Chapter eighteen: Fierce Night

Chapter Eighteen: Fierce Night

I opened my eyes, and the red evening sky came into view. "Ugh, where am I?" I muttered while sitting up. The wonderful smell of roses and the lush, comfortable grass I was lying on made me remember. "Oh, that's right, I'm in the garden." I sat up and looked around. Kevin was beside me, asleep, while the little wolf that had reverted to its original size was sleeping on his chest. I stood up and moved over to Kevin's side, tapping him. "Hey, wake up."

"Ugh, what?"

"Wake up, it's getting late."

The moment Kevin heard those words, he suddenly stood up and looked at the sky. I was confused, but I immediately increased my vigilance. "Oh no, no, no, no, no," Kevin kept saying no as he stood up and ran over to where the bodies of the wolves were, packing up the blue crystals and cutting some strips of meat from them. "What? What's going on?" I followed after him.

"We need to leave this place now, help me gather this," he said in a panicked voice.

"What...?" I was about to refute, but I stopped myself and began packing up the crystals. He probably had a reason for what he was doing. After some time, the sky was darkening even more, and we had not finished packing.

Sheathing his sword, Kevin spoke, "We have to leave now; we can't stay here any longer."

"But the meat that has been taken won't be enough."

"We don't have a choice."

I looked at the strips of meat Kevin and I had managed to cut out, and it was really small. Cutting through the skin of the wolves was not easy, especially when my daggers had gone missing during my fight with the huge wolf. Kevin looked up at the sky once again and said, "We have to leave this rose field now."

"Why?"

"I'll tell you when we are safe."

"Um, where are we going?"

"Um, that's true. Well, this rose field is dangerous, and the wolf had come from that forest, so our only choice is to swim across the lake."

The moment Kevin said that, I recoiled in horror, the scene of the wolf being torn apart by that tentacle played in my head. "No way, I'm never going anywhere near that lake," I said in a grave tone.

"Hmm, why?"

"How do you think the wolf died?"

"You didn't kill it?"

"Of course not! I kept on dodging and dodging until it fell into the lake, and two huge red tentacles rose from it and tore the wolf apart."

"What?! Huge tentacles? From the lake?"

"Yes, I'm certain."

Kevin looked up at the sky again, and two moons were coming into view. "We still have to get out of here. If what you said is true, then our only choice is to enter the forest," Kevin said and began running towards the forest.

I was running alongside him when I asked, "But what is so dangerous about this rose field?"

"If we don't get to the forest in time, you will see." We continued to run, but the distance between the lake and the forest was roughly 100 meters, and we were at the lakeside. We had to run over to the forest on the other side of the garden. We kept running, and when we were about 20 meters away from the forest wall, I heard a yelp from behind me.

I turned and saw the little wolf caught by thin green vines, and more vines were moving to wrap around its body. "Huh? What the...?" I stopped running and turned back to free the little wolf. I held onto the little wolf and used my hands to cut the thin vines. After a few swipes of my hands, I freed the wolf. I held the little wolf in my hands and turned to running, but I couldn't move. I looked down and saw that the vines had bound my feet, preventing my movement. I turned to look at Kevin, who was some distance away, and saw that he was using his wind to cut the vines too.

I didn't know what to do; I had no weapon to cut through the vines. I looked around; the entire rose field had come to life, countless vines were growing from the field and were rushing towards Kevin and me. I used my free hand to rip off a vine that had wrapped around my neck. The vines were weak, but there were too many. I looked at Kevin again, and I saw him hold out his hand, and a flurry of white light and sparks appeared. After a few seconds, a sword had manifested from the sparks.

'Huh?'

'That's a beast armament, you idiot, and you have one too, so use it,' Helios' annoyed voice rang out in my head.

'And how do I do that?'

'The usual, think about it, and it will appear. This only applies to the armaments you already have.'

I used my free hand to catch a vine and rip it. Although I was conversing with Helios, I didn't let my guard down; I had already learned my lesson. I brought up the screen again and thought about beast armaments, and then it showed;

[Beast armaments: falcon claws, heart of flames, elven sword, (?????)]

I held the little wolf tighter and used my other hand to rip apart four vines. In my mind, I focused on the Heart of Flames, and its description came out;

[Heart of flames: this gem provides the wearer slight immunity to flames]

I bent my knees and ripped another group of vines that were wrapping around my legs.

'This seems kinda useless at the moment.' I looked at the next one, Falcon Claws, focusing my mind, its description came out;

[Falcon claws] [Type: twin daggers] [Description: This weapon made by the elves from the claws of a horned falcon has a good penetration rate.]

I held and crushed four vines that were aiming for my head while the little wolf used its claws to slice another vine. The attacks were becoming frantic, and the size of the vines attacking was increasing. And without much thought, I called the Falcon Claws, and with a flurry, they appeared in my hands.

I started slicing the vines. However, as I was slicing and dicing my way through the vines, I noticed that my attack range was short, so I released one dagger which burst into little white, disappearing alongside the light, and called the Elven Sword, although I didn't know what this weapon could do, it was what I needed.

I started swinging the sword and the dagger when Helios spoke again, 'Use that spell void slash.'

'I haven't read its description yet.'

'It doesn't matter; I'm sure it will help in the current situation.'

I remained silent while chopping off the vines; I was slowly making my way to Kevin's side. After thinking for a bit, I decided to do as Helios had said, and in the same way, I called the spell <Inra's Blessing>; I called on void slash.

~whooom~

The blades vibrated as they were coated in a thin layer of silver energy. I immediately slashed at an approaching vine, and it was immediately cut in half by a line of silver energy that flew out from the sword but it didn't stop there, the line of silver energy continued to cut through the vines until it was completely exhausted.

"Wow, now this is nice" I smiled while slashing at the vines with vigor.

Now the real fighting had begun.