Chapter 23 - The Characters And The Game

"What the heck is going on? What was that scream earlier? Why are all these monkeys suddenly appearing out of these buildings?" Sweat trickled down Paul's, his throat had started getting parched from the fear.

He turned his head to gaze left, giving his heart such a grave scare as if he would die

There was no way he would believe that all these monkeys could be swooped by Ferrin. Heck, the moment they started their hunt, Ferrin would be give a kind of spanking that no body would ever have the heart of doing it again.... At least no sane person would want to spank a non-existent corpse.

'𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑜... 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑜! 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑜𝑜!' Ferrin let out a heavy breath but the weight failed to loosen from his chest.

As he started to look around and absorb the image of thousands of monkeys all slowly beginning to charge towards him, his fur started sticking to his biceps from the sweat secreting from his pores.

"Calm down! You won't do like this, Ferrin! You need to believe there is a way for you to see that way. If you already believe that everything is over, then you will just walk-past that way." Aria sighed heavily as she glanced around, her body had slowly started heating up but Ferrin had failed ti notice that.

It wasn't that she had a fever... she had managed to glimpse at the two monkeys who kept following them while staying on the roof of buildings and peering down like some kind of over-lords.

'𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑦... 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒... 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑒... 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠.' Aria sighed heavily while patting her son's chest. She had an ominous gut-feeling. Something extremely... wretched was going to happen to her son.

Ferrin's eyes had been observing Aria. Seeing her notice his gaze and smile beautifully, something struck him deep inside.

'This strange mess... why are they still waiting instead of attacking us? Something's off. This isn't their style... Something like this...' Ferrin's teeth started grinding against one another, his eyes boiled up in a thick rage as h swiftly lifted his head and gazed at the roofs.

His eyes drifted from one roof to the other before... the green met the ecstatic of green.

'𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑠! 𝐼 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙, 𝑟𝑖𝑝 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑠!' The veins in Ferrin's hand started bulging out, his fingers loosened their grip on Aria and straightened up one-by-one. Almost as if he would impale the Genius the moment it appeared in front of him.

'𝑆𝑖𝑔ℎ! 𝐴𝑙𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡, 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑚 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛! 𝐼𝑡𝑠 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑤𝑜𝑟__' Ferrin heart started throbbing in his ears from the sight of the thousands of monkeys marching in union.

'𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡! 𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑎𝑚𝑒, ℎ𝑢ℎ?' Ferrin's fangs peeked out of his mouth. How desperately he wanted to stab them inside the Genius and suck him dry... only he knew.

"COME ON!!" Ano looked around at the monkeys leisurely taking one step at a time, her mouth partially open in disgust, "Do they have to build that suspense?"

"My thoughts exactly!" Paul answered with a straight-forward face, his emotions numbed behind a mask of blankness.

The veins inside Ferrin's forehead started bulging out, with eyes as violent as a volcano, he gazed all around him, "YOU BITCH! QUIT MOCKING ME AND MEET ME FACE-TO-FACE!!" His vocals drying out from the piercing screams to which only his companions reacted too despite not understanding him and the monkeys who did understand him... they all burst out in giggles.

"Calm Ferrin! Silence your rage. It will do naught but hinder you." Aria caressed Ferrin's furry chest, appeasing his anger and calming him down again.

It was as if as long as Aria herself told him to do it... he would do it, no questions asked.

"Kek!" Ferrin snickered, his moist fangs still glittering under the bright sun-light. He chest rose up and down slowly, his half-backed attempts of silencing himself.

'What can I do to escape this mess? Think Ferrin, think! These monkeys would be all around you! So what can you do? How can you escape? How can you protect your mother while doing it? Think Ferrin, without using your brain... you will likely be placed under... that shit-hole's feet.' Ferrin sighed heavily, his eyes clearing up slightly.

The Genius who was gazing down with an amused grin... snapped his finger.

Suddenly, the air brought along the scent of blood. The monkeys' gleeful eyes slowly morphed into two thin slits, their frightening grins... slowly shifted into two fangs glittering under the light, seeking to draw blood.

***

In contrast to the dilemma of what to do, the guardians were having it exceptionally easy.

The moment Loki regained his wits from the mess going on, he immediately ordered the combative guardians to start their plan-kitting.

Mopi's superpower kept strengthening the combative group, making him the most important asset in this game of kitting.

"Keep running, don't even think of counterattacking until the Giant stops. Keep pestering it, annoy it when it halts and force its sorry legs to move again and keep retreating while leading it into the trap." Loki shouted while chasing the combative group from roof-to-roof.

"How many more times are you going to repeat that? Do it right now, I don't want to hear it another 3 times." Posco complained while wiping off the sweat on his face.

Loki speechlessly glanced in Posco's direction before saying, "I am going to keep on repeating it until you start saying it yourself."

Posco's feet kept tapping the ground with everything that had as his face -morphed in disgust, turned to stare at Loki who was jumping from roof to roof.

"If you weren't a third circle... yo would've wondered just how many curses I spewed at you." Posco bit his tongue, holding it firmly in place and kept fleeing while holding his tail between its legs.

These guys seemed to be playing a game themselves... where the Giant was chasing them and they kept on running non-stop.

***

"KEEE!" Ferrin bared his fangs while gazing all around him, his feet kept on slowly retreating backwards, his hands holding Aria trembled ever so gently.

'THESE DAMNED MONKEYS! THEY ARE PLAYING WITH ME!!' Ferrin growled in a low voice, like a lion being besieged by other lions.

The front line of the nearest monkeys finally came near him. The moment they reached a distance of ten steps, they paused abruptly.

'What?' Ferrin glanced around, his eyes darting behind him at the monkeys who still hadn't stopped yet, as if the invisible circle around him hadn't been reached by them, 'They are surrounding me? At a fixed distance?' Slowly but surely Ferrin's face turned horrendously strange due to the veins popping out of his skull, his lips kept twitching as he failed to grasp hold of any meaningful words.

Ficko felt the hand tightened within her's tremble slightly, her eyes widened as she gazed behind at Ano, her eyes fell upon the monkeys that were inching closer and closer. Her heart stirred as she gentle tugged Ano's hand. "Ge-Get behind me."

Her wavering words didn't give Ano the courage she needed, her hands tightened into a fist. Her quivering eyes stared straight into Ficko's. She nodded her head and walked stiffly with big stride and hid behind Ficko.

Causing the latter's heart to throb like an engine as she realised that now, instead of Ano, she would've have to confront the monkeys first.

Aoci gulped nervously as she joined shoulders with Seilo. Her face engrossed with a deep frown as she gazed at the monkeys, '𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒... 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑢𝑠! 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑥𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛__' Her eyes widened as she gulped while gazing back.

Seilo kept aloofly gazing at the monkeys, her heart failing to flutter despite the rhythmic thudding that should've been nothing more than Death's steps to a normal person.

Paul wasn't anything different from Seilo, just a good deep breath and calmed his heart and he started staring straight into the monkey's eyes as they finally... walked through the illusionary circle.

"KEEE!" Ferrin hissed as his body's muscles tightened into hard rocks, his feet moved back and back as the fur on his body started turning into spongy spikes.

'𝐷𝐴𝑀𝑁 𝑌𝑂𝑈! 𝐷𝐴𝑀𝑁 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝐺𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑈𝑆! 𝐷𝐴𝑀𝑁 𝑌𝑂𝑈! 𝐷𝐴𝑀𝑁 𝑌𝑂𝑈! 𝐷𝐴𝑀𝑁 𝑌𝑂𝑈!' Ferrin barred his fangs, a questionable attempt of frightening the monkeys. His straight, erect tail turned horizontal with the ground and hurled all around Ferrin, blowing off the first layer of monkeys without any resistance.

'What the... heck?' Ficko's resolute eyes widened into large balls in bewilderment. 'Why... Why are these monkeys_' Her eyes glanced at the monkey as it stepped right past her, 'Ignoring us?'

She turned around her head and stared in Ferrin's direction.

The monkeys kept walking without any hesitation towards Ferrin's tail as he struck them all back while shouting loudly like a barbarian. Spit kept flying from his mouth as he jumped backwards and backwards, his heart trembling in fear.

His grip on Aria kept getting shakier and shakier by the moment, '𝑊𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝐻𝐸𝐿𝐿 𝐼𝑆 𝐺𝑂𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝑂𝑁? 𝑊𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐴𝑅𝐸 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝐷𝑂𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝐺𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑈𝑆? 𝑊𝐻𝐴𝑇 𝐴𝑅𝐸 𝑌𝑂𝑈 𝐷𝑂𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝑇𝑂 𝑀𝐸? 𝑊𝐻𝑌𝑌𝑌𝑌𝑌?'

Aria's eyes became watery, her hand reached out for his face but paused mid-way, her heart stung as his barbaric screams drilled inside her heart, 'What have you done to my son... you wretched monkey?' Her eyes landed upon the Genius who kept on giggling mischievously while glancing down.

Ferrin's body abruptly paused for an instance, his eyes peeked through the gap between the monkeys and landed upon Ano, his eyes traced her relieved eyes and moved down to her lips... to her small smile.

'𝑊ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠... 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑦?'