At the inn, the group is checking out their room. Lorilay dives onto the single large bed in the middle of the room, "it's so soft! I'm surprised to find such a soft bed in a place like this". Liza examines the intricate design of the mirror frame, "it's too fancy for a remote place like this. Even if the Capital is close by, nobody would come this could to the border unless they have to". Lorilay, "then, is it as Agnus says? There's some illegal stuff happening here?". They both look to Ren, who's sitting on a chair with his eyes closed, "hm...it's hard to tell". Liza, "how so?". Ren, "my instincts aren't giving me a concrete answer. I can't outright say what's happening in this village is bad, nor can I say that it's good either". Lorilay, "hm...I thought you'd have an answer". Ren, "my instincts are useful, but not omnipotent. Unless it's a simple like a yes or no, it's hard to get a clear answer". Liza, "guess we'll have to wait for Elza to finish".
Some time later, Elza enters the inn. Seeing everyone gathered in the lobby, see uses the opportunity to speak to Agnus, "I've finished going around the village, all that's left is this inn. As far as I can tell, nothing illegal is happening. Either it's clean, or it's so well hidden that it's able to fool me and all the investigators I've scent". Agnus, disappointed and distrusting, "understood. Thank you for investigating on my behalf, your Majesty". Elza, she clearly doesn't believe me, "no problem". Lorilay, "it's weird that the inn here is so fancy if nothing is here". Elza thinks of a story on the spot, "oh, that. With the increase in adventurers, this place is increasing in popularity for foraging and hunting monsters. They're actually waiting for approval to expand, requesting the establishment of a general store and blacksmith. The adventurers sometimes cross into the Demon Lands to hunt some rabbit. Its horn is a good crafting material. The village chief is also the younger brother of the former monarch. He sometimes gets important guests, so they had to put a lot of effort into the inn". Agnus seems more convinced by that explanation, "it must be the spiral horn rabbit. We see them sometimes near the church". Elza, "grinding down the horn makes a decent knife that lasts a long time and is cheaper than metal, so it's popular. It can't be found in the forest though".
Ren, who was validating the story with his instincts, can tell it's not the truth. Him and Elza lock eyes, an unspoken exchange happening. Grace enters the lobby, "the large bath has been prepared". Lorilay shoots to their feet, "thank God we can bathe! There's nothing like a clean body!". Grace, "will the gentleman be joining? Or should we keep the bath heated for longer?". Ren, "keep it for longer please. Let the ladies go first and enjoy themselves". Grace bows, "understood. Those who wish to take a bath, please follow me". Everyone follows bar Ren and Elza, Ren leaning forward on his chair, "not joining them?". Elza, "I will unless this conversation takes too long. I knew I wouldn't be able to fool you". Ren, "I got the sense that it was only partially the truth". Elza, "it was, but if possible, I'd like to avoid involving you by telling you the full truth. Some things are better off not being known". Ren, "that depends if my involvement is warranted or not. If it's something bad, I'll put a stop to it, even if it puts me at odds with you".
Elza smiles, a mix of emotions whirling in her chest, "while I'm both happy and sad that you have no hesitation going against me, is there any chance you can let this go?". Ren, "that depends. Is something bad happening in this village, Elza?". Elza's heart feels a prick at the gaze he's giving her, my, I love how serious he gets, "something bad...that depends on who you ask, and why you ask. I can't openly say what's happening here is good or bad, but at the very least, it's something that is needed. As a Queen with the responsibly of her citizens' safety on her shoulders, I need what's happening in this village to continue to happen". Ren, feeling no deception in her words, relents, "fine. I won't say anything more. Go take your bath before the others question why you didn't join them". Elza smiles, "don't worry, I can just say I joined you to have sex instead. Want to get all sweaty before our bath?". Ren is caught off guard, but is enticed as a young man should be, "...our room is the first one on the left". Elza starts unbuttoning her shirt as she walks, looking back at him with a smirk before she enters the room, "since we're alone, let's take it up a notch".
While the two get dirty in the sheets, something odd is happening in the forest surrounding the village. A group of gorillas, who's fur takes on an earth composition, are seemingly agitated. A few are banging their head with their fists, one of them beating the angled pecks on his chest. The sound, like banging on hardened clay, stirs the rest of them to also do the same. They get more and more riled up, angry cries filling the air. Suddenly, one takes off, barrelling through the thicket. Another follows, then another, and soon enough, a stampede has formed.
Back in the group's room, Elza's sultry voice rings out, "harder dear, harder!~". Ren's hand stop's mid air, his instincts suddenly screaming. He narrows his eyes as he swiftly looks at the wall, re-establishing his field as if he's trying to see past the wall. Elza looks back over her shoulder, her voice dripping with need, "what's wrong, dear? I'm getting close~". Ren suddenly jumps out of bed in such a hurry that he only puts on his pants, "something, many somethings are coming fast! And they're super close! Get to the others and warn them! And warn the village! I'm going to deal with what's coming!". Watching Ren sprint out the door, Elza begrudgingly gets out of bed and gets dressed in a hurry, "for fuck sake, just as he was getting into it and using more strength! I swear if this sets my sex life back, I'm going to bring down a world of hurt of whoever interrupted us!".
Ren bursts out the inn's door, sprinting to the village's outskirts, what do I do? There's about 20 of them, and they'll reach here in less than a minute! There's no time to properly evacuate everyone... Ren has an idea, letting off a bolt to create as loud a thunderclap as he can, so much so that his own ears start ringing. The whole village goes silent at the sudden thunderclap, a pang of worry and fear overtaking them for a moment. In the silence, everyone can sense a faint rumbling. Cups, chairs, tables, doors, and more start rattling faintly. Those within earshot distance can hear Ren shouting, "Evacuate! Evacuate!". Unsure what's happening, a few villagers start to move to evacuate. In the house on the outskirts of the Village next to the thicket, a Dark Elf picks up her toddler, "let's go see daddy to find out what's happening". As she closes the door behind her, a gorilla bursts out of the thicket and collides with her house. As the woman starts running with her toddler, the gorilla rams through the remainder of the house, the house collapsing as the gorilla emerges behind her.
The gorilla closes in on the woman as she desperately tries to run away. Just as it's about to reach her, it's hit by a lightning bolt. The gorilla screams in annoyance as the lightning travels down it's fur and dissipates into the ground. After gathering itself, the gorilla chases after the woman again, this time met by a continuous blade of lightning, stretched out from Ren a good 20 meters away. The blade pieces through it's chest, causing the gorilla to scream in pain as it sears its flesh. Normally, an animal in pain would try to get away from the source of said pain, but this gorilla does the opposite. Pushing through the pain, the gorilla follows it to it's source, galloping on it's knuckles towards Ren. Ren rightfully panics as the gorilla charges him despite the lighting blade embedded in it's chest, what's with this thing??? Does it not feel pain??? Ren conjures another blade, embedding it in the gorilla's shoulder. The attack does nothing to stop the monster's quadrupedal assault, if anything, it fuels it's anger more. Ren quickly conjures more blades from other parts of his body than just his hands, impaling the gorilla over and over again. The gorilla stops just short of Ren, making it far closer than it should have, normal lightning doesn't work on these guys, and they just charged at me no matter what I did. I'll have to aim for their throats or something. Ren isn't given any more time to think, two more gorilla's already on him.
Elza exit's the inn, sword in hand, as Liza and Lorilay follow after her. Their clothes are dripping wet from putting them on before having a chance to dry themselves. Lorilay, "what's happening?". Elza scans the surroundings, the Gorillas that are 3 times the size of her making them easy to spot, "Earth Gorillas. They're decently strong individually, but a band of them is trouble. Liza, help the villagers evacuate. Lorilay, guard them. I need to help minimize the damage". Agnus appears as Elza dashes towards the gorillas, her attire clearly making her slower than the rest, "what's happening?". Liza, "Earth Gorilla's apparently. We need to get the people inside and then evacuate. Lorilay, stand watch while we get everyone". Lorilay doesn't reply, simply standing guard as the other two run back inside.
Elza clashes with a charging gorilla in the middle of the village. The gorilla swings a wide punch, which Elza meets with her swords. The sword splits the gorilla's arm open, embedding itself halfway up the gorilla's forearm. Before Elza can extract her sword, she's sent flying by another gorilla attacking from the side. She crashes into a house, landing on its hearth. She gets up, clutching the ribs where she was hit, "I guess I really am rusty. This is going to hurt". Elza jumps out to meet the gorilla charging at her, their fists clashing with an unbelievably deep thump. As Elza's face contorts from the wrist pain, the gorilla loses its balance from the unexpected force it was met with. Elza doesn't miss this chance, letting off a full force kick into its head, knocking it out.
Before she has a chance to catch her breath, Elza barely dodges her own sword that came flying at her. The gorilla with the split forearm is beyond pissed. It charges and jumps into the air, aiming to crush her with its weight. Elza manages to jump out of the way, the gorilla landing on the unconscious one and waking it up. As the two gorillas adjust themselves, Elza retries her sword embedded in the ground, "this is going to be a pain with one hand". As the able-bodied gorilla charges forward first, Elza full force throws her sword with on hand. The Gorilla isn't able to dodge, the sword embedding into its head and killing it instantly. The other gorilla emerges from the behind the dead one, shoulder charging her. Elza dashes forward into a power slide, tripping up the gorilla. As it writhes in pain from its split arm coming into contact with the ground, Elza retrieves her sword once again. With pure brute force, she cuts it's head off, the head rolling a good few enters away. She uses her sword to lean on for a moment to catch her breath.
A group of villagers is running towards the Village Chief's house, escorted by Liza, Lorilay, and Agnus. Sensing the approaching vibrations and glancing behind her, Lorilay turns on her heels to face the charging gorilla, what's with this thing??? It's at least twice the size of the Water Gorillas back home! Lorilay points her staff, trying to conjure up some spikes that doesn't appear, damn, it's blocked. All the tree roots are making it hard to manipulate the earth. Lorilay quickly abandons the idea of making large spikes, instead opting to make tiny ones in between her and the gorilla. The gorilla steps on them, pulling back in aversion to pain, thankfully the gorilla isn't light-footed or wearing armour. This should keep it away. Lorilay continues to expand the number of spikes, preventing the gorilla from advancing, creating a lot of small things is taking up a lot of my magic, and it's taking a huge mental toll. Things like this generally aren't worth it unless necessary.
The gorilla tries to go around the spikes, but that's all it sees, a sea of them in front of it. It thrashes in annoyance, unable to get to its prey. Lorilay sighs in relief, her hands on her knees, thank God. I can't believe I used up most of my magic on these tiny things. I could create three times the number of normal spikes with the same amount of magic. How does Ren shape his lightning like it's nothing? Lorilay is ripped from her thoughts by the fast approaching rumbling. The gorilla had moved a decent distance away and is now gunning right for Lorilay. Lorilay takes a cautious step back, is it trying to push through with speed? I better back up just in case. As Lorilay backs up, the gorilla reaches the spikes and jumps high into the air to completely clear them. Lorilay's heart sinks to her stomach upon the unthinkable sight. She turns on her heel and sprints as fast as she can while the Gorilla falls back to the ground, what the hell!!! That is so unfair!
Lorilay sprints with all her might as the gorilla gathers itself after its crash landing. Lorilay, with her big breasts bouncingly wildly, isn't very fast, what do I do? What do I do? It just jumped over the spikes that took all my magic!!! I can...oh fuck, I don't know what to do!!! Lorilay can hear the gorilla behind her getting closer and closer, signalling her impending doom, am I going to die? In a place like this? After everything I've done, this is what gets me? A Goddamn gorilla? The gorilla is about to catch up with her, leaping at her from behind for the final takedown. Just before the gorilla crushes her, it clashes with a wall of metal mid air. George, in a full suit of armour with a sword and shield, quickly gathers himself off the ground, "damn these bloody things! Wrecking my village dare you!!! Are you ok, young lass?". Lorilay is frozen on the ground, having fallen over just before she was about to be crushed. George blocks a heavy gorilla punch with his shield, followed by another, and another, "I know it's a scary situation, but I'd appreciate it if you evacuated with the others. My wife can protect you if you go there". George parries the gorilla's latest punch, causing it to lose its balance. George doesn't let the opportunity slip by, stabbing his sword into it's head from under it's chin.
Lorilay is on the ground in a daze, her eyes no focused on anything in particular. George extracts his sword and rushes over to her. He kneels before her, placing his hand on her shoulder, "hey, you're ok. You can see where everyone has evacuated to from here. It's just over there. Get there, and you'll be safe. I need to go help with the gorillas, so I need you to get there by yourself. Can you do that?". Lorilay regains her senses a little, nodding in affirmation. George wastes no time rushing off, Lorilay rising to her feet. She's suddenly aggressively gabbed by the hand from behind, being dragged to the evacuation site by Liza. At the edge of the village, there's a small opening where everyone is gathered, guarded by a slim Dark Elf who is on edge, extremely vigilant. Agnus is trying to reassure people while Liza drags Lorilay in. As soon as the two are relatively safe, Liza embraces Lorilay, "I'm so glad your safe! I was so scared watching you fight. I was so far away by the time I realized you were in trouble. I'm so sorry".
Lorilay returns the embraces, gripping Liza's jacket tighter and tighter as her emotions swell, unexpectedly overflowing, "I-I've fought in over a dozen skirmishes. I've fought in a war. I've fought in a battle to take down a Commander, and I've even fought a Commander! But the closest I've come to death is facing a gorilla. All because I couldn't use my magic properly in this damn forest! Those fucking roots almost killed me!! I hate forests and never want to go in one again!!!". Liza continues embracing Lorilay until she calms down, letting Lorilay bitch about forests until she's satisfied.
George rendezvous with Elza, who is fighting another gorilla, but struggling. George jumps in and takes it's blow with his shield, giving Elza an opening to embed her sword into its skull. George, "struggling Elza? Colour me surprised". Elza, "I'm not struggling, just giving it a handicap by using my non-dominant hand. I need to shake of its rust". George, "then why don't we shake off that rust and stop any more of my village from being destroyed". Elza, "that was the plan all along". The two rush to where the commotion is coming from, only to find a gorilla 1.5x bigger than the rest collapsing to the ground, a dozen or so gorilla bodies scattered around it. Bar one, each one has a clean impale to the throat. George looks upon the scene is disbelief, "all these? And even the Silverback?". Elza can't help but smirk, "I didn't marry him for him to only be eye candy". George, "I didn't expect you to get married at all to be honest, but I can see why you did". Elza, "you and me both".
Ren is standing in the middle of the corpses, the Silverback at his feet. He's looking down at his hand as he conjures flickers of lightning in his hand, catching his breath, thank God I've been practicing my magic capacity as much as I can. In an actual fight with your life on the line, it disappears in a flash. I'll maintain my field constantly from now on. I need to be able to fight for longer than a few minutes. As he's thinking to himself, his hand starts to shake, stopping his lightning as soon as he notices it, it's hitting me harder than before this time...or maybe I couldn't notice it as much before. He hears George's voice from behind him, "I wouldn't let the adrenaline wear off yet. We don't know if any of those gorillas are still around. It's quiet now, but we need to check the perimeter to make sure it's clear". Elza, "not needed. Considering he's starting to calm down, there's no danger left in the vicinity". George, "then I'm sure he has some sort of Unique. As amazing as that is, I'm not trusting enough to bet my family's safety on that". Elza, "then I'll help you out. I'm surprised night hasn't hit yet". Elza lugs her sword onto her shoulder, "you should go to the evacuation site and calm down, dear. It'll also be reassuring for the others to have you around. It's probably a good idea to get a shirt and some shoes". Ren, "yeah...probably a good idea. I'm sure the others wouldn't feel safe otherwise".
As Ren trudges towards the evacuation site, Elza scans the dead gorillas, "you're not the type do something foolish, but I have to ask regardless. Did you check the ley line?". George, "I checked it myself 5 times. I wanted to be sure this place was safe". Elza, "then that only leaves one option...Eugene". George, "I was thinking the same thing. But if it really was Eugene, I doubt this would be the extent of it". Elza, "Ren knows it's safe, so we don't have to worry about another attack. And we don't know enough about Eugene to say this wouldn't be the extent of it. He might have done something to these gorillas who knows how long ago and had them act up now". George, "as much as I doubt it, I can't rule out the possibility, no matter how unlikely it is". Elza, "I agree, he wouldn't stop at just the gorillas, but I can't think of anything else. Ren would have caught on to Eugene if he was nearby, or if we were in any more danger. Even if it doesn't make any sense, we have nothing else to work off of". George, "whatever the case, we need to check to make sure it's safe". At this moment, it turns to night, much to their dismay. George, "I'll get the candles". Elza, "it's going to be a long night".