Chapter 27 - {DUE FOR A MAJOR REWRITE} The End To All Monkey Business! (Part III)

A state of eerie calm washed over the battlefield as Kanna and Vash stood back-to-back, panting, at the center of it all.

The once pleasant, peaceful meadow now lay in ruin; the flowers tossed up and the soil torn asunder by the barrage of heavy gusts produced by Kanna's hammer. The weak cries of wounded Macaques could occasionally be heard, as the overwhelming stink of spilled feces, and viscera, tainted the nostrils of the scattered survivors.

Vash glanced over his shoulder at Kanna, smiling. "Looks like...we did it." He said.

Kanna nodded. The exposed parts of her body were covered in bloody scratches and dirt, and her HP was dangerously low, but she was still standing strong.

Vash took a bandage out of his inventory.

"Just like...the good old days." He said, as he slowly turned to her with it.

Kanna smiled. "You're such...an idiot..."

"Even though my heart belongs only to Akira, you still..."

Vash chuckled. "What can I say? I'm just a nice guy. I want to make sure you're alright."

"Now, please...don't waste any more of your energy."

When Ai had finally made it to their location, Kanna was lying on the ground with Vash crouched beside her, nearly done tending to her wounds.

"Big Sis needs your help!" Ai cried, madly flailing her arms for them to hurry.

Vash groaned, as he struggled to stand—he'd also sustained his fair share of damage at the hands of the Macaque, but had kept the full extent hidden up until now.

"Yes, well...I'm afraid that, in my present state..."

"I'm in no position to spare anyone the unwanted advances of a giant ape."

Kanna shot up to her feet suddenly, refraining him with her outstretched arm. "I'd rather not become even more indebted to you, so I'll go!"

She drew her hammer, totally refreshed and ready to return to the fray, with fire in her eyes.

"Besides...I will not stand for that bastard Sugary laying a hand on my wife."

Vash smiled to himself. 'A bit too late for that, eh? Way, way late..."

So it was that the girls had readied themselves to run to Akira's aid without him, when all of a sudden the surviving Hungry Macaque of Sugary's army started to crowd around, in a medley of curious hoots and hollers.

They formed a tight ring around the trio, permitting no chance at escape.

Kanna, Ai, and Vash...were trapped.

...

Akira Maximilian had embraced a certain mentality long ago, in his early years as a teenage CEO.

A perfect example of this mentality at work would be at a certain work conference, that was a veritable round table hosting all the most prominent CEOs in the industry, at the time.

Now of course, Akira had attracted a lot of notoriety even as a 15-year old neophyte in the world of big business, and needless to say he was by far the youngest person at the table that day.

He could sense the curious gazes of those who had not yet met him; the lauded wunderkind, in person. He could hear the laughter, of those gathered there that saw his entire existence as some kind of ridiculous joke.

It was precisely this latter group of people—and he did keep a note of who they were—whose businesses he would proceed to go after in the coming months. It was their businesses that he would choose to chip away at, little by little; until they were left with nothing, and everything they once had now belonged to him.

Yet even as he was just branching out, he already had his supporters—those who could appreciate him for his ability regardless of his age, nor his audacity to claim a seat at such a coveted conference. These were the people he kept close by his side, and would go on to aid and support in any way he could as his successes only grew, so long as they remained loyal.

This was the way of the cutthroat playboy billionaire CEO, and one he had embraced his entire life.

In her fight with the [Level 15] [Rampaging God Ape Beast] Sugary, Akira was reminded of those same out-of-touch, stuffy, sexagenarian CEOs who used to plague her in her past life. Washed up old geezers that were long past their prime, who had long since settled into a routine of mediocrity; and so couldn't stand to see this bright, young upstart shaking things up.

Now add repeated tickle torture on top of that to the equation, and it should be understandable why Akira had no intention of letting Sugary live from the start—'Sage path' be damned.

After they stood apart from each other in silence for a while, sizing one another up, Akira laughed.

"It doesn't even matter if you'll just revive after I'm through with you." She boasted, pounding her fist into her palm. "After some good old fashioned corporate restructuring, I can just make it so you have no home to return to!"

"Foolish wife, always speak big words!" Sugary shot back. "Me no longer have use for you!"

He leapt forward with a full-powered punch, shattering a tree in half like it was a mere twig when Akira attempted to hide behind it.

Shaken and startled, she [Scurried] deeper into the forest, evading his continued advance.

'I MIGHT have been a little too cocky...'

'There's no way I can fight him one-on-one!'

'Ai went to fetch the others, so I just have to keep him occupied until then!'

A big log that was sent flying by one of Sugary's punches came crashing against the ground beside Akira, showering her with chips and splinters.

A sharp pain in one of Akira's forelegs caused her to trip and fall.

The next thing she knew, a pair of giant fingers had pinched around her foot as Sugary proceeded to lift her into the air, upside-down, by just this tenuous grasp.

"Stupid ape!" Akira yelled, as she tried and tried, but couldn't shake free. "Let me...go!"

Ultimately, her vigorous squirming only succeeded in spilling her massive mammaries from her top: blocking her vision as they fell over her face.

'Am I really going to die while staring at my own breasts?'

She mulled the idea over for a moment.

'How...cathartic.'

Fortunately for Akira, such a fate was not in the cards for her that day, as it was then that she heard Kanna's voice, crying out:

"Get your stinky paws off of my WIFE, you filthy bastard!"

A forceful swing of her hammer knocked Sugary aside, freeing Akira from his grasp.

She closed her eyes, screaming as she plummeted from the sky with the expectation of landing with a painful thud, only to instead be caught on a bed of fur.

Looking down, she realized it was a squad of Macaque that had formed together to catch her!

"We save you from fall," one of them said to her. "Queen is TRUE ruler; Sugary just uncivilized jerk!"

"That's right!" Akira said, as she laid back into the bed of monkeys and smiled with relief. "I'm the only ruler you need, so you can go ahead and depose that guy!"

"And after that, I'll expect a royal foot rub right away, once we make it back!"

As she let out a contented sigh, thinking it would all be smooth sailing from this point, another one of the Macaque cut in: "No! Not YOU is ruler!"

"Only FIRST Queen, mother is. It SHE the one say us we help you now!"

Akira didn't have time to figure it out, though, as her attentions were quickly pulled to the ongoing clash between Kanna and the God Ape Beast. Kanna was giving it her all, but it was clear judging her slowly diminishing HP bar, along with her increasingly frantic parries of Sugary's nonstop barrage of punches, that she wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.

She picked up her bow, and started to rain arrows down on Sugary, as fast as she could, to apply stacks of the [Crippling Shot] debuff.

With so many stacks applied, Kanna was gaining the upper hand with her increased damage.

'That's right,' Akira reflected, becoming lost within the moment as she continued to fire her arrows.

'I got this perk so that I could help my new friends defeat any foe—no matter how great!'

"It's not what I can do alone, but what we can do as a team...TOGETHER!'

Friends were not so great as a set of breasts to grab, to be sure, but in many respects Akira had found them to be much more precious on her journeys in this other world, than even the finest pair imaginable.

'I'll risk it all for my friends!' Her thoughts blazed. 'Because without them, I'm...I'm—'

Just then, Ai leaped down from a tree behind Sugary, falling upon his turned back with a dagger in each hand to deal a devastating dual [Backstab].

Sugriva howled in agony from the attack, as his HP bar dropped down nearly to 0.

At once, his transformation into God Ape Beast faded, returning him to his frail base state.

Kanna backed away from him as he groveled on the ground at her feet, begging for mercy, and looked to Akira.

"I think if anyone deserves to deal the finishing blow, it's you."

Akira smiled then started to run toward her as she packed away her bow; reuniting with a passionate kiss.

"Chung-chan...you were fucking awesome." She said, staring deep into her lover's eyes.

The moment was ruined by the sound of Sugary's pitiful cries, and his fingers as they desperately grasped at Akira's heel.

"Wife! My beloved wife, no!" He pleaded, as she faced him. "Me apologize for cruel misdeeds!"

"I'm not your beloved anything," Akira scoffed, feeling only contempt as she looked down upon him: this no-so-great, blubbering ape-man, that had mercilessly objectified and abused her, with his insatiable tickle-hands, for the past several weeks.

To such a sorry individual, she had naught but one thing left to say:

"I'm Akira Maximilian: the world's richest, youngest, cutthroat billionaire CEO, you stupid ass, unwashed, monkey fuck BITCH."

Packing all her strength into one final attack, she delivered a brutal uppercut into his chin.

The force sent him flying backward, just before he exploded into pixels screaming:

"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

After Sugary fizzled away into nothing, no one said anything for a while, as they all took the time to let their hard-fought victory settle in: Kanna, pleased at having finally taken her revenge, smiled sadly after Ai as she appeared out of Stealth beside Akira, latching unto her hip in a tight hug. Akira just stared at nothing, feeling as though by killing Sugary she'd just brought an end to the first of many chapters in her new life.

It was a clear, dignified voice that finally broke through the silence:

"Between Sugary and his brother, it would appear kidnapping women is the family tradition."

Out of the corner of her eye, Akira spotted the source of the voice:

Rumia was a surprisingly skinny, small Macaque woman, for all the authority she commanded with her voice of eloquence and pristine royal garb: a high-cut, ankle-length pastel pink robe that hugged tightly to her slender figure with a scarf of translucent, rose red fabric draped across her entire body from right hip to left shoulder.

After doing a quick once-over of Akira, she released a cold laugh. "So you're the kind of woman my useless husband seeks out, whenever I'm not around to keep him in check!"

Akira bristled, unsure if she should be offended. Regardless, she was most certainly confused as she watched the Macaque that had saved her from her fall proceed to strangely cluster around its former Queen, playfully hooting and nudging at her from all sides while they remained calmly standing there, minding Akira with a curious gaze.

"You're...Sugary's first wife!" Akira blurted with the realization.

"I am," she replied, giving a courteous bow.

"The Macaque listened to you? Even going against Sugary by helping us?"

Rumia chuckled. "They know better to disobey me," she said, then abruptly shifting to an informal tone—as though she was talking to an old friend.. "I am the mother to every last one of these stinking little fur bags, after all."