Hajime saw the black shadow attacking him at an extremely fast speed, and quickly turned around to block the spear. As soon the Taka's spear touched the green shield, the wooden spear completely shattered, and the Taka fell on the green shield.
Yul quickly rushed forward and found the fallen Taka already slumped against Hajime's shield. Yul let go of his sword as the Taka slowly tried to stand up. Yul's lightning sword flew directly into the chest of the Taka, who was standing on the green shield. The Taka fell to his knees and rolled off the green shield.
When Hajime moved the green shield, he discovered the dead Taka, with Yul's lightning sword embedded in the dead Taka's chest. When he looked back, Yul and the others had already rushed over from a distance. The happy reunion didn't last long, as Hajime saw a huge black gorilla rushing out of the tree behind and heading straight for Abrafo and Michio. Hajime quickly threw the green shield directly at Abrafo and Michio, just in time to block the gorilla's attack.
The black gorilla's shoulder hit the green shield at full speed. The impact was so strong that the black gorilla was thrown several feet away, but the violent impact did not cause much damage to the black gorilla. The black gorilla slowly stood up, pressed his knuckles to the ground, shook his head, and charged towards the green shield again. The black gorilla's fist began to hit the green shield hard.
Hajime looked at U-ri in shock. "Aren't they enemies? Why is he helping the Taka?"
U-ri quickly walked towards Hajime and said, "They may still be friends, or they may still be enemies. It's hard to say right now."
Hajime asked, "What do you mean?"
U-ri said, "The animal kingdom. The more powerful you are, the more fearful others are of you, and the higher you are in the food chain." He turned to look at Hajime. "That's why those Takas are afraid of your panther." He chuckled.
With every punch the black gorilla threw at the green shield, Michio and Abrafo move backward closer to Yul and the other Takas who were still fighting. Yul looked back and saw that Abrafo and Michio seemed to be losing the battle. He was about to walk towards his friends when Wen's scream caught his attention, so instead of returning to his friends, Yul rushed forward and kicked the Taka who was dragging Wen on his back, knocking the Taka to the ground. Wen quickly stood up and hid behind Yul.
Yul looked back and saw Hajime still standing next to U-ri and the other monks. He looked at Wen, grabbed the grappling hook rope around Wen's waist, and said, "Go there if you have the chance. They can protect you better than me."
Yul quickly rushed back to Abrafo and Michio.
Abrafo looked back and saw Yul rushing towards him, so he turned to Michio and said, "Let's kill it."
Michio looked at Abrafo and asked, "How? He's big."
Abrafo frowned and said, "We have killed animals bigger than him." Abrafo drew his sword. "Your peaceful days in the temple have weakened your fighting spirit."
Michio protested, "Who are you calling weak? If I remember correctly, you are the one being chased on our last hunt."
Abrafo raised his sword and took a stance. "When?" he asked.
Michio turned to look at Abrafo and said, "Last time we were hunting with Kaizen, you were chased by two goblins."
Abrafo looked at Michio and smirked. He said, "Brace for impact."
Michio was unaware of Abrafo's intentions, so he turned to Abrafo innocently and asked, "What did you say?"
Just when the black gorilla was about to punch the green shield with his next punch, Abrafo jumped over the green shield and quickly slashed the black gorilla's left shoulder with his sword. Yul rushed out from behind Michio and released the grappling hook directly on the wound Abrafo had just caused to the black gorilla. The gorilla's right hand swung at Michio, but Michio quickly took a step back and grabbed his three-section staff from his waist.
The grappling hook hooked tightly into the black gorilla's flesh. The black gorilla screamed in pain and Yul quickly backed away, tightening the rope to inflict more damage. The black gorilla painfully grabbed the grappling hook with his right hand and tore it from his flesh. He used all his strength to throw the grappling hook directly back to Yul.
Yul quickly dodged the oncoming grappling hook, which flew directly into a small group of three Takas. The grappling hook pierced the abdomen of a Taka, who was standing behind Yul on the right. Yul quickly pulled the grappling hook out of the Taka's abdomen.
"Abrafo!" Michio shouted angrily.
Abrafo landed behind the black gorilla and said, "It's not my fault. I warned you." He was about to rush forward when another gorilla jumped at Abrafo.
Suddenly, Abrafo and the others heard monkeys chanting from above the branches. They looked up and saw many monkeys standing on the branches. The monkeys shouted, stamped on the branches, clapped and shouted at the humans below.
U-ri shouted, "Don't pay attention to them, they are here to watch the fight." Abrafo turned to look at U-ri. "Whatever you do, don't get hurt. If you get hurt, they'll attack you right away."
Hearing the monkeys' cries, the brown gorilla launched at Abrafo again with his fists. Abrafo quickly ducked, and the brown gorilla's hand landed on the ground a yard away from Abrafo's feet. The brown gorilla reached out to grab Abrafo's right foot, but Abrafo quickly did a backflip away from the brown gorilla. Then the brown gorilla jumped towards Abrafo. At this moment, two of the three monks rushed forward, released their whips and hit the brown gorilla on the back, and then flicked the whips on the brown gorilla's wrists, pulling the brown gorilla back.
Seeing that the brown gorilla was immobilized by the whips of the two monks, Abrafo rushed forward and stabbed the brown gorilla in the chest with his sword, but Abrafo's stab did not kill the brown gorilla immediately. Instead, the brown gorilla screamed in pain, grabbed Abrafo's sword with both hands, and pulled Abrafo's sword out of his chest.
The two monks quickly pulled back the two whips and forcefully pulled the brown gorilla's hands away. With that, Abrafo quickly pulled the sword out of the brown gorilla's chest and placed the sword across the brown gorilla's neck. The two monks immediately released their whips, and then struck the brown gorilla hard on the brown gorilla's calves with their whips, knocking the brown gorilla down. Abrafo quickly jumped over the brown gorilla's back, turned his sword over, and stabbed directly into the back of the brown gorilla's neck, pinning the brown gorilla to the ground.
The black gorilla charges at Yul, as he already thinks that Yul doesn't have a weapon that can cause serious harm to him. Using his left foot, Yul flipped a wooden spear on the ground into his left hand, then threw the spear at the black gorilla to slow him down. Michio came from the right and swung the three-section staff to the black gorilla's right side, causing the black gorilla to stumble to the left.
Yul threw the grappling hook at the black gorilla's back again. The black gorilla wanted to reach out for the grappling hook, but Michio had already swung the three-section staff at the black gorilla again. Seeing the black gorilla being distracted by Michio, Yul jumped forward and put the grappling hook rope around the black gorilla's neck.
At this time, the Taka knew that it was now a battle between gorillas and humans. Whoever wins this battle will take possession of this territory. The Taka began to move slowly to one side, their eyes hesitating whether to wait until the battle was over and kill the victor, or to fight the humans again, when suddenly they heard three sets of rhythmic tongue clicks. Upon hearing this signal, the Taka slowly pulled away and fell behind the black gorilla. They stood and watched as the gorilla began to attack Yul, Abrafo and Michio.
The monk who was standing with Hajime and U-ri walked towards Wen, leaving Hajime and U-ri standing a few feet away, watching Yul and Michio fight against the black gorilla.
Hajime looked around and found the Taka standing aside, watching the three Tanzanies fighting the black gorilla. He said, "The Taka... they did not attack. What are they waiting for?"
U-ri sighed and said, "They are waiting for the black gorilla to defeat them." He turned to look at Hajime, and then walked forward. "That's how animals behave. The winner leads, the loser follows."
Hajime was about to speak when he felt a sharp object pressed against the center of his lower back. "Make a sound and you will die on the spot." A low voice came from behind Hajime. "Now." The man breathed softly on Hajime's neck. "Back up slowly."
Hajime knew that if he was killed now, he would most likely be resurrected in a day or two, but Hajime couldn't say the same about his unborn child. He may have the ability to heal himself, but this ability may not necessarily apply to his unborn child, so Hajime chose to slowly withdraw from the crowd, rubbing the fingers of his right hand against each other slowly.