The morning arrived with the relentless force of a storm for Erika and the group. Not only was she deprived of sleep, but she also felt frustrated. She followed the group along the dirt path with unsteady legs. Her face and eyes were puffy from the late night.
She wanted to recover while enjoying the sweet scent of evergreen and coppery earth flowing into her nose with deep breaths as she tried to wake herself up.
'How did they manage to keep going all night and still look so fresh!?'
Erika clenched her teeth, watching Yumiko and Ryuji, wondering how they could spend the evening like that. Yet still so fine—though she noticed Yumiko's weak steps, Ryuji seed perfectly fine after all that movent.
"He's like a beast in human skin..." Erika whispered while biting her lower lip, unable to deny the appeal of what she had experienced the night before. However, the feeling of lead and jelly from her legs made her equally fearful.
"Hey Ryuji, you seem quite happy today. Has anything good happened?" Paul asked. He seed to have a great relationship with Ryuji, like an older brother or uncle.
'He got laid.'
"Mmmm, I got a great rest last night." Ryuji stretched his arms, creating a loud crack while shouldering his huge axe without issue. "Can you tell, haha?"
"Of course, your skin is so shiny, and you have this shit-eating grin on your face." Paul's words beca a little vulgar, but the party broke into laughter when noticing the smirk on Ryuji's face and how strange it looked. "Well, let's be careful. Today, we are aiming for that strange circle of trees ahead of us."
The forest seed to change after we left the cave from last night; the false sky was covered with overarching branches and dark leaves with gloomy colours, pale grey, dark blue and black, creating a dull atmosphere while removing most of the light we could see.
"Be careful of your feet—there are tangled vines and branches in one hundred tres that last for around fifty steps," Ryuji called out while taking his axe and swinging across his body. He seed to be trimming and cutting most of them down for the group.
'It seems so mbers can see just fine, though.'
Erika's focus seed to be lacking today, her gaze focused on Yumiko, the sounds she made last night causing a slight pink hue to form on Erika's cheeks as she rembered the scenes that she peeked on like a pervert. 'Damn fox, isn't she a rabbit in disguise?'
"Okay, slow down. There are enemies ahead. You should use a small lantern as torches could start a fire." Paul announced, his hand reaching into the air and pulling out a small bronze box around the size of a blender.
"Ar Lumias." His voice chanted strange words before a clear light enveloped the bronze box, lighting the area around the party and giving Erika and the others at least ten tres of sight. "It seems we have enemies ahead. Get ready for combat."
'What is that?'
The enemy, a tall but extrely thin figure with twisted and deford limbs, hid in the shadows. However, before Simon and Alicia attacked, Ryuji's left hand grasped the air, forming a huge bloody claw that grabbed the monster's legs as he shouted out. "It's a tree, man—get him!"
"That's Treant, Ryuji!" Paul corrected him while taking out a rune from his belt.
"Who cares? It's a tree and a man!" Ryuji doubled up and lunged forward, his strange blood claw seeming to hold the monster in place while he leapt into the air, both hands holding the axe above his head while Yumiko slipped underneath him and darted towards the enemy.
'Their synergy improved!? How, in just one night?'
Erika crept forward, holding her blades. Yet her mind focused on how the mont before Ryuji's axe struck from overhead, Yumiko attacked the legs of the monster, her arm blades chipping the wood as she perford strange movents and attacks like a martial art.
Dagan!
Once Ryuji's axe struck the treant, its arms and head beca deford. His axe chopped most of the treant's body in half, causing the strange monster to release a low cry.
"Hrrrr!"
In the next opening, two arrows with orange tips struck the monster's eyes as it tried to swing into the air at Ryuji, followed by Simon's body slipping past its side.
"Damn, my weapons aren't sharp enough!" Simon complained as sparks flickered from where he cut into the dark bark.
"It's a tree, not a paper sheet. Of course, you can't cut him without so effort." Ryuji replied while launching a kick and propelling his body towards the treant's right, throwing it to the ground and leaving it at Yumiko's rcy. "Oh, nice attack, Yumi~ aim for its eyes and that small slit—yeah, that's its mouth."
"Alright."
Alicia and Erika continued to move towards the fallen Treant, watching Yumiko dart past the fallen Treant's flailing arm, aiming for its neck and piercing its throat before a flicker of purple shot past her in a barrage from Paul's hands, his arcane bullets raining down on the eyes of the monster while Yumiko's head tilted as if she could sense them with her ears flickering each ti a bullet approached.
'I wish my ears could do that...' Erika thought. Her legs started feeling normal as her speed increased rapidly. She bolted through the fallen leaves of the Forest's floor.
Ryuji's movents were like those of a tiger, elegantly moving among his prey. He was vicious when fighting the treant, holding his axe while leaning into the swing with his left arm controlling the bloody hand, holding it by its back leg.
The mont before Yumiko's leg swung down like an axe towards the treant's face, Erika's blades flashed as she shot past at full speed, severing both arms and eyes in a gale of steel.
"Haaa!"
Ryuji's axe and Yumiko's heel ca down on the treant, finally defeating it, followed by a loud bang and howl.
"Seems we got too loud," Paul said.
At first, everyone seed confused about what he said before the wind changed. Yumiko was the first to notice, followed by Alicia and Ryuji, who held their weapons at the ready. Like a whistle on the wind, a lody chid around them from all directions.
"Sharpen your senses!" Paul's voice was harsh as the whistling sound reached the human mbers of the group. "It's a higher Sprig! This is dangerous; We can't leave their territory if they find us fun to play with."
Paul's worry beca a reality as the form of a young child appeared, compared to the small sprigs from earlier. Its body was now close to over one hundred centitres in height. It carried a knife in each hand while its eyes flickered with green light, as its small pale face beca distorted in a creepy smile.
"Are you here to play with Pae'Lom?" The strange but happy monster said with a singing voice, a small whistle echoing along with his words.
"Follow , run!" Paul shouted, his boots grinding on the forest floor as he ran in the opposite direction of the whistling sprig.
"Oh... no, you don't, old man!" With a slightly gritty voice, the almost plastic face of the sprig transford into a frown before hundreds of vines amassed around Paul, tying his arms and legs and covering his mouth. "You are too old. Leave this place." Then, with a strange flutter of leaves, Paul vanished!
"Paul!?"
"Oi... you little shit, what did you do with Paul!" Simon yelled after Sheila called Paul's na.
"No, no, no!" The sprite's lodic voice echoed once more, shaking his finger at Simon. "No ugly people allowed."
The group found itself surrounded in the next mont. In a matter of seconds, Paul disappeared, and then Simon vanished in the sa style. Following that, a group of sprigs appeared around them, along with their leader. It beca a disadvantaged fight without Paul and Simon. Erika could only turn and push her back against Yumiko. "Yumiko, I'm trusting you with my back..."
Her lack of confidence was apparent, but Yumiko didn't take it personally. She just gave a nod while lowering her hips. "No problem, Erika." She extended her blades while keeping her gaze, alternating between Ryuji and the sprigs, who beca aggressive.
"Sheila, focus on shielding from magic; Alicia, take out the sprigs with Yumi and Erika." Ryuji's voice carried a powerful, confident tone. He seed unphased by the loss of Simon and Paul. Instead, he cracked his neck twice before swinging his axe, the heavy weapon slugging down onto his right shoulder as he stepped forward. "Little Sprig, I am going to crush you."
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