Chapter 280: Bellow in the Brush

Suddenly, a giant silhouette of a monkey-like creature broke through the treetops and descended on to their group. Its face had a large underbite with two large teeth pointing upward, no doubt a weapon it used for tearing the flesh of its foes. Its dark black fur covered every part of its body except for its hands and feet; it had large brown spikes rolling down its back along with dark blue eyes. With such a small amount of light, its figure was vastly more terrifying. It landed next to Maria and pounded on its chest while roaring.

Jacob’s legs felt like Jelly, but he forced himself to grab Maria and gain some distance. The words were appearing slowly next the monsters’ body, but he had no time to read them. The monster bellowed and swung its massive arm down where Maria had been standing. The impact was so devastating, it shook the entire tree they were on. Maria threw her spear as her and Jacob backed away. However, the creature dodged it with ease.

"Jacob! I need you to tell me if this thing has a weakness or not!"

"Weakness?! My eyes haven’t been telling me a weakness! Just a description of what the creature is!"

"Then get me a description! I need to know what we’re dealing with! We need advantages!"

Suddenly, a massive serpent-like mouth closed around the creature’s neck and thrashed it around violently. It was Sheeby coming to the rescue. Sheeby ripped out a large chunk of the creature’s flesh before cutting up its torso with her claws. The creature screamed and grabbed on to Sheeby’s body, sending multiple body blows into her scales. However, she was able to endure the attacks, which allowed Jacob to get a good read on the creature in front of them. Jacob shouted the words to Slimo as he read them.

Name: Jungle Ape

Class: Infant Leviathan

Description: These apes are born in the harshest conditions of the jungle. Their parents let the jungle raise their offspring to allow for maximum adaptability. From the very moment this creature was born, it had to fight to survive. The oldest of these species tend to be the strongest of their kind. Infants are inexperienced and do not know when to take or avoid a fight, often times dying to those much stronger than them.

[Jungle Adapted]: This creature has adapted to the environment of the jungle

[Corrupter]: This is a creature of corruption.

[Brute Strength]: This creature’s strength and durability increase much faster compared to other creatures.

"We shouldn’t let it use the environment to its advantage. It seems to like climbing so try to stay away from the trunk of the tree. We also need to try different attacks. Keep them as random as possible so it can’t learn our moves in time. Let’s give Sheeby a hand where we can help."

Everyone nodded and charged forward. The fight between Sheeby and the Jungle Ape was escalating. The ape managed to bite through Sheeby’s scales using its massive teeth, which she didn’t take lightly. She grabbed the ape by its shoulders and lifted it off the ground in the air before tossing it like a dead pile of meat. Then, while the ape was falling, she charged a multi-colored blast in her mouth. However, as it was charging, everything around them started to shake. Jacob held on to the ground below himself to regain his balance briefly. Suddenly, Jacob heard something he thought he’d never hear from a dragon.

"Release."

And just like that, the entire jungle lit up like the surface of the sun. An explosion of color so violent it shook the area around them for miles. The ape that got caught directly in its blast eviscerated into nothing almost immediately. However, the ape wasn’t the only thing that was destroyed. There was a visible hole almost a thousand feet wide that was left seared into a long line of trees. Sheeby flapped her wings weakly as she landed back on the branch and panted heavily. Almost as quickly as the brush as destroyed, it began repairing itself.

Everyone in the group was too stunned to speak or move. Everyone except for Sarah who immediately ran forward and started looking for things to patch Sheeby’s wound on her back. There were two large holes from where the ape’s teeth punctured through. Seeing how easily Sheeby’s scales broke under its bite made Jacob sick to his stomach.

"Did... Sheeby just-"

"Talk? I don’t know. Was that her talking or did we just hear those words in our head?"

"Dragons are allowed to have release powers?! That thing must have really pissed her off."

"Can you all stop gawking and help me! She’s hurt!"

Everyone snapped out of their small daydream and tried looked for something that could possibly be used as a bandage. However, they were never given the chance. Three more apes landed on their branch, pounding their chest wildly and walking forward using their arms. Jacob shook as he read the words appearing next to them.

"Slimo... these one’s aren’t infants. These are elders."

Slimo cursed under his breath.

"We need to ride Sheeby and get the hell away from here! We can’t win this fight!"

Everyone jumped on top of Sheeby who immediately tried flapping her wings to get away. However, just as her last talon was ready to glide away, one of the apes caught it and yanked her backward. A loud snap echoed through the air as Sheeby yelped out in pain. Maria’s eyes glowed red with anger. She stood up on Sheeby’s back and turned to face the ape as steam flowed off her arms.

"GET OFF MY DRAGON!!"

She grabbed the shaft of the spear so hard it cracked under her grip. She threw it as hard as she could at the ape. Even though it managed to move slightly, the spear still lodged itself inside its cheek. The wound wasn’t deep, but it was enough of a distraction for the ape to let go. Instead of flying, everyone began to freefall through the air as Sheeby tried to regain control of her flight using her wings. They crashed through three thick green vines before successfully taking flight again.

Sheeby’s movements were haggard. She was badly damaged and the environment around her was hindering her flight greatly.

Suddenly, the three apes jumped off the branch they were on and danced through the vines like they were nothing. Immediately, they had managed to close the distance on them. Every one of them was a seasoned veteran of the jungle. Moving through the thick brush was no more difficult than Jacob and Maria walking through a meadow with tall grass.

One of the apes jumped in the air and was ready to crash itself on Sheeby’s back, but right as it was about to land, Sheeby swerved out of the way and started flying closer to the ground. Over and over the same cycle repeated of an ape trying to tackle Sheeby or catch her in their hands, but each time she managed to evade at the last possible minute. However, as Sheeby descended closer to the ground, she was running out of places to fly.

The three apes stayed right on her tail, waiting patiently for their final lunge. Suddenly, Sheeby zipped into a giant thorn bush, completely blocking her body from the view of the apes for a second. The apes jumped on the other side of the bush to continue the chase, but as they did, there was no dragon in sight. They each caught themselves on a vine or branch and panted heavily while screaming and pounding their chest.

They rammed themselves into trees in anger. Just then, they turned on each other. One ape took a large bite out of its friend before slamming its large fists into its body. The other ape tackled it and tried ripping one of its limbs off before it could continue. However, the ape who had just gotten bitten turned on the one that saved it and thrashed its head violently. Every hit against the other made a boom so loud it would rustle the vines and leaves around them.

After thirty minutes of fighting, one heavily bleeding ape emerged victorious. It staggered slightly before trying to eat the remains of its once friends. However, before it could, a giant devilish bird swooped down and carried it high into the treetops, only the sounds of its wails being left behind.

Inside the thorn bush, using a new-found invisibility power, was Sheeby using her wings to cover everyone in the group. Everyone’s expressions were lightless as they stared at the ground. They had to sit through the sounds of the apes turning on each other for all that time. The entire thing was so disgusting it left them with nothing but a feeling of indescribable dread. Jacob whispered to himself.

"Dread..."

Maria looked up at Slimo with dim eyes.

"What’s the plan? What do we do?"

Slimo grit his teeth.

"The things out there are too powerful, even for Sheeby. We need to learn to navigate this hell without being seen. Sheeby got extremely lucky to be blessed with this power when she did, or she would have been a goner. That also means it’s not guaranteed she’ll have it for long."

He sighed shakily.

"Truthfully... I have a plan B, but we will only do it when we have absolutely no other options. Understand?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Good. Before we continue moving..."

He looked at Jacob.

"I need you to do something. I hope you’re hungry."