What a Mess

The Greenback Gorillas were experiencing one of their worst crises since their appearance.

At first, it started out simple enough. A few patrol squads started to get wiped out here and there. The elisiveness of the perpetrator was concerning, but they weren't overly cautious. Not in the beginning, anyway.

It was simply a matter of increasing the size of the patrols and making sure that each one could be reached by another easily. That way, if one fell under attack, they could receive assistance swiftly before things got too dire.

Moreover, even if the Greenback Gorillas weren't the strongest, their cohesion and teamwork made them a force to be reckoned with, and they refused to believe the perpetrator could consistently hunt down their teams without getting tired.

It was only after matter of time before it slipped up and was caught. They wouldn't completely throw away caution, but they simply didn't think this was something that would prove to be too much of an issue. At most, they would change how they operated in terms of patrolling in the future.

Other than that, not much would need to change...

Right?

***

About 5 hours had passed since the first attack, and the Greenback Gorillas were in shambles.

After the third hour, they had started concentrating their forces into larger groups, but it made no difference.

Time after time, their squads were wiped. It didn't matter if there were a dozen Gorillas, fifty, or a hundred. All of them were slain without exception.

The main camp of the Gorillas was becoming increasingly panicked, and they started sending out more of their elite squads in hopes of stopping whatever it was that was ripping them apart so thoroughly, but it made no difference.

No matter which of their members they sent, the result was always the same. They'd leave, and they'd never come back.

***

Deep in that region of the forest, signs of a primitive civilization could be seen.

There were huts made out of wood and stone. All of them seemed plain and crude, but the ones using them hardly seemed to mind.

Greenback Gorillas of varying ages could be seen moving around. However, it appeared to mostly be females, younger ones, and elders, as most of the adult males were part of their fighting force.

In the center of this place, there was a large hut that dwarfed the rest.

Whenever the surrounding Greenback Gorillas saw it, their eyes would be filled with reverence and awe, however, none of them dared to approach the hut.

None except one.

Everyone watched as a somewhat scrawny-looking Greenback Gorilla ran towards the large hut in a haste, his expression frantic.

There were no guards, so no one barred his entry, and as soon as he entered, he let out a loud cry before a sudden pressure descended on him and smashed him into the ground like an insect

He gritted his teeth. It felt like every bone in his body was being reduced to powder, and he couldn't lift a finger.

But he expected this. And so he didn't move, not until the chieftain finished venting.

A few moments later, the pressure eased, and the scrawny Gorilla let out gasping breaths as aur finally entered his lungs.

After regaining his composure, he got into something resembling a kneeling position. He kept his head down, but he could see the feet of his chieftain.

Each one was wider than his entire body.

A deep grunt came from the chieftain, the sound reverberating through him, but he still let out a series of quick chittering and grunting noises that sounded like the squealing of a rat compared to the chieftain.

Still, he couldn't hide his urgency, and when he finished, the chieftain was silent for a few seconds.

The messenger closed his eyes and could only hope that the chieftain would take this matter seriously now that it had gotten out of hand so quickly. The blow to their forces was simply too bad, and with each second that passed, the creature that was hunting them down was only getting more dangerous.

Not that he doubted the chieftain couldn't handle it, but if all their forces got eliminated before he moved, then even if he dealt with the threat, the damage they received would be too substantial to come back from in the short term.

As he considered these things, the chieftain suddenly let out another grunt.

As soon as he did, the messenger's head snapped up in shock, which is also when he saw the chieftain's full appearance.

He looked like most Greenback Gorillas, just... bigger.

A lot bigger.

His muscles rippled under his skin and fur like steel cords, and there were numerous scars lining his body, with an especially vicious one across his chest next to where his heart should be.

On his shoulders were the skulls of two large animals made to resemble shoulder guards, and there was a necklace of smaller skulls around his neck.

His face was surprisingly devoid of any scars, but that didn't make him any less terrifying in his appearance. Compared to his kin, he looked like a behemoth.

The messenger shivered.

He heard many stories about the chieftain. One of them was that he'd ripped himself out of his mother due to being too large at birth.

Perhaps that was true...

A grunt snapped the messenger out of his daze, and he watched the chieftain step behind his stone throne to pick up something.

His weapon.

***

Mike stared at his bloodied hands with an unreadable expression. He clenched and unclenched them a few times before letting out a soft sigh.

'This is starting to get out of hand.' He thought as he looked at the scene before him.

Corpses.

Over a hundred of them.

It was well into noon of the next day, and Mike had continued to hunt down groups of Greenback Gorillas. And with each group he hunted, the larger the next group became.

And the larger the group became, the harder it was to deal with.

Now, to be clear, Mike did not mind this.

If anything, he enjoyed the fact. This was exactly what he wanted, a challenge as well as an opportunity to train his ability to fight against large coordinated groups.

It had reached the point where even with his absurd perception and instincts, avoiding injuries became borderline impossible, especially when they came from all directions, and more often than not, Mike would be forced to take some damage in order to dish out more.

Moreover, he'd learned quite a bit about the Gorillas within these few hours. They came in all shapes and sizes with different skillets and abilities. Not too unlike humans.

One might think that coordinating such large groups would be difficult, and Mike thought the same as well, but he now knew that it wasn't the case.

He guessed that they were, to a degree, somewhat used to hunting down large monsters, which required large groups and high amounts of chesion.

As such, dealing with such huge groups was quite taxing. But it couldn't be helped.

The boost in stats his partial transformation hrabted was great, yes, but without using his "main ability," which was his aura, his attack options were quite limited.

Sure, he was great at martial arts and combat, but there aren't a lot of techniques made specifically to counter getting jumped by over a hundred foes at once.

Moreover, without his aura, he lacked a lot of his usual option. Particularly, Primal Rend and its ranged capabilities, which would have helped a lot in numerous situations.

Despite all of this, though, Mike stayed true to his wishes and only used his Partial Transformation. No matter how strenuous the battle got, unless things became truly too dangerous, he wouldn't use his aura.

As such, this had led to a few close calls. But the gains had been worth it.

STATS

[Name]: Mike

[Age]: 17

[Race]: Lupine

[Level]: 25

He'd gained three whole levels from his efforts, and each one came from him entering a situation dangerous enough to make him seriously consider choosing to use his aura.

But each time, he doubled down on his decision and somehow managed to make it out without using his primary ability, netting him extra levels.

Three levels in a few hours was, quite frankly, insane.

However, with all that said and done, none of this was actually what bothered Mike. After all, the improvements and levels were expected. They were why he was doing this.

No, the issue came from a simple fact.

Is ferocity.

It wasn't dropping, and now its effects were starting to become palpable.

He stared at the aftermath of his battle and couldn't help but wince.

Mike didn't consider himself particularly cruel, but even he had to admit the savagery in his fights now.

Before, his kills were made with chilling efficiency, designed to either take out his target as swiftly as possible or use them in order to mess up other Gorrilas.

That was still how he fought primarily, but there were visible changes now.

Many of the corpses had injuries that, while painful, weren't exactly fatal in the grand scheme of things.

Others had fatal wounds that were simply too exaggerated. For instance, Mike wasn't against ripping out throats, but some had half their necks bitten out entirely.

Actually, if one paid attention, a lot of these new injuries were bites...

'Sigh.' Mike sighed in his heart and just stood there for a second. Then, he turned his gaze to the side, his gaze turning cold.

"Still following me around, oh silent observer?"

***

A/N: I HAVE RETURNED!

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