Vigilantly we walked through the marsh. The fog was so dense, you could never tell if it was day or night. When we had walked what we had assumed to be halfway through the marsh. We heard screams, all around us.
We looked all around, constantly changing where we were looking. There was just no way to look everywhere at once.
Suddenly, Naitsu disappeared from behind me. "Naitsu! Where are you!" I called out. I didn't get a reply.
I didn't dare run around aimlessly. I used my 5 senses to the max, not allowing anything to go unnoticed. I heard a crack behind me, faint, but still there. I whirled around, and there stood Naitsu.
"What are you doing, get over here Naitsu." I ordered.
She didn't move. In fact, she beckoned me to come over to her. How cliche was that, me standing in a deadly marsh and the companion of the lead role was being called over by the very same companion going missing? Sorry, but I had watched too many movies so I wasn't going to fall for that bullshit.
Naitsu then disappeared again. And then reappeared behind me. This Naitsu walked up to me. I kept my guard up.
"Why don't you come with me sexy, I will show you a good time." she whispered in my ear.
Not going to lie, that was pretty tempting. But I knew better. And on top of that, Naitsu would have probably called me "king's candidate" instead of sexy. I grabbed the Naitsu I thought was the imposter by the neck.
"Oh, so you're into that, that's kinky." she said.
I let go of her and stumbled back. What the hell! I expected the Naitsu to turn into some sort of midget changeling like in the seven deadly sins. Why did it think I was kinky and then kink shame that? What the actual fuck!
Before I could approach Naitsu again, her eyes turned semi yellow, and her pupils turned into that of a cat. She made a hissing noise and then disappeared. So it was a changeling! Ha, I knew it from the start!
Before I knew it, I was surrounded by Naitsus. My mind flashed back to the seven deadly sins scene, where Meliodas was surrounded by Elizabeths. Problem was I had no sure fire way to tell them apart.
Wait, couldn't I just change my appearance to match them? When they had completely surrounded me, I changed the air around me to match that of a bright light, ultimately my very own flashbang. I quickly changed my appearance to match Naitsu's.
The fake Naitsu's looked at me weirdly, but then slowly started to sink back into the forest. I followed them to what looked to be a giant tree. Is that a monkey? Around the tree were dozens of small, monkey-like creatures. With golden yellow eyes and fur that was a shimmering silver. Upon getting close to the tree, the Naitsu's turned into these silver monkeys, I followed suit and changed myself into a monkey as well.
I walked towards the base of the tree with the others. The base of the tree looked to be hollowed out. The other monkeys stopped in front of the entrance. Just then a very large monkey, one about 3 times larger than the others, came out.
All the monkeys seemed to look away in respect. The large monkey, probably the leader, motioned for us to follow. The inside of the tree was littered with bones of various creatures. Some human, some beast, and there were even some creatures that were still alive and being guarded by several monkeys.
At the very back of the cave, there was a crude door. On the outside of the door were 6 monkeys, and when the big monkey opened the door, there were 6 more. Whatever it was that they were guarding must be pretty important if there were this many.
Upon seeing what they were guarding, I was stunned, but I suppressed my shock. On the opposite side of the room Naitsu was tied up with a glistening white rope, or so I thought. On the ceiling there was a very large spider. It walked down and looped it's string around Naitsu. The rope was actually the spiders webbing!
The big monkey gave off what could maybe resemble a smirk, then walked up to Naitsu. 'Luckily I found the real one.' I thought. The big monkey started to poke Naitsu all over. Her nose, her head, her stomach, and he was about to poke her breasts, before she squirmed around and kicked the apes finger. She broke it.
The ape howled and slapped her so hard she flew into the wall on the left side of the room. Blood trickled down her pretty face. The other smaller monkeys stared at her, and the bigger monkey looked at her with disdain. I quickly tapped the ground by the entrance, marking it.
The bigger monkey grunted something of a command at the rest of us. I saw the others move to unwrap her, I followed suit. After they were done they started to grab onto her limbs. I made sure that I at least got one leg. If anything bad were to happen, then it was the best limb to be holding onto.
The big monkey walked up to her. Now that Naitsu was restrained he started to poke her again. Before he could get to poking her "sensitive regions" I yanked her from the other monkeys grasps. If they weren't focused on ogling what their boss was doing, then they might have been able to keep hold of her. But these monkeys all seemed to be pervs.
I then used my marker to create a barrier over the entrance. I transformed back into myself and gave a half smile to Naitsu.
"So, how have you been?" I asked her half sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes, "Oh I've been just fine, these stupid monkeys make outstanding hosts" she replied just as sarcastically.
The big ape looked enraged, it then pointed at me and roared. The monkeys in the room charged at me. My hands sped towards my belt and grabbed a throwing knife in each hand. Before I could even think of who to throw them at, Naitsu had already lept into combat. She jumped from monkey to monkey like a graceful dancer. Wherever she danced, blood would fly. I decided to take out the spider before it could restrain us. With two quickly placed knives it was lying still on the ground.
In front of the deaths of his subordinates, the large ape did nothing. He just continued to watch the slaughter. I walked past all of the carnage, and past Naitsu who was killing the last small ape. I stood before the monkey leader, he seemed unafraid.
That meant he was either exceedingly powerful, or very stupid. The ape just continued to stare, he then looked up where the exit used to be and froze. Turns out he was stupid. He looked at me and then Naitsu, this time, very afraid.
He backed away, looking at Naitsu carefully. But little did the ape know, she wasn't the most dangerous in the room. I appeared behind the ape and held a knife behind it's back. It hadn't known I disappeared behind it and therefore walked right back into the knife.
The small knife would not have been enough to cause serious harm, but my sudden reappearance scared it. It leaped away, trying to keep both me and Naitsu in its field of vision. It was utterly pointless though, as it couldn't go anywhere.
Before I could advance, the ape turned into a small child. It looked like it was about to cry.
"Please let me go, I have done no wrong" it pleaded.
"Like hell, the second we do you will turn on us!" I yelled.
The apes face turned sour. Then it kowtowed before us, taking the form of a buff looking lizard man. It seemed to be quite a cool look for him, especially if he had a few color changes here or there.
"Please spare me!" he yelled out.
"Why should we," retorted Naitsu, "after everything you have done to me!".
She had a point that I could not reject. What this thing did was not something that could be easily forgiven. The now lizardman looked to be in deep thought. Then finally looked up at me.
"I can tell that you are the leader, and not just that, but someone very important." the lizardman began, "my name is Asterian, the chieftain of the Rakshasa, our species looks over the entire marsh.".
"What about the other creatures that live here, where are they and do they listen to you?" I ask.
"There are no such creatures, maybe a very long time ago, before I was chieftain, but we take forms of various beasts shown to us by our elders and use them as cover for our own." Asterian explains.
"So then, this entire marsh is inhabited by your Raksasha?" I inquire.
"Yes, and if you spare me, I promise you command over all of them." He adds.
I raise my brow, "How can you be certain they will listen to me?".
"They will listen to me, and in turn I will listen to you, in fact most of us have been getting quite bored in this marsh, we want to get out and see the world outside of this foggy wasteland." Asterian finishes.
I look over my shoulder to Naitsu to see if she has anything to say. She doesn't, and seems to be more focused on if he is telling the truth or not.
"I accept your proposal, Asterian, but I warn you, if you were to betray me, the entire might of the Corcian Empire shall be your tail for the remainder of your life." I tell him.
He nods his head in understanding. I then open the entrance again and we walk out with Asterian, now back in his Rakshasa form. The other Rakshasa now seem to be a bit more hesitant to approach us, as their chieftain follows silently behind us.
"Tell them" I whisper over to Asterian.
He nods his head, following which he grunts, growls, and hoots to all of his companions. After which they all rush off.
"What did you tell them to do?" I asked Asterian angrily. Thinking he told them all to run off.
"I told them to gather everyone, that I had an announcement that everyone would need to hear." He explained.
I looked at him puzzled. If all those Rakshasa, number probably in the five hundreds, then how many were there? I could only wait and see. After about thirty minutes the earth started to shake. From all around us various creatures started to appear. If I had to guess, I would say they numbered in the hundred thousands! All the various creatures then shifted into the silver ape form of the Rakshasa.
Asterian then waved his hand and they all assembled on or near the giant tree. He then proceeded with a chorus of grunts, growls and hoots. The assembled Rakshasa seemed to have mixed emotions about what Asterian was saying.
After Asterian was done his "speech" he turned to me. He bowed and held out his hand. I wasn't entirely sure what to do, but I took his hand and raised him to his feet. My hand had to go quite a bit higher than my chest, but the gesture meant all the same to those assembled.
The Rakshasa burst out into excited hoots and howls. Jumping up and down or from branch to branch.
"What did you tell them?" I asked Asterian.
He took a human form, that of a silver haired middle aged man, and said "More or less that we were all going to have a little fun, and that you were going to be taking us to have said fun.". He smirked at the end.
I gave him a look that told him he had some explaining to do later. Soon all the Rakshasa calmed and resumed their listening positions. Asterian gave a quick grunt and they all scattered back to wherever they were before.