Reject Humanity, Return to Monke

~ Third Person POV ~

Drake finally reached the cave entrance after about half an hour of nonstop running. Drake rushed inside, his gauntlets brimming with power and not even a little winded.

Upon his entrance, Drake spotted the corpses of humans and monsters alike, intact or not. Cautiously walking through the puddles of red, blood sticking underneath his boots, Drake gagged slightly at the awful stench.

'Never could get used to this.' The gore and viscera would always make Drake squeamish, no matter how many times he had been in the same scenarios during his time in this world.

Raising his hands in case an attack came flying at him, he encountered another monster corpse. Bisected in half at the stomach, his face was eternally set in an expression of anguish and frustration.

"Gong…" Drake growled, a pit forming in his stomach as he hastened his travels. Combing through the forest path, Drake heard loud explosions coming from the direction of the Monster Town.

Doubling his efforts, Drake ran through the thick foliage smeared in blood, corpses of humans and monsters littering the area.

Jumping over the corpse of another human, a female by her body's composition, Drake spotted a few mages casting explosive magic towards the walls of the Monster Town.

Narrowing his eyes, Drake relaxed his body as he blended with the forest, his presence vanishing within the trees and bushes. Approaching the casting mages stealthily, Drake noticed about five guards encircling the four mages, all eyes keeping watch on the perimeter.

Nonplussed by the scene, Drake continued his crawl, his enchanted boots not leaving any kind of mark that could reveal his location.

While climbing a tree, Drake made sure his actions didn't cause any noise. Standing atop a branch, he took a crouching position before launching himself at the nearest mage, his gauntlets whirring to life as a red, ominous glow came from gems embedded deep within its structure.

Noticing the incoming attack, the guards yelled out, but they were too slow to prevent the attack from landing, the mage's head popping like a balloon and his blood spraying those behind him.

Shrieks came from the rest of the mages, who were petrified at the gory death of their comrade. Taking this chance, Drake quickly threw a haymaker at the nearest mage. Her face contorted in fear as it shifted into anguish and horror as the gauntlet landed on her stomach.

Her back burst open, intestines flying out as the slimy organs smacked themselves against the chest plates of the guards behind the now dead mage.

Snapping out of their funk, the soldiers quickly trapped Drake in a circle, their spears raised and shields planted on the ground. The surviving mages all backed up and aimed their hands at Drake, chants coming out of their mouths verse-by-verse.

Smirking, Drake cracked his neck before lunging at the guard behind him. The soldier braced himself to take the attack head on, his tower shield impaled on the ground.

Drake threw a straight and punctured through the soldier's tower shield like tissue paper, shocking the soldier behind the shield. Drake didn't stop there, however, as his straight continued forward, the soldier's chest caving in as the gauntlet landed.

Immediately dying from the fatal attack, the soldier fell to the ground as his weapons clunked to the ground.

Twisting his body, Drake threw a roundhouse kick at the soldier who was trying to pierce him with his spear. His leg hit the shaft, smacking the spear aside, and Drake followed up with a reverse roundhouse kick to the soldier's head.

The soldier's neck snapped and his body crumpled to the floor, eyes rolling in random directions.

Not wasting anytime, Drake quickly moved on to the next soldier, who immediately discarded his shield and went on the offensive with his two hands, grasping his spear.

Once he saw that their shields were of no use, it was a simple decision to drop them to the floor. The other surviving soldiers followed his example and dropped their shields, both hands on their spears, as they kept their distance from Drake.

Dodging to the side, a fire ball narrowly missed Drake's head, his hair slightly singed from the heat. Raising his right gauntlet, he blocked a spear thrust aimed at his chest with the back of his hand.

Pushing the spear off, the soldier stumbled slightly at the surprising strength hidden beneath the normal-looking body, but recovered quickly. Sweat dripped from the soldier's brow as he observed Drake's dodges, blocks, and parries.

Twisting his body to the right, Drake dodged a spear thrust. Leaning to the left, Drake dodged a lightning bolt that landed on the tree behind him instead, the bark catching fire.

Not that the forest wasn't already aflame.

The fireball earlier landed on a bush, and the fire behind Drake was growing massive by the second.

Scowling, Drake felt the sweat drip from his forehead as the temperature began to rise. Rushing forward, Drake dodged a spear thrust, dropped to the ground to avoid another fireball, setting the forest even more into a blaze, and rolled over as a spear embedded itself on the ground where he last lied down.

Drake kicked his legs upward, catching another spear thrust with the heel of his foot. Redirecting the spear to the ground, Drake grabbed the shaft and stole the weapon from the soldier, before using it as a standing stick and throwing it at its owner.

Not fast enough to dodge, the spear pierced the soldier's head, his screams cut short as all functions in his body eternally ceased.

Looking at the remaining soldiers, Drake jumped as he narrowly avoided an earth spike aimed directly at his crotch. He would've shivered at the thought of having his family jewels speared through, but not when in a life-or-death fight.

Stepping on the bark of a tree, he kicked and zoomed through the field, closing the distance with his opponents in just a split-second. The tree he kicked fell over due to the power his legs possessed.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the area red as heads were violently punched away from their bodies. Drake's body, now drenched in the blood of his enemies, burst into flames as the red liquid all but vanished into the gauntlets he was wearing.

The mages, seeing that their guards were now dead, redoubled their efforts to rain down hellfire on the man they deemed a heretic.

"Puh-lease… As if your magic could harm me now that I'm in this state." Drake gestured to his body, which had tribal tattoos marked on it. Each stroke of the twisting and curving lines a different color. "Anyway, I should probably finish this."

In an instant, Drake appeared before the two mages and grabbed their heads, pleas coming out of their mouths, which Drake filtered out.

"Say hello to Inphion for me." Drake smiled, before crushing their heads in his grip, blood quickly absorbed in his gauntlets to avoid a mess. The headless corpses dropped to the ground, blood leaking out of the gaps in their necks.

Snapping his fingers at his job well done, Drake hastily made his way to the Monster Town, only to see a veritable scene straight out of the World War, except if the soldiers were wearing medieval armor instead of green fatigues.

The area was dead silent, with blood soaking the area like a lake. Directing his gaze to the Monster Town, he saw the gate was destroyed.

"Shit…" Cursing aloud, Drake swiftly made his way through the bloodied battlefield. Arriving at the gate, he peered in, only to see more corpses, this time from monsters, humans, and demi-humans. However, there were more human corpses than those of monsters and demi-humans combined.

Not seeing a sign of life anywhere, Drake clenched his fists, his feet hastily making their way through the battle-torn town.

Only for a familiar face to greet him.

"Well, glad you're back." Jionni smiled tiredly at Drake, who chuckled in response.

"Sorry I didn't make it to the party." Drake sighed as he finished chuckling. "So, party's over, I'm guessing?"

"Yep… Just finished a few minutes ago." Jionni turned back and walked. "Come on, follow me."

Drake did as he was told and followed Jionni through the heavily damaged town. As they continued, more corpses continued to appear, until they seemingly lowered in count.

The reason was revealed as they arrived at the main plaza.

A spire of corpses, all of them burning as the scent of charred flesh entered their noses. Grimacing, Drake turned away from the burning spire of corpses in favor of looking at the surviving monsters, humans, and demi-humans.

"We didn't take any prisoners. All of them were adamant about fighting to the bitter end…" Jionni sighed as he sat on the ground, a groan coming out of his mouth. "Even if this was a victory, the losses we accrued would outweigh our achievements…"

"… Don't worry, Jionni." Drake patted the gorilla/human hybrid's shoulder. "You'll be able to build up again. In this world, monsters, humans, and demi-humans all accept death whenever a battle ensues. It may dampen the moods of the others for a while, but all of them inevitably move on and look at the future with hopeful eyes."

"… Goddamn that was cheesy, but nonetheless, inspirational." Jionni laughed slightly as he stood up. "Thanks, I needed that."

"Anytime, big guy.." Drake retracted his arm and gazed sadly at the corpses of the monsters, humans, and demi-humans, all living within Jionni's Dungeon in a straight line with tarps covering them.