Chapter 75 - Apex Predator

"For someone that doesn't seem to have lived in the wild like us, you did manage to regain your mind, truly a fascinating boy. Yet, as much as I would love to see what you could do, I have to disappoint you. We neither do have the time, nor is this the place for such a thing, so I'm sorry, but you have to die."

After our last encounter, I'd rather kiss a rock than belief whatever bullshit she was spitting out, but sadly, she did have a point, at least to some extent. There were no more than thirty hefbis, not to mention her and who knows how many of her people in these buildings aiming their bows at me. As for me, on the other hand, only had two mags with thirty bullets each, which was not enough to take these many enemies alone in such close proximity. Normally that may be enough to kill half of the enemy or at least bring their numbers so low that they would break and run away, but these weren't humans, besides, I had to be an idiot and jump down…Why didn't I stand back on the staircase and fire from there?

Nevertheless, this was neither the time nor the place for me to regret my poor decision of facing the enemy that was just short of ten meters away from me. If I am to fall today, then so be it, but I won't go down alone.

I lifted the barrel a little and fired towards the girl's head, worst thing that may happen is that a creature jumps to protect her, as well as towards the hefbis that were close to her. I hope that one bullet would her and I would get my revenge today. A few loud seconds later, the empty clip fell to the ground with a clanking sound. Unfortunately, the girl survived, courtesy of five hefbis that shielded her, as well as another seven hefbis that had the pleasure to feel the rest of my bullets. I was about to change the clip to my last one when a deafening roar full of fury was heard and the hefbis dashed forward.

They were able to cover the few meters separating them from me in several seconds, but I too was ready to face them. As soon as the creature closest to me was in face of my gun, I shot it in the face before dashing toward what was once a house. Judging by the way the girl curses me, I'd say that I did hit her pets quite nicely, though It was impossible to guess whether her scream would delay the remaining hefbis or, worse if it had infuriated them.

Suddenly a new cry was heard, not the same roar of the hefbis that were hunting me. Instead, it was deeper and more primal than what I have ever heard which made my blood curdle by sheer force it had. A shadow reached me from above and that's when I realize that a new party had joined the game. Obviously, the noise of the shots would have attracted the attention of anyone who was nearby and that's what prompted the new creature to join the fun.

The bigger creature was taller than Betsy was, by at least one whole meter and it resembles an orangutan or at least had the same colors as one, not to mention the overgrown fur. He let out another roar that forced the hefbis to retreat a few meters before they two growled at him. A few seconds later an arrow was shoot from one of the buildings directly at the orangutan, but contrary to what I believed to happen, the arrow bounce off its fur. Sadly, for the hefbis that only made him angrier as he charged directly into them, crushing one unlucky hefbis as the orangutan ripped another one in half.

I didn't stop running after I saw the orangutan charging and only when I heard a horn being blown did I turn only to see that the hefbis had scattered, and only the ones shot by me as well as the few that got caught by the angry orangutan were left on street. That's when I noticed one of the hefbis that I shoot, crawling and crying out in pain towards a ruin, most likely to hide from the angry primate.

When the primate saw the wounded hefbis, I swear I saw it smile as it leaped in the air, before slamming in front of the hefbis. The orangutan grabbed the hefbis by the head before glancing in my direction. No matter who would have been in my situation would have frozen the same way I did when I saw those eyes glancing at me, but that wasn't what made me unable to move, no that was just the tip of it. Not breaking eye contact, the primate walked towards me, dragging the poor hefbis behind, as if it was some kind of rag.

He stopped a few meters away from me before he threw the hefbis right in front of my feet. I looked at the hefbis for a second before I stabbed it in the head, ending his suffering. I may not speak primate, but I was sure this is what he wanted me to do.

Seeing that the hefbis was dead, the orangutan took one last look at me before climbing a building and leaving the area, while I decided to continue making my way towards the center of the city, hopefully away from any hefbis or their lovers.

Meanwhile, the girl that I almost killed was cursing her luck far away from the street. She was inside of some cave or burrow alongside a few more men and women, who were silently listening to her curses.

"That damned ape attacked us again! Why can we just kill it and be done with it?"

"Isha, dear, we can't afford to start a war with them. We may not be able to talk with them, but even your mother knew how costly fighting those overgrown apes would be. They would rip apart anything we threw at them, besides that boy's definitely going into their territory. Let the apes take care of him for us."

"What about his friends? Did we at least manage to kill them?"

"We lost them…they broke free from our ambush when that boy pulled the blessed ones away."

At the same time, now that the orangutan scared away the hefbis, I had to leave this place as fast as I could before they return in greater numbers, maybe together with more of their human friends. The only thing that I could do was to make my way stealthily towards the inner city before nightfall or I would have to sleep fearing another ambush. Thanks to the wildlife that took over the city, I was able to cover two and a half kilometers before the sun started to set. Because of that, I had to find a place to camp for the night. I only managed to walk a few more meters before I noticed another group of hefbis waiting for an opportunity to hunt me down using the cover of the night. The deeper I made my way inside the better I understood why these creatures were in no hurry to come out into the open and preferred to wait for the sun to set. Outside the city, where there was nothing to hunt them, they would rush me as soon as they caught even the slightest scent of me, but here, they feared attracting the attention of the larger creatures and dinosaurs that roam these streets and turning from a hunter into prey.

Thankfully I found a rather building that was in rather good condition for me to spend the night. It was dark inside the building. Thankfully, I had my flashlight inside my backpack. In the round spot of light rose some old and shabby walls covered with remains of paint from several decades before, a foul and rather unstable staircase, not to forget the broken doors of ruined and burnt-out apartments.

There was no way I would stay down here when these people and their abominations were after my head, so I had to climb to the next floor if I want to have a chance. The hefbis may rush inside if given the right simulant, but the humans won't be that dumb to go in blindly.

I slowly climbed a story higher, before I illuminate each doorway and their doors before I discovered that one of them still had a door closed. I tried to open it, but it didn't budge so like any same person I put my shoulder to it and was convinced that it was locked. Without thinking twice, I put the muzzle of the rifle up to the keyhole, fired, and flung the door open with a kick. While I had a silencer, that won't do much in a city where everything could hear better than you.

I quickly slammed the door shut behind me before I block it with a wardrobe that was conveniently in the hallway. This wasn't a barricade that would hold, but it would definitely give me more than enough time to react if someone decided to try their luck. With the door secured, the first thing that I did was check the windows. The more I looked outside the more I realized how good of a position this was. It was practically an ideal firing position. Being on the fifth and fourth floor, I was able to see perfectly the whole street as well as the entrance inside the building, making this place the perfect spot to defend, at least from outside threats. Last time I checked there was only one group of hefbis, but now, there were about six of them waiting in the alleys and the ruins for the sun to set.

Should I take them out with what little ammo I had left or should I just wait for them to make their way inside and fight with a knife?

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