Taking down the boss ape was unfortunately only the beginning of the hard journey that was ahead. Reign and the others were shocked to find out that there was not just one but multiple bosses serving under the giant ape, it was already shocking to find that the orc chieftain had 3 bosses under him back when they first talked about their plan with Magokur, but the giant ape definitely had more as after a short 30 minutes had passed Reign and the others had killed 2 more bosses along with many elites and variant apes.
Their progress in traveling toward the giant tree was slowed down greatly as the party took some breaks here and there in order to rest up and meditate to get some mana back. They had previously thought that simply having the three mana potions would be enough for them to fight without care but they were soon faced with the cruel reality of the jungle. The apes were not only many times higher in numbers compared to what they had previously thought, but the sheer number of elites, variants, mini-bosses, and bosses left the party with a headache.
If they simply continued forward without stopping they would reach the giant ape sooner, but they would probably be exhausted and their mana would be extremely low. None of them wanted to end up in such a situation and luckily they also had some more mana crystals that they could use in order to replenish some mana if there was any need for it later. Thanks to their high control of mana and the above-average level of their mana organs the party was able to replenish about 10% of their total mana every 4 minutes. Although that seemed relatively fast when they were in enemy territory and they could get attacked at any moment it simply wasn't fast enough. Each time they meditated they needed to stay alert in case any apes decide to attack them and that further made the speed of them replenishing mana lower.
The plants of course didn't help as there were multiple instances where the party would suddenly get attacked by some flesh-eating vines that erupted from underneath them while they were meditating. The almost impossible-to-sense plants were definitely the most annoying part of the jungle for the party right now as they always needed to be ready for an attack in case one of them was nearby.
The sheer size of the jungle didn't help things either as it was easy to get lost in and they would need to go up a couple of times in order for Beast to summon his eagle and let it observe where they were and how far away the tree was. Multiple times the party had found out that they had deviated slightly from their path and lost a bit of time thanks to that. There was nothing in this jungle that could help them out with basically anything and they simply continued forward.
After about 1 hour had passed the party was finally at the halfway point between the place they had entered the jungle from and the giant tree. Not only were they starting to get annoyed by the constant attacks, but the mental toll it took on them was also starting to become a bit visible.
The dense jungle was very humid and they were spending more stamina fighting here compared to other places. The number of apes the party had killed was in the hundreds, they weren't even sure how many exactly they had gone through before getting to the halfway point. However, the number of bosses they had killed was currently 5 as only two had attacked them in the 1 hour they had spent coming here.
It seemed that even though the giant ape had multiple bosses serving under it, there were still not a lot of them otherwise they would have been attacked by more during this time. The path they took was visible from above as they had destroyed some trees and the surrounding plants while fighting against the apes.
After they had reached the halfway point however the attacks suddenly lowered in frequency before almost fully stopping. There were barely any apes coming after them and they were able to replenish a big part of their mana thanks to that. There were still some plants that attacked them but thanks to the apes stopping their attacks the party was able to swiftly and easily deal with them.
The apes that had been following them were gone as well as Reign and the others couldn't feel their gazes anymore. The whole situation was weird, ever since they had entered the jungle they had to fight group after group of apes and there would always be a couple of them that followed them. For that to stop so abruptly was simply not normal and instead of them being happy that they had some time to rest and not worry about the apes the party was on full alert as they knew that something must be happening with the apes.
The closer the party got to the giant tree the more alert they became. The jungle had become too quiet compared to earlier, even the plants had seemingly felt that something was different and didn't bother attacking Reign and the others anymore. The many insects that could previously be heard in the jungle had gone completely silent as the party could feel their own breathing right now.
Compared to the lively and annoying jungle from before, it had now completely transformed into a world of silence. The silence was deafening and the party slowly continued towards their destination while observing their surroundings with maximum vigilance. They had continued for over 30 minutes and there was still nothing that appeared before them, the plants had completely stopped attacking them and there was no sign of any apes being near them.
Suddenly
Swoosh!
Three enormous boulders suddenly came crashing down on the party as the branches and trees that were on their way were completely obliterated. The party quickly moved out of the way as the three house-sized boulders hit the ground and created a huge cloud of dust. Immediately after the boulders, the many trees of the jungle had seemingly come alive as hundreds of apes were charging toward them.
Elites, variants, mini-bosses, all sorts of apes could be seen amongst the huge crowd while three enormous figures were at the very front.
"Shit!" Shadow cursed after seeing the huge army of apes that were being led by three bosses. Even though Reign and the others had become incredibly powerful ever since killing the orc chieftain and spending a couple of weeks learning how to control their powers and leveling up, the three bosses were still a force to be reckoned with even by themselves, not to mention three bosses that were leading an army of bloodthirsty enemies.
Reign and the others immediately went into action, if they allowed the three bosses to attack them together then that would simply create more chaos for them. Tank took on one of the bosses while Reign and Wolf took on another. The hundreds of apes were left for Shadow and the others to deal with as they had their full with the bosses.
Tank immediately summoned his four soldiers, each one had become even stronger compared to before and now they were almost as powerful as mini-bosses were, compared to most mini-bosses however each of them had more experience in battle and could hold their own against them.
Beast had unleashed all of his tamed beasts and they were currently charging toward the apes while only Fluffy had stayed at his side in order to guard him and Laura who was busy drawing a blood pentagram in the air in front of her. Beast had already started using his AOE attacks as there was no other chance they could take out so many enemies at once without them.
Tornadoes suddenly erupted at some parts of the jungle as tens of apes were sent flying around by them, the powerful wind had inflicted many cuts on them and many of them died. Shadow was using his shadow manipulation to its fullest as tens of shadow spikes and tentacles had risen underneath the apes and stopped them in their tracks, even though Shadow's fighting style was swift and precise, with the use of his ability he could fight against large numbers of enemies with relative ease.
Greenie had no concrete plan, he simply charged at the apes while swinging his gray hammer wildly, each swing of the hammer would send one or more apes flying as the sound of bones breaking could clearly be heard. Amongst Beasts tamed beasts, Blackie was the one doing the most, the powerful beast was moving through the ape army with incredible speed as black lightning erupted from his body, not only would the lightning shock and stun the apes but the damage it dealt was not something to be underestimated.
Blackie had managed to catch up to Beast's other tamed monsters and it was currently the strongest one he had, not only was his speed above the others but the incredible power it had was a notch above them as well. The horns on top of his head had become longer and thicker while the purple patterns on his body had become more visible as well, it was obvious to Beast that Blackie will soon finish his evolution.
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