Dawn crept up on them and Serena had already left the cave. She entered stealth with Cawthorn and climbed to the top of a tree overlooking the massive devastation of the long necks that stampeded a few days ago. Despite this the area had already begun growing with sprouts and flowers. She looked around for cover and realized she’d need to take the long way around. Fortunately with the speed boosts and strength boost she was easily able to leap from tree to tree since they were so close together. Cawthorn whispered the locations of creatures as they leapt forward.

  Massive snakes, spiders, and monsters they slowly avoided through the day as it took them almost two hours to finally lay eyes upon the valley. A massive yellow Ziggurat with a green light stretching into the sky stood in the distance an unreachable finish line Serena wasn’t sure they’d ever see up close. Around the Ziggurat tall walls made of the same yellow brick formed a massive rectangle around it with huts, stone buildings and smoke from a fire.

  “Cawthorn we’re going to get closer. I need you to be on the lookout for anything and if you see something use your beak to move my chin, no speaking around these apes. We don’t know how good their hearing might be.” Serena explained.

  “I AM THE STEALTHIEST BIRD IN VERDAN!” Cawthorn whispered loudly to her.

  “We aren’t in Verdan. We’re in the Green Garden.” Serena noted.

  “I AM THE STEALTHIEST BIRD IN THE GREEN GARDEN!” Cawthorn whispered aggressively. Above them a bird neither of them noticed with a brown and green color scheme took off and soared through the air disappearing into the forest. “I AM THE SECOND STEALTHIEST BIRD IN THE GREEN GARDEN!”

  Serenas nearly invisible smile receded as they approached the valley. The first thing she noticed was the resounding drums and music. It was loud constant and almost as though it was a sound emanating from nothing. It bounced off the yellow rocks reverberating for much greater distances than she would have expected. The sound almost seemed to repel other creatures as Cawthorn didn’t notice a single monster several hundred feet from the wall.

  They observed for a few moments before approaching closer. As they approached the entrance the smell of elephant dung assaulted their noses. An overhang covered four elephants covered in seats and equipment with one ape hopping from elephant to elephant. Most of the apes were colored between black, brown, and silver fur with a few having orange coloration. The number of them far exceeded what she expected. On the walls alone at least 20 stood watch over the front. A small pack of 10 left with spears and nets clearly heading somewhere to fish or hunt. After realizing there must be at least a couple hundred of these creatures she decided to follow the hunting squad.

  She took note one of the apes had silver hair, 3 had orange hair, and 6 had black hair. The one with silver hair was much larger and physically overbearing with a massive stone hatchet. All of them walked on all fours. She trailed them until they reached a lake with a river flowing into it and out of it. They were spear fishing. She watched as they caught a fish and lifted it up. One of the clear crocodiles nearly snapped up the spear only to be decapitated by the massive silverback in a single swing. The Silverback gathered the crocodile as one of the orange haired apes started to skin it. The group was a well oiled machine efficiently gathering hundreds of fish.

  Serena had seen enough. Attacking or even sneaking in might be absolutely impossible. She thought for a moment before noticing one of the orange apes scanning the trees. It didn’t look directly at her but she couldn’t rule out she might have been spotted or at least sensed in some way. It was time to leave. It took her the rest of the day to safely return as she had to avoid more monsters midday than in the morning. She finally returned around dusk entering the cave exhausted. “We’re not getting into the apes city. It’s heavily guarded, they are strong, and there are a lot of them.”

  “We hunt tomorrow then.” Gargrim nodded to them.

  Jenora gulped nodding. “Alright.”

  Emilie smiled with bags under her eyes exhausted. “I’ll be fine.”

  Serena looked to Gargrim. “Can you kill one of those crocodiles in a single swing?”

  “I might be able to if it was closer to the shore.” Gargrim nodded.

  “They hunt at a lake far from here. A massive silver ape protects their catches. It’s either much safer or nothing messes with them. It would take us 2 or 2 and a half hours to reach it. Thoughts?” Serena asked.

  “We might not want to hunt where they are hunting.” Brice noted.

  Jenora leaned forward. “We have to try. We’re going to starve here.”

  Emilie agreed. “If we starve here we’re going to become unable to hunt and die quickly. Tomorrow at dawn let’s go.”

  Victor thought for a few minutes. “Should we approach the apes? No one saw you kill one of them right Gargrim?”

  Serena laughed. “Now THAT is a Victor idea.”

  The others chuckled. Gargrim smirked. “They didn’t but I don’t think approaching a group of creatures each of which is formidable for our entire group is a good idea. They’re likely to kill us and eat us.”

  Emilie smirked. “It really is isn’t it Serena?”

  She sat down. “Of course it is.”

  Victor hung his head in his hand. “I bet it would work.”

  “Dear I love you but that’s incredibly reckless.” Serena kissed his cheek.

  Jenora turned over and closed her eyes. “Get some sleep. We’re completely screwed if we don’t get some food in the next 2 days.” The group went to sleep and woke up without incident. The group made their way along the ground to the same lake over the course of 3 hours since they had to travel so slowly with Emilie in tow.

  The group approached the flat clearing with only Cawthorn able to see the telltale black dots of the noses on the crocodiles. Victor extended the Frigid Foil to a long spear and placed it in the water. He waited patiently before shooting it out with mana and spearing a fish. A crocodile shot out of the water as he pulled it out meeting Gargrim’s axe in its neck knocking it out of the air and hurting it but not decapitating it. Gargrim crashed into the creature slamming into his own axe taking the creatures head off. The group pulled them both ashore. Jenora shouted reflexively. “YES! Oh my gosh I will gather firewood.”

  “No cooking.” Gargrim insisted. “It’ll draw creatures.”

  Swordie noted. “The pigmentation on both of those creatures which can be cooked out is poisonous.”

  Serena looked to Jenora. “Go, we’ll keep fishing. I will try to help Gargrim with the next one. Emilie stay close to us, if one of those creatures hit us we’ll need immediate healing.”

  Jenora scampered off eagerly gathering wood at the edge of the clearing as the rest of them caught fish. The second time Serena flattened the clear crocodile to the ground and Gargrim decapitated it. The third Serena managed to slit its throat on her own bleeding it out on her own. The group had more than a dozen fish and three crocodiles as they stopped and wiped off their sweat.

  Clear Crocodile 22: Experience Increase 9.2%

  Clear Crocodile 21: Experience Increase 8.9%

  Clear Crocodile 23: Experience Increase 10.1%

  Current Exp to level 15 96.5%

  Emilie turned around. “Where is Jenora?”

  The group immediately went on guard. “Jenora!?” Victor called out.

  The group scanned the tree line Cawthorn whispered to Victor. “They are watching us.”

  Two orange haired apes, four black haired apes, and the silver haired ape leapt from the trees in front of them. Jenora tied up and gagged flat on the ground pinned beneath two apes holding spears to her neck. The group immediately went on guard and backed around Emilie and Brice. The group waited patiently as all of the apes except the silver haired ape beat on their chests howling loudly. Their fury could be heard and several clear crocodiles could be seen swimming away quickly.

  The apes leapt toward them. “BARRIER SHIELD!” Brice immediately brought up his shield.

  Emilie immediately cast on absolutely enraged. “STRENGTH BOOST, SPEED BOOST, VITALITY BOOST, REGENERATE!” All on Gargrim. “KILL THOSE DAMN DIRTY APES! GET THEM OFF OF HER!”

  “Cawthorn, escape, trust me.” Victor whispered.

  Victor swung his spear downward toward the silver haired ape who grabbed it and cracked the ice immediately. Gargrim clashed with the same ape slamming into his axe with such force the wooden handle snapped off. The ape slapped Gargrim to the side. He rolled beneath one of the dark haired apes who pinned him down to the ground. To call this a battle would be woefully misrepresenting what occurred in the following 60 seconds. The apes methodically meticulously pinned each of them down and took their weapons. They ended up tied together and gagged with Cawthorn taking off following from above the trees.

  The apes took their food and them all tied to large logs with vines that even Gargrim couldn’t struggle against. The group passed through the yellow stone gates to the elephant smell greeting their nose to their right. Emilie struggled to reach Jenora but they carried them separately to cages made of bone. They remained gagged as they were thrown into the bone cages. They couldn’t reach each other but they could hear each other in the cages. All of them struggled to remove their vines but were able to inside of their cages. “JENORA! Are you alright?” Emilie reached weakly toward her.

  “All our food… We were so close.” She looked at her gauntlet again closing her hands slowly.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  Gargrim laughed. “Well we’re dead. It’s been a pleasure meeting everyone here. Except the long ears.” Serena frantically looked for the weak points in the cage.

  “We should have used his skill.” Jenora shook her head. “We won’t make it to another dawn. Oh well. I guess it could be worse.” She looked up at the cage and then to Emilie as the apes returned in a large group pointing to the six of them and lifting the bone cages taking the six of them to some kind of pit surrounded by large pillars made of the same yellow stone decorated with skulls with vines hung between them. The apes hooted and hollered as the silver haired ape approached the throne. The red haired ape on a throne above raised his hand.

  “My fellow apes, trespassers have been found at our pond. What must we do to them?” The red ape asked. The group erupted.

  Victor shouted. “WE DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS YOURS!”

  Gargrim turned shocked. “You understood that?”

  Serena smirked. “He’s full of surprises.”

  The red haired ape stood up dwarfing the other apes causing the others to go quiet. “You speak simian?”

  “Does it sound like I speak Simian?” Victor asked him.

  The red haired ape announced with now visible jewelry hanging from every part of his body and dangling metal bands wrapped around his arms. “My name is Jingles. This is my second in command Bokbek. You’ve trespassed on our territory and stolen our food.”

  “We didn’t get to eat any! We only caught it. Please have mercy on us.” Victor knelt down pleading for mercy urging the others to do the same with his hand. They knelt down.

  Jingles dropped into the arena and inspected all 6 of them. He leapt back up once satisfied. “Release them in the pit. If they survive the challenge they may remain! They will challenge THE GREAT SERPENT!”

  Some apes leapt down and unlocked their cages as the group stood back up their weapons was thrown down to them. “This doesn’t sound good.” Serena noted.

  The apes began clapping and slapping their knees. At the far end a massive white serpent appeared larger than any of the other creatures they’d seen thus far. Emilie nervously turned to them. “Now might be a bad time to tell you I have mana fatigue from the fight before. I lost my cool and my mana regeneration is shot.”

  Serena pulled out her daggers. “Today just keeps getting better and better.”

  Victor turned to her. “We at least it can’t get any worse right?”

  The snake began fading from view slowly becoming a shimmer. Swordie insisted. “He does this on purpose. It clearly yields more experience.”

  Serena raised an eyebrow. “Does it really?”

  “No.” Swordie clarified.

  Victor started shooting frost bolts along the ground nonstop as it faded from view far away from them. He succeeded in creating a muddy line across the center of the arena. He kept firing nonstop as the apes laughed. “Gargrim you’re the only one who can stop it.”

  Gargrim gripped his axe. The mud slicked along the nearly invisible snake revealing it in time for Gargrim to slam his axe into the snake only to get whipped into the wall immediately after. Victor formed his spear and threw it at the snake embedding the Frigid Foil in the snake. It snapped off almost instantly. Victor extended his hand and used Magic Hands to snap it back to him. The snake tried to devour Victor only for Gargrim to leap forward grappling its head.

  At this point the blood and the mud on the snake made it visible. Serena darted along its side slicing along it as far as she could. The whipping tail nearly flattened Emilie and Brice only to meet a “ Barrier shield !” From Brice. The tail cracked the shield but didn’t break it. “Well that was close.” Brice panted.

  Jenora immediately shouted. “ Shield charge !” slamming into the tail whipping back at them. It bounced off Jenora but continued on hitting Serena and barely missing Victor.

  Victor darted toward the cut Serena opened as Gargrim wrestled with the head of the snake. He couldn’t get close with the writhing. He extended his Frigid Foil into a massive spear 10 times longer than before creating an extremely thin point that touched the snake ineffectively. “ Frost Bolt !” Victor could feel the mana flow through his hand blasting forward through his blade into the snake. The ice erupted from its wound blood red instead of clear ice. A huge eruption caused it to whip around and attack hitting Gargrim with its teeth on his shoulder poisoning him.

  Victor hit him again and again in the open wounds. Throwing Gargrim to the wall with a crash the snake cascaded toward him coated in blood. It turned sideways trying to swallow him whole. Victor jumped, but not high enough to avoid him. He thought quick and used the Foil to form a staff propelling him further in the air. Even though the snake adjusted quickly it still only bit the pole of ice causing victor to fall down the side of the snake. He formed a small dagger and sliced down the same cut Serena had opened. “ Frost bolt !” another blast erupted from the blood of the snake angering it.

  Victor fell to the ground and Jenora caught him. The snake charged at Victor, Brice, Emilie, and Jenora. “ Barrier Shield ! Shield Charge !” Jenora charged forward slamming the snake back cracking as she entered the snakes mouth.

  “JENORA!” Emilie shouted panicking and desperate.

  Jenora sliced frantically slicing its tongue off, cutting its fangs off from inside its mouth and breaking its jaw off. Finally Jenora stabbed it through the skull from the inside. The snake fell silent on the ground as Jenora emerged panting looking up at the sky covered in blood. She fell to her knees her gauntlets having popped off in the mount of the creature. She looked down at her red hands. “Emilie. I love you. I’m glad we met.”

  The Great Serpent 24: Experience Increase 91.6%

  Level 15 Reached!

  Current Exp to level 16 88.1%

  “I love you too Jenora! You saved us!” Emilie ran toward her with a joyful smile on her face.

  She turned her head to Victor. “Save Emilie.” The red began to creep up her skin as her armor slowly popped off. Fur began to grow on her and horns popped out of her head stretching behind her. She knelt down on all fours as her hands changed to paws. Her fur shown blood red and a second set of eyes formed on her head. Her fangs stretched over her lips growing longer and longer as her body sprouted a furry red tail and then a second tail. On her head a pentagram formed glowing red like hellfire. She formed massive claws that scraped the dirt on her paws before finally turning to the group. She let out a blood curdling howl before setting her eyes on Emilie and attacking with her massive open Maw.

  Bokbek turned to Jingles. “Should I intervene King Jingles?”

  “No. They have a demon with them. Wait for my word.” Jingles whispered to him.

  Emilie would have run straight into Jenora’s jaws if Victor hadn’t blocked the bite grabbing Emilie in a dive. Serena kicked her slightly slowing her down but not stopping her at all.

  -242 Health

  Bleeding: 100 damage per minute of movement. [Reduced by Staunch ]

  Demonic Wound

  548/790 Health

  Victor threw Emilie at Brice who quickly put up his barrier. Victor did this because he could see what was coming. Gargrims axe whirled toward Jenora. Victor turned his Frigid Foil into a long pole and hit it mid air causing it to veer off course and fly into the wall. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU LAD SHES A DEMON!”

  “WE ARE NOT KILLING A MEMBER OF OUR PARTY!” Victor screamed back. Serena frantically looked around. Victor downed a potion and then another as Jenora frantically ran around the edge of the pit circling back to Victor.

  Regenerated 5 Health

  …

  Regeneration has removed Bleeding.

  Regenerated 5 Health

  588/790 Health

  Jenora snarled at the group bearing her fangs. Emilie knelt down completely frozen at what she saw. “No. That can’t be Jenora.” The Jenora she knew was gone and instead before her a hellhound took her place. She howled at all of them.

  Hellish Howl: Feared – Stats lowered while in the presence of your fear.

  “We’re not killing her Gargrim!” Victor shouted as Gargrim recovered his axe.

  “It’s either her or us lad.” Gargrim readied his axe. She growled ready to charge as Gargrim stepped toward her.

  “STOP ANTAGONIZING HER!” Victor screamed.

  Serena realized something and darted off as Victor crossed blades with Gargrim getting completely overwhelmed. Serena sliced at her dodging her mouth by a narrow margin. Her blade nicked Jenora just enough to anger her. She turned to Serena with a fury. Serena crashed into the massive snake and slid along it causing it to bleed profusely. Jenora crashed into it jaws wide open and started eating. She ate and ate as everyone looked on to the hooting and hollering of the apes above.

  Victor collapsed on the ground panting holding his Frigid Foil at Gargrim up above him. “Stop attacking her.”

  “Or what? You’ll kill me lad? She’s a demon. All she’ll do is kill and destroy. You’ll probably lose your title for this too. It’s a shame, the world could have used an angelic knight.” Gargrim looked down at him in disgust.

  “While I could consider having slid me around in the mud worthy of losing his title I’ll overlook it.” Swordie noted.

  Somewhat shocked Gargrim asked. “How can defending a demon not be worthy of losing such a noble title?”

  “If you can’t see the answer to that question, you’re undeserving of the title.” Victor stood up pointing his blade at Gargrim.

  Jingles tapped his massive cane with metal rings on it. “Now Bokbek! Trap it!”

  Bokbek crashed down on top of Jenora meeting with a howl of anger as she tried to escape crashing into the bone walls of the cage he dropped. Bokbek gave the order. “Apes! Evacuate the new tribe members! I will deal with this one!”

  With that the group was carried away save for Jenora. Emilie watched her as she faded from view with tears running down her face.