Omandrills were coming
My eyes widened and my body shook as I saw a herd of omandrills coming this way.
"Why‽ Why are they coming here‽"
I muttered nervously but I can roughly guess the reason based on where they're coming from.
Omandrills or omnivorous mandrills were extremely dangerous not because of any particular trait about them but because we are the same. We belong to the same group in the food chain. The cowardly yet crazy predator and prey. But if I were to be honest, what's different between us is that they could be a little bit more… crazier than me. And the fact that they came from that direction proves it.
I made my way through the trees as I went branch to branch. Like them, we move cowardly but quickly.
One fact about omandrills is that they eat anything that could satiate their stomachs except for their fellow kind when they're hungry. And now a herd of them are coming. Even without looking behind and determining if they were hungry or not, Id already knew the answer to that question… Yes, they were hungry.
I went as fast as I can but I can't seem to beat the mandrills' swinging talent. They got closer and closer to me as time went by. Though I felt like I had enough stamina to do this all day, my speed was lacking. The mandrills were faster at swinging, jumping, and moving through trees. I had no way to escape them. So I faced them as I went through the middle of the jungle.
I grabbed my spear that was tied to my back and tried to make threatening motions. But the mandrills seemed to be oblivious to it.
I chuckled, "Well, what was I trying to do?"
I knew it was pointless. I had to resort to violence. I had to kill.
I swung my spear as I held onto a vine. An arm came flying off from the mandrill who was near at hand.
"Uwaaaaack"
The amputated mandrill lost its movement for a second and got overtaken.
Yet amidst the incoming mandrills, my eyes were solely focused on the one carefully touching its shoulder which was spewing fountains of blood.
I then felt a chill down my spine as the mandrill who was looking at the fountain of blood slowly moved his eyes towards me. I saw a fierce look with eyes filled with only one emotion. I felt like I knew what it meant. It felt like it was saying… "now, you're going to die".
This is another reason I hated a creature like me because like me we got used to hunting inferior creatures as prey. And if a prey managed to hurt me then… that would leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth.
My eyes went back to the incoming mandrills. They were trampling each other in order to get to me.
A fraction of the mandrills up-front lost their movement due to being stepped on. And one, in particular, used the halted mandrills as stepping stones. He was fast, one by one, he was getting closer to me. And finally, he used the leading mandrill as a stepping stone and jumped in front of me.
Surely he had talent twice the average omandrill but sadly he preyed on the wrong person.
"Uwaaaahhh!", I swung my spear
Cheeeoook!
I pierced the airborne mandrill. Luckily through my previous encounters with omandrills, I pierced its heart. Denying its survival instincts from kicking in.
'Kuaaaaa kuaaaaa'
Blood flowed out as I took out the spear. Yet despite the corpse of a fellow kindred in front of them, they still kept on going, slowly closing the gap between us.
I clicked my tongue and swung my spear to them one by one. One got decapitated. One got pierced in the heart. While another one got lacerated.
I made sure to make my swings lethal. To not make the same mistake of letting one live just for me to answer its wrath.
It was a bloody and gruesome scene.
As countless bodies were left on the trail of the swinging omandrills. One got through my defenses and gave me a blow to my chest. It wasn't enough to inflict a fatal wound but its force was enough to push me out of the forest.
I tumbled down the forest into a green field. I spewed out a handful of blood as countless omandrills leapt from the trees and surrounded me. I slowly rubbed the blood of my hand to prepare for a fight yet the leader in front of me was not the one who gave me the blow but the one who has its wrath bottled up inside and waiting for it to be opened. It was the result of my previous mistake. It was the one that I mutilated.
The omandrills around aggressively went after me. But as soon as the one-armed omandrill raised his hand, everything was silent. The omandrills stopped moving as if they were obediently following orders. Well… it can be possible. Since the one in front of me got to me first. Meaning its talent was also twice the average mandrill. Possibly making it the original leader.
Then the mandrill shouted in a pattern as if it's ordering them.
Uwoo Uwoo Uwoo Uwaaa Uwwaaaaa!
Suddenly the mandrills surrounding me retreated and the only one close to me was the one who seemed to be giving orders.
"With this kind of intelligence. I'm pretty sure now that this is their leader." I said as I looked at it eye-to-eye
The one-armed omandrill gave a fierce look. Its bloodlust pierced my body and it started shouting. The setting, the audience. Now I understood its meaning.
...It was trying to challenge me into a duel.
I gave out a stance as a sign of acceptance but my mind wasn't really focused on fighting against it but on escaping
Omandrills were ruthless hypocrites. They obey the leader's orders but as soon as the leader dies they go back to their natural instinct.
To trample and survive.
Soon, loud shouts began from the surroundings and its intensity increased as time went by. At one point the intensity stopped increasing and it was the moment I realized… It's time.
As soon as the sounds of shouts and pounding became stagnant, my ears could no longer hear the voice of nature instead all I could hear was white noise and the battle cries.
"Tsk… darn it!"
I have to get out of this situation!
The leader took his battle stance and I took mine with resignation.
And the duel between life and death began.