As expected, there were more monsters that appeared as we approached the center of the forest.
In fact, the number of monsters that appeared were far more than what had appeared previously.
It was almost as if every single monster that was in this forest was gathering to attack us at this moment.
Or it was better to say that they were gathering to protect the thing that we were trying to reach.
With the way that they threw themselves at us, it really seemed like they didn't want us to take a single step forward.
"They're too desperate…What's going on here?"
I could hear Nerina whispering this with my sharp hearing and I couldn't help wondering the same.
After all, this was something that had never happened in the game before.
With how many monsters there were, it really was hard for me to keep holding back.
Eventually, I had no choice but to call out my fire spirit Pyro to form a ring of fire around us.
When this ring of fire appeared, it was able to keep the monsters that were charging at us at bay. The flames that made up this ring of fire were strong enough that it was able to burn these monsters.
As such, they couldn't just charge through this ring of fire at us.
When the teachers saw that I was keeping the monsters back all by myself, they couldn't help revealing bitter smiles.
They had said that they would keep us safe, but now it seemed like it was the exact opposite. After all, I was the one that was currently keeping the entire group safe when they were about to be overwhelmed by the monsters.
"Do you need us to do anything?" Nerina couldn't help asking when she saw that I was holding back the monsters alone.
I was focused on shooting each of the monsters around me, but I still said, "Guide us in the right direction. I'm a little distracted taking care of them, so I don't know which way to go."
She couldn't help revealing an even more bitter smile when she heard this, but she nodded in agreement and started leading the way forward.
While this was happening, the other teachers seemed like they were trying to find a way to help me take care of the monsters.
But no matter how they tried, they found that there just wasn't a single thing that they could do to help me.
So in the end, all they could do was surround me as if they were making sure that I was safe while also thinking of ways to provide spirit energy to me to keep the ring of fire up.
That was just how helpless they felt.
With the way that I kept the monsters at bay, it seemed like we would be able to reach the temple at the center of the forest where the spirits were.
Only things never went smoothly when one wanted it to.
There was this large sound that came from in front of us before many of the trees that were there were suddenly bent. There were some that were even picked up and thrown at us.
The teachers took the lead in this and used their spells to knock the trees away.
But they were surprised by how much force was in those trees that had been thrown in our direction.
Looking at where the fallen trees were, we saw that there was a monster that appeared that was far different from all of the other monsters that we've encountered so far. * (*)
This was a monster that was a mix of many different animals instead of just two different animals.
This was a monster that I certainly had never seen in the game before and never thought was even possible to have been created.
"What is that thing?"
Judging by the reactions of the teachers, it seemed that this was the case for them as well as they had never seen this monster before.
Just what was happening with this forest?
That monster that clearly seemed to be the boss of all the monsters that were here didn't waste any time as it suddenly gave a roar.
The roar that it gave was like nails grating on a chalkboard and it was even harder for me with the sharp hearing that I had. If it wasn't for the fact that I had a wind spirit as well, then it might have been very hard for me.
"Aero, block it." I said in the middle of the scream from the monster, which caused pockets of wind to appear around my ears.
These pockets of wind helped keep the sound wave from reaching my ears, which effectively deafened me. But at least that was better than letting my ear drums pop from this roar.
When it was done roaring, the monsters that were around it started moving in a strange way.
They no longer seemed like they were disorganized, they no longer attacked from wherever they wanted. With the way that they were moving, it was clear that they were now organized in some manner.
"This is bad." That was the only thing that we could think of when we saw this.
The only reason that my crude wall of fire worked was that they weren't smart enough to deal with it. But if they were to move in an intelligent manner now and avoid that wall, then this was very bad…
"Alright, that's enough." A voice suddenly cut through the chaos before everything fell silent.
When I looked around, I found that everything seemed to freeze.
Well, everything except for one person.
"So, you're still able to move. As expected, you really are different from the others."
I couldn't help deeply knitting my brows as I looked at this person.
It wasn't that I didn't recognize this person since this person had been with us since the beginning.
It was just that this person had turned into a completely different person.