Chương 286: Chapter 269. 4 Vs A Forest

" To the left!" Princess Alice called out another fly trap coming after us, the only issue is that all 4 of us were already engaged in fighting a plant, I turned quickly even still and raised my hand to the sky." Holy Flame!" A burst of golden flames jumped from the palm of my hand and split into 5 smaller flames. I directed them to land on each of the plants that we were fighting. /BOOM! /" RARRGHHH!" A simultaneous landing of all 5 flames made a somewhat loud, explosive booming sound.

After that, the plants screeched almost as if they were in pain. I would almost feel bad watching them burn up if not for them trying to either eat us or melt us with their corrosive saliva. The Holy Flames consumed them regardless of any emotions I might have about it. Once they were all firmly burning, we regrouped at the front of our little pathway we're making, it was currently surrounded by destroyed fly traps and cut vines. We've made decent progress, but it's been a fight for every inch forward."

My Love, you shouldn't have used your Magic yet." Sarah said something I was also thinking about." I know, but it was a rough situation, we needed a bit of a break anyways, how many times have we engaged with these plants?"" Too many. Seriously! It's never ending!" Princess Alice couldn't hold back her frustrations and shouted how she felt. Everyone was feeling it at this point.

If not for the fact they were man-eating plants and we needed to use swords instead of a lawn mower, the last hour of our lives resembled mowing a lawn instead of actual battles. But still, we're only around halfway to him." From now on, we need to be careful with your Mana Output, Darling. Even though I can also harm him, he's only really shown concern since you started controlling your flames."" It's like he forgot that he tried targeting you earlier. Maybe we should keep that in the back of our minds?

If I keep his attention and give him something to really worry about, that could actually open the door for you to hit him."" Even still, if you can harm him with your flames, that should end the fight anyways. I mean, look at what happens when those flames touch any of his plants." We talked in between catching our breaths as we all were eyeing the real opponent we were heading towards. He's still just standing there, silently watching.

It's strange though, ever since we were able to rescue the hostages, he's been almost too quiet. He was more than happy to gloat and call us "inferior", when he first showed up. It makes me think that he's still got something up his sleeve... Something he's working on even right now... Or at least that's the feeling he's giving me. /RUMBLE! /" More... Great..." Princess Alice took a few deep breaths before we readied ourselves for the next batch of plants.

I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible to save the land at this point, so many have popped out of the ground already. Maybe afterwards, Anna can do something with her Goddesses, but that will be up to her if she wants to do it. /CRACK! /" They're not fly traps this time?" I spoke in surprise more than any fear, the small vines that bound me earlier have come bursting out of the ground. They're pouring out of the ground like a bush. More and more came pouring out until it looked almost like a small forest.

It'd be a strange forest though, since the black vines have begun wiggling around like sea kelp being shifted by ocean waves." That seems unpleasant." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it." Shouldn't I just hit it with Holy Flames? I'm around 35% right now, so I could..." I offered to quickly eliminate the vines. Because to be honest... I was finding the way they wiggled kind of gross." I vote yes to that."

Princess Alice seemed to be of the same mind as me." Okay, but we do really need to save your mana for later, Darling. Remember, this is the easy part."" I'm really going to enjoy when this is over." With Anna and Sarah's own words on the subject, I began to channel the mana and aimed at the next obstruction to our goal." Holy Flame!" /BOOM! / The Holy Flame landed, and the explosion seemed bigger somehow? Is the Skill Leveling Up after all of my uses of it in these past 2 fights?

It'll be nice if that was the case. The forest didn't seem to have any resistance to the flames, just like every other plant that I've hit with my flames today. But now...." They're covering each other?"" That's what it looks like." Princess Alice and Sarah said what everyone was thinking. The vines that were on fire were being wrapped by the surrounding vines to extinguish the fires." Well, that's new." The surprise of the vines made me voice my amazement.

Why can't plants just let themselves be burned like back in my world?" Should we just go around it instead? If we defend it, they won't be able to bind us like they did to Matthew, right?" Princess Alice offered an idea. Somehow, I feel like my name was emphasized when she said it, but maybe I'm just imagining it?" That could work, but why are they doing this now?"" What do you mean, Anna?" Sarah and Anna also seemed puzzled by this new behavior. Why now?

I mean, the fly traps have been screaming bloody murder for the past hour." I think I need to destroy this stuff. I don't think that new behavior means anything good." The girls nodded to my words. I decided to try something a bit different than last time. I placed my hand in front of me and began to cast Holy Flame. /Woosh! / The flame grew into my hand, now with that done I began to shift the flame into a long thin shape like a spear." Good." I was happy that it worked." Is that it?

You're going to use it like a spear now?"" No, I'm going to do this!" /Swoosh! / The flame "spear" grew bigger and bigger while still remaining thin. In time, I had a flame spear that could clear a football field. And now, I stepped in front of the girls and turned it sideways so I can swing it with a decent amount of force." Ah. I see." SWING! Sarah's realization came and then I swung the spear like a baseball bat. / WOOSH! / It looked like a hot knife going through butter, the forest was cut in half widthwise.

That's when I saw it, 5... What looked like, decent-sized pods were in the middle of the forest. They looked to be the size of a yoga ball or something similar. It seemed that my swing was too high for them. As the flames worked through the vines, I could swear the pods were getting taller." What are they?"" The 3rd surprise, if I had to guess." Princess Alice was surprised to see the pods. I couldn't help but say the first thing that came to my mind." A-Are they getting bigger?"

Sarah seemed to think the same thing that I did. That tells me that I'm not crazy." They're growing, not only that, but they're also... pulsating?" Anna's eyes gave us more information that I wasn't happy to hear, I decided it was better to take another swing at destroying them before they finished growing." Holy Flame!" I fired another Holy Flame and split it into 5 smaller flames to hit them all in one go. /CRACK! / More vines shot from the ground and my flames were blocked by them."

Okay, now I really want to destroy them. Whatever it is, he wants them protected."" That doesn't mean anything good. Let's move in closer and destroy them quickly." Sarah was of the same mind as me. With that, the 4 of us began to run forward to the pods. /RUMBLE! /" It can never just be easy! Can it!?" I couldn't help but ask a stupid question as 4 fly traps came bursting out of the ground as well. I'd wonder why, but the fact that he hasn't taken his eyes off of us, I can see why he's doing it.

I could feel myself smile, if he cares this much, it's going to suck badly for him when we break those pods. I ready Scarlet to cut the plant that still hadn't targeted me as the girls did the same." Let's do this quick!" With my words, we all jumped to cut the stems of the plants, thankfully, that worked out well for us. The plants didn't seem to want to attempt anything... Like they just wanted to take my attention...!" Holy Flame!" I didn't like what I just thought, so I blasted the pods since I had a free shot.

Thankfully, when I split them, the speed of the flames increased. /Boom! / They also hit the po- /CRACK! /" RAAGHH!" Or at least I thought they did, 4 plants jumped out of the ground and coiled around the pods. Unfortunately, though, there were 5 pods on the ground. One was burning and it even burst open. Green fluid spilled out. It looked like something else was in there. We all landed back on the ground, and I turned to Anna." Anna, what's spilling out of that pod?"

Anna used her eyes to see and what she told me confused me even more than when the forest popped out of the ground." It's thicker than the sap from the plants... It's like actual blood... There's something in the fluid... It... It looks like viscera? And... Bone?"" He... He's growing people?" /CRACK! / My question was about to be answered as one of the pods had a giant crack appear on it. No... Not pods... Eggs!