Unexpected Pathways

(Present)

...

How did we even end up travelling... To temporarily got lost in the forest...

Me: "...Into deadly jaws of giant plant monster."

...

Yeah, yeah, this is kind of sudden. I know.

Apparently, our party; Maya, Noah and I just got caught right off from the ground by a huge venus fly trap monster that sprouts within the peaceful green maze right before when we're about to reach the bridge that connects with the other side of the land where the Sentua Village resides.

Without giving us a chance to think, using its long slithering vines it swiftly tied and grabs the three of us upsides down in a circular motion, starting from our feet up to the part of our shoulders tightly in the midair approximately 8 metres above the ground.

Locking us with our arms and legs together with its vines to make us defenceless, it's gonna be a real pain in the ass to escape.

Maya: "Ahhhhhhh! Why meeeehhhh??!!!"

The plant monster which biologically resembles the venus fly trap then violently swung its flexible vine arm around like a lasso which has Maya trapped in them scarcely who looks like a toddler playing with a toy car dangerously trying to make it fly.

Noah: "Shut up! Your screaming will not do anything. You're deafening my ears! And you're not the one who's about to get eaten-..!"

Later, the monster swings its other vine that holds Noah captive sideways and brings him on top of it while hissing, widely opening its mouth of hell with long, yellowish pink shade needle-sharp thorns sticking out menacingly upward towards Noah to eat him whole as a delightful human lunch of the evening.

Noah: "SHIT!"

And there's no way in hell I'm gonna let him die like that!

Me: "Maya! [Spirit Synchronization]!"

Maya: "Huh?!"

Upon hearing the spell protocol, Maya gradually illuminates brightly with electric blue hues emitted from her body and disperse into a flow of mist of binary codes and quickly streams towards me straight into my chest passing through the vine that tied around my torso, escaping from the monster's death grip.

Noah: "Oi, that's not fair!"

He yelled from afar above the monster's gapped jaws while looking at me in disbelieve.

Realized that Maya has escaped from the monster's grip, the plant hisses loudly in anger, expressing its outrage like an angry cat beastman whenever someone tried to steal his fish off from his hand.

...Do not question how I deliver my explanation.

Me: "30 minutes... That's a lot of time given to us to beat this thing."

(In my head)Maya: "..*exaggerating exhale*.. I'm saved! Thank goodness I'm still alive! I've never been more grateful to be alive from being eaten by a bean sprout before in my life!"

She said telepathically.

Me: "We're not done yet. We need to save Noah."

(In my head)Maya: "Do we have to?"

I let out a short growl, telling her not to keep up with that reckless attitude.

(In my head)Maya: "Ok, fine fine! I was just kidding. Let's do this quickly so we could reach the Sentua village faster."

I hate it when she does that.

Anyway, after being buffed up by a relatively high rate of immense strength established by the synchronisation spell, I force myself by outstretching my arms to break free from the plant's grip and with ease, the vine that kept me captive snaps simultaneously slowly turning into pieces of withered plant fragments as they fall onto the ground.

...Including me!

Me: "Oh fuc-.. Waaahh-!"

I screamed in fear as I fall down toward the ground at a fearsome speed.

8 metres bruh. That's gonna be a real painful headache if I hit my head on the ground with that high.

(In my head)Maya: "Bal, the ground!"

She warned in haste.

I shortly snap out of it as I soon realise that I'm about to knock on my death door if I don't act fast.

No, I REFUSE! I'm too beautiful to die!!!

With precision and using the power of gravity, with my body, I skillfully fold my knees to my chest and perform a perfect summersault whilst falling and at the right time, I instinctively land my legs on the ground safely as I panting heavily as the adrenaline rushes through my veins from the spontaneous reflex I just did.

Me: "Holy shit that was so close!"

I panicky thought to myself in the back of my mind.

I steadily bring myself up and gaze my eyes upon the giant green stalk in awe in front of me, 4 metres away from my vicinity.

Me: "What the fuck is that thing? I've never seen this kind of monster before."

(In my head)Maya: "Careful, Bal. I picked up something very odd from my Data and it seems that there's something unusual going on with the monster we're handling now."

Me: "What do you mean?"

(In my head)Maya: "I don't know... But the numbers have been going crazy and the core reading from it also seems to be unstable than it supposed to be which is really strange. Besides, the aura meter has been going wild the longer I keep looking at it. "

Me: "If that's really the case here I should be cautious."

Noah: "Um, glad that you're safe Bal but could you PLEASE hurry up?! Don't you see I'm about to be snack on by this green mouth here?!!"

Me: "That's what I'm trying.."

I lumber my feet into a sprint posture simultaneously begin amassing my aura flow down to both of my legs promptly while facing Noah who's still hanging, swinging involuntarily in the air upside down.

(In my head)Me: "[Summoning: Nano-Blade]"

Later as the summoning incantation has been fully transcribed within my mind, a tiny swarm of flying nanobots appear out of thin air flows directly into my right hand as a futuristic ninjato sword armoured with its sheath in place could be seen instantly materialised within my grasp.

Me: "..TO DO!"

Setting up an absolute focus, I pressed both of my feet(which has been compressed with a decent amount of aura) down as the soles of my shoes crushed against the ground surface, making a huge crack effect with a refining boom on them as I forthwith, dash myself at a very high speed, pointing the blade of my sword at the green monster's trunk anatomy in dreadful order.

But as I was about 1 metre before I could even land a fatal hit on it, the fur at the back of my neck then abruptly stands up with a wild sense of caution seething under my skin.

Me: "What?"

(In my head)Maya: "Incoming!"

At once, a series of snaking thorned vines(six of them to be exact) sprout from underneath the ground at the front of the plant monster which then launches directly at me at a vicious speed solely with murderous intent.

Me: "Not on my watch!"

Without hesitation, I quickly pull my sword out of its sheath using my left hand and serve a powerful swing as the blade clashes itself at the first incoming vines followed by a sharp 'shing!' while the other two vines launch towards me in advance following from the back.

The impact from the first collision was powerful enough to disrupt my foot stance which I truly didn't expect to happen hence the monster seems to be trying to take the advantage of my losing balance.

And the fact that I also don't really have much space to move around thanks to the grass walls around me has drastically limited my movement to completely evade the monster's attack.

Damn, even the width of those vines are as big as Jonathan's dic- No! Bal! Focus on your fight! This is not the time to get a boner!

Hence, in a quick moment of thought, I notice that there's only one reasonable way to defeat it quickly.

Me: "...Forward."

Thereupon, pushing my feet against the ground similar to before, I storm myself at a relatively high speed as before towards the monster through its launching attacks and expertly tap the flat surface of my sword to push the first two vines away from me to the sides.

Advancing for the fourth one, I swiftly jump across above it at the same time rotating my whole body clockwise horizontally, performing a perfect corkscrew flip align with my blade simultaneously outstretching my right arm and cut the vine in half as I land on the ground flawlessly and continue to run forward towards the last two vines.

Noah: "Woah."

Noah thought to himself in astonishment.

And yes, he is still up there, hanging upside down where the monster is keeping him hostage.

The first one strikes itself by thrusting, aiming straight for my chest but failed after I excellently evade the attack by rotating my body 90 degrees to the right and in a flash, I jab my sword through it, penetrating the blade deep as I slid the blade across its length while rushing forward for the main body, splitting it in two while I was at it.

However, little did I know, the monster is quicker.

The monster's vine which the last remains then surprisingly, on the spur of the moment whip itself against my abdomen with a powerful force of monstrosity, flinging me as my body slide on the ground further back to my starting point.

Me: "Burghff!"

Noah/Maya: "BAL!!!"

My body was brutally got slammed to the ground altogether with my sword disperses into nothingness at the time when I lost my grip on it as my body was literally bounced back like a basketball.

I couldn't catch my breath in the brief moment as all the air got forcefully knocked out of my chest after my back got crashed into the ground as now I'm pathetically lying flat, practically dying again.

...

I... I can't breathe...

...

...Can't... Pass out... Now...

...

No!...

...

Not this time!...

(In my head)Maya: "Bal..."

Me: "I..*cough*.. I know..*cough*.."

...I... I will not give in...

I can't give up now... Because...

Because I have someone to protect... And I can't afford to lose someone who's in my care...

Noah: "Aaaahh!"

Noah screamed his lungs out terrified as the monster already set Noah half into its huge mouth of needles.

Me: "..*cough*...*cough*.. Guhh... Fuck that hurts."

No blood... That's good I suppose.

The monster then stops its action from the proceeding of eating Noah and return to giving its attention to me.

Noah: "H-huh?"

The plant then hisses again in irritation and annoyance as it notices that I'm still alive, trying to prevent it from eating Noah.

And how did I know that it is paying attention to me?

Because more needle vines are now has emerged, slithering out from the grass walls behind it and standing while pointing at me like a pack of snakes dangerously staring at a small mouse to eat for dinner.

Me: "Surprised? Yeah, I'm still alive, bitch. And you're going to regret what you just did to me."

I gesture both of my hands parallel in front of my chest...

(In my head)Me: "[Summoning: Sunspot]"

After succeeding intonate the summoning incantation at the back of my mind, just like the sword, a wisp of tinge blue mist made out of nanobots quickly appear out of thin air, taking the form of a sniper rifle as it materialises bit by bit, firmly placing itself into my hands, pointing directly at the monster.

After that, the rifle then starting to vibrate in an exceptionally fine manner as a soft whirring tone could be heard generating from it as it collects the aura flow offered by me into its core by 10% for the spell protocol activation while aiming my gaze through the scope for the centre of its main body.

One bullet... And that's all it needs.

Me: "[Marksman Protocol, Class 1, Pure Singularity]"

The plant monster also commences launching its ultimate attack by gathering, disturbingly twisting its needle vines altogether at once into a giant spear-like structure and readily aiming to send me to my demise.

Me: "Eat this, motherfucker."

At last, in unison, both the monster and I begin to launch our final blow to each other as I proceed to pull the trigger and shoot a clean, thin blast of a golden bullet chained with a bright neon golden tail of magic energy on its back while the monster ejects its giant spear at an unholy speed towards me like a remote missile.

The golden bullet that has been shot from the rifle therefore without issues, bursts through the monster's giant spear accurately from the centre of its sharp tip thus explodes into hundreds of flying pieces of burnt plant crumbs while the bullet remains strong and steady after such penetration and eventually, the bullet hits the centre of the giant stalk of the monster's body and similar to the ruined spear it explodes and turns into pieces of monster chunks as the entire monster structure is slowly collapsing to its end.

... This includes Noah falling along with it from above at a scary pace as he screams in terror as he's standing right before in front of his death door.

Like the wind, I take a quick step into the chaotic scene of collapsing giant dead plant and using the flow of aura left at my feet, I immediately directed my eyes at Noah and continued to jump, soaring far higher into the air than anyone could ever do without magic or special abilities to perform.

Thus I briskly grab Noah and bring him into my embrace as he lays into my arms close to my chest, supporting his back and legs gently and safely landed to the ground while the monster has already fallen flat to the ground right beside us, crashing with a huge peck of dust fluttering around the vicinity, revealing an open area at the end of grass maze behind it which I presume leads us straight to the bridge.

Me: "We made it. We freaking made it."

I said nonchalantly in a soft tone whilst lowering my head to look at Noah who's still clinging to me with his arms wrapped tight around my neck with his glassy eyes staring at me in mixed facial expression that I can't be sure of.

Me: "H-hey, are you ok? Did you hurt yourself somewhere? Or did I hurt you?"

I asked panickly, running my eyes all over him to check if he's injured anywhere at the spot I didn't aware of.

Noah: "...."

Noah kept himself silent yet still looking at me intently regardless.

But eventually, the dam finally breaks as an abundance of tears bursts out followed by a loud crying and sobbing.

Noah: "That was fucking scary!!!"

Me: "Eh?"

Ahh, so that's what it is. Well, of course it is scary.

Knowing that death is staring right at you, it is also scary when you know that your life could be taken away just like that before you could even know yourself.

Even though Noah always acts all tough, he is still just a kid.

Moreover, it's normal coming from a boy around his age who just had the taste of being at the brink of death a minute ago to react like that.

Twice no less.

I could feel Noah's whole body trembling suffered from a temporary trauma either from almost getting eaten by the monster or the fall he had just now.

Is he perhaps...

Me: "Noah... Are you... Afraid of heights?"

Noah meekly and politely nodded to my question as a response but this time without any eye contact attached.

Me: "I see. It must be hard for you. I'm sorry."

In surprise, Noah quickly turns his head to look at me again but with a bit of shock and guilt expression could be seen shown on his face.

Suddenly, he struggles slightly to release himself off from me and hastily standing in an upright posture in front of me.

Noah: "No no! It's not your fault. The only one who needs to be sorry is me. I was the one who's powerless enough to free myself from the monster and now... You've hurt again because of me. And I... I don't know why. To think that my very first adventure would be easy to handle and fun. But instead, it's getting worse and disastrous the second I thought it wouldn't."

Noah stated himself in a very shallow remorseful tone without him looking at me, clutching his arms together with his hands as he looks more and more distant and smaller than earlier.

I sighed a little as I lightly put my right hand on his left shoulder while kneeling in front of him, looking straight into his eyes while he did the same in bewilderment.

Me: "Listen here, kid. First, watch your language. Second, if you want to keep beating yourself like that then that's fine.."

Noah: "Huh?"

Me: "BUT... Please, don't blame yourself like that. To blame yourself for things you just couldn't control seems a bit unfair to me. Sometimes.. Sometimes it's just not your fault, ok? I also got hurt because I was too careless when fighting the monster. So don't you worry about it. Then again, that's why we're here. Both me and Maya... And you, we could be stronger together. I'm still new to this world of yours and sometimes I kinda felt lonely that I'm far away from home. But you are here. Your world... Home. You know about them better than us. You are maybe powerless, but not completely useless either. You're a smart kid and I know you are. So now we can just rely on each other and get better by helping each other out, aight? Cuz that's what pals do."

Noah's eyes then went wide open after hearing the little pep talk I told him thus small tears started to flow down from the edge of his eyes again but he quickly wipes them away and slightly bowed his head lower... And finally brings his chin back up again, showing me a bright beam of smile engraved in his face ear to ear as he's back to his usual self.

Me: "Now that's the brat I know."

I winked at him, sticking out a playful grin at him followed by a soft chuckle.

Noah: "Who you're calling me a brat?!"

He exclaimed himself in an annoyed high pitch tone like an angry little kid always do at me. But we're both ended laughing at each other at the end.

Noah: "But seriously though. Are you alright? The way you got whipped by that monster looked pretty bad, to be honest.

Me: "Huh, now that you mentioned it...*crash*.."

I quickly fainted on the ground at the moment I felt the overwhelming pain spotted on my stomach that I've unconsciously forgotten about.

-30 minutes Orb of Medic later-

Soon after I've received good care of Maya of performing another instant surgery on me with a couple of quick diagnostics of me having internal bleeding and fractured bones at the lower part of my rib, we tiredly continue our travel to the bridge that we've been dying to reach for.

And I mean literally! We almost die just trying to reach this fucking bridge!

Furthermore, I also had asked Noah about the monster's unnatural sudden appearance we'd encountered earlier and he said that that's as well the first time he had ever encountered something like that before in his life.

Though, despite the lack of experience Noah have a theory consist of his father's saying that the wild animal in the forest including plants could get mutated caused by the demon lord's power from the first wave, the Plague's aftermath.

He also said, somehow for some reason, only non-human could get mutated by the demon lord's dark power while the human would just die in the process as the wild animal have some kind of instinctive will to live that made them survived the while hellish mutation process(?)

In my perspective, humans also and have more consciousness of their feelings in addition when it comes to a desire to live as a person of a being.

So I guess Jonathan's hypothesis might be irrelevant? I don't know.

Arghhh! Why didn't I take a quick sample of that monster back then for examination?! As a scientist, I need answers for this otherworldly phenomenon! This kind of things really piqued my interest when it comes to genetic engineering.

-Moments later-

According to the map on my phone that we've been purposefully following for hours, in the end, it led us to a deep looking fucking ravine near a tremendous waterfall illustriously displayed between it with its water pouring profusely way down to the lake far below us.

Me: "This....is not a bridge."

Which also has a noticeable bridge in front of the waterfall, or I rather say a trunk of a very large tree that links the gorge we're standing on with the other one end.

Well played, Jonathan. Well played.

Me: "I'm gonna fucking kill him."

Noah: "You're going to kill who now? And watch your language, you hypocrite."

Shit, I thought out loud again. And hypocrite? What the fuck did he mean by that?!

I could hear Maya faintly snickering at me right next to me.

Oh, yeah. Before I forget, the reason Maya is here with us because I've cancelled our synchronisation which also because she needed to come out from my body in order to perform surgery on me. And no. We can't do the Spirit Synchronisation anymore for the day.

We could only do it once a day with a limited time of 30 minutes per day.

Me: "Nah, it's nothing. Just reminding myself of taking care of some matter in the future with Jonathan."

Maya: "Don't be a murderer, Bal. I don't want to associate with a criminal who's formerly a hero in his past."

Me: "As I said, it's nothing. Now can we just talk about something more important like THIS?!"

I exaggeratedly pointed both of my hands at the tree bridge in front of us while frustratedly raising my eyebrows at Maya.

Maya: "Uhuh, and what's the problem? I can't see the real problem here. Just go walk across it. Easy."

I let out a harsh sigh while stroking the temples along the bridge of my nose.

Me: "Look, the solidness of the tree trunk has been highly increased because of the water that's been showering the bridge from the waterfall near it for who knows how long which there's no way it would collapse the moment we step on it and that's good. But the problem is the water from the waterfall is flowing too close to the bridge that it's covering half the part of the bridge causing us barely able to walk on it."

Maya: "Ah, that? Even if you don't tell me I can see that myself. And the problem of the waterfall blocking half portion of the bridge is also not a problem for me. I'm a spirit, remember. I can fly."

And at that moment, small, lengthy pristine white metallic pair of geometrical wings which seems made of some kind of advanced futuristic magic technology immediately emerge out of matrix floating near her back.

Maya: "Meet you on the other side."

At once, tiny flames delicately burst out parallel under her wings as she goes fly, soaring beautifully along next to the bridge and the waterfall towards the other side of the gorge and landed seconds after on the ground without problem.

Her tiny figure then turns around to look at us as she cheerily waves her right arm at me and Noah, who are still in awe of what we'd just witnessed before us.

Then I slap hard on my forehead after I just realised it.

Me: "Of course she can do that."

Noah: "Wait... She has wings?!"

Me: "Yes, Noah. She has wings. She's a spirit after all. Of course, not all of the spirits have the necessity of wings but this one sure does."

Noah: "Again, that's not fucking fair!"

Me: "And again. Watch your langua-.."

Noah: "Oh, shut up!"

Instead of offended after being mad at, I simply laugh at him as he lashed out a fit of utter anger upon my 'not to cuss' hypocrisy.

Me: "Aight, aight. No need to release your tension on me, geez."

Noah: "And did she just left us here?!"

Me: "Yep."

Noah: "I can't fucking believe it! And don't you even fucking start with telling me not to cuss!! I have every right to fucking cuss right now!!!"

Noah aggressively yelled at me who was also rapidly sprayed bunches of curse words with mixed feelings of anger as he rudely pointed his right index finger at me.

What the hell?! Why I'm the one who got ranted at?!

Besides, he's NOT supposed to spurt those curse words out of his mouth when he's this young!

Seriously, Jonathan! What the fuck did you teach this kid?!

As well he does inherit his father's temper too. Family genes I guess.

Me: "Are you done?"

Noah shallowly pants next to me as he gently inhales and moments after he exhales as he becoming more relaxed.

Noah: "I'm... I'm sorry for that. I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

Me: "Meh, big deal. Don't worry about it. But the next time you point your finger at me like that again, I will spank your ass really hard, you hear me? And I'm dead serious."

Noah: "S-sorry! I will never do that again! Promise!"

Me: "Good."

I gave him a short nod and a smile to calm things down.

Noah: "So what are we going to do now? We both can't fly. Nor have wings..... Do you?"

Me: "No, Noah. I can't fly nor having a pair of wings. But I do wish of having them with me right now. Hmm, what to do, what to do..."

Noah: "Are you even listening to me?"

Unaware, a crack of an indistinct shout suddenly could be heard from across the deep ravine.

Maya: "Hey, guys! I've been waiting here for centuries! Can you guys hurry up?! It's getting hot here! I don't want to get sunburned!"

Noah: "Grr, hearing that bitch's voice is making my blood boiling so bad."

Me: "Hey, easy there now. She's still the same partner who has been with me for years and the one I really care about which also one of my best friends. Although to be honest, I could agree with you this time."

Noah: "I mean, it's easy if you have wings to fly around whenever you want but for us who don't have wings is just hard, man."

Me: "Hard? Like my dick?"

Noah: "What the fuc-"

Me: "Nevermind that."

Noah: "Pervert."

Afterwards, we're both became silent as to think about the idea of how should we cross the bridge without getting drifted away by the raging waterfall and die.

I cross my left arm in front of my chest as I pinch my right thumb and index finger on my chin and rest the right arm on the said left arm while tapping my right foot unsettlingly on the ground.

It was hard to come up with a plan when all the noises coming from the waterfall harshly splashes against the rock wall and the tree bridge continuously.

It's really distracting my brain from reaching its full potential as it blurs all of my thoughts right into the gutter.

A sudden defeated sigh escapes from Noah's mouth.

Noah: "Haah, I hope I have magic that could shelter us from that waterfall."

Me: "Wait a minute. What did you say?"

Noah: "Hm? Said what?"

Noah replied quickly in surprise.

Me: "Just a second ago. Can you repeat that?"

Noah: "Huh? I said that I wish I have magic-... Ooooooohh."

Me: "Noah, you're a genius! Using my power I could build an instant roof to block the waterfall above the bridge for us to cross it."

Noah: "You can do that? Then why the heck didn't you say anything?!"

Me: "Tehee. I forgot~ ;3"

Noah then over exaggeratedly slaps his forehead in perplexity.

Noah: "Tehee, my ass! You fucking airhead!"

Me: "You sounded just like Maya just now."

Noah: "Oh, please. Do not compare her to me. It's making me sick."

Next, ignoring Noah's usual ranting I continue myself by chanting a spell incantation protocol simultaneously pointing my right hand steadily towards the bridge in front of me in full composure.

Me: "[Mage Protocol, Class 2, Build: First Phase]"

After fully done intonate the spell incantation protocol, a couple of tiny white drones made out of my aura instantly materialize half a metre from the vicinity and swiftly hovering towards above the bridge, opposite of the waterfall and persist on projecting an uncountable swarm of nanobots between them, creating a long row of gleaming translucent blocks that act like a very long roof. Well, a floating roof that is.

Each block was made with a width of 2 metres, a length of 4 metres and a height of 0.3 metres in diameter per blocks.

The waterfall then forcefully get bend its way off the bridge and resume to flow past it against the roof that was recently made, sheltering the bridge entirely leaving the bridge dry.

From the point where we're both standing, till the end of the bridge near the spot where Maya stands nearby seems to take 8 blocks to cover the whole bridge all over.

Noah: "This is awesome."

He said in full of astonishment.

Me: "Let's go then."

Noah: "W-wait!"

Noah quickly pulled my jacket from behind roughly as he seems to be scared of something.

I directly turn my head around to look at him behind me in concern.

Me: "Noah, what's wrong?"

Noah: "Did you forget... That... I'm afraid of... Heights?"

He said while... Wait, is he blushing?

Awww, that's so cuuuuute. I never thought a brat like you can be this cute too.

The idea then immediately come to my mind.

Me: "Ah, sorry. I genuinely forgot about that. Do you want me to carry you?"

Noah: "E-eh?... If you don't mind then... Sure. But seriously, are you senile or something? How can you forget that I'm afraid of height? It's not that long ago when I first mentioned it."

Me: "Hey, I'm not that old, aight?"

Noah: "But you do act like one."

Me: "Aight, have fun crossing this bridge alone then."

Noah: "H-hey! Please don't leave me here. I'm sorrrrryyyy!"