Cursed Forest

[What the hell! I warned you to avoid contact with them!]

"What the hell is happening?" Kael asked, feeling his head spinning around.

"Shit! The fleshes!" Kael exclaimed in horror. The flesh attached to his skin and was rapidly spreading.

"Damn!" Looking ahead, the grotesque beings were already preparing another attack.

"Damn it!" Finally deciding, he swung his hand down, severing it from his body. The cut-up hand slowly crept towards one of the beings.

"Not on my watch!" Stretching his other hand, flames sprouted out, engulfing the creeping hand. "Activate the void barrier," he muttered, watching the volley of flesh heading towards him.

A soft ripple spread through the air with a blue barrier appearing before him. The flesh slammed into the barriers but was unable to harm him.

"Good." Focusing on the hand, he successfully burnt it to ashes. During the process, his amputated hand had regrown.

"Now, how to deal with you guys. It will have to be a long-distance battle," he thought teleporting away. Swinging his hand, he released a void slash, which severed the head of one of the beings.

"Dammit! I thought as much," he muttered, watching the head creep towards the body, which continued with its attack. Merging with its legs, a new head was beginning to form atop.

"If that won't work, I still have a lot to try!" Kael exclaimed, wrapping his hands in flames. Slamming them to the ground, a wave of flames surged forward, scorching everything in its path to crisp.

The beings, as if realising the danger heading towards them, quickly evaded the flames, climbing through the trees.

They dashed forward, throwing out pieces of flesh at him. Kael easily blinked across the area, evading the fleshes. One thing he noticed was that the ground was soon getting covered in the flesh.

"Dammit!!" He cursed out, appearing at the branch of a tree. "Shit!" Teleporting away, he just managed to evade a hand that sprouted out from the branch.

"Another one?" He thought. "Screw this!" Teleporting across the branches, he finally leapt up manipulating the gravity around him.

"Death flame!" He exclaimed, stretching both palms towards the ground. "Die!" The area was engulfed in flames, the trees burning to ashes, and the figures consumed entirely.

Huff~ Huff~

Kael breathed out slowly, landing on the ground. "Ugh," he vomited a blob of blood with his expression getting pale. The flames finally died down, revealing the aftermath of his rampage. The ground had been scorched by the flames with a large radius of the area left barren by his attack.

"Don't tell... me... they... survived," Kael muttered in deep breath.

Ding!

[You've defeated five low rank D forest wraiths]

"Wraiths? Those were wraiths?" Kael muttered in disbelief. "That's different from what I thought."

[Yes, they are wraiths... once humans but their souls got twisted judging by their appearances]

"That's right," Kael muttered, shaking his head before continuing onward. Now, he was starting to see why the forest was considered off-limits and even called the cursed. He hadn't even gotten to the centre yet encountered such creatures.

What Kael wasn't even aware of was how lucky he was, given his flames had successfully killed the beings. Those who had ventured deep into the forest never made it alive all due to this set of foes– the forest wraiths. That was the tale he gained from Lucius' memory, though not much was known by him also.

"Give me my damn exp, Eva!" Kael muttered a bit, annoyed. "Having to waste my energy just for some damn rank D creatures." Tsk!

[+2500 exp]

Ding!

[Level up!]

[5050/128,000]

"What the hell! Are you kidding?! How do I get that amount of exp!" Kael exclaimed with wide eyes.

[Rank D+]

Once again, he had levelled up, but he was still exhausted from the battle. Kael struggled up with a hint of tiredness clearly displayed on his face.

[You're weak. You need to head back!]

"Head back?" Kael muttered with a frown. "When I've come this far. I don't think so, I must get to the centre of the forest before thinking of leaving!"

[Don't be a fool! This place is clearly dangerous! Even to you! Your arrogance will be the end of you!]

"Arrogance?! Tsk! I don't know what you're talking about. And I don't think you know what I'm doing. Also, I have a way of escaping if things get bad."

[Sigh~ Do whatever you want!]

"I'm pretty sure you know about the forest, right?" Kael asked all of a sudden. He knew he wasn't going to get a reply but had just decided to give it a shot.

"Tsk! Aren't you meant to help me! Keeping things away from me, can you even call that helping!"

[Not all things can be said. Even if I want to tell you, I won't be able to since... forget about it]

"Whatever," Kael muttered, taking in the brief silence. Settling on the ground, he waited for his energy to fill up before continuing onwards in his quest. Due to his tiredness, he had deactivated the void sense and void eyes skills in order to replenish his energy quickly. A fatal mistake that nearly caused him his life.

BOOOM!

The ground exploded with rocks flying over the area. From the cloud of dust, a large jade hand slammed into the spot Kael rested.

"Shit!" He was a bit late in blinking away and was slammed deep into the ground. "Urghh," he groaned, getting crushed under the intense weight.

"Arghh," holding the large hand, he struggled to push it away. His gravity shift activated, making it possible for him to control the gravity around him. Slowly pushing upwards, he finally freed himself and quickly teleported metres away.

"Damn!" He groaned as his body began healing. "What the hell was that?" Looking above, he could finally see the towering figure staring down at him with deep red eyes.

The beast slowly opened its mouth, revealing its deathly row of teeth.

ROOOAR!

The roar echoed loudly across the forest, with Kael struggling to remain on his feet. Still weak from the last clash, he mustered the strength to activate the teleportation skill once more.

"This is definitely going to be a hard battle," he thought as his weapon slowly formed in his hands.

[Be careful it's a Rank C beast]

"Rank C, huh? With the odds stacked against me, I'm not sure if I'll make it out whole." He said with a sigh. "But… I'm not going to lose!"

Charging forward, Kael evaded the beast attacks, easily weaving through the surroundings and making use of the beast's large body against it. Appearing beside the beast's large leg, Kael held onto its crystal skin and began climbing upwards.

The beast sensed something climbing its body. It swung his legs out, causing Kael to lose balance. Thrashing around and using its legs to slam into the ground, Kael finally let go, quickly rolling away.

BOOOOM!

The spot he was before exploded with a deep crater formed from the beast legs. Teleporting behind and swinging his scythe out, he managed to cut halfway through the crystalline leg of the beast.

"Dammit! Eva, I thought you said the weapon was extremely powerful?"

[Yeah, the weapon is extremely strong, but I'm not so sure about the user]

"Tsk! Screw you!" Teleporting away from the fist heading his way, he appeared on the beast's shoulders. "This is it. One quick swing would end this."

Just as he was about swinging his weapon, a spike shot out from the beast's neck, so sudden he was cut off guard.

"Shit! Uggg," Kael groaned, landing on the ground. The spike had impaled his stomach, luckily for him.

ROOOAR!

"Dammit! You don't have to roar that loud," Kael muttered, rising to his feet. The attack delivered on the beast had long healed, causing it to charge with speed towards him.

"For a beast so large, you're quite fast." Stomping the ground, Kael breathed out deeply before exploring forward. "There's no need to slack now. After all, this was what I've been waiting for… a fight that would push me past my limits!