Chapter 24: Ape's Prison
The cursed giant ape loomed like a nightmare — four meters tall, its coarse white fur matted with blood and jagged bone shards. Its massive arms pulsed with veins of red-black corruption. Crimson eyes locked on Ravi, a low, guttural rumble vibrating the stones beneath their feet.
Ravi slowly stepped forward, lips pressed into a firm line. "Get back," he said softly, but his voice carried like steel through the mountain air.
Waker moved to his side. "No way. You're not facing that thing alone, Reydon."
"Waker," Ravi replied, his gaze never leaving the beast, "This one is different. That ape ... it's not just a cursed beast. It's tainted with corruption of cursed energy."
Behind them, the others regrouped. Mirelle pulled Kiran close behind her dome of golden light. Elyra, bleeding from a cut above her brow and blood trailing from her temple, notched another arrow despite trembling arms. Tarin and Dorn stood ready, weapons drawn but bodies exhausted.
Sira stepped forward, a deep frown on her face. "It's looking only at you. Why?"
Ravi didn't respond. A dark glow began to stir around his right shoulder from his neck. Faint patterns like chains slithered just beneath his skin, glowing with a cursed red-black hue — the mark of the Dark Sigil.
The ape roared that shattered stone and rattled trees, and charged, earth quaking beneath its monstrous weight.
Ravi surged forward, silver sword flashing in a blur. Waker hesitated—then followed, channelling essence into his grass Aspect. The impact of Ravi's blade against the ape's first swing created a shockwave that threw pebbles and dust into the air. The others staggered from the sheer force. Sparks danced from the silver sword, and then, Ravi vanished — reappearing above the ape's head midair.
The ape swiped upward with both blood-soaked hands, but its legs suddenly snagged — vines of yellow-green grass had erupted from the ground, binding its ankles just enough.
It was enough to distract it as a horizontal arc of blinding white light exploded from Ravi's sword slashed, but the ape roared, crossed its forearms, and blocked the strike — only to be pushed backward several meters. Which gaves Waker enough momentum to flip the ape sideways like a monstrous ragdoll as his yellow-green grass were still attached to its legs.
Waker collapsed to his knees, panting hard, blood dripping from his lip. Ravi noted that even after fighting to this instance, he was still able to use his essence aspect, which shows that Waker had a large reserve of essence. Ravi was a bit surprised by this fact.
The remaining bandits started retreating back as they saw that the large cursed beast was busy dealing with their target. As soon as they turned behind, they saw that a seven years old kid with dark brown hair just like Garn and blue eyes just like that healer wearing simple clothes was present in front of them, looking coldly. Mirelle was shocked as she noticed that Kiran disappeared from her embrace. After looking around, she was horrified as she saw Kiran standing in front of bandits.
The bald man wearing thick iron armour was frustrated as he saw the kid, but soon, the idea of kidnapping the child popped up in his mind. With a viscous grin, he took a step forward.
But Kiran disappeared from his position and reappeared midair right in front of the bald man. The man's eyes barely had time to widen before Kiran thrust a glowing dagger through his throat. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc.
"You threatened my parents," Kiran said quietly. The man collapsed, gurgling on his own blood.
Ravi also sensed the sudden distortion in space and time from Kiran's position and shifted his attention towards him. He was somewhat interested in the Essence Aspect of Kiran. Now, he discerned it somewhat as he saw this scene. It was a very rare Temporal-Spatial Aspect.
Unfortunately, he couldn't distract his thoughts any further. The ape extended its arms forward, which stretched unnaturally, like elastic flesh, grabbing trees to slingshot its massive body toward them like a comet.
Meanwhile, far atop another ledge, the white-masked figure watched the chaos unfold.
He chuckled, voice muffled but amused. "The Tainted Sentinel responded quickly. As expected."
A figure in a black hooded cloak with a crimson twin-sting scorpion symbol engraved on the back appeared from a swirling vortex of lightning and stormclouds beside him "You unleashed that thing?"
"I merely called it," he replied. "The boy's sigil summoned it. And look … it knows its current owner."
The hooded man gazed, turned downward, watching Ravi and another kid dodging the dreadful impact of the Giant ape tainted with cursed energy. He frowned and said, "So, he's the one who killed the Dark Monarch ... " He paused for a while and then shifted his gaze towards the white masked figure, "Still, if Chanab learn about this, you'll be done for."
The masked man replied, "Relax, this is just a ripple. Even if the plan falters ... the main tide will remain undisturbed."