44 – Behind the Tree

Haruna was squirming on the carpet. Her tears kept flowing hard. Every inch of his body felt like it was being cut bit by bit.

"Please! Stop this!" She screamed in desperation. "I can't take it anymore!"

Better to die than suffer like that. So, she chose to crawl to the edge of the land.

But Brunch hinders Haruna. The wyvern then pressed her cheek against the kunoichi's face.

"Ah, you are worried about me too, Brunch?" Haruna's mouth threw a bitter chuckle. "You are very kind, even though we haven't known each other long."

"You are…. Alan…. Celia…. Friend…."

Haruna was stunned at the deep voice. "Hey, you can talk, Brunch?"

The beast just tilted her head. It seems she also doesn't know how she can use human language.

Haruna took a deep breath, then rubbed the wyvern's face. "I'm sorry, this pain is making me lose my mind. I should have trusted our friends. They will definitely bring me that healing ingredient. I just need to wait."

She crept back into the wooden booth. Brunch then took a small bag from the corner of that place.

"Thanks, Brunch. You're so smart." Haruna smiled again, grabbing a bottle of cloudy white potion from that bag.

It was her last painkiller. They did get money from the guild members in return for defeating Sigmund, but they couldn't afford too many potions. Those things are very costly, and they also have other needs.

After another sigh, she drank the potion with trembling hands. Gradually, the pain and burning inside her lessened, but only a little. The drug's effects had diminished a lot.

"I'm going to sleep for a bit, Brunch." Haruna pulled the blanket over her and closed her eyes. "Let's hope Alan and Celia can come back safely."

The wyvern crouched beside the kunoichi, not making a sound.

***

Alan and Celia were ready to attack. The footsteps came again, and a humanoid figure stepped out of the tree. It looks like a tree trunk with arms and legs. But there are two small holes for eyes in the head, as well as one long mouth-shaped hollow.

Those two eye sockets displayed two dots of green light. That creature's face looks like a Halloween pumpkin but covered with bark and more hideous.

"Be careful, Celia." Alan narrowed his eyes when he discovered that leaves were starting to grow on the two arms of the two-foot-tall tree creature. "I think that monster can use range attacks."

As Alan expected, when that monster moved its two arms forward, its leaves flew fast like bullets. The young man raised his ground shield immediately.

Those leaves just stuck in that shield, and the monster moved fast. Before Alan could fire his mud blast, that creature had jumped up, ready to attack Alan with its sharp, claw-like fingers.

But Celia also jumped in and slashed that tree creature with her spear. The monster managed to block the attack with its hands, but it sent that creature crashing to the ground.

Celia was about to stab the enemy, but that monster dodged a second time. And then, its shooting leaves again.

"Ugh!" Celia couldn't do anything as she took the attack. The fast-flying leaves slashed the parts of her body that were not protected by armor, such as her face and some of her joints.

"Attack me, bastard!" Alan cursed while firing a ground bullet, but the monster was able to block it. "Come here if you dare!"

The provocation was successful. While Celia was still on her knees in pain, that tree creature ran to Alan.

And after a second, its feet were sunk in the deep mud pool that Alan had prepared.

The young man lifted the chunk of dirt he took from the ground shield and turned it into a mud blast.

That thing hit the monster's face, covering its eyes.

"Celia!!!" Alan shouted at the top of his lungs. "Now!!!"

"Argghhh!!!" Celia forced herself to run, then stabbed the monster's head from behind with her spear.

The tree creature twitched for a moment, then its hands slumped down.

"Is it dead?" Celia asked, making sure that the creature wasn't moving anymore.

"Wonderful."

Alan and Celia turned to where the woman's voice came from, on top of the large rock. There was a woman with long dark green hair.

Alan observed the woman, whose private parts were only covered by leaves and veins.

"I didn't expect that you two could defeat one of my treants in such a short time. Even though it's a small treant, but still..." That figure resumed, then a vine with a large leaf approached her from behind. She sat on that leaf, which then brought her to Alan.

The young man took a few steps back while still raising his staff. That woman's expression does look friendly, and her lovely curvy body exudes maturity like a mother's.

But still, she is a stranger.

"Don't be afraid, boy." That woman crossed her plump legs. "I'm not going to hurt you. You have successfully passed the test I gave you."

"The test?" Alan frowned. "What do you mean? You call those ferocious flowers and tree monsters a test?"

"Before I answer your question..." She glanced at Celia, who was pointing the spear at her. "Could you and your servant lower your weapons? I feel a little uncomfortable."

"Servant?" Celia's mouth fell open.

"We don't know anything about you, Lady." Alan did not follow the woman's orders.

The woman took a deep breath. "My name is Sylrieth…. Since you don't want to lower your weapons, I have to do this."

The tree roots around them suddenly moved fast to entangle Alan and Celia's bodies.

Even though his body couldn't move, Alan suppressed his panic. He had to think clearly to get out of this dire situation.

"Relax." Sylrieth approached Celia, then rubbed the cut wound on the female fighter's cheek. "I just want to heal your servant."

The plant lady's hand gave off a greenish glow. And as soon as she took her hand away from Celia's cheek, the wound had vanished completely.

"I'm the guardian of this forest." She revealed.