As they neared, Lassim and Cirra finally stepped into the village where the atmosphere was immediately oppressive and eerie.
The village itself was made up of small huts scattered around. They were primitive, consisting of bamboo poles supporting roofs made from interwoven leaves. The open structures left the interiors exposed to the elements, casting long shadows in the dim light.
Dangling lines connected the huts like a sort of circus act’s jungle gym with monkeys hung from them. Yet, these monkeys were the same as the ones they’d observed so far—mind controlled. Their eyes glazed over with the same green hue and glow, staring motionless at the intruders.
The desolate village bore signs of abandonment and decay too. The bamboo shoots, potentially once meticulously maintained, were now growing wild and overgrown, creating a dense thicket in random spots where the bamboo decided to extend its reach. All over, new sprouts could be seen encroaching upon the path.
The huts themselves were in disrepair, their roofs sagging and covered in a thick layer of moss and lichen. Some of the bamboo poles had cracked or fallen, leaving the structures leaning precariously.
Scattered throughout the village’s main pathway they were treading were the remnants of what appeared to be merchant stalls. These stalls, possibly once bustling with activity, were now forlorn and dilapidated. The wooden planks that perhaps held fruits and other goods were rotting away, some completely collapsed under the weight of neglect.
In several places, mushrooms had sprouted on the displays, thriving in the damp swamp atmosphere. The decaying wood added to the village’s eerie and abandoned feel as they were continuously stared down by the silent troop of monkeys..
The main path beneath their feet had transitioned from the damp swampy ground to now be a mix of packed earth and roots, interspersed with patches of moss.
As they ventured further, Lassim’s and Cirra’s eyes were drawn to the figure at the heart of the village up ahead.
The Monkey King was there in full view as he sat on a throne made of twisted branches and bones, positioned in the middle of a more grand version of the other open huts devoid of walls. It was lacking any opulence by Lassim’s standards, but his passing thought was that maybe their monkey culture valued size and grand structure over shiny or gilded things.
The Monkey King’s appearance was both bulky and shamanistic, adorned with tattered, sleeveless robes and bone ornaments like a necklace made of fingerbones and a loose forehead circlet that had the tiny skull of some sort of avian creature in the center. His eyes, like those of his subjects, were green and glazed over, but there was a slightly higher hint of intelligence to them.
They were certainly more animated and held a clearer, yet still hazy, view of his pupils.
"Cirra, I’m almost certain none of them are actually alive," Lassim spoke as they came to a stop, a bit of distance between the monkey king and them.
He had just scanned the village more intensely with his spirit sense, his voice heavy as he continued, "The interference with our spiritual senses is still there, almost certainly due to the plant wrapping around his throne. However, it certainly feels like an aura of death more than life from all of the monkeys that surround us.
I really don’t think any of them are alive and all of them except for the monkey king are showing signs of necrosis."
Cirra’s expression wavered, her resolve faltering. "We—We can’t be certain," she argued, though doubt laced her words. "I don’t want to believe that an entire village and troop has been wiped out because of a plant!"
Taking a step forward, Cirra called out to the Monkey King. "Can you hear me? We mean no harm," she spoke in the common tongue, then switched to the monkey language, hoping for a response, "[Graakk gruuk miiak kaa?]"
The Monkey King lifted his head, his eyes focusing on Cirra. He opened his mouth, but what came out was unintelligible, a garbled mess of sounds, "[GgRrAa... GgRrUUuu... MmIIiii... KkAAAaaa...]"
It was as if he didn’t understand how to work his own mouth or vocal cords. What was even weirder was that it had overlapped with itself, like two sets of vocal chords trying to match with each other and produce the words it uttered. The strange and unsettling display left Lassim and Cirra exchanging confused looks.
Before they could react, or Cirra to attempt further communication, the Monkey King let out a bone-chilling screech.
Instantly, the monkeys that had been surrounding them sprang into action, their movements swift and aggressive. They launched themselves, with the same screeching war cry that matched their king’s, at Lassim and Cirra with eyes glowing fiercely.
Nearly four hundred monkeys launched themselves from the bamboo thickets, the jungle vines connecting the huts, and even those that had stood on the ground. They came from all directions, an overwhelming wave of fur and teeth driven by a relentless, mind-controlling force.
Lassim’s battle instinct and reflexes kicked in immediately. He wouldn’t let Cirra get hurt, but he recognized that holding back would put her at risk with such numbers attacking all at once.
He rotated his cultivation to the full maximum that he could muster, drawing upon the full strength of his divine mana with his enhanced physique and progenitor marks lit up on his arms.
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The air around him seemed to crack with energy, and an intense pressure, one that could only come from a higher power not bound by mortal limits, descended upon the surroundings.
Lassim’s divine mana surged, and his spiritual pressure intensified. It was a force much stronger than anyone would expect from a Spirit Transformation Stage 8 individual. The sheer weight of his power pressed down on everything around him. The bamboo groaned and snapped under the strain while the ground itself seemed to tremble and buckle into itself.
Cirra, caught off guard by the sudden surge of power, buckled to her knees behind Lassim. The oppressive force appearing instantly was too much for her to withstand, but she wasn’t the only one.
All around them, the monkeys, even the many in mid-air after launching themselves, fell to the ground. Their green-glowing eyes wide and blank. They too were unable to stand against the overwhelming pressure Lassim exerted.
A large portion seemed to be much too weak to withstand the sudden weight of spiritual pressure that tensed and shuddered the atmosphere, especially those only at the Spirit Incubation and Spirit Growth stages of power equivalency. Their green eyes and brains seemed to snap under the weight and instantly lost their lights.
Like the monkeys from the ice block, with the light gone it appeared they returned to being a lifeless corpse.
Seizing the opportunity, Lassim gripped his halberd with two hands in the center and raised it high above his head, its blade and runes gleaming under the strained light filtering through the bamboo canopy.
He began to spin the weapon with precise, controlled movements with his hands. Twirling it above his head in a swift, circular motion, it picked up a terrifying speed.
The halberd became a blur, and the air around it started to churn and create a vacuum. Under his control of the surrounding mana, water droplets from the humid air and the damp ground were drawn towards the spinning halberd in a flash, coalescing into a shimmering, swirling ring of water that encircled the rotating halberd above his head.
With a sharp, decisive halt, Lassim brought the halberd’s rotation to a sudden stop in his grip as he released a surge of mana.
The halberd, injected and filled to the brim with a tiny spec of divine mana, propelled the centrifugal force of the gathered [Water Ring] sending it outward in a powerful, expanding tidal wave. The ring of water burst forth with tremendous speed and force, crashing into the ranks of the stunned monkeys like a wall of water smacking into them.
The force of the water knocked back the remaining stunned monkeys, sending them tumbling through the air. The sound of bones and limbs breaking could be heard amidst the sound of the rushing wave of water.
As the water connected with the monkeys, Lassim refocused on the connection to his divine mana contained in the water once more, freezing the water instantly. The mind-controlled monkeys were encased in solid ice, their movements halted mid-movement.
The few that had managed to retain their mind-controlled status and hadn’t yet completely succumbed, now shuddered violently within their ice as the green glow in their eyes flickered a few times and died out. They remained frozen in their ice, but changed to lifeless husks as well.
The village fell into an eerie silence, the Monkey King in disbelief, broken only by the sound of ice settling and the distant rustle of the bamboo trembling from the shockwave of air pressure that was let out when Lassim released the unique [Water Ring] attack.
Lassim stood at the center, his halberd still glowing with residual energy, his breath coming in controlled, even measures. He hadn’t even broken a sweat and the effort felt minimal for him. Cirra, still on her knees feeling the spiritual pressure he was unrelentingly projecting, looked up at him with a mixture of awe and slight horror.