"Agh!"
Before Gaston could recall any more, a massive headache suddenly hit him.
Much to his surprise, this headache did not however, wake him from this sleep.
Instead, a flood of the memories that followed past that point suddenly appeared in his head, far too many for him to recall all at once.
His brain, unable to process the vast amount of information, could only see quick, unrecognizable flashes.
And as time passed, and these images that he couldn't make sense of kept flashing by, without interruption, without pause, just endlessly continuing on.
Gaston felt like he was about to lose his mind.
Thankfully for him, before that moment came, it all stopped at once.
...
Once he opened his eyes once again, gone was the unrecognizable, and back was the familiar image, of an unending amount of trees, that only god could differentiate between.
'How glad I am, to see this boring sight once more.'
Looking around, Gaston had a newfound appreciation for the place, though he wouldn't go so far as to say he liked it.
Oddly enough, in his memory, he was hiding on one of the trees, nearly 30 feet in the air, just like he was in the real world.
An even more welcome sight however, was the mud that he saw beneath him.
At least in this godforsaken forest, where the trees never end, and even the leaves are similar, at least the ground has finally changed.
It was a promising start.
Taking a look around, he could see that all four of his men were still with him, hidden along the nearby trees, just like him.
Although, they had all undergone great changes, the least of which were physical.
'Just how long has passed since that little campfire chat.'
Gaston was perplexed.
From what he knew before the memory was abruptly cut off, it sounded like they were headed to that isolated human village, a little over two months away.
How then, had all four of his men managed to break through to the Qi Refining Stage during this time?
How, in what was presumably less than two months, whilst again, presumably, being chased by the Blue Ape hunting parties, had they managed to do what they hadn't done in years.
Gaston's questions were destined to be unanswered however, as his past self and his men did not seem to be in a chatty mood at the moment.
They looked relaxed, but Gaston was sure that this was definitely not them taking a break from their travels.
This looked more like an ambush.
As the minutes went by, and Gaston was beginning to question why of all the memories that flashed by too fast for him to recall, this one was the one that he could clearly remember, despite it being nothing but waiting.
To this question however, Gaston got his answer.
As sporadic, but dense, footsteps could be heard, coming from all directions.
Upon hearing the noise however, all five of them remained calm, clearly having been expecting it.
To Gaston's surprise, there was no communication between them either.
His past self said nothing, not even via transmitting his thoughts through that magic technique of his.
Then again, perhaps that magic technique was obsolete if their target was the Blue Apes.
After all, they had proven in their very first encounter that they were far more perceptive of the changes of the nearby magical energy than they were.
The only change that he saw in his men upon the appearance of the noise, was in their expressions.
There was no excitement for a fight, anxiety for it, or even fear of death.
No, all Gaston saw, was a sadistic little grin creep up on their faces, while their eyes remained deadly focused.
His own expression was the most embarrassing of all, as unlike his men who all looked like they were at least suppressing their excitement, his grin extended from ear to ear, looking like a man that was more than happy for what was soon to come.
Most men Gaston knew back from Earth would be far from pleased to have such a leader, but his current men.
It seemed that they were just as mad as their leader themselves.
Soon after, 12 Blue Apes, all in the early stages of Qi Refining, started closing in on their location from all directions.
They outnumbered Gaston and his men by more than two to one, yet it was the 12 Blue Apes that were spread out and closing in on their general location from all directions, that walked cautiously.
From the North, East, South and West, approached two Blue Ape's dressed in the same strange leather armor that the first Blue Ape Leader he had tortured wore.
In their hands however, the weapons they were carrying were all identical to each other, but slightly different from the wooden staffs that Gaston and his men were used to seeing from the Blue Apes.
Their staffs, had nice and pointy pieces of metal at the end of them, making them far more dangerous, and also no longer just staffs.
Those eight Blue Ape's each travelled in pairs of two, leading the way.
Lagging slightly behind them, no more than a 100 feet, were the remaining four Blue Apes, who moved alone, completing the encirclement.
The trees were silent, the occasional sound of muddy footsteps was the only thing that could be heard.
And then, all of a sudden, it began.
Once the four Blue Ape pairings got close enough to the five trees Gaston and his men occupied, they all moved in unison, each striking different targets.
Their ambush targets weren't randomly chosen however, but looked to be very carefully thought out.
Siegbert and Nicolaus, as the only two amongst their little group that could attack at range, ambushed the Blue Ape pairing coming from the East, as it was opposite to where the fighting would begin.
Throwing a wooden spear, that looked like it was pretty recently made and quite makeshift, Nicolaus aimed at the Blue Ape standing to the left.
Siegbert on the other hand, aimed his arrow and fired it as soon as Nicolaus threw his spear, at the Blue Ape to the right.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of the spear flying towards the Blue Ape to the left resounded throughout the forest.
Siegbert's arrow on the other hand, made no such noise.
It was completely silent, but as evidence has shown, just as deadly.