally stepping upon muddy ground when vegetation obscured them. They were there, crimson eyes filled with hatred, furry bodies attacking with in a tireless flurry. I bared my teeth at them and snarled, challenging the small bastards. My rage wasn't even close to being cooled! I needed more blood to spill! More monkeys to kill!

  Sticky warm crimson drenched me everytime a furry monkey died close to me. Was I enjoying the slaughter? That was far from the truth. Every death, every tunnel carved through a monkey's skull, and every single crushed limb, was a way for the faucet bottling up my rage, to open. But my frustration was another matter. Things hadn't gone the way I wanted ever since our arrival! I knew that the odds of everything going in our favor had been minuscule, yet, the scale tilting far too much the other way made me feel as if everything was crumbling.

  A gash opened up on my forehead while I was reveling in the frustrations. I only noticed that particular injury when the liquid started trying to slither it's way into my eyes while I was crushing the limb of the culprit. I punched its face, a sickening crack entering my ears with a howl of pain. A bullet carved through its neck upon lining up the muzzle and squeezing the trigger. With my bare hands, I separated the torso from the head, splattering warm crimson everywhere before tossing the two pieces of the corpse to the side.

  My lips curled upwards before I separated them, letting my tongue out to lick away an iron-tasting smidgen on them before spitting it out in disgust while I leapt to another root, then another, and another, continuing deeper into the jungle. We had chosen to curve along the left side of the direction the monkeys had originated from, managing to have drawn atleast half of the troop on our heels...probably.

  A lower branch, too weak to hold a human, yet barely capable of handling the monkey perched upon it groaned as the monkey crouched, leaping off towards me from the left side. It crimson pupils enlarged in my gaze even as it fully spread its arms for a hug, one clearly meant to kill. Just a meter away, it swiped both its arms inwards. I ducked under even as my launched fist connected with its ribs, sending it into a spinning motion. I grimaced at the pain originating from my knuckles even as a white light flashed, separating the monkey's head from the rest of its torso before it could even touch ground, creating a crimson fountain from the neck, spraying blood everywhere. Both parts ended up crashing into a mossy trunk, tainting the luminescent green in a dark red.

  "Your recklessness will be the end of either you, or us!" warned Dan, in a deep voice. His beady eyes contained a coldness that doused the flames of my fury. Just like me, his skin had various patches of red, with only a little pale color peeking through. Guilt seized my heart when the rage vanished, only to be pushed to the side by frustration.

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  As the trunks blurred past me, my feet crushing myriad species of vegetation, stepping upon the dark muddy soil, or leaping across study roots, the hairs at the back of my nape stood up abruptly, with a profound sense of danger choking me within its hold at that very moment! My eyes widened, and my pupils shrunk before I leaped to the side without warning, my body having moved before conscious thought!

  My body rolled along the muddy soil, with my vision swimming even as I felt multiple impacts with tree roots. The snapping of thin bushy stems and branches also became a constant before I came to a stop, instantly adopting a crouch, gazing into the direction I had felt a muffled impact.

  A silvery hue from something long entered my eyes. Half of its length had burrowed through the root I had momentarily stood on a few seconds ago. My eyes traveled above into the darkness woven by the intertwined canopies above, searching for a familiar figure among the sea of crimson pupils, yet failed to pick out the culprit.

  That monkey king was something that made me gnash my teeth in frustration and fear. I had almost died earlier! How long had it been since I had last felt such fear? That was a question I could answer. I wanted to end it's existence. But it was too clever. After that particular stunt of separating us, it hadn't placed it's form into our sights afterwards, instead hiding among its fellow brethren and launching such lethal attacks every now and then, keeping us on our toes.

  My heart still skipped a beat at the memory of that terrifying moment... The one where Aila had been the one to save me from its attack through her quick reaction!

  "It's time! Luthor's semi-automatic and all the reserve cartridges are still recharging." proposed Dan to those upfront, the ones enduring much less pressure since those of us at the back made certain to let just a few through, even if we had to waste some of the bullets by shooting into the canopies, where accuracy dipped sharply.

  Even as I increased my speed to become one of those enduring less attacks, my mind scanned, compiled and contemplated the series of decisions that had been made in the moment that the monkey king had destabilized our team formation.

  I holstered my gun and my knife was plunged back into its sheath. My hands found my Semi-automatic, which I was certain had a full cartridge now.

  I clenched the gun tightly upon the fact that Ril had been forced to go with the group containing the three from Lutalo. It worried me immensely, always making me wonder whether Snow and her people would be enough to protect the girl from the other three considering the chaotic situation.

  My head swiveled upon my neck, eyes turning back to gaze at the slaughtering machine that was Ravena. Her face wasn't a picture of ferocity, instead it was a calm mask that stood in contrast to the violence she was unleashing. A bullet from her gun reaped a monkey's life with eerie precision, only failing when she had to fire up into the canopies to deter those monkeys that sought to box us in. Tunnels were opening in skulls at a rate that had surpassed my own. Of course she wasn't entirely faultless. But every mistake that she made was fixed by her aide, Estella before it could become deadly enough.

  Seconds turned to minutes, to hours. The rage and frustration were worn away, becoming mere echoes within me. Orange light spots hit the moss covered, and vine-strangled behemothic trunks behind us, signifying the Sun's shift to the west. The previously dim bioluminescence was getting brighter as the day reached it's end, with night starting to weave it's cloak of darkness.

  "Don't these primates get tired?!" complained Maxwell, his steps having a certain tired cadence that made him susceptible to tripping upon obvious obstacles, falling flat into his face. His breathing was loud, his lungs clearly struggling keep his blood oxygenated. Even though he hadn't been added to the rotating roster of those that took turns to keep the monkeys at bay, in the back, he was tired. His body hadn't been prepared for situations like this one. Endless running without a break was burdening not just him, but us too. We had taken to eating the dried meat and hydrating ourselves through taking small sips from our flasks while moving.

  Every time I looked at his form, clearly teetering on the verge of collapsing, regret bubbled up. I was starting to wonder whether I should have chosen a combatant for this expedition.

  "We need to come up with something to either ditch them, or eliminate all of the damned things." My mouth spewed words that I was certain had been in everyone's brain. We were carrying a limited number grenades, mostly two types. Light attuned ones and a flame-attuned variant. They could only be expended and not recovered, unlike the gun cartridges. It was one of the reasons why we hadn't let loose.

  "There is something-that has been bothering-me..." started Maxwell in between breaths, earning our attention.

  "There should be-other predators here, right? Why haven't they attacked yet?" he continued, his face adorning lines of puzzlement.

  "Why should they risk their lives when we are basically doing the hunting for them? All they have to do is scavenge the corpses. Surely, they are that intelligent!" answered Ravena, eyes drooping with exhaustion and disapproval. Dan, Regal and Aila were holding the back, having just switched with us.

  "Your words are true. But beasts are highly territorial. Surely, we must have crossed a few territories by now, yet we haven't caught sign of any other beast! It's as if they are nonexistent!" Maxwell exclaimed, clearly worked up to the point of gesturing with his hands.

  "It could be that until now, we haven't yet left the monkeys' sphere of influence. After all, this is an entirely different continent we are talking about and we haven't even spotted any change in the ecosystem." I conjectured.

  "My daughter needs saving! Our focus should be on how to get rid of the monkeys! Not debating whether this entire forest is theirs! Even if it is, I will slaughter every last one of them until I find Ril!" Ravena's words silenced all of us.

  "But what are supposed to do?! These vengeful mongrels aren't tiring!" shouted back a frustrated Maxwell, earning a glare from Ravena, ultimately evolving into a glaring contest.

  "All of us must have been holding onto the hope that maybe the terrain would change, or we would stumble onto a territory containing an enemy of the monkeys... Clearly, both have now been proven to have failed. We should let go of external factors and create our own internal solution. " proposed Dan, having exchanged his position with Estella.

  "We have grenades... Maybe there is a way we could use them to create an advantage." I suggested while shifting my bag to the front.

  "Eventually, we will start making mistakes that will cost us. We need to take care of them by any means necessary. Could we take out that king? That might scatter the troop." added Ravena after breaking off the glaring contest.

  "No! We must come up with a plan that doesn't simply hinge upon the death of the leader. After all, the hatred might keep them in the assault." Dan shook his head.

  "We should clear the sky!" exclaimed Maxwell, eliciting expressions filled with question marks including my own.