167 The Putrid Forest

The treant swung his arm down at Lydia. She lifted her shield to block. BAM! She can’t feel any weight on her. Moving her shield away, she gasped.

“Get back,” Arad stood there, blocking the treant’s arm with one hand as he stood taller than Lydia. She was quite short barely making it to 1.6 meters. Arad stood at over 1.85 meters.

“You killed it?” she looked back, seeing the other treant torn to shred.

“Move,” Arad growled and Lydia backed away. He lifted his hand Gravity magic

CRACK! This treant was a bit thinner than the other. It fell flat on its back which caused many of its branches to survive. Arad stopped his magic and ran forward.

The treant tried to stand. BAM! Lydia, who was supposed to back away closed the distance between her and the treant in an instant. “The branches are down!” She growled, swinging her sword. Divine Smite CLAP!

With a golden flash, she sliced the branches. And killed the treant before Arad could start pulling them off.

“Wow! I thought you couldn’t cut wood with swords like that.” Arad looked at her.

“It’s hard, but there is a way.” Lydia looked at her sword. “I have pulled it right,” She smiled.

After making sure no other treants were close, Lydia explained her technique to Arad.

“Look, when you swing, you have to get the edge alignment right or your blade could shatter.” She showed him a slash, “Like this a right angle. And don’t forget the slashing motion. Which is to pull the blade toward you.”

“So I do that when I slash?” Arad swung his arms, trying to mimic Lydia’s moves.

“There is more. Since a tree like this has many branches, you have to adjust your edge alignment several times in a single slash. All while making sure to pull your sword enough to cut each branch.” Lydia trusted with her sword, “If you pulled too much and didn’t have enough to slash, you can thrust forward. But that is a bit weaker.”

Arad scratched his head, “Is it always this complicated?”

“It doesn’t matter if you have a powerful sword, speed, and power if you can’t control them. I know what I need to do and how to do them. But I bet Alcott could teach you better than me.” Lydia smiled.

Everyone started packing their camping equipment, “We’re getting close. Stay close to me from now on.” Arad said as they got ready to keep going.

Lydia looked down, sighting as Jack approached her. “Are you okay?” He asked and she looked at him. “I was useless, is that a good enough reason?”

“You did better than us. Arrows and traps won’t work against a large creature without a vital organ.” Jack replied.

“I thought I could help after the fight in the training ground. But Arad is in another league, he’s way ahead of us.” She looked at Arad, “He’s even the one guiding us toward the elder tree.”

Jack scratched his head. He knew Arad’s strength came from him being a true dragon. And he knew the forest is guiding him since he was the only kid around. It all made sense to him, but to Lydia, it didn’t.

Jack stared at Arad, and then back at Lydia. “If you didn’t hold the treant, he would have trampled the camp or killed Mira or Aella. You have a shield, you protected them.”

“Are you sure?” They could run away.

“Aella could, but Mira can’t.” Jack smiled, patting Lydia’s head. “As a paladin, you’re a healer, shielder, and a fighter. That makes you versatile.”

Lydia looked at Jack with a smile. “You know how to speak,”

“Today you were a shielder. Tomorrow a healer or a fighter, does it matter? You saved people and that’s the important point.”.

***

The party kept walking forward, but this time, Mira was sticking close to Arad. Too close in fact. “You are touching my side.” Arad looked at her.

“It’s safe here, isn’t it?” Mira replied.

“Aella will put an arrow in your head.” Arad pointed back.

“No, I won’t. Her staying beside you mean I don’t need to keep an eye on her.” Aella waved her hand.

“At least help me.” Arad sighed. “Well listen. If a monster attacked and I made a sudden move, I could hit you by mistake. Try to leave at least one meter between us.”

“As you say.” Thud! Mira slapped Arad’s back as she backed away.

“AW!” She looked at her palm, blowing on it. “You’re as hard as stone!” She gasped.

She hit the bones of your wings hiding on your back.

As Mira blew on her palm, her eyes landed on something strange between the bushes. “Arad! Something is here!” She cried, pointing at what she saw.

Jack walked forward with a dagger in his hand and Lydia behind him. He cut the bust down only to find a palm-sized mummified corpse.

“This is!” He gasped, closing his nose and mouth due to the horrid putrid smell. “It’s where that faint smell came from.”

Aella and Arad approached, “It’s a fairy.” She gasped.

Arad looked closer at the corpse. “It has been here for a while. Already started rotting.”

The corpse isn’t rotting. She will remain like this until absorbed by the ground. A natural thing for fairies. But they bury their own, so this is strange.

Arad used his palm to dig a small hole where he buried the fairy. “We should hurry. I fear more of them have already perished.” Arad said.

The deeper they got into the forest. The infected threes they saw and the more corpses they found, and the worse the smell. It got so bad that Jack, who was still recovering from the poison in his body threw up.

Arad pulled a few clothes from his stomach and handed them to everyone. “Cover your mouths.”

Everyone wore the makes as the forest started to get foggy around them. They are close.