Chapter 14: We're Swamped

By the time they made it to the foothills of what the elves called The Jagged Mountains, the sun was at its zenith, and it was the next day.

To get to the Jagged Mountains, they had to cross another forest. It was different from Linwood just by the fact that it was made up of strange-looking trees with short, gray but smooth, fat trunks and bright, pink, broad leaves. It was an eerily beautiful place, and the elves were tense as they crossed it. Of course, it was not at all safe. The group was assaulted by all sorts of abominations. From little rascally beasts, Semacoar referred to as Tree Goblins to the dreadful Tree Walkers. That name did them no favor at all.

The Tree Goblins were little knee-high creatures of a vicious variety. Their skin was as gray as the trunk and branches of the trees. It was hard as bark but vulnerable to magic and the blade. They had long and thin arms that dragged, sharp roots for claws, short stumpy legs, and grotesque, wooden teeth that oozed green sap from their almost smooshed faces that looked like they were a permanent gerning consequence. They were fast little dudes and were an absolute menace. They attacked in numbers all at once, falling from the trees and forcing the elves to create a protective quadrilateral around April and Saka.

Of course, the whitehead was itching to get into the fight, but he had to fall back and protect April from time to time. The majority of the Goblin horde was weirdly going after her.

…Weirdly.

With each strike or scratch she received, Saka would receive the pain threefold. He was getting angry by the minute, and whenever he tried to attack the little monsters, April would get scarred, and he would experience an exaggerated amount of pain.

They only managed to defeat the monsters thanks to Safatore's explosive flames. He stood in the open and let the creatures pile on him. After he was buried – and the girls panicking, aka April – he unleashed his fire, burning everything in a ten-meter radius.

The next monsters to attack the elves were something that looked like… well, they literally were walking trees, hence the name Tree Walkers…

But Semacoar should have also called them giant mantises that were invulnerable to fire! They gave the elves the business!

Safatore couldn't scorch any of them. He was instantly swatted away by one Tree Walker's long pole-like leg.

As expected, these monsters went after April, too. It was like she had something inside her that they wanted so bad that the other elves were hardly an obstacle. Well, not for Saka, of course. With his soul connected to April and being able to feel three times the pain she received; the whitehead was a devastator! He smashed every Tree Walker that came his way with his metallic left arm in a reserved ferocity, gray eyes glinting invisible flames of malice.

"Wow… I mean, ugh!" April had thought.

They were connected after all. And she did not want him to think his unnatural beauty was rubbing off of her. No way! What she was free to think though was that the elves were unable to easily fend off these creatures as they had the lycans. Those were scarier, faster and deadlier. Was it actually the other way around?

Like passing complex math equations and failing the ones supposed to be easy?

Hours later after escaping the Tree Walkers in one piece, the group came into an almost rainforest.

Yes, it was very scenic. Moss carpeted the whole forest floor in a pea-green hue. It even went as far as to cover the trunks of the trees. Some of it even hung from the branches, looking like feathery vines. Patches of water pools were everywhere. Sunlight streamed down in a filtered green colored lightshow. It was a sight to behold. The air around smelled pleasantly mossy with just a hint of mint.

No deadly creatures jumped out at them but Safatore, who looked extremely dashing for someone who spent the whole day fighting weird aggressive creatures, constantly getting pounced on urged them to stay alert. In fact, all of them looked excellent… all except for April, of course. Her long hair had all kinds of leaves in it and her onesie had purple and red splashes all over. But she was somehow making it work for her. With a nonchalant smile and her constant giggles, she looked like a survivor… well, only because she didn't have to lift a finger against any abomination. Saka wouldn't let her.

She was cool with that.

"Stop." Said Safatore suddenly.

Everyone halted with their hands hovering at their weapons, ready to eviscerate anything that jumped out.

April had never even once seen Saka using his bow and arrows, and she still had no idea what his Inner Aura was. The girls had magical wands and scepters while the blondie brigade had swords. Saka had up until then fought only with his brute strength. Even as Safatore suddenly stopped everyone, he didn't bother to take out an arrow. Could he possibly not know how to use them? His quiver was full of arrows.

…As they tensely stared at the surrounding, nothing happened. Semacoar frowned and said through a smirk:

"Did you stop us to admire the view? We'll do that from the safety of Xander, Safatore."

The older blonde frowned slightly.

"Something feels… off."

He roved his green beauties from left to right and sighed.

"Let's keep going."

April was the first to take a step. The second she did, her foot pierced through a moss blanket and plunged her into a deep pool.

"Bah!!" Semacoar spat in shock.

Saka fell to his knees, a scowl on his face at the edge of the pool.

There was a shift in the vegetation and the mossy vines suddenly lunged at them, entangling and starting to strangle them, pulling them into the treetops.

"Get them off!" Safatore growled.

A vine came to the kneeling Saka, wrapped around his neck and pulled him away.

* *

…Under the surface of the pool, April's eyes shot open. Her mouth was inflated and full of air and she was surrounded by water!

Weak beams of light streamed down to her.

"Stupid… you fell into a swamp with your big eyes wide open…"

But it wasn't her fault. The pool was camouflaged. After glancing around and noticing nothing but seaweed and other aquatic plant life, she raised her head and swam up…

She was not willing to hang around down there since playing in water was not one of her pastimes.

Something grabbed her foot out of nowhere and jerked her down.

"What the…"

She looked down and her eyes immediately widened, her heart skipping a beat.

A creature, one that looked like a bunch of seaweed wrapped around a crooked branch was pulling her down with its seaweed tentacles. It had a head. Well, an oval ball with a bulging red eye and a maw.

"Creator…"

She fought against the pull and tried to swim up. More tentacles came and entangled her legs and locked them. She couldn't swim up. Feeling a feeling of dread engulfing her, she opened her mouth and screamed. All the air blew out of her mouth in the process.

* *

…On the surface, entangled in the vines, Saka suddenly gasped with wide eyes. He felt something odd. A whisper escaped his ruby-red lips:

"You little brat…"

Saka's cheeks reddened as he struggled in the vines, growling.

Semacoar slashed a vine with his sword. The live thing screeched, convulsed and twitched before withering.

"Cut them! You have to cut them to destroy them!" he yelled to the others.

Saka took one vine with both hands and bit his long fangs into it. The vine screeched in pain and died but another one replaced it and wrapped around his neck.

Bah! The things were stopping him from getting down. Down to…

* *

April held onto the little air that had not escaped her mouth and used her arms to try to instill resistance to the seaweed pulling her down. More wrapped around her waist and greatly dragged her down into the sea-green and darker waters. She had to try to get them off somehow. They weren't just going to let her go. Her lungs were also starting to feel the burn of no air just a little. If she was still in a human form she would be suffocating by now.

Grinding her teeth, she bent down, grabbed the seaweed around her right foot and pulled. It easily came loose… just to wrap around her wrist.

"Oh, no..."

Another one wrapped around her other hand, and they tied them against her sides.

"Crap... I saw this coming."

The seaweed tentacles further pulled the wriggling girl deeper and closer to the seaweed and stick abomination below. She had to at least try to call the person she shared a telepathic connection with and seek help:

"Saka!"

Praying it actually worked.

* *

Saka heard the voice in his head, all annoying and squeaky, whining his name. His eyes widened, and he suddenly growled with an intense ferocity.

The others watched as he violently devoured the vines one after another.

Encouraged by his savagery, Safatore commanded the others to follow his example. They bit and tore off pieces of the live vines drastically decreasing their numbers…

* *

April finally reached the bottom of the pool and came face-to-face with the seaweed stick creature. Its ball-head was larger than her and up-close, it resembled a giant fly trapper plant. But that was where the similarities ended. Its crooked branch body was pale like bones. The head was dark-green and shiny.

While she marveled at the horrendous anatomy of the creature's build, its head instantly lowered, and she came face-to-face with the giant bulging eye. Hundreds of thin veins streaked like roots to its red iris.

"Er! You ugly, disgusting piece of…"

The maw opened and roared, spraying her with air bubbles.

"Go on. Eat me and see…"

What a horrible way to die that would be. No. Correction: what a disgusting way to die that would be. But the creature did not rush to eat her. It… pouted? And then sucked in water.

April was in the process of understanding what it was doing, when her chest started to glow a bright golden light. A stream of this golden light made its way out of her chest and went to enter the creature's mouth.

She felt an excruciating pain squeezing her chest…

* *

The elves finally broke free of the vines and landed on the ground. Saka landed near the edge of the pool April had fallen into, but he had taken a single step when he lost balance and toppled to his knees.

"What the…"

He clasped his chest in shock and felt a strange cold sensation running wild through his chest, like… like… like something was sucking the life out of him… out of April. She had been under there for less than fifteen minutes.

Something was forcing her strength to dwindle down there. Rapidly.

With no more strangle vines messing with them, the rest of the group turned to Saka with a single question in their eyes.

Was April still alive?

Of course, it was partially answered by the fact that he was still standing. But still…

Without paying any attention to them, Saka stood up, sucked in a deep breath and spear-dived into the pool. The minute the air bubbles cleared from his vision, and he could see into the depths of the pool, a sudden golden glow caught his eye at the very bottom. Was that… April? And what was that thing sucking the golden light out of her?

He quickly swam toward her in abnormal speed despite the fact that the water was offering resistance. When he reached her, he could hear her mental screams.

April wriggled in its grasp.

"Stop… that hurts!"

She hadn't expected to hear Saka's voice in her head:

[Hey. What are you doing playing with that thing? Do you think it's the right time to socialize with swamp creatures?!]

April shot her head up.

"Saka… get… me… OUTTA HERE!!"

The plant continued to suck in the golden light, oblivious to the third party in the pool. Saka slowly swam around it, giving it an indifferent inspection. It was slowly growing bigger by the minute.

[What is that?]

What, the terribly made creature or the eerie light coming out of April's chest?

"Do you have to know what it is to get it off me?"

He shrugged indifferently. A sudden tentacle shot at the snowy boy…

He caught it in his grasp and pulled. The whole thing snapped to bits. How easy he made it look. But that was when the monster noticed his presence.

"Saka, look out!"