CHAPTER 293: STRANGENESS IN THORNWOOD FOREST—2

The mushrooms were collected—one hundred and seventeen total, well over the mission requirement. They could return now, claim their reward, and advance in the adventurer ranks. A successful first mission by any measure.

"We’re not leaving yet," Leon said, examining the scattered bones beneath their feet. "Those lightning beasts are why we really came here."

The bones told a disturbing story. Whatever had happened here wasn’t natural predation. The skeletal remains lay in patterns suggesting panic, desperate flight, and failed last stands.

"We’re investigating what’s happening in this forest," he continued, his voice firm.

Seraphine nodded without hesitation. Whatever he wants, she thought. As his wife, she’d follow his lead anywhere. Her own curiosity burned bright about this mystery, and she knew how abnormally strong Leon was. That confidence in his abilities made her fearless.

Loriel shifted nervously, fear and excitement warring across her face. Despite the danger, despite the bones crunching beneath their feet, she didn’t want this to end. My first real adventure. The thrill of discovery, of experiencing something beyond her confined saintly life, overwhelmed her natural caution.

They pushed deeper into the forest. The canopy grew thicker, blocking more sunlight with each step. No beasts appeared, but the bones increased in both number and size. Whatever had died here included creatures of significant mass.

Then came the human skeletons.

Adventurers, judging by their equipment. Leon knelt beside each group, collecting abandoned weapons and armor into his spatial storage. A sword here, a spear there. Leather armor is still mostly intact despite exposure. Glass vials of various colored potions are tucked into belt pouches.

They won’t need these anymore.

With a gesture, the earth element flowed from his hands. The ground opened, swallowed the remains, then smoothed over—simple graves for the forgotten dead. The process took mere seconds.

They’d been walking for several minutes when Leon heard it. Faint, distant, but unmistakable—the sound of combat. Metal striking something harder than steel. Shouts of desperation. The distinctive crackle of magic discharge.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

Both women concentrated, tilting their heads. After a moment, they shook their heads.

Hmm... My senses are sharper than theirs.

"There’s fighting ahead. Stay close to me."

He increased their pace, not quite running but moving with urgent purpose. Fast enough to reach the battle quickly, slow enough to keep the group together. In hostile territory, separation meant death.

The sounds grew clearer with each step. Definitely a major battle—multiple combatants, desperation evident in the voices that occasionally broke through the din.

"Be ready," Leon warned, hand on his sword hilt.

His spatial awareness, constantly active within fifty meters, detected movement beneath them a split second before it struck.

"Below us! Move!"

Roots erupted from the earth, thick as tree trunks and sharp as spears. Leon’s epic-ranked sword flashed silver, severing the one aimed at his torso. Seraphine’s katana crackled with purple lightning as she activated Raging Descent and mana body enhancement, her blade slicing through the wooden attacker like heated butter.

Loriel had no weapon. She twisted away from the initial strike with surprising agility, but another root immediately pursued her, adjusting its trajectory mid-thrust.

She saw it coming, but before it could even reach her.

Leon’s blade intercepted it, reducing the root to scattered splinters.

"What weapons do you use?" he asked quickly, already reaching into his storage.

"Twin daggers," she answered, slightly confused by the sudden question but responding immediately.

Leon pulled a pair from his spatial storage—uncommon rank, nothing special compared to his epic sword, but functional. The blades were well-balanced, edges still sharp.

"Use these."

"Thanks!" Loriel grabbed them gratefully, testing their weight with quick movements. Not ideal, but infinitely better than facing whatever came next with bare hands.

They pressed forward through increasingly hostile terrain. More roots attacked in endless waves, bursting from soil and undergrowth without warning. Seraphine’s breathing grew labored, the constant combat draining her mana reserves faster than they could regenerate. Even Loriel, displaying surprising stamina, showed signs of building fatigue.

The voices ahead grew clearer—a man shouting tactical orders, a woman screaming defiance, others crying out in pain or desperate fear.

"Save your energy," Leon commanded. "I’ll handle the roots from now on."

The forest itself turned against them as they approached the sounds. Trees uprooted themselves, lumbering forward with murderous intent. Leaves detached and became projectiles, edges sharp enough to slice exposed flesh. Vines struck like vipers from the canopy. Roots continued their ambush tactics from below.

Leon carved through it all with mechanical efficiency. His epic-ranked sword parted ancient wood like paper, each movement economical and precise. Yet something felt fundamentally wrong.

I’m using fifteen percent of my strength. This should be trivial.

His body strained against invisible limits, muscles protesting as if he pushed against his absolute maximum. Twenty percent seemed his ceiling now, not the vast reserves he’d thought he always had access to before.

What’s happening to my body?

No time to investigate the phenomenon. His spatial awareness suddenly detected four humans ahead, locked in desperate combat with something massive. The creature’s mana signature blazed like a sun, somehow surpassing even the Kirin he’d encountered before.

That shouldn’t be possible. The Kirin was already beyond normal limits.

The forest’s attacks intensified as they approached, as if the very vegetation tried to prevent them from reaching the battle. Leon doesn’t have to increase his output to above 15%; however, his body protested slightly, but he pushed through the discomfort.

Through gaps in the trees, he glimpsed flashes of the conflict. Lightning—not Seraphine’s purple-tinged variety but pure blue-white energy—split the air repeatedly. A massive shape moved between the trees with impossible speed for something so large. Human figures dodged desperately, their movements suggesting near-complete exhaustion.

"Almost there," Leon called back, slashing through another wave of animated vines. "Whatever’s ahead, stay together. No one acts alone."

Seraphine nodded grimly, lightning dancing along her blade in preparation for whatever awaited them. Loriel gripped her borrowed daggers tighter, fear and anticipation mixing in her hazel eyes as she stayed close to the others. She had enhanced her body through her mana.

The trees suddenly parted, revealing a vast clearing ahead. What Leon saw there made him reassess everything he thought he knew about the Middle Domain’s power scale.

As he had fought beside Aurelia, it seems he doesn’t know everything.

The creature towered fifteen feet tall, its form a grotesque mockery of human shape. Bark-like skin covered a vaguely humanoid frame, with arms too long for its body and fingers that split into razor-sharp wooden talons. Its face was the worst part—almost human but stretched wrong, with eyes that burned with emerald fire and a mouth that opened too wide, revealing rings of thorn-like teeth.

Lightning coursed through its body in visible currents, crackling between its branch-like hair and earthing through its root-covered feet. Every movement was too fluid, too graceful for something made of wood and plant matter.

But that wasn’t what made Leon’s blood run cold.

The four adventurers—three humans and one wolf-eared demi-human—unleashed everything they had. Fire magic scorched its bark. Ice spears pierced its torso. The demi-human’s claws raked deep gouges across its chest. A human swordsman landed a perfect strike that should have severed its arm.

None of it mattered.

The creature’s wounds sealed instantly. Burned bark regrew in seconds. Ice spears pushed out of its body as flesh knitted closed. The severed arm reattached before it even hit the ground, wood fibers reaching out like desperate fingers to pull the limb back into place.

That regeneration... It’s beyond anything natural.

What the hell is even that?