As the metal cacophony reached Yoel's ears, he felt a tight grip around his neck.
It was the grip of death, not of the ape.. but of his own despair.
His weapon shattered right in front of his eyes, mercilessly coating his heart in undistinguishable despair.
The cacophony played in his ears over and over, causing a pitch-black haze to form over his eyes for just a second.
This second-long daze proved to be a fatal mistake because the ape was already on the move.
The arm it used to protect its heart, was now millimeters away from Yoel's chest.
Unfortunately, however, Yoel had no means to dodge nor to defend.
Even if he wasn't caught in that momentary daze, he would have been unable to do anything against this kind of close-range attack.
The arm of the ape connected with his chest, and Yoel was slapped away.
The impact had been so strong that while still traveling mid-air, Yoel left a trail of blood and puke of the food he had eaten just a few hours ago.
His back slammed against the tree and several bones broke immediately under the pressure of the impact.
Piercing pain filled Yoel's mind as he felt his body crumble against his control.
The speed he flew through the air in made such a sound that caused everyone's attention to turn to him and the gigantic ape.
At that point in time, it looked as menacing as ever.
Blood, covering its hands and claws.
Shortly after that disturbing booming sound was heard, light projectiles flew at the ape.. these were stronger than the last, but they still had no effect on the creature.
Even Brandon had turned his attention to the gigantic ape now, casting many effects upon the creature.
"Injure, slip, fall!"
The near-invisible projectiles simply bounced off of its body, much like Lilith's projectiles.
I thought I could've lasted longer.
'Do you wish to last longer?'
I'm even hearing voices now. Why is an old man in my head? It's probably too late for me.
Somewhere in the periphery of Yoel's vision, he saw Connor, the Co-Leader of the Alliance, throwing water droplets everywhere.
None managed to hit the ape, however.
Instead, they had all been thrown near it, including its blind spots.
What he did next was something Yoel had not been expecting.
Connor did not appear empty-handed like when he last saw him, he was carrying a bow this time around, one that would not fail to classify as expensive, even amongst the rich.
He proceeded to take out an arrow from the quiver he was carrying and pulled back the string on the bow with incredible efficiency.
And then shot into the water in front of him.
The arrow disappeared into the water.. and reappeared next to one of the puddles by the ape's feet.
And what made Yoel shake himself awake, was the fact that the arrow did not simply break or slide off the creature's thick fur upon impact.
It pierced the creature's skin.
The thing's screams shook the souls of every teenager there, even stunning the other abominations that followed its commands.
The cause of the effect himself did not as much as have a change in his expression.
He repeated the same action again, however now aiming at a different puddle of water.
And another scream followed.
I never expected Connor to be so strong..
'Don't you want to be strong like him?'
Ahh, this thing again.. what?
Why are my own hallucinations trying to insult me now..
Brandon, who was watching the entire exchange with the ape and Connor nodded, whispered a few words and pointed at Connor and Silenus.
"Strengthen."
"Strengthen."
Once again, near-invisible orbs flew from his hands and gently washed over the bodies of Connor and Silenus.
If he couldn't get through the defenses of the ape, he would simply focus on strengthening his own teammates.
Without further ado, he returned to his own section of the battlefield.
The rest of the teenagers needed his help.
He had no business fighting an ape with resistance to avon-based enigmas.
So what he decided was something that would benefit the entire battlefield.
That didn't mean he wasn't worried about his dear comrades.
But to doubt their strengths would mean that he barely even trusted them at all.
Silenus, who had been mercilessly slaying beast after beast, called for reinforcements for his side specifically and ran to another side of the battlefield.
He was now standing behind the gigantic ape..
'Those three have some incredible teamwork, wouldn't you say? I doubt it will amount to anything however. If that creature hadn't been so old.. maybe things could have been different for them.'
Silenus dashed forward, aiming his claws at the nape of the giant.
A perfect hit.
The claws connected with the nape, blue blood spilling from it.
At that moment, it released an earth-shattering scream.
It had been so loud, that the ground under its feet began to break.
Silenus, who had been strengthened and was the closest to the thing, suffered the most damage.
If Yoel's eardrums had been damaged, Silenus's would have completely been destroyed.
At that moment, Silenus slid off the back of the ape onto the ground, in a complete daze.
Not only was he bleeding from his ears, but it seemed that the scream caused damage to other parts of his body as well.
However, the ape was not finished.
It began pumping its chest with its fists, imitating a gorilla.
And slowly…
The aura that it had suppressed, was slowly becoming more and more visible.
The lightning that was being contained on its crown was now crackling about wildly.
'It also possesses an enigma too. Poor things.'
Whoever this old man talking in my head is, he sure knows a lot about this stuff.. stuff not even I know.
This can't be my own insanity talking to me right now.
'Hah, what if it is, boy.'
The ape began to glow a subtle green color, signifying that it was planning on going all out.
The fur on its body grew thicker and began to levitate weirdly, almost as if it were vines.
Strangely enough, the lightning that had been crackling on its head looked very out of place in this situation.
It kind of makes me mad, that the ape essentially bitch-slapped me and almost killed me in a single hit, without even being at full power.
'Of course it would, are you stupid? You don't even have an enigma, and you can barely see the avon that's floating around you.'
You and your damned insults.. what even are you, how did you get inside my head?
It seemed that even with his eardrums destroyed, Silenus would not give up that easily.
He managed to break away from the daze he was caught in while the ape had been unleashing its true power.
The claws on Silenus's fists dissipated, and instead, he formed steel scythes on his elbows.
This way, he could prioritize speed, without losing momentum with each hit.
Connor had not been slacking either.
Now, he had 3 more quivers laid down on the ground behind him, and the puddles around the ape and himself had increased twofold.
They had to give it their all right now, otherwise they wouldn't have the luxury of living another day.
Connor frantically shot arrows through the puddles at two times the speed from before, and Silenus had been dashing around, trying to find openings.
The ape stood still, and what moved was its fur, the fur that deflected numerous projectiles with barely any effort.
At first, it didn't move much.
The countless arrows that flew at it from all directions, spoke of a surefire hit.
But, luck was not on the humans' side.
The ape moved its leg merely by an inch.
And it had effectively dodged all arrows aimed at it.
Or rather, it had disturbed the surrounding air, in a way that the arrows would change their trajectory.
The first visible change occurred on Connor's face.
At first, his eyebrow twitched, and then realization washed his face.
Nervous sweat appeared on his fingers and face.
And he turned a shade paler.
Silenus, who was caught up in a weird dance-like state did not have the energy nor strength to pay attention to any exchange that was going on outside of his own, so he continued dashing around, trying to land a hit on the now empowered ape.
'It seems as if it's time we began our little negotiation, don't you say? I'm sure you don't want to see your comrades pounded to death.'
Huh? What do you mean?
At that moment, the fur on the ape extended outwards.
It only took a few seconds, but for Yoel it seemed like a lifetime had passed already.
Silenus had been caught in the clutches of the creature's hideous fur.
At that moment, a deep and dark shadow interrupted his vision.
As if he had been lulled to sleep, he was pulled away from the cacophony of battle, and a peaceful silence took over.