5 Traversing the forrest

"So if you knew that Garren would be fine why did you cry when he was struck?" Fu finished packing and was asking questions to the group while waiting.

"well its not like we forgot, but still its not like we want to die...plus it still hurts to die in the seal and they can only be revived out side the seal where they spend 2 days being revived." Grant answered. "ok enough talk lets get moving it'll take another hour to get to the next nest." Grant crouched down before sprinting in the direction they needed to go.

"he seems energetic" Neli said before running after him.

The group arrived at the nesting grounds exterior when Fu suddenly felt energy burst from him again signifying he ranked up another rank and was now 9-Star bronze realm. 'the energy i'm absorbing isn't enough to level me up fast anymore it'll take a week of constant activation for the technique to absorb enough for a rank up.' Fu frowned at this 'hopefully i'll find something within this frost monster nest'

"ok the most common frost monster in this area is a Frozen Viper. Its very similar to the Poison-Head except they are much smaller and evolved to pack hunting so there will be 4-5 of them in a pack." the group was listening intently after the Poison-Head was mentioned. "we will have the same formation as last time with me and koi being the frontlines while Neli and Kelly support from behind. Yin Fu you stall any that attack from behind us! this will stay this way but if Fu is hit Kelly you protect him till we can get to him." Fu had a look of determination

'this might be important to me i need to take it as serious as i can!' Fu took out Garren's sword in anticipation as the group ran into the nesting grounds.

It had been 10 minutes and they were in the middle of the nest but had yet to find any monsters not even the Frozen Viper that was supposed to plague the area. "I'm sure this is the spot. Where is everything?" Grants voice seemed more annoyed than confused and it was evident on his face.

"SSsssss" Everyone turned their heads at the noise to see a pair of eyes peering through the trees.

"Is that the Frozen Viper?" Fu was confused since he was told that the new snake monster would be much smaller but this one was so small that it barely was able to make its way around a branch.

"yes but its different then the normal one it seems its another mutated monster although i doubt it just got smaller since mutations never make a monster weaker. Be on guard for its pack." Grant was panicking at the sight of another mutated monster.

Fu's head whipped around looking for an ambush but nothing entered his sight. 'where are they?'

"SSsss" suddenly the Frozen Viper lept into the air and vanished.

"it has camouflage? shit check for its aura don't let it get away!" The group started searching for its aura but couldn't sense it at all. "Fu you need to be on alert your the fastest by far so you need to be ready when it tries to strike." Grant was obviously losing his cool at the new development.

'sense for its aura...' Fu started to sense around him his mind suddenly went alert as it sensed more than 50 frost attribute monsters 'w-whats going on?' Fu started trembling. 'they are all 7-Star bronze realm this group can't fight them off!' "guys i think we need to run" everyones head turned to Fu

"just cause its mutated doesn't mean that its that dangerous" Neli was mocking Fu thinking that he was scared because of the last encounter with a mutated monster.

"No but i can sense the monsters! we have to leave none of us are strong enough to fight them." Fu's statement made the group worry a little since they saw Fu as a monster in a sense.

"are you joking? your saying that theres 50 of them yet i can't sense a single one of them?" Fu tried to explain that his soul had an affinity to frost but that fell flat when Koi said his was as well.

'what do i do they aren't taking this seriously?' Fu was losing his cool when suddenly he felt a monster moved in to attack Koi from behind. "Watch it!" Fu slashed it it fell to the ground dead. "do you believe me now?" Grant quickly stored the body and nodded.

"Ok lets go then we have a corpse." Fu sighed a little inside hearing that but when the team tried to leave every monster in the area charged them.

"they're here!" Fu shouted as loud as he could. The group stopped a look at where Fu was looking to see monsters dropping camouflage and charge them. 'they all camouflage? they all mutated? this makes no sense.'

"RUN!" Grant realized the situation as he ordered a retreat. everyone ran except Neli. Se stood there shivering in fear. "Neli its time to go! get a move on!" Grant almost sounded as if he was pleading for her to move instead of ordering.

Fu moved and grabbed her arm "No time to stop lets go." Fu's soft words caught her attention and all she could do was nod. 'Shes out of it and there are 49 more monsters chasing us. great.' Fu stopped dragging Neli when he felt her start to run along side him. Fu slashed at one that got too close to the group. 'we won't be able to escape at this rate.' even if fu didn't say it the group knew what was happening. The monsters were slowly surrounding them but only a few would attack them. The chase went for 5 minutes until the group was chased into a clearing filled with blue flowers that emanated Frost energy.

"what is this?" sensing the energy they soon saw that there was others here as well but they were all kneeling on the ground in pain.

"Get out of here the flower drain energy out of your body to nourish the monsters!" a student that was kneeling suddenly yelled out an answer to the mysterious sight they saw.

'that makes no sense how can a flower make every monster mutate and rank up? unless...' "The flowers are parasite monsters!" Fu connected the dots.

"ok lets say they are, but how do we fight them? simply cutting the flower wouldn't work parasites are known to grow at an abnormal rate so we would need to destroy all of them at the same time!" Grants words destroyed Fu's hope of defeating the parasite.

'i can sense frost energy coming out of the flowers? can i absorb them all in one sitting? its worth a shot!' Fu sat down and closed his eyes while trying to draw the energy around him into his body.

the people on the ground saw this and thought he had given up. 'foolish' they all knew they were done for so seeing someone willing stay in the field made them think they were committing suicide.

"what are you doing Fu?" Neli tried to get a response from Fu but couldn't since he was focusing entirely on absorbing energy.

The energy twisted in the air struggling a bit as if the flowers were fighting for it before it shot to Fu's body slowly absorbing everything. when this happened a loud creaking sound was heard and everyone that was kneeling suddenly wasn't in pain anymore. although they were low on energy they could stand again. The monsters in the area started to get agitated as the parasites on them felt what was happening and began to try to subdue Fu in order to stop him but the attacks were stopped by Garren's group who were protecting Fu.

"i don't know what you're doing but keep it up Yin Fu we will buy you time." Grant turned to the clearing. "Everyone in the clearing listen to me! we must protect Yin Fu who is sitting there! He is the one that set you free!" Grant hoped that he had gained more allies by saying this but couldn't focus since more monsters started to jump out.

'so much energy!' Fu's mind was filled with sights of the energy spiraling around him. 'i need more!' Fu controlled it to force it into his body. BOOM he had ranked up to Bronze realm. 'more!' BOOM another rank up. BOOM BOOM BOOM. 'I'm 4-Star Bronze Realm now amazing! suddenly he felt the energy twist then snap as his connection to it was withdrawn. 'what happened?!' suddenly the ground trembled bring Fu out of his trance to see a clearing full of monsters and students fighting around him. "w-what happened?"

"Fu you're back whatever you did worked the monsters have weakened and are starting to retreat!" Grant's voice made Fu realize that a lot had happened in the little time he spent trying to absorb the energy of the parasite.

The ground trembled again. "Whats that?" a student asked as he was thrown into the air from a hand that shot through the earth.

"GROOAAH!!" that hand was giant and made of dirt, and as it slowly climbed up one could tell its body was made of dirt as well. it was a humanoid creature made of dirt with the parasitic flower field as in the place its hair would be. its roar sent students into panic as they had thought they had just escaped danger.

"its to strong we need to get out of here!" Most of the students agreed but were stopped when the giant spewed out a blue liquid from its mouth that surrounded the area. "what is this?!" "Oh god i'm stuck in it!" was heard throughout the clearing as students got trapped in the substance.

Grant stumbled back in what seemed like his first sign of fear 'no don't back down now you're the one who has to lead us!' Fu ranted in his head but couldn't make the words out.

"pa-a-ain w-wh-o m-ade-e pa-ain" the giant couldn't seem to talk properly and could only make out stutters.

"it can talk?" Kelly seemed interested in it. everyone seemed to grow more nervous as only triple mutated monster could speak since monsters that normally lacked the intelligence for spoken tongue.

"it's gonna send us to the seal! we have to escape!" the students started running away in separate directions forgetting their teams in the process.

The giant spat more blue liquid to trap those trying to run allowing none to escape. soon those trapped in the liquid started to yell as the liquid drew their energy out like a leech. "GROOOAH!" The giant roared as it was bathing in the energy of its victims.

'dammit i need to do something.' Fu looked at the giant. 'the energy is going somewhere. maybe i can snag it to injure it again.' Fu let his mind sense out the energy and saw it pooling into the giant. 'i just need to rip it out of its core.' Fu tugged at the center of everything tearing it away.

"Y-you-u!" the giant turned and swiped at Fu.

"shi..." Fu was hit and shot onto the ground. 'oh god everything hurts! i can't move my body! i need to focus on stealing its energy again.' "h-hey Grant i need you to protect me while i damage it. i can't move anymore." this snapped Grant out of his daze he looked down at Fu.

"yeah got it... Um Neli, Kelly, and Koi we should slow it down instead of tanking hits aim for its legs in order to make it stumble while i run around with Fu to keep him out of harms way. maybe?" Grant was still very shaken but trying his best to lead the team.

The group slowly realized what needed to be done and shook themselves out of their daze. "got it maybe we can slash enough dirt off his legs to make him trip." Neli was the first to suggest an idea. Koi and kelly just nodded and followed after her.

Fu focused on tearing away at the energy spiraling inside the giant. 'pull...and tear!'

"GROOAH!" The giant stumbled because of the pain and glared at Fu. It went for a jab but was interrupted by his leg crumbling beneath him. the giant was stunned and looked down to see Koi, Kelly, and Neli running away. "H-how D-Dare You-u" it was sent into a rage as it targeted Garren's group.

The students that weren't stuck saw this and were brought out of their trances. The students brought out their weapons and followed Garren's groups lead destroying the giants legs and retreating.While this was happening the giants energy was slowly being drained by Fu who had managed to rank up to 6-Star Bronze Realm. 'only a small amount left just need one big pull and its over.' Fu pulled at the energy but the giant sensed this and resisted no one around could see the tug of war between the two. Energy was connected to both of them as it was building up in the middle not moving Fu struggled to get a hold of it when he suddenly felt his energy was being siphoned from him. He looked up and noticed the Giant with a smile that reached both ends of its face. 'its trying to steal my energy to replace what it lost! No No No! this is bad'

The giant smile grew sickening to everyone who saw it. it's legs regrew and it stomped the ground sending shockwaves that knocked everyone to the ground. "mine" it's energy spiked as it made another attempt at stopping Fu.

'just.Take.IT!and TEAR!' Fu did exactly that pulling the last bit of energy out of the giant as it threw a final punch in desperation. Grant fumbled and fell to the ground and could only watch the fist grow closer.

BOOM the fist was caught by Fu before it could hit the two of them and his aura burst forth showing that he had ranked up again into 7-Star Bronze Realm. "before Fu passed out Grant could here him mutter "I never thought i would basically skip the bronze realm."

the other students gathered themselves and thanked Garren's group before taking off each offering a corpse that they had hunted before hand. Thus the class ended the next day with Fu still unconscious but passing due to the students giving him the corpses he needed.

Fu was be handed off to Umo who looked after him for 4 days before he finally woke up. "Umo? where am i? i thought i was taking a test?"

Umo chuckled "haha you were but you over exerted yourself and have been asleep for 4 days." this caught Fu's attention.

"Four days! but the practical test does this mean i failed!" fear overtook Fu's face.