Chapter 7: Rapid Attack on the Sea of Trees
The Dirunak Forest, a large forest located at the border between the Heyang Empire and the Latia Kingdom, is also a natural barrier separating the two countries.
The forest covers a vast area with dense vegetation. There are many thousand-year-old trees and some unique plants that only grow here. The most famous of them are the "Fantasy Lily of the Valley" and the "Bewitching Vine". The name "Illusionary Sea of Trees" is derived from these two plants.
"Lily of the Valley", as the name suggests, is a flower that emits a hallucinogenic fragrance. One or two flowers will not cause any harm to people, but if they appear in groups, people who get close to them will be immersed in the illusion created by the fragrance until they die. Fortunately, this fragrance only affects humans. If there are weapons nearby, it will not pose much threat.
But the "Bewitching Vine" is different. It is an extremely troublesome, mobile carnivorous vine-type plant that likes to wrap around trees and move without leaving a trace, making it difficult for travelers to identify their location through the scenery - this is not the most troublesome part. The more unpleasant thing is that after locking onto its prey, it will secrete a liquid that attracts animals lurking in the forest - tiger apes. The tiger apes attack the target, and the vine enjoys the leftovers after the other party has had a full meal.
And the tiger monkey is an animal—
“Tsk!!”
In a small open space, Beichen, with grappling claws on both hands, was panting as she made defensive moves. Xiang Ying and Ling Shuang protected her on her left and right. From the surrounding bushes came the sharp squeaking cries of wild beasts, and the sound of leaves was stirred everywhere, as if something was jumping around among the bushes.
"Damn it, when will they ever stop? How can they be so patient?"
Su Jie roared impatiently from Beichen's hand.
"They probably just want to slowly weaken our physical strength, Master... can you still hold on?"
Xiang Ying swung his sword fiercely, forcing back a shadow that had emerged from the shadows of the trees. It was an ape-like animal slightly smaller than a human, with grayish-blue tiger-striped fur, and very sharp teeth and claws. Seeing that the sneak attack failed, it immediately retreated swiftly back into the shadows of the trees.
"It's okay, don't worry about me," Beichen panted a little, but his defense didn't relax. "Compared to Mr. Gu Yinyue's attack, their little harassment is really nothing. But if we continue like this, we won't be able to break through. ...It's really troublesome."
Just one day after entering the forest, they were ambushed by the Bewitching Vine. Several people were surrounded by a dozen tiger apes. They were very fast and cunning, often using the surrounding environment as cover to launch sneak attacks, forcing Beichen to give up using Xiangying, which had a slower attack speed, and use the most agile grappling claw to compete with them. For a while, although they were numerous, they did not succeed.
Although the tiger apes could not hurt them, they also had no way to escape from their harassment and encirclement, and their physical strength was wasted.
"It's still not too late to retreat now." Ling Shuang said lightly, "The Illusionary Forest. With your strength, Beichen, it's really difficult to get through it."
"No."
Beichen shook his head after hearing this, then took a breath and slowly lowered his upper body.
"Since we can't retreat, let's find a way to kill them. The reason I chose the sea of trees route is to train myself."
"Oh! Ambitious! You're worthy of being our little loach!" Black Disaster roared excitedly in Beichen's right hand, "Don't worry, my brother, I, and Stupid Ying will definitely protect you!"
“—Hmm!”
Beichen narrowed his eyes and stared at the rustling treetops opposite.
She knew her limits and weaknesses. Her arm strength was limited, and she would never be able to swing the Longyun sword like Gu Yinyue to launch an attack that could split mountains and break rocks. She also had no way to use the giant sword to firmly defend against attacks. Therefore, the areas she should focus on developing were speed and skills.
If you think about it this way, aren't these tiger-apes that run around with such light bodies the perfect training subjects?
She slowly began to regulate her breathing.
The blood should boil, but the brain should be calm.
After an hour of siege and harassment, I should be familiar with the opponent's attack rhythm and habits. So, if I calm down and think carefully,
On the other side, Xiang Ying and Ling Shuang continued to defend against the other side's harassment attacks while shouting loudly. Beichen, on the other hand, remained in attack preparation, gently turning his head, his eyes following the darting black shadows, carefully observing their movements.
Jumping out, landing, attacking, and then retreating - the whole process would not take more than three seconds, and the location hidden in the shadows of the trees could be roughly guessed.
The gap is less than a second, and there is only one chance to shoot.
“…”
She breathed in and out slowly.
I can do it. ──I should be able to do it now.
The cells in her body were beating confidently, and a new excitement surged from deep within her bones. The results of more than ten days of intensive training in Feinheim continuously surfaced to the surface of her memory - that was called the warrior's instinct, which proved that she had become a true warrior.
A gray shadow rushed out from the shadows of the trees, and Beichen's eyes flashed with dazzling light at that moment. She no longer waited for the other party to rush to her, but took a step forward first, and swung her hook claws towards the air in front of her!
Tsk!!
Gurgle!!
The sound of the blade piercing the flesh and the tiger ape's screams rang out together. The abdomen of the tiger ape that had attacked by surprise was pierced through by the black disaster and it hung on Beichen's right hand. She kicked the opponent's chest straight and kicked it off the hook. The dark red blood stained the grass under her feet, and unstable low cries came from the surrounding bushes.
——It was just a moment, but Xiang Ying on the side saw it.
She swung her claw at the air—that was what she should have done, but at the same moment, the tiger ape flew right in front of her, and she collided heavily with her claw—
Accurate and beautiful early attack!
A proud smile appeared on Xiang Ying's lips. Heihuo and Sujie roared like cheers, but Beichen did not stop. She moved her legs to leave the protection range of Xiang Ying and Lingshuang, trotted in a few arc steps, and swung at another place in the air - with a puff, another tiger ape was hit hard on the head and rolled out in a bloody mess.
"here you go!"
Now even Ling Shuang couldn't help but cheer - she had completely mastered the attack rhythm against the tiger ape!
"Xiang Ying, Ling Shuang, I leave my back to you!"
"Yes! Master!"
"Ahhh—no problem!"
Xiang Ying and Ling Shuang's voices also sounded filled with fighting spirit. In response, Bei Chen shouted: Another one!
The commotion among the bushes grew louder. Perhaps the tiger-apes were frightened by the continuous casualties among their companions.
“Here!!”
At the same time, Ling Shuang shouted loudly, and the spear pierced into a bush. A scream came from inside, and it seemed that it had hit the target.
“Haaaaa!”
Xiang Ying, who had discovered Beichen's attacking trick while watching the fight, also slashed hard at a tiger ape that was pouncing on Beichen's back! The flying tiger ape couldn't stop and happened to collide with Xiang Ying's sword light. Its head and body were immediately separated, and the two halves rolled to the ground with inertia.
The enemy's encirclement was broken.
Beichen and his party immediately fought and ran, and knocked down several unwilling tiger apes on the way. After breaking out of the encirclement, they ran forward non-stop, and finally arrived at an open space that seemed a little safer when night fell.
It was a small lake with very clear water. Fireflies were dancing slowly on the shore. It looked peaceful and beautiful. Beichen immediately decided to camp nearby.
The tasks were assigned immediately. Beichen naturally went to take a bath in the lake, Xiang Ying was responsible for guarding nearby, Heihuo and Sujie were responsible for setting up the tent, and Lingshuang went to light the alan grass and torches around the open space to prevent the possessed moon messenger and the bewitching vine from approaching.
Incidentally, with three combat weapons now in hand, Beichen's travel supplies were evenly divided among the three of them. Xiangying was primarily responsible for food and clothing, Heihuo was in charge of the Star Spirit Cores and combat spirit crystals, and Sujie's space was filled with many of Feinheim's purchases—they were handed over to him by Longyun. The tent they were using was a camping tent Feinheim had bought, which had taken him quite some time to master when they'd set up camp the day before.
Of course, everyone has some common consumables such as recovery spirit crystals and food in their storage space just in case.
The Gemini's storage space is larger than Xiangying's. It is two symmetrical triangular pillars of about 20 square meters, with a small passage in the middle that seems to be able to circulate objects.
Unlike Xiang Ying's tidy space, Gemini's space was a bit messy, very much like a human boys' dormitory, with things scattered everywhere, but not as exaggerated as Yaye's. In addition to Beichen's things, there were also some ridiculous things in it - for example, there was a refrigerator and a laptop in Su Jie's space (the problem was that it could not be used at all without electricity), and a corner of Hei Huo's space was filled with magazines that were not suitable for children.
──Longyun, what on earth did you bring back?
Every time he saw these things, Beichen always felt the veins on his forehead throbbing.
As for the photon pigments (? ) that Xiang Ying used to make labels, Heihuo and Sujie used them excessively to make a lot of graffiti on the transparent walls of the space. Heihuo wrote meaningless things like "Love is Kill" and "LO Beichen VE" in wild fonts on the wall, and Sujie simply drew a stick figure that looked like Beichen's head on the wall.
In short, looking at their space is as terrifying as taking a run through the black streets.
Let’s talk about Beichen.
Because the lake was not very deep, the temperature was moderate, the water was extremely clear, and it had a wonderful fragrance, Beichen, who had been dirty all day, simply didn't want to come out after soaking in the water. So when Heihuo and Sujie had set up the tent, Xiang Ying still stood on the shore with his back to the lake, looking serious and keeping watch for Beichen.
Heihuo and Sujie looked at each other, smiled, and walked over.
"Hey, stupid Shadow, what are you doing?"
"Of course, I'm keeping watch for the bathing master. Brother Black Fire and Brother Su Jie, even you, you can't take another step forward—listen to me! You're not allowed to look into the lake!!"
"Don't be so stubborn, okay?" Black Disaster patted Xiang Ying's shoulder. "A woman bathing outdoors means she's aware of being watched!"
"Brother, you're right. It's something for her to be proud of when someone peeks at her while she's taking a bath. It shows how charming she is!" Su Jie said as he peeked towards the center of the lake despite Xiang Ying's obstruction.
"Wait, I think there are a million ways to prove your master's charm! There's no need to go out of your way to peek—what you're doing isn't even peeking, it's looking openly!"
"Oh, I've been discovered. I'll just tell you straight out!"
Black Disaster gave Xiang Ying a malicious smile, then shouted towards the lake: "Hey, little loach, we're here to spy on you──!"
“Puff!”
Beichen in the distance was so scared that he dived into the water, leaving only his head outside. He turned around and stared fiercely at the three weapons on the shore.
"You perverted pervert twins! I'll starve you for two days!"
"Eh? No, you didn't do anything embarrassing, and it won't hurt to be seen by your own weapon. Even though you're a little less fleshy, you're still good. Breasts are breasts, and ass is ass—"
It would be terrible if the breasts were the butt and the butt was the breasts!
"Yeah, yeah, how about I tell you my measurements? If I guess right, you don't have to punish me, okay?"
"How did you manage to estimate my measurements from such a distance, you bastard Su Jie!!"
Beichen squatted in the water, feeling frustrated and at a loss for words. He suddenly lost interest in playing in the water.
The clothes were still on the shore, and Gemini couldn't be driven away, so she could only squat in the water depressedly and crawl to the shore, asking Xiang Ying to throw the clothes over.
Heihuo and Sujie originally wanted to tease Beichen for a while, but they found Lingshuang walking towards them from a distance, so they turned around to block Lingshuang's sight and their attitude changed 180 degrees. They urged Beichen to put on his clothes quickly and fiercely.
Xiang Ying smiled bitterly and shook his head: These two guys...
On the other side, Ling Shuang, after noticing the wariness in their eyes, lowered her head, concealed her expression, laughed at herself, and walked in another direction.
The days in the Dirunak Forest passed by in a tense and lively manner.
During the day, he advanced while fighting with the tiger ape. At night, he set up camp and went hunting for the possessed moon messenger. Late at night, Beichen, exhausted, fell into a deep sleep under the guard of several weapons.
Every day in the forest was very hard, but with Xiang Ying taking care of her meticulously, and Hei Huo and Su Jie's teasing and noise to relieve her stress, she did not feel tired at all. Instead, she felt that it was not bad to live such a fulfilling life.
Ten days passed quickly, and Beichen's skills were further improved during the battle with the tiger ape. Both his judgment and agility had made great progress. What made people even happier was that Heihuo and Sujie had successfully advanced to six stars during the hunt the night before - they were indeed the top-grade Yeyue species, and their upgrade speed was not a little faster than their peers!
The ability obtained by the six-star weapon is long-distance summoning.
In other words, as long as the contract between them and their master still exists, even if the distance between them is very far (the specific value varies depending on the weapon), as long as the master places his hand on the mark and summons them through thought, they can come to the master in an instant.
This unintentionally added another beautiful stroke to the available tactics. From now on, there would be no need to worry about a conflict with the Black Disaster and Su Jie on the battlefield!
The twins excitedly asked Beichen to try out the new ability, but since they had always been successful in summoning, they had no way of determining the exact range of the long-distance summoning. In addition, they were in the forest and did not dare to separate too far, so they had to give up for the time being.
However, just as they were arguing about the tactics brought about by the new abilities, something strange happened.
The first person to notice the murderous intent was Beichen, who had become extremely sensitive to auras during Gu Yinyue's intensive training. Immediately afterwards, Xiangying, noticing the change in her expression, immediately transformed into a weapon and came into her hands.
The next second, the twins drew their weapons and protected her on the left and right, while Ling Shuang ran behind her and raised her gun horizontally as if in defense.
At the same time, a huge black demonic light descended from the sky with a shrill whistling sound!
bump!
The tip of the black crescent moon pierced fiercely into the mud in front of Beichen - at the critical moment, she jumped back to avoid the attack.
The attacking enemy appeared in front of everyone. He had long snow-white hair and was holding a huge black sickle. His blood-red eyes exuded murderous intent, and a bloody smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"Ya Ye!?"
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