Ape of the Wilds

The pit yawned before them, a gaping wound in the jungle, its depths swallowed by shadows so thick they seemed alive. The air was heavy, thick with the scent of damp earth, rotting vegetation, and something else—something ancient, something unnatural.

Kuro crouched at the edge, his fingers pressing into the dirt, his nostrils flaring as he inhaled the stale air. His instincts screamed danger, but he ignored them. They had come this far. There was no turning back.

"We go in," he said, voice firm.

Kota shot him a sideways glance, his usual smirk absent. "You sure? I don't like walking into a place where I can't see the exit."

"Then don't lose sight of me."

Kota exhaled sharply but didn't argue.

Sia tested her bowstring, her sharp eyes scanning the pit's entrance. "I count three paths. We take the wrong one, we might not come back."

Kuro's claws flexed. "Then we take the right one."

Boru grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Or we just break through the walls until we find something worth killing."

"Not everything can be punched, Boru," Ruka muttered.

"Then you're not punching hard enough."

Varek remained silent, his gaze locked on the ancient carvings lining the pit's entrance. Symbols, worn and cracked, depicting creatures that didn't look human. Didn't look Maw'Tanu. Didn't even look alive.

"We move," Kuro said. "Stay close."

And with that, they descended into the abyss.

The darkness swallowed them whole.

The deeper they went, the cooler the air became, the humidity of the jungle replaced by a cold, unnatural stillness. The walls of the tunnel were smooth, unnervingly so, as if something had carved them with precise, deliberate intent.

Kuro moved with his knuckles brushing the floor, his movements low, primal, ready to spring forward or climb the walls if needed. He felt more comfortable this way, using his ape-like agility to move through the confined space.

Sia, Kota, and Varek moved silently, trained in stealth. Boru and Ruka, however, were not made for quiet movements. The occasional grumble or heavy step echoed down the tunnels.

They came to the first split.

Three tunnels stretched before them, each disappearing into impenetrable blackness.

Sia frowned. "Which way?"

Kuro didn't answer immediately. He crouched low, pressing his palm against the ground, his ears twitching, listening. His senses were sharper than the others', more attuned to the subtle vibrations in the earth.

The left tunnel breathed. Not with air, but with something alive, something moving.

The middle tunnel was too quiet.

The right tunnel…

Kuro's nostrils flared. Blood. Fresh blood.

"This way." He pointed to the rightmost tunnel.

"Any particular reason?" Kota asked.

Kuro bared his fangs slightly, his muscles tensing. "Because something already died there."

Kota sighed. "That's what I was afraid of."

They moved into the darkness.

The tunnel opened into a massive cavern, the ceiling high and jagged, stalactites looming like fangs. The floor was uneven, cracked stone covered in scattered bones—some animal, some Maw'Tanu.

And at the center of the cavern, an altar of black stone stood, slick with something wet and glistening.

The scent of fresh blood was strongest here.

Varek approached first, his expression grim. "A sacrifice."

Kuro studied the symbols carved into the altar. Some were familiar—Tzalik markings. Others were… wrong. Shapes that seemed to shift when he looked at them too long.

Then he noticed the bodies.

Five Tzalik warriors lay strewn around the altar, their bodies twisted and drained, their eyes hollow, mouths frozen in silent screams.

Sia crouched beside one, her fingers tracing the ruined flesh. "They didn't just die."

"No," Kuro muttered. "Something took from them."

Boru grunted. "Took what?"

Kuro wasn't sure.

But then—

A low chittering sound echoed from deeper within the cavern.

And the shadows moved.

The first creature crawled into the firelight, and Kuro immediately knew it wasn't natural.

It had the shape of a Maw'Tanu, but its skin was pale and stretched too thin, its eyes sunken, lidless, burning with an unnatural golden glow. Its fingers were too long, ending in claws that scraped against the stone.

It twitched, shuddering, as if struggling to hold its shape.

Then another crawled out from the black corners of the cave.

Then another.

Then another.

Within moments, a dozen of the things had emerged, their bodies writhing, their breath hissing through jagged teeth.

Kuro's blood ran cold.

These weren't just monsters.

These were Tzalik warriors. Or what was left of them.

Their armor was still half-clinging to their bodies, their weapons rusted in their hands, their forms warped beyond recognition.

This wasn't just blood magic gone wrong.

This was something far worse.

They were hungry.

And they had found prey.

The creatures rushed forward, their movements erratic, unnatural, limbs jerking as if they weren't used to their own bodies.

Kuro met them head-on.

The first one lunged, claws swiping for his throat—

Kuro dropped low, pivoting on his knuckles, his body moving like a blur of muscle and instinct. His legs snapped forward, a brutal kick to the creature's stomach—

The thing let out a choked hiss, stumbling backward—just long enough for Kota's daggers to pierce its ribs.

+40 XP (Mutated Tzalik Defeated!)

Another came from the side, its mouth stretching too wide, letting out a horrid gurgling screech.

Kuro twisted, grabbing the creature's outstretched arm, using its own momentum to slam it into the stone floor. He drove his knee into its spine, holding it down—

Sia's arrow punched through its skull, silencing it.

+40 XP (Mutated Tzalik Defeated!)

The cavern descended into chaos.

Boru ripped one of the creatures apart, his bare hands crushing its skull.

Ruka's spiked club shattered bones, his blows relentless.

Varek fought with brutal precision, his spear finding throats and hearts.

The creatures shrieked and writhed, their bodies breaking apart too easily, as if they weren't meant to exist in the first place.

But there were too many.

They were relentless.

And the cavern wasn't empty.

A deep, rumbling growl echoed from the shadows.

And from the darkness behind the altar, something bigger began to move.

Kuro barely had time to react before a massive clawed hand emerged, gripping the stone, pulling something immense and terrible into the firelight.

This one was different. Bigger. Stronger. Fully formed.

Its eyes locked onto Kuro, and it grinned.

It had been waiting for him.

Total XP Gained: +80 XP

Kuro: 250/600 XP Needed to Level Up

Kuro tensed, his claws flexing.

The cavern was silent.

Not the silence of peace, but the silence of something that had stopped breathing, something that had been torn from existence.

Kuro stood over the remains of the creature, its once-massive form reduced to a shriveled husk, dark ichor pooling around its warped bones. His chest rose and fell, his muscles tight with lingering tension, but his eyes remained sharp, watching, waiting.

Nothing else moved.

The others were still catching their breath, but they, too, were on edge.

Boru stretched his arms, rolling his shoulders before nudging the remains with his foot. The bones crunched under the pressure, crumbling into dust. "Whatever that thing was, it died too easily."

Kuro flicked the blackened ichor from his claws, shaking his head. "No. We killed it too fast."

Kota exhaled, running a hand down his daggers, checking for damage. "That wasn't a normal fight. That thing was watching us. Studying us." His golden eyes flicked up toward Kuro. "It knew you."

Sia pulled an arrow from the cavern floor, inspecting the shaft before slipping it back into her quiver. "It smiled at you." Her voice was low, calculated. "It wanted you to be here."

Kuro didn't respond immediately. He crouched low, his fingertips grazing the stone, inhaling deeply. The scent of blood and decay still lingered, but there was something else beneath it now.

The jungle was shifting.

Something far worse than the Tzalik had awoken, and it wasn't finished.

His mind flicked to his Status Window, the numbers burning behind his eyes.

+100 XP (Elite Revenant Defeated!)

+50 XP (Boss Battle Bonus!)

+20 XP (Strategic Execution Bonus!)

Total XP Gained: +170 XP

Kuro: 420/600 XP Needed to Level Up

He was close now. Just a few more battles, a few more victories. Then he would grow again.

But experience didn't matter if he was dead before he could use it.

"We leave," he said, rising to his full height. "Now."

No one argued.

The group moved quickly, weaving through the twisting tunnels of the pit, their footsteps muffled by the damp earth. Kuro led the way, using his knuckles and feet to maneuver over uneven terrain, his ape-like agility giving him an advantage in these tight spaces.

The deeper they had gone, the worse the air had felt.

Now, as they climbed back toward the jungle, the pressure in the tunnels lifted, the thick, unnatural feeling beginning to fade.

Still, Kuro's ears twitched at every sound, his instincts burning at the edges of his mind.

Something was following them.

He didn't say it aloud, but Kota must have felt it too. The assassin's fingers hovered over his daggers, his eyes flicking to the shadows behind them every few steps.

Sia kept her bow drawn, an arrow half-nocked, her stance rigid.

Varek whispered, barely above a breath, "They're watching."

Kuro's claws tensed.

They needed to move faster.

Then—the tunnel ahead changed.

The walls, once made of stone and packed earth, became smoother, almost unnatural, as if something had carved them perfectly.

The jungle's roots had been cut away, the wildness removed, replaced with something structured, intentional.

They had entered a ruin.

The tunnel opened up into a vast underground chamber, the ceiling high above them, supported by towering stone pillars.

The architecture was ancient, covered in carvings that predated the Maw'Tanu and the Tzalik. The symbols were faded, but Kuro recognized pieces—not from books or teachings, but from instinct.

The creatures they had fought.

Their forms were etched into the walls, their twisted shapes immortalized in stone.

Sia ran a finger over the markings, her brow furrowed. "This place is old. Really old."

Varek nodded. "Older than the jungle."

Kota stepped forward, brushing dust off a broken tablet. "Then why don't we know about it?"

Because we were never meant to find it.

Kuro didn't say it aloud.

He turned his focus forward. The ruin stretched ahead, a single passage leading further in, its end shrouded in darkness.

There was only one way to go.

He took a step forward—

The moment his foot touched the stone, the ground shifted.

Then came the voices.

At first, it was a whisper, a low hum that buzzed at the base of his skull, too soft to form words.

Then the whisper grew, overlapping, turning into hundreds of voices, all speaking at once, their words garbled, distorted, as if time itself was breaking apart around them.

Kuro gritted his teeth, trying to shut it out, but the voices burrowed deeper.

Then—a flash.

A vision struck him, as if someone had torn open his mind and poured another's memories inside.

The jungle, burning.

The Tzalik, kneeling before something unseen.

A figure standing atop the ruins, watching as their bodies twisted, changed.

The sky, turning black.

A name, lost to time.

Then—silence.

The vision vanished, the weight of it leaving Kuro staggering, breathless.

Sia grabbed his shoulder, steadying him. "Kuro. What happened?"

He exhaled slowly, his head still pounding. "I saw… something."

Kota's eyes narrowed. "Something?"

Kuro shook his head. "A memory. This place—it's connected to whatever the Tzalik were trying to awaken."

Boru grunted. "So we burn it down."

Varek, however, was staring ahead, his grip tightening on his spear. "We might not get the chance."

Kuro followed his gaze.

At the end of the hall, something moved.

Not like before.

Not twisted, mutated.

Controlled. Purposeful.

From the darkness, figures emerged, their forms tall, clad in blackened armor, their faces hidden behind ancient masks.

They weren't Tzalik.

They weren't alive.

But they were waiting.

And they had been expecting him.

Kuro flexed his claws, lowering himself into a stance, his muscles coiling like a loaded spring.

This was no longer just a fight for survival.

Something deeper, older than time itself, had marked him.

And now, it was testing him.

Kota shifted beside him, his daggers gleaming in the dim light. "Well, at least we know we're not alone down here."

Sia raised her bow, her hands steady.

Boru cracked his knuckles, grinning. "I say we see what they're made of."

Kuro nodded once.

Then, together, they stepped into the unknown.