Invading the forest

On the edge of Faltra forest, at the same time.

The mage slayer unit entered the forest, fully prepared. They had spent the night in the artificial cave created by Gaius and left just before dawn. They moved quickly and silently, always maintaining formation. #9 had also returned from the city and joined them, as it was clear that the mage unit was dead and the chances of them appearing in the city were zero.

Finn and #3 were on the sides of the formation while #4 and #6 were at the front throwing fire blades that cut through the trees at the same time they burned through it, making regeneration difficult and hopefully causing the spirit to waste energy regenerating them.

Before they advanced 100 meters into the forest, the burnt trees began to regenerate and a cloud of parasitic spores shot through the trees, rushing toward them.

Without exchanging a single word or a second's hesitation, they changed formation. Finn and #2 took the lead, while #3 retreated to the back of the formation. Finn and #2 worked together and conjured a black wind vortex that sucked in all the parasitic spores, clearing the way ahead. Meanwhile, #3 cast a curtain of darkness that weakened and slowed the spores long enough for the mage slayers to advance safely.

Suddenly, the branches of the newly regenerated trees snapped and moved quickly, trying to impale them from the sides of the formation, where apparently there was no one protecting them. The tips of the branches were coated in white light in the shape of a spearhead while the branch elongated abnormally and moved in erratic patterns.

Emilia and #9 moved left and right, blocking the branches. Emilia conjured circular shields of light exactly where the branches would strike, but the branches twisted and changed direction at the last second, just as Emilia had predicted. The shields of light began to spin, revealing themselves to be saws of light, and they accurately cut through all the branches before moving forward and cutting through the trees.

The #9 on the other hand, released a spray of water from one hand and frost fog from the other. The spray soaked the branches, before they froze in contact with the mist, rendering them useless. The ice stiffened the branches, taking away their mobility, in addition to inhibiting the tree's regeneration.

"Coming from the ground, dodge!" #2 spoke and in the next moment, the floor where the mage slayers were opened up, releasing small geysers of highly pressurized boiling water at them, but they were rationing their mana vision usage, ensuring at least one person was with him active and managed to jump to the side as soon as the ground began to shake.

Gaius waved his hand, creating a layer of stone that partially covered the geysers, focusing them against the rear of the team, more precisely, the cloud of spores that chased them. The geysers wet the spore cloud, making it heavy and causing it to fell harmlessly to the ground, temporarily relieving #3's burden.

As if changing strategy, the trees around the group stopped trying to create branches to impale them and instead fired seeds at them. The seeds grew while they were still in the air, turning into purple flowers and releasing poison into the air.

The mage slayers didn't even bother to block this attack and just activated the enchantment on their masks, neutralizing the poison. They continued at this pace for about an hour, fighting constantly as they went. As time passed, the traps became more and more repetitive, so the mage slayers were able to quicken their pace and reach the center of Faltra's forest.

Even so, by the time they reached the center of the forest, they were already half-core and half-tired. The distance covered was not great, but fighting for a full hour took its toll. They've avoided drinking potions to recover so far because they'd be unable to replenish them, but it would be a bad idea to fight a spirit in bad shape.

"Drink the mana and stamina regeneration potions as we go-" Emilia tried to speak, but the sight as she emerged from the sea of trees left her speechless for a second. According to familiar accounts, in the center of the forest there was a small clearing with a huge willow tree in the middle, which the mage slayers thought was the spirit's physical body.

But there was nothing when they got there. The clearing was completely empty and the huge willow was nowhere to be seen. With a bad feeling, Emilia was about to signal them to temporarily retreat, when the floor of the clearing gave way, swallowing them.

The mage slayers reacted quickly, trying to summon platforms of pure mana beneath their feet, but failed. The light element in the world energy was being absorbed by something deep in the clearing, unbalancing the world energy and making it impossible to use pure mana spells. Emilia also had her light magic sealed and fell helpless.

At the bottom of the crater, stone spikes rose from the ground, ready to impale the falling mage slayers. Gaius pointed his hand at spikes, activating a ring and releasing a wave of orange energy that caused the spikes to crack and explode. #9 also activated a magic ring before hurling it to the bottom of the crater, creating a dome of water that broke their fall.

The mage slayers rose quickly and looked around alertly. They were in some sort of underground cave, but the place was clearly artificial. The cave was approximately 40 meters in diameter and 25 meters deep. The walls were made of stone, with massive roots covering the walls and floor, all connected to a massive cluster of roots in the center of the cave.

The roots were dead and dry, but there was something in the center of the roots glowing with white light. The mage slayers didn't know what was inside the roots, but they felt shivers down their spines seeing the overwhelming amount of energy inside the roots. The mage slayers rushed forward all at once, determined to destroy what was inside the roots before it could get out.

They released their best spells precisely at the visible gaps between the roots as they moved to surround the cluster, but an extremely dense barrier of light appeared, blocking all spells. A pulse of light spread from the cluster, temporarily revitalizing the cave's roots.

The roots on the ground writhed before getting up and trying to wrap themselves around the mage slayers, but they were agile and dodged in time, slashing with their weapons and releasing aura blades, cutting the roots and resuming the offensive, but new roots appeared every second.

"Enough of that!" Finn yelled putting both hands on the floor and releasing pulses of darkness. The first pulse only hissed on contact with the roots, but a second and a third pulse weakened and slowed the roots, a fourth pulse made them wither and fall to the ground helplessly. A fifth pulse turned them to dust so they couldn't regenerate again, just in case.

Now that the way was clear, the mage slayers resumed the offensive. The attacks rained down on the light barrier, the damage slowly building up causing it to crack. A highly condensed lance of fire hit the top of the barrier, blades of wind whirled at high speed around the barrier like a saw, causing a shower of sparks of light and constant damage.

Ordinary iron daggers imbued with breaking weapons fell on the barrier, causing it to shake constantly. Arrows of light shot sporadically from within the barrier, trying to hit the mage slayers, but they were too few and too slow to hit them. Seeing a large crack and a piece of the barrier fall, #3 saw an opportunity and lunged forward, an enchanted short sword in each hand, generating lightning and fire, respectively.

#3 charged forward, dodging the arrows of light and reaching the barrier in an instant. He stabbed both short swords into the hole in the barrier, but the barrier regenerated at the same instant, trapping both swords.

"Damn it!" #3 tried to twist the swords and pull, but the barrier didn't move. It began to glow brightly, as if it was about to explode.

"Back off, #3!" Emilia screamed, but she was a second late. The light barrier exploded, engulfing the figure of #3 and casting a blinding light that blinded all of the mage slayers.