Night Weaver Spider after Spider was detected, flushed out of their holes, and bashed around with weighty sticks that stunned them even if their carapaces held... until swarms of Monkeys latched onto the Night Weavers’ legs, and with startling speed, teamwork, and savagery ripped them right off their bodies.
Vented Poison Magic was the main threat the Monkeys were facing, but certain of them were carrying jungle Flowers with powerful anti-Poison powers, blossoming to life with Plant Magic and cancelling out the deadly clouds and subtle patches and mists sent forth by the spiders, or even wearing resinous leaf armor that neutralized such Poisons instantly. Some Monkeys did touch Poison and died in horrifying manner as their flesh melted blackly off their bones, but all that did was redouble the volume of screams and challenges from their kin, and raise the tempo of the drumming on the jungle hardwoods to frantic new highs.
I was here, as were Sama and Briggs and a bunch of Coralost Mages who were friends with the Monkey Kings. But there was no doubt that this was their show, King Dorado taking this exhibition of the strength of his people very seriously, all the tricks and skills he had learned from the clever Human allies now being put to use and on display.
Among the Beasts, the Monkeys were considered chaotic, clever, and weak, their power overshadowed by so many other species. Among Monkeys, Humans were considered the chaotic, clever, and weak ones, and it was the Monkeys themselves who were strong! So, having used the clever Humans to become stronger, they were totally willing to put it to the test!
The weakest Night Weavers were strong Warriors, grown ones were all Commander-grade, truly an elite Bloodline.
There were naturally other Tribes of Beasts investigating the clamor, but the fury and passion in the army of Monkeys was making sure all of them kept a careful distance... and I might have been eying them and warning them off in case they tried to snatch a wandering Monkey or two during the fight.
Most of them weren’t dumb. The Auras of six Monkey Kings were raging through the forest, and even Ruler-class predators didn’t want to dare that level of combined fury. Feeling a Human Sage up above with the Intents of Emperors about her overseeing the whole thing was definitely enough to leave them as nothing more than passive observers watching the Night Weavers get what was coming to them.
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Reynard and I glided down next to a small collection of Rulers who had come here, drawn by the din that was carrying for dozens of miles in all directions. A black, silver-spotted Night Moon Jaguar, an Emerald Leaf Anaconda, a Gilded Rosette Ocelot, a Dazzling Rainbow Parrot, and an Iron Shallows Capybara were all following along slowly behind the advancing Monkeys, using their quiet Awareness to follow the rolling up of the countless webs in the trees and on the ground, Spider after Spider de-limbed and then beaten to a pulp, and all of it carried as trophies by the junior Monkeys following after their ripping and raging elders.
“Elders,” I greeted them all, as they regarded Reynard and I warily. We glided along, Reynard’s golden wings dazzlingly spread out and supporting us without flapping effortlessly, clearly overshadowing all of them. His full eight Tails waved slightly, a mighty and frightening indicator of his power to any Beast... and I was clearly his Contractor and being borne by him, very different from how Mighty Turk would look being carried along with him.
“Emissary Worldsinger,” the Night Moon Jaguar King, senior to all of them by Bloodline and station, greeted me for them, being very respectful. “Do the Emperors command the Monkeys to act so?” he asked carefully.
“Not so much, Elder, although King Dorado has spoken with Sun Wukong and was very inspired. I forget which Monkey proposed they finally get rid of the Night Weavers after all these generations, but it caught on very quickly, and once it got into their heads, there was no getting it out.” I made a gesture, and every one of the Beasts just nodded in understanding.
Monkeys, what could you do?
“What of the Human domain on the other side of the Spiders’ territory?” the Dazzling Rainbow Parrot Duke chortled musically, quite beautiful and charming with his mastery of Sound. He was riding along on the massive Iron Shallows Capybara Duke, who had well transcended the limitations of his species and would have done a Rhino Duke proud for his mass and girth, completely outweighing the rest of them combined.
“They should not be trusted, Elders,” I admitted to all of them, earning hisses and flickers of ears and scales. “While many of them lack ambition or courage, others see you only as the dumbest of creatures meant to provide them with cultivation resources. The sly and lethal methods of the Night Weavers kept them at bay, but they are much less concerned about taking a fight with howling, chest-thumping Monkeys, and that lack of respect will carry through to the rest of your Tribes.
“This might be somewhat alien to you, but I suggest a group effort and a very harsh and bloody lesson be dealt them when they come to the jungle to take advantage of the conflict. As a matter of fact, they are already gathering to do so to the south.” I hummed a Note, swept my hand across them, and the Blessing Magic took their Awareness and magnified it fifty-fold, sweeping it across the area of conflict and giving them a near-complete record of what was happening there... and then swept on past and by, across the hills and mountains there, to where a force of Humans, all of at least Mage level and led by Archmages, was coming through those valleys, their Auras rich with greed and readiness to take advantage of everything to deal a lesson to the Beasts of the Jungle.
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“We will give the Monkeys their victory, and drive these Humans back to their territory... if they live,” the Night Moon Jaguar King promised after digesting that incredible display and enhancement to his Awareness, looking around but once.
Jaguar, Ocelot, Anaconda, Capybara, and Parrot surged into motion, and despite the fact that the least of them was thirty feet at the shoulder, they were out of sight and standard senses in but seconds, even the Snake who was over a hundred paces long.
“Ho, those Humans are in for a poor time. Your Tribe so strange,” Reynard laughed. “So many examples they fail to see. Who these work for?” He didn’t want to scare the humans off by pscanning them at this range.
“The Mystic Eye recruits the most Talented mages in the world from among the rich and very established Human elite Families and Great Families. As a result, they are extremely intertwined with the society of nobles and wealthy that the Synod has raised up and dominated over the centuries. They can be considered to be unspoken vassals of the Synod, even if some of the students don’t know it.”
The arrogance of Mystic Eye alumni was a byword at the highest levels of society. They regularly flouted the laws of local governments, pissed off lesser Families, abused civilians, and were bailed out by the Mage Association and other Mystic Eye alumni time and again. Graduates were ensconced in positions of power all over the world, and even being a guest lecturer there gave someone long-term benefits.
It was simply THE place to get a magical education, as student or teacher. It was indeed very high-end education, but the political connections you made were usually more important to your future. The power of its students was just an added bonus.
Some would say I was selling out Humanity by doing this, but they were specists, and I was not.
“When they get slaughtered and run for it, I’ll make up some nice boundary markers for them to acknowledge and ignore in the future, so the Beasts have absolutely no reason to go nice on them. They aren’t going to like it when they fail to learn the Monkeys have learned to post sentries.”
“Sometimes Humans not so very smart,” Reynard sniffed. “Should go help. Groom is doing fine with Spiders.”
And Mighty Turk didn’t have any problems with that description at all.
I flipped my Wings out, rising from the saddle, and Reynard popped away into the distance. He would help all the Beasts moving to intercept the coming Humans play nice, and coordinate them for maximum deadly effect... and they’d obey him, too.
The one in charge was a half-Sage, but he was going to be toast under Reynard’s gaze, and probably end up Jaguar-food. Reynard regularly tested his Will against mine. That greedy half-Sage didn’t have a chance.
I almost told Reynard to let him live, as stumbling back to Mystic Eye after losing an entire expeditionary force was going to attract some murderous attention from the Families said students belonged to.
But then, nah. Better to let some terrified kids run, and the ones responsible for the foolishness pay with their lives.
Ahead of me, the Monkeys were pressing into the inner zones, and I Blinked away. I was zipping between the Monkeys who were rolling up all the webbing, dumping it into my Pocket for use at some future time. There was lots and lots of it, but the Monkeys were happy to do it, as they had to tear down the stuff anyway if they wanted to move through the trees.
I’d also promised to weave a Portable Hole for each of the Monkey Kings out of the stuff, which they were quite eager to receive. It might only be a ten-foot cylinder in size, but it was still extradimensional storage for them!
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Clever Monkeys. All that wound up Night Weaver silk? Turns out it makes great nets as well as webs, Monkeys could weave with all four limbs, the stuff was immune to the Spiders’ Poison Magic, and it could catch them even in their Shadow forms.
Teams of howling Monkeys went after all the older Spiders and took them down one by one, netting them up with their own webbing, not letting them Blink out of the things, and then proceeded to either rip their legs off or directly pounded them down to pulp with hefty Tetsubos and great enthusiasm, the dying squeals only adding to the drumbeat din.
Absorbent pollens and spores against clouds of Poison, nets against webs, numbers and group tactics against ambush predators, wrap and wrestle against overly-tough carapaces. The Monkeys did everything they needed to do, working together with amazing teamwork, great preparation, and ferocious morale.
It was like they’d been fighting massive numbers of enemies alongside tactically adept allies or something, and picked up a few clever tricks on how to prepare for specific enemies.
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The Night Weaver Baroness had tried to run, but there were too many nets in every direction, too many Howls were following her and making it impossible for her to concentrate. There were pollen clouds in all directions sucking in her Poison magic, and she couldn’t escape with Shadow or Void Magic. Tossing around the super-tough Monkeys wasn’t working, and trying anything fancy or lengthy was impossible with the Howls increasingly concentrated on her and visibly shaking her obsidian carapace with reverberations.
And then she got caught in one net with a couple legs, fifty Monkeys anchoring the net against one of the great trees about and not letting her tear away.
Within seconds, four more nets were thrown over her, wrapped around her legs, and then two Monkeys actually ran right under her, trailing weblines as they did, and screaming, crazed Monkeys grabbed on to them and heaved.
Writhing in disbelief, the Ruling Night Weaver Spider found her legs crushed together and herself lashing and rolling on the ground as more and more nets came down atop her, and dozens of brightly colored flowers spewing out fountains of pollen all around her.
“HUUUU!”
“HUUUUUU!” echoed forth from the thousands of surrounding Monkeys, and the Night Weaver’s whole body wobbled and blurred at the volume of the noise.
Golden figures crashed down all around her, all of them wrapped in sticky, Poison-defiant leaves, and mighty Tetsubos burning with levels of magic on them that were wholly inappropriate for Beasts were clasped in mighty paws with ready skill.
Two on each flank, King Dorado in the front, Mighty Turk at the back, and the Monkeys proceeded to the beat down.
“HU HU HU HU HU HU HU!” the surrounding Monkeys chanted, keeping up the thunderous barrage of sound.