Chapter 122 - Colossal Trees (Part 2)

Livia was very frustrated and stressed about being humiliated, but Luke managed to calm her down. Since the trio could return at any moment with reinforcements, the half-wolf and the proud Elf had to get out of that place as soon as possible.

"Come on up." Luke said, turning his back to the girl and slightly leaning forward.

"What are you doing?" She asked and stepped back shyly. 

"That forest looks pretty big, and I think it's more advantageous for us to stay on higher ground. Do you think you can climb it on your own?"

The girl glanced up briefly and saw the colossal trees that surrounded her. 

"If we stay here, a good archer can attack us, and we won't even be able to see where the attack came from." Luke continued to explain. He actually didn't want to stay on the firm ground because, in addition to the mud puddles and small ponds of standing water, a mist was also beginning to form.

If the Sensory Magician who made the presentation in Oukiwa could also teleport thousands of people at once, the half-wolf didn't doubt anything else, not even that she could control the weather in the forest.

"Sigh... it's okay. I agree with you..." said Livia, disappointed and climbed onto the half-wolf's back and hugged him tightly as he began to use his hands to climb.

Since the duration of Luke's <Invisible Trail> skill had already run out, he needed to be a little more careful. When they got close to the thinner logs at thirty meters high, Luke knew that this was the perfect spot to rest for a while.

"Do you know anything about where we are?" Luke asked the girl because he had no idea.

Livia thought for a while, looked around and replied with a smile, "I have no idea." 

When she said that, Luke almost regretted saving her because now he had neither the bird nor any idea how to find Nathalia. The jungle was dense, and although it was afternoon, almost no light penetrated through the canopies. On top of all that, the screams and roars had almost completely stopped after the crash caused by the <Thunder Razor> skill.

"But I can try to find out..." Livia completed her own answer.

Luke looked at her, hopeful, "What do you mean?"

The girl smiled, proud of herself, and pulled out something inside the armor lining her right trough. "That doesn't always work, but it has gotten me out of many a jam. I didn't try to use it before because I didn't think it was necessary."

Livia's haughtiness did not let her confess that she did not think to use her trick because she was frightened by the forest environment. Now in the palm of her hand was a scroll. She opened the parchment and revealed there was a magic circle drawn on it. 

"My great-uncle Manilyn who made it... he's a weird fellow, but he's also the most brilliant mind I've ever known. Now, all I have to do is do this..." Then Livia drew her sword from one hand.

Luke held the girl's wrist. "What are you doing?" Neither of them carried a purse, and Luke had only three simple healing potions in his inventory, which he didn't want to spend on nonsense.

"Trust me." said Livia, looking confidently into the man's eyes.

Although he was hesitant, Luke released her wrist. Soon after, the Elf used her sword to slash lightly at the palm of his left hand. Then she closed her hand and let the blood drip onto the paper.

At first, the paper was just soaked with blood; however, after a few moments, the paper glowed, and from it appeared a magical hologram of what appeared to be a map of the forest. Just above the map was the name of the place. 

"Skdødsgen Forest..." Livia read aloud as she began to analyze the map.

Still, a little shocked by the blood and parchment thing, Luke inquired, "Isn't that the place of legends?"

"Oh... you're smarter than you look. Yes, that's exactly what I thought."

"If it is as the legends say, the only dangers here are not only the humans..." As if it were the work of fate, a red dot began to glow on the magic map at that very moment. "What is that?" The half-wolf inquired.

"I don't know... that never happened the other times I used it. That was only meant to show the region around the scroll."

"What if it's Nathalia?" The thought crossed Luke's mind.

They had nothing else to do and didn't even know what the time limit was for the test or when all the birds had already been killed, so they quickly had to decide.

Offhand, they headed in the direction that the map pointed the red dot. It was difficult for Luke to carry Livia on his back, but he didn't find her totally useless now.

As they approached, loud battle noises could be heard. The unmistakable sounds of retinires caused by the meeting of blades rang out from the thick trunks and up into the tall branches.

Luke stopped, looked down and saw not only Nathalia but also Shiro and Jilly. For a moment, he almost smiled with relief that he had managed to find the three, but he saw that the trio was facing a group of men, who had three archers, two swordsmen, a tank and even a wizard. 

Shiro was being pressed, and his metal armor was barely enough to withstand the attacks coming from many directions. Nathalia had an arrow stuck in her left shoulder, and Jilly looked for useful spells in her grimoire. The two girls were only still alive because Luke blocked as many attacks as possible.

"You're tough~ How long are you going to act this way? Just hand it over!" One of the archers shouted at Shiro. The big guy was carrying a golden bird hidden inside his armor.

"Why don't you leave? There are hundreds of birds like that in the forest." Nathalia shouted and took advantage of Shiro's protection to remove the arrow from her shoulder. "Agggh!" she howled in pain.

"Bitch... do you know how big this forest is?"

Right after the man's questioning, the enemy wizard took advantage of the moment of distraction to use one of the Abilities from his grimoire. A blue fireball appeared over the battlefield, and it was more than a meter in diameter. Tank and the sworders quickly retreated from the front line.

"Son of a bitch, you were just distracting us.." said Nathalia and started walking backwards, startled.