Chapter 21: Bargain
We finally get to our destination, the Root of the Abyssal Forest.
Purple grass, brown dirt, black leaves, brown bark with blotches of ominous white and green. Simple, small, and weak trees that look like birches fill this forest. Huge mushrooms glow a light blue and bring a little light to this darkness. Plenty of red and yellow fireflies buzzing around. Frogs croak on a lake near us. A faint weird sll on the air makes
think of "death".
The sky is filled with galaxies and nebulas, none are familiar to . The ground is completely broken and full of holes, we can see the abyss through them just like the chira sky lands. This place is a mishmash of sky lands clumped together.
On the distance, huge roots with the sa ominous blotches can be seen clumping up and moving upwards until they disappear on a black mist.
The next levels are called Trunk of the Abyssal Forest and Crown of the Abyssal Forest. Hopefully, we will never go to these floors, the crown, more specifically.
Ciel flops down on the grass and laughs.
"That was horrible," she says with a smile.
I raise one of my eyebrows at her.
"Yes, nothing like running for our lives in the morning, a rather pleasant and fun experience," I say.
"I know you are being sarcastic but I do enjoy things like these, it's why I was born," Hana says with a satisfied grin on her face.
"Don't complain, Wolfy, you chose both of them, it was pretty obvious how they would turn out to be," Alissa says, flopping down beside .
"Ei, you are the one who recomnded them to ," I say.
She smirks.
"Anyway, we weren't really in that much danger, you can always use [Gate] to send us to a safe place," Ciel adds.
"I know you enjoyed it too, Wolfy," Roxanne grins.
"No, I did not."
"I know you enjoyed carrying Lina," she continues.
"Yes, that I did," I smile.
Lina smiles shyly.
"I... enjoyed that too, even the running," she says.
"Even you!"
It's almost mid-day but these floors are shrouded in an eternal night. After resting and cleaning our sweat we have a quick lunch.
I put an extra point into [Blessing Magic], with this we can use [Rainbow Shield], we will need it here. With this spell on every once in a while a small rainbow forms near us. I split the girls extra points between [ntal Resistance] and [Pain Resistance], thought it's not much it will help a bit.
I summon a spirit elental and a light elental. The spirit elental is going to circle around us as early warning, unfortunately Alissa's [Sense Presence] is useless on this floor.
"Ah, the nostalgic and also horrible feeling of not knowing when the enemy will attack," Hana says.
"We got too used to Alissa's [Sense Presence]. It really is too convenient," Ciel says, twitching and looking around.
"So things we only appreciate when we lose them," I say, giving a kiss to Alissa's hand.
"My ears and nose still work, you know.
"That..." I try to speak but I actually forgot she has better senses than us, I also relied too much on her [Sense Presence].
We walk surrounding Roxanne, Alissa, and the light elental. Aoi decided to ride the light elental, apparently her hair is very, very soft.
Roxanne is a bit happy and anxious, there's a monster here who has very valuable materials for her potions.
We move closer to the gigantic roots while being vaguely aware of our position on the map, the terrain is far too complicated. We all tie ropes to each other, better be safe than sorry when soone falls into the abyss.
The spirit elental picks up sothing.
"Stop," I whisper.
I point to the direction where the signal ca from. We all huddle up and look out for every direction, the signal is a trap, the attack will most likely co from the opposite direction.
Out of a bush a shadow slides out into the grass, Symbol of Darkness, a threat level 6 monster, but only if you are caught by surprise. I cast [Spirit Light] and throw it into the shadow, it slows down and I see it tremble.
Ethereal tendrils shoot out of the shadow and hit my arms. Horrible pain but it's much less than the dark bullet from the Shadow Satyrs. Lina whimpers, she must be fighting another.
I charge forward and pierce my sword into the shadow, it enters deeply into the ground. The shadow grows out of the ground and tries to engulf , I imdiately dodge back and leave my sword there, the shadow is stuck.
I draw my dagger and wait. An arrow pierces it and tendrils shoot upwards, trembling.
Lina is fighting one alongside Ciel. They are pounding and slashing it, I feel they are in quite a bit of pain. Hana is just starting to fight hers, Alissa pinned it with an arrow. Roxanne is casting a long spell, she won't be much help, these monsters are resistant to magic.
The tendrils of my monster stop trembling and they shoot out towards , I dodge but one hits my head.
I see Alissa sprawled on the ground, tears running down her cheek, her hand clawing on her face as she goes insane. She's dying, the monster is eating her mind. A filthy man approaches her, he pulls down her pants...
FUCK YOU!
I dash forward and stab my dagger on the shadow repeatedly. Tendrils hit my chest and make
stop breathing. I win the endurance battle and the monster tries to retreat from , it can't run further than where my sword is.
I move back and catch my breath.
"[Firestorm]!"
Roxanne casts a very contained firestorm sowhere, it burns specifically where the monster is. I can't hear shrieks but I can "feel" them, a horrible pain and darkness over my heart.
The light elental hugs
and the pain goes away, I lt on her arms and nearly fall asleep. The sound of a fireball hitting the grass and exploding gets
back on the fight. When I got out of the way Aoi fired a few towards my monster.
Lina recovers her breath and moves to my side.
"You okay?" She asks.
"Now I am," I answer and break the elental's hug, she really is soft.
We dash towards the shadow and repeatedly pound it down, slowly breaking apart its existence. The closer the light elental gets the more it trembles, it desperately tries to pull out my sword from the ground but it has little physical strength.
It tries to send tendrils towards us but it misses our heads this ti. I intensify my stabbing and a tendril hits my heart, I imdiately feel cold and sluggish, I almost pass out. The light elental touches my shoulder and I feel two opposite forces battling inside of , it's not pleasant.
Lina increases her speed seeing my suffering and the ground gets littered with small craters. The shadow loses power and the elental wins the battle for my heart.
The tendrils disappear and the shadow "cracks
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