“Hear me, descendants of Unkullungkur. My name is Dubaiburupa. Dubaiburupa is God’s warrior that beats up evil humans and spirits that torment kind humans. God’s warrior protects kind humans. Are you kind humans?”
His heavy voice mixed with his resonance rang out far. Ulumbo also had to scream his translation beside him.
“Uwuh, iba ukurel unkujabllera! (We are kind!)”
Beeeeep! Bang bang bang!
“Nkulungkur Akbar! (God is great!)”
Bububu! Bang bang bang!
Hundreds of Pygmies shouted, rolling their feet. The elders added beats between the cheers using their likembe (the Pygmies’ harp made of wood and animal tendons) and makata (a blow horn made of bones).
Black Mamba raised his right hand high and looked at the Pygmies. The sounds instantly stopped. Hundreds of eyes looked at Black Mamba’s mouth.
“Can a human be that cool? Well, the moon’s bright as long as the sun’s bright. Hmph!”
Samedi made a strange snort. He was taller and stronger than his master, but he was the one who always got beaten up. He was more handsome and gentler in personality than his master, but his master was always cooler. He didn’t know why, but he shone when his master shone brightly. So, Wakil was his master and he was the servant. He at least got what he deserved acting like his master. This was the truth Samedi realized.
“Ituri is a holy forest where kind Pygmies live. Those dirty blacks have set their bloody feet inside holy Ituri. I, Dubaiburupa, have come from the ends of the world to catch those blacks who torment you Pygmies and soil Ituri.”
“Wooo, Dubaiburupa Akbar!”
Boobooboo! Bang bang bang!
The Pygmies went mad. The reason the Pygmies lived in Ituri Forest was because of the strong blacks. But a great existence had acknowledged them, who had been ignored this whole time. Of course they went into a crazed frenzy.
“God’s warrior!”
Kidamba looked up at Black Mamba high up on the wood stump with glazed eyes. Animals consider height differences more important than the width of sight. When a predator wants to scare its opponent, it increases its height, and when it wants to attack, it decreases its height. This was because its opponent’s shoulder height became the basis of strength.
The reason predators don’t attack humans so easily is because of their shoulder height. The reason people stand on stages to emphasize their power is that they have animal instincts. Black Mamba’s overwhelming visual on the tall wooden stump fossilized the black phobia in Kidamba’s brain.
“I heard that an evil spirit and devil torment you all, who live kindly. God’s warrior may be busy, but I will catch that evil spirit and that devil for you as you are all unfortunate. Warriors who are brave, pick up your spears. Warriors who have unyielding faith, pick up your knives. Warriors who have strength, pick up your axes!”
“Oooo, Dubaiburupa meio!”
Booboobooo! Bang bang bang!
“Yeah! Let’s go catch the evil spirit!”
The Pygmies scattered like ants in rain.
“Damn, it’s coming naturally to me now. I could be a real cult leader. Kekeke!” He laughed emptily. He didn’t like standing before crowds still, but words poured out of his mouth automatically when he did. This was because he spent several years with those higher-ups as the Special Military Advisor. There was a saying that playing around for three years could even wake a dead penis, and it was just like so.
Pygmy warriors armed with arrows, kosos, lobos, and topas gathered in the central square of the village. A net made of weaved fiber was also brought out. Woof! Woof! Woof! The square was loud from the noise of barking dogs. One team consisted of five warriors, and there was a total of ten teams with 50 warriors.
The Pygmies’ only livestock were hunting dogs. The Pygmy tribe enjoyed mota hunting. Mota hunting was made up of five humans and three dogs in one team. They released the dogs to track down prey, and once the prey was cornered by the dogs, hunted them with their spears.
Motas allied to hunt leopards or gorillas. Hunts which were made up of more than 30 Pygmies and 10 dogs were called a Mosilo. This meant the Pygmies were very determined.
“Ulumbo, tell them to leave the dogs.”
Samedi’s hearing and scent were better than a dog’s. Dogs only bothered his senses. Olonge, who heard Ulumbo’s translation, immediately sent the hunting dogs back into the village.
“We’re going to get rid of the evil spirit first. Samedi, protect Kidamba. Let’s go!”
“Waaaa!”
Fifty Pygmies with weapons in their hands followed Black Mamba. The Mosilos dug deep into the dark forest.
“Wakil, we thought wrong. Pygmies can move 4km an hour.”
“I see!”
Black Mamba realized he had underestimated the Pygmies. The Pygmy tribe’s small build was perfect for Ituri. They moved without hitting away the grasses with their koso. They moved through most branches by crawling underneath them like snakes and slipped through thick bushes and dracos like a squirrel. If needed, they leaped across the space gripping onto a branch. Their speed was comparable to a grown man’s walk on flat land. Black Mamba corrected his 7-days travel to 270km.
An hour had passed since they headed out. Black Mamba frowned at the sudden downpour of sunlight. A stream around 10 meters wide suddenly appeared. Sunlight poured through the sky like arrows where the canopy had disappeared. The canopy overhead had disappeared after 30 minutes of travel down the river.
A strange lake, which couldn’t be distinguished from land as there were too many things inside its water, appeared. It was around 3-4km long and 1km wide. The wide lake was closer to a swamp, as it had parasitic plants, leaves, freshwater organisms, and green algae. Leaves that fell into the water decayed slowly, as the decay bacteria was Aerobic bacteria.
The strange uneasiness the lake gave off gave him a primitive dislike. The Pygmy hunters grew quiet. Their faces turned nervous, mixed with fear and hatred.
“Great master, this is the place.”
“I know.”
Black Mamba looked at the lake which shone blue. He suddenly remembered blacky.
“It’s like a small version of when I met blacky in the underground lake. It’s been a year; I wonder if he’s still adjusting? Maybe he pinpointed the wrong teleportation coordinates and ended up at the North Pole?”
He grew slightly worried. Meeting the leopard, a remnant of a billion years past, when the Adras and Epidium were still alive had been a fortune. Blacky had an ability that could connect with his resonance. There wasn’t a reason why he’d be lost if he did come out.
“Wakil!” Samedi called softly.
Black Mamba, who had been thinking, flinched to attention.
“A really big guy’s at the bottom of the lake. I hear it breathing but I can’t tell its exact location.”
Boom! His resonance dug into the lake. Resonance was much adaptable to water than dimensional sight. A heavy echo returned. It was 400 meters ahead, and 10 meters underwater. It was hard to tell its exact location because of the carbon dioxide bubbles which came from the bottom of the lake.
“It’s really big. I don’t think it’s a crocodile.”
It was too large to be a crocodile. The largest known crocodile was 5.5 meters long and 950kg heavy. It deserved its nickname of a monster, but it was incomparable to the one lying flat on the lake’s bottom. It was the difference between a white shark and a megalodon.
“Wakil, there’s no need to see it. I just need to turn it into dust with my machine gun.”
Samedi grabbed the Meg in his backpack. The heavy machine gun wrapped right around his hand. Even the most ancient monsters would be nothing when met by hundreds of 7.62mm bullets.
“Samedi, do you want to try fighting it?”
Samedi shook his head. “What’s the point of sweating? I’m not an idiot.”
He’d been bullied greatly by Emil while learning how to use this thing called the machine gun. This was his chance to use his toy in the coolest fashion. Fighting a lowly creature would only damage his reputation. His master also said that men were all about farces.
“If you shoot that bastard in the water, those guys won’t be able to recognize how strong you are, Samedi. They don’t know what a gun is. They’ll think the monster died on its own.”
“But the water’s too dirty…,” Samedi complained. But hearing the words “strong Samedi” made a strong energy surge within him. The desire to look as cool as his master slowly crawled up.
“Brat, a man’s all about his fists. You should test out the five combined movements master taught you. I also taught you the Eighteen Beats of Shock. When else will you meet such a good sparring opponent?”
Samedi’s eyes shook rapidly. Black Mamba smiled like a cat.
“Wakil is always right. Men are all about their fists.”
Samedi was completely taken with the Devil’s whisper. He lowered his backpack and took off his helmet and top. Even if he was a prior zombie, the opponent was a monster crocodile over 10 meters tall. Samedi, who was heading out to fight it with his bare fists, wasn’t normal either.
“Ugh, g- great master, just shoot it dead with your machine gun.”
Ulumbo, who had been listening in, stuttered in fear. They were going to wake the monster up and beat it to death. That didn’t make sense!
“Weakling, just sit back and pray.” Samedi used his large hand to press down on Ulumbo’s head.
“Ah!” Ulumbo grabbed his head. He couldn’t do anything about those supernatural people’s decisions, which drove him mad. In tears, Ulumbo slowly crawled back away from the lake.
“Wakil, how do we wake it?”
“It’s said that in Rome, you do as the Romans do. Since we’re in Ituri, we do as the Pygmies do.”
There were a lot of bamboos in Ituri Jungle. It grew in large heights, befitting its place in the jungle. Black Mamba used his kukri to make ten spears the size of his arm. While it would be nothing but a toothpick for the monster, there wasn’t a need to use a hammer to wake someone.
Whoosh! The spear, five meters long, flew down with a screech. Plop! The spear flew far away and dug into the lake’s surface. Black Mamba, who confirmed how long and fast the spear could move, began to throw the rest in a row.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The spears flew down like beads on a necklace. The Pygmy hunters looked on at God’s warrior doing some supernatural battle with multiple spears with hanging jaws.
Gurgle… The surface shimmered. Whoosh! A large body flipped out of the water. It was like a skip-bopping air torpedo the Americans used during WWII (air torpedo enters the water and rebounds using the water’s tension). Five spears shook as they clung to its skin.
“Uaaaa!” Surprised, the Pygmies instinctively fell away from the lake.
“Kuaaaa!”
The jungle trembled at its loud howl. All kinds of birds flew away in groups, and monkeys kicked up a racquet with their screeches. The monster landed back onto the lake’s surface, dropping from five meters up in the air. Splash! The lake water sprayed up like a fountain. Its green eyes the size of rice bowls captured the humans lining around the lake.
Kueee! The monster swam through the water at a fearful speed. Its large tail made its speed increase rapidly. 400 meters was closed in an instant.
“Uaaaa! It’s the spirit!”
“The evil spirit is chasing us!”
Frightened out of their minds, the Pygmy hunters scattered like spider babies. They wouldn’t be human if they weren’t scared of the monster which was running at them with an open mouth two meters high.
“Sarcosuchus!” Black Mamba shouted like a groan.
A Sarcosuchus was a powerful creature of the Cretaceous era, which had the same shape as a crocodile. It was possible that a crocodile mutated and increased in size for some strange reasons, but it was highly likely that the monster was an original Sarcosuchus, looking at its excessively long muzzle and hip joints.
Whoosh! The monster leaped onto the ground. Whether it was a Sarcosuchus or a mutated crocodile, it was extremely large. It was 12 meters from its snout to its tail, 5 tons in weight, had a two meters wide mouth, 30cm long teeth, and 5 meters long tail. His sniper eyes immediately recorded the Sarcosuchus’ specs. While it couldn’t be compared to Boss-saurus in the underground world, it was large.
Kueeeee! The monster was extremely mad. Its blood-thirsty, burning eyes glared at Samedi, who was standing still. Of course it was mad, as toothpicks poked its body.
“Hmph!”
Samedi straightened his shoulder. His eyes which had turned light red tracked the monster’s movements quickly. Tatatata! The monster ran. This wasn’t the kind of movement that a crocodile would make. It leaped around like a running predator with its four feet planted firmly underneath its body. Its back which looked like several iron plates connected moved up and down.
Whoosh! Samedi disappeared. Bang! Kegh! The monster screamed as a punch landed right on its head. Its tail, thick like drums, moved like lightning.
Crack! “Uah!”
Samedi, who had been smiling in satisfaction after landing a successful strike, flew away like a stack of hay. Boom! Craaack! Several pine trees that received the full brunt of his landing broke away continuously. Falling objects don’t have wings. Samedi landed and rolled on the floor with a thud.
“Ugh, idiot!” Black Mamba clicked his tongue.
The mistake was due to a lack of experience. Truly, one had to go through life and death to learn how to fight properly. If he hadn’t fought his way through hell, he would have remained a monster with good physical qualities.
“Aaaa!”
Samedi, who leaped onto his feet, twisted his waist around and cracked his neck. Samedi, whose pride was injured by the monster crocodile’s single attack, had burning, angry eyes.
“You’re dead!”
A black line was drawn in the air. Bang! He landed a hit on the monster’s head with his iron-like shoulder, making its head crack to the side. Bang! Bang! Bang! His fists and feet drummed on the monster like a windmill.