We had walked deep into the dead forest, and the bandit was walking ahead of us. The forest again had dark trees, mostly lacking leaves. To my surprise, the dark grasses, bushes, and vines were a bit more prominent within, plenty of them got in our way. But still, they were not as thick as what you’d find in a normal forest. Many other unhealthy plants around us were already wilting away.

So far, the bandit was leading us in the right direction. And so far, he hadn’t attempted to escape. Perhaps he realized it would be pointless to do so. And I warned him that I’d cut off his dick if he attempted to run away, so… likely that helped! There was nothing more frightening than that notion. I mean, no guy would want to lose their dick… Except for eunuchs I guess, but that’s an entirely different topic.

“How fortunate we've yet to encounter any monster,” Velar said as he looked around.

“I guess you guys have something to do with it?” I asked the bandit.

The bandit glanced back at us. “W-We frequently clean out any monster we find. We always come through here.”

“I see. Any monster we should look out for?”

“... There are monsters that blend in with the forest. And there are also smaller ones. Normally, they don’t pounce at us unless intentionally.”

“Hm.” I looked around. We were getting proper lighting here, considering that the trees barely had any shade to give. So, there shouldn’t be anything to avoid our gaze.

“You don’t know the creatures here?” The bandit glanced back at us again. “You’re not from this land?”

I glared at him. “You don’t get to ask questions. Now keep moving.”

Things were peaceful for some time. But then suddenly, I noticed a particularly dark green vine on the soil. It was sort of out of place, the thickness, and the vibrance of it. It was not as unhealthy as the surrounding plants. And the bandit was about to walk over it.

“Sto—” I tried to stop him, but it was too late.

A vine suddenly wrapped around the bandit’s ankle, and he was lifted upwards. Velar And I quickly pulled out our weapons. I held medium daggers in each hand.

“What the hell?!” the bandit screamed as he was dangled in the air. “Fuck fuck fuck! I know this! Guzzler! Fuck! Help me!”

Guzzler?

It was then I noticed some vines on the trees and on the ground began squirming and moving. In an instant, a vine thrust towards me with such incredible speed that it caught me off guard. Velar’s sword came in front of me, blocking the incoming vine to protect me. But things didn’t end there.

A vine from behind us lashed towards me. I filled my blades with magic and sent magical arcs at the vine, cutting it into pieces. But another suddenly snapped from behind me.

Shit!

I conjured a barrier just in time as it slammed into me. However, the power within those vines was stronger than I expected, and I was sent flying and crashing into a nearby tree — so much for being thrifty with magic. Before crashing into the tree, though, I had conjured another barrier to take the brunt of the impact.

“Lady Estelia!”

I groaned in annoyance as I regained my feet. The force was stronger than I liked, the tree behind me was smashed.

Plants that are alive. What sort of bullshit is this?!

And I take it it was a monster? Shit. I looked around as I watched the vines begin moving at both me and Velar. My knight was fighting them off as he made his way towards me. Still, were the monsters these vines itself? No fucking way.

Velar used his magic to slash the upcoming vines, but another came to take its place. I had a hard time believing they were the actual monsters. There must be more to this. I attached magical threads to my two daggers and threw them forward towards the vines, and I grasped the threads and swung at them. I sliced off several vines, but still more came at us.

“Hey! Save me! Let’s run!”

I saw the bandit was still hanging in the air, his body was now wrapped with multiple vines, restraining his movements.

“Velar! Do you know what these are?!”

“No! Never encountered something like this before.”

Now that was just fucking great. It’s difficult to operate without information. Suddenly, a vine snapped and clasped on my leg. Holding a gasp of surprise, I used ice magic on the ground to conjure a blade to cut it off. However, another sneaked behind me, striking at me like a snake. I instantly conjured a small shield to block it. However, what it did surprised me.

What the fuck?!

It curved to the side of the shield, avoiding it, and headed straight towards me. I quickly stepped back and conjured another barrier to protect my face, and at the same time retracted my blades to cut off the vine. That was a fucking close one, it almost damaged my pretty face.

What the heck was even up with these vines? Almost like they had eyes of their own.

“Dammit! Don’t focus on the vines!” the bandit shouted with a straining voice. “It’s pointless cutting those down! Just get me out of this and let’s run!”

Pointless? Did that mean they would just keep on spawning?

What’s up with this absurd place? No, what’s up with this fucked up world?!

Still, there were too many vines lashing at us. There was no way to easily slip through these. That left me with no choice. I let go of my daggers and let them hang on the threads as I spread out my hands.

Stolen novel; please report.

“Velar! Deploy your shield!”

Velar realized what I was about to do and he conjured a powerful Palm Shield to shield himself. At the same moment, I cast the lesser version of the spell “Ice Crown” from the grimoire. White mist instantly scattered in all directions, along with a gust of wind revolving around. And then, mixed along the ice storm, were hails of ice moving along with the swirling wind. The sheer coldness touched my skin.

The surrounding vines stopped moving as frost coated their body before being demolished by the scattering pellets of ice. I didn’t use icicles as they were more deadly and harder to control. I had yet to fully master this technique, I couldn’t risk it yet. But it was enough to slow down the vines.

It was a bit hard to see in this mist, but I marked where Velar was and made a small exclusion zone around him. That should keep the intense cold and mist from hitting that zone. The pellets, however, were nigh impossible to guide. It was the drawback of this spell, it was best to use it when I was alone. The best I could do was change the flow of wind in the exclusion zone, which should divert some of the pellets. I also did the same roughly as where the bandit was.

But considering that I was the epicenter of this spell, when I reunite with Velar, everything would be fine. And thus I ran towards him and quickly found him protecting himself with his barrier.

“Velar, stick close to me. Retrieve the bandit, we still need him.”

“Understood.”

Velar followed me forward, and it didn’t take long before we found the bandit. He was already on the ground, unwrapping himself from the lifeless vines. It would seem my cold was effective against the plants. No wait, judging from what I’d seen, this land may never have experienced a cold blizzard. I doubt they had seen and touched snow.

The bandit pulled off the vines off his body with labored breaths, white mist coming out of his mouth.

“W-What the hell is going on? What is this?” He stared and grasped the snow before him. As I thought, he was confused and surprised to see it.

He noticed us, but then suddenly, he abruptly stood up and started running away. Before he could take another step, I caught up to him and slammed my hand into his back, throwing him to the ground.

“Seriously? Running away? In case you haven’t noticed, this is my storm. You’ll die if you run away.”

“What? Y-You did this?” He asked with a pained groan.

“Velar,” I turned towards Velar. “Pick him up. We need to get out o—” Before I got to finish my sentence, the ground beneath our feet suddenly began shaking.

However, it was unlike how an earthquake would be, it was more like something was moving underneath the soil. Then the ground before us started to rise. We quickly stepped back as Velar grabbed the bandit by the shirt.

I watched with widened eyes as a creature rose from beneath the ground. The motherfucker had been under us all this time. It was a big creature standing at around fifteen feet tall. It had a dark green body, all made of the same material and texture as a vine. It stood with two legs, and it had two hands with three fingers. Connected on its back were more squirming vines. It had a jaw-like big head that could snap and trap all it catches, it was similar to a flytrap plant. However, in its mouths were countless teeth, meaning you’d instantly die getting eaten by that monster.

It slammed its long hands to the ground, as if enraged. It let out a loud and piercing shriek, blasting dust and winds off. The vines on its back began growing thorns.

I hate this world.

I mean, what was up with this monster?! Why does this have to exist, huh?! It’s ridiculous! Why did we have to face a monster…? Honestly, they gotta chill with these abominations. Fighting people? Yeeeaaah, no issue, I can deal with that. But monsters?! What the fuck!

The bandit yelped as he stepped back, tumbling down. “That guzzler is gigantic.”

The vines seemed to be slowly freezing. The main body, however, was barely affected by my magic. And judging from its physique, it could move quite fast. Running away would be a bit difficult.

“Can we beat that?” I asked the bandit.

“Last time we fought one, we needed a team!”

“Like the team we faced earlier?”

“Y-Yeah!”

“Oh.” Then killing this thing would be manageable. There was an issue. “Velar, can you take it down?”

“I’m not sure. I am not familiar with that thing.”

“I am maintaining the storm. I can’t fight it directly in full power.” Well, technically, I was far from using my full power right now. But I must preserve energy. “I’ll be relying on you when it comes to it.”

“We’re not running?”

“It’ll chase us down, it’ll be hard with those vines all over the place, even with the cold.” Taking damage was more likely to happen. “Besides, we have backup.”

Just as several thorny vines came flying towards us, a couple of black fogs descended from above. Figures formed and cut down the vines. The two Cursed Children quickly joined us, making a defensive line.

“Princess,” Heneis said. “Let us help.”

“Very well. You two and Velar take care of it. I’m sure it will be easy for you.”

“We’ve seen such a creature in the long past. But they were smaller,” Heneis observed the creature. “But it was not on this land. Is it different here or have they evolved?”

“Doesn’t matter. Finish this. Velar, go. I’ll maintain my snowstorm to slow it down.”

And with that, the three charged at the monster. I subtly groaned as I maintained the storm and made small adjustments. This magic was on a bigger scale, covering a wide area, so there was a bit of repercussion on me.

With his greatsword, Velar cut through the several vines that were getting in his way. The Cursed Children, with their claw hands, swung down at the monster’s body, cleaving through the plant-like fibers. The monster shrieked and slammed its arms down at them. But Velar snuck through from the side and swung his greatsword in the air, sending a wide and condensed slash of light.

The slash crashed and caused tremendous damage to the monster, almost cutting it in half. However, the monster immediately began regenerating.

“Hit the head to kill it faster!” the bandit shouted.

Velar sent multiple slashes at the head. One the monster blocked, but a couple hit the head. The head appeared to be a bit more durable than the rest of the body. However, the impact of the slash seemed to be healing way slower. The monster cried in anger, and more vines grew out of its body to lash out at his opponents.

The cursed child, Galik, leaped at the monster and clawed its neck, but the monster grabbed him and threw him away. He turned into a fog before he flew further. Heneis dodged the vines and pounced at the monster’s head, clawing at it violently.

The monster slammed its head into the ground to remove Heneis. However, that was a mistake, and Velar stepped in right next to it and brought down his sword, landing critical damage. Galik followed and stabbed his claws into the head. The monster squirmed.

The two inflicted more and more damage on it. Until a moment later, the monster uttered a faint cry before it completely stopped moving. The three slowly stepped aside and warily stared at the monster.

I disabled my snowstorm. The wind grew silent and calmed down. The temperature gradually returned to normal. The ice pellets that were made of magic gradually started to evaporate as I cut off my magic source.

“You k-killed it?” The bandit muttered. “And who are those guys?”

“No one you have to worry about. Stand.”

I urged the man to stand up, and we approached the monster. In my curiosity, I put my hand on it. It was bizarre.

“I thought you’d cleaned out this region,” I said to the bandit.

“Of course we couldn’t find everything. And these types of monsters we prefer to avoid.”

“Hm.” I turned towards the Cursed Children. “Good job. I appreciate the help. You may return to your post.”

With that, the Cursed Children morph into fogs and vanish into the skies.

The bandit looked on with wide eyes. “Those two are not fucking human. Who the fuck are you people?!”

“Is that so surprising?” I said to him, “I expected you’d be less freaked considering you always encounter monsters.”

“Monsters are different from you. You people are working with beings that appear human, but not human at all! And your magic, what was that?”

“Enough with the questions. Let’s go on. You’re lucky you’re still alive.”

As I walked forward, I paused and placed a hand on my head. “Ugh…” I felt a headache. Casting that wide scale magic really put a strain on me. How annoying.

“Are you okay?” Velar checked up on me.

“I’m fine. Just… I’ll explain next time.”

Velar was confused as to what I was talking about. But he just nodded.