Elrich Saga Yellow Springs Book One

Chapter 16 I Intended to be Good

Chapter 16 I Intended to be Good

I was the Enemy of Apes! You would think that would work in my favor in some way. In my opinion, it didn't help at all. In video games titles like that usually caused the monsters to run in fear. Not so in my case. It seemed like the opposite was true.

Crue and I had gone about a mile West. There was a field with some sort of grain that had a few Green Apes. I couldn't tell my wheat from my barley but whatever it was the Apes had taken a liking to it. We had run into the farmer as he was heading into his field with two dogs.

Crue had talked the farmer into letting us handle it. He was more than happy to let the Surveyor and the Surveyor's apprentice take charge. It was better then him risking his dogs chasing the nuisances away. He offered to pay a few coppers for the job, but Crue explained they we were already being paid by the Guild. It was training and we were being paid for the training.

So my first job as a Surveyor was to kill the Green Apes in the farmer's field. Seemed simple enough. After all, I had been running around the woods killing them just a few days before. I was getting really good at the ambush and attack method before I got into town.

I had a real sword now, surely it would be even easier than before.

My arrogance had Crue sitting on the sidelines laughing his butt off.

Taking on a small group of Apes in a field was different than stalking them and bashing them on the head. Every time I'd get close to one to attack, I was ganged up on from behind by the others. I had some literally nasty shit thrown at me.

I'd get close to one Ape and from behind, I'd feel a 'splat' on my back. I'd turn and find the offending Ape running off to hide for another sneak attack.

When I finally managed to kill one of them, Crue lost it. He was full on his back tears running down his face laughing. I was getting rather annoyed with him. I had tried to get him to help cover my back, but he blew off my suggestion because I obviously wasn't in any real danger.

Killing the one Ape triggered the others into a real full blown attack. No more shit, they were going for blood, and to do that they had to get close to me. As they attacked I was able to cut them down without having to chase after them. The more I killed the more enraged the rest became.

I had taken down ten of them when I started to notice a problem. When we started there were only nine in the field. Where had the tenth one come from? It wasn't the last one either, I was facing off against two more.

Those two attacked together one from the left one from the right. That was a new strategy with this group. Some of the other Apes I had killed before had worked together, so it wasn't entirely surprising. Still, I became worried as the two attacked and I realized I had a third one coming at me from behind.

I dodged the two attacking from my sides and spun to cut down the third. The wound was fatal, but honestly, it had been lucky that I managed to hit the monster at all. Doing a fancy spin in the middle of trying to fight off monsters wasn't something I could make graceful or cool. I just managed to lop off a small portion of the Ape's head.

I didn't have time to be critiquing my own lack of skills the original two Apes were coming in for a second pass. This time they were both coming from my left. I focused on them judging their speed and distance. When the bigger Ape picked up the smaller Ape and threw him at me I wasn't in a good position for a counter. I had judged that I would have more time to take a stance.

Instead, I was pulling off a one-handed baseball swing completely off balance. I did manage to hit the flying Ape with the flat of my sword sending it a few feet in the other direction, but I ended up falling on my butt from the momentum of hitting an object while off balance.