Chapter 257: Big Bad Gorilla

After watching Cinder tear through the orangutan's core Joshua let out a sigh of relief. All of the sub-bosses had been dealt with and all there was left to take care of was the boss gorilla near the back of the town. Joshua could feel a large amount of killing intent coming from that area which told him the boss still hadn't left the mall area. He was glad that the gorilla seemed to not care about being reserved with its emotions since it would be hard to tell where it was located otherwise.

From the fight with the orangutan the entire group knew that the gorilla would be extremely challenging. The orangutan was most likely more intelligent than the gorilla would be and that seemed to be its strength. It was able to use its intelligence to stave off a lot of their strategies to take it down quickly. It even seemed to have the ability to control other weaker haze creatures and zombies. That would have been a nightmare to deal with if they didn't have the support group attracting the attention of most of the weaker creatures in the haze.

When the orangutan was able to use its strengths to its advantage it was a fierce foe that could hold them all off for a time, but when it was pushed into a corner and forced to rely on its feral instincts everything changed. It became sloppier with its movements although that was also partly due to Madalyn and Cinder's poisons. In such a situation it was easy for the group to take it down in the end.

The gorilla however wouldn't rely on intelligence to be a problem. From its size alone Joshua was certain that Cinder wasn't going to be able to hold her own against it in a one on one clash. Even Tank wouldn't have the strength or size to pin down such a massive creature. It was going to take them all to put it down as quickly as possible. Joshua quickly picked up the remaining pieces of the core left behind by the orangutan and put it away in his inventory.

Before any of them could say a word they all turned in the direction of the edge of town as they heard a large crashing sound. It was followed up by what sounded like a waterfall for a moment. 'Well it seems like the support group has had to resort to using the water tower at this point.' Henry said with a small frown.'

'Yes, they've just taken it down and are reforming their defenses for the hoards next charge.' Natalie explained to everyone as she found out what was going on with the other group.

'Then that means we have about an hour's worth of time before the support group is forced out of town.' Isabella said while looking towards the rest of the group. 'I suggest we get on to the boss as quickly as possible otherwise it won't be the only thing we have to worry about.'

Everyone nodded in agreement as Joshua took the lead and started leading the group in the direction of where the boss was located. It didn't take them long to reach the area since there weren't any haze creatures in the area to stop their progress. In fact the silence along the way to the boss was fairly unsettling considering how the rest of the town at least had a few haze creatures around. Joshua was starting to believe that the boss might have actually sent all of the other haze creatures out of its personal territory by the way things were looking.

When they got close enough to the mall to be able to make out the boss they all found a nice building to camp out at while they thought over the situation. The haze in the area was far more prevalent than it had been in the rest of the town, but Joshua could tell that it had been thinned out by quite a lot in comparison to the first time he had scouted out the place. The amount of haze creatures that had been dying was clearly taking an effect on the haze. The gorilla wasn't able to produce enough haze to keep up with the amount that was being drained away by all the fighting. Even so it was still thick enough in the area to hamper all of their vision of the creature in front of them.

The first thing Joshua noticed was the fact that the gorilla was wide awake and on high alert. It was sitting calmly in the mostly destroyed mall like it had been the last time they had come through. It was clear that it had been awakened by all of the commotion that was going on at the moment. Its eyes were fiercely glaring around its surroundings as it pierced through the haze unlike the rest of its slightly blurred figure. Even so Joshua could tell it was standing up and waiting for them just from how tall it was at the moment. It was a good eight stories tall and towered over just about all of the buildings in the surroundings.

The second thing Joshua noticed was the strange phenomenon that he had been wondering about since the first time he had come to check on the boss. All of the vines around the mall and the nearby buildings that seemed to spread out in mass around the area. The vines weren't dormant like they had been before, but seemed to be agitated just like the boss monster. Along some of the vines that were thicker than the others Joshua could see large fruit that resembled rather enormous apples. They were big enough for the oversized gorilla or Tank to use as a food source so he knew something was up with them.

'Well how are we going to do this?' Adrian asked as they all stayed crouched down on the roof so that the gorilla wouldn't be able to notice them. 'We're on a timer so we have to figure out something fast.'

'I doubt it's as intelligent as the orangutan so it probably won't be able to utilize its environment in the same way.' Laura said with a frown as she observed everything. 'It also probably won't be able to block our ranged assault in the same fashion, but I doubt we will be able to hurt it as much from afar.'

'Plus the thing looks like it could easily bench press one of these buildings from what we saw earlier.' Marcus said as he thought back on when they were scouting out the area. 'I highly doubt the healers and ranged fighters will be safe in one place.'

'That means we will have to rely on having Cinder keep them all safe, or at least the ones that aren't able to get around quickly.' Joshua said as he started forming a plan in his mind.

'Well if that's the case Cinder is going to have to fight from a distance in this confrontation.' Lilly said with a smile. 'It might be better that way against such a powerful creature. Tank might be the better choice for a one on one fight in this situation.'

'I think so as well.' Joshua said as he looked over the size of the creature in front of them. 'We will use that as a trump card after we've figured out what this creature can do in the end.'

'Alright then how do we want to get things started?' Amy asked eagerly as her eyes seemed to be shining as she stared in the direction of the gorilla.

'We'll start off with a big bang.' Joshua said with a smirk as he told everyone what to do before rushing down the building. Everyone else got into position according to their plan with Lilly waiting to the last minute before summoning Cinder. Joshua rushed within sight of the giant gorilla just to make sure he had gotten its attention. The large gorilla turned to look down at him since he was on street level. It was rather intimidating to see such a massive creature glaring down at him, but Joshua responded in kind while releasing the pressure of his aura to challenge the beast.

The gorilla could clearly feel the pressure that Joshua was giving off and started to roar in challenge before rising its body up even more to its full height as it pounded away at its chest. Joshua noticed that all of the vines in the surroundings seemed to respond in kind as they angrily waved around in response to the ape that was letting out a roar so loud that some of the glass on the buildings in the surroundings shattered.

When the gorilla finished its display of dominance it started to rush in Joshua's direction at a frightening speed for its size. Each step it took caused the cars in the surroundings to jump. While it was rushing over it slammed through anything that was in its way without slowing down in the slightest. It tore clean through a building as if it was made of paper as it pre pared to slam one of its fist directly on top of Joshua. All of the vines in the surroundings seemed to be following the ape's example as they grew quickly and followed after the gorilla. The vines destroyed anything they passed through as they approached.

Joshua knew that he was going to have to do something quickly otherwise he'd be smashed into a massive crater in the pavement when that fist came down. Joshua reached out to Light who was in his aura and gave the command to the first step of their plans. In response Light flared out a burst of aura alongside Joshua that created a blinding light in the surroundings. The gorilla was surprised by the sudden light and had to use one of its four arms to try to protect its eyes. It was too late though as it was already partially blinded. The fact that it had fell for the simple trick confirmed that it wasn't nearly as smart as the orangutan in Joshua's mind. He smiled before waiting for the others to deliver on their end.

The gorilla was too busy rubbing its eyes to slam its fist in the proper place as it missed Joshua by a large margin and toppled over a nearby building. Even so the force of the blow caused Joshua to stumble to keep his footing. The amount of strength to do such a thing with a simple punch proved that it was on a completely different level in power from the orangutan. Even so Joshua just had to avoid taking its hits head on if he wanted to end up surviving its onslaught of attacks. Joshua quickly leapt back and blinked to the roof of a nearby building to put some space between him and the gorilla as the others' bombardment was about to take place.

The first sign of the others' attack came in a loud screeching sound as Laura created a massive bird made of fire that soared over the nearby buildings and crashed directly into the front of the gorilla that was forced back by the impact. The bird erupted into massive flames that also seemed to latch onto the vines in the surrounding as well. Things weren't done there as the others added onto the initial attack.

Julia was the first one to strike next as her inferno spell only made the flames spread faster and cover not only the gorilla, but the vines as well that had rushed over. Amber created several large earthen walls to try keep the fire concentrated on the location, while Henry seemed to be using a support spells that caused wind to pick up in the surroundings slowly. The sudden shift in the wind started to pick up until the point a small tornado formed over the flames. The fire seemed to catch onto it creating what looked like a large spiral of flames that was trapped inside the earthen walls that amber had set up.

For the finishing touches Madalyn spewed out a cloud of poison that was sucked into the tornado while Cinder just added more fire to the solution with her smoldering smoke that kept the whole thing going. Joshua stood to the side and watched it all take place. He knew that depending on how the results of the first attack turned out the entire battle could end up going differently than he was expecting. He needed to figure out just how much punishment this beast could take before he could go for its core.