A damsel in distress.
Saving her would be his golden ticket into the village, where at the very least, he would have a safe place to recover from his injuries in.
It was an easy decision to make, and after making it Gaston immediately sped up a little, moving towards the sound as silently as he could.
At first he was a little worried about getting discovered ahead of time because of this, but once he arrived at the location and saw the scene, all his worries disappeared.
There were about a dozen human corpses sprawled all over the place, some with spear-sized holes in their heads, some with their stomachs cut open, and one of them had even gotten himself nailed to a tree 9 feet in the air by one of the Blue Ape's standard wooden spears.
All of the humans were either dead, or soon to be dead, as a few with fatal injuries were still letting out sporadic cries of pain.
Something which Gaston was grateful for, since their agony perfectly masked the sound he was making.
As soon as he got within earshot of these heaven-sent new noises, he began moving according to their rhythm.
They were quite beautiful, in their own way, and Gaston got the hang of it quite quickly, speeding up and arriving at the girl's location quicker than expected thanks to their screams.
Much to his delight however, he was the corpse of one of the Blue Apes whilst he was making his way over, which immediately greatly increased his chances of success.
Armed with nothing but the magic knife, he was ready for a brutal battle, especially when he thought of his still-injured right arm.
"Punchi!"
The sound of a spear piercing through a human body was heard, and Gaston's heart dropped a little.
He hadn't heard a sound from the little girl he was trying to save for a while now, and if that was the sound of her death, then his plans would have to change drastically.
Thankfully he was already extremely close, and a second after hearing the sound he finally laid his eyes on, as he expected, the last remaining Blue Ape.
According to his experience, they usually moved in pairs of two at the very least, so he had been expecting this.
The previous time when there were 12 was a special circumstance after all, he would be helpless to deal with them if it was the case this time around as well.
Thankfully for him however, it was not, and the Blue Ape he was standing behind looked to be the last of it's kind at the scene.
'Oh! The little lamb is still alive. But... it appears to have broken down.'
Looking not more than ten feet away from the Blue Ape, he saw what he rightly assumed to be a little girl, crouched down beside a female corpse with two holes in it's chest.
It was no longer pleading with her enemy for mercy, as her blonde hair covered most of her face and her hazel eyes merely stared at the female corpse beneath her, with no sign of emotion.
Looking at the scene, Gaston couldn't muster up any sympathy for the stranger in front of him.
He was still simply calmly observing the situation.
'What a fortunate little girl. Even in the event of a mental breakdown, life finds a way to help her.
"Her would-be killer ignores her due to her silence, choosing to finish off one of the wailing humans near it first instead.'
Afterwards, the Blue Ape, having silenced the wailing of one of the humans, turned his attention to the last remaining survivor, who was crouched and completely silent.
It was a measly ten feet away from the little girl, ground that it could cover in less than two seconds if given the opportunity.
The lowering of it's vigilance had proven to be a mistake however, as it allowed Gaston to silently close the gap between them without it noticing.
After it turned it's head towards what Gaston deemed as his golden ticket, but before it could take a step, Gaston chose that precise moment to strike.
Since he was still a little over 20 feet away from it, and he couldn't delay any longer, Gaston decided to throw his knife at it from this distance!
Despite the fact that he had regained most of his combat instinct following the recovery of his last memory, knife throwing was not something he was ever particularly good at.
Because of this, the return of most of his combat ability provided little to no help to him in this matter.
Combined with the fact that he couldn't afford to miss, as that would leave him unarmed, forced him to aim at the largest part of his target, it's chest.
Since he knew that he couldn't inflict a fatal would on it in one go with such an attack however, he decided to throw away the element of surprise as well, in favor of power.
Before throwing the knife, he used one of the two magic techniques that he knew, and infused it with nearly a third of magical energy.
A tried and tested method in his time ambushing the Blue Apes chasing them down, this way of fighting was guaranteed to be quick, but it was an enormous waste of magical energy, burning more than 10 times the required amount for a significant, but inefficient, boost in power.
But beggars can't be choosers, and he had to work with what he had.
As soon as he used the "Earth Strengthening" magic technique, the Blue Ape halted in it's tracks and turned towards him, detecting the sudden appearance of magical energy almost immediately.
Unfortunately for it, it didn't matter.
"Boom!"
The sound of the knife flying through the air echoed like the explosion of a hand grenade, firmly embedding itself dead center in the chest of the Blue Ape before it could even react, it's power throwing it to the ground.
As the Blue Ape fell to the ground, Gaston began madly running towards it, aiming to capitalize on this opportunity and take it's life.
Whilst he was running however, he didn't forget to send a mental thought to his broken down golden ticket, as he would prefer for it to recover by itself by the time he was finished.
Carrying her back to her village would be an option as well, but it would be quite the hassle, and not something he wanted to do if he could avoid it.
'Raise your head, little one. Your mother would want you to be strong.
'Don't you want to lay your mother down, and give her the peace she deserves in the afterlife? If you love her as she did you, you will find it within yourself to get up, and fulfill your responsibility to her as her child.'
The mental transmission was delivered whilst he was madly dashing towards the Blue Ape, but Gaston managed to deliver it in a soothing tone in spite of this.
He couldn't bother himself to give her what she probably needed, comfort, but nor did he wish that he had.
As long as she could recover a little bit and save him the hassle of having to carry her back, he would have accomplished his goal.