The dead branch spun several times in the air before landing on the ground, its thin end pointing to the right.
Good. It seemed fate had offered a little guidance.
Ethan turned around and spread the fingers of his right hand. An emerald green light flared in his palm, and he tapped it against Roly’s chest.
A dark green speck of light the size of a thumb detached from his fingertip and sank into her chest.
The moment the speck entered her body, Roly’s entire frame stiffened.
She could feel the speck slowly writhing inside her chest like a living seed, its roots spreading along her blood vessels toward her heart.
“That thing in your chest is called a Seed Bomb. With just a thought, I can make it explode inside your heart. The blast radius isn’t large, but it’s just enough to turn everything in your chest cavity into minced meat.”
He paused for a moment. “Of course, you could try to run. But if that thing gets more than ten kilometers away from me, it will detonate on its own without me lifting a finger. So, follow me obediently.”
Roly’s face turned from a sickly pale green to a deathly ashen gray.
She looked down at her chest, then looked up at Ethan.
Her eyes were filled with absolute despair. Her lips trembled for a moment before she managed to squeeze out a single word.
“Yes.”
Ethan withdrew his gaze and began walking out of the camp. “Follow me.”
It took Roly two full breaths to process what he had said.
She scrambled up from the ground, her legs still weak and shaking. She stumbled after Ethan, keeping a distance of three paces. Her long, pointed ears were pinned tightly against the sides of her head, and her hands clutched the crystal pendant tightly.
The two of them walked through the ruins of the camp, passing by the corpses crushed by vines and the collapsed shacks.
Roly’s eyes swept over the bodies, recognizing familiar faces.
Companions she had shared root soup with just yesterday were now unrecognizable, strangled by vines. Their pale green blood had dried into dark brown crusts.
She lowered her head and quickened her pace to keep up with the outsider in front of her.
They hadn't walked more than a few kilometers from the camp when a group of stragglers burst out from the mountain forest ahead.
Seven or eight Amons warriors emerged from the thickets. Their leather armor was tattered, their weapons were stained with blood, and their eyes were filled with alertness.
Leading them was a one-eyed strongman. When he saw Ethan and Roly walking from the direction of the camp, he froze for a second before his gaze landed on Ethan.
“An outsider!”
Just as the one-eyed strongman raised his battle-axe, emerald Flying Leaves poured from Ethan’s palm.
The leaves traced seven or eight arcs through the air, precisely slicing the throat of every warrior.
Before the one-eyed strongman’s axe could fall, his body stiffened in mid-swing. A thin line opened at his throat, and pale green blood sprayed out.
The corpses fell one by one, hitting the dead leaves and branches with dull thuds.
Ethan didn't stop, walking straight through the middle of the bodies.
Roly followed behind, looking down at the corpses still twitching on the ground.
The one-eyed man’s single eye was wide and bulging, the light already gone from it.
His mouth remained open in the shape of a roar, with pale green blood oozing from the corner, drawing a crooked line down his face.
Roly’s footsteps faltered for a moment.
“Follow me, or die!”
Roly shuddered violently and hurried to keep up.
As they continued their journey, they encountered more and more stragglers.
Some were remnants who had fled from the front lines, scurrying through the woods in small groups.
Some were warriors left behind by nearby tribes, leading the elderly, the weak, and the children as they retreated deeper into the mountains.
There were also wounded soldiers, their severed limbs haphazardly wrapped in vine bark, dragging their mangled bodies through the mud.
Ethan spared none of them.
Flying Leaves, vines, wooden spikes—every move he made took a batch of lives.
Corpses fell in the forests, by the streams, and on the rocky ground.
Pale green blood soaked the earth, collecting into small puddles in the hollows.
Roly followed behind, watching her kin fall, watching their bodies being crushed by vines or skewered by wooden spikes.
Her lips were trembling, her pointed ears were pinned back, and her eyes were filled with terror.
But she didn't dare say a word. She even went as far as to stifle her own breathing.
Ethan traveled with Roly for several days.
It was too slow.
The speed of this Amons recruit was dragging down his efficiency.
At this rate, by the time they reached the Sacred City, it would be far too late.
Ethan stopped and spread the fingers of his right hand.
Emerald green vines burst from his palm, wrapping around Roly’s waist and limbs.
The vines tightened, bundling her up like a cocoon, leaving only her head exposed.
Roly let out a short cry of alarm before biting her lip hard.
Ethan grabbed the end of the vines and slammed his foot against the ground.
Boom.
The earth exploded, and gravel flew everywhere.
The two of them shot toward the north like an arrow from a bow.
The violent wind pressure rushed into Roly’s mouth, forcing her unuttered scream back down her throat.
She squeezed her eyes shut, her pointed ears pinned back, her face distorted by the wind.
They ran for about half an hour.
Ethan came to a sudden halt.
The sounds of intense combat echoed from the forest ahead.
Ethan casually tossed the bundle of vines to the side. Roly, still wrapped up, slammed into the trunk of a large tree and slid to the ground, seeing stars.
Passing through several fallen logs, Ethan’s eyebrows twitched at the sight before him.
A Serpent-kin apprentice was being soundly beaten.
The apprentice had a human upper body, wearing dark purple skin-tight leather armor and holding a pale gold short staff. His lower body was a thick snake tail, with dark green scales shimmering with pale gold runic patterns.
The snake tail slithered rapidly across the ground, moving so fast it left afterimages.
But his opponent was even faster.
It was an Amons warrior.
He was over three meters tall, his pale green skin covered in dark red war tattoos.
He held a longbow nearly as tall as himself, crafted from a dark green wood with glowing vines wrapped around its surface.
Eerily, he had no quiver.
Every time he drew the bow, an emerald green energy arrow would automatically condense on the string.
The moment the arrow formed, it was released, moving so fast it appeared only as a streak of green light.
One arrow followed another, each one lethal.
The Serpent-kin apprentice dodged and weaved through the rain of arrows. His tail slithered between trees, constantly changing direction.
His speed was incredible, and every change in direction plowed deep furrows into the ground.
However, the Amons warrior’s movements as he jumped through the trees while shooting were even more agile.
He kicked off tree trunks to leap into the air, drawing his bow in mid-flight. By the time he landed, he was already on the branch of another tree, drawing his bow once more.
The energy arrows sealed off all possible escape routes for the Serpent-kin apprentice.
Worse yet, those arrows exploded upon impact.
The boulder the Serpent-kin apprentice had just hidden behind was blasted into a cloud of dust by a single arrow.
The thick tree trunk he used for cover was hit by three arrows simultaneously, snapping the entire tree in half and sending wood splinters flying in all directions.
Several wounds had already appeared on the Serpent-kin apprentice’s tail. The dark green scales were blown open, and pale red blood seeped from the gaps.
His left shoulder had also been grazed by an arrow, shattering his leather armor and leaving the skin around the wound charred black.
Right then, Ethan burst out from the forest.
Rate on N.U.
