The village was miles in width, and moving at a normal walking speed, it took them the good part of an hour to do so. None of the monkeys were moving faster than a mortal’s pace, so the group decided to do so as well, just to be safe. It made their trip longer, sure, but none of that would matter if they were dead.
They eventually reached the end of the village, and Sam took in the next ring of the forest, or rather lack thereof. The mountain that they had seen earlier soared up overhead, and a small path led up the side.The baby monkey hopped off a moment later, scurrying back to the other monkeys. Sam let out a small sigh of relief.
Over the next thirty minutes, they made their way up the mountain, taking in the breathtaking views of the land around. When they crested the top, the true end of the forest was revealed. A ten mile wide circle of cleared ground, set into the caldera-like top of the mountain, was all that waited for them, and it was filled with high level monsters. None of them were well disposed to the others either, and Sam saw innumerable fights breaking out between them. In the center of the area, barely visible from where they were standing, was a small hill, crowned by a throne. On that throne, a normal, four limbed monkey clad in ornate armor sat, with a large iron staff in its hand. The creature looked almost bored, and none of the other monsters tried to attack it. Sam flinched as he looked at the monkey, who had turned its face towards them, and winked. Sam took a deep breath, and turned around.
"Here we are, I guess. The only problem is all those monsters.”
“Well, yeah, we can all see them too. You're not the only one with enhanced vision,” Claude said, smiling slightly. “The problem is, how are we to get past them?”
Ava squinted into the assembly of monsters, and then nodded.
“It looks like they are prone to violence, extremely so. If one of them even goes near another, they will start to fight. There looks like there is a zone of calm around the throne for about a hundred feet, and then it's open season. Also, none of the dragons are here either. I saw a couple in the distance, but none would come anywhere near here.” Ava peered at the monsters again. “If we can get them to attack each other rather than us, we might be able to get to the center before we are swarmed. Only problem is, I don’t know how we are going to be able to reach any of them. The closest monster is thousands of feet away.”
Sam sighed as he heard this. He had not yet found an effective range on his projectile skill, and he had confidence that it could make it all the way over to the monsters. If they had had Jeffrey with them for this, it would have been far easier, but the man was back in the headquarters, trying to rank up.
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"I think I can do something about that,” Sam replied, getting ready to channel his energy. “It might inhibit my combat ability a little though.”
“Whatever you think best, Sam,” Jane signed. The woman had neglected to use her bodily reset skill since the first time, and Sam assumed that she was saving it for something. Its actual purpose was probably to act as a sort of last ditch healing skill for use in battle, albeit one that would disappear after a few seconds.
Sam nodded, and began to channel his mana and Dao energy into his hand. Using a higher ratio of Dao energy to mana, a dull red pool of energy coalesced in his hand. Taking a deep breath,Sam sent it flying towards a house sized bison sitting on a patch of ground, trying as hard as he could to sever the connection between himself and the attack before it could damage him. He did not succeed, but the damage dealt to him seemed a bit less than before. Sam was having way too much trouble with creating a proper ranged skill. It was almost like something was trying to stop him.
Sam banished the intrusive thoughts as he watched the spear of light fly across the ground towards the bison. It lost mass as it traveled, but it held together for long enough to reach the monster. Drilling into the creature’s flank, the spear fully dissipated. The monster roared in pain, and jumped up to its feet, causing the round to shake. Locking eyes on a small reptilian creature nearby, the bison charged it, blind with rage. As the creature engaged the other one, nearby monsters came to a halt, and started to pile in as well. It seemed as if their aggression had been enhanced by some outside force to make something like this possible. Sam looked at the monkey on the throne, and then spotted something behind him. A large group of humanoids, followed by a gigantic gray creature, entered the circle. At their head was a ten foot being, covered in thick black armor.
“Damn it. The hive mind squad is here," Sam said to himself.
“The Legion?” Rax asked.
Sam nodded.
“I have no idea why they decided to show up right as we were here, but this is going to complicate matters somewhat.”
As the Legion entered the area, the nearby monsters swarmed them. There was a bright flash of light, and all of them were sent flying backwards, covered in blood. Most of them did not get to their feet. The creature in the black armor lowered its glowing palm, and as the nearest monster leapt at it, the Legion commander pulled a sword off it back, and bisected its assailant with ease. Upon seeing that, none of the other monsters came near.
“Is that one of the heavy hitters that the faceless creature was talking about before? Shit, that might be too strong for us,” Sam thought. Sam scanned the creature pushing through the restriction of the distance between them. The results came up soon enough.
Major Johannes Shan, 49th Sword of the Legion
Corrupted Human
Level 87
It was the highest level monster that Sam had seen on Earth thus far, save for the Corpse Titan. Upon completing his scan, Sam noticed that the monster, no, Johannes, shot him a baleful glance. This was clearly an actual sapient being, not just a construct of the Legion. The only way that they were going to get out of this alive was to play the monsters off one another.