Zerra scrunched her face, a little thoughtful. "It’s only my conjecture, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton. It can also be wrong."
Lieutenant Colonel Dalton nodded. "Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Miss Zerra. Such a guess might be possible considering how strange the animals have been acting."
"Do you think they went to the people’s houses because they are being chased off their territory?" She tilted her head.
As long as they didn’t see humans, these animals would still act normally, but once they saw one, they would become all aggressive. That was the reason people’s houses were still standing until now.
Otherwise, all the residents of that place most likely would have been dead. Most of them were ordinary humans.
"Mr. Valez, what do you think?" He turned to Darren, who was having a conversation of his own with Nyra.
"If they are being chased off their territory..." Darren paused, "Why didn’t they stay instead of going back to the forest?"
Zerra shrugged. "It’s merely my guess."
Surprisingly, Nyra opened her mouth at this time. "She might be right. The mutated animals went to the people’s residence, and they found nothing, so they went back."
Laziel listened to their discussion from the side, a little relieved there was no more Meira by his side. He was bitter about her betrayal, yet at this moment the feeling of relief overshadowed that. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ NovєlFіre.net
With no one insisting on coming as his burden, he managed to reap triple the crystal cores he usually got. Now, he was also looking forward to Zerra’s joyful face upon seeing the crystal cores.
Besides that, he was determined to be a powerful ability user. No one could distract him anymore.
"Tomorrow, we will go deeper into the forest." Lieutenant Colonel Dalton announced. "We will discuss the preparation in the morning, so take a good rest tonight. We will have a lot of work to do."
Everyone chorused, listening to his words, and then dispersed when they finally arrived.
Mr. Adler didn’t have much work to do. There wasn’t much injury since the mutated animals they dealt with today were within a tolerable degree. As for his former patient, Nyra, had declared herself healthy.
Of course, there was some ruckus left when Nyra was announced as zombie virus free. Meira must have made one last stumbling block for her before she went away.
However, Nyra, as usual, solved it pretty easily. She challenged anyone who was questioning her health. In the end, those people were convinced after she beat them.
Laziel and Lieutenant Colonel Dalton spoke at the same time.
"I have something to discuss with Miss Zerra," Lieutenant Colonel Dalton said.
She found it weird, but his action might be because of her performance during the octopus monster. After all, she did something that other ability users had to do in a group by herself. Well, with Cassias’ help to be exact.
Laziel cleared his throat, a little confused, but he still said, "Alright. I will talk to my younger sister later."
"Does something matter, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton?" She asked.
"Miss Zerra, your senses seem to be better than most people here. During our time in the forest, did you notice something?" He began.
It was Zerra’s turn to be surprised. No wonder he climbed the ranks quite fast. This man was very perceptive. She showed her ability a few times, and he already caught the skills she possessed.
In half an hour, Zerra spilled everything she knew about the mutated plants in the forest. Ever since she awakened her wood ability, she was even more sensitive toward plants.
"So, you are saying there might be mutated plants too in the forest?"
Zerra tilted her head. "I saw some strange-looking plants earlier, and it gave me such an idea. We can’t rule out this possibility."
Oh, now that she thought about it, Lieutenant Colonel Dalton might have approached her because of Cassias too. He might even regard her as strong as him...
They discussed it for a while until he left. Laziel entered the room with a smug face. "Munchkin, do you know how many crystal cores I have gotten?"
After he was done with his stupidity arc, it seemed he had entered his crazy part, Zerra thought. She had seen him fighting madly, laughing as he slashed a few mutated animals with his knives.
He proceeded to show her what he had gained, and a small hill no less than what Cassias usually gave her appeared in front of him.
She was a little taken aback. "Is that all for me?"
"Of course." He nodded before considering it for a while. He bargained, "Can you give me a basket of fruits too? The sweet ones."
Zerra didn’t mind. While everyone was resting, Laziel was busy eating his fill beside her.
It was quite a peaceful atmosphere. Alas, this peace didn’t last long. Because... as soon as they entered the forest, a little deeper than yesterday, they met some carnivorous plants.
The mutated plants were in the form of flytraps.
They feasted on any critters passing by. Instead of waiting for the little animals to enter the trap, they were actively going after them.
"I am afraid they might catch my toes and cut them," someone muttered, their imaginations running wild.
"The fire ability users should try to burn them. They are all over the place. Just burn enough so we can pass by."
Nyra nodded in agreement. She and a few other fire ability users stepped forward and burned enough of them.
However, they didn’t expect that at the end of the rows of the flytraps, there were a lot of mutated animals already waiting for them.
"I just realized that this many flytraps gathered in one place is quite odd."
As soon as the words fell, the mutated animals, previously observing them, were now charging forward.
"Hiss, too many mutated animals. Can we beat all of them?"
They had no choice but to tangle with the aggressive mutated animals, trying to kill as many as possible while not stepping on the dangerous flytraps.
These flytraps were like vampires, sucking the blood of any animals they caught.
"Mr. Valez, there are too many of them..."
"Arnold, the mutated animals are endless..."
"Lieutenant Colonel Dalton, I don’t think we can’t defeat all of them..."
Such voices can be heard on the battlefield.
The three of them finally came to a decision. It was best to retreat temporarily and reorganize themselves for the next plan.
They now just realized the number of mutated animals was more than they could handle. Just look at those three nearby, full of screeching monkeys from top to bottom.
And the sky! It was almost black because of the birds swirling in the sky and occasionally swooping toward them when they expected it the least.
"Retreat!" Lieutenant Colonel Dalton’s voice boomed through the forest. "Go back to where you came from!"
The situation became increasingly chaotic. Especially when they heard the roar of tigers from a distance.
Zerra’s eyes widened slightly. Because... she recognized that roar! It was the tiger they had met before, the one fighting against the python!
As she considered how to communicate with it, the ground began to shake.
"Quick, save yourself! There is an earthquake!"
Zerra held on to a tree, but she could feel the tree swaying, and a few birds swooped at her. Oh crap! She cursed in shock when the birds suddenly dropped her.
The ground still continued to shake, scattering the groups of humans and mutated animals alike.