“Everyone stays calm! No one shoot it. No one agitate it.” Victor shouted, but his warning was unnecessary. Everyone could feel the power coming from the ape monster, no one wanted to mess with it.

Then, the monster opened its mouth. Before Victor could react, a bright gold beam of light erupted from the mouth and hit the low wall to the left of Victor.

The explosion was deafening.

The smoke quickly cleared and the section of the wall that was hit by the beam was just gone. Victor blinked. There was a gap in the wall as if a piece of heavy artillery had hit it. Then, he heard the screams. The men standing behind that section of the wall were screaming.

At least, those who were still alive.

Victor saw several bodies on the ground and realized how outmatched the men were. His men. His responsibility.

“Get the injured out of there. Everyone pulls back!”

Victor screamed as the monster jumped. The monster leaped towards the gap in the wall, and its powerful limbs allowed it effortlessly in one jump. Victor cursed and called up his Bark Armor as he rushed towards the monster.

He was too late.

An injured villain on the ground saw the monster landing and pointed at it in a panic. A yellow mist appeared around the monster and the monster screamed. Victor stopped at the scream. Every instinct within him urged him to stop, and a moment later, Victor saw why.

The monster was still visible through the mist and Victor saw the monster lift a foot and slam it on the ground. The shockwave dispersed the mist and Victor could see the monster clearly again. He saw the bare patches where the fur had been destroyed and the swelling of skin.

It was acid.

The injured villain had some sort of acid power and he had hurt the monster. Far of being happy, Victor felt a sense of resignation. The monster’s eyes, once filled with curiosity, were now orbs of pure rage and it was glaring angrily at the villain at his feet. Everyone held their breath, hoping that the monster would not do what they thought it would do. After a moment, the hope was dashed.

The monster lifts a powerful arm over its head. The injured villain started to scream; a scream that was brutally snuffed out by the arm that came crashing down. Along with everyone, Victor could only watch wordlessly as the villain died. Did the ape monster smirk?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks with him, but Victor thought the monster did. A fire was lit within Victor. He did not know the dead villain, but that does not matter. The villain was one of his! He was under Victor’s command, and he was now dead.

No one, and nothing, kill his men without consequences.

Victor picked up a nearby gun on the ground and aimed. He called up the Qi within his core and fired. The laser hit the monster, who flinched at the hit. It turned to glare at Victor, but the dam had broken, and his men suddenly remember why they were here.

This is an Emergency. They had volunteered to be here to fight monsters and now, right in front of them, was a monster who had just killed one of their own. A beam of white light followed Victor’s laser, and it was just the first of many. The monster roared in fury under the storm of lights and projectiles and a huge villain took the chance to charge at the monster. The monster saw him coming and swung a fist at him. The punch was too fast, impossible to dodge, and the huge villain crossed his arms in front of him. He had strength and durability powers and was confident of taking the hit.

He was only partially right.

The monster hit the villain and while the villain survived the punch, the force of it was too much for him. The villain flew back, crashing into a bunch of other villains shooting at the monster.

“Stay away from it. Long range-.”

Any further words died in Victor’s throat when a black shadow suddenly jumped across him. The black shadow landed on Victor with an ear-piercing screech and sharp teeth bit into the mystic martial artist. Luckily for Victor, his Bark Armour protected him, and he grabbed at the black shadow. He pulled it away from him, looked and was shocked. It was a huge rat.

A rat the size of a dog!

Then, Victor heard a cry.

It was a cry of fear and despair and Victor turned to look at the gap the Ape monster created. A wave of huge black rats was swarming pass the walls through the gap. There were thousands of them, and they were attacking anything that moves. A quick look at the rat in his hand told Victor size was not the only advantage these rats had. The rats were faster with white teeth that were as sharp as blades. He saw several rats biting chunks out of some of the heroes and villains fighting them. The rat’s black fur shone under the sun a coat of armour and…Victor suddenly felt dizzy. He felt as if he was falling through thin air. He had been poisoned! Victor quickly called up his Wood Qi and immediately felt better.

“Poison! Don’t get bitten! The rats are poisonous.”

The emergence of the rats threw the heroes and villains into disarray. Several of them turned to face the new threat, including his son-in-law! Mister Black rolled towards the seas of rats firing the mini-gun in his power armour, and Victor could only watch on in silence. Victor knew the power armour covered Mister Black completely so he should be safe from the poison. He also knew that the rats were the lesser threat.

Victor turned and saw a hero flying past him. Victor watched as the hero flew five metres before smashing into the wall of Forward Base Gamma. He left an imprint of a human in the wall and slide down onto the ground.

He did not get up.