Left alone in the forest, completely unaware of what was happening outside it, Frazer and his group eventually came to the most likely conclusion. The cat was out of the bag, and now they were stuck between the demon general’s territory and the army that would soon approach them on their way towards the demon’s nest.
Thankfully for now, however, Muena was leading them through what used to be Dryad territory. Her people lived in this very forest, inside a swamp with fauna that insulated them from the rest of the world. Giant leaves covered their homes, and since her people had command over both plants and animals, they used them to their utmost and kept a perfect balance that proliferated their growth.
Even now, as Muena walked through the corrupted plants, their leaves and thorns felt familiar. From flowers that encapsulated their bodies at night and kept them safe within their petals to vines and trees that joined together to form their territory, it was all too–reminiscent of what was, except the effect of corruption now apparent on those once green leaves.
"Ughh...Why is everything so wet?" Ignoring Kumi’s complaints, the dryad moved through the mud with ease. All the while, everyone but her and Gina struggled to traverse through the swamp.
Their feet sank deep into the wetlands, and the air was acrid and buzzing with blood-hungry entomons. In spite of that, they struggled and somehow kept up with Muena. In the meantime, the dryad remained quite–a little too much in fact to the point where Frazer became a little worried.
"Hey," catching up to her, he grabbed her hand and looked up at her face. "Are you okay? You know we’re gonna win this, right? We’re gonna help rebuild your clan as well as get the others to move their clans inside those walls."
"I know that already," dry as the desert sand, she had not an ounce of emotion in her voice. "That’s why I helped you remember? So that we can help each other and prove that we deserve a better place in this world."
Caressing Frazer’s cheek with a smile, Muena lathered his skin with spores. Breathing it in, Frazer let go of her hand and nodded without question. Taking a step back with a strange sense of serenity taking over his mind, he did as he was told and kept on following the dryad without any further questions.
’I need to be more careful, and where are they? Why haven’t I seen them yet?’ As her eyes scanned for familiar faces, Muena marched through the swamp with ease. The place which has once been her home was now a dimmed reflection of it. No longer did the flowers greet her, no longer did the trees feel as friendly. At times, she even felt their hostility towards her, and though it may have been brief, a dryad hated by the woods itself wasn’t something you ever hear that easily.
"That’s it! I give up..." Falling to the first piece of hard land in a while, Kumi sat on the ground. "How long do we have to walk? We’ve been walking all day already, you stupid, flower-faced woman!"
Her words were harsher than usual, especially when she spoke towards Muena. Usually, she would’ve been too afraid of the dryad, but exhaustion had broken that barrier temporarily. Not in the mood to confront her either, the dryad simply kept her eyes focused on the path ahead, and as if spelt by coincidence, she finally noticed another person in the dark.
"They’re here," she muttered to herself.
The sound of a dragging axe and the shimmer of a wind chime alerted the dryad to their presence. Turning to the sound much like her, the others went on their guard and anxiously watched their surroundings. They hadn’t been warned that they would be company, at least not yet.
"Who’s there?!" Frazer asked, yelling with his fists balled up in flames.
"Is that one of your friends, Muena?!" Gina asked, quickly shifting into her flaming spirit form.
The bulbs inside Josare’s body lit up in alarm as well. They served as a reserve for energy as well as other metabolic activities, but time sensing danger, they acted on their own by injecting her body with adrenaline.
Kumi, being just as alarmed, decided to turn her body into that of an eagle and soared into the sky to get a better look at the approaching party. But that was her biggest mistake, as it made her the priority target. Shot out of the sky with a strange translucent projectile made of magic, her body went into a sudden arrest, seizing all function until she crashed against the ground and instantly turned back into her feminine form.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" At a loss for words at what had happened, Frazer turned his head towards Muena–the only person in his party who wasn’t freaking out. "WHAT IS THA–AHH!"
Before he could even finish his sentence, another projectile shot him right in the head. But this time the form of the pure magic mass lingered a lot longer–giving the rest just enough time to realize that it wasn’t a bullet like the previous man was firing at them, but rather a pure concentration of near translucent mana.
"W-we need to leave!" Gina screamed, but that’s all she would remember, for a faint translucent figure appeared right behind her, and with just a light tap on the shoulder, she was put into the deepest sleep that she’d ever experienced.
Possessing no real fealty to the group and having seen how quickly they were taken out, Josare could feel her bulb heart pounding within her chest as if urging her to run and never look back. Listening to her instincts, she decided to do just that; however, even she was met with a flying weapon, but instead of mana, what came for her was a flying axe.
Thankfully for her, however, it phased right through her slimy body. But who it had come from and what became of her party next? She didn’t know, for she kept on running and never looked back.