After Gallen saw Jaren begrudgingly nod his head, mumbling something about how they are going to fail, the great village Elder nodded as well, leading the team down the path to the edge of the village. After a couple minutes of me bouncing in the sword's sheath, Gallen finally stopped, which had to mean that they either were at the gate or were at the beginning of the path to no man's land, where they were at a stalemate with the mysterious threat.
"Alright, today is our last stand. This is a stand that will make or break us, but also we have the best chance of eliminating them for good." Gallen said, taking me out of his sheath and raising me above his head.
"This is for the village. For the families and friends we have lost to these terrible creatures. But now, we have a chance. A chance to change the tide of the war, and even end it. This is why I say that this will be our final stand. Their will be no backing down now. Not when we have the best advantage we have ever had in the past 3 years. Now, onward, to victory!" Gallen said, confidence and conviction filling his voice.
"YEAH!" The force shouted, mimicking the power and resolve tha Gallen had. It is pretty sad to see that they have been fighting for 3 years, which is 60 ST years. I really do want to see what the threat they are facing is so powerful that they have been at a standstill. If I could not even beat Jaren, then I would definitely have no chance against the threat that Gallen could not even beat. The only thing that I could think of that would give them a hard time would be the Great Ape species.
With morale high, the fighting force ran forwards until they met a form of wood, sort of in the shape of a pen. With enough space to crunch now out of sight from the enemy, this fort looked sort of like the trenches you would see in war. The ingenuity of this species of beasts was pretty great. Admiring the work of the Beastkin, I sensed a great rumbling along the ground.
With the rumbling getting louder, I silently spewed out more light spores, which I can afford now that I have over 30 trill. Sending them out far in front of me, I found that my predictions were correct. They were the Great Apes. and exactly 38 of them. Jaren, most likely being the scout or the one with the best smell of the team, alerted the rest of the team that the monkeys were going to attack soon.
Upon hearing this, Gallen immediately went into defense formation. "Everyone! Gather behind the trench and ready yourselves for the soon to come battle!" Gallen roared, for I could feel it through his entire body into myself. Shocked out of their stupor of hesitation. The dogs shook themselves and readied their custom-made swords.
Hopping into the trench, which was about 20 feet long and 5 feet wide, they quietly waited for the sound of thumping to approach. The staggered breaths of all the Beastkin warriors and the thumping of their tails swayed in tandem, matching the ver increasing thumping.
Sensing that the enemy was near, the mighty leader of the fighting force sneaked closer to the edge of the trench and peeked over the side, only to find the rhythmic thumping of the Apes hands in the distance. It was not until minutes after that the monsters came into view. And monsters they were. With my new and improved spore cloud, I can now get extremely fine details.
The most prominent thing that I noticed as I saw these appalling creatures is the horns. Giant stalagmites protruded out of the shoulders and forearms of these beasts. Each shoulder had one giant horn and 2 smaller ones surrounding it.
As for the forearms, they had many tiny spikes coming out of their lower forearms, which looked more like mauls the size of basketballs than hands. The skin on these creatures was pitch black all around, except on their heads, which heald a blend of deep red and deep purple, mixing around the eyes, which had a bright red iris and pupil, which faintly glowed, even during the day.
The arms of the Apes were bigger than their legs, which must be their main attack. The way they approached at high speed was launching themselves forward with just pure arm strength. Their mouths, filled with razor sharp teeth, were moving, but alas, I could not hear them. I can only infer that they were screaming and screeching, based on the reactions of the fighting force.
After Gallen realized the threats were approaching full force, he immediately stood up and shouted "CHARGE!" at the top of his lungs. Moving faster than they ever did in the shop, it truly showed their prowess and how their were only 8 of them, but that was enough for the fighting force.
Launching themselves into the air faster than the speed of sound, my senses began to waver. As I was in the hand on Gallen, I could not use much of my abilities as it would give me away, and misshapen the sword. All I could do in that moment was stay immobile until the battle began.
In less than ten seconds, the force reached the threat, which immediately set off a chain reaction of blood, gore, and a mix of limbs flying through the air. It was a good call on my part for retracting some spores, as the sensory overload would be too much for me to handle. With six of the fighting force leading around 18 of them away from the main group, and Jaren and the village Elder single-handedly fighting off 20 of them, the scene looked straight out of a movie or anime.
The 6 minor power houses of the village had excellent coordination. The way they destroyed the Apes in a constant rhythm was really praise worthy. It was not until the unit got tired that they started kiting them. By kiting, I mean that they retreated back to the trench, 4 jumping into it to recover, while 2 fought off the monkeys to let them rest. This switched off in pairs of two.
With that strat going, it seemed that they would defeat the monkeys no problem. Confident that they will succeed, I focused my attention back onto Jaren and Gallen, who was currently swinging me like I was just a sword, which, technically, I am. But besides my hurt pride, Gallens skill could be described as godly.
The switches he makes between enemies are flawless. The spatial awareness he has with his partner, Jaren, is also extremely commendable. Sometimes spinning for minutes on end, he looked like a tornado of death, never ending until every enemy was dead.
Jaren could also be counted as a man with great skill. From his demonstration in the shop earlier, it could not be compared to the speed of his attacks. Seemingly flickering back and forth between reality, every enemy that approaches his gets lacerated instantly. However, that is not to say that these foes are an easy enemy to face.