In the dense and dark forest, two silhouettes moved forward, going deeper and deeper. The terrain was like a maze, trapping whoever tried to trespass. The gloomy environment and creepy air of the forest discouraged those who dared to venture within.

"We have finally moved forward! Now that we're out of that place, we won't be walking in circles anymore.", Robert could finally relax his mind.

"Yeah. But don't let your guard down. Who knows what other anomalies lie ahead?". Edward warned.

"I hope there is none, but based on the fact that we are in the Uncrossable Forest, we might not be so lucky to have a safe journey.', Robert sighed in depression.

Suddenly. they heard a rustling sound.

"What's that sound?", Robert was alerted.

"I don't know. We haven't seen a single living creature yet. Who knows what kind of thing is there?", Edward shrugged.

Suddenly, thick, green vines shot out in their direction. Some of the vines quickly got hold of Robert and the other vines attacked Edward.

Be careful!", Edward shouted. But it was too late.

Edward quickly pulled out his axes and slashed out towards the vines.

"Blade of Heaviness!", he shouted in his mind,

The vines got cut, but soon, more vines appeared.

"Dual Slicer!", Edward launched a combined attack using both his axes. These moves were all from the Heavy Splitting Ax Art.

He kept cutting the vines. Quickly reaching toward Robert. As soon as he reached where Robert was, he helped Robert free himself from the vines.

"Damn, these vines are tricky, and more and more keeps coming!.", Robert cursed.

Robert unsheathed his sword and stood in a sword stance.

"100 Consecutive Slashes!", Robert used a technic from the sword art he had learned.

In an extremely fast pace, all the vines were being slashed one after another. Soon, only slashed vines were left scattered on the ground.

"Huh. Swift technic. Good job", Edward praised.

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They couldn't relax for long. Soon, more and more vines came surrounding them.

"Where are they coming from? How the hell do they keep coming?", Robert said in frustration as he kept cutting down the vines.

"Good point. I think we need to find the source of these vines and cut off the source, or else they will keep coming.", Edward pointed out.

"You are always as calm as ever, huh? How do you keep analyzing things in dire situations like this?"

"Losing one's cool in such situations is pure stupidity.", said Edward.

"How do you plan to find the source when we're being continuously attacked by these vines?",Roberts asked as he slashed some vines.

"By clearing out all the vines in one attack. I have already checked the attack pattern of the vines and my guess is, their source is something underground. All I have to do is take down that source along with all the vines in one big attack.", Edward said nonchalantly. Now that he had it figured out, he had no need to worry.

"Easy to say, but hard to implement.", Robert remarked. More vines had already come out and surrounded him by this time.

"Well, not for me.", Edward said as he slashed a bunch of vines at once.

He pushed the two ends of his weapons together, merging them, turning the two axes into a single 'Z' shaped bladed weapon. He held the weapon by placing his hands at the center of the 'Z', where the two axes connected.

"Haaa!", physical essence burst out from his body. Edward released an intense amount of physical essence like a hurricane from his body. Now that he was at the Shell Shattering Realm, he could release physical essence out of his body like an invisible force.

At the moment, the area was shaking due to the intensity of Edward's physical essence. Edward activated the third level of the Great Eruption Art for maximum strength output.

"The Great Eruption! Haa!"

All of Edward's physical essence erupted like a volcano. The Sheer intensity of it even pushed back Robert quite far away.

He wielded his 'Z' shaped merged weapon, started rotating in like a wheel, and released an all-out attack.

"Grand Splitting Hurricane!', he shouted.

All the vines that surrounded them, as well as the trees, grass, and everything around was being sliced and diced into pieces. Robert had already run away as far as possible to stay out of the attack range of Edward.

Shing! Shing!

"Large, ancient trees of the forest were sliced into pieces like they were nothing. The vines that attacked them got sliced to the point that it looked like they literally disintegrated into thin air.

Even the ground was being torn apart until a large crater appeared below Edward's feet.

Edward finally stopped rotating his 'Z' shaped weapon and hit it on the ground with full force.

The ground quaked and split apart. A dozen feet deep underground, a dead plant-like creature with a body full of vines was visible. Edward's last attack drew the life out of it. Now, it was dead, with all his vines split apart, its body sliced and diced.

"Just. hah. as I thought. hah. The source. huh. of the vine. huh. was underground, hah.", said Edward as he breathed heavily. He was totally out of breath. The last attack took a lot of strength and stamina out of him. In that attack, everything within one kilometer of radius got sliced and diced like mincemeat. It was like there was a hurricane of wind-swords destroying everything in its path.

"Haha! Bravo, my friend! To think you are so powerful at your full power!", Rober came running as he flattered Edward.

"Well, it worked, but I am very tired now. We should rest here for a while. After that, when we start moving again, you will walk in the front and clear out any troubles like the vines or anything that comes. I will be saving strength while recovering.", Edward declared.

"Ok. Leave it to me.", Robert said with confidence.

The moved forward slowly for a while and found a large tree to rest under. Both of them sat under the tree to rest.