Megan sat before the portal to the unknown dungeon in contemplation, absorbing Master Zanik's words and thinking over what she had learned.
This dungeon may have something to do with her race. How did that work?
Megan held up her hand in front of her face, closely examining the smooth, unblemished skin. No claws, only slightly transparent nails at the tips of each four fingers on each hand and one... what was it called... oh yeah, thumb. There were quite a few races that had similar appendages. Megan once read a book that described beings with two heads and four arms each that ended in hands like hers.
What Megan had been unable to find in all her research and study were any beings the same as her. She had read of biology and was aware she was female. She knew how species similar to hers procreated and was even intrigued over how all that worked, despite how disgusting it all seemed. Vast parts of the Uni-Net appeared to absolutely dedicate themselves to displaying scenes of beings procreating in many ways, positions and locations. Some of them even showed different races and species that couldn't even procreate with each other due to biological incompatibilities. Sometimes those scenes even include completely incompatible species coupling in ways where even though no offspring would come about it just appeared that all participants really enjoyed it anyway.
Shaking her head at the disparate thoughts Megan rose to her feet, performed a quick stretching routine to limber up and stepped into the portal.
Stepping over the threshold of the portal was a very strange experience, to begin with, when her flesh touched the mist, she could feel her being stretch forth ahead of her, not painful, just very disorienting as her sense of direction went haywire, up was down, left appeared to stretch as right seemed to contract and Megan's soul... trembled as she drifted towards the end of a long swirling purple tunnel with tinges of yellow. Purple and yellow mist undulated around her and despite trying to walk forward she was unable to gain any traction underneath her feet. Although she couldn't feel a firm surface under her, she could still sense her own movement through the space. The sensations lasted for a couple of seconds then with a flash of light she felt herself thrust forward and down as gravity suddenly was present again. Her hands impacted with a slightly damp patch of greenish-blue fern-like plants that appeared to cover some dark soil, rich with life and earthy scents.
Before Megan could shake off the disorientation of her portal travel a guttural shout sounded out, and her shoulder was suddenly jerked back as a blinding pain, stronger than anything she had ever experienced blasted through her being as she was sent flying back through the air. If she wasn't currently in so much pain she might have wondered why she did not return through the portal but at this point that was the least of her worries as careened off a hard, rough surface, likely a tree and awkwardly landed on the ground at an angle that caused her arm to bend further than it should and a loud *pop* could be heard as fresh pain now assaulted her other shoulder as she rolled over the dirt and had her momentum painfully halted by the bottom of another large tree.
Stunned by the sudden unexpected actions taken against her, Megan quickly tried to get a hold of the pain and her emotions so she could figure out what was happening. Looking to her shoulder that was initially hit she saw a small primitive spear, more just a straight stick with a sharp fire-blackened tip sticking out of her shoulder, looking closer she couldn't see any blood but that was as far as she got before a strange grunting and heavy footsteps could be heard coming closer to her position. Taking a quick assessment of her current circumstances, she appeared to have ended up in a small dip in the ground underneath a huge tree and more of those Greenish-blue fern plants which were between her and whatever was making those awful noises. The tree was coloured grey and off-white and looked more like bone than wood, resembling a big segmented human spine draped with bark the colour of grey decaying flesh hanging from its branches and wrapped around the trunk down to the base of the tree. The only reason she thought the tree was not actually made of bone is that it smelled like a tree should, at least the tress on Barbeedo II. Megan quickly realised that the spear, or maybe it was closer to a javelin than a spear had not pieced through the fabric of her Jump-Suite Suit as the defensive feature had kicked in and the suit around the impact had puffed up and had prevented the weapon from piecing more than the outer layer. It still hurt though but that pain was almost bearable now when compared to the throbbing pain coming from her other shoulder which she now realised was dislocated from the socket it usually sat in and the muscles and ligaments were all torn and sore. She also now realised she had a very limited window of opportunity to do something about this injury as whatever had caused her situation was closing in quicker than she thought previously and moving around in combat with this dislocation could make her situation worse.
Megan took a deep breath, braced herself, lined up her body and ran full tilt into the tree in front of her with her shoulder awkwardly positioned for maximum impact. *Thunk-CRACK*, Megan's shoulder fit the tree and a involuntary scream ripped from her throat as it noisily popped back into place with more pain than had been felt when it had been dislocated to begin with.
Before she could process the back of Megan's neck was roughly grabbed by a brown and gold haired thick meaty hand each of the four fingers and one thumb ending with fingernails similar to her own except coloured black and looking a lot more durable and sharpened at edges but also cracked and pitted like they had seen much hard use. The hand squeezed and Megan's body was lifted off the ground as she was thrown, headfirst by her assailant towards another tree.
By this time Megan had obviously realised she was in a battle for her life, and she didn't even know yet what was attacking her other than it was quick, big, hairy and had strong hands, similar to her own. Thinking quickly in the half second she had before impacting the tree with her head she drew core energy and flung a shield out but changed it slightly so that it curved and angled away from the tree, she then turned her head so she would impact her own shield instead of tree in a way that the curve would re-direct the momentum of her body to the side. It still hurt to hit but certainly did not hit hard enough to kill her as originally intended. After being redirected she managed to curl up and roll as she hit the ground, which saved her life as a huge fist immediately impacted the ground she rolled from. Coming up to her feet from the roll into a sprint she pushed core energy into her legs to increase her speed and focused on trying to get some distance from her attacker as she zig zagged in random directions ducking under low hanging bushes and vines, dodging through narrow spaces between trees, as the hairy beast followed closely behind her but not seeming to rush, it was taunting her, was she that weak?
Or was it just that strong?
Finally gaining enough of lead on the thing she tried jumping up to grab a branch of a tree and swing upwards enough to grab the next and so on before turning to examine what was chasing her. Looking down from her perch she saw a massive figure heading towards the tree she was in. The first thing she noticed and appeared to just grab her attention and hold it was the things thick golden hair springing from the top of its head like a mohawk in a strip from the top of its prominent forehead back over its skull and down the back of its head and beyond. Sharp pointed teeth bared with two elongated fangs hanging down from the top and two from the bottom made up the mouth, a pushed back nose with large nostrils and two eyes, glaring at her, seething in rage and cunning intelligence. The body of what was obviously a male Golden-Haired Ape rippled with muscle and power, his massive arms and curled fists beating the ground with every lope of his limbs as he powered forward on all four limbs at once toward her. Mostly covered with brown fur, golden streaks of hair could be made out over his body at random and this made the golden hair on his head stand out even more due to it almost glowing with golden light. Almost, wait, it WAS glowing with an inner golden light now that she looked closer.
Megan hoped that the beast couldn't climb but that hope was ruthlessly dashed as the ape paused, bent and JUMPED straight toward her, practically flying through the branches as if they were almost non-existent and she very quickly came to the conclusion that the ape was actually more comfortable and far faster when in the tree branches as he was on the ground.
Realising that she made a mistake taking to the trees Megan quickly reached around to where her staff was stuck to her back with mysterious technology and pulled it free effortlessly then leaped backwards into a somersault, her feet rising as her head was flung back, narrowly missing the reaching ape hands as he grabbed for her.
Concentrating with every fibre of her being she sent energy to the staff, had it stretch out, as fast as she could make it go, towards the ground. When one end hit the ground, she gripped the end she held with both hands and had the staff then retract, slower than before and just when her feet touched the ground, she allowed her body to collapse backward into another inertia reducing roll and, thinking quickly, she pulled back in the staff, the end of which was now buried in the soil, and flicked a large clump of dirt out and then up straight towards the face of the descending ape. With his arms raised above his head to deliver a lethal double blow the ape was unable to stop the dirt from entering his eyes, nose and mouth as the ape lost control and slammed onto the ground on his back as he scrambled to remove the obstacle to his vision.
Seeing her chance Megan rushed forward while pushing energy into her staff. The metal staff glowed a deep crimson as she swung the rounded tip at one of the apes legs, hoping to incapacitate him, even if only to give her a chance to get away.
The staff tip hit the apes leg on its shin bone and to Megan's satisfaction the bone underneath the tip did take damage with a resounding *crack*. The beast reared back in pain and bellowed a loud roar and to Megan's horror, echoing roars sounded out from the distance, was he calling for more apes?
Megan had to finish this quickly before more apes arrived. The ape didn't look as incapacitated as she hoped it would be and as Megan went to swing a second time the ape, with agility which belied his bulky appearance, the ape dodged her swing by somersaulting back as she had earlier, except the ape made it look effortless. Megan swore she could see a smug grin on its face as it landed, only slightly off balance on one of its legs. Well, Megan thought, at least I know it can be damaged.
The ape threw a punch the size of a pumpkin directly at her face and Megan quickly pushed her energy into a shield that angled the strike to the side before breaking in a bright flash. Megan, using a combination of dodges, shield redirects and staff swings was barely able to keep the ape at bay as it dominated her with it unpredictable punches, kicks and even bites.
Megan knew it was only a matter of time until she was going to take a blow she could not recover from and once that happened she was going to die as her stamina reduced beyond what was needed to swing her staff and dodge effectively. Megan waited for her chance and focused on hitting the same leg she had initially hit again and again. By this stage the beast appeared to have gone completely berserk as its eyes were practically glowing red, wait, it's eyes were glowing red!
Knowing this was her chance Megan activated the ability she had dubbed Lightning Slide and released everything she had, pushing energy into both her freehand and her staff she forced the energy in her staff to create a sharp blade of light from the tip, and simultaneously blasted an Energy Bolt into one of his eyes as she stabbed the blade of energy into his leg, right into the side of his kneecap and slid to the side, ducking under a swinging fist and dragging the sharp energy on the tip of her staff through the flesh of the apes knee, slicing effortlessly through cartilage, muscle and connective tissue. The ape roared in pain and fell to its knees, bellowing again when its damaged leg buckled under his weight as it caught itself on its hands. Megan, reaching behind the beast stepped on its tail bone and leapt up its back, gripping her staff in both hands, shifting the blade to a sharp pointy speartip and rammed it with all her might augmented with all the energy she could muster directly into the back of the apes head where the skull met the spine. Hot red blood gushed everywhere as the head of the spear energy erupted from the top of the apes skull, splashing blood and ape brains into the air and as it drifted back down coating everything underneath it the ape slowly toppled to the ground, Megan riding its back like a surfer riding a wave, keeping her grip tight on her staff, energy retracting.
Megan twisted the staff to the side a few times, making sure, then pulled and with a sickening *squelch-crunch* she managed to retrieve her staff.
Megan was exhausted. Small wounds covered her from her head to her toe although luckily for her the Jump-Suite Suit had managed to prevent debilitating injuries. Hearing more roars of Golden-Haired Apes coming her way Megan moved away as quickly as she could push her exhausted body in the opposite direction hoping to find some safety to recover and figure out her next plan of action would be.