[The Forest Of Yarnha has judged your presence unwanted!]
[The Forest Of Yarnha is watching you.]
"What the hell is that supposed to-"
"DON'T STOP!" Elisa shouted.
Mark and the Moonlit Feline started running once more.
"That's what you get for angering the Forest, you... You absolute dumbass!"
"The Forest?"
The sound of dozens of trees being taken down and uprooted filled the nightly silence.
"Yes, the Forest! Of course, it would retaliate after you brought a tree down for no reason!"
"What...? Don't act like you knew this would happen."
The Lioness growled, and they noticed.
They had been running in a straight line.
Somewhere along the way, the Foret's layout had changed.
There were no trees in front of them.
The path in front of them had been cleared.
As if the trees themselves had moved out of the way.
"What do we do?"
"I don't know. Why don't you try apologizing?"
"To?"
"The Forest."
"Is someone controlling it the way you control the Wind?"
Elisa clicked her tongue.
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not."
Suddenly, they looked to the side.
The Forest had grown much, much denser.
There was practically no space between the trees.
The next second, the three stopped abruptly
"Shit-" Mark cursed as he raised his arms up.
Somehow, the trees were folded.
The top portion of those trees got lower and lower, but they never came into contact with Mark's raised arms.
On both sides, the rivers of trees were bent and turned into cascades.
The trees on one side only stopped moving once they connected with those on the other.
"Should we keep running, or-" Mark's sentence was interrupted.
Or rather, he stopped talking after looking back.
The way they had taken thus far had been filled by trees.
"What is..." He scratched his head.
It was a peculiar experience.
The trees bending, the branches moving as if controlled by the wind, those, he could understand.
But trees appearing out of nowhere?
The worst is that the trees only seemed to do that when they weren't being looked at it, which cause a certain anxiety to rise.
Mark turned his gaze to the right.
The scenery had changed.
He looked back once more.
It had changed.
Slightly.
Slight changes that gradually made it tougher to remain calm.
Changes that made you think and worry about what was happening behind you.
About what was happening where you weren't looking at.
Inside the Forest Of Yarnha, Blind Spots were one's worst enemy.
Elisa pressed her lips.
"Let's keep running for now. Staying here... It won't help."
The three ran forward, but their gazes moved in every direction.
To the sides, there didn't seem to be one centimeter of space between the trees.
No escape.
The trees bending above seemed to blend, and turn into a ceiling.
Rapidly, the way had turned into a tunnel.
A corridor.
Mark's eyebrow twitched.
He raised a hand to the side as he ran.
"Don't." Elisa warned. "It'll get probably just get worse."
"Then what do you suggest."
"Just... Let's keep going for now."
Mark clicked his tongue and did as he was told.
'I say that but... This is definitely bad. Even the Wind can barely find space between the trees. The Forest has come alive, but...' Elisa wondered.
The Lioness' eyes widened. It growled.
"Ah." Elisa noticed too.
"What?"
In the dark corridor in which they were trapped,
"CROUCH!" Elisa suddenly shouted. "I SAID-"
As her gaze moved towards him, she didn't continue her sentence.
There was no need to.
Mark had lowered his body.
Without knowing the reason for it, he had listened to her words and crouched.
This surprised Elisa, as she thought of him as rather stubborn.
The next second, Mark felt something move above his body, piercing the air.
Right where his head had been seconds earlier.
"Seriously? This fucking guy?" Mark clicked his tongue.
Elisa stared at him for a bit, taken aback.
The Monster had really grown trusting of her words.
Screech-
The Ayena screeched as its body spun around with incredible speed.
The once smooth carapace was, now, cracked and burnt.
Still, the Monster wasn't about to leave its enemies be.
After missing Mark's body, it passed them. And once it was about to touch the ground, the Ayena quickly extended its tail.
With a tail flick, it hit the ground, immediately increasing its speed.
"What the-"
Instantly, the group's movements became hectic as they tried to dodge the Ayena which collided with the trees and ground repeatedly.
Again and again, it hit the trees and ground, increasing its speed and moving in every direction.
The three did their best to dodge the living bouncing ball's irregular and random movements.
But eventually, it collided with Mark's body, who welcomed it with open arms after coming to a stop.
"Son of a...!"
A deafening and strident hiss resonated as the spinning carapace was scraped against the white scales that covered Mark's body.
The grinding was so intense that sparks filled the air.
With his muscular arm, Mark grabbed the spinning Monster.
He squeezed with all his strength, but the speed didn't seem to increase.
It didn't take long for the contact with the Ayena to start feeling like he was in contact with something akin to an angle grinder.
His scales and fingers were being scraped rapidly.
The scraping only started decreasing in intensity once Mark activated a Magic Skill to lessen the Ayena's speed and the produced heat.
Ice Manipulation-
But the speed and heat were such that the deposited layers of frost evaporated quickly.
"You fucking...!" Mark muttered as he was slowly pushed back.
The next second, the angle changed.
Mark could tell.
He, now, could deflect the spinning Monster and send it behind him.
The same way Elisa had earlier.
'It...'
A crazed smile appeared on Mark's face.
"Means you're losing speed, huh?" He tightened his grip and flexed every muscle in his body. "I'm getting rid of you... Now!"
"HEY!" Elisa suddenly shouted.
The moment of inattention allowed the Ayena to flee from Mark's grasp.
It spun and launched itself behind Mark.
Advanced Body Reconstruction-
The scales and portions of his fingers which had been scraped off were regenerated.
Mark turned around a second later.
The Ayena had disappeared.
Only a river of trees remained behind him.
As if the Monster had been swallowed by that river.
Elisa, who was good distance forward, muttered.
"The way... The way is blocked."
The crazed smile on Mark's face widened.
"Fuck this."
He extended both his palms towards the trees that had taken the role of a wall.
Immediately, three Great Fire Balls appeared.
They were slowly coated red.
"DON'T-"
The attack was shot, and a great explosion took place.
Mark was reminded of the impact of the Fire Spirit's attack on the Dungeon's Final Floor.
He clicked his tongue.
The smoke faded and,
"No... Damage?"
The trees didn't burn or break.
He took a step forward.
"STOP!" Elisa shouted. "I can tell because it happened to that spinning Monster." She felt the need to explain as she was convinced he wouldn't listen without a proper explanation. "That spinning Monster landed in there." She pointed at the trees behind Mark.
"And?"
"And it was swallowed by those trees. By the Forest."
"Swallowed?"
"Yes. Its body fought against the trees and branches, but its body was eventually crushed."
"Crushed? THAT body? Crushed by trees?"
Elisa nodded silently, a serious expression on her face.
"Then what? Are we supposed to just run endlessly? Cause I'm not doing that." Mark asked.
"Why not?"
"It feels like the opposite of what we should do."
"Feels?"
"Yes, feels." Mark answered.
The two stood unmoving, a good distance away from one another.
Between them, a restless Lioness took steps to the sides.
"What do you suggest then?"
"We're breaking out." Mark answered as he extended his hands towards the prison of trees.
[The Forest Of Yarnha is watching you.]
"The fuck is that supposed..." Mark whispered as he activated-
The next second, the ceiling opened up.
"That just won't do. Why won't you listen to my whims and desires, huh?"
An unfamiliar voice.
The three looked up.
"That's annoying. Do as I say, okay?" She said before letting out a smile.
Mark and Elisa had different reactions to the sudden appearance.
"Who are..."
Dark Corrupting Spear-
The attack was thrown, but it missed target.
The young woman scratched her head.
