The Alpha ape, who was having the time of his life playing with this little tasty morsal thought the fight might be over as he saw the creature actually have the audacity to close its eyes while fighting. Not to be one to let a chance like this go the Alpha powered forward to put the final blow to this thing and get back to his lovely ape harem when something unexpected happened.
Like gravity had suddenly become stronger a pressure descended on the bodies of the Alpha and the surrounding Golden-Haired Apes. Every ape was forced to its knees by the pressure put upon them. The Alpha ape was affected but managed to stay standing, only stumbling slightly as he quickly withdrew from the sight of Megan's now open eyes. Where Megan's eyes used to be there was now two swirling vortices, shining stars and galaxies could be clearly viewed circling the space Megan's gaze encompassed.
Hesitating for only a few seconds while Megan didn't make any moves the Alpha decided this must just be some sort of harmless distraction, so he charged again toward Megan and threw his fist forward so fast the very air appeared to burn before it.
SWISH
The Alpha looked down.
No squished enemy. The Alpha looked up...
SHICK
*THUD*
The Golden-Haired Apes kneeling around were shocked. They wished to raise their heads to see but could not lift them due to the pressure. The only sight they could see was the severed head of the Alpha, an expression of abject horror on its dead features.
QUICK. BRUTAL. ABSOLUTE.
Not one ape moved, none made a sound as the winner, covered in blood, silently floated down from where they had appeared before slicing through the Alpha's neck WITH THEIR BARE HANDS! Some apes couldn't deal very well with the situation and may have released their hold on bladder and bowls due to fear.
The mysterious being had obviously been hiding their power. Apes trembled and shivered, kneeling in their own filth. The pressure did not relent as the being walked toward the ape's cave and disappeared into the darkness.
Even once the being was gone and the pressure lifted, no ape tried moving for a long time. This day would be remembered by the Golden-Haired Apes, they would not forget.
******************************************************************************************************
Megan came back to consciousness with a sudden jerk of her whole body. Attempting to open her eyes caused spikes of pain through her head as bright sunlight invaded her retinas and she had to shut them tight. The air felt thick and hot and the sun beat down on her face with an intensity she had never experienced before.
Covering her eyes with a hand she slowly opened them and allowed them to acclimate to the bright light. The sight that slowly came into focus was so surprising Megan could only stare in wonder. Gone was the greenery of the rainforest, all the colour was now just a muted light brown of drifting sand. Never had she seen the kind of vast desert that spread out in all directions before her. Looking behind she was presented with the sight of a large rocky outcrop and a cave opening leading into darkness, but this was seemingly the only solid structure in the vicinity she could see.
Megan sat in thought, she didn't remember how she got here. The last memory she could recall was being thrown to the ground by the Alpha Golden-Haired Ape, there was pain, darkness and nothing! Megan felt around her body, looking for wounds or broken bones or anything to indicate what happened, nothing.
Megan shrugged to herself and stopped thinking about it. Worrying about something that was not affecting her current circumstances was not helping her situation and once she had time, she would look into it but right now survival was more important.
Due to the circumstances that led her here she unfortunately did not have many of her supplies she had been stockpiling in the rainforest. She had her pack and inside she had all her equipment but had none of the fruits, nuts, herbs or jerky she had been making and conserving, only having enough to last a day or two if she rationed it well. Briefly she considered going back into the cave but a quick look at the darkness she decided against trying her luck. She had no idea what happened back there and returning may not be the best option.
Sighing to herself, Megan took a few sips of her only water canteen and checked the level, about three quarters full. Hopefully she would be able to find some more water before too much longer. Already she could feel the sweat from her body evaporating at an increased rate under the sweltering heat of the sun. Thinking of what she had learned of deserts and travelling through them she knew it would be her death if she attempted travel while the sun beat down on her, so she decided to wait in the shade of the rocky outcrop and only move around at night.
Deciding she needed to pick a direction before it got dark, she wrapped a thin blanket around her head and face so none of her skin was exposed to the sunlight and quickly climbed the rocks using a combination of agility and convenient form handholds. Reaching the highest point she could reach, Megan still could not make out anything within the radius of her eyesight. Looking up and seeing nothing preventing it she started to rise as high as she could using form assisted leaps straight upwards towards the sky.
Finally, with her core energy getting low and the rocky outcrop a tiny speck below her, on the horizon far to the east of her location she could make out a blurry outline of... something. She couldn't make out what it was but there was nothing in all the other directions, so it was the only clue she had to getting through this section of the dungeon.
Careful to fall on the correct side of the outcrop she descended, marked the direction using some loose rocks, then found a spot in the shade where she could wait for night-time. While waiting Megan intently studied her bodies condition and was very surprised to realise the wounds, bruises and bone fractures she had been mildly suffering from were all gone! Despite the vast exhaustion she felt that was akin to many days training at an extreme level her body was not only entirely whole and unharmed but stronger than it had ever been! Everything from the resilience of her energy pathways to her organs, muscles and even skin appeared to have gone through a baptism of fire and reborn better than they were previously.
This new development equally excited and unnerved Megan. Excited because she stronger but completely clueless to how this occurred. What happened when she lost consciousness in the fight with the Alpha Golden-Haired Ape? She was alive, which was surprising, but how did her strength get higher with no input from her?
Shaking her head Megan looked to the sky and realised as she was contemplating her unusual power up that night had well and truly fallen over the desert.
If it was one thing that Megan quickly realised about the desert at night and that was the unnatural freezing cold! More than just being cold, there was a strange atmosphere of frigid oppression so deep that the very air in places would condense into mist then fall to the ground in sharp snowflakes that could cut flesh and bone!
Quickly realising the danger Megan tightened the blanket around her head and she carefully avoided the areas where the mist was developing as those snowflakes looked deadly.
Checking the direction and lining up some convenient stars from the sky with the hope they wouldn't move in some kind of dungeon shenanigans. Mentally preparing herself Megan started forward, increasing her speed until she reached an equilibrium between her stamina, core energy and endurance while still going slow enough to allow some leeway when encountering the mist and snowflakes in order to avoid them.
Megan ran tirelessly forward, the wind rushing past her, the forms encasing her feet stretched out and spiked in order to allow her to silently and softly navigate the ever-shifting fine sand of the drifting desert. It was almost peaceful, and as she travelled Megan's vigilant examination of her surroundings for threats became less attentive as nothing occurred for a long time.
This inattentiveness was the likely main cause of Megan missing the danger that didn't present until she found herself ambushed from underneath the sand below her feet!
Erupting from the sand in a quick ambush attack Megan was not prepared for and before she could realise what was happening Megan's ankle was pierced by the stinger of a scorpion's tail that turned out was attached to a scorpion as big as a small house!
Immediately the wound, which initially hurt more than anything Megan had experienced so far in her life went icy cold and a numbness started travelling through her veins heading up her calf muscles so quick that Megan was taken back. Jumping back into a somersault she pulled herself into the air in a hovering position above the giant scorpion shaking its way out of the sand. Having a spare moment, she examined what was going on with her leg and was horrified at the corrupt and putrid black and green colours spreading throughout. Using core energy Megan established a barrier between her quickly corrupting flesh and healthy body. This had the side effect of making her left leg completely useless for both movement, defence or offense.
Keeping to the sky Megan began the battle by trying to whittle down the scorpion with quick aerial attacks but quickly realised that the exoskeleton of this scorpion was quite durable and easily deflected her cuts and slashes. Unable to maintain being in the air for too long Megan used the time she had before having to descend to study the scorpion and try to identify any weaknesses.
The scorpion was large, but not slow, somehow the beast was able to move faster than anything that size should be able to. Megan hypothesised that the speed was a core energy circulation thing which means that if she managed to tire it out somehow and use all its core energy then she should be able to get the scorpion to slow down. The overlapping chitinous segments of the scorpion appeared to have sections that allowed the scorpion quite the range of motion as well and Megan could make out three distinct components, the oval shaped head with two lateral eyes and above them three median eyes and to either side of the head large armoured hairy arms ending in two massive sharp looking pincers that would occasionally snap shut in loud clicking noises that would hurt Megan's ears. The head appeared fused to the thorax and opisthosoma (abdomen), four pairs of walking legs erupted from between segments of the carapace close to the fused head and abdomen. The final component and the most dangerous more so than even the sharp pincers were the large tail of the scorpion that ended in a sharp aculeus (stinger) that dripped a nasty venom that smoked upon touching anything that was not the carapace of the scorpion.
Thinking of venom Megan was using quite a lot of core energy to hold the venom in the leg where she had been pierced by the scorpion's stinger. She was not going to be able to maintain this for long so she needed to end this quickly so she could deal with the worsening situation. Thinking fast she decided to just go for it and once lined up, dropped on the back of the scorpion, evading the stinger as best she could and fortunately managing to not get stung again as she stabbed down with her staff, the end of which was a energy construct shaped like a needle almost one and a half meters long with a tip so sharp the reality surrounding the air seemed to come apart as it found the much softer flesh between where the head fused to the abdomen. When the tip was halfway through and deep in the internal structure of the scorpion's neck Megan burned her core energy without restraint as she attempted to make the fixed needle construct she had created and bend the power in ways she had never tried before. Focusing her mind like this was difficult while trying to dodge to large pincers and a tail attacking her simultaneously as the scorpion below her jerked and bucked as it tried to deal with the pest standing on its head and stabbing it with an object that was now moving causing massive pain and torment.
Megan strained and burned her core energy, forcing it through her pathways and through her hands into her staff. Instinctually her subconsciousness passed suggestions to her that she didn't even consider before implementing them which caused her ability with constructs to break into an entirely new level!
The long needle tip which now resembled a hook at the end of her core energy conjured construct split into three sharp blades and slowly at first but picking up speed quickly begun to spin, slicing through muscle, sinew and the outer edge of the scorpion's brain!
With the pain going from mildly annoying to deadly the scorpion started going absolutely berserk. the pincers waved around randomly and the tail slashed and stabbed at everything, including itself!
Megan held on with everything she had, she managed to keep on the back of the scorpion while she pushed and pulled at the staff while churning the inside of the scorpion's head into a fine paste. With a final violent shudder, the scorpion finally fell flat on the sandy ground. Thinking quickly, Megan reached down and conjured a sharp serrated edge on her staff. She first cut off the tail just below she was aware the poison gland of the scorpion was, after this she quickly levered the scorpion onto its back so she could jump up on the beast's stomach and slashed down the seam of the scorpion's softer carapace on the usually well protected stomach area, reaching into the gory hole she had created, green tinged scorpion blood soaking her and the area around, slowly seeping into the sand. Megan reached up into the area where the scorpion's heart was and felt around until she grabbed a round crystal, shining with a green glow, commonly called a Beast Core. With a soft rip noise, the crystal came free of whatever held it in place, and she shoved the stinger tail and beast core into her pack just in time to see multiple ripples in the sand surrounding her warning of trouble coming her way.
Not wishing to deal with multiple overpowered poison wielding enemies Megan quickly rose as high as she could into the air, narrowly escaped being stung by another scorpion as she left the ground, and still have enough energy to come back down. Megan produced two wing like constructs on her arms and proceeded to glide toward her destination, poisoned but alive, with a plan to survive. She hoped.