None of the monkeys moved as their obviously magical leader scrutinized me. Drawing back its lips in a menacing parody of a smile, the red primate started to glow with a sinister light. I didn’t know what magic it was preparing to use, but I wasn’t about to find out.

In a reckless maneuver I leapt from the branch I was clinging to. At this level of the canopy, the branches of the knotwood trees tangled and intertwined with each other enough that I knew that I would be able to catch myself. What I didn’t account for was how much slicker everything was in the rain. It wasn’t a large difference on the rough bark, but it was enough for me to lose my grip when I first tried to grab hold of a branch to stop my fall.

I was fortunate enough that the branches below were thick enough to catch me. I wasn't fortunate enough to land unscathed. Bruised and battered, I glanced upwards to see all of the monkeys staring my way with glowing red eyes. None of them so much as flinched in the pouring rain, as they remained unnaturally still.

Their leader leered down at me, his eyes glowing brighter than any of the rest. We stared at one another for a heartbeat before the beast let out a barking cry. As one the other monkeys started scurrying down the tree towards me.

In the brief moments before they could reach me, I rapidly ran through my options. I couldn’t climb faster than the swarming primates, so fleeing was out of the question. I had battered my arm fairly badly while landing, so fighting them off with my knife was unlikely. That left me with only one more option I could think of, even if it was still untested.

Looking up at the crimson monkey leisurely working his way down towards me, I started weaving my mana into the shape of my new spell. I funneled in about a third of the mana from my mana pool as the black monkeys drew near.

Desperately hoping that it would work, I thrust my hand forwards casting my mana form up towards the magical primate. I tried to maintain my mental grip on the spell and guide it toward my target, though it grew rapidly harder as it traveled.

My spell latched onto the large monkey just as its smaller brethren reached my branch. For a brief and terrifying moment, I feared that it didn’t work.

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Then all of the monkeys started screaming.

The sound was deafening as the spell the monkey was using to control its kin somehow spread its pain to the entire group. I had only hoped to break its control long enough for me to slip away. The writhing and falling primates all around me was not quite the effect I was expecting.

I didn’t watch to see if the large monkey would shake off my spell as I rapidly started descending down the side of the tree. I didn’t know if my spell would hold for long, but I wanted to reach the ground before the crimson monkey could recover.

The climb down was frantic and painful. The bruises I had picked up in my poorly executed escape were quite insistent about making their presence known.

Finally on the ground again, I risked a glance upwards. Hanging from a branch above, the crimson monkey glared down at me with a look of pure hatred.

I slowly started to stagger away as the monkey’s eyes once again lit with crimson light.

Earlier, I had hesitated to test the effects of my spell upon myself. This magical beast held no such reservations as it cast an unpleasantly familiar mana form back at me.

I had never before known such pain. It was as though my very bones had been set aflame.

Somehow, even through the agonizing pain, I could still slowly think. I was quite certain that the shock inflicted by my spell should have rendered me completely incapacitated. Instead I was able to note the crimson blur slowly descending towards my prone form from above.

Gritting through the unbelievable pain, I desperately tried to take hold of the mana around me. The blurred form of the crimson monkey had nearly reached the ground by the time I had caught hold of my pilfered mana form.

Lacking the focus for delicate work, I mentally tore the spell apart. The pain instantly started to fade, yet I still felt extremely weak. The monkey didn’t seem to be in much better shape as it staggered towards me on unsteady legs.

I still couldn’t move my limbs, but I still wasn’t ready to give up. There was no way I was going to let this monkey finish me off.

Calling up two of my spell forms I laboriously weaved them together into a new spell using my mental grasp of the mana. Just as the vindictive primate prepared to tear my throat out with its teeth, I finished my newest spell.

It took almost all of my remaining mana, but the bolt of fire and force proved lethally effective.