A Warlock's Ascent

Dave felt sad for the infant Kong. It was very unfortunate that it had to die in such a way…

"What the fuck is the matter with you," Grump asked angrily while pushing Hamel.

"I didn't know that there was a baby there." Hamel protested.

"You old geezer have your lost your mind? You used explosive magic like this when we were in Cloudhold, are you fucking insane? The explosion could attract monsters and humans alike. And not to forget you killed a baby Kong. Didn't you see that slash? There is a Tribal Chief around here for fucks sake. How the fuck would you imagine that we would take care of it if it shows up?"

Hamel had it enough, his scrunched in anger and he started berating Grump. "You listen to me you dirty son of a whore. You don't talk to me like that. Do not forget that I am a Gomez. I belong to a noble house and you will treat me like such. Or otherwise, I will have you fuck you up and then dump you in the same sewer where your dirty mother used to sleep in."

Hearing Hamel's words, Grump became angry. He tightly gripped his Kukuri knife and slowly walked to him. Seeing Grump's face, Hamel started backing up a little bit. He didn't show it on his face but it was clear from his body language that he was afraid of Grump. Dave who saw the situation escalating went between them to stop.

Dave held back Grump and stopped him from advancing any further. As the three of them were busy, little Ricardo who was standing by the side heard a small noise. He looked in the direction from where he heard the noise, and it was then he saw it…

Another small Kong had appeared beside the corpse of the one his Grandfather killed. This second Kong pushed the other Kong's body with his front limbs trying to wake him up. Seeing the actions of the small Kong, made Ricardo feel sad. He wanted to console the new Kong but he didn't know how. Seeing its action he started thinking about what the dead Kong meant to the other one. Were they family? Or were they friends?

As the other Kong realized that no matter what it does, its friend won't wake up, it started getting angry. It was then turned around and started glaring at Ricardo with hateful eyes. It started showing his teeth to him. Seeing this, the young man started calling his grandfather because he was a little scared of little Kong.

"Grandpa…" he said in a low voice as he was scared. But because of bickering, his grandfather completely ignored his call.

And just when Ricardo thought the little Kong would jump at him, the little thing took a deep breath. And then he started screaming…

OOOOAAAAAARRRR!!!!

Hearing the little Kong's scream, everyone stopped and started looking in the direction of the little thing. As the little guy saw that all the humans were now looking at him, he made a run for it.

It started climbing the nearest tree, but even while climbing it didn't stop screaming. The little thing climbed all the way up the tree. And as soon as it reached the topmost branch of the tree. As soon as it peeked from up there, Grump made it move. He knocked an arrow in his bow and fired as soon as he saw its little head. The shot was fired and pierced its head, killing the little thing.

With little Kong dead, the forest was once again shrouded in silence. And when everyone thought that it was over, the silence of the forest started breaking when they heard a Kong from their south screaming…

OOO OOAKK OOOAAAK OOOAAAAK

Then another Kong from the same direction started screaming. Then sounds started reverberating from the East. And within seconds sounds of apes chattering and screaming very started reverberating from all directions. Hearing all the chattering everyone started becoming tense. And it was then they all heard…

RRROOOOOAAARR!!!!

The roar that sounded in the forest suppressed all the chattering of Kongs. "Everyone RUN!" Grump was the one to yell and then he started running. And then everyone started following his suit…

Running through the forest was a very difficult thing. The ground was very moist and covered with decomposing leaves, which made it very slippery. And then there were all the big roots of trees in the way which could make anyone trip if they are not careful.

Still, everyone was motivated to run as fast as they can. The chattering of the apes has not stopped for a second since they started running. And from the sound of it, he could tell that the chattering was getting louder and louder as time passed. Kongs were catching up to them.

And after some time he noticed that he has started hearing the crackling noise of branches of, as he passed by them. And from the way that the leaves were falling down the trees, he figured that all the apes that he could hear were on the trees above them.

As soon as he figured out that the apes were on the trees and had already caught up to him, he immediately thought about increasing his speed. But then out of nowhere he was tackled from his side and flung over to his left. While the rest of the group went on ahead, unaware that he had fallen.

The tackle had immense force behind it, but it was not strong enough to make him lose his shit. As soon as he hit the ground, he immediately got up to face his opponent who turned out to be a small 4 feet tall green color chimpanzee, who had blood lust in its eyes.

Before he could make another move, the chimp jumped high in the air, trying to smash him with its hand. He easily sidestepped the chimp's trajectory and brought out his broken spear. And immediately pierced the chimp as soon as it landed beside.

Even after making seekh Kabab out of the chimp, it didn't go down. It started flaying his hand around trying to grab and bite him. But he simply let go of the spear and started running away leaving behind the injured and probably dead Kong.

While running, he started hearing noises from above. He knew that he had been surrounded and he would eventually have to fight these apes. So he instantly brought out his sword. He then unsheathed it and threw away the scabbard. And then he put his sword back in his inventory, he figured that this way he would be able to fend off his enemies in unseen situations.

It was then an ape that has dived down from the tree in front of him that was blocking his way. This ape was bigger than the last one. It was approximately about 5 feet tall and was holding a very fat club in his hands.

The ape with the club also started running toward him. As it got in range, it jumped on him while swinging his club. But he on the other hand anticipated the attack. That is why he immediately changed directions thus making the ape attack futile.

Now running in the other direction, he started wrecking his brain, thinking about how can he out of this situation. But before he could think of anything else, an ape jumped on his back. This ape was very smaller than the previous ones. That is why he didn't trip as he jumped on his back.

The ape on his back then quickly took a bite of his shoulder. He yelled in pain as he felt the pointy teeth of the ape penetrating his shoulder's muscle. He then immediately brought his hand back and grabbed the pelt of the ape and threw him away…

He ran for a while but then he came to an abrupt stop when he saw 5 big chimps with clubs in their hands, blocking his way. Before he tries to run back in the direction he came from, that route is also blocked by a bunch of more chimps.

While standing in the middle of a trap made by apes, he knew that he had nowhere else to go. He will have to make his stand here and now. So he immediately took his sword from his inventory and got ready.

It was then of the ape jumped on him from above. But unlucky for it, he had already seen the apes on the top and had expected an attack such as this.

As soon as the ape came within his range, he immediately swung his sword toward the ape. His sword was able to cut half of the creature's face and some fingers. And then the ape fell on the ground with blood pouring out of it.

It was then two apes from his back that jumped into action. But thanks to some training from Grump, he had been vigilant of every moment around him. As soon as those apes took action, he immediately turned around and swung his sword making a wide horizontal arc. The apes, on the other hand, got scared by his move and immediately jumped back.

He then quickly took a very big step forward, toward the retreating apes, and then he swung his sword making a vertical arc. This time, one of the apes got caught in the range of the sword and got a big slash on his torso and his face. Seeing this the other ape got scared and retreated.

It was then one of the big apes of the group took action. With its club in his hands, it ran towards and jumped. The ape was about to bring the heavy club down his ass. But from the corner of their eyes, he had already seen him move.

So he immediately brought his shield out. He had already taken into account the sheer size of the club and its weight. He was sure that it would be difficult for him to block the attack in such a way from his arm doesn't become numb or worse break. So instead of blocking the attack, he figured that he would parry it, just like Grump had taught him.

As soon as the ape was onto him, he swung his arms, using the ape's momentum against it. And with enough force, he was successfully able to parry the club sideway. And before the ape could move his club once again, he trusted his sword towards its torso and thus impaling it.

Seeing the three of their comrades injured angered all the rest of the monsters standing there. And then they all started moving in towards him with all the force that they could…

After he took out his sword from the ape's torso, another one jumped on his back and tried to bite him. He then quickly grabbed the ape with his left hand and flung him forward. Till then one of the bigger apes came running toward him and kicked from his sides.

The kick flung him sideways. He flew in the air for a moment or two and then fell on his face. But then he soon got up and tried to collect himself. An ape that was nearby, flung a long wooden stick to the side of his face. The stick broke as it made contact with his face. But it acted as a wake-up call to collect himself. After he was struck by a stick, he immediately put his sword and shield back in his inventory.

Then he did a reverse barrel roll and got away from the apes. Then he quickly got up and started running…

As Dave ran he started feeling liquid coming down his cheeks. He understood that the side of his head was bleeding. Also from the sound of it, there was an ape chasing after him. He then quickly commanded and then reequipped his bow and arrow. By the time his quiver was equipped, his hands had already reached an arrow. He then quickly knocked an arrow and abruptly stopped.

Then he turned around while knocking an arrow. He could hear and sensed, that one of the larger apes was almost onto him, as soon as he turned around he let the arrow loose. The arrow whistled through the air and struck the ape straight in his head and killing him immediately.

With one of the bigger apes down, he then started running again. While running he knocked another arrow into his bow and waited for an opportune moment. It was then he saw that one of the apes was running by his side a little bit towards his right. He then aimed his arrow while running toward the ape and let it loose.

But the arrow struck one of the trees, missing its mark. But he didn't lose confidence with such an attempt. He then immediately knocked another arrow from his quiver and took a shot once again. But this time too, the arrow missed its target.

It was then he realized that there was something wrong with the left side of his face. He is not able to see clearly with his left eye. It was then he realized that maybe the left side of his face had started swelling up. That is why his aim was a mess.

As he couldn't aim, he then focused on running instead. The apes that were chasing him were pretty smart. They tried to devise the same tactic as they did before to corner him. Some apes tried to block his way. But as he didn't want to be cornered like before he took out his shield and rammed into them and then started running again.

The more he ran, the more he started to feel the fatigue catching up to him. He could feel that he was slowing down and he couldn't keep up anymore…

After avoiding a lot of apes that blocked his way, he started to wonder whether he would be able to outrun these apes. He started losing hope. But it was then he came to an abrupt stop when he found himself in the middle of the clearing. Apes had surrounded the area from all sides. And he was now cornered.

He mumbled some curses in a low voice and prepared for the battle that was about to come. But it was then he noticed something peculiar about this clearing. The trees around the clearing had big slashes like that Grump showed them before. According to the old man, that slash was made by something called the Tribal Chief. He didn't know what that meant but he understood that it couldn't be a good thing.

It was then he noticed another peculiar thing. The apes were not attacking him. They all had him surrounded and were screaming like crazy. But they were not attacking him.

'Is it me or does this place look a lot like an arena?' he thought. It was a stupid thought. But then he started loud rumbling noises as if something heavy of making its way towards the clearing….