{Prologue} Forest Sprite

Sha~Sha~

The figures started swaying at the neck, all of them at once. The lifeless corpses became a ticking clock in sync as it swayed rhythmically. The shadows of the figures inched closer. Insidious death was waiting, just like the ones experienced by the corpses before their deaths.

"Ellis?"

"Yes!" Ellis tried to hide her fear with a raised shout.

To that, shooting out like a spears from the darkness, many vine-like pseudopodia rushed out. Ellis who jumped on her two feet slashed her sword out in front. Curtis reflexively created a basic shield of fire in front of him. The pseudopodia burnt into crisps under the compressed flames. One beat too later and Curtis would have become a skewed piece of meat.

More pseudopodia shot out from all directions. They were capable bending and turning flexibly in air, making it very hard to discern it's direction of attack.

The campfire erupted into a white flame. The darkness that shrouded the ground was lit up exponentially, increasing visibility.

{Stream blade: Quint-strike}

Ellis was gradually regaining her composure. A 5 strike combo was unleashed at precise positions, blossoming into a sakura pattern, cutting down 8 or so vine projectiles. They dropped on the floor and wriggled like struggling earthworms. It was rather disgusting. Yucky green juice spurted out and white smoke was seen when it came in contact with the ground. Acid?

Her brow was twitching. She was sure a least a few drops landed on her.

{Auxiliary Support}

A faint light enveloped her whole body. A revitalizing sensation was felt, her body felt lighter, her mind clearer, at the same time, she could feel all her basic functions enhanced by a bit.

"Thanks!" Ellis sent a yelp to Curtis before fending off another wave of shooting vines.

{Inferno Gyrosphere}

Like a gyro sphere, flame rings rotated along their predetermined axes, roasting the pseudopodia that touched it. Levitating above his hand was the spell book the size of a wallet, emanating a faint orange light.

Inferno Rings was a complex spell, as such, the spell book was required.

{Coat O' Arms}

A different light enveloped Ellis, this was a special spell that reduced incoming impact. If the attack was a sharp type, it would totally nullify the pressure by distributing the force throughout the coat. So if say a projection we're to past through Ellis' sword defense, this coat would at least help prevent any damage to her body, like an iron shield.

Both Auxiliary Note and Coat O' Arms required a constant supply of mana. But both these support spell were used on only a single target. Thus, the consumption was still less when combined in comparison to {Inferno Gyrosphere} alone.

The many tiny blue crystals dangling on Curtis's neck were shining in a sparkling.

Ellis who had already sliced projections that went upwards to 3 digits had felt something wrong. What were these things? Why was it attacking them?

If this was a non-stop onslaught, Curtis had it worse, with vines coming at home trice the amount Ellis was dealing with. If it weren't for the high speed rotating flame rings, Curtis would have already turned into a pile of flesh.

Ellis felt a chill sweep past.

{Sharpness}

The orange-blue crystal, or fusion crystal, on the guard of her jade sword flashed. This was a gemstone similar to the mana crystal.

Ellis held her breath and swung her sword to her flank. What she saw made the hairs on her body stand on end. She bit her lips to forcefully restrain her urge to scream.

It was the figure, the human figure. The one she saw in the silhouettes was now dangling right before her. It was definitely a corpse of some human. With its four limbs, head, skin and torso still attached.

The eyes had already decomposed into the eye socket, making the two recess on his head as dark as abyss. The skin had already worn into a muddy-chocolate colour, faint white bloodless skin patches could be seen interweaved between. It looked like it had lost it's blood. The vines curled around his body, concentrating at the arms, wrist, legs and neck.

The middle section of the torso together with the femurs had been cleanly bisected.

The vine that curled around the neck quickly loosed. Dropping the carcass on the floor.

Ellis shuddered. Then a faint sweet scent hit her.

Curtis was able to keep up with the vine projections. Although it was fast, the flaming rings ,MVP.

Crack~

A slight vibration was felt below his feet.

Crack~Sizzle~

Suddenly appearing from the ground were protrusion-like buds. Curtis glared intensely at the things, trying to discern the object. From the looks of it, there were bamboo-shoot-looking spikes growing out.

With the bulbs randomly strewn across the floor, Curtis wouldn't be able to change his footing. Chances are, with one a wrong step, becoming impaled by the spiky buds would be final.

{Quake}

Curtis lightly tapped his feet on the ground.

Quake was a spell that manipulated the Earth around to form a hardened wall or, cause a very tiny earthquake. This spell would also work well in loose sand. It would automatically compress the ground to form a hard shell.

However, instead of creating a wall, Curtis hardened the ground beneath and expanded the floor, crushing the plants together with the underground roots they created. Prominent cracks can be seen riddled across the surface with shriek-rumbling sounds.

The spike buds? They were rolling in the floor like flowers being plucked fresh from the garden.

{Wind}

A draft wind circulated Curtis, lifting the spike balls and tossing them into the fire.

The rings were spinning. The flames were burning. The sound of acid steaming. It was quiet. There were no more vines coming his way. The attacks stopped.

Diluting the flame rings around him, he looked around.

The silhouettes in the distance were gone, the light orbs in the woods still shining brightly; The vine projectiles were gone, asides from the smoking ground with green to it; And then, Ellis was gone, which made Curtis blink a few times. Was he seeing wrong?

Ellis just vanished. Gone.

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Back when Ellis was sitting above on his legs, while playing with her hands, he casted a spell call {Soul String}. It was done without being known to Ellis. Curtis was a little worried about staying in the wilderness at night, so just in case, he tied a phantom string around her ring finger. Under his current situation, he could only call himself fortunate. If Ellis didn't warn him about her bad premonitions, he would be stuck as to what he should do.

{Soul String} was a skill that linked two people, the caster and the target. A ghost-like string is attached to both parties at the targeted point—in this case, it was their fingers.

The ghostly string pointed Curtis towards the direction of the woods. An eerie vibe extruded from within. His brow twitched and his stomach cramped. Where in the world did she go?

With light footsteps and blurring speed, he seemed to leap from one place to another.

{Gale Steps}

A wind magic skill that increase one's movements speed whilst omitting the reducing sounds created in each step. Like the vines before him, the bush rustled. Still closely observing the incorporeal string, it looked as if Ellis was tossed in a circle. He ended up seeing parts that overlapped at certain times. Instinctively, Curtis chose the shorter route, which lead him even deeper into the woods.

Sometimes, Curtis would pass by a small group of glowing krill. Each group would have their own special combination of conglomerate colours. He also met with ground crabs, the size of his his torso. But they didn't seem to be hostile, so Curtis merely moved past them.

Tiny gems that stuck to some species of trees illuminated faintly the moment the light from the light orb hit it's direction. Glitters of green in various shades ran amok.

Stopping for a moment, Curtis took a chance to look at a particular tree. One that had a red gemstone embedded in it. What? Red crystals don't grow on trees.

In any case, with a quick flick of his hands, he carved it out of the mold and stuffed it inside his pocket. Did... did he just hit the jackpot? Red crystals like these were really worth a lot.

Curtis didn't examine it properly but from just a single glean, it was unusually large for a red crystal.

A second later, he disappeared into the wind.

From the sensation he felt from the string, Ellis was sleeping. It was a gentle sweet feeling, like lollipops and candy. Curtis was now starting to worry. She was dreaming, but why something sweet? This was in complete opposite of his current situation.

"Sleeping gas?" Curtis muttered under his breath. He hypothesized that the plant that had attacked them was a 'Forest Sprite'. He read about this.

Pseudopodia-like projectiles; cactus bulbs. The tree was also knew how to use past prey to play tricks on them. They were known to be extremely rare creatures but considering the fact that this was virgin land, there was a high possibility for them to exist here.

Prey. Curtis ruminated about that for a moment. The Forest Sprite, asides obtaining nutrients from the Earth, used magic skills that required mana to act as a form of defense. And where did this mana come from? The earth definitely held too little in reserves. Hence, there was only one other possibility.

Sensing that he was getting closer to her position, he bounced pass a thorny bush.

Curtis came to a wide open area. The ceiling was dark, some leafy canopy was blocking the twinkling of stars in the sky. Flowing in a circle, gemstones sparkled as the light orb separated into two, then four, then eight. The parameter was slowly encircled with light. The scale of the place was massive, one could wonder if this was actually a forest at all. A huge dead zone slap dab in the middle of the forest. It was like an arena?

Curtis shook his head. Even a team of adventurers would find it hard to take down a forest sprite. Having an open space like this shouldn't trick him into taking it easy.

Curtis felt his nose itch and sneezed. The sound echoed with a strange wavy-ness to it.

'There!'

Pseudopodia projections came at him once again. They looked different somehow. Red dense thorns, thickened with extra strong green fibers and fist-sized flower buds on some of the vines. This was a stronger version of the one he faced before.

{Inferno Gyrosphere}

The necklace around his neck lit up once more. If one looked closely, one could see an empty crystal, the mana inside it had already dried up.

Ferocious attacks that were instantly burnt to crisps. A charred scent quickly envelope the air. Caustic liquid spurt out in all directions. Leaves turning yellow, falling; rough tree barks peeling right off the body; branches falling from the sky; entire trees corroding in thick white smoke. The liquid, not one speck touched Curtis. With wind magic, he created another barrier inside the {Inferno Ring} called {Wind Barrier}, flinging away any acid that accidental splashed it's way inside.

How long could Curtis afford to wait? He knew he was not too far away from Ellis' location. She was alive, but from the looks of such attacks, just what kind of condition was she in?

The way a Forest Sprite would consume it's victims mana would be by encasing them in a cocoon filled with weird sweet liquid. The victim would be unable to wake up due to the special characteristics possessed. By doing so, the victim's body would naturally regenerate the loss mana in sleep just to be leeched out by the tree. It could be said that the tree was very efficient in harvesting mana, even keeping it's prey alive like livestock.

Ellis wasn't in any sort of immediate danger. The liquid wouldn't drown the victim, probably. Definitely not common sense.

That didn't mean she wasn't in deep trouble if this continues on.

Curtis continued forward, ignoring the gushing sounds of the ceaseless projections. Every step he took, he didn't forget to harden the ground. The flame rings that rotated at high speed reduced visibility somewhat, but Curtis was still barely able to discern the surrounding.

He sneezed again.

Curtis started to suspect something. He thought of the air properly this time around. This was the scent of?

{Wind}

The air shook. Blown away in a radial spiral, this included the projections. Together with the air containing sweet smelling gas.

Did it really need to smell sweet?

{Wind}

Expecting something bizarre to happen, he tried to focus his mind, readying his spell book. The blast of wind would only temporarily hold back the gas. A wind barrier was formed, in mind a filter, in hopes that it could help prevent the contaminated air from entering.

Hallucination.

Written literally in the encyclopedia he read not too long ago, the one who breathed in this gas would hallucinate wonderful dreams. What this this imply in actuality? Curtis was about to find out.

It was eerie silence, for a few seconds, nothing. Until a muffled voice was heard in the distant. The sound of someone wriggling. Squinting his eyes past the rotating hoops of flame, a figure struggling was seen.

The height, the shape, and being presumably crushed by the contracting vines— Ellis?

Curtis was to charge forward but before that, he noticed how the soul string was direct elsewhere. That figure in front, shouldn't be Ellis.

"Nmmmmmnnm.." , the figure moaned. It was desperately struggling.

"That's not Ellis" Curtis shook his head to remind himself. Hallucinations are hallucinations. Affecting the taste, smell and sight. But not the soul. He could still feel the calm, tranquil feeling brushing against him from the soul string. Then, if that wasn't Ellis, what was that?

Curtis' curiousity was pique for a moment.

The silhouette that neared a semblance to Ellis continued struggling as it wriggled in the air; Vines curled around not only the neck, but at the arms, torso, thighs and ankle. A moment past before it stopped moving, dangling there like a marionette.

Curtis inspected the unmoving shadow. Could this be a hallucination? Curtis had inhaled what he thought to be a little of the hallucination-inducing gas.

In confusion, Curtis walked closer, the distance between them started to close in as his eyes became fixed to the figure dangling high up.

The vines around the figure loosened, slowly letting the figure down from the trees. Like an angel descending from the sky, but with the rigidity of a puppet. The vines halted her just above the bare ground, making her slant sloppily from the waist down.

Clear as crystal, Curtis was able to tell, this figure was in fact Ellis. It was Ellis' body, naked! It if it weren't for the vines wrapping her 'important' part, Curtis would have started to bleed at the nose. In fact, just those vines curling around her alluring legs and arms were already enough to cause Curtis' mind to go numb. Curtis was just about to fantasize the vines crawling around her entire figure as she let out a moan but slapped himself. This person in front of him couldn't possibly be Ellis. Not a chance.

Curtis could feel the pull towards this Ellis left in a vulnerable, coquettish posture. Her beautiful brown hair covered her face, some curved around her shoulders, some left draping downwards. The light reflecting off the hair at this angle made a few highlights shine like gold. Her legs formed a 'W' and her trapped arms held her entire body in the air. This glorious sight that Curtis assumes to be the 'wonderful dreams the encyclopedia talked about' did not fool him, yet.

Making a gulp, Curtis turned towards the direction which the soul string tugged at, forcefully ignoring the Ellis right there in front of him. He took a few steps.

"Curtis." A plea. It stuck his mind like clapping thunder. Didn't he say he would protect Ellis? Turning to look, he could see her deep breathing, chest expanding and contracting. Shiny perspiration covered her scanty body. Even the wheezing in her breath could be heard. This sweet plea sounded exactly like—Ellis.

In dilemma, Curtis shook his head once more and faced away. With the calm voice, "You're not Ellis."

This could be one of the ways to break the hallucination? To directly announce it. To let the Forest Sprite know how it's delusion had no effect. Another reason was to root this fact inside his own mind. Saying it out loud should help clarify his thought somewhat.

"How did you guess my Curtis?" The once drooping figure of Ellis was now standing upright with a rather celestial smile. One that held superiority and gentleness?

Now, where had he heard this voice before?

More important— it had intelligence?!

Behind her back, magnanimous fairy wings spread out into a perfect 'V' and her voice—he knew it, he was sure of it, but it wasn't Ellis' voice. It sounded like a female child, a girl.

The Forest Sprite not only had the ability to steal it's prey's mana, but also it's intelligence?

Wait, so did this mean that the Forest Sprite ate a super young aristocrat? From the manner of speech, that should be correct right? Just where did this sprite get it's hands on a VIP?

"It's pointless now. This body of hers represents me," said in a very cute child-like voice.

Curtis became stiff, his legs stepped half-way on the ground.

"Explain," Curtis isn't turned around as he said it with a reproachful voice. Contrary to his cold attitude, that Ellis replied rather cheerfully.

"Curtis. It's inevitable isn't it? I am this plant now. You're not going to leave are you?" the girl's voice called out.

"This isn't real. Stop fooling around,".