"How can he move so fast?" Darrin grumbles as he ran, struggling to keep up with his colleagues.
"Shut up you bastard!" The captain yells, turning to face the grumbling Darrin.
Darrin looks down, saying nothing until the captain turns.
"It's not like I was the one who let him get away." He murmurs
"What did you just say to me?" The captain snarls, his hands already choking and lifting Darrin by the neck.
The other two watch silently, keeping their thoughts to themselves--- but the subtle shaking of heads shed light onto their thoughts.
"I want you to repeat what you just said!" The captain hisses, his mouth foaming.
"Why are you taking out your frustration on me? You are the one who screwed up." Darrin spat.
Thuk.
A blow lands on his stomach.
"I dare you to say it again."
Thuk.
Guh!
Darrin grunts as the blows rain on him, again and again.
"Oi!" a shout disrupts their scuffle.
Imagine their surprise when they see their target perched on a branch above them!
"I'm away a few seconds and you can't keep it in?" Rain says, his voice full of sarcasm.
"Tsk, tsk..." Rain adds, his dangling feet swinging lazily.
The four enforcers look up in disbelief, rubbing their eyes, as if they were rubbing away hallucination.
"You have balls kid!" The captain spits,
"Yea, balls of brass." Rain quips in, touching his testicles.
The cohort raise their net hurlers, ready to shoot.
"Wait!" Rain shouts, stopping them in their tracks.
With his hand raised he speaks,
"I have a gift for you guys, enjoy!"
As if on cue,
A loud rustle emerge , a legion of wrathful primates showing up.
"Fuck!"
That was all the cohort could say, faces paled in horror before all hell broke loose.
What ensued was nothing short of a millennium chaos.
The cohort scramble to mount a defensive stance but to no avail, they are swarmed from every direction.
Sparks fly out as they try to hold off the incensed horde, their arcane barriers flickering as they receive a barrage of blows--- claw slam, headbutt, even club swings.
The three gulp in horror as hairline cracks mar the surface of the barrier.
It would soon give way.
Three, yes!
The fourth, Darrin was nowhere to be found.
Where was he?
~a few moments back~
The legion of wrathful simians appear.
Rain [Shadow vaults] just in time for his figure to be missed by the incensed primates.
Whoosh!
He re-appears behind a tree trunk, his gaze locked onto the trembling figure of Darrin.
Argh.
Darrin yelps, a sharp pain shoots through his neck, his gaze glimpses as brown blur that disappeared into the foliage.
Urk.
He grunts as a hand grabs him by the back of his cloak and pulls him into a disorienting expanse of darkness.
~Back to the cohort of three enforcers~
Crack.
The barrier breaks, sending shards of arcana flying.
Their weapons swing, aiming to tear through the legion of simians, whose maws were foaming and frothing in pure wrath.
They stand back to back, defending against the tide beasts.
Chi.
The captain's longsword thrusts, skewering a simian through the skull.
Arrgh.
He gives a wide swing, keeping the simians at bay.
Reason returns to the legion, their adversary was strong--- to apprehend them they would have to be smart about it.
And so, the two parties in a stalemate lock eyes, analyzing each other.
Aha...argh....huu huu huuu WHOOO!
The beasts erupt into motion, clubs and a barrage of attacks flying towards their adversary.
The flurry of attacks sends the cohort reeling, breaking their defensive stance.
It is then that they truly faced the music.
Blows connected, making them grunt as globules of scarlet ichor spewed from their mouths.
They were thrown up and about akin to ragdolls, at that point, their clothes and armour was reduced to shreds.
The three gasped, struggling to stay alive, yet again begging for the embrace of death.
After an eternity of beatings, the rowdy legion suddenly became quiet, scrambling in fear.
Even the human-ragdolls felt its presence, an overwhelming and ominous aura pinning them down.
It felt as if the weight of the world was set upon their shoulders--- they writhe and thrash, gasping for air.
Chink!
The figure lets its presence made known.
The bony staff in hand chinks as fragments of teeth and claws adorning it clink loudly.
A deafening silence blankets the jungle, as if holding its breath.
"Hold your hands brethren!"
The towering simian commands, sauntering before the humans.
It is then that they got to see the imposing figure in its full glory.
It was clad in a loincloth made of leather, its bony yet strong arm clutching a bone-white staff.
The staff rattled with each motion.
The Simian shaman looks around, its gaze sweeping across the kneeling simians.
It raises its staff, pointing at the whimpering humans
"Huumans," it calls, "You have committed great sacrilege on intruding our sacred lands"
"You have killed my kin." It continues, "You have disrupted the harmony of the jungle." It reads out their crimes.
"And for this, you shall be punished by the ancestors." It declares, thunking its staff onto the earth.
A chorus of chants emerge, echoing all over the jungle.
"#£@&¿¡~#^!. "
The shaman chants, a green and ominous mist wafting from his glowing staff.
The shaman waves his hands in erratic motion, guiding the green mist towards the humans.
The mist swirls between the trio before turning and rushing up their nostrils.
The humans twitch and trash their vision swimming before abruptly halting, their limp figures falling face first into the moist jungle floor with a thud.
"Brethren," the shaman calls, "This injustice will be judged and punished by the ancestors."
All the simians chant in unison, grabbing the unconscious humans and tying them to a pole by their limbs.
The three float limp above ground as they are carried away-- to the simian stronghold.
The shaman stands at the forefront of the entourage, it raises the staff and declares;
"The trial ritual begins at dusk!"