Looks like I really arrived just in the nick of time.
Poor kid, he looks absolutely traumatized right now. Still, the bigger question lingered in my mind.
Why was he out here alone in the middle of the woods at this hour of the night?
That aside, the boy had already lost consciousness in my arms.
"The more pressing concern right now is that…" I muttered under my breath, eyes drifting downward.
It was a monkey.
The thing that had been chasing the kid.
It was a damn monkey the size of an normal adult.
It wasn't moving at the moment, but the tense stillness told me it wouldn't stay that way for long.
"Isadora," I called out to my partner. "Take the kid."
In an instant, Isadora appeared beside me, her masked face turned toward the creature as well. She moved silently, but there was no mistaking the shift in the air around us when she appeared.
The monkey reacted immediately. Its posture changed when seeing her.
Alert?
Wary?
Tense?
It looked like it had just locked eyes with something it didn't want to deal with.
"Looks like this one's going to be fun," Isadora remarked casually as she took the unconscious boy from me, slinging him over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "That's no Shuuki."
"Then how the hell is there smoke pouring out of its body?" I asked, scanning our surroundings.
"It's a female monkey that ate a peach," she replied casually.
Are you kidding me? Animals can get abilities from peaches too?
Now that I thought about it, this monkey might very well be the reason those people were living in this remote village in the first place.
"Anyway," Isadora said, already preparing to leave, "I'm leaving this to you, OOO."
"You don't need to say that."
In a blink, she vanished from sight with the boy and all. Now, it was just me and the monkey, locked in a hostile standoff, its eyes burning with clear rage.
I leapt down from the branch where I had been standing.
I dropped straight toward the ground right toward the monkey with every intention of unleashing no mercy upon it.
I hate hurting animals.
But attacking people for fun?
That crosses a line I refuse to tolerate.
As expected, the monkey darted backward to avoid me, springing away until there was clear distance between us. Now we stood facing each other on equal footing.
"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo—hah-hah!"
It began chattering loudly, clapping its hands as if mocking me.
"I don't understand a word you're saying," I shot back in a deliberately passive-aggressive tone, pitching my voice higher when I said, "you damn monkey."
Then it moved.
In an instant, it lunged at me like trying to seize me the same way it would its usual prey.
Too bad for you, buddy. You picked the wrong house to mess with.
Overextending itself, the monkey left its guard completely open. I raised my hand, grabbed it by the head, and slammed it straight into the ground.
It thrashed wildly beneath me, clutching my arm in a desperate attempt to break free.
But regrettably, its strength wasn't enough.
"Behave and go to sleep," I said, pressing it harder into the earth. "It's better for both of us that way."
More smoke poured out of its body as I pinned it in place.
A bad feeling started to form in my chest.
And of course — because my luck is never on my side — the smoke began to take shape.
It coalesced into a banana hovering above me… then another to my left… and another to my right.
…..
…..
Alright… what the hell was that supposed to do?
"Oh-oh-oh-oh—ah-ah!" the monkey screeched furiously.
The smoke bananas began spinning rapidly then shot toward me like projectiles.
Son of a bi—
Instinct took over. I accidentally released my grip and moved instantly, twisting my body to dodge them.
The impact was no joke.
Wherever the spinning bananas hit — trees, rocks, even the ground — they left deep, jagged marks like they'd been carved out by a cannon blast.
The monkey howled again.
The smoke around me thickened suddenly, rolling in like a suffocating fog. My visibility dropped to almost nothing.
And just like that… the monkey vanished into the swirling haze.
I had lost sight of it.
Activating my enhanced vision, I expanded my senses, stretching them through the thick haze to track every movement around me.
I could see trees, leaves, rocks that are all blurred through the swirling smoke but not the thing I was actually looking for.
Damn it—
"OHHHHHH!"
The monkey's cry exploded from directly behind me.
Reacting on instinct, I extended my claws and slashed backward in a wide arc, aiming to carve into the bastard.
For a split second, I thought I'd landed a solid hit.
Then my claws passed straight through it.
Smoke.
A fake.
The body dissolved into swirling mist the moment I touched it.
This damn monkey can use decoys too?
"Tsk… this guy is seriously annoying," I muttered, clicking my tongue.
I could switch into a praying mantis to clear some of this smoke. but if I did, I'd probably shred the forest along with it. The collateral damage would not be small.
Another sound erupted from above me.
I looked up while fully expecting the same monkey to dive at me again.
"You have got to be kidding me…" I muttered under my breath.
What dropped from above me was anything but the same creature.
I rolled forward just in time, narrowly dodging the massive body that crashed down behind me. The impact slammed into the ground with enough force to make the earth tremble.
When I turned back, the dust and smoke rippled outward from where it had landed.
I used my vision to see what it was.
It was still the same fur color as the monkey but that was where the similarity ended.
This thing stood at least three meters tall, its body thick, heavy, and muscular in a way that felt utterly different.
That wasn't a monkey anymore.
That was a full-blown gorilla.
I barely had time to process the transformation before the attack came again.
Multiple decoys surged toward me at once — and this time, the spinning smoke bananas came as a full barrage.
I twisted, spun, and weaved through the projectiles, cutting down the false copies in the same motion. Using my legs, I launched myself upward and landed on the branch of a tall tree.
But when I glanced back down…
…the spot where the gorilla had landed was no longer empty. It blended perfectly with the swirling smoke, as if it had become one with it.
Even my enhanced vision wasn't helping anymore.
Then — like a phantom, like a bogeyman — it struck.
I never saw it coming.
"OHHHHHHH" The sound of a primate came out.
A massive fist slammed into my back.
The impact was monstrous.
My body shot forward like a bullet, tearing through the air before crashing violently into the ground below. Dirt and rock exploded outward as I carved out a deep crater where I landed.
And somewhere within that smoke…
…something very big was watching me before disappearing again.
"It feels like I'm fighting a ghost but hundred times worse," I muttered, letting out a harsh groan before pushing myself back to my feet.
Even with my hawk-enhanced vision, I still couldn't pinpoint the real one. All I could see were the smoke decoys flooding out of the fog, racing toward me from every direction.
"Hideo!"
Isadora's voice echoed through the forest.
"Use this!"
From above and to my right, two bluish glints sliced through the air toward me. Amid the storm of spinning banana projectiles and charging smoke monkeys, I reached out and caught both Core Medals mid-flight.
"OHHHHHH!"
The real body of the bastard exploded out of the smoke, lunging at me with a speed far beyond what its massive size should have allowed. It tried to wrap me in a crushing embrace.
A lovely, bone-breaking hug.
Luckily, I jumped just in time.
The gorilla's arms snapped shut on empty air, and I could already imagine what would've happened if I'd been caught in that hellish grip.
While airborne, I glanced down at the two medals Isadora had thrown at me.
An Orca and an Eel.
For a second, I frowned in confusion. Why these two?
Then it clicked.
I remembered one of the most useful abilities tied to the Orca.
A slow smirk spread across my face.
"Alright then… looks like it's time to end this game of hide-and-seek, you smokey gorilla bastard."
If my eyes couldn't track you in this fog…
…then I'd use sound instead.
The moment my feet touched the ground, I swapped my medals. Almost immediately, the creature surged at me again — and I flipped backward in a swift arc, slipping out of its reach by a hair's breadth.
The familiar colors of the Core Medals burst around me as I completed the switch, forming a luminous barrier that shielded me from the oncoming attacks.
[𝕊𝕙𝕒𝕔𝕙𝕚]
[𝕌𝕟𝕒𝕘𝕚]
[𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒]
Brilliant light wrapped my body.
When it faded, my form had changed.
My helmet was now a deep, gleaming blue, shaped with sleek fins like a marine crown.
My eyes burned yellow.
My body followed the same oceanic hue that was streamlined and fluid while long, electric whips coiled along my arms like living currents.
Then came the sound.
From my head, rhythmic frequency clicks began to pulse outward.
Soft at first, then sharper, piercing through the thick smoke.
Unlike before, I was no longer looking blind.
I could feel it.
Every vibration. Every tremor. Every movement cutting through the air.
My senses expanded across the field like a sonar wave.
There — a massive one. Leaping super fast from tree to tree, its weight shaking branches, its body roaring through the fog.
I could see it now without seeing it literally.
Its size, its outline, its direction, its speed.
I calculated its trajectory in an instant.
A slow grin curled beneath my mask.
"Found you~~"
Electric sparks crackled along my whips as they lashed outward, dancing like a live eel's fury. I braced myself, ready to meet whatever the gorilla threw at me next.
The smoke, the tricks, the decoys.
They didn't matter anymore.
Because now…
…the real hunt had begun.