Chapter 72

It didn’t take long for Pren’s statement to be proven true. We rushed into the jungle, and began heading back towards our camp, figuring that was the best location to move to, as the Hunters had all been assigned different zones to hunt. It made sense then that no Hunters who were fleeing the jungle, would be near the zone we’d been assigned.

As we moved further into the jungle, the loud crashing, which had been erratic in its location in the jungle, seemed to figure out its direction. Each time we heard a loud crash, it was coming closer, and closer to us. Every few minutes, the ground would shake, the trees would rustle, and our fear would spike.

“You don’t have to do this,” Alax gasped as we continued running. “I appreciate you coming out here Ash, but you don’t need to die with me.”

I tried to smile, but my lungs burned too much, and my mouth was too occupied with breathing at an appropriate rate. That and my heart was beating far to quickly to control the finer muscles of my face to force a smile. I was far past the ability to put on a brave face. What I was doing was, quite literally, suicide.

“This is terrifying.” I said as we continued our run, “and honestly, I’d rather not be doing this.” I looked at him, barely dodging a root as a I did, “but doing this alone, would be even more terrifying. I won’t make a teammate go through that.”

Alax set his jaw and nodded, before a sudden roar caused us both to flinch. Our movement stopped immediately, as the darkness of the jungle far ahead of us moved. Or, more appropriately, the trees were pushed aside, allowing the light from above to penetrate into the jungle darkness, revealing a hulking, dark furred form.

We were a good four-hundred yards away from the creature, and yet its very presence was impossible to miss. Additionally, as we stopped, gasping for breath, petrified by what was before us, its musk hit our noses. Past the sweet, sticky, varied smells of the jungle, this new scent was that of death. It was foul, vile, reeking of decay. The creature, the ‘Jungle Titan’ Pren had called it, sniffed the air, before its face leveled in our direction. Its sheer size allowed us to decipher what the creature was, though the glowing red eyes, easily as large as a human head, were not normal.

The Jungle Titan was a giant gorilla. It had to be at least twenty feet in heigh, possibly more. Its arms could easily be mistaken for tree trunks, and they were covered in dark jungle mud. As it moved closer to us, shuffling in a strange sideways manner, I noticed the entirety of its body was actually dripping with that mud.

“What in the name of the Tower,” I muttered as it quickly began closing the distance between us. Its eyes were fixated on Alax, as if he were it’s favorite meal. The creature hadn’t even glanced at me, treating me like some sort of ant, below its attention.

“We’re supposed to hold that thing off?” Alax asked, his voice shaking. “There’s no way.”

I watched the creature grab a tree and rip it easily from the jungle soil, the roots dripping with mud, hidden animals wriggling to escape their newly uprooted homes before the massive creature threw the tree aside. It stopped, roughly a hundred yards away from us, and stood upright. Doing so made its head reach the top of the canopy, its powerful back legs holding it tall. It drummed on its chest, much like I’d seen the gorillas do before. However, the sound, the force that reverberated outwards as it did, was on a whole different degree.

My legs quivered, and I felt myself sinking downwards. Panicked I lifted a leg and felt my balance shift. The drumming continued as I frantically looked about, and I realized Alax was sinking as well. My fellow Climber, completely white faced, was staring slack-jawed at the Jungle Titan, seemingly oblivious to his peril. As I glanced downward, I saw literal ripples moving across the ground, the mud, the very jungle floor, vibrating in response to the beating of the Jungle Titan’s chest. He was turning the whole area into quicksand.

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“Alax,” I hissed as I pulled the rope from my inventory, quickly tying it off and tossing towards a branch above me, in a manner I’d seen Quill do earlier. It was getting harder and harder to pull my feet free from the vibrating mud, and I grabbed hold of the rope that dangled back down the moment I could. With a heave I pulled myself free from the mud. “Alax.” I hissed again.

“We’re dead.” He muttered, shaking his head. “I’ve doomed us all. This Tower, this floor, it’s a grave.” He was in the mud to his knees now. I kicked him.

“We’re not dead yet.” I said harshly. I was quickly looking around our area, trying to figure out what we could do. It was obvious we weren’t going to take the Jungle Titan down. But all we needed to do was keep it distracted, to buy the others time. And, after that, well, we had another mission. One that required us to die. That last part, I had no doubt, would be the easy part.

After kicking him, and in response to my words, Alax’s vision refocused. The fear was still there, in his eyes, but he was back in control. At least for now. I held my hand out to him, while my other hand was looped around the rope, keeping me from sinking back into the mud.

“We need to distract the Jungle Titan. We need to buy time.” I pulled with all my might, feeling my shoulder threatening to pop as the mud resisted the efforts to free Alax. Then, with a loud pop, luckily from the mud, and not my shoulder, Alax was able to free one leg, and then the other. While the ground was vibrating, turning the soft jungle floor to a literal mass of quicksand, as long as you didn’t stand still, you could slow your sinking. I mentally made a note to thank Quill for his lesson on sucking mud earlier. A thanks I’d have to give him after I died.

“Do you have a plan?” Alax asked, looking at the creature. It was still beating its chest, but it was staring at him, eyes blazing with anger. At any moment, it could change its actions, and attack. And if we died too quickly, who knew what would happen. Had everyone escaped yet? Would it leave the jungle to hunt them down too? It would have been nice of Pren could have given us more information. Then again, considering the threat that was obviously the Jungle Titan, I could forgive her for that. Stopping him, as soon as possible, had been a little more pressing than giving us a full explanation on what the creature was, how it came to be, and anything else about it.

“None at all,” I said with a defeated sigh. “The only ranged weapons I have are throwing knives, and they’re not reaching 100 yards.” I glanced about, “and unless we can get it to stop drumming its chest, I doubt we’ll be able to get closer to it to do anything.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about that.” Alax said, his eyes fixated on the giant gorilla. “Besides, getting close would just get us killed, right.”

“Yeah,” I said, “but how else are we supposed to keep it distracted?”

“Well, as long as we’re alive, we can keep running away from it, right?” He pointed to his right; towards a part of the jungle the gorilla hadn’t destroyed yet. “It’s going to chase after me anyways, isn’t it?”

If my hands weren’t both occupied at the moment, I would have slapped myself. Of course. All things considered; we were still taking on the same role we had been in all day. We were bait, and the Jungle Titan was just, well, an oversized version of our earlier prey. We obviously didn’t have any hope of killing it, but we could, at the very least, try to lead it on as long a chase through the jungle as possible.

“I’m ready when you are,” I said, feeling the sweat on Alax’s hand as he grasped hold of mine. He was shaking. So was I. And while I knew some of it was from the strain of holding on to the rope and keeping ourselves from sinking, there was no doubt some of those tremors were from fear. Still, we had a job to do, and for the first time, all day, Alax seemed committed to doing it. The thought, made me smile.. though it was a small, grim smile.

Dying hadn’t been in my plans for the day. And yet, here we were.

“On the count of three,” Alax whispered, his eyes still fixated on the Jungle Titan’s. The creature had begun to slow the beating of its chests, the massive fangs in its mouth dripping mud and saliva as it looked at Alax. The Jungle Titan realized the mud wouldn’t hold us captive. Meaning, it would have to put us in the ground itself. The only question that remained was how long could we evade its efforts before it succeeded?