Chapter 11 – Strong

“This shit floras won’t give up?!” – Complained while clicking his tongue.

Lucca was already being shaken constantly for quite a few hours. Still, they didn’t show any signs of giving up, he could only sigh and wait until they get tired, so he could escape.

Lucca was tired of this abnormal behavior, plant monsters being surprisingly active in the middle of the night and doing as they pleased, completely ignoring their own nature was unsettling, but what really unnerved Lucca was the fact that since when he woke up in the middle of the night he was sensing a chilly sensation in his back, as if telling there was something wrong here.

(I can only hope for them to become more quiet when the sun rise)

When the sun rose, after a few minutes the plants started slowing down, until to the point that an hour later they totally stopped.

(It’s as if what happened earlier was just a dream) – thought Lucca while looking down and saw the floras that were messing with him just moments ago were acting like normal plants, basking on the sun without moving any inch.

Lucca scanned the surroundings and saw that the other floras stopped moving freely. Also he could finally see other type of monsters again, such as goblins or wolves – (In the night I didn’t saw any of those monsters, but just when the sun rose they came) – Lucca looked towards the other monsters and saw that they kept a distance from the Floras even if was in broad daylight.

(It seems that they are acting like that for quite some time, for even the wolves keep their distance and vanish in the middle of the night) – Lucca was right, in the middle of the night the monsters knew that the floras run wild, so they stayed in their dens waiting for the daylight.

After confirming for sure that the floras weren’t acting wildly, Lucca climbed down the tree and used mana in his legs to jump to a nearby tree. He looked behind and saw that the floras didn’t pursued.

(If they are acting like this, I can do it) – Lucca moved down from the trees and run through the direction where he encountered the two men before. There he saw two floras, those two were sucking dry the corpses of the goblins that died yesterday.

Flora weren’t a particularly strong monster per se, the problem was their tentacles, but if one were to burn or cut down their base stem, they would die quickly. Lucca could use fire to deal with them, but he was afraid of what could happen considering what happened last night.

He pulled his short sword and started sneaking behind the flora. He was within meters from then and waited to see if they had any reactions, but they just casually continued sucking the goblins.

Lucca started his move, he jumped from their back and within a second he was behind the flora, he did not swing his blade, but pushed forward and stabbed the steam. A shrilling scream could be heard from the flora as she used her tentacles to attack Lucca, but he was already jumping back and used the sword to intercept the attacks.

He blocked two attacks, but the third assaulted his shoulder, which made him felt the pain. At this moment the other flora started reacting too and started using her tentacles, but Lucca was already outside their range.

The Floras moved slowly towards him while he backed. Lucca noticed that the flora he stabbed was one step slower than the other and green ooze was leaking from the body.

(I couldn’t deal with that flora in one attack since I’m alone, but it can’t fight properly)

Lucca kept moving in their range of vision, making them move to chase him. This kept going for minutes, until they started showing signs of giving up, but at that moment Lucca took a rock from the ground, coated his mana and threw them on the floras.

The rocks didn’t particularly do any damage to the floras, but kept they irritated and made them continue the chase. This kept going for a full hour until the floras started showing signs of fatigue, Lucca flashed a smile while he kept throwing rocks to annoy them.

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Another half hour later they fully stopped, even with countless rocks being thrown at them. Lucca them moved towards the bleeding Flora and approached her slowly. Earlier the flora would undoubtedly attack him, but she kept quiet, when Lucca was within only a few meters she moved her tentacles, yet that could be hardly called an attack, as Lucca simple dodged.

When the last attack came, he simple dodged once more and caught the vine with his free hand, pushed her body using his mana and stabbed four more times her stem, killing the monster. Lucca had kept his guard since the other flora wasn’t injured, but she didn’t tried to stop him.

Lucca threw some more rocks to check her reaction, but she didn’t move, affirming her tiredness once more, Lucca moved out and easily killed the other flora too, that was too tired to properly defend herself. What Lucca had used was one of the earliest form of hunting know to men, where he would tire the prey slowly until the point of exhaustion and them kill them.

Lucca moved to the bodies earlier and rummaged them, until he found the goblin he had killed before and he retrieved his black dagger – (Although it was troublesome, I can’t let this go) – After all it was given to him by Ann.

After retrieving the dagger, he used her to open the monster’s body and collect their crystals. Although lower monster, such as goblins, weren’t particularly valuable, the floras core could be found an earth core, which was several times pricier than the colorless core. From the two flora bodies and three goblins, he got 4 colorless core and 1 earth core. It was quite a hunt for him, especially since he didn’t have to split the money with anyone.

“Still I wasted too much time here. I should better get out of this forest”

Lucca started going back from where he came. He kept moving without major problems, although he encountered three goblins in the path, he killed them, thanks to his superior speed and use of mana.

Past noon he stopped to eat, when he was packing his things ready to move again, he heard battle sounds with human voices nearby – (More people…) – Lucca started moving on the opposite direction, but he stopped a few meters in – (Still, I should at least let them know about the state of this forest)

Lucca turned and quickly dashed in the direction of the battling sounds, he was running until the top a hill, where he saw a large amount of people of people battling wolves. They are strong, that was the first thought crossed his mind when he saw the amount of bodies in the vicinity. It seemed that it was a large pack of wolf monsters, yet almost all of them were already killed.

What was more surprising was that as he was looking, he saw a great wolf, which was at least two to three times larger than the other wolves – (High Wolf! Why is such a strong monster he…)

In the moment he was surprised, a woman jumping toward the wolf, as her hair flickered with the wind, she coated the sword with her energy, contrary to what one would expect from seeing her fierce red hair, she sword glowed a beautiful blue and yellow color, as if becoming a cloud right in the middle of the tempest, her mana raged until it couldn’t be contained anymore in the sword.

“[Thunder Bolt]”

As she calmly said, all the raging energy moved in a line, as if the skies punishing a sinner. The wolf tried dodging, but the thunder followed pursuit and he was smitten. He felt the attack and his legs give up, not overlooking the opportunity, the young woman, still in the air, used her mana to adjust her body and with one fierce move, she stabbed the wolf right into his left eye and made his way into his brain.

Lucca was in awe, for the first time he saw such troublesome monster dealt so easily, furthermore she was alone, the other party had killed a whole wolf pack in minutes, since there wasn’t much time since he heard the sound of the battle. What’s more, on the side of the girl, there was a guy with long hair and full beard that exerted a pressure even greater than the girl.

Lucca could only mutter – “Strong…”