Chapter 17

After asking that, her jaw dropped.

'Well that's not good' I thought with slight worry. But there was no need to panic, afterall the elves can commune with the forest, so they will find us eventually. I then proceeded to tell Freya that, as to stop her panicking before it even starts. Yet I was unsuccessful.

"You do realise there is a greater chance of mana beasts attacking us the later it gets, right?" she asked, almost like I was an idiot.

"Well then" I replied swiftly as my brain rattled on what to do, as it seems she didn't know the way either. Forcefully repressing my own emerging worry, along with any self blame for putting us in a situation which could get us killed, my brains metaphorical gears began moving faster and faster.

However. Nothing I could think of would work. There's no way I can fight a mana beast, we can't climb the trees as they have no low hanging branches, and even then there may be something that could attack us even while up there, cornering us. Running in a random direction, hoping for blind luck to prevail was foolish.

My poker face began crumbling as the odds of death continued to stack. We had roughly two hours before nightfall, and the light was already receding.

"Freya, can you talk to the forest?" I asked hopefully.

"..." she didnt answer as a guilty look spread across her face

"Its already told you something hasn't it" I asked rhetorically.

"It will tell me the way, as long as you're not with me"

'Shit, if I ever find what spirit possesses this god damn fucking forest, it's dead if it's the last thing I do' I internally cursed as I grinded my teeth and walked in a random direction.

"What are you doing !?" she yelled in confusion.

"Relying on blind luck" I replied still having venom dripping in my voice.

'My chances of survival increase as long as I'm alone, even still, right now they're minimal, and I'll he damned if I let this new life go' I swore.

My pace only increased as time went on, as I knew that staying still would be the end of me. It had already been half an hour, and the forests noise levels had slightly increased. I was tempted to follow her, yet that was immediately thrown out the window as the forest would most likely stop guiding her.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do" I muttered helplessly.

"Come to me, if you want to live" a voice both young and old stated, it had no distinguishable gender and was monotone.

"Do you realise how stupid I would have to be to listen to you, you could be some mana beast attempting to lure me away could you not?" I replied shrouding my hands in lighting. With the limited amount of control I had, that was the most I could do.

"I could be, you are right." it replied, and I could've swore if it had a face it would be smirking right about now, which irked me even more.

As soon as the being finished its sentence, the underbrush to my right rustled, causing me to send out a preemptive bolt of lightning in that direction.

"Impressive response time, little one. However you missed the mouse that happened to be making it's way home" the monotone voice now seemed to contain a hint of mockery in it.

With that, I clicked my tongue and continued walking. Irritation slowly building, at my own immaturity, my own powerlessness and the fact that this being is actually annoying me was in and of itself annoying.

Exhaling loudly, I stopped at a tree, formed dagger shaped icicles with grooves for my hands and started scaling the tree until I got to the nearest branch, disregarding my earlier worry about cornering myself. I sat down on said branch after making sure it was stable and sat in a lotus position, once again going into that selfless state. The clarity of sight and sense it gave me only extended at a radius of 20 metres, after that, the scenery looks as if I was looking through my own eyes. I tried my hardest to spot the form of any creature that could be transmitting messages to me. However it was fruitless.

"Where are you?" I asked, more to myself than anything.

"I would say a good 500 kilometres or so away from you" the voice replied, but this time it sounded more like the voice of a young boy.

"And you expected me to get to you In one night?" I asked rhetorically.

"No, I just wanted to say it to someone who wasn't an elf, I thought It would be funny" the childish voice replied, much to my disbelief.

"Hey can you tell me where the nearest mana beast is, I would much rather fight that than talk to you for a second longer" I replied in a casual tone.

"You're no fun, however I do actually need you to go somewhere. You see, some humans are trying to capture some of the mana beasts in this area, I would like you to stop that"

I simply couldn't believe my own ears.

"Why not get someone else to do it?"

"I believe you would benefit from this?"

"And what's stopping me from staying here and waiting for someone to find me?"

"I have stopped communicating with the elves, they won't be getting any help from me and you won't be getting found any time soon"

That confirmed it.

"Fine" was all I said.