Chapter 23 – Haelley’s Predicament

Currently, Haelley had about half of her spiritual stat remaining which in her case was likely just mana.

When she opened her mouth again, a soft soothing tone flowed from her being. It was a gentle wordless melody that seeped into the air, the ground, and all living beings. And in my mind, I saw images of ancient forests filled with magical essences. My sense of unease was washed away by tranquility and peacefulness.

So beautiful! And I have the front row seat!

At the same time, I felt slumbering yet mighty power coursing through my fey body.

Was this what she meant by "awake forest"? This is amazing!

Since she was likely using two abilities at the same time, I figured I had to act fast before her mana completely dried out. The first thing I did was to raise a dome shaped net made of my vines. As promised, I had to protect Haelley and Smoothie from harm, otherwise there wasn't any purpose to this fight.

To my surprise, my vines were extremely responsive to my command just like extensions of my fey body. Knowing this, the moment those two Po-Hatorshi came close enough, hundreds upon hundreds of vines rose up into the sky and wrapped themselves around the two monsters. They didn't even have the chance to react.

Just like that, a living jungle had formed in the blink of an eye. The cost for me wasn't cheap either.

Crap, my spiritual stat.

My head was spinning and my vision nearly blacked out. Without wasting another moment, I began using [absorption].

It was a feast for me. With hundreds of sticky vines completely entangling them, I couldn't even see them bodies anymore other than just the tips of their mandibles. To secure the bindings on them even further, I did not hesitate to extend the roots of my clones and raise more vines.

Good fight. Thank you for the meal.

Seconds ticked on with no responses. It really felt anti-climatic for me. I thought they would put up a better fight. Perhaps, Haelley's singing was just that amazing.

"A single vine is weak but combined they are strong," I professed proudly.

"You're not going to feed them strawberries?"

"Why are you out again?"

"I was hoping you could get us a free ride. We'd be going to the beast country in style, no?"

"They're ugly. If we're not careful, they might try to eat us. Who's going to feed that thing?"

"Your choice. You still get to level up after killing one of them. As for the other one, if we're not going with a ride, let Haelley kill it. She would level up again."

"Just to be sure, there are no fifth evolution of Po-Hator's right? We're out of juice."

By now, Haelley's song without words had already came to a quiet stop with her eyes closed.

"The swarm has nearly passed. With three of their guardians down, their queen would leave us be. Just so you know, their queen can't fight because it follows a different path of evolution."

As we spoke, I saw the swarm changing their flight path from westward to northwestward. If they continued that way, they would still enter the human territories.

"It's too confusing for me. They should just have a single species name instead of one for each evolution."

Speaking of evolution, I received a notification. That meant one of them had died.

"Haelley, you can have the one to the left. It's still alive."

"Thank you, Berry!" She gleamed before she darted off.

Sploosh.

"Berry, I'm stuck," her expression signaled a severe distress.

The two of us just stared at her, one leg crouched on top and one leg sunk inside the head of the Po-Hatorshi. Her wings were glued to the sticky vines that had wrapped the monster tightly.  

Thankfully there were no needles or thorns grown on those vines. I wouldn't know what to do if she bled.  

"Smoothie, what am I supposed to do with her? We can't just pluck her feathers, right?"

"Use [absorption] around her."

"If I mess up, she'll end up buck naked."

"Berry, help!" Haelley cried out.

I wasn't sadistic but she looked really funny in that pose. She was like a greedy fruit fly that got nabbed by its food, a lotus wrapped sticky rice.

"Coming!" I hollered.

I used [absorption] on the nearby vines. This allowed Smoothie and I to land next to Haelley without getting stuck ourselves.

I asked, "Just to be sure, do you grow new feathers?"

"Very slow. Be nice, pretty please," she begged with teary eyes.

"Smoothie, she should be able to use [rapid transport] to get out, right?"

"Normally, yes. Right now, she doesn't have mana, and even if she did, the sticky fluid would still cling onto her feathers."

"Let's wait until her mana recovers. I don't think she'll be able to fly for a while either way."

"True, and there's one other way. We can wait for heavy rain to come," Smoothie remarked with a shrug.

I nodded, "Good idea, let me evolve first then. I wonder what choices I have this time."

"Don't look at the paths just yet!" Smoothie warned while grabbing onto my arm.

I was a bit perplexed by her slightly aggressive behavior.

"Why not?"

"You said you don't want to be a demon, no? And you want a transformation type ability, no?"

"Is this related? I thought we practiced plenty of transformations already."

During our long journey, while Haelley was sleeping, Smoothie had helped me transform countless times into various appearances. Sometimes I was wingless, sometimes my skin was red. There was also this one time I even had a voluptuous bust! It was just that one time because breasts were useless out here and I felt awkward to be the only one to have them. In any case, I always retained humanoid forms when transforming due to the limitations on my abilities.

"This is related. Evolution paths you're allowed to choose from cannot be altered once you have seen them, especially the unique ones. If you don't want to end up with all "evil" evolutions, you should hold off and help Haelley."

"Wah!? It's like that? Haelley, fear not, I shall save you right this moment! I want to be a strawberry angel, pretty please!"

"Mother..." she face palmed, "Your selfish desires are leaking out. I'm afraid there's no saving you."

"Why? I'm doing my best so I don't end up becoming a demon."

"Ahno, help or no?"

There was no time to hesitate. I decided to just help Haelley as much as I could right now.

Bit by bit, I used [absorption], almost like an eraser to remove as much as I could without breaking down her feathers. Minutes passed, and then hours passed while Smoothie watched me work tirelessly. For parts that required surgical precision, I left those pieces stuck on her until we could find a water source to wash them off.

Once she was free, she hopped out.

By now, the insect swarms had long passed and the sun was setting just above the horizon.

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. Haelley, please don't do that again."

"I'm sorry," she lowered her head apologetically.

"Can you fly?"

I was a bit concerned about her food sources. Normally she flew up into the sky and sniped her prey with [rapid transport]. Without her ability to fly, she would have to find other ways to satisfy her immense appetite.

"No, wings too wet."

"Haelley, you'll have to make do with Po-Hatorshi as your dinner. You won't waste food, right?"

With three of those things around, she wouldn't starve for weeks to come as long as their flesh didn't spoil too quickly.

"Eugh."

"No worries, I'll supply you with nectar," I smirked watching the disgusted look on her face.

"Mother, you should go around to see if there are any lakes or rivers around. That would be the quickest way to get us moving again."

"Why? We're not in any rush."

"I feel like we might have pursuers soon."

"I didn't do anything bad. I was a good plant!" I protested. I was certain we had avoided all the human settlements to the west.

"It wasn't you. I don't know the details but we just have to keep going north."

"Should we head northeast instead?"

"No, we want to avoid heading east at the moment."

"I agree with Smoothie. When I was young, my mother said there are terrifying monsters in that land," Haelley added.

Aren't we treading a fine line right here? To the west are the humans. To the east are dangerous monsters. East was also where the insect swarm came from. A single encounter was more than enough for me. But, isn't this a good opportunity for her to level up?

"Haelley, don't you need to level up a bunch? Let's get you to evolve too!" I suggested.

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