Passing Through the Forest

The reinforcements have left the capital border and gone to the north-east, where black smoke is located. They have marched for approximately ten hours straight, with some quick breaks in between, crossing rivers and climbing hills. They were starting to get weary and unaware of what was coming. The smoke seems to be getting bigger and bigger, and now it's approaching the forest.

"Halt!" Kairos shouted.

All of the reinforcements stopped at one signal.

"What happened?" Icarus said.

"We've nearly entered the forest. We should have met one of my friends here. But it seems he is not here." Kairos said.

Cithrel looked at the forest carefully and said, "The forest is hideous".

The elf has a very particular reason to say something about the forest. She was one of the parties that subjugated monsters in the forest before it was built as an Elven Kingdom.

Cithrel continued, "It's just a presumption, but I think it's goblins, sir."

Kairos replied, "The patrol knights always go through this forest. The goblins weren't normally here."

Meyeri then replied while pointing at the huge black smoke, "I think it's caused by the abnormal black cloud that pushed them into this forest."

Kairos then shouted, "We are camping here, and wait until dawn."

All of them then set up camps on the grassy fields and ate out their rations. It's a long march without any fight. Some of them were reminiscing and talking to each other at the party. While this had happened, Kairos was deep in thought. Bernard recognized it immediately and went toward Kairos.

"Why the long face, young Kairos?" Bernard said.

"Haha, hi, old man Bernard. I'm thinking about how we actually pass through the forest. We only have about 100 people at most, and it'll barely be enough to handle the monster panic. But now we're encountering goblins that should've not been here; we can't afford to lose anyone." Kairos said.

Meyeri then joined in the talk out of nowhere.

"Don't worry, I can do something about this."

Kairos replied, "Are you serious?"

Meyeri then made a serious face and said, "Yes, leave it to me."

After saying that, Meyeri left them. Kairos was still anxious, but Bernard said

"Do you trust Meyeri?"

Kairos replied, "Yes, but this seems impossible to do."

Bernard said, "Do you remember when you were a child? You told me that Mey could do anything."

Kairos replied, "Yes, but it was her catching fish with her magic."

Bernard said, "You did remember. You were back crying since you can't catch any fish with the fishing rod."

Kairos remembered, "Ah, she said the same thing as before. But how do we pass through the forest?"

Bernard replied, "She might be peculiar, but she is gifted. There is no use in overthinking this."

So they all slept through the night. The next morning, they found themselves dumbfounded by what they saw. There is not a normal catapult that's big and long enough to contain the whole reinforcement in a line.

Kairos said, "What in the world is this?"

Kairos then suspects Meyeri has done something. Meyeri was fast asleep and had not woken up yet. Kairos walked toward Meyeri. It looks like there is an adorable brown cat next to her sleeping as well.

Kairos said, "Hey Mey, wake up."

Meyeri said, "Emm, hi kai, good morning."

Kairos said, "Could you explain what happened?"

Meyeri said, "Wait, Gaia, wake up."

Gaia said, "Huaaa, it's very early in the morning."

She then hopped on Meyeri's shoulder and said,

"Yes, so I believe the captain was excited about the thing we built?"

Kairos thinks a bit and then kneels. "Ah, but forgive my rudeness, oh goddess of earth and mother of all, Gaia."

Gaia smiled and said, "Don't kneel, for you're all my sons and daughters. Mey was asking me for help with the problem we have faced and to give me a glimpse of what has happened, so I lend her my knowledge and power."

Kairos then stood up.

Mey said, "Let me explain."

Mey channeled her lumine to the bottom of both of their feet and flicked her hand. Suddenly, they were both flying high, facing the direction of the forest.

Meyeri then said, "First, I was thinking that we could run past the forest at high speed. But that would be impossible since there are so many trees and our enemies are goblins, which are fast. It would be different if that was a troll."

Kairos said, "Yes, that's why fighting was inevitable. But what do you want us to do? Flying both of us really high now?"

Meyeri then replied while pointing to a spot, "Could you see that? The length of the forest there is the shortest; hence, I think we could all just fly together using my magic."

Kairos replied, "That would be 100 people worth of magic; you can't do that."

Meyeri replied, "Yes, that's what I was thinking before. But you see, it's a different case if the energy comes from another source."

Kairos thought for a bit and suddenly got the idea that Meyeri thought of: "Oh, you must be joking."

Meyeri replied, "I bet the shortest line there is nearly 5 kilometers. I did try alone at dawn; I could alone reach three-quarters of the distance. We can glide through the air and past the forest without a fight."

Then Meyeri slowly brought them down lower and then said to Kairos, "What do you think?"

Kairos said, "It's truly an absurd idea. It'll risk our lives."

Meyeri replied, "That would be it, but I got help from the mother of the earth. We have designed a way to make stabilized gliders using clay. Also, we can get there faster since it will only take approximately 5 to 10 minutes to pass through the forest by air."

Kairos then thoroughly thought in his mind, and while it was absurd to hear it first, it's now the best plan that could work. Only a genius with an out-of-the-box way of thinking could think about that.

Kairos replied, "Okay, I think this could work. But on the downside, we can't bring the horse."

Meyeri said, "We could gather all the horses, and I'll create a clay wall using earth magic. I'll put my name on the front, and therefore nobody will take our horses."

Kairos then nods to Mey and thinks to himself, "Magic sure is a convenient thing."

Kairos and Mey then walk toward the masses that were talking to each other about the existence of the giant catapult, then shout, "Gather up! We have a plan to discuss."

Kairos said, "With the help of the Goddess of Earth and the blooming lilac, we're going to launch from this catapult to glide through the forest! We'll avoid the fight with the goblins and arrive at the warzone faster! Gather and leave the horse here and take whatever is needed to fight since, after we pass through the forest, it's very close to the fight."

They then proceeded to gather the horse without any hesitation. They take their weapon, some rations and water, and combat items.

Meyeri chants, "By the name of goddess of earth, Gaia, Earth Wall!"

She made a circling wall on the grassy field to contain all the horses and managed to put her name on the side of the wall.

Meyeri said, "Okay, now we all need to make a line while holding your hands to each other and then proceed to lay on the catapult."

Meyeri then proceeded to give her lumine to be controlled by Gaia; she made a very thorough glider that connected everybody. All of their backs were connected to the glider's wing on top of it.

Icarus said, "This will be fun!"

Kairos said, "I doubt this will be fun."

Cithrel was holding her fear, and she was holding Icarus's hand really hard. It makes Icarus blush a bit.

Gaia then said, "You all need to look to the front; if you look down, you guys will fall."

Now all of them are nervous except for Meyeri.

Meyeri said, "If you're all ready, we can start!"

Meyeri then proceeded to flick her hand while shouting, "WIND CUTTER!"

The rubber band that's holding the catapult was cut, and they were all thrown from the ground. But they were only launching forward without the necessary height to fly. They were nearly hitting the trees. All of the warriors were screaming.

Icarus shouts, "We're going to die; we're going to die!"

Kairos said, "Hey, Mey! Was this supposed to be like this?"

Bernard was praying the whole time, and Cithrel was out of the cold.

Then Mey flicked her hand, and with a bit of a strong typhoon, they launched to the air 100 meters above the ground and proceeded to glide successfully with great speed.