A sound echoed, and a circular crack appeared in the ground.
Heluo raised her hand, cutting out a cylindrical section of soil with a diameter of two meters and a depth of about one and a half meters, as if cutting a cake. She gently placed the cylinder on the ground beside, without damaging its structure.
After finishing, Heluo pointed at the soil, saying, "Look, not only are there no animals around, but there’s none in the soil either. The most common earthworms and some insects are gone, vanished without a trace."
"So, is this an empty forest?" Bobbobovic asked.
"An empty forest wouldn’t kill people again and again." Heluo disagreed, turning to Richard, who hadn’t spoken, and asked, "Wizard Richard, what do you think?"
Richard stroked his chin, pondering for a while, and spoke out a feeling he had since entering the forest: "I don’t think the forest is empty, and animals haven’t just fled; they are deliberately avoiding us. In other words, wherever we appear, the animals relocate away from there, moving to another place."
"Why would they do that?" Heluo was puzzled.
"Because they don’t want us to discover them. Instead, they want to figure us out entirely to attack us at our weakest points," Richard said, his expression slightly serious. "I have a suspicion that perhaps... they’ve been watching us from the shadows all along."
"Watching?!" Heluo and Bobbobovic exclaimed simultaneously, then fell silent, their expressions sinking. Clearly, they sensed something.
At that moment, a rustling sound came from a distant bush, and a black shadow, seemingly realizing it had been exposed, suddenly shot out of the underbrush, skimming along the ground like a flying creature toward the forest’s depths.
Richard, Bobbobovic, and Heluo exchanged a quick glance, silently communicating their thoughts to each other.
The next moment, without any hesitation, the three leapt up, bursting into gray, blue, and purple hues, chasing after the black shadow. As they pursued it, they continually cast various defensive magics on themselves to guard against possible ambush, ensuring they were prepared for anything.
The shadow was extremely fast. The three kept vigilant as they chased, but couldn’t close the distance at all for a while. Instead, amidst the forest’s complex terrain, they were gradually being left behind.
"Don’t run! Cover me!"
At this moment, Heluo first shouted to the escaping shadow, then requested Richard and Bobbobovic, her body flickering with high-frequency purple light, as she pushed her speed to pursue the shadow.
The shadow sensed danger and, after weaving through a dozen trees, rushed into a large clearing. It leapt into the air, diving sharply towards the soil, as if using some Earth Magic to transfer itself. Follow current novels on 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩·𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢·𝔫𝔢𝔱
By the time Heluo reached the clearing, most of the shadow had already entered the soil.
Heluo hurriedly yelled, raising her right hand to cast a spell in hopes of halting it.
But her left hand moved even faster, conjuring a golden-yellow energy ball in her palm, which she threw directly towards the spot where the shadow vanished into the ground.
A massive explosion sounded as the energy ball touched the ground and rapidly expanded into a gigantic fireball, bursting apart. The subsequent destructive shockwave spread out, flipping the ground, snapping numerous nearby trees, and igniting them.
When Richard and Bobbobovic arrived moments later, the entire clearing was engulfed in flames. Around them, broken trees swayed like giant burning torches, the scorching air feeling like a demon’s spiked tongue, scorching their skin. At the center of the fiery scene, Heluo was attempting to excavate where the shadow had just been, hoping to find some clues.
After digging a while, Heluo looked at Richard and Bobbobovic, shaking her head in disappointment. "Nothing. I thought that even if I didn’t catch it alive, I’d catch it dead. But now, there’s neither a living nor dead body, not even blood or fragments."
"What on earth was that thing? Why so strange?" Bobbobovic asked.
"That’s actually what I want to ask." Heluo said, shrugging. "But, I don’t know."
After saying this, Heluo looked at Richard and asked, "Wizard Richard, do you have any answers? Did you see it clearly?"
"I didn’t." Richard shook his head, answering honestly.
"Then what do we do now?" Bobbobovic frowned, feeling the pressure of this Level 7 Task.
"My suggestion is not to give the opponent too much preparation time. Whatever it is, since we discovered it once, we should move quickly now, aiming to enter the core area of the forest before it has a chance to react," Richard said. "This might disrupt some of its plans and give us a certain advantage."
"Good suggestion," Bobbobovic commented. "Although it carries significant danger, logically it is indeed a good suggestion. I agree."
"I also agree with Wizard Richard’s suggestion," Heluo said.
"Alright, let’s move forward then," Richard said, and the three headed towards the forest’s depths.
After taking a few steps, Heluo suddenly remembered something and stopped, "Wait a minute?"
"What?" Richard asked.
Bobbobovic stepped back a few paces and then looked at Heluo, asking, "What’s wrong?"
"Forgot to put out the fire," Heluo said, turning to the still-burning trees, and with a wave of her hand, she sent several milky-white, cold-emanating heavy ice bombs flying.
The ice bombs exploded over the fire scene, causing the temperature to drop sharply.
The flames were quickly extinguished as if clapped out by a giant’s hand. The scorched tree trunks, still warm, rapidly formed crystalline ice layers on their surfaces, eliminating any chance of reignition.
After finishing, Heluo explained to Richard and Bobbobovic, "In this forest, using Fire Magic without proper handling can easily cause large fires. Although in most cases, the fire won’t affect us much, burning for a while and consuming the surrounding trees before dying down, in some rare cases, it may be disadvantageous, so we need to avoid letting that happen."
"Minimize the negative factors," Richard concluded Heluo’s words.
"Exactly," Heluo said.
"Alright then," Bobbobovic shrugged.
The three exchanged no more words, setting off again toward the forest’s depths.
Unbeknownst to them, a few minutes after they left, the scorched trees, which had formed surface ice layers, suddenly began oozing blood from beneath their bark.
The blood was bright red, flowing over the tree surfaces and then "plop plop" dripping to the ground, forming a small pool.