"You're definitely blushing, Marionette~!" Lillian teased as she walked beside her.
After they all had woken up and cleaned up their campsite, they hastily began to make their way through this maze of a forest. And since waking up, Marionette had been unconsciously caressing a side of her neck.
Lillian watched as Marionette refused to et her gaze and glanced around at the surrounding trees.
She snickered as she clutched her hand. Since the chances that they would get lost again were pretty high, this was the best solution—in more ways than one.
"Oh co on~! It was just a little peck on the neck. Nothing too much to be flustered about~..." Lillian teased, finding this was a good mont to get her back until she thought of one to counter hers.
Just as Marionette was about to say sothing, their surrounding suddenly shifted.
The trees lost their vibrance and beca a monotonous grey. Their leaves were gone, and their branches were dried and shrivelled.
The grass beneath their feet had now disappeared. Dead and replaced with a dirt path.
Floating through the air was an ominous, dark grey fog that shrouded their vision to a degree. Not only that, but they seed to carry voices from afar as they washed over them.
Words like:
"What's up with this fog!?"
"It's so cold here..."
"Can't we have slept a little more...?"
Lillian recognised these voices belonging to people in the other classes. It seed that so had been able to reach this layer. But this led her to question: how far were they from them.
Were they farther ahead? Or were they further back? Or could it be that they are right next to us?
As she was thinking this, Marionette shook her from her daze and pointed towards the branches of a tree.
"I saw sothing leap across from it."
"... That so?" Lillian rubbed her chin, "Probably a spider then."
She then glanced back to the group and found Millis wandering over to a tree before placing her hand against it.
Suddenly, a sprout grew from the side of it, growing into a long, grey vine that fell to the ground and coiled.
After it was long enough, Millis caused it to detach from the tree before walking over.
Once she returned, Reph called out from the front, "Alright, everyone. Please grab hold of the vine and don't let go. Let's try and have none of us go missing and having to return back to the bus using the talisman."
Once he finished saying that, everyone orderly began to grab hold of the vine, passing it back for others to hold.
It eventually reached the back, where Lillian and Marionette were.
Lillian glanced at Marionette and asked:
"Would you like to hold it, or you?"
"... You can hold it." She answered and gave Lillian's hand a subtle squeeze.
The white-haired girl nodded and squeezed back.
And thus, they began to walk through the fog. Reph, who stood at the front, suddenly paused.
Swoosh...
The wind passed through, brushing against the group's hair. Not only that but for a split second, it blew the fog in front of them to the side.
Behind the greyish fog, the open maw of a large lizard was revealed. The inside of its mouth was a greyish red, and its skin/scales reflected the monotonous colour of the surroundings.
If Reph had wandered any further forward, he would've ended up in its mouth, which for so reason had no teeth.
"..." He stared at it, unfazed at the possible future and raised his hand towards it. His bare fingers were then suddenly equipped with luxurious-looking rings, supposedly from his spacial storage.
In the centre of his palm, a yellowish ball of light manifested itself into reality before being fired into the throat of the lizard.
However, in the split second that it took to create it and shoot, the lizard had realised the shift in looks it was getting.
It pounced forward, holes in its gums suddenly being replaced as dagger-like teeth sprang out from within.
But before it could snap its jaws over the Prince's head—
THUMP!
Stone pillars—on either side of the lizard—shot from the ground and slamd into it, causing it to pause mid-pounce.
Due to this, the ball of light entered through its mouth before exiting through the back of its head.
Blood poured through the hole in its mouth and flooded every crevice inside.
Its teeth beca stained, small red streams flowing between the gaps in its teeth and falling to the ground.
Its muscles—once tense—beca relaxed and limp. Its eyes, now blurred with death.
Reph lowered his hand and glanced towards Millis, who smiled at him, "No biggie."
He looked towards the monster before glancing around them, "Sure. But we will have to deal with the others around us."
Crawling through the fog in stubby legs and lowered bodies, more lizards approached with malicious looks in their black slit pupils.
There were around twenty of them. Ten on each side.
The group bunched up into the centre. Lillian smoothly walked over to Reph and whispered:
"Do you think we'll lose so people here?"
Reph raised an eyebrow at her, "Not if we get careless. These are only Rank D, after all. Nothing too much."
He then paused and thought for a mont. He then called out to the group, "Everyone but Vellen, Arius, and Roselle take care of the ten on the left, while the three ntioned plus take care of the others on the right."
Millis creakingly turned her head towards the Prince and said in a deadpan voice:
"Bruh... why am I included in this group?"
But she never got a response, for everyone had already splitted up to deal with their respective enemies.
Lillian stood before two snarling lizards that if compared to Beetle in size, were just around a tre or so short. She rubbed her chin as she watched them slowly circle her.
"Should I call out the Beetle?" From what she read from research articles, one may be around the sa strength as the Beetle—or maybe a bit lower.
She thought about this a bit more before glancing to the side and discovering the open jaws of a lizard several inches away from her. She then said...
Reviews
All reviews (0)