Chapter 70: Duality
Both Morden and two golden-furred monkeys have stopped for just one reason, and it was the sight in front of them.
On what he believed to be the heavenly side were the exact same beasts he had been chasing so vigorously since a while ago but also very different.
Unlike the ones here that were locking extremely playfully and even taunting him, the ones on the other side looked nothing short of what you would call a menace.
They had the same muscular body and slightly disproportionate arms, but they were also armed to the teeth at the same time.
’Why do those ones look so different?’
One of them had a bow slung over his shoulder while a quiver filled with arrows was tied to its waist; the other one of the pair had a much different weapon—it was a weapon Morden had seen before during his first trial.
The monkey was holding a few short throwing spears.
The two groups on opposite sides of the mountain couldn’t look more different. They both stared at each other with wide eyes; none of them was willing to make the first move.
At least not for a few breaths.
After the waiting time was over, Morden watched as the two monkeys on the other side slowly started taking steps towards them.
They moved with their eyes still locked on Morden and the other two monkeys, making their approach much more domineering.
’What do I do? Do I attack, or do I just wait?’
’Do I run?’
’No, running isn’t an option; I can’t lose this opportunity to get gene shards.’
Though he didn’t manage to decide on what to do, he still decided on what not to do, so it was still fine.
At this point, the two monkeys had already crossed half the distance, and they were just about to cross over.
Rumble! Rumble!
Morden suddenly felt the ground shake violently, a sign that something was about to happen and something actually did.
The ground below the approaching monkeys suddenly opened up, and out came a massive mouth that swallowed the beasts in one gulp.
Before Morden could even get a good look, the mouth was back inside the ground, and even the whole had magically closed back up.
’Uhhhhh? What the hell just happened?’
Images of that scene flashed in his mind. Continuously, hoping it would make any sense, but it eventually didn’t.
No sense came out of that at all.
Woohooo Haaaaahhaa!!!!!
Morden suddenly heard what sounded like celebratory chatter from the two monkeys, but at the same time, something was strange about it. It took Morden a moment to actually realize.
They were leaving.
The monkeys were already swinging away, which caused their voice to sound like it was increasing distance.
"Shit," he cursed while attempting to chase after them.
He looked in the direction they were swinging to and immediately gave chase using his max speed, except he used Boost, and Morden was really hesitant to do that, especially when it wasn’t a battle.
The chase this time was much different from the first one; this time the monkeys were genuinely trying to get him off their tail.
It wasn’t like the hide and seek game they had played earlier.
The difficulty was proven one more time when Morden lost them and didn’t manage to find them anymore.
This time there was no golden fur to contrast the dark leaves; they were just gone.
"Shit shit shit, I freaking lost them."
"What the hell am I supposed to do now? I need those Gene Shards."
Though the past few minutes had made him question if he actually wanted to kill the beasts here since they had been nothing but good to him.
On the side he believed to be the abyss, the beasts from the Multi-colored bird to the Purple Crocodile and the Blue bunny and finally the two Golden-furred monkeys. None of them had shown any form of aggression.
They had only taunted him, ignored him, and even mocked him, but there had never been a single sign of animosity.
The heavenly side was a much different story; he hadn’t even entered. Just from looking from the other side, he had seen fully armed beasts that showed obvious signs of aggression and an unexplainable scene of a beast gobbling up the two at once.
It was safe to say that the abyss side was the best side.
"I still have to go over there though," he said while looking at sight in the distance.
That sight was nothing short of beautiful; instead of being covered by dark stormy clouds, the heavenly side was bathed in resplendent sunlight.
The sun shone at such a brightness and temperature that it wasn’t too hot that it would be uncomfortable, nor was it so bright that it would be painful.
The vegetation there was now the final straw that broke the camel’s back; every plant had leaves that were so beautiful they looked like something straight out of an image.
The sight was just perfect.
But Morden wasn’t going there for perfection; he was going there to hunt.
The golden-furred monkeys over there had already shown obvious signs of aggression, so he wouldn’t feel bad for killing them; at least that was his way of justifying his own actions.
"After a few minutes of rest, I would head over there and continue my search for Golden Monkeys,"
When he said he was going to rest, he just didn’t plan on sitting there doing nothing. Instead, he was slowly planning his next course of action.
In an unknown place with no Friends around, he had to.
’In my search, I better make sure to stay close to this border. In case things went south, I would be able to return here as soon as possible.’
Morden didn’t realize it, but he had slowly taken this place as some sort of safe haven, and that seems slightly ironic.
Woohoo haaaaaaaaaa!
Chattering suddenly came from not too far away, forcing Morden into an alert state and making him pay more attention.
He turned to look in the direction the sound was coming from, and he couldn’t help but open his mouth wide.
"Shit, they went ahead and brought their whole family over."