Chapter 17: Ape [1]

They reached the cave just as the sky began to lighten. The last of the night still clung to the trees, but the air already carried the first hint of morning. Rael and Lila set the stored meat inside, then sat against opposite walls of the narrow space. He checked his status while the quiet settled around them.

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STATUS

Name: Rael

Race: Human

Class: Copy (F-Rank)

Copied Classes: Flamecaller (C-Rank), Archer (B-Rank)

Level: 9

Souls: 568 → 588

Bloodline: Abyssal Sovereign (+100% Multiplier) (Dormant)

Strength: 36

Agility: 42

Mana: 40

Vitality: 36

Additional Stats: 8

Skills: Fireball (Apprentice), Ignite (Expert), Eagle Eyes (Expert), Piercing Arrow (Expert)

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The souls had climbed a little from the boars. Nothing dramatic. He closed the window and looked across at Lila.

"How much level did you reach?" he asked.

"5," she said. "What about you?"

"7."

He left it at that. The multiplier stayed his secret which he didn’t wanted to tell anyone until he have full trust on them. She didn’t press. They talked a little longer about nothing important—the way the meat had cooked the night before, the strange silence in the woods—then Lila started preparing breakfast. Boar meat sizzled over a small fire she built near the entrance. The smell filled the cave. By the time they finished eating, the sun had climbed high enough that the light outside turned sharp and clear. Afternoon heat pressed against the stone.

That was when the scream came.

It was a girl’s voice, high and raw with terror, and it was getting closer. Rael and Lila locked eyes for half a second, then both moved. They slipped out of the cave and started down the slope. Even at a distance Eagle Eyes let them see the clearing below with painful clarity.

Suzy stood near the edge of the trees, frozen. Two others fought beside her. A young man with a long, two-handed sword held the center, feet planted wide. A girl in light blue robes—water mage, from the way the air shimmered around her hands—stood a few paces to his left. Between them and the tree line a giant ape smashed the ground with both fists. The creature stood nearly twice the height of a man, thick gray fur matted with dirt, eyes small and furious. Its arms looked long enough to reach the swordsman from three strides away.

Lila already had an arrow on the string. Rael started running.

The water mage struck first. A dense jet of water slammed into the ape’s left leg, hard enough to make the knee buckle for a moment. The ape roared and swung both arms in wide, crushing arcs. The swordsman raised his blade and caught the first blow on the flat. The impact drove him back two full steps, boots carving grooves in the dirt. He staggered, recovered, and held the line.

Lila’s arrow streaked across the open ground, a thin white line of light cutting the afternoon air. It buried itself in the back of the ape’s right hand. The creature jerked its arm up and snarled, more annoyed than hurt. The three people in the clearing glanced toward the mountain for a fraction of a second, realizing help had arrived, then the fight swallowed their attention again.

The swordsman charged. He used the slope of the ground to add speed, sword sweeping in a full horizontal circle. Even when the blade missed clean flesh the force of the swing forced the ape to lean away. The edge finally connected across the ribs and only scraped a shallow white line through the thick fur. The ape answered with a backhand that the swordsman barely managed to parry. Metal rang. The young man’s arms shook.

The water mage raised both hands. A curved wall of water rose between the ape and the swordsman just as the next fist came down. The impact hit the barrier and slowed. Force bled away into spray and mist. The ape’s knuckles still reached the swordsman, but the blow landed heavy rather than lethal. The young man staggered, coughed, and kept his feet.

Lila loosed again. Another white trail. This time the arrow took the ape high on the shoulder. It barely flinched. She was already nocking the next shaft.

Rael kept running. The distance was longer than it looked. Roots and uneven ground slowed him. He could hear the ape’s breathing now—deep, wet, angry—and the sharp ring of steel each time the long sword met those massive arms.

The swordsman tried a different approach. He dropped his center of gravity, let the ape’s next swing pass over his head, and cut upward in a rising slash aimed at the underside of the arm. The blade bit deeper this time. Dark blood welled and ran down the fur. The ape bellowed and slammed both fists into the earth. The shockwave knocked the swordsman off balance. He rolled, came up on one knee, and barely raised the sword in time to catch the follow-up strike. The force drove him to one knee. His arms trembled under the weight.

The water mage sent another concentrated blast, this one aimed at the ape’s face. Water exploded across its eyes and snout. For a moment the creature recoiled, shaking its head, blinded by the sudden flood. The swordsman used the opening. He surged forward and drove the tip of the long sword toward the soft tissue under the jaw. The ape twisted at the last instant. The blade scored a deep cut along the neck but missed the artery. Blood sprayed, hot and dark, and the ape’s roar turned into something closer to a scream of pure rage.

Lila’s third arrow arrived in that same second, white light trailing behind it, and sank into the already wounded shoulder. The ape’s head snapped toward the mountain. Its small eyes found the distant figure of the archer. Then its gaze dropped to the water mage still standing in the open, hands raised for another spell.

The creature’s entire body shifted. It stopped focusing on the swordsman. It planted both feet, lowered its head, and charged straight at the girl in blue.

Rael was still too far away.

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