89 War Party

With her free hand glowing like the heart of a volcano, Roheisa sent out a quick jab to whatever it was that'd dropped behind us. Sending a flaming, molten boulder hurtling into the creature and much of the forest behind it. Turning the relatively peaceful environment into a hellscape of magma pools and charred remains.

"Jesus, don't burn down the forest!" I spat at her and flicked a mass of shadow mana at her collateral in the same motion. Damping the night with the icy-blue light of the Flames of Moil.

With another mass of mana and a little intent, I conjured the beholder and peered through the multi-faceted 'screen' of darkness to examine our opponents while Roheisa jumped back again.

"W- What the hell is that?"

"The Beholder. He'll provide overwatch," I said as I held up a finger to make her wait. Then chuckled wryly after realizing just what it was calling us out from the canopy.

They had long, somewhat shaggy fur that was mostly a brownish-gray color. On their backsides and muzzles, however, their fur took on more vibrant hues like golds, blues, and reds. In other words.

"It's a troop of mandrills." I turned to the Princess, shaking my head. "They don't have magic, but they're strong; and worse, extremely violent. And." I turned back to my screen with a sigh. "There are hundreds of them."

"I'd rather not fight them if we don't have to," Roheisa said. "But it surely poses a problem."

"I agree." I nodded. "That said, we will have to come through here tomorrow. We could bypass them by flying over, but." I sighed. "Who's to say they won't follow us."

"True. They're obviously provoked. If we leave now, they may follow us back to camp. I guess we have no choice." With another sigh, she stepped forward with her weapon at the ready.

"Wait!" I reached out to stop her.

"What!?" She spun with a sudden ferocity that left me a bit taken aback.

I released her at once with my palms bared. Yet my amiable grin was ever firm as I said. "Well, you can fight if you want. But I was going to test the might of the Tenebrous Menagerie. I'm going to observe. Just try not to get hurt."

Before she could say anything else, I opened my Pocket and used a bit of gravity magic and mana infusion to leap high onto the trunk of a tree to sit down, light a smoke, and enjoy the show.

By then, the entirety of the Menagerie had been unleashed. Together, they charged. Spreading to wherever enemies were present like a nightmarish tidal wave.

Naturally, Chako, Orpheus, and Jima were the first to close the distance and make contact. They swam through the ever-present darkness in a single file, gracefully skimming past the trees to deliver a swipe from their tail fins powerful enough to split the ancient trunks apart like dry twigs. Sending a rain of mandrills right into the maws of the sea of shadow rabbits waiting below.

Hatchi was close behind the trio. Squirming through the sea of darkness like a black, rubbery, eldritch abomination while his barbed tentacles flailed with wild abandon. Grabbing ahold of and ripping and tearing and shredding into whatever leaves, flesh, or bark happened to be in their way.

While the sea of Rogers tended to the feast delivered from on high, Stewie and Kit were on a mad dash between the remaining trees. Running back and forth to any monkey-holding branch to either gnaw it free from the trunk or create an illusion to taunt the mandrills off their perches. Sending a delivery of fresh opponents for Skoll and Hati to turn the boredom on.

Jake announced his presence soon after by coiling up a tree at a nerve-racking pace. Growing in girth with each passing meter while his tail stayed loosely coiled on the ground.

He made it halfway to the top before waves of loud, splintering creaks pierced the cacophony of howls and screeches until his weight toppled yet another ancient tree down.

Even with all the chaos, at least a dozen mandrills were remaining in the back. The three largest of them were at the rear, watching the battle unfold like a band of seasoned generals while their guards struggled to fend off Pora Bora's harassment.

Through our linked sight, I was given a first-person view of her weaving between the trees at breakneck speeds to bite and claw at eyes and ankles like an armed drone.

Still, he needed reinforcements. So I pulled shadow mana into my throat and shouted into the darkness. "Gero, Skoll, Hati, with me."

They dipped into the darkness at once. And so to did I, to swim through the cemetery of rotted trees and hollowed out trunks to where the cloud of ghostly apes was floating.

After emerging on their branch, I simultaneously summoned Gero and sent a pair of bullets at the furthest mandrill's feet to spawn a flower of Shade Tendrils.

While Gero and my spells did their work, I flung my arm at the branch ahead of them. Allowing Skoll and Hati to rocket out of my pocket and tackle the troop of guards to the forest floor.

When I turned back, one of the alphas was already deep in Gero's maw and the latter was receding back into my pocket with a somehow guilty expression.

"I swear if you eat that, you're dead!" I sneered, then stepped back through the shadows to return to Roheisa's side.

By then, I had all I wanted to get out of this battle. Three somewhat intelligent and undoubtedly powerful beasts and a measure of my troop's strength.

I had a specific purpose for these apes. Unlike Skoll and Hati, who were captured in duo on a whim; more or less. More so, I had more variables in my little experiment and the path forward would be clear. In other words, I was pleasantly surprised by this encounter.

Roheisa, on the other hand, was so stricken that she hardly acknowledged my arrival after she'd noticed my presence. Instead, her gaze was locked onto the slaughter-fest going on before us.

What was left of the mandrills were on the run. Vaulting over the maze of felled trees to avoid being slammed into a crimson paste by tail fins larger than houses or ripped apart by barbed tentacles or devoured alive.

While my troops had taken damage during the battle, the ambient darkness seemed to not only sustain them but heal them to a minor effect as well. What wasn't healed was easily made up for by the bountiful feast spread out around them. Though, strangely, none of them seemed to want to eat other than to mend themselves. Instead, they dragged the maimed corpses into the shadows to assumedly store for later.

"Don't destroy the forest, you said." Roheisa chided with a dusted sneer written across her face.

"Don't burn down the forest,' I said. And, as you can see." I spread my arms around us with a smug grin. "No fire."

"And a missing patch of forest." She snorted.

"Eh." I shrugged. "Better than a burning mountain."

"Regardless, I didn't expect them to be so strong. It was a bit disturbing, though." She gagged after witnessing my orcas scoop a pile of corpses into their mouths and disappear into the darkness.

"You'll get used to it."

She remained silent for the few minutes it took for my troops to salvage what they could and retreat into my Pocket. Reducing the once chaotic environment to a blood-stained, broken forest plagued with an eerie stillness.

"Shall we continue?" Roheisa whispered with a gesture up the mountain.

"The noise probably scared off any nearby animals, so we may as well go back." I shrugged.

"Okay then, how about a race?"