“We should be safe here tonight, and tomorrow we can set out for Ildul if Van is up to walking,” Taloc said as he handed Vanya a long stick to use as a walking aid.
“It already feels much better,” Vanya said. “I should be ready by tomorrow.”
“Was the ape drinking the water from the fountain?” Ewtain asked, ignoring the conversation between Taloc and Vanya.
“Yeah,” Isla said. “Why?”
“Well, we should go kill the ape, have one of the casters harvest its soul, and then drink the water,” Ewtain said in a pragmatic way.
Isla looked at him skeptically. “You want to go drink the water?”
“Well, I don’t want to go first,” he said, “but you can drink it, and if you turn into an ape, then I will kill you and wait for you to respawn and make it back to us. Which reminds me, we should probably bind here, or maybe a little way off from camp in case something jumps us while we sleep.”
“Why do you want to pick a fight with a huge ape, and why do you want to drink that water?” Taloc asked the Night Stalker.
“This is a magic world, and a fountain in the middle of the forest screams ‘magic’. As for the ape, I’m fine if it’s gone from the place so that we can just test the fountain, but if not, that’s experience and possible resources for us. Vult needs more souls to make the magic weapon he promised me.”
“I didn’t promise you a magic weapon,” Vultressant protested.
They all looked at Ewtain. He gave a small laugh. “It’s true; he didn’t say that, but he will make me something with its soul.” Ewtain looked at Vanya. “The water also might heal your leg.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then I’m up for going now,” Vanya said with a smile. “You guys are going to have to do the fighting, but I volunteer to take the first drink.”
“You two didn’t see the ape,” Isla said. “While it’s not exactly King Kong, it is seriously huge.”
Ewtain shrugged. “Well, the thing has to sleep sometime. When it does, we sneak in there and grab us some water. We can leave without its soul if you want.”
“You are truly a murder hobo,” Taloc said to the Night Stalker.
“Indeed,” Ewtain replied. “And I feel bad for his ape wife that he left watching their ape children back home. I don’t want to have to make her a widow, so we can have Vult talk to him and get him to see reason. If that doesn’t work, we eat his soul.”
“How do you know that it’s male?” Isla asked.
“Umm, you guys said that it was King Kong, and that was a male ape.”
“I’m in,” Vultressant said.
“Says the third person who hasn’t actually seen the creature,” Taloc said, and then he looked to Maroftis and Isla. “What do you two think?”
“My assess ability seems to indicate that this may be the toughest opponent that we have faced yet, but I’ll give it a go,” Maroftis said, and Vultressant translated. “There is only one of it.”
“Do you think you can tank that thing?” Taloc asked seriously.
Maroftis put up his claws, indicating, that he was uncertain. “Maybe.”
“Your regeneration might not work if that thing rips off your arm and beats you with it,” Isla said dryly.
“Well, then I be back here,” Maroftis said. “I change bind point here.” He pointed at the ground for emphasis. They decided to eat before setting out for the fountain, and while there was some argument about strategy, there was no more dissent about going.
They stopped a long way off from where the ape was lounging. It didn’t seem to be guarding the fountain, but it also didn’t appear to be leaving the area any time soon. Their hope that the ape would be sleeping or away from the area was clearly not going to come to fruition. They spent two hours watching the beast, and the only thing that it did was occasionally go get a drink from the fountain.
The ape was easily twice the size of any gorilla that Vultressant had ever seen. He gauged its weight to be nearly half a ton—and not a flabby half-ton either. This was no reality show shut-in who required aid to move and had delivery or enablers bring them food. This was something that could quite possibly carry one of those people.
They decided to attack with the intention of driving it off, but if it came to a fight, then they would try to use ranged weapons for as long as possible. If it closed on them, they would try their best to surround it and slow it down by attacking the massive legs supporting it. Vultressant had no intention of actually entering melee, but he could keep a steady stream of flaming projectiles headed its way.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
It was getting late in the day when they finally approached the lounging beast. Ewtain had borrowed Vanya’s bow since she was staying out of this fight. He had no skill with the weapon, but he might get in a lucky shot or two. Given the immense size of the ape, it was a close comparison to hitting the broad side of a barn.
When they were close enough to have a clear shot at the creature, Taloc put up a hand and signaled for them to take aim. Vultressant started to cast a spell; Maroftis readied his crossbow; the other three all drew their longbows. Taloc made a soft whistle, and they released on his cue. One of the arrows missed, but everything else hit the creature. The problem was that none of the strikes seemed to have done much in the way of damage; the HP bar on the Giant Ape had barely moved. Either it had a crap ton of HP or a different tactic was needed to defeat the creature. They did successfully enrage the thing, however—it stood up to its full height of about nine feet, beat its chest a few times, and roared.
The party sent another wave of missiles, most of which also struck the mark, and then the Giant Ape sent back a missile of its own. A large rock struck Taloc in the shoulder, and he dropped his bow and nearly fell over from the force of the impact. The ape quickly grabbed another rock, and Ewtain yelled, “Take cover!” They scattered; they each found a tree to dive behind. In hindsight, using a tree as a shield from the start would have provided them cover from projectiles, but none of them had thought about return fire when they’d been planning.
Ewtain poked his head out for just long enough to get a rock thrown at it, but he was able to jerk it back before the rock arrived. Then the ape charged them. The movement was loud and sounded much like a horse galloping—or maybe a team of Clydesdales. When it was nearly upon them, Vultressant began casting his new spell, wave of air. He tried to focus on the spell to apply more mana points into the casting; he felt that if he could not slow down the fast-approaching ape, someone would be hurled back by the force of the impact or possibly even trampled. Vultressant held the spell until he felt a pressure within him that needed to be released. The ape wasn’t quite in the range of the spell yet, so he held it another moment. He released the spell, and every piece of loose debris on the ground, even some that were not loose at all, was hurled towards the rampaging ape. It screamed and covered its face for protection, and it slowed. The Wizard didn’t know whether the cause of the slowing was the force of the wind or the debris that had distracted it, but he was glad that his spell had done something positive.
Ewtain slipped behind the ape, and Maroftis and Isla assumed a defensive position in front of it. The ape started swinging its arms like it wanted to knock them away, and they each used a nearby tree to protect them. The beast became preoccupied with Isla and attempted to pummel her. Ewtain took the opportunity to circle around his tree and slash his blades at the distracted ape, and he was able to make some shallow cuts on its thick hide.
Vultressant glanced over at Taloc. He was still on the ground behind a tree in obvious pain. He didn’t have a potion because he had given it back to Vanya, so he might be out of the fight. Vultressant couldn’t get to him, so he went back to casting, this time preparing his bolt of fire spell He tried to pump as much power into the spell as he could. The pressure built up again, and he released the spell. He had aimed high, even though he was far enough off to the side of the fight that there was little chance to hit an ally. The ape had raised an arm to try to strike downward at Isla, but the bolt from Vultressant struck it hard in the side, just under its armpit. Instead of hitting Isla, the beast hit the tree next to her; there was a loud crack as a large branch was broken by the force of the blow.
Ewtain took the opportunity to get a few good stabs in, followed by a special attack; all hits struck the legs. The Giant Ape’s HP meter dropped visibly, and it prompted the monster to swing at the Night Stalker next. The beast swatted at Ewtain as if he were swatting a bug, but Ewtain dodged the attack easily. Maroftis was then able to move into a flanking position, and he stabbed the ape on the opposite side of where Vultressant’s bolt had hit it.
The ape moved using all four limbs. It placed one of its arms on the ground to stabilize its enormous size while using the other arm to fight. Ewtain adjusted and attacked its midsection. He slid his short sword between two of its ribs, causing it to whirl around and face him. The light tan fur around the wound became stained with blood. The Night Stalker ran away, so the creature struck back at Maroftis instead, connecting with a sweeping arm. The impact caused Maroftis to fly back, where he slammed into a tree before falling to the ground.
Taloc’s left arm hung uselessly and appeared to be broken, and he stood with his longsword in one hand. He looked in no hurry to rejoin the battle. To distract the enormous creature and hopefully give one of the melee fighters an opening, Vultressant sent a normal bolt of fire at the ape’s face. It was a more difficult target than the mostly stationary core of the beast. The ape swiveled its head to the right, and the bolt struck the back of its head, causing the creature to cover its head defensively with one hand. The distraction allowed Isla and Ewtain the opportunity to run up and land a few blows. They each used one of their special attacks and then backed away, looking for cover.
The ape fought back, its wounds causing it to move more slowly than before. Vultressant could see that its health had dropped to under half of its maximum HP, and he tried another quick spell to distract it further. The spell connected on the side of its neck, causing the ape to protect itself from the flames, and Isla and Ewtain danced in again to strike. Even Taloc was able to land a blow on a meaty thigh. He appeared to be off balance due to the injured arm, but he seemed to be compensating well.
The ape reached up and grabbed a large branch on one of the trees that they fought next to. It appeared as if it were about to try to climb the tree, but instead it broke the branch off as if it were just a twig. Thinking that the ape was trying to flee and not wanting to miss out on the experience points that the creature would give, Ewtain had closed the distance. He realized his miscalculation when the ape turned and swung the branch in a wide arc that Ewtain was unable to avoid—he was struck in the stomach and thrown a solid fifteen feet in the air before hitting the ground and sliding another several feet. He crashed into a tree, and he slumped in a heap, motionless.