Humiliation

The large male pushed itself off its throne, muscles rippling and short fur puffing up as it stared at its subject, busily playing with the glinting objects in its hands and completely unaware of the attention it had garnered with its actions.

In the meanwhile, not immediately noticing the change in the mood of their leader, the current ‘performer’ continued its game of repeatedly slamming a dying ferret against the ground, an ecstatic expression on its face as the equally-oblivious rest of the monkeys incited its actions.

Only the alpha’s favored females seemed to detect the change in its behavior, silently turning to look at their mate as it suddenly launched itself against the unexpecting rival, a veritable mass of muscles and rage impacting the lounging monkey and slamming its body against the ground, the handful of shiny objects flying in the air and plinking on the rubble around the two, a couple of them even exploding in a shimmering cloud of sparks, broken by the impact with the hard stone.

The sudden noise caused the rest of the colony to jump in surprise, their eyes moving away from the sadistic entertainment they were witnessing and instead landing on the sudden confrontation, their confused stares soon turning into eager ones when they realized what was actually happening.

Many meters above, from her hidden point of observation, Alice looked in disgust as the creatures started emitting whooping screams and slamming sticks and stones against the ground to show their excitement, their plump lips twisted into manic and bloodthirsty grins.

Her attention, however, was soon back on the conflict, for in the meanwhile, the younger male had managed to stumble back up on its feet and, despite having clearly been dazed by the unexpected attack, had immediately tried to fight back by swinging one of its long and muscular arms towards the alpha.

The bigger male, however, instead of dodging the punch, let it slam against the side of its face, taking a single step back before loudly hollering to the rest of the troop, proudly displaying its strength and superiority as the ‘cheering’ of the monkeys grew louder.

As the alpha strutted around, the opponent took that brief interval to recover from the first hit.

Clearly not intimidated by the show of strength of the larger foe, the monkey’s eyes sharpened and a hateful expression twisted its crimson face into a rictus, the plump lips curling up to reveal a collection of yellow, pointed teeth.

As a result, the second the leader turned; another, more powerful fist hit it on its snout and sent it stumbling back with a pained scream.

The struck beast brought a hand to its nose, touching the twin rivulets of blood that streamed out of its nostrils and even licking the thick red fluid, its eyes bulging out in rage as a strange growl of rage erupted from its throat.

The fight was truly on.

Its fists madly swinging, the larger monkey surged forward with a scream and was eagerly met halfway by their equally-crazed adversary, the two of them immediately starting to pummel each other, ignoring all notions of defense to focus on a wild set of swings, kicks and bites that shook and tore at their bodies.

Over the exhilarated shouting of the rest of the troop of primates, Alice could hear the dull sounds of the punches impacting flesh, the screams of pain whenever a tuft of fur was ripped off from a body and even the cracking of the bones beneath the muscle whenever an attack landed particularly well.

As the fight went on and grew fiercer, the rest of the primates started closing around the fighters in a loose circle, their cries reaching a crescendo that culminated when the bloodied leader finally landed an almost perfect uppercut on the younger male’s chin, causing its mouth to slam shut with a crack of shattered teeth, a mouthful of blood streaming down its cracked lips and pattering onto the ground as its legs gave out and it dropped on the floor, barely conscious after the massive impact.

To Alice’s surprise, however, the alpha didn’t go on with its beating and, instead, immediately stopped its attacks to slowly pace around its fallen rival, proudly screaming at the spectators while its defeated opponent wheezed on the ground, already forgotten.

At least until a soft, keening hooting escaped the battered face of the adversary as it prostrated itself at the victor’s feet, causing it to turn away from the rest of its subjects and stare at the source of the noise, a grin soon blooming on its red lips when it realized what was happening.

Seemingly amused by the action, the alpha lowered a hand and patted it on the younger male’s head, even caressing the bloodied fur of its sibling for a few seconds.

Then it started pissing on its head.

As soon as the first drop of warm liquid hit its body, the uncomprehending loser raised its head and stared at the scene, a surprised expression that soon turned into one of pure hatred as the thin stream of golden fluid splattered in its fur and dripped on the ground.

Despite its murderous expression, however, the creature still remained in its prone position until the leader had finished and turned back to its worshippers, once again forgetting of its presence.

Only then, as the leader hooted and screamed its absolute triumph, did the male rise once again, a dangerous glint in its swollen eyes as it pushed itself back on its trembling feet, its fur sodden with blood and urine as it silently advanced towards the heedless winner, a large rock grasped between its long fingers.

The alpha didn’t have time to react as the loser slammed the rock against its nape with a cry of rage, the durable rock impacting the beast’s cranium with a dull crack of broken bones.

The alpha dropped nerveless in the rubble as silence spread around the bowl.

It didn’t last long.

Seconds after the unexpected end of the fight, one particularly enterprising female rushed forward and jumped at the neck of the swaying male, furiously biting down on it.

Seconds later, Alice watched the blue-lipped female rip off a large chunk of flesh from its neck, a fountain of blood spraying everywhere as the fatally wounded animal screamed its pain to the world.

Before the blue lips could detach from the dying creature, however, it was sent flying across the bowl of rubble by one of the two remaining males who was then joined in the center of the bowl by the injured one Alice had hid from just a few hours before.

The two violently pushed away the screaming females and, together, started posturing in the center of the bowl, keeping the rest of the troop away from their fallen brethren.

Alice stared in surprise for a second before her expression grew resolute once again.

They have allied? Can’t have that. She told to herself, immediately starting to rummage into the silken sack that was usually on her back.

Just as everything was slowly calming down, Alice gripped the heavy cube of metal she had collected from the magnetic cave so many weeks before and silently stood up on the walkway she had used as her observation point for all this time.

She hoped that the chaos, along with the darkness and the grime she was covered in, would allow her to stay hidden from the beasts below.

She waited for the right moment, anxiously gripping the fist-sized block of metal until the two males suddenly gave each other’s back, each one busy with a small group of agitated blue-lips.

She threw.

The object sailed through the air and her aim struck true, the cube hitting the back of the uninjured male who immediately screamed in pain and surprise and turned around, finding itself staring in the eyes of the other one who had turned around in confusion.

Alice didn’t need to watch to know what would happen next.

With a huff, she turned around and started rushing back towards the stairway, a small sigh of relief escaping her lips when the first roar of rage reached her ears. She started climbing down the steps.

The moment she reached the bottom of the stairs, Alice started running towards the actual entrance of the house, her hands tightly gripping the mace and the hilt of her obsidian knife.

She could barely believe what she was going to do.

Her eyes flitted from shadow to shadow, searching for dangers as she jogged down the road, her ears still hearing the screams coming from the den of the monkeys.

She stopped by the entrance and peeked in, watching the madness that had taken hold of the creatures and preparing herself for the next step.

The last male was swaying around, injured and bloodied, its face was already twisted into a snarl as it tried to posture and show its strength in front of the remaining blue lips who, instead of showing subservience, seemed to be more interested in reaching the dead or dying males he was trying to protect.

I don’t know why they are doing this but that’s actually even better.

Alice’s heart hammered in her chest but her expression was steely, her gaze set.

It’s time. Those bodies there are my ticket to a whole lot of nutrients.

I just need to go and take it.

She went.

Her chitin shoes loudly clacked on the rubble as she quickly moved over the loose stones, sometimes slipping on the difficult terrain as she got closer to her targets. Despite the noise she was making, the first monkey only noticed her when her mace impacted its head with a sickening crunch, caving it in without issue as the sharp flanges of the weapon dug into skin, bone and brain alike.

Alice ignored the wave of nausea when she felt the bones give way and instead tried to plant her knife in the head of the next creature, swearing when her swing went too wide and only split open its skin.

Despite her mistake, the attack still managed to incapacitate the creature, a scream of pain escaping it lips as it started rolling on the ground, clutching the bloody folds of its skin while trying to stop the copious blood that flowed from the cut.

When the rest of the creatures finally realized of the danger, most of them tried to frantically get away from the unexpected newcomer and to escape from the various opening in the crumbling walls, while a handful of others, their eyes mad and full of hatred, attempted to swarm her at the same time.

Sparing only a brief glance at the escaping monkeys, Alice immediately let herself plunge into the battle, using her mace to keep some of the creatures at bay while her knife sank into the flesh of the ones that got too close, their fists slamming ineffectually against the chitin and metal plates hidden inside of her dress and their teeth somehow sliding on the smooth silk.

By the end of the fight, the panting biomancer was covered in blood and small scrapes but five broken corpses lay at her feet.

She didn’t even acknowledge the dead creatures, her eyes glued to the real danger in front of her; the large male she had hid from hours before was now slowly advancing towards her, its single eye glued on her form, its body covered in wounds but rippling with muscles and shivering with energy and rage.

Sending a quick Hemostasis to her wounds, Alice took a defensive stance in the hopes of catching her breath, her mace shielding her body while her knife remained ready to strike at the first sign of an attack.

The beast, however, didn’t hesitate, its eyes bloody as it pushed itself forward with a scream of rage, a hand gripping a melon-sized stone and sending it hurtling towards her face, forcing her to dodge and lower her mace as a result.

A mistake.

Spotting the opening, the monkey immediately leapt, one of its long arms extending and heavily impacting against the chitinous plate protecting her sternum.

Alice felt the impact through the armor as the plate slammed against the thoracic cavity which then pressed against her lungs, squeezing the air out of the spongy organs while an ominous crackle erupted from her battered ribs.

Gasping, she still stuck with her knife, running it along the length of the arm and opening a deep cut that soon wept copious blood on the ground, forcing it to retreat with a cry of pain.

Alice wheezed, wincing at the pain but forcing herself not to panic, using the few seconds of respite to access the well of power and move a vast amount of warmth along her entire skeletal system, significantly reinforcing it.

Should have done it before. She told herself.

A second later, the primate was pushing forward once again and Alice took one step to meet it head on, a rush of adrenaline filling her brain and heightening her perception and reactions as she swung her mace towards the monkey’s head, letting her adjust the trajectory when it tried to dodge.

The monkey was still incredibly agile despite the battering it had receive and managed to swivel just enough to turn a heavy attack into a glancing blow that only managed to disorient it.

It slammed with its full weight against her body, causing her to lose the grip of both weapons as they fell down in a heap of limbs, a gasp leaving her lips when her back slammed against the rubble and she found herself below the creature, her eyes widening when she saw the rock coming towards her head, barely moving her neck in time to dodge the attack, the stone landing beside her ear with a shower of shrapnel that cut one of her earlobes.

Before the monkey could try again, however, she frantically gripped the arm with both of her own, straining to keep it in place while the monkey tried to free itself, its other arm, torn open and barely moving at its side.

Despite using two of her hands and the beast’s weakened state, its muscles were incredibly strong and Alice could feel herself slowly losing, she couldn’t allow it.

Without letting go of the arm, she accessed her well of power and sent a tendril of her energy towards her hand, trying to pierce the animal’s defenses and stop its heart like she had done with the Rocktopus.

The second the tendril came in contact with the monkey’s flesh; however, the animal grew frantic, its pull on the arm weakening as it instead opened its mouth and attempted to bite her face off.

Alice screamed in fear and was forced to stop her magical assault, letting go of the arm and stopping the snapping head with her hands before plunging her fingers in the only remaining eye of the creature, blood coating her body as the beast thrashed erratically over her.

With a grunt, Alice’s adrenaline-filled muscles managed to tip her to the side, causing the monkey to fall off and continue rolling on the ground while clutching its eyes as she got up on her feet, her chest pumping madly as she launched herself towards the mace and started slamming it on the primate’s head until it stopped moving.

Only after she was sure it was dead did she stop, her body trembling as she looked around, staring at the corpses sprawled all over the bowl.

“Fuck,” she panted, “Fuck,”

She looked around, searching for any other opponent and sighing in relief when she found herself alone.

Her heart still hammering in her chest, she moved to grasp at her knife, inspecting its edge for damage and finding none once again, whatever magic Khemi ad used on the obsidian it had been effective.

She silently stumbled towards the bottom of the bowl and let herself fall onto the strange chaise longue that had once been the leader’s throne, the strange material turning out to be just as strange to the touch as it was to the eye, like some kind of leathery plastic that didn’t give in to her weight.

She still took her sweet time, the remains of her magic coursing through her body and starting to repair the wounds she had taken.

Only after a few long minutes did she force herself to get up on her feet, her eyes moving from body to body as she decided where to begin.

Tonight it’s going to be a whole lot of work.

*****

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