The Horrors Of The Dark Forest
"There are two places that the Mayor would send the recruits," the commander began, "The first place is a marsh grassy land filled with weak Ẹbọras perfect for low-level warriors."
"And the second?" Adewale pressed,
"The dark forest!" The new commander growled with disdain in his eyes. "Perfect for eliminating weakling recruits and E-ranks, I lost a lot of my children to that forest and the formal commander didn't make things easier,"
"So how do we survive?" Adewale continued, the memory of the conversation flooded through his mind. The new commander did make some efforts to help them, but the efforts had to be well hidden, or else the leaders of the shelter would have confiscated it.
The arrival into the forest caused a lot of grievances for Adewale, and the two thugs hired by Kehinde Akinbode began to show their true colours. At first, he had assumed they were seasoned warriors, but as they continued rambling and bulling the rest of the E-ranks, he realised that they were nothing but clueless thugs sent to protect Kehinde Akinbode. He was able to piece the puzzle together, Kehinde Akinbode might be an S-rank Ẹṣọ, but he had not a single achievement to his name. Like most arrogant, spoilt, entitled rich children, he had an ego the size of a mountain and the ambition of a hungry gorilla; the only thing he lacked was the intelligence to achieve his goals.
"Everyone lay low, keep quiet and don't make any sudden movements" He ordered his team as they stumbled ahead of Kehinde's vehicle. He had formulated the plan at that moment; judging from the terrain and the way the dark forest was silent, he guessed that noise was a taboo in this forest and he fully intends to take advantage of it. They might have been bait for the beasts of the forest, but the real baits were the ones causing the loud racket; as predicted, the Ẹbọras attacked. The two fools that Kehinde had brought were the first to die, killed in less than twenty seconds. Adewale theorised that the Sabre-toothed-panther would find it difficult to hunt during the day because of their nocturnal eye-sight, so as long as they remained close and silent, they were sure to survive.
There were nine of them in total: Adewale, Lakan, Attah, Ọsẹ, Ọreoluwa, Ronkẹ Oyewọ. She was the one with the ability to create energy shields; Seyi Ọlaitan could make use of electricity or lightning, and she was also proficient with a long blade. Tunde Teniọla had the stealth skill and was also proficient with the blade; and finally, Kehinde Akinbode, the S-rank Evo-1 fool who desired to use the rest as a shield for his own personal benefit.
Kehinde Akinbode was panicked, he didn't expect things to turn out this way. His father had told him not to worry; he was going to remain within the training facility until the day of the field training, and then he would be assigned two professional guards who would protect him as he ventured into the dark cave where the great treasure awaits. He was supposed to return to the shelter in a blaze of glory, and everyone would see that he was worthy of his S-rank status, but now he was at the mercy of the E-ranks.
"I will not stand for this!" he voiced.
"Shut up!" Adewale snapped, "Or die with your friends" In response, Kehinde snapped his mouth shut.
Adewale remembered that the new commander had told him that there was a safe house somewhere within the forest, all he had to do was navigate the dangers of the forest and locate the general vicinity of the safe house. It was a simple enough plan, but for what Ọrẹoluwa had said, she had the rear skill called fore-glim. It was a skill that gave her the ability to catch a tiny glimpse into the future; it was from this that he began to create several scenarios in his head. They had left the Saber-tooth panthers behind; luckily, their visions were as narrow as Adewale had guessed as long, and they didn't make any rapid movements. They were safe. Hopefully, they don't bump into any other threats in the forest because something tells him that the next threat they encounter might not have any weakness that can be exploited.
"We should be heading that way!" Kehinde Akinbode said pointing towards a part of the forest where the leaves had turned yellow. Adewale only had to see it once to understand that it was not a place for them to be, going there with me setting death. "Let's go" Kehinde urged.
"You go" Adewale responded, "We're going this way"
"I am the one in charge, weakling!" Kehinde said mustering his confidence. "The only reason why you are here is because I …." he could have continued bragging but Lakan knocked him out in a single swift motion to the back of the head.
"Thank you Lakan," Adewale said with a half smile.
"Let us leave him here to die" Ronke voiced silently,
"No," Adewale said, "He is the trophy of his family. If we return without him, then we will all be executed."
"So we keep this dead weight with us" Attah complained as he shook his head in disappointment.
"We need to keep on moving" There was a sense of urgency in his voice, and no one could blame him; they all saw as the light beams from the crystal-powered weapons bounced off the skin of the Saber-tooth panther. They were in the worst situation that could happen, and the only salvation was the safe house; Lakan picked up the unconscious Kehinde, and they all marched forward, following the directions given to Adewale by the new commander.
"What is that?" Ṣeyi Ọlaitan inquired as she pointed at a small Ẹbọra that suddenly jumped out of the tree. They had been going for three hours already without incident.
"Oh no!" Adewale exclaimed in pure terror, no wonder the Saber-tooth panthers didn't come to this side of the forest. "That is a Galago, Run!" he yelled.
"But it doesn't look dangerous" Ṣeyi protested.
"That's where you are wrong" Adewale replied, "The Galago might be small and might seem harmless but in actual truth, the real threat is in their numbers,"
The Galagoes were fast and had a taste for human meat; what made them very dangerous was the fact that they hunted in colonies. One colony consisted of more than a thousand small beasts and they were led by the Bush-pigmy. The E-ranks ran for more than ten minutes and then Adewale came to a realization, "If we continue like this we are all going to die"
"So what should we do?" Lakan screamed as another fruit greased past his head; several of the Galagos dived on the weak humans intending to slow the party down.
"Shield!" Adewale commanded, Ronke responded immediately. The Galagoes slammed into the shield smashing their skulls in the process.
"We need to move faster" Attah yelled,
Lakan pointed his gun at the Galagoes and shot at them; luckily, there was an effect. Several Galagoes fell to the beams of light. The problem was that there were too many to make any difference. "This is not slowing them down!" he shouted as he stumbled along with Kehinde Akinbode on his back. He strongly wished that he had a shield in his arm but couldn't think of anything else to do.
"Ọsẹ now!" Adewale cried, and in reply, a stream of fire busted forth from the palm of his hands. The Galagoes evolved from the native African animal of the same name, but with some differences, they were poisonous and more nimble, and they had three major stages of evolution. Galago evolution stage one was the bush baby, Galago evolution stage two was the bush pigmy and Galago stage three was the bush beast. They swarmed violently through the trees throwing stones, fruits and nuts at the fleeing party of weak humans.
"We're not going to make it" Attah panicked,
"Keep moving" Adewale screamed and then changed the direction of their movement.
The fire launched by Ọsẹ was formidable but largely ineffective; the Bush Pygmies had the ability to resist fire because, unlike the weaker counterparts, they had a long tail with a large lamp at the tip of the tails. The bush beasts were even stronger; they had magical skills. They were as large as the gorillas and carried a small mat with a small hook-like claw on their backs. The mat contained a magical elemental attack which made the bush beast the most dangerous in the colony. "It is about to attack!!" Ọrẹoluwa screamed,
"Shield!!" Adewale screamed. The shield was raised immediately, and just in a nick of time, the fire attack engulfed them but did no damage. "Keep moving!!" Adewale screamed. They continued to charge forward. Adewale briefly looked back to see how much danger they were in; the result was heartbreaking. The number of Galagoes had quadrupled; several of the little beasts had small clubs in their hands, and the evolved ones stood behind watching the whole event.
"We're going to die, we need a miracle," Attah screamed,
All of a sudden, the screaming behind suddenly ceased, and the forest became deathly silent. They ran a short distance and then realised that something was wrong; they instinctively stopped and turned to see if their pursuers were still on their hills. What Adewale noticed sent a chill down his spine; the Galagoes had stopped following them; they all stood in the trees and perched in the branches, looking at them silently, waiting.
"Why are they acting like that?" Lakan inquired, but then realised he would not like the answer.
"There is only one answer I can come up with" Adewale replied,
"And that is?" Ronke inquired in a shaky voice,
"We are now in the territory of a far more fearsome beast" Adewale said,
"We should keep moving," Attah said as he kept on trembling,
"Indeed" Adewale agreed.
The E-ranks forged forward towards the hill that Adewale had set his eye on, he had hoped that there would be a cave within the hill that would shelter them as they regrouped. He also had his attention focused on the trees hoping that whatever had this aspect of this forest as its hunting ground would not make an appearance, he had hoped to save every member of the party without anyone dying.
"What are those white things?" Tunde whispered as he pointed towards a tree.
"Dame it!" Adewale grumbled, "Arachnoids!" The worst kind of beast they could encounter in the dark forest, no wonder the Galagoes were afraid to invade this territory. "We need to move," Adewale said with the feeling that things were getting worse as they dived deeper into the forest.
"They're coming!!" Lakan voiced in urgency,
"Move!" Adewale cried and the Arachnoids began to swarm from every tree in the forest. The Arachnoids appear in the form of large spiders ranging from the size of a small monkey to the size of a large elephant smashing away the branches in its way. "Everyone be on guard," Adewale yelled as he charged forward, "There are some that can attack from above," his memory of the book he read while still under the supervision of the new commander came to light. A specific breed of the Arachnoids had the ability to bungee jump or dive bomb to hunt prey.
"Go! Go!! Go!!!" Lakan screamed as one of the Ẹbọras was close to striking Ronkẹ; he used his shoulder to block the strike but got sliced in return by the razor-sharp claw of the Arachnoid. Tunde was able to shoot the small beast down, but it was a lucky shot. Had the Ẹbọra been a little bigger, then his weapon would have been useless.
"Lakan!" Adewale said in concern,
"Just a scratch, Let's keep moving!" Lakan replied,
They continued to charge forward and then Adewale's instinct screamed with urgency, along with Ọrẹoluwa's cry of despair, "Shield! Now! Above us!" In response, Ronke raised her hand and created a shield to protect the entire party, but it was futile. The Arachnoid charged through the trees using its body weight. The force of gravity and the momentum from the fall caused it to smash right through the shield, to everyone's horror. Adewale realised there and then that he had foolishly forgotten to boost everyone's skills with his ability, the cost was his best friend. The Arachnoid reached out and stabbed Attah through the collarbone and then vanished into the trees within a split second with the helpless human screaming in its claw.
The terror that washed across Adewale's entire being could not be described with words, "Attaaaahhhh!!!" he screamed in despair, "Attaaaahhhhhh!!!" then he turned around and started to run in the direction that the Arachnoid had gone. His cry for his friend could be heard for miles as his voice echoed through the forest canopy.