As the initial frenzy subsided, all three giant gorillas lay on the ground. Their massive bodies were covered in wounds, dead.
The remaining primates huddled together in the village square to discuss what happened. But before any of them could understand, many more cries erupted from elsewhere. Followed by a loud bang, flames began erupting from different locations.
"What the heck is happening?!" some cried.
It's then that they saw the cause of this horror: Arthur. He looked like a monster with a cold vehemence burning in his eyes.
"Who are you?!" they cried.
Arthur only had one answer: 'Sage art: surface slice…'
Just one flick of his wrist sent several linear streams of water soaring toward them and the rest of the village.
Splash-splash-splash!
The impact was immense. The water caused flames to erupt, quickly engulfing the trees. Panicked screams filled the air as the primates scrambled for escape routes. Yet the fire was acting like a barrier.
A little monkey boy tried crawling into a hole. But the moment he was close, Arthur grabbed him by the tail and ripped his arms off!
The screeching pierced his ears. Yet even then, he still did not make a face.
"What have you done?!" he heard from behind.
It was Nala with a despairing face. Arthur slowly turned to her, only to see a whimpering baby chimp clutched in her arm. No matter how he looked at Nala, she was an enemy at the end of the day.
"Was I late to our meeting?" he asked, leaving her dumbfounded.
With a clenched fist, Arthur shot out more Surface Slices, but to the ground. The impact quickly created dust to fill the clearing. One by one, Nala continued to hear her people cry before slumping to the ground.
Angered, she jumped once and landed so hard that it cleared the dust. Arthur could be seen holding a monkey by the neck.
"Stop it this instant!" she cried.
Yet who was he to listen to a monkey?
Crack!
The primate's body collapsed to the ground after he dropped it. The face Nala made was a horrendous one.
"Why?!" she screamed. "Why have you done this?! What reason have you brought this evil to our land?!"
"Evil?" Arthur coldly repeated. "Was it not you who threw a boy out into the wild? So what would a bunch of apes know about evil?"
The answer left her in shock. She simply couldn't understand him. But if there's one thing she did know, it was that he was killing her kind, and he had to be stopped.
Suddenly, a group of burly guards emerged onto the scene. They roared, "We shall defend our land!"
As they charged in, Arthur dealt with them one by one. Sounds of flesh cracking bones filled the air. By the time Nala looked, her guards had been defeated.
"Care to try?" Arthur taunted.
Nala screamed, causing invisible tendrils to constrict Arthur's body. Yet he could see through this technique: it was a genjutsu produced by her sound.
"Was this what you were going to test me with?" he rhetorically asked. With just one flex of his overgrown muscles, the tendrils shattered like glass. "Pathetic…"
Nala's face contorted in despair. Little did Arthur know, that was her best technique, and it had failed. What about taijutsu? No, she knew that she was no match for him in a physical confrontation. Not after he defeated her guards so easily.
So Arthur slowly stalked closer. She tried a punch, but he twisted slightly, avoiding the brunt of her attack. She tried again too and managed to claw his arm. Yet it didn't even wound him. After a third attempt, Arthur scoffed and tripped her to the ground.
"Waah!" the baby chimp cried after being dislodged.
"Hmm…" Arthur said, walking toward it.
Suddenly, his ankle was snatched by Nala's grip. "Don't you dare! I won't let you!"
Arthur used his other leg to smash into her arm, creating a deep enough wound to be visible. She cried, letting go of his ankle. This allowed him to near the whimpering chimp, scooping it while ignoring Nala's frantic shrieks.
It was a heartbreaking sound, a primal plea torn from a mother's very soul. But he wasn't remotely moved.
Nala rasped, "You may think you're almighty, but you will never win. You can never take the spirit of the jungle. It will remember!"
Her words rang hollow in his ears, dismissed as the ramblings of a desperate monkey.
It was then that she managed to stand. The sight of him carrying her child greatly irked her.
"Let her go!" she threatened.
"Make me…"
Nala lunged. When she closed the distance, Arthur delivered a single, swift blow to her temple. Then her eyes glazed over before her body went limp. Arthur watched as she slowly fell to the floor.
From the beginning, he believed this chimp in his arm was her newborn. It would be the best explanation as to why she was so protective of it. Yet he had never heard of Enma having a child. Then again, he had never heard of him having a wife either.
Suddenly, a tremour shook the ground as a deafening roar ripped through the clearing. Arthur slowly turned to his adversary and yelled out his name: "Alex!"
Enma, the king, had finally arrived.
His normally regal posture was replaced by a hunched, primal stance, and his eyes were filled with rage as his face was obscured by the flames licking at the village's remains.
Arthur held his ground, having sensed his arrival moments ago. That was the reason he chose now of all times to attack: the monkey king wasn't in the village, scavenging for food with a search party.
"You seem angry, Enma…" Then Arthur carefully placed the baby chimp down on a patch of untouched earth. "Are you not happy to see me?"
The response was silence. Only the sounds of crackling fire and the whimpering baby were heard.
The two glared into one another's eyes. Arthur could see the fury and hurt inside the king. Enma's wife lay dead. His guards, dead. His citizens, dead. All of them were dead.
"Why have you done this…?" Enma finally asked.
"I wonder what you mean. The fact that I came to your realm and suckered you into this mess, or the fact that you never saw it coming..."
Enma roared with heart-wrenching sorrow. "I shall rip out your heart and grind your bones beneath my teeth!"
Arthur spread his arms in a display of dominance. "You were a threat, Enma… Nothing more."
Enma stared at him with conflicting emotions. Rage, grief, and something akin to betrayal—all of it gnawed at him.
"You," he finally managed, "were said to be a prophet... We welcomed you… trusted you…"
"Trust?" Arthur scoffed, lowering his arms. "Know ye not it is better to trust in God than in man. And since when did you ever hear me confirm that I was a prophet?"
Enma was done with words. He quickly lumbered toward Arthur as the ground trembled with earth-shaking steps. Closing the distance, he raised his body up and slammed his fists to the ground.
Bang!
Arthur dodged, teasing, "You want revenge that badly? Come and get it."
Enma's colossal form charged after him, his fists clenched tight. Another slam came his way, yet Arthur dodged with impeccable timing. Enma then summoned his Adamantine Staff. As he whipped it through the air, it blew out the flames on the smouldering huts.
"Come here!" he growled.
Yet each of his swings missed its mark. Enma was too fueled by rage as Arthur wove his way through the staff's deadly arcs.
Simian Sage Mode's enhanced reflexes were being used perfectly. Every swing, every twitch of Enma's muscles—all of it was being telegraphed with great clarity.
Enma huffed a large amount of air, wondering why Arthur hadn't attacked yet. "You think you can tire me out?! Me, the king of the jungle?!"
After another swing that missed, Arthur came to a halt. "Wrong… I chose not to attack yet because I was merely testing the limitations of Sage Mode."
The reaction was painful to hear. Sage Mode? That's why Arthur looked that way now? But how? How did a child manage to acquire their greatest technique?
'Sage art: body oxidation jutsu...'
Arthur disappeared from sight. The king roared in frustration, searching for his opponent. Before he could react, a searing pain erupted from within him.
Arthur was going to kill him, but he felt his Sage Chakra depleting even faster. So he materialized outside of the king.
Arthur was certain that he had at least ten more minutes remaining. The answer came quickly to him: the more he used a Kekkei Genkai technique, the faster the Sage Chakra was used.
This was fine to know, as it was his first time anyway. Besides, his Sage Mode-enhanced smoke technique had done its work, leaving Enma's organs to start to fail.
Enma coughed up blood. From the ground, his rage increased tenfold. Then, to Arthur's surprise, the monkey king stood up, blood dripping from his fangs.
"Mark my words!" he roared. "You won't get away with this!"
Arthur wasted no time closing the distance. The combo came quickly: a kick to the back of Enma's knee, followed by a backhand to knock Enma backward.
The towering titan of the jungle was being reduced to a lumbering target, unable to stand against a foe that seemed unbeatable.
Suddenly, from the undergrowth, emerged Ooka-Ooka.
"Alex!" Ooka-Ooka roared, his voice laced with betrayal. "What have you done?!"
"I'm glad you came, Orangi…" Arthur then met the orangutan in the eyes. "You saved me the trouble of hunting you down like the rest that fled."
Enma, gathering the last vestiges of his strength, rasped out a single word: "Run!"
Ooka-Ooka, however, ignored his king's desperate plea and ran toward Arthur.
"You monster!" he thundered, closing the distance. His fist aimed for Arthur's head, but just as the blow was about to land, Arthur vanished. "Huh?!"
Arthur appeared behind him and delivered two jabs to his back.
Bang-bang!
Ooka-Ooka fell to his knees, unaware of just how strong and quick Arthur had become.
"Tell me, Orangi," Arthur said, slowly walking past the ape. "Who are the real monsters here?"
Ooka-Ooka then slowly placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder. He tried to squeeze Arthur to the ground, but Arthur remained unmoved.
"Well?" Arthur asked. He gripped the ape's wrist and removed it. "The answer is simple." Then he brought the ape to the floor with one pull and stomped on his neck. "Those whose hearts are filled with sin." Bringing his hand up, he performed the "Sage Art: Chakra Dissection Blade.'
Shank!
"And my heart knows no sin…"
Enma's eyes were filled with horror upon seeing Ooka-Ooka's head roll off his shoulders.
The clearing was silent, broken only by the whimpers of the baby chimp.