Fighting the Branch Monkeys

Jaycee walked toward Branch Monkeys. They seemed to not notice her as they continued eating. Once she got within speaking distance she cleared her throat and taunted them.

"You stupid monkeys! Get down here and fight me!"

The monkeys turned to look at her. A frail looking girl armed with nothing more than a fan to cool herself in the heat of the jungle. She looked weak. The monkeys looked at each other and started howling laughing. Seeing the monkeys laughing at her from atop their branch, she started to get annoyed.

"Come on! Fight me you chickens!"

The purpose of the taunting was to get them off the tree. She had never fought before but she does know that monkeys are really good at maneuvering through the large trees of the forest. She didn't want to climb up there and fight them on their turf, so they had to come down and fight on hers.

However the monkeys would never do that. They stopped laughing and got serious. Food was delivering itself right to their doorstep, so they would take it. They could never have enough food after all. The monkeys walked over to a platform they had created between the branches out of sticks that held some heavy rocks that they use for hunting.

Jaycee couldn't see what they were doing but was startled when she saw the monkey take a medium sized rock in it's hand. It's arm was wound up like a catapult behind it's body.

WHOOSH

The rock split the air as it soared towards her. She lifted both her hands to cover her face as she gave out a squeak in fear. Just at that moment, a large noise blew by like the winds at the top of a mountain. She opened her eyes and saw the trees bending backwards away from her. A massive rush of air had blown them back. The Branch Monkeys, taking the brunt of the force, were flung high into the air. Even higher than the already tall trees of the forest.

The monkeys flailed uncontrollably in the sky. Sadly, what goes up must come down. They stopped rising and began falling closer and closer to the ground. Their howls of fear finally became audible to Jaycee as they fell like rocks to the ground. With a thud they landed. The trees flicked back toward their original positions, and the ruffling of leaves stopped.

Jaycee was still standing there processing what just happened when she heard one of the monkeys whimpering. It couldn't move, barely clinging to life as it layed there taking labored raspy breaths. Jaycee approached and saw it's wretched appearance. When she remembered the image of it just a few moments ago eating fresh boar with it's friend in the tree, she started to pity it and felt that she had done something wrong.

Detan approached her but she didn't notice. He looked at the corpse of the first monkey and saw a small golden light leaving it as it flew towards him. This was divine power. All the light quickly left the monkeys corpse and entered him. It was not much, but every little bit helps in his current condition. He turned his attention to Jaycee who was staring at the second monkey slowly dying.

"Jaycee."

Hearing his voice startled her. Even though he was next to her, she didn't even notice him.

"Do you like torturing this thing?"

She shook her head, tears swelling in her beautiful blue eyes.

"The kindest thing you can do for it now is give it a swift death."

She looked back down at the monkey and shook her head. "It feels wrong. At least when they killed the boar it was just them trying to survive... they were just trying to eat. Then I came along and did this to them... for what? If we need divine power I can just pray to you some more, there's no need to do this right?"

"No, you're wrong. Nothing is good or bad. There's only what you need versus what others need. Right now we need power. Killing these monkeys will grant us that power. There is nothing wrong about that. Do you think that boar didn't want to live? It doesn't matter because it was weaker than the monkeys, so it died, that's how life works. The worst thing you can do is be indecisive about these matters. What if it was just playing wounded so you would get closer before it springs up and sneak attacks? When you decide to kill, kill. Don't stop halfway."

As soon as he finished saying that, he grabbed Jaycee's left hand that was holding the fan and swung it down. An air blade shot out and decapitated the last monkey. Blood shot out onto the luscious grass of the forest painting it red.

Detan knew he was being harsh. She was just a girl protected by guards in a caravan a week ago, now she's slaughtering animals in the forest. Such a large jump would leave even the strongest person in shock.

However, she is no longer a girl in a caravan. She is the first follower of Detan. She can't be weak. He's going to push her through this period of training whether she likes it or not. All for her sake.

They continued on their way to the village with Jaycee clearing the monsters along the way. With a swing of her enchanted fan, waves of enemies are decapitated. With a flick of her right hand, a shiny and thin knife flies out of her sleeve and silently ends a life. The monsters of this forest were no match for her. Not that she is an exceptionally skilled fighter, just that she has over a hundred thousand gold coins worth of enchanted weaponry on her. Monsters of this level are no match for even a toddler waving that fan around.

Still, her mentality improved with each kill. She no longer hesitated. Striking to kill. Detan grew even more proud of this follower of his. He pointed the way for her while he followed behind using telekinesis to snatch the monster cores from the chests of the monsters she killed. Monster cores are used in all kinds of crafting, making them highly valuable items. They can be traded at adventures guilds for coins. While he could use his divine power to create most items that he and Jaycee might need, it would be a big waste to use it for everything. Like making a shelter for them to stay at, or making every pair of clothes they might need. He would prefer to reserve his power for more important things while using normal currency for the more mundane. Also when he gets more followers it would be unrealistic if he wanted to make armor and weapons for all of them right?

The trip took longer than it needed to since they were going out of their way to fight monsters, but they finally arrived at the village as the sun was about to set. The clothes he was wearing and the ones he gave to Jaycee had a minor enchantment on them that kept the wearer at a cool temperature. So, even though they were walking through the forest at midday, they stepped into the village looking fresh. The luxurious robes made by Detan, and their confidence made them seem like otherworldly visitors.

They stepped onto the main road and saw that all the villagers were gathered around the entrance to one home. They walked closer toward the crowd to see what was going on. Peeking through the crowd, they saw an elderly man facing off against a group of men. Some had swords and others had bows on their backs. It seemed they wore whatever they could get their hands on, some had leather pieces of armor and others just wore their tattered clothes with no protection at all.

These could be the bandits that ambushed Jaycee's group a week ago. Detan glanced over at her and when he saw her expression he knew he was right. Her usually clear and beautiful complexion was distorted with rage. A bandit walked toward the elderly man and said, "We don't want no problems with your village. Just hand over the girls who survived and we'll leave. Nice and easy, right?"

"No! Not, 'nice and easy'! If we hand these people over to you then they won't send anymore caravans here! You should know how much we rely on these caravans, and you're telling me to give all that up just so you can have some women! Ptui!" The village elder spat at the bandits feet. Wanting him to risk the future of his village just so some unruly kids can have some fun, I don't think so!

The bandit walked forward and started to draw his sword. "If you won't hand them over then I'll just take 'em by force! You asked for this old timer!"

"Stop!"

Jaycee yelled, her face returned back to it's normal gracefulness.

Hearing someone yelling from the back, the crowd parted and revealed an elegant man with long black hair standing next to a goddess with frosty blue eyes.

The bandit watched as the crowd parted to reveal Jaycee, his eyes immediately went soft. He had never seen anyone so beautiful! Love at first sight! His heart was so agitated he couldn't speak properly.

"B-b-be mine! You!"

Realizing how stupid he just sounded he blushed and turned back toward the village elder.

"This must be the finest woman of your village right?! Look I don't want to make things hard on you elder. Just give me this woman and I'll forget about the others!"

Although he asked the elder for permission, it was only on the surface. Even if he refused to give her, he would take her anyway no matter the cost!