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Danny and I turn around hearing a loud roar, and see a rather large Shaman Ape in front of a pile of bones, waving a large bone around. A pale blue glow seemed to emanate from the bone, circling around there.

Is that an evolved Shaman Ape? Doesn’t matter, we should kill it as soon as possible.

“Gii! Gii!”

As the evolved Shaman Ape shrieks, the other monsters that were fleeing stop and turn around.

“There was a High Shaman Ape too? What a mess.”

It’s hard to follow the nimble monkeys’ movements in the dim light. Jane is holding her ground, but Mir seems to be struggling a little.

The High Shaman Ape (evolved one for short) seems to be giving them orders, so if we kill it the others will flee again, probably. I shoot at the evolved one thinking that, but another Shaman Ape blocks it. They were grouping up around the evolved one.

“Mir, go back and regroup with Natalia.”
“Ah, got it!”

Mir follows Jane’s orders and returns to my side, and then Jane hoists her battle axe into the air.

“Slash Impact!”

She slams the axe into the ground. A violent shockwave spreads all around her, and the monkeys chasing after Mir fall down amidst a cloud of dust.

“Ah, that’s Jane’s eighteenth skill.”

I noticed this while fighting the wolves earlier, but Jane’s attack range is larger than her weapon. She’s also very powerful, easily snapping monkeys into two if they got close enough for a direct hit.

“Gigiigii”
“Gigiigii”

The evolved one cries, and the other Shaman Apes reply. All the monkeys that had fallen down, stand back up and form a wall around the evolved one again.

“Hey, weren’t some of those monsters dead already?”

Danny points at them and asks.

“Don’t tell me they can use necromancy on their own kin…”
“Necromancy?”
“Shaman Apes can use necromancy magic, controlling dead bodies. I didn’t think they could use bodies of fellow Shaman Apes though.”

The last time I fought one it only used the bodies of other monsters like High Goblins or a Clamp Boar, though there was only one Shaman Ape that time. And I didn’t think that they could resurrect other Shaman Apes, since that could turn into an endless loop.

Dammit! Did I just underestimate the enemy again?!

“Monsters resurrected with necromancy can only do simple movements, but there’s basically no limit to how many times they can be resurrected. The only way to stop them is to either destroy the bodies enough, or kill whoever is controlling them.”

“Whoever is controlling them, huh. That’s a little…”

I can understand what he means. There’s so many of them it’s impossible to tell which is controlling which. Not to mention that even if we do kill the correct one, that just creates one more body for another to use.

Not to mention that our objective is to collect their bones. Destroying the bodies will lower the quality of the materials we can gather, so that’s out of the question.

“Oryahh!”

Jane is still holding her ground against the group of undead monsters, her skill to be the sub-master of a big clan really shows. But letting her take care of everything can be dangerous too. That means my first plan is really our best shot, we need to take out their leader.

“Mir, Danny, I’ll try taking out the High Shaman Ape, but I’ll need your help.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Alright.”
“Hey!”

Mir is on board and replies almost instantly. We haven’t fought together this long for nothing. Danny looked exasperated.

“An incendiary round should have enough power to take it out even while protected by the others, but it doesn’t have as much range so I’ll need to get closer.”
“So you want us to open a path, right?”
“Can you do that?”
“Of course!”

That’s the answer I wanted.

“You know what to do then.”

I stand up and get rid of Float Light. I begin to focus mana into Black Hawk, while I form a magic blade on my left hand.

“Let’s go at the count of three, two, one!”

We take off from the thicket together with Mir.

“Ahh, I swear!”

Danny shouts angrily before running too. I just have to hit the Shaman Ape’s head.

The steel golem ran through the forest, kicking down trees that stood in its way, only focused on obliterating its target. Faced with that speed and power, most monsters scatter the moment they see it.

But a few decide to stand their ground. There was one with enough confidence in its strength, a Tyrannoghavial. It noticed the steel golem invading its territory, so it charged trying to stop it, lunging at it from the side.

The two giants clashed, tumbling on the ground and making the forest shake.

“Graahh!”

The golem used its steel arms to stop the large jaws closing in on it. Usually a Tyrannoghavial’s jaw has enough strength to easily crush steel, but the golem was stronger than that and did not let the monster close its jaws.

“Gr- gah…h…”

The golem did not seem distressed as it forced the jaws open.

The Tyrannoghavial moaned in its struggle, but the golem had no mercy. The jaws were forcefully opened. No matter how much the monster tried to close them, the golem’s arms would not budge.

Eventually they were spread open past a certain limit.

“Gah…aaa!”

After a dull sound, the Tyrannoghavial’s lower jaw hung without strength. It had gotten dislodged.

That was a lethal wound for a predatory monster, but the golem had no pity for it. The golem struck its steel fist into the open jaws, and just like when Natalia shot from inside, the fist went into the monster’s skull and emerged from its head.
The body began to convulse as life left it, and the golem threw the body away before running into the forest again.

To accomplish the orders given by its master. To kill the daughter of its master’s enemy.