After the hedgehog landed, it curled up, its entire body flashing with dazzling purple light, and then those spikes shot out in all directions like a torrential rainstorm.
A series of screams rang out.
The hedgehog’s spikes apparently had strong toxicity; any Truth Society wizard struck by them would convulse and fall dead within seconds.
By the time the Truth Society wizards finally reacted and managed to raise their shields, half of them had already perished, leaving only two core members and an outer member.
The rapidity of these changes felt like a dream.
The bald leader looked at the corpses of his companions scattered around, gritting his teeth. Just as he waved his hand to cast a spell to kill the hedgehog, he realized that it had already vanished.
"Damn it!" the bald leader growled angrily, clenching his teeth.
"Calm down, Leader!" said another core member in a blue robe, speaking solemnly, "Getting angry now is useless. The key is to leave this place and report back to the branch how dangerous this forest is. Damn it, they said this was a level 4 danger zone. It’s certainly beyond that now; we must increase the danger level."
"Fine, I’ll listen to you." The bald leader took a deep breath, suppressing his emotions, and said, "Let’s retreat." He gestured, maintaining the shield as he and his comrades retreated towards the edge of the forest.
But before they had walked a few dozen meters, the only surviving outer member in a gray robe, with one ear pricked up as if hearing something, spoke, "What’s that sound?"
"Hmm? What sound?" the bald leader asked with puzzlement.
"Listen!" The gray-robed outer member pointed to the right quite seriously, "It sounds like the wind."
"The wind?" The bald leader and another core member in a blue robe furrowed their brows and looked to the side, their eyes widening as they saw a white gust sweeping through the woods, heading straight for them.
A gale composed of invincible Wind Blades was upon them in the blink of an eye.
The bald leader roared out, "Defend, hold it off!" With those words, he and his two companions raised their shields with all their strength to face the oncoming wind.
The fierce wind composed of Wind Blades collided violently with the shields.
In an instant, a massive noise erupted, resembling the shrill cries of a thousand or ten thousand birds.
This noise lasted for a good ten seconds before disappearing, like the receding tide, without a trace.
The forest returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.
However, more than half an hour later, a blood-soaked figure staggered out from the edge of the forest.
This was not the bald leader or the other core member in a blue robe, but the previously weakest, surviving gray-robed outer member.
At this moment, the gray-robed outer member’s eyes were wide open, revealing a strong desire to survive.
He dashed a few steps to a large tree at the forest’s edge, collapsing to his knees, gasping heavily.
After panting for a long time, he glanced behind him and, seeing nothing pursuing, breathed a sigh of relief, the joy of narrowly escaping death appearing on his face, "Haha, that was close, really... close. Finally... finally got out!"
After speaking, he gritted his teeth and got up again, squeezing what little physical strength he had left to flee the forest and completely leave this deadly place.
But the next moment, there was a swoosh in the air.
The gray-robed outer member who had escaped shuddered, incredulously looking down at his chest, seeing a peculiarly shaped beast fang piercing through his body, with blood gushing from the wound.
The gray-robed outer member began to convulse, then collapsed with a thud to the ground.
"Rustle rustle rustle..."
Subsequently, a black shadow appeared, indistinguishable in form, yet incredibly nimble, swiftly dragging the gray-robed outer member back into the forest, disappearing from sight.
Only then did the forest regain true quiet.
Back at the Delan Branch, Supervisor Rommel received more bad news from the Hall Orcs, ruining his mood for the second time.
Frowning, Rommel stepped into Steward Canon’s office, ready to follow his original plan and assign some new tasks to Canon.
However, this time he found the room empty—Canon was not in the office, having left temporarily for some business.
With Canon absent, the Demonized Rabbit was present.
Canon’s personal pet, a demonized white rabbit, seeing the door open, thought it was Canon returning, quickly hopped out of the corner and onto the desk, aiming to jump onto the newcomer. This update ıs available on 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡~𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢~𝙣𝙚𝙩
But the next moment, it unexpectedly realized the person entering was not Canon, but Rommel.
The rabbit’s front legs, already raised, waved in the air awkwardly before it fell back onto the desk. Its red eyes stared at Rommel for several seconds, its three-petaled mouth opening and closing, and with some stiffness, it turned to sneak back into the corner.
Achieving this was too difficult.
After all, in the large office now, there were only two living beings: itself and Rommel, a Level 4 Wizard.
Rommel’s gaze fell on the white rabbit, watching for a moment before slowly relaxing his knitted brows, then raising them slightly.
"A rabbit? A demonized rabbit?" Rommel mused, "So this is the pet Canon has been hiding, a demonized rabbit. Ha, last time I ignored you, and this time you jumped out yourself."
Hearing Rommel’s words, the rabbit suddenly sensed something ominous, using its hind legs to jump away quickly.
But just as its body left the desk, it found itself floating uncontrollably towards Rommel like a bubble.
No matter how much it struggled afterwards, it could only watch as it floated closer to Rommel, finally landing with a thud in his arms.
Upon close contact with Rommel’s body and sensing his terrifying aura, the rabbit seemed to petrify, frozen in place. In its perception, Rommel was hundreds or thousands of times more frightening than its natural predators. If Rommel showed any displeasure, he could easily kill it.
"Ha, are you scared?"
As he spoke, he stroked the rabbit’s fur.
The rabbit trembled even more with fear, yet didn’t dare to move, staying perfectly still.
Rommel seemed not to notice the rabbit’s distress, casually petting it again and again.
With a squeak, the office door opened, Canon hurriedly walked in, and immediately stopped.
He saw Rommel sitting in his chair, musingly stroking his pet rabbit with a pensive expression, his thoughts a mystery.
Canon’s expression slowly stiffened, his mouth opening, trying several times but utterly at a loss for words.