When we looked forward, there was a forest. Not any forest. It is known as the death forest because of how it had claimed many lives. I once remembered marella mentioned the forest. She describes it as
"The Death Forest loomed ahead, a cursed expanse of twisted trees and eternal twilight. No sunlight pierced its tangled canopy; only shadows reigned. The air was heavy with rot, and whispers slithered through the mist like ghosts. Bones littered the ground—a silent warning. Few entered, and fewer returned, claimed by the forest's ancient, malevolent will."
My throat was dry. Everyone looked in horror. No one uttered a word. Just kept their eyes on the forest, which invites us to a certain death.
Moana:"Anira is there?"
Kasio:"Yes,her traces are leading inside the forest."
Lien:" We should contact the school's staff. We can't go in. We are not that strong."
"I am going. There is no way to tell what will happen to her if we wait for the school staff to go in there to save her." I said
Kasio:" You are right. I am going in as well. Those three are in the same class as we. if they can go inside we can go inside as well."
Moana:"Yeah, they are probably using stealth magic to hide their presence. Their plan might be to live her deep inside to die."
Lien:" Do you think they will go to this length just to avenge a disrespect. "
Moana:"You don't know him yet.he is very egoistic. He will go to any length to achieve what he wants. I have known him since our childhood. My father used to be on the military of the first floor. He was a high-ranking officer in the military. I have seen his family very closely. They are ruthless being who are obsessed with power and pride. They go to any length to maintain that. They send assassins to eliminate their competition and crush any uprising against them. They even killed my father because he was against the idea of killing just for the sake of power."
Her voice was trembling. She was shivering from past trauma. Yet, there was determination in her eyes. I can tell she doesn't want anyone else to have the same fate as her dad.
NARRATOR 'S POV
They decided to go in after kasio put the stealth magic on everyone. With determination and little fear, they stepped into the forest.
Kroger:"How we will know where they have taken her."
Kasio:"We can still track the little fragments of magic as they are ametures. They still left a trace big enough to give us an idea of which direction they went."
Kroger:" Take the lead then."
They started following the trail. Kasio in the front, Kroger and Moana in the middle and lien at the back. As there was no clear path in the jungle, they hoped on the trees branches. After some time.
Kroger:"Why did you stop?"
Kasio:" Look,these are beast spiders. They are highly sensitive to fluctuations in magic. They might be in sleep, but if they wake up. They would certainly find us and attack. We should go slowly and try not to wake them up."
Everyone:"ok"
They slowly start to move forward, and then suddenly, a large cry somewhere from deep inside the forest came. It was something angry, something ancient and something very powerful.
It woke up the beast spiders. They are quite big in size , fierce, and always hungry. They quickly sencced the magic coming from those four. Every spider let out a roar and marched toward the team.
Kroger unsheathe his sword, kasio prepared a wind spell while both Moana and lien were frightened, but they prepared their own spell.
The first spider attacked Kroger. He jumped and reinforced his body and blade with magic. As he came down, he swang his sword at the spider
Shhh....
The spider was cut into two. The other three look in astonishment as the giant spider was slayed in just one swing. With similar moves, Kroger took out some more spiders.
Not to be outdone by Kroger. Others started attacking the spiders as well. Kasio widened his stance, then raised his arms in opposite directions and let out a powerful wind based spell. Which let out countless windblades and slayed many spiders. Lien with earth magic hardened his body with stone and started punching the spider. With a few punches, he killed one and moved on to the other one. Alongside them, Moana let out her water bullets and defeated many spiders. After about one hour of fighting, they finally defeated all the spiders.
They started moving forward. Few meters ahead. Kasio stopped again.
Kroger:"What happened ?"
Kasio:" sshh. We are being followed."
Lien:" By whom?"
Kasio:" Not by whom but by what? I think it's a horned serpent. "
Everyone:"What?"
Kasio:"Everyone don't move. It can detect movements and fluctuations in magic. Control your magic output."
A gaint horned-serpent red in color, scales as hard as steeland size of around hundred fully grown demons started circling around them, trying to find the its prey. All four of them were completely still holding back all the urge to move.
The serpent let out his tongue, trying to find something but no luck. They it started to attack random trees with his tail.
One of those trees was that one which Kroger was standing. He jumped, trying not to fall. However, the serpent senced him. It swang his tail in the direction of Kroger. He senced the approaching tail. He tried to defend himself by blocking with the sword, but he failed. The powerful attack sent him flying.
The others did not move as they were petrified because of the fear of the monster, which was in front of them. No one moved a muscle, not even flinched. They stood there till the serpent left thinking there is no prey.
On the other hand, Kroger, who was sent flying, fell into a valley.
It was a deep and dark valley. Seems like an endless abyss from where even the light does not come out.
Kroger disappeared into that. Others came to check on him. But he was no where to found. They decided to go ahead and save anira.
END OF THE CHAPTER