Chapter 260 The Forest Hears All

The forest shook as the large chomper chomped down on where Lee Seng was. Small chompers shot out of the big chomper and flew straight for Lee Seng.

"Why do you always want me?!?" Lee Seng complained as he jumped and rolled, dodging the first two smaller chompers. The second pair of chompers flew straight for him. His body reacted with a slash, watching the chompers easily slash in half. "Wasn't I supposed to not–"

BOOM!

The small vine chompers exploded in bright light and the forest grew louder.

"What the hell did you do?!?" Keng shouted. "You alerted everything else in this godforsaken forest!" Lee Seng jumped and turned back to run in the same direction with his friends. The forest was alive now and he could hear different noises. Howls, squawks, the group could hear everything. Creatures began to dart around them and above them.

"What do we do now?" Ritsuka shouted.

"Are they light sensitive?" Lee Seng asked, popping up beside them.

"I guess they are!" Keng threw his hands up.

"If they're light sensitive then we could fool them with fox fires. They emit light and since they're more light attribute based magic on top of our blessing, we can use it to our advantage." The huge vine chomper shot out tiny chompers out of its body. Howls echoed from the left and right.

"More problems." Ritsuka tongue clicked. Wolves rushed out of the forest, straight for the boys.

"Barrier." Lee Seng spoke. Keng and Lee Seng swept horizontally in front of them as a gravity barrier appeared around them. Wolves and chompers slammed into the gravity barrier. The barrier tore at the wolves and chompers.

"Can it last against the big one coming at us?" Ritsuka pointed. The two looked over at the huge vine chomper slithering straight for them.

"No." Keng and Lee Seng answered.

"We need to get outta here then!" Keng motioned over. A large crowd of monsters surrounded them. Ritsuka sighed and released Angerfang, replacing it with Obsidian Edge.

"I'll use Shadow to give us cover. We'll have to be quick cause I've already used it once before." Ritsuka turned the sword and dropped it. The sword pierced the shadows below and disappeared. The void rippled underneath them. "No time to stand! Let's go!" Ritsuka jumped in, disappearing.

"Go. I'll hold it." Lee Seng gulped and nodded at Keng to go first.

"Are you sure? Can you hold it?" Keng asked.

"Just go!" Lee Seng motioned. Keng took a hesitant look before jumping in. The monsters slammed against the barrier. Lee Seng grunted. He knew he couldn't hold this huge amount of gravity himself. His body wasn't used to it.

"Argh!" Lee Seng grunted as the barrier began to shrink into him. He couldn't move from his spot. The void entrance to the Shadow Realm was only a couple steps away.

'Come on!' Lee seng grunted as he began to crouch. 'Come on!' The barrier shattered. The chompers and wolves jumped on him, sinking their teeth into his body. He cried in pain as blood began to spill.

His screams echoed louder as his Dark Matter suit began to glow brighter. Large spikes shot outwards, piercing everything in its path. Explosions started all around Lee Seng, pushing him past the void opening and landing hard on the ground. The dark forest lit up as wolves and other creatures were caught in the huge explosion.

Ritsuka and Keng watched in horror as their friend couldn't get into the void opening. They looked at each other, Keng trying to say something to Ritsuka, but not finding use in his voice. He touched his throat and looked up. He pointed directly at Lee Seng and looked at Ritsuka. He moved forward, pulling the void entrance.

'What is he doing? Did he understand me? We need to go back to Lee Seng.' Keng thought as he followed after. He grabbed Ritsuka and pointed at Lee Seng, again. Ritsuka nodded and motioned him to follow.

'Follow me." Ritsuka thought. They moved and hovered directly below Lee Seng. A void entrance started to bubble into existence above them. Lee Seng looked around, wincing at his wounds as they started to heal.

'This is gonna leave a mark.' Lee Seng groaned. His mind flashed back to the spikes. 'How did I do that?' The vine chompers and creatures that took advantage of the night started their next attack on him. His mind reeled for attacks, but before he could even think about anything, he watched himself drop into darkness.

A silent scream escaped his lips as he landed on the ground. He looked around and noticed shadows moving like water. Keng and Ritsuka hovered over him. Keng was trying to say something to him, but Ritsuka seemed to motion with his hands, "we can't speak while we're down here."

'Where am I?' Lee seng thought as Keng and Ritsuka pulled their friend up. He looked at Keng and waited for a response but Keng shrugged.

"I can't hear you." Keng mouthed.

"Can you hear my thoughts?" Lee Seng signed.

"No." Keng signed. "I honestly forgot you learned sign language." The two of them looked at Ritsuka, who shrugged.

"He doesn't know what we're doing." Lee Seng told Keng.

"Are you okay?" Keng asked.

"I'm fine. Let's go." Lee Seng signed before motioning to Ritsuka to go. The three ran in this zone. Ritsuka had mentioned they needed to get to the other side as soon as possible. Lee Seng could barely see anything above them. They took forever to move in this place. It seemed like forever and Lee Seng was worried Ritsuka would run out of DM energy before they would make it out of this darkened forest.

They moved for quite awhile. No sound felt foreign to Lee Seng. He hadn't felt this in a long time. It was a strange thing to feel. He didn't realize how much he relied on his hearing until it was taken away from him.

The group slowly rounded over, a small light appearing.

"That's the exit." Keng signed to Lee Seng. "We're close."

"Do we go back above?" Lee Seng asked. They tapped Ritsuka and pointed up. The three of them looked up. They all didn't see anything in the vicinity. Ritsuka looked back at the two and pointed up and gave a thumbs up.

"Let's go?" Lee Seng signed.

"Ok." Keng answered. RItsuka summoned a void opening and jumped up. His hearing came back and the sounds of howling and shrieking were still going.

'Nothing in our vicinity.' Ritsuka moved over and crouched near the hole. He watched as Lee Seng came up second and helped him up.

"They're still shrieking…?" Lee Seng whispered. Ritsuka nodded as Lee Seng crouched parallel to Ritsuka. They watched Keng grab onto the ground and pull himself up. His ears twitched as he looked past Ritsuka.

"Are we safe…?" Keng whispered.

"For now." Ritsuka answered.

"Let's not wait for them to find us." Lee Seng anxiously watched the forest behind Ritsuka. Keng got out of the void shadow and Ritsuka waved his hand over the shadow and watched it disappear. Obsidian Glass appeared back in his hand and he motioned for them to continue.

They made more distance in a quick amount of time. The light at the end of the forest was finally growing and hope flickered in their chests.

They moved into the light and turned to look at the darkened forest. "Such a cursed place." Lee Seng spoke. They stood about thirty feet away from the forest. They didn't want to risk standing too close to it in case one of the creatures grew courageous and tried to attack them.

"That's why he told us not to attack the bulbs. Those vine chompers explode!" Keng shook his head. "I'm glad we got out, though. Are you sure you're okay, Lee Seng? Today seems like its just a string of bad luck." Ritsuka and Keng waited for Lee Seng to respond. He was staring at his hands, watching the last bits of burnt skin go back to normal.

"Lee?" Ritsuka rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Huh?" Lee Seng looked up.

"You okay?"

"Uh," Lee Seng nodded. "I'm fine."

"You're spacing out more than you usually do. Are you really feeling a difference with your DM?" Ritsuka asked. Lee Seng simply nodded.

"Let's just do the rest of the trail. It's all jogging from here with the occasional hopping." Keng motioned.

"Mmm, let's go." Ritsuka patted Lee Seng a couple of times before Lee Seng turned and followed. The trail slowly climbed back up the slope. They eventually found themselves near the river and made their way across the large stones. The two suns were almost at their highest.

"Straight shot from here. Follow the river." Ritsuka pointed. Keng and Ritsuka began to run forward, leaving Lee Seng behind as he took a moment to crouch and scoop some water. He splashed his face with it, relieving his sweaty body. He stared at his reflection as the water moved.

"What's happening to me?" Lee Seng whispered.