Chapter 418: Chapter 217: Thorns and Beasts, Purification and Pleas_2

The fragile thorns could not stop the green-gray stone spear ripping through the air, and the ordinary beasts in the forest stood no chance against those two poison blades.

It might be the favor of luck.

A few months later, I suddenly came to an area extremely rich in magic particles, where the beasts were far stronger than those in other places.

And the mist permeating the air made me realize that this was the “Mist Forest,” the extremely dangerous gathering place for demons often heard of in tales from my village in childhood.

I stayed in the forest for a while, drove away some adventurers I encountered, and confirmed through repeated attempts that my abilities were still effective here.

This was the perfect place to settle everything and bring an end to it all.

These two people were no match for the powerful demons in the forest.

But how could I make these smart and cunning adventurers willingly venture deep into the forest, even if faced with waves of demon attacks, without retreating, and thereby create conditions for my revenge?

I made a crazy decision.

I planned to join their team, as a member, and step by step, lure these two into a trap.

Moreover, only by being in the team would the beast hordes in the forest actively attack the two of them.

Of course, before this, I needed a name, a new name to replace the one that had already faded and been forgotten with my memories.

“Mint.”

“My name is ‘Mint’.”

I said to the two people before me.

…

The plan was going well.

The two adventurers had not doubted my identity, or rather, my disguise as a “new adventurer” made them not care about my origins — it all ended the same anyway.

The only unexpected factor was the black-haired youth who also joined halfway, known in the town as “Gray Sword.”

A “newcomer” who had just recently reached professional level, according to the two.

I didn’t pay much attention at first; after all, if he was truly just a new professional, he would be only a minor concern against the dangerous demons in the forest.

Until a few days ago, facing the pack of Temple Night Wolves.

The iron-gray sword light gave me a sense of danger far exceeding the two of them combined.

The plan thus changed.

I intended to use this man’s hand to kill the two adventurers.

Even if it required paying much more than before.

…I succeeded.

An unexpected Bear disrupted the formation, causing the two adventurers to doubt Gray Sword.

And just a little more fuel could ignite the already tense atmosphere in the team to a bursting point.

Without any surprise, facing the magic items on my “corpse,” the two attacked Gray Sword.

…

…

“Tap, tap.”

With a gentle step on fallen leaves, a small, frail figure gradually appeared from the shadows of the dense forest ahead.

Her short, blackish-brown hair, slightly tinged with green, swayed gently with her movements, and her plain robe, stained with blood, draped to the ground.

From the powerful blow of the Bear, her chest was sunken, but the surface was covered with a layer of emerald green light, and her injuries quickly healed.

No longer weak and unsteady as before, nor stumbling as one should after severe injuries.

Mint walked with an incredibly steady, even light step.

Not at all like a fragile spellcaster who had been heavily injured.

Under the moonlight, her cheeks remained pale, but all the expressions that once served as a disguise had dissipated.

Only an indescribable, silent calm remained.

Her eyes, reflecting the faint light like those of a beast in the night, looked past Xia Nan, past the bodies on the scene, finally resting on the green light by the trunk in the center.

She moved her steps.

“Drip, drip.”

Thick crimson blood dripped from the iron-gray blade’s tip, splashing into crystalline blood flowers on the meadow.

Xia Nan’s black eyes were fixed on the frail figure walking by slowly in front, but he didn’t move.

He could sense the menace in her approach.

Having long noticed something off about Mint, he was not particularly surprised by her “mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind” act.

This was reality, not an anime or game plot; with his character, once his enemy was confirmed, he couldn’t possibly give the opponent even a second of pause, a chance to explain their intentions.

The reason he hadn’t taken action and stood in place, watching her walk by,

was because he perceived the subtle movements from the ground below.

Like extended tree roots, the intricate and vast thorns are writhing and spreading around him as the center in the soil.

I’m afraid with just a light step, those thorns will break through the ground and rush at him frantically.

And the number and strength of the thorns perceived are naturally no longer like before, unable to block even a wild boar.

At the same time, surrounding the clearing, pairs of cruel and violent beast eyes emerge from the shadows at the edges, casting their bloodthirsty gaze upon him.

The beast pack, silently arrives.

In the center of the sight, that seemingly small and frail figure.

Xia Nan can clearly feel, under its skin, a voiceless roar, twisting and swelling amorphous entity.

His shadow elongated by the moonlight, proliferates into a disturbing and fearful beast shadow, wantonly wielding its terrifying claws and fangs in another space.

“Trouble, very troublesome.”

His gaze quietly sweeps over the corpse on the ground.

Xia Nan secretly begins to consider the possibility of collecting loot quickly along the way and then retreating.

But as if sensing his intentions.

A calm female voice suddenly comes to his ear.

“Please do not run away,” Mint says softly without turning her head, “I have seen you use that displacement battle skill, trust me, its effect at night will be much worse than during the day.”

“The forest at night is the beasts’ home ground.”

She steps, walking to the oak tree in the center of the clearing.

ZZZZ—

The beastman’s corpse, which was originally leaning against the tree trunk, suddenly flashes with a vague light on its surface.

In the blink of an eye, dark mane and bloody wounds disappeared as if they were a fantasy.

Only a crude false body woven from thorns remains.

“Thank you… for helping me complete it.”

Mint crouches down, her white hand reaches toward the thorny false body by the tree trunk.

“But I’m afraid I can’t let you leave.”

With just a gentle tug, the rich life-emitting green light, she extracted it from the neck of the false body within the collapsing thorny vines.

“Please help me with one last thing.”

Just like a girl grooming in front of the mirror before leaving in the morning, Mint holds the green light and gently raises it to her ear.

The drop-shaped light green earring once again hangs beneath her left ear lobe.

The emerald light ripples, shimmering halos in the air.

Her gaze falls on Xia Nan ahead, with a bright smile on her face that had never been shown since the two first met.

“Now… come on.”

The girl opens her arms, her short blackish hair dances without wind.

“Let’s end this.”

BANG—

The thick and resilient skin is pushed up by muscle swelling like a balloon, the plain-colored robe instantly tears apart, the dark mane swings freely like ink.

The beast nature repressed for hundreds of days and nights, at the moment when hatred can be terminated, floods out from the depths of the heart like a deluge.

The dam built from will collapses and crumbles, human reason is instantaneously engulfed.

Thorns and beasts, wrath and grudge.

There’s no longer a reason to hold on, Mint chooses to embrace her beast nature.

Under the full moon,

before her, the bodies of her enemies.

On the thorn-ridden ground, under the watchful eyes of countless beasts.

No possibility of resistance, even the last shred of human consciousness is torn apart by the beast within her heart.

She instinctively completes the final step of the beastification ritual.

BOOM—

The dust bursts!

The brown thorns surge like a tidal wave out of the soil, twisting and piling up, carried with plant sap and earthy scent, crashing toward Xia Nan.

In the frenzied roar, one ferocious beast after another charges into the field, sharp fangs and claws gleaming cold under the moonlight.

Looking at the distorted and swollen ferocious figure ahead.

Xia Nan only feels perplexed.

“Thanks? Why thanks?”

“Help? Do I even have the leeway to refuse?”