Digging through the dead ape, Akiel finds a thumb-sized murky sphere. Not bothering to clean it, he dashes away from the cave. Listening to the barks and howls, he tries to steer himself away. Counting the different tones, he hears three coming from his right, seven on his left and a couple immediately behind him. Several other apes could be heard in the distance.
Pausing, Akiel weighs his options. Judging by the increasingly loud yowling, they traveled faster than him. There is no way to outrun them in the forest. On the other hand, he could pretend to be a rock. If they pass him, he can just stroll away. If things still go wrong, he would just have to rely on his strength, muddling through things.
Dropping to the ground, he starts to writhe in the undergrowth, staining himself with dirt and vegetation. Satisfied, he digs in, face down, in the fetal position. Bringing his hands over the back of his head, he becomes still. Waiting for the apes to pass. As the apes quickly fly through the trees above, one finally travels through right above him. Without stopping it continues to the cave.
Making a conscious effort to stop his breathing, Akiel realizes that he hadn’t been breathing since he became a construct. Finding himself more at ease, he muses happily about the lack of human weaknesses he possesses.
As the nearest apes pass him, he listens for the further ones. Several are coming from the right and straight ahead, but the left seems to only have a few. Convincing himself that he should wait for the few coming from the left to pass, he waits.
Unknown to him, the apes that arrived first saw the corpse. They were on their way to him, following the easily followable trail his stone body makes. Slowly they follow the tracks without making a sound. Moving through the forest, any sound they made was overshadowed by the rest of the troop. Arriving at the place where Akiel is hiding, one of the apes signals to another after seeing the tracks end.
The ape backtracks alone and climbs on to a tree. Looking around, it ascertains that no predators are waiting and lets out a series of barks and yelp. Like a planned maneuver, the troop spreads out, surrounding the area. The troop members already in the vicinity move into the left area where fewer apes were originally and the incoming ones fill in the gaps this created.
Akiel finally finds something wrong. After a series of barking and baying near the cave, the apes in the left stopped making noise. In fact, the apes that should have been passing over him were nowhere near him. The only noise came from apes that seemed to be a fixed distance away from him.
Trying to glean other bits of information using his hearing, he remembers how he was hunted. There was no way that the apes wouldn’t be able to follow his tracks, he barely had any time and couldn’t cover his tracks. Cursing his luck, he wonders how close they were to finding him.
Not holding him in suspense, he feels something nudging his head. At first, they were just probing pushes and pokes, but they soon became unrestrained. It started jumping and banging its hand on his back. Not sure why it hadn’t just tried to pull him out, he lays in wait while thinking. The ape seems to have found him but didn’t know that he was the rock.
Ruling out sight, since it should have recognized him, he reasons it must be something to do with the tracks leading up to him or that the ape he killed left something to mark him. Fighting the urge to shake his head, Akiel starts to ruminate on his next step. He should be surrounded, both closely and from afar, but the apes searching around him aren’t the ones who saw him. All he needs is a distraction.
Slowly and stealthily, he points his pinky away in the right direction, detaching the top half. Not bothering to layer the detached part with fortifying mana, he builds a relatively large amount of mana and converts it to thrusting force. The apes, startled as several branches explode, rush to find the source. Akiel, not wasting a moment, gets up and starts running to the left. Rotating his head backward he sees the apes watching him. They made no effort to follow, only curiously looking for his pinky. The most unsettling part for Akiel is that all of them seemed to be grinning, they were mocking him.
Resolving himself to kill all apes and their derivatives, he crashes through the undergrowth, remodeling his head back correctly. “Not today boys, not today,” he mutters as he jumps over a fallen log.
Continuing to run, he suddenly gets slammed into the ground. Rolling over he grabs an ape by the legs. Unable to throw it off, He clamps his mouth on its ankle and grinds away. With a mournful yowl, it wrenches Akiel off and throws him away. Not wasting a moment, Akiel darts away. Glad for the lack of disorientation, he turns slightly left to avoid a particularly thick patch of vegetation.
Keeping an eye on the tree canopy, he finds another ape about to fall on him. Rolling to the right, he springs on top and casts a ball of water. Holding tight, he suffocates the ape. Slamming it against a tree, he leaves it and continues running as another arrives. Running around a boulder, he leaps down an incline. With no worries about sprained ankles, he progresses much faster. Looking back, he finds several apes free-falling down the slope in a parabolic arc.
Hastening his efforts, he frantically avoids obstacles. Debating whether he should risk investing more mana into his legs, he remembers the beast core he harvested earlier. Glancing at it in his hand, he swallows it and uses remodel as he runs. Moving the core into his head where his brain should be, the core instantly disappears. Feeling his capacity for mana rise a bit, he shifts more mana to his feet.
Although it was only a minuscule amount, any amount of increased speed helps. Reaching the bottom of the slope, he trips and smashes through a thin tree. Stumbling, he balances himself before bounding forward as several large masses land just behind him. Slinking forward, a fist-sized stone narrowly misses his back. Using an overhanging branch, he jumps and swings over a ditch, landing on the other side running.
The apes behind similarly make it over with ease. Akiel, Looking for areas without trees finds a plume of smoke over to his left. Turning slightly, he continues to barrel through the forest, only avoiding the trees and thick patches of vegetation. As he continued on, the incline increased again. The apes, just meters away.
Deciding to thin the numbers immediately behind him, he jumps onto the top of a thin and flexible looking tree causing it to bend dangerously far below its base. Surprised at its flexibility, Akiel looks back to find one of the apes had jumped directly after him. Chuckling, he lets the tree go and continues to run. The tree smacks the ape, disorientating it and causing it to stall in the air.
“That's one down, just many more to go,” he mutters. Approaching the plume of smoke, he sees a caravan setting up camp. It’s guards already running around. As he approaches, three pikemen ward him away. “Ay! Away with you, we don’t need no trouble.” Awkwardly avoiding a jab, Akiel runs off at an angle from the pikemen. The apes, similarly follow him, ignoring the caravan.
“How big is their territory? Don’t pack animals have territories or boundaries? I mean all I did was bash one of them, talk about anger issues.” he complains. Running around the fringes of the camp, he finds a way in. Dashing through the center, he sneaks around a wagon and slides under it. As the group of apes jumps over, he slides out the other side and escapes. Looking back he finds one of the apes staring at him from atop the wagon in what should be hate.
Screams and sounds of battle ring out everywhere as the ape lets out a series of short but deafeningly loud screeches. After a short pause, several apes turn back and chase him. Sighing, Akiel dashes away. Checking his ambient mana he estimates that he can only keep up the chase for another hour or so.
As he jumps over another fallen log, he hears the distinct sound of a waterfall. Overjoyed, Akiel uses the rest of his mana to boost his legs, he shortly arrives at a cliff. Directly in front of him is a small stream leading a steep and deep waterfall. Hoping that his body was waterproof, he jumps.
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Not feeling weightless, he looks up only to see a hairy arm grabbing his head. Struggling, he starts to push upwards on the cliff outcroppings. Slowly at first, he starts to drag the ape down over the edge.
Suddenly another ar grabs the ape and starts pulling. Not giving up. Akiel positions his legs above him and pushes away, pulling the first ape over the ledge with him. Just when he thought he would finally fall, another three apes grab the first and pull. Frustrated, Akiel screams while anchoring himself onto the cliff face, “Let go! I don’t need rescuing. I’m not suicidal you stupid apes.”
The apes, obviously ignoring him start to pull him up. Rhythmically heaving him up, centimeters at a time. Scrunching his face, Akiel times himself and pushes off the cliff as the apes relax and get ready to heave again. Gaining all the ground he previously had and more, he could now see the full body of a second ape. Clearing one of his legs away from the cliff, he starts bashing the ape holding his head.
The ape, not wanting more abuse, grabs Akies foot. Now dangling away from the cliff face, Akiel panics. A simple pull would bring him back above onto the ground. Not wanting to detach both his head and foot, Akiel brings himself close and latches onto the hand around his head. As Akiel is no longer trying to get away, the ape finds itself unable to adjust in time as Akiel closes in. Latching onto its head, Akiel bites its ear. Grinding his teeth, he pulls, tearing it off. With a mournful howl, it throws Akiel up, towards its companions.
Eyes sockets widening, Akiel spins through the air. Out of the corner of his sockets, he sees a hairy arm reaching for him. Twisting, he grabs the back of the hand and pulls. Jamming his feet into its face, he jumps off. This time, nothing could stop him from falling.
Laughing as he fell, Akiel felt relieved. He laughed until something hugged him. Enraged, he found several apes had jumped after him. Apparently, they also thought they would make the jump and live. Wrestling with the ape hugging him, he finds that he can’t overcome the ape in raw strength. Glancing at the growing water surface, he suddenly spreads his legs wide. He happily grins at the ape as they start to turn in mid-air. The moment they land, the ape found itself underneath Akiel and between a stone construct and a shallow layer of water with an underlying stone bed.
As Akiel shrugs the ape’s arms off, he bashes it’s head in and grabs the beast core. Swallowing the beast core he turns to find several apes in similar conditions. Some managed to grab a stray branch and a few sacrificed their fingertips to latch onto the cliff face but many died from the impact. Feeling his luck had changed, he mutters, “Good thing I brought a friend. Always safer with a group, right dad? Oh yeah, I forgot. You all died as a group too.”
Shaking his head he assimilates the swallowed beast core while wading to the bank. Not wanting to wait for the apes to recover, he makes his way farther away into the forest. Looking at the horizon to find the towering stone landmark much closer than earlier. Smiling, he starts to run as the howling start again.
“These things, they just won’t leave,” he mutters as he looks around for some sizable stones. Getting caught on an unearthed root, he flies forward and crashes into the trunk of a tree. Punching the tree in frustration, Akiel gets back up. Checking his ambient mana, he sighs, “Only about thirty percent left, I can’t outrun them at this rate.”
Dusting himself off, he spots a sizable branch. Picking it up he finds a head sized stone below, “Great! I’m skipping to the stone age.” Throwing the branch away, he picks up the stone. Filling it with his mana, he molds it into two thick but short blades. One as a retractable knife under his foot and the other fixed into his right fist. Detaching the small knife in his fist, he twirls it around in satisfaction, “Come at me you primitive simian wastes of space.”
Scaling the thickest nearby tree, Akiel waits. As the howling and hooting close in, he digs his feet into the trunk, getting ready to jump. As the first ape approaches, Akiel listens for its companions. After making sure the ape was alone, he flicks his stone knife in a reverse grip. Hanging from the tree with his feet and his left hand, he dives onto the ape as it passes. Stabbing the knife into its back, Akiel grapples with it as they fall. Bashing the apes head into the ground with his left hand as they land, he grins as it’s skull gives in and his hand breaks through. Digging through, he takes the beast core and swallows it.
“About 32 percent juice now,” Akiel mutters as two more apes leap at him. Not bothering to dodge, he collides with one of them. Jabbing the knife its shoulder, he heaves his mouth onto its throat. Biting down, he tries to grind and tear into it. The ape likewise bashes the back of his head and back, creating several stress fractures. Being grabbed and pulled by the second ape, he pulls his knife out and slashes the first ape's neck.
Learning from the first attempt, Akiel remodels his teeth at the second ape smashes him into the ground. Decreasing the amount, he increases the base thickness. He also makes all of his teeth into canines that point backward for tearing. Just as the ape tries to smash him on the ground again, he twists his body and extends the hidden knife in his foot. Jamming it into the ape's arm, it throws him away. Retracting the knife, he bounds at the ape, ignoring all attempts to keep him away. Grabbing its arms by the biceps, he forces his mouth around its neck and tears a chunk out.
Leaving it to bleed out, he goes back to the ape he killed just seconds before. Rummaging around for the beast core, he swallows it and repairs himself using nearby stones, “The maximum capacity increased but repairs brought the level down to about 25 percent. Without some time to work out the math and limit test, I can’t accurately predict how much longer I can keep going.”
Trudging back to the still breathing ape, he stomps on its head. Not smashing the head immediately, he stomps another three times. Swallowing its core, he sighs exhaustion. Even if his stamina is directly linked to his mana concentration, his mental strength is quite normal if not above average.
Hearing more howls he stomps on the corpse in frustration. Lifting his foot, he tries to wipe the skin sticking to it away when he gets an idea. Walking back to the most intact corpse, he infuses mana into and remodels the fur and the disfigured face to adhere to his stone surface. Rubbing some dirt over his body, he covers up the signs of fatal injuries as best he can. Measuring his ambient mana concentration he finds it at a healthy 23 percent. Hiding the remains in a dense patch of shrubs, he slowly climbs back into the canopy. His body, now covered in fur, still isn’t made for tree climbing.
Debating on whether he should take the time to emulate an ape body, he decides not to waste his time. Making his way back into an ambush point above the two remaining dead bodies, he waits. Several apes pass him from the distance, but none of them had found their dead kin. After a few stressful moments of waiting and biding his time, an ape appears. Gently landing on the ground, inspects the farther corpse before making its way to the other.
Akiel patiently observes the ape, not because of it being another easy prey, but because it is twice as tall as the others. ‘Of course, I wait for a common ape and find its bodybuilding cousin. ’ Just as he decides to not fight this one, it looks up at him. Sighing, Akiel gestures like an ape to fool it. Thumping his chest and jumping on the spot he points in the direction the other apes fled in.
Chuckling, the larger ape points at him and points at the ground. Complying, Akiel lowers himself into the shadow of a large tree, trying to act himself off as an ape. Outright laughing, the larger ape in a guttural tone says, “Foolish being, you can’t trick this king. Your beast core doesn’t respond to mine and neither does your behavior resemble that of our race.”
Shocked, Akiel gestures for the ape to give him a minute. To his surprise, it sits down and waits. Taking out his guidebook, he flips to a previously unused page, search. “Hey, what race are you?” he asks the ape. “Gently thumping its chest, it replies, “I am King Totong of the brown striped apes. Anything else? I also have some questions and punishment to deal.”
Entering the name he finds that they count as a subrace to the ape beastmen. Upon further investigation he finds them to also be up for extermination. They were marked as an optional target for him and the reward was a kilogram of iron. Sighing, he decides that iron or not, extermination was impossible as it is.
“How about this, I challenge you for a favor. My unconditional release if I win and servitude if I lose” Akiel offers. The ape scrunches its face and says, “I’ll agree if we make a soul pact and it entails that you will be the one under my servitude.”
Getting a chance to escape was all he needed. If he beat the thing, the others would let him go. If he was about to lose, he could just escape and continue another day. Making the deal from afar and swearing on his soul, both enter a soul contract. “Hey, how do I initiate on oath. You know, for curiosity.” Akiel asks as he readies himself.
Snorting, the ape says, “serve me, then I’ll tell you.” before charging at him. Not fazed in the slightest, Akiel jumps back while getting a feel for the foes strengths. Its speed isn’t much faster than the other apes, but power is much higher. Just by charging at him it left large depressions in the ground. Avoiding several wide sweeps, Akiel weaves between the trees to wear it down as much as possible while looking for a window.
Avoiding another ground shaking fist, he steps next to a fallen corpse. Getting an idea, he picks it up and flees farther to gain some distance. Gathering some dirt he starts to shove it down the corpse. The ape king, confused as to if Akiel ran away follows the corpses drag marks. As the king finally spots him, he finishes stuffing dirt down the corses gullet. Awkwardly slinging it over his shoulder, Akiel gets ready to fight. As the king slowly approaches, its eyes redden as it finds the defiled corpse over his shoulder.
Not losing reason, it slowly approaches him. Sending a punch it gets shocked when Akiel swings the corpse at him. The corses arms smack its face. Angry he throws another punch but stops in time to grab the corpse. It grips both of the corpse's arms and rips the body in half in a shower of dirt. Just as it throws the corpse away, Akiel leaps at its face, stabbing its eye with his stone knife. Not wasting a moment as the ape king reaches to grab him while bellowing, he bites onto the ape kings tongue and tears a chunk off.
The ape king shrieks in rage more than pain and throws Akiel into several trees. After breaking two trees and ricocheting off several others, Akiel observes his body condition. Several large cracks filled his body and most of his right shoulder and lower back were nowhere to be seen. Grunting, he uses remodel to change his body. Shedding much of his body, he leaves a narrow torso, four knife-like limbs and a smaller, more compact, and angular version of a head.
“I can get mad too you over-sized dumpster. Eat my trash.” he enunciates as he starts to cartwheel, his limbs spinning like a fan. A fan with sharp fins meant to slice and sever. Not even hearing Akiel, the ape king also charges at Akiel. At the last moment, Akiel prepares the majority of his mana in the middle of his limbs. Widening the gap between his limbs just slightly and bending his torso, he gets his body to flip into the air. Dodging the apes, fists, he shoots both of his upper limbs into the ape king’s abdomen and chest, pushing himself just out of the ape kings reach as it tried to grab him. Still spinning, he aims and shoots one of his lower limbs into the ape's throat
Landing with his remaining limb digging deep into the ground, he declares himself the winner.