First Battle

Bang! The sound of the gunshot graced this world once more. This time it hit the ape right in the chest. And left a flesh wound. WTF? 

After Col fired the two apes stopped hesitating. Both of these apes were smaller than the first but not by much. Hopefully that one was the leader of this small band. Their primitive minds could certainly understand that the soft small ape clearly lacked offensive measures and could only try to scare them away. The small scratch the noise left was nothing to Ape1's skin.

Ape1 stood still and his companion charged forward at a crisp pace. It was fast but Col could handle it. Col's eyes narrowed. So that skill apparently needed time to charge huh? And apparently these primates thrived in defense. They could shrug off bullet wounds!

It sorta made sense. Reality would be different from fantasy. At high enough speeds, even a bug would hit with the force of a bullet. Any decent speedster needed to be quite tank in order to survive their own power. Rogues with high speed and low defense weren't long for the world.

Even as Col lamented his situation and started running around the clearing to find an opening. The ape was large and powerful. However it seemed to lack the agility that its species on earth had. It was having trouble changing direction. 

This further cemented how wrong some of the webnovels he read were to lump in agility and speed. Or was what the apes lacked dexterity? Intrusive thoughts kept hounding him to keep the fear at bay.

Col ran in short sprints and changed directions randomly. However, he only succeeded in buying time. He had no finishing move and he most certainly couldn't fire at it in this situation.

Col knew he was on a timer. If he couldn't finish Ape2 before Ape1 finished charging the lightning he was dead. Col felt the claws of despair clutch his heart. He didn't have any golden finger to bring him back. He cursed his lack of plot amour.

His author had to be an asshole of black hole proportions. What kind of cruel sadist would throw him in such a hopeless situation with barely an introduction to the world he was in?!?! 

Suddenly he had a thought. He wasn't some know it all but he certainly knew what a matador was and could do. It was a European sport in which a brave... or idiotic man would stand as a bull charged and then, with agility, dodge the bull.

It involved taunting it with a red cape and then using astounding techniques to dodge at the last possible moment. It was a crazy thought to have. What sane man would think of matadors when being chased by a raving mad beast? I mean sure the parallel was there but it was simply insane.

He most certainly wasn't trained in the arts and the ape in front of him was no bull he had little choice in ideas. His brain just had to choose today to have the most inappropriate of ideas and Col was running out of time. He couldn't even plan his way before he had to act.

The young man would just have to improvise and put his life on the line. Not like he had much better ideas anyway. While being resigned to his fate, Col thought back to his world and smirked. Time to offend someone with some cultural appropriation.

He dodged once more and did a zigzag sprint, dodging and weaving between the trees. Ape2 was already used to this tactic and knew the human would stop soon. The ape stood at one end of the clearing in what looked like mock amusement.

It had figured out that it just had to stop and follow from a distance as the prey tired itself out. Col couldn't handle such intense bursts of speed at a time anyway. 

True to its primitive prediction, Col stopped 50 metres away from the creature and then stood still, facing it. he was in the middle of the trees just past him was the slope. The other ape was directly behind him but he forced himself to focus in the task at hand. Insane as he was he needed all the concentration he could muster for this to work.

The ape let out a bestial roar and beat its chest. Col remained standing still but the drumming made his heart race. If his life wasn't on the line, He might've seen it as cool. Seeing that its intimidation had worked, the ape charged forward like the beastial muscle-machine it was, saliva flying from its frothing mouth as it growled.

The dirt flew from its heels as it pushed off. It ran in the classic gorilla posture, poised on all fours flying forward with dreadful acceleration.

Col tensed. It was coming. As the shadow of death cast by at least a 300 kg of sheer muscle, bone and primal murder closed in, Col only had one thought. 'Am I insane?'

And then there was no more time for some very important existential questions. He strained his reflexes and tensed his muscles to the limit. His senses zeroed in on his opponent. He wanted to wait to dodge until the last possible moment.

The ape jumped into the air. Time slowed down. It very clearly wanted to slam those hands down on top of him. This was his chance to dodge, draw and fire. But then he felt it.

Every muscle, bone, nerve and cell in his body screamed at him to move. The hairs at the back of his neck raised. He could almost feel the grim reaper's scythe reach his neck.

He only had one conclusion. Ape1 was done charging up, and it was coming. He felt death come heavily from behind him and surround him from all but one direction. The front.

Only one problem. That was where Ape2's salivating maw was. The beast was almost upon him and even if he jumped forward instead of sideways as he intended his legs would become mincemeat and the rest of him dinner shortly afterwards. But then Col realized that it was the only option left. He had already missed his window. 

In that split second his instincts took over. Col let the waves of his primitive self carry him forward as he hoped he survived. Ape2 was almost upon him. So he immediately threw himself down right underneath the hunched gorilla's hammer-hands as they missed and made a resounding thunder-like clap. That was the moment his eardrums almost burst. One, in fact, did. That was how loud the sound was. But the pain he expected never came.

His eyes widened as he heard two crashes, and the sound of a tree giving in to gravity. That was when the wind from the shock-wave hit him. His eyes widened. How could he have forgotten? That damn Ape1 was still charging the lightning.

And it had charged it for way longer than the dead one did. His theory was correct. They would gain speed but their lack of agility meant that control wasn't their strongsuit. This couldn't have panned out better if he planned it.

He quickly lifted his head to check out the aftermath. And damn was there an aftermath. The organic projectile had broken the sound barrier with that mad dash. It certainly couldn't handle that much speed otherwise it wouldn't have crashed into its partner.

They had both proceeded to crash into a particularly sturdy-looking tree. One bang and two crashes, check. Now they were both looking particularly scandalous in their compromised positions.

At the moment, both assailants were embedded in a particularly sturdy looking tree. Well, it used to look sturdy. Now it looked like it was about to give up the ghost. No matter how sturdy those gorillas were such an epic fail was surely going to sting in the morning. And this was definitely not a story they would tell.

That was, if they even had another morning left in them. They certainly had to live first in order to tell the tale. The two primates were tangled up and dazed by the impact. They were trying to get up only to hinder each other. 'Guess they're not social enough' thought Col with a triumphant sneer. 'That or the impact damaged their IQ.'

Col lifted his firearm slowly and steadily, taking his aim at the struggling creatures. His pace was relatively unhurried and calm as he walked closer to them to ensure the best shot. Not to mention his body was smarting in quite a few areas.

Without one ear he didn't have the balance to move fast and felt nauseated beyond what he had ever felt before. The vertigo was real. That was why he forced himself to draw closer to the creatures as quickly as he could. Staggers aside he made relatively rapid progress.

Poor creatures hadn't even made it far in their hilarious accident. Which is why it took no time for Col's muzzle to be trained on the eye of the top most ape. Steadying himself wit a superhuman will he didn't know he wad he aimed with utmost concentration.

The young man took the shot and it rang true. The ape fell limp atop its partner. Before the other ape could register, a second gunshot rang out. And then all was still in the clearing. The epic battle was finally over.

Col was relieved but he didn't let his guard down. He immediately pressed his back to a tree for cover and looked around vigilantly. An eternity passed before he let himself relax. There seemed like no other creature was coming to make life harder for him but he needed to find shelter, and soon. Night was approaching.