Chapter 360: Titus's True Strength

After taking down the three trees Joshua looked towards Titus to see if there were any other hostile plants in the nearby area. The large gorilla closed his eyes and sensed all of the plants in the area before turning to the group and nodding to show that they were out of danger.

"Well that was definitely different. I wasn't expecting to see trees as a legit threat." Adrian said with a sigh as he sheathed one of his swords while keeping the other out just in case they were put under attack again. "Going to have to work on my lumberjack skills a bit before I accidently cut one and have it fall on top of us."

"Well at least they don't have scary faces on them or something that would just make things creepier." Julia said getting some nods from some of the other members with Robin clearly being the one that agreed with her the most. From what Joshua could tell from the fight Julia was most likely going to be their most valuable member in this territory since flames seemed to be the best way to handle the trees. Robin's powerful lightning spell could destroy a tree, but it took a while to channel and only seemed to hit one target. Brook's moisture absorbing spell was useful, but also took time to use.

Julia's ability to control her flames and keep them from spreading all throughout the forest would be key to clearing the territory going forward. The other key in Joshua's opinion seemed to be Titus. The giant gorilla would have to act as their guide going through the forest since he was the only one that could tell which plants were normal and which were corrupted. Looking around the area Joshua could already see a headache coming his way with the large variety of different plants in the area. Trees weren't the only things that they would have to look out for and he now fully understood why all beast stayed away from the forest. It's one thing to enter the territory of another beast, but an entirely different thing when your entire surroundings could be out to kill you.

Titus walked over towards the tree that Joshua had cut down and slammed his fist into it. For a moment everyone in the group looked over curiously to see what the giant ape was up to. For a moment Joshua swore that he could see a faint glow emanating from Titus's hands before the tree started to shrivel in on itself. After a few seconds Titus pulled back and a small grin appear on his usually stern face. "What was that all about?" Lilly asked since she was just as curious as everyone else in the group.

Titus turned back to look at the group before shrinking in size a bit so that he wouldn't take up to much space while they were outside of battle. "I was absorbing the properties of this plant so that the plants that I spawn with my spores in the future will be able to mimic it. Having plants that can regenerate so quickly will be useful." The gorilla explained before turning his attention back to the other destroyed trees and repeating the same process.

"I wonder why Joshua isn't able to tell the trees apart like Titus can." Henry said with a thoughtful look. "I mean he should be able to sense the aura inside of them from the way that his abilities work so that should be able to distinguish the difference."

"That isn't how I'm able to feel the difference between the normal plant life in the area and the corrupted ones." Titus said after he finished absorbing the energy from the destroyed trees. "I can tell the difference because I'm not able to exert any type of control over the corrupted plants."

"Since you can only control nearby plants you have to get close enough for your abilities to work. Otherwise you aren't able to tell the difference from the normal plants and the corrupted ones. That makes sense." Lilly said with a smile. "We will be depending on you to lead the way this time around."

Titus simply nodded back before stepping next to Joshua showing that he would be following alongside him from now on. Lilly went ahead and summoned Cinder out to ride on and protect the back line just in case they got surrounded. Cinder was in her ice form this time around since her flames would spread too easily if used in the area. Freezing the plants could be just as deadly though and far easier to keep from effecting the entire forest. From what Titus had said earlier only portions of the forest were being corrupted and it seemed like the rest of the forest was trying to resist whatever was causing the issue.

Joshua once again took the lead, but was a little bit more alert this time around. He kept his scale blade at the ready just in case they would end up coming under attack. It was a good thing he did so because it didn't take long for the action to kick up once again. This time around it wasn't the trees in the nearby area that tried to attack them, but instead it was a bunch of shrub bushes that started shooting out thorns in their direction. Titus hadn't had to point them out since Joshua noticed them moving ahead of time and responded with an energy slash that cut down all of the thorns.

This time around they were up against multiple small thorn bushes that seemed out of place in a rain forest like setting, but Joshua was getting used to the environment not making any sense anymore. When he observed the bushes he saw the name corrupted thorn bush along with the level of seventy-six and only one star by its name. With this Joshua could already tell they were weaker than the trees, but they came in far larger numbers. At the moment there were a little over a dozen bushes in the area that were all waving their leaves and sending thorns in their direction.

Jayce stepped up front and started blocking the thorns with his shield wall while Julia got to work burning down the bushes. They didn't take much more than one of her powerful fireballs to take them down due to their smaller size and large amount of leaves that caught fire easily. With each bush she took down she would use the flames that lingered behind to empower her next attack to the point where she was taking down two or three bushes with one spell near the end. The rest of the group just saved their energy since it was primarily a long ranged match up and they didn't want to waste too much energy pushing through the forest.

When all of the bushes were taken care of Titus repeated what he did with the trees and absorbed the energy of the bushes. It wasn't nearly as much as he got from the trees but any little power up could help. As they pushed through the forest they kept coming across different types of plants that would always try to take them by surprise. Different types of trees that all tried to surround and smash them with their branches, vines that struck out like snakes from the tree limbs above, bushes that would attack from distance. The whole forest seemed out to get them the entire time so they were always on edge.

One thing that Joshua noticed was the fact that the corrupted plants always seemed to be around each other and not on their own. They would go long stretches of walking without running into a single corrupted plant then all of a sudden they could be surrounded by them once they stepped into certain areas. It was clear from this alone that the corruption wasn't spreading from plant to plant like Joshua had initially thought, but instead it seemed like something was causing certain areas of the forest to be corrupted while leaving the rest alone.

It was while Joshua was thinking on this fact that Titus suddenly stopped the group. "There is a large amount of corrupted plants ahead. More than we've faced all at once up to this point." He said while growling in the direction. "Let me handle things this time. I need to see just how well the new properties of my spores will work."

Joshua looked to Lilly only to see her excitement at the situation. He then turned back to Titus. "Go ahead big guy. It'll give Julia a bit of a rest anyways." He said with a smile. It was starting to get late in the evening and they would need to find a place to camp for the night soon. He needed everyone well rested so that they can keep on their toes while making their way through such a dangerous area.

Titus had a scary grin on his face once he got the go ahead to do what he wanted in the upcoming fight. He marched in front of the rest of the group causing the plants that were up ahead to start to grow agitated and give away their position. Titus grew in size before pounding his chest and letting out a challenging roar. His fur started to stand on end before spores poured out and filled the surrounding area. The nearby trees that weren't corrupted started to move in response and Joshua could see that they were following Titus's will. The trees under his control started clashing with the corrupted ones nearby while the vines started ripping the corrupted bushes out of the ground.

Joshua could see that Titus's spores were effecting the controlled plants in a way that made them stronger. Whenever the tree limbs broke they would regenerate at extreme speeds. They even started growing thorns along their bark that gave them an upside against the corrupted enemies. The thorns would shoot out shredding any corrupted vines nearby while the trees continued to slam their branches into each other.

Titus didn't stay idle while all of this was happening either. He let out another roar and controlled some of the nearby vines to wrap around his arms like massive gauntlets. They hardened and grew thorns on the exterior portion so that they wouldn't harm Titus. He then jumped into action and started slamming his armored arms into the massive corrupted trees. The force of his blows were more than enough to tear through the trees only after a couple of hits. Since the trees were being held up by the ones that Titus was controlling they weren't able to defend themselves and became easy kills for Titus.

While Joshua set back and watched the whole thing the only thing he could think was how ridiculous the gorilla's strength was when surrounded by plants. He was a one man army in every sense of the phrase and was capable of turning the tide in any battles they had going into the future. It didn't take long for Titus to finish off all of the corrupted trees and other plants in the area clearing out the area of any dangers. It was the perfect spot to rest for the night and give the group a chance to discuss what was going on in the forest.