Chapter 5: The Gorilla

The sun was rising on Afrimonica city as a monster was born. One of my close friends had turned into a monstrosity. After injecting himself with a mysterious liquid Ash was encased in a clear crystal before a body was formed around him, An 8 foot headless furry beast with a hole in his chest were ash glared out of and gaping mouth in his stomach with piercing serrated teeth. He resembled an extinct species i read about once called the gorilla. Gorillas were large apes with strong power before they went extinct for some strange reason. I saw a gorilla fossil in a museum and they were big but not that big. whatever that is in front of me had to be some anomaly we dont know about. Monkassia had freed herself and the soldiers around us were fighting western forces with Harold and Horanesse coming over to fight with us, though im not sure what we can do against that thing.

"URAUUUUUGH GRRRRRRR" The monster screeched. "What is that thing?!?" Harold questioned. "I dont know!" I replied. Harold and Monkassia exchanged a look as Monkassia nodded and Harold got a scared look. "Die traitor!" Horanesse cried whilst dashing towards the beast. She sliced the beasts legs and arms of before stabbing it the chest with force. Her sword broke. She looked at her sword before looking at the monster with a scared look in her face. All of a sudden a squelching noise starting coming from the beast as limbs sprouted from its dismembered body exactly were they were cut off except this time the limbs were clean shaven instead of covered in hair. Horanesse screamed as the monster grabbed her and threw her against the wall, her armour clattering as it disconnected from he body. "No!!!" Harold screamed as he dashed towards Ash. It was too late though. The beast already regrew its limbs as it leaped towards Horanesse and used its gaping mouth to finish her off. "YOU MONSTER!" Harold screeched before bludgeoning the monster with his hammer. He got to the crystal but it was no use, the crystal was as hard as diamonds. Ashes wide open eyes moved to look at Harold from the crystal as claws shot out his hand, piercing Harolds arm. A soldier came over and gave Monkassia a flail to help fight, but we both felt helpless. I glared at Ash threw the crystal as he glared back with Harold in his hand. He dropped harold and dashed into the walls. Was he running away? Since harold was injured i decided to chase after ash as i felt like out of everyone here i could convince him to stop the most. i thought since he was moving towards the city he might be trying to get to somewhere with more reinforcements and soldiers. He may be powerful in that form but he is definitely slower so catching up was easy. I started slicing at his legs to stop him but he turned around and tried to push me backwards, i dodged the sweep and stabbed the thick flesh on his leg and sliced horizontally so if he tried to move he would just damage himself further. "leave... leave so i dont have to hurt anyone else... please" He muttered in a deep raspy voice. I lowered my blade and looked at him sadly. "Why are you doing this? please come back" I murmured. Ash froze up as tears formed on his eyes in the crystal before he tensed up and and swung at me again whilst growling "LEAVE!". I got out my crossbow and fired directly at the exposed bit of crystal. It only chipped the crystal making a few shards shoot outwards. The cut i made on his leg had already healed as he leaped towards me and grasped me in his fists so i sliced his fingers and freed myself of his grasp. He squealed as he tried to claw me whilst i dodged his attacks. His fingers had already regrown when i noticed something. His new fingers where paler than the rest of his skin. Then i noticed the area where i cut his leg was paler as well. Every time his limbs get damaged are severed they heal back but weaker. Perhaps his healing takes up energy so when he needs to heal he regens it weaker so he preserves energy. I decided to test this theory out by attacking the parts ive already injured, so i slashed out his fingers and cut his leg as he angrily grumbled. Whilst i waited for him to regen i cut at him more. "Leave before i kill you!" He roared. "Give up!" i screamed whilst stabbing into his his chest. His fingers regrew even paler and thinner than before and the wounds in his chest healed, hairless and scarred. I think my theory was correct as his movements were growing less and less fluent as i damaged his body. Everytime he swung at me i sliced more and more of his flesh off and watched as it regrew. He was catching on to what i was doing, which was surprising as hes usually quick thinking. His fingers were pretty much skinless now, except a few strands of skin stretching across them. "You'll never beat me in this form" He said out of breath as he inhaled and screeched at the top of his lungs. All of a sudden he regrew all skin and limbs he was missing and he went back to his original form. It seemed he didnt know how his beast form worked either as he immediately collapsed, he was out of energy. I ran over to him and tried to break through the crystal but as i swung my sword towards it my sword just broke on impact. The crystal was harder than diamonds... Diamonds... That gives me an idea... I ran over towards one of the small shards that broke off after i shot him with my crossbow and i quickly used a small rope i have as a spare string for my crossbow to attach it to an arrow. I aimed carefully towards the exposed bit of crystal and i took a shot. The crystal was instantly cracked. After that he started to get up from his momentary rest and he looked around before feeling the crystal. It seems that since that exposed cavity in his chest was used for him to see, as his beast form doesnt have eyes, he couldnt see whilst the crack was there. He stood still for a second before the same squelching noise came from his ears. His ears grew larger in size before they started twitching. I stood still before taking a step forward, he immediately faced me, he has probably gained some type of enhanced hearing as a counter to me obscuring his vision. He dashed towards me and and i jumped out of the way and stood as still as i can. He wondered around before slits grew above his mouth, and he started sniffing from it. He grew a nose to sniff me down instead of seeing or hearing. He launched himself towards me again to i grabbed a metal pole and shoved it into his nose and ran towards another shard of crystal. I grabbed one as he tried to pull the pole out of his face and quickly strapped it to my crossbow again. he got the pole out of his face and he heard the noise of me loading my crossbow. He covered his face in an attempt to stop the arrow but the shard was so jagged it went right through his palm and cracked the crystal even more. "Stop this!" He hissed before running towards me yet again. As he ran his ear grew bigger and and his nostrils reformed and he clawed towards me. I sliced a bit of his hand but he was able to cut a large slit on my thigh. I stumbled towards another pile of pipes as he tried to flatten me again. I dodged but i was afraid i would lose too much blood and my leg would go cold, i crawled towards the pipes and grabbed another long jagged edged one. Since this pipe was broken it acted as a spear. He crawled towards me whilst sniffing the ground and he looked straight at me before raising his hand in the air as his claws erected from his fingertips and as he was inches away from clawing my face of i rolled away and sent the pipe through his nostrils and ran towards another shard to damage the crystal even more. I grabbed one and before i could even attach it to my crossbow he started screaming a loud bloodcurdling scream that was so deafening it stunned me. He faced me once more. Is he now using echo location? will i ever beat this creature? i finished attaching the shard whilst he got so close to me he was able to whack me away causing me to drop my crossbow. He approached me as i was stunned on the ground and he picked me up by the legs. He hesitated to kill me, i could tell he didnt want to, but he killed Horanesse, so he'll kill me. As i took my supposed last breaths i noticed a large loose shard hanging on by a thread. I struggled a bit as i was upside down but i swung the top half of my body whilst still in his grasp and i clenched to the shard and i pulled with all my vigour to try detach the loose shard. It cut my fingers and i was bleeding a lot but i was able to take the shard of and i cut off his fingers that were clenching me hard and i released myself. He grumbled a bit before i launched towards him and started smashing the crystal so much he fell over. This allowed me to smash at him even more. The crystal was so damaged a few of the tendrils coming from his real body were ruptured and his beast form looked as if it were melting as his flesh became skinnier. It seemed the tendrils transferred the energy to his beast forms. I noticed two larger tendrils coming out of his temples, these must allow him to control his beast form, transferring thoughts. As i continued to bash at the crystal i noticed something, I saw from the side of the crystal that had recently been exposed by his flesh eroding that a bit of the crystal had punctured his shoulder blade and one of the larger tendrils had been sliced apart. I saw one of his arms raise into the air as he tried the grab me but i just sliced of his arm. i walked away from him then threw the crystal right in the weakest part of the crystal. The crystal starting glowing as it as well as the beast body exploded, causing shards of crystal to shoot out everywhere. I tried to get out the way but there was no point as one was coming directly my way, but as soon as it was about impale me someone jumped in the way and took a shard right in the thigh. It was general Harold. I went to check if Harold was alright but i noticed something, Ash was standing where his beast body started to disintegrate. A tear came trickling out his eye before i saw him mouth "im sorry"...

Chapter 6 coming soon...