Clayton

We followed the trail Jane had left behind. It led us directly to the Mangani. Jane was being held in an eagle spread position by branches that seemed too conveniently placed to be natural.

One of the branches moved beneath Jane and opened up, showing a pair of vines and rapidly whipped Jane's back.

Jane squirmed and closed her eyes. The vines were brought down upon her again, slashing away a section of skin.

Jane bellowed in pain, the sudden intensity overwhelming her.

Out of one of the trees, emerged what appeared to be Clayton. She was completely naked and her hair was no longer in a ponytail. It had gone from black to a brown tinged with yellow and black, resembling a lion's mane. She had sharp fangs, resembling a wild animal. Her fingers and toes has claws like a cat. Finally she had a snake behind her, acting as a tail.

Another merciless blow and Jane whimpered.

The next lash wrapped around her stomach.

Jane cried in pain.

Clayton smugly aimed her snake at a small Mangani. She had her snake shoot venom into the Mangani, killing it.

The vines fell again and again. Deep crimson marks wrapped around Jane's body. Her head scooped to one side.

Clayton sneered at us.

“Meddling brats should keep to their corners,” She spat, “You’re lucky nobody knows what a catboy or an Oni is."

"What is your deal. In the books, the worst you did was not be as brave as your cousin and concealing Tarzan's true identity when you learned the truth," I said.

"My cousin? Do you mean Tarzan? Oh, I already knew only a Clayton would be able to survive these jungles for 18 years. I'm going to kill her so she can't take my title as Lady Greystroke. As for the Mangani look at them,” The Mangani were just standing there before they turned to us, "They serve me now," Even Kerchak seemed to be going along with what Clayton said, "I have been chosen to be queen of this jungle."

"Chosen?" I asked.

"Yes, I got shallowed by one of the trees. Then I heard a voice. It chose for me to reign supreme over this jungle!"

"Kerchak, why are you working for her?" I asked.

"Speaking of Kerchak. Tarzan, do you want to know who killed your parents? Well, your mother just died of illness but your father... Kerchak killed him," Tarzan pointed her spear at Kerchak, "Hey, Kerchak, you can have your free will back. It'll make you and Tarzan fighting each other more fun."

Tarzan and Kerchak began fighting each other.

Glaze said, “Fire!”

As the roiling ball of fire shot towards Clayton, scorching the earth where she stood, the battle began.

Tarzan impaled Kerchak with her spear.

“Tank!” I said, “Get Jane out of the way! She’ll get hurt!”

“Got it!”

“Sabor!” I heard from behind, and I whipped around to see Tarzan go toe to toe with a large demonic looking lioness with a white horn on its head. I recognised the scar on its face I had left.

"That thing is still alive?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I control all the animals and plant life of this jungle. Even the dead ones," Clayton said.

Glaze shot off a lightning spell at the lioness.

At this, Clayton had her snake tail shoot venom, and I raised my Chainsaword over my head without thinking, “Don’t forget Clayton!”

“Yipe!” Tank shouted as she avoided the venom.

I ducked under another paw from the demon lioness that tried to swipe at me and aimed blindly above my head to try slicing with the Chainsaword, and noted the shallow cut I’d made with satisfaction. I could hear Tank yelping at another paw swiping her successfully and Tarzan giving a war cry as she threw her spear towards one lioness.

I called out to Clayton, "This isn't very sporting of you. Aren't you supposed to be some big game hunter. Where's the challenge if you control all the animals?"

"I suppose you have a point," Clayton said.

Clayton released control of half the Mangani. The male Mangani that was with Kerchak earlier, I think he was Tublat, joined the fray.

Around him, smaller Mangani that joined him began to pummel the groups of weaker lioness' that remained. Slowly, I could see the weaker lioness' being finished off one by one.

Tublat dragged his knuckles back and forth on the ground, readying himself for something, and I had an idea of what he was about to do.

“Guys, get out of his way!”

Tublat slammed his fists to the ground, creating a shockwave, killing several lioness'.

I turned to see Clayton, and my stomach dropped at the sight of her readying her snake. She had a grin on her face at the sight of the Mangani.

Clayton pointed her snake tail towards Tublat. I portaled next to Clayton and swiped my Chainsaword at her. Clayton was sent flying backwards into one of the trees, a really large one. I pinned her to the tree.

"You think a mortal fool like you can defeat me?!" Clayton asked.

She swiped her claw at me, forcing me to jump away from her. I landed on a nearby tree branch and prepared to jump back to her. But vines wrapped themselves around Clayton's arms and lifted her up. They pulled her inside the tree. She emerged, fused to the tree.

"Now you die!"

"Clayton-" I called out.

“Not Clayton! Not Clayton!” Tarzan swung her spear widely.

“What does that mean, ‘Not Clayton’?” I asked as I begun swinging blindly at several of the Mangani and smaller lioness' around to keep their numbers down.

"You got me! Clayton isn't in here anymore! I'm going to engulf this whole world in a beautiful darkness!"

Vines started trying to stab me.

"I think this tree might be the source of her power. Glaze, I need you to burn it down," I said.

Glaze shot a fireball at the tree to no effect.

"We gotta get inside the tree! Burn from the inside!" she said.

I cut into the tree with my Chainsaword. Once a big enough hole was created, I opened a portal for Glaze to go through. We climbed through the tree and saw a beating heart above us. Glaze shot a fireball at the heart. The fire quickly spread, setting the whole tree on fire. We both quickly jumped from the tree as it exploded. The explosion sent Clayton flying from the tree.

And then I heard a thud so loud it had to have hurt.

It was Tublat. He had reared back his arm and landed the final blow on the chief lioness, who swayed back and forth in place before finally succumbing. Clayton fell to the clearing floor as well.

The lioness collapsed. Behind her, I could see the remaining animals Clayton had controlled do the same.

We turned to watch as Clayton uselessly kept trying to fire her snake, to no avail. Tublat quickly torn off her snake tail.

“Heh, uh, hmm. This is quite the unexpected turn of events,” Clayton nervously laughed, “Perhaps we can reach an understanding-”

“But what shall we do with her?” Tank asked.

“I think I got some sorta plan,” I answered.