Doomsday Pillars

The fourteen people in Alex's group sprinted toward the forest's entrance. Not far behind them were the enraged shrieking and rumbling of hundreds of mutated monkeys.

The group managed to pass the gates, none were left behind. After the ticketing booth, they reached the gathering area that had clay paved bricks. Cindy, however, suddenly stumbled and fell because of the constant enraged screaming from behind the monkeys.

Although everyone was a peak stage mortal realm expert and could run even faster than Usain Bolt, Cindy still was the slowest, so she was the last person to reach the gate. She was the only person who wasn't a spirit enhancer. And now she had fallen, she was in such a huge problem.

"Seriously, a peak mortal realm, would die because of a misstep?" Alex was bewildered. He turned around and the sea of apes enclosing Cindy just a few meters behind. Alex grabbed and carried her in one of his arms, and used the other arm to slash the closest monkey.

SLAASSHHHH!!

"You came back for me..." Cindy's eyes were glimmering with gratitude.

"..."

One of the bigger sized monkeys charged at them. Alex executed his breathing technique and used the monkey's body as a foothold to jump back to the group.

More mutated monkeys jumped out of the forest, they didn't even look around and kept chasing the group. After the paved area, next was the parking lot. Alex and the rest hopped on the abandoned cars and continued to the main road until they halted in front of a row of two storey shop buildings. 

The ten APVs were placed strategically facing the forest gate. This was the spot they needed to be. As they turned around, they saw hundreds of monkeys coming in waves jumping out of the forest, which was about two hundred meters away.

The War of the Apes was about to start.

Alex, the golem and the thirteen peak experts, waited outside. About a hundred special forces squad had their weapons ready by the windows of the second floor in several shops, except the one squad operating the APV.

Before the actual battle would start, Alex had planned to thin the numbers of these monkeys. To do that, he had the special force prepare proximity mines all around the paved area in front of the gates.

"Hold, steady. We need to drag more monkeys out of the forest." Alex watched hundreds of ferocious monkeys and noticed the others becoming nervous. He suddenly asked, "What do you call a monkey in a minefield?"

The group was startled hearing Alex making jokes in such a dangerous situation. 

He, however, just smiled, took out a proximity switch just before he pressed it, he said, "A Baboom! Did you get it? Hahaha!"

KLICK!

KAABOOOMM!!... KAABOOOMM!!... KAABOOOMM!!... KAABOOOMM!!...

Multiple small explosions all blasted at the same time! The explosion took down at least one hundred of them; it also separated the hundreds of monkeys at the front with the hundreds at the back who were mostly injured. The monkeys in front turned around only to see the rising fire on the gate. They stood there confused. 

"This is it! OPEN FIRE!"

DRATATATATATTATAT... DRATATATATATTATAT... DRATATATATATTATAT...

Half a dozen snipers with .308 bullets and dozens of AK47 with 7.62mm cartridges, rain bullets that had enough firepower to penetrate the mutated monkey bodies. But, of course, the main course was the 12.7mm Machine Gun installed on top of the Armoured Personnel Vehicles.

NSV heavy machine gun

Mass: 25 kg + 11 kg (50-round belt)

Length: 1,560 mm

Cartridge: 12.7×108mm

Rate of fire: 700–800 rounds/min

Muzzle velocity: 845 m/s

Effective firing range: 1500 m vs. air 2000 m vs. ground targets

Feed system: 50-round belt

BRATATATATTATATATTATATATTATATATATATAATTATATTATA.....

Ten APVs; ten machine guns blazed through the seas of mutated monkeys. The 12.7×108mm made bullet holes on the monkeys bodies, tearing them apart, for they couldn't resist the firepower that could destroy unarmored vehicles and penetrate lightly armored vehicles. 

It took a few seconds before some mutated monkeys to understand the situation and decided to group and charge the APVs. But this was what Alex's thirteen people of peak stage mortal realm experts as well as the hundred of special forces standing on the second floor of the shops were waiting for. They stopped and killed all the apes that closed in on the vehicles.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

Aria had joined the group of half a dozen snipers, shooting from the windows of the buildings and every bullet coming out of her sniper's muzzle landed a critical shot. She had changed her bullets to the bigger sized 50.cal cartridges. It was much heavier, had huge recoil, and wasn't usually used by women because the accuracy decreased by a lot. However, this didn't apply to Aria... One bullet, multiple headshots.

The rest of the group separated to guard the ten APVs in four corners.

The twins and Rama were guarding one corner, Sergei with the two spear masters, Darius with the other two. Jerry, Cindy, and Theo guarded the last one. Alex and the golem roamed around helping which group needed assistance the most. 

It was a solid plan, but after the fire from the explosion dwindled, more monkeys jumped out of the forest, making it seem endless. 

After a few minutes, the group was starting to feel the pressure. Cindy randomly lashed her whip, which was effective in sweeping multiple targets, but it lacked killing capabilities. Theo, however, surprisingly started to get used to using the pickaxe, it really was one of the most effective weapons for a beginner. And in this group, still, Jerry was the main powerhouse. His knives seemed to gain some mysterious power that felt sharper in each slash..

Darius broke another saber and started to fight by bashing his steel shield. One of the spear masters broke his spear and got thrown to the back by a monkey. When the spear masters' defense formation broke, a monkey managed to jump inside and bit one of them, making the blood-soaked ground bloodier. This group's APV was parked in the corner, so it got the most pressure. 

"ARRRGHHH!!!"

"Get down!"

Darius shouted and darted forward with his shield at full power and crushed the monkey's head, saving the life of the spear master. When they both got up, however, several other mutated monkeys were already on top of the APV.

"Abandon the vehicles!" Alex said.

The two soldiers inside ran out of the APV's back door with assault rifles blazing at the monkeys. As they moved inside one of the buildings, the monkeys managed to break the machine gun on top of the APV.

Alex was upset seeing one of their few vehicles broken, but at least his men were safe. The golem saved Darius and the other two and they all were guarding in front of one of the building's doors.

Before he lost all of the APVs, Alex ordered the grenade launchers attached in the APVs to fire.

STK 40 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher)

Mass: 33 kg

Length: 966 mm

Cartridge: 40x53mm grenade

Rate of fire: 350-500 round/min

Maximum firing range: 2,200 m

"FIRE"

SHHHH... SHHHH... SHHHH...

KAABOOMM!! KAABOOMM!! KAABOOMM!!

A few dozen more apes died. There were less than two hundred mutated monkeys left. Alex wasn't satisfied, so he ordered another round.

SHHHH... SHHHH...

KAABOOMM!! KAABOOMM!!

The last APV got distracted by the monkeys before shooting its grenade, so it shot in the wrong trajectory. It aimed too far.

SHHHHHHHHHH...

Looking at the grenade trajectory Alex heart suddenly stopped a beat...

KABOOOMM!!

Alex heard the sound of rumbling structures from a distance.

"WTF!!! Oooo SHIT!!!... No...No...No!"

"What's the matter?" Jerry asked.

Rumble rumble rumble... whrrr... whirr... whrrr

The mutated monkeys turned tails and started to run away.

CRRRAACKKK!! CRRRAACCKKKK

From a distance, Alex could hear the sound of trees falling. Something huge was coming out of the forest.

"We should leave, now!! Fuxxx we won't make it!"

The group instinctively sensed something from deep within the forest, they saw three pairs of big yellow eyes staring from the shadow of the forest and heard a loud hissing.

SSSSSSSS... SSSSSSS... SSSSSSSS...

Then, three huge green scaled skin creatures slithered out of the forest and they were all stage two mutated beasts.