Beauty and the Beasts

There wasn’t a clear winner in the fight between the two beastmen. But from how Alva saw it, Parker was constantly being beaten.

Alva, too, didn’t dare to move about haphazardly. The ape tribe’s ability was too bizarre—to actually be able to control plants. If he were to go down, he would definitely be strangled by the vines as well.

He knew he wasn’t as agile as Parker and didn’t have as tough a bite as him. If he was surrounded by those vines as well, he would be done for.

But even if that goon couldn’t beat the ape, didn’t it occur to him to flee?

Alva flapped his wings, flew to the skies, and called for help in the direction of his village. “Gah gah!”

His voice traveled a great distance away.

There are no plants in the skies. So, surely I won’t be hit, right? Alva thought to himself gleefully.

The ape king’s heart sank. He emanated a wisp of mental power towards the skies.

Gah!

Alva let out a startled cry. For some reason, he wasn’t able to flap one of his wings, and as his body slanted sideways, he found himself falling to the ground.

Just then, the response from peacocks came from afar.

The terrified Jean shook the ape king’s shoulder. “We’d better hurry up and leave. He has helpers.”

Unable to concentrate, another wisp of the ape king’s mental power was snapped by the leopard’s mouth, causing his face to turn a shade greener.

“It’ll be over soon.”

“Send me into the seas and slowly deal with him afterward. I’m terrified.”

Parker gazed towards the source of the sound with his bloodshot eyes and vaguely saw two figures.

You wanna leave? Not so easy!

The leopard suddenly pounced, broke through the not-so-solid barrier, and went straight for the ape king.

Unable to retract his mental power in time, the ape king instantly hid Jean behind him. The very next moment, the leopard pounced on him.

“Ah!” Jean, crushed underneath, yelped in pain.

Parker opened his mouth and bit at his opponent’s neck. However, the crafty ape king naturally wouldn’t unleash all his power in one go; he had retained sufficient power to ensure his survival.

The moment he was tackled to the ground, he had already used his remaining mental power to create an invisible protective barrier around himself. As Parker opened his mouth and tried to bite him, he collided against the boundary. Parker was caught off-guard.

The vines being controlled by the ape king’s mental power uncurled themselves around the large tree. Attacking from an even greater distance now, they leaped at Parker like the tentacles of an octopus.

Upon hearing the sound of wind from behind, Parker rolled away.

While he was fighting the vines, the ape king got to his feet to check Jean’s body.

The teary Jean raised her arm, revealing a cut the length of a finger on her snow-white skin, from which blood was seeping.

“It’s so painful.”

The ape king held her arm, feeling heartache for her as he gently blew upon her wound.

“Let’s hurry up and leave. I’ll get King to come and kill him. He’s formidable,” Jean said between tears.

The ape king’s expression froze. Suddenly, he was held back by nothing.

Right, Jean is going to leave. What else should I care about?

The ape king quietly carried her on his back and ran ahead per her wishes.

The vines suddenly stopped moving. Parker was confused for a moment before he snapped back to reality and gave chase in the ape king’s direction.

Bang!

Parker collided into the air.

Although the ape king had retracted most of his mental power, he had created an even more resilient barrier in order to prevent Parker from catching up to them.

Alva, perched on a tree branch, happily let out “gah gah gah…” sounds upon seeing the ape king’s departure.

As the sounds entered Parker’s ears, he transformed into a human. Though he couldn’t see, he had enhanced hearing ability, and he accurately located Alva’s direction.

“Can you see me? Have they left?” Parker asked with a raised head.

Alva flapped his wings and flew down, resting on a spot several tens of meters away from Parker.

“I can see you. I see you twisting randomly inside. The two of them have just left, else I wouldn’t have come down,” Alva said, feeling lingering fears.

“Right, what beastman is that? His attack is way too bizarre.”

Upon hearing this, Parker kept bumping against the barrier without regard for himself, making loud banging noises as he did so.