Chapter 275 The Cursed Forest Retaliates

Lee Seng reached into the mouth. He could see the rock shark's mouth slowly forcing its mouth shut. Lee Seng grunted as his whole arm was now in the mouth of a corrupted rock shark.

'Come on!' Lee Seng thought. He clamped his hand and felt the orb disappear from his grasp. 'Shit.' Lee Seng cursed.

"Move now! It's getting out of my grip!" Halys shouted. Lee Seng grunted as he jumped and grabbed the orb. The grinding noise of rocks shouted at him as he tried to pull it.

"COME ON!" Lee Seng grunted. The mouth released as it clamped down. Lee Seng pulled backwards, pulling away. The black-purple orb pulled back into the rock shark's mouth as Lee Seng tumbled away. The small rock sharks took their chance and bite him like piranhas. He yelped in pain as the aura quickly burned them away. The rock shark flew back into the ground.

The screams of the rock shark echoed all around them. Lee Seng jumped onto his feet, pushing away small flames.

"It's moving straight for General!" Ysa told them. Lee Seng turned and watched as the ground erupted in dirt. Halys dodged to the side as the rock shark chomped down. Vedi wasted no time and blitzed straight for the rock shark. Shadows collected into his fists as he quickly lashed both of his arms like a whip towards the rock shark. The shadows wrapped around the rock shark as Vedi quickly arced his arms upwards, slamming the rock shark onto the ground.

Lee Seng hopped at another chance to pull the corrupted orb out of it. He ran towards the shark as Halys quickly held its mouth open with his telekinetic grip.

"Just like I thought, I can hold it!" Halys grunted. "Hurry!" Lee Seng slashed horizontally as he slid onto his bottom. Gold and black flames erupted on the monster as it began to shriek. Lee Seng quickly jumped onto his feet, sliding to a stop.

"Did I get it?" Lee Seng asked.

"The corrupted orb only loosened!" Ysa told him.

"Just my luck." Lee Seng sheathed his blade and sprinted forward. HJe could feel Dark Matter creeping over his mouth. Strands of Dark Matter attached themselves to his tear ducts. He dropped and slid to a stop in front of the rock shark's mouth. He pushed himself in about to his shoulders and wrapped his hands around the orb. Gold energy poured into the corrupted orb. The shark started to hiss as smaller sharks flew at Lee Seng.

"Ysa! Victoria! Keep the small ones off us!" Halys commanded. Victoria lifted her hands. Her hair whipped into water as she flicked her hand to the side.

"Roger." Victoria and Ysa answered. Ysa pulled the gun out, yellow energy pouring into it and began to shoot. Energized bullets flew straight into the small sharks as Halys and Vedi continued to hold the rock shark.

"Hurry kid!" Vedi's voice strained. "I don't know how long I got left in me! These sharks are annoying me!" Lee Seng grunted as he continued to watch gold energy pour into the orb. The orb began to crack as waves of water and energized bullets flew at the sharks. The huge rock shark's mouth started to loosen.

"Argh!" Halys shouted as he pulled his arms further away. The rock shark's mouth started to crack. The orb cracked more as Lee Seng's mind was filled with an image. He could sense two large sources of energy. One of them was really close.

"Two large energy sources! One towards Group 3-3! One towards Group 2!" Lee Seng shouted.

"Group 1 is here!" Ysa shouted.

"What do you need us to do?" A voice asked.

"Go assist Group 3-3!" Halys instructed.

"Will you guys be alright?" The voice asked.

"Be careful!" Lee Seng shouted. The orb shattered as Halys ripped the rock shark in half. "Conqueror is at 3-3!"

"Roger! We'll go ahead!" The voice spoke. Group 1-1 and 1-2 quickly flew past Halys and the others as Lee Seng stood up. Lee Seng watched as gold light rippled in all directions, burning a small area of corruption.

"What now?" Vedi asked.

"Rendezvous with 3-3!" Halys ordered.

"Roger!" The group started towards the direction of 3-3.

'It knows we came to fight it. I hope the other one isn't as tough.' Lee Seng thought.

Keng and Ritsuka followed after Lady Vix'i. She had split the groups into smaller groups so they could sweep the area quicker.

"Hear anything? See anything?" Zixin asked Keng. Keng looked around, shaking his head.

"I don't sense anything." Keng told him. "I'm not as perceptive as Lee Seng is."

"Argh, this is gonna take forever." Zixin complained.

"Don't complain, Zixin." Nabi told him from above. She was scanning above, hoping they would come across a creepy tree like last time, but nothing seemed to catch her eye. "This is quicker than I'd like to be going, but someone will eventually see the curse."

"What form does it even take anyways?" Ritsuka asked.

"Anything, really." Keng answered. "It was a cursed dying tree. It could be anything in this forest."

"Let's just hope the curse didn't progress enough to mutate and move." Lady Vix'i told them.

"Can it do that?" Keng asked.

"If given enough energy to feed off of." Lady Vix'i nodded. "It'll become mobile." Keng and Ritsuka's faces soured. "That's the last thing we want to happen. Especially if it takes form as one of the monsters."

"Ents spotted on Group 2-3!" A female voice spoke.

"Copy that." Lady Vix'i answered.

"What in the gods is that?" A male voice shouted. Sounds of grunts were heard followed by a loud slam noise to the left.

"We're going this way." Lady Vix'i motioned. "Nabi, can you see where the ent is?" A large set of trees fell as a large, bulky set of trees raised slightly above the treeline.

"It's clearing the forest! This way!" Nabi pressed forward as the others followed after her.

"Will you be okay?" Keng looked at Ritsuka. Ritsuka studied Keng's face for awhile before nodding. He could tell Keng was nervous.

"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. We got plenty of help." Ritsuka answered. Keng looked away, simply nodding. They quickly entered the destroyed opening of trees. Small ents tried to hold other Foxes as they easily ripped out of their grasps.

"Help!" A male Fox shouted. He was being pressed against the large ent's body, merging with it.

"It's putting allies into its body?" Zixin snarled. "Way to make this harder than it has to be!" Zixin started forward when Lady Vix'i threw her arm up.

"This is group 3-2, Vedi's voice." Vedi's voice came through the halo. "Group 3 has engaged with unknown entities we think are related to the curse. Requesting backup!"

"Group 2-1," Lady Vix'i said. She watched the ent as he tried to snatch another Fox from the sky. "We've encountered a strange phenomena as well! Some of our men have been captured by corrupted ents!" The ground rippled with large tree roots as Lady Vix'i and Nabi quickly threw up a force field.

"Group 1-1, Chimera speaking. We will split ourselves to assist accordingly! Sub units 1 will go towards Lady Vix'i. Sub units 2 and 3 will head to Group 3!" Chimera said.

"Roger." Vedi spoke.

"Roger." Lady VIx'i spoke. "We'll need to release our allies before we can fully attack it! Hold it down so Keng has an opportunity to cleanse it!"

"Roger!" Group 2 shouted. Keng could feel chime noises going off everywhere. Just as a chime went off, roots would follow after it. It was sporadic but it had an odd pattern. Ritsuka moved into Keng's view, Obsidian Glass forming from the gray billowing fog.

"Complete Black Void." Ritsuka spoke the spell in Japanese. Obsidian Glass solidified in his hands as void covered a large area around Ritsuka. Large black swords flew up, piercing the roots as they continued to chime all around them.

"You see the pattern, too?" Keng asked.

"Kinda," Ritsuka answered him. "This wastes a lot more DM than I wanted to, but at least I can keep up with the roots."

"I'll clear a way for you." Zixin pounded his fists together. Flames escaped his mouth as he moved past Lady Vix'i.

"Nabi and I will support you guys. Clear the way for Keng!" Lady Vix'i instructed. "Some of you work on keeping the smaller ents off of us. We'll use this opportunity to try to spear it! Don't try to be greedy, got it!"

"Roger!" The group shouted. Zixin dashed forward, fire erupting across his body as he watched a root fly straight at him. Obsidian Glass pierced the root as Zixin continued forward. Keng's body flashed in silver light as he quickly pressed forward, easily catching up with Zixin. Keng extended his fingers out as five small fox fires appeared between his fingers. He rolled them like balls.

"Purifying Flame." Keng threw the balls in front of him, ents and a root took flame. They burned in silver light as Zixin continued to rip through the roots faster than Obsidian Glass. They closed the distance as Ritsuka pressed forward, past the safety net of Nabi and Lady Vix'i.

"Human! What're you doing!?! You'll die!" Nabi shouted. The void shifted to a straight path in front of him. He would follow after Keng, protecting his back so he could get a chance to hit the ent.