“Get yourselves together!” said Elisa in a firm tone. She was also shaken, but as the leader, and as a mother, she could not afford to make too many mistakes or hesitate.

"Just use what we learned during training. We are stronger and smarter than these monsters. Killing them should be a walk in the part."

What she said made sense, so everyone nodded, while at the same time feeling ashamed by their poor performance.

“Rest for ten minutes, then we continue. Be wary of your surroundings at all times.”

Ten minutes passed very fast. “Let’s go!” said Elisa, wanting to reach their destination before the night came.

The vegetation was very abundant, greatly restricting vision and movement. Thankfully, that changed after a few kilometers. Being in a more open space, Elisa spotted a group of reapers. At the exact time, the monsters also noticed their presence. Eyes turning red, the reapers ran towards them, thirsty for blood.

Having seven ferocious looking reapers headed your way was by no means a pleasant sight. Elisa and Rebeca stepped in front, followed by Mara and Nora. Ella was, like last time, at the back.

“We can do it!” shouted Elisa in encouragement shortly before the monsters arrived.

The situation soon became chaotic. Because of their big numbers, one reaper managed to get pass everyone and attack Ella. The monster was hell-bent on devouring the little girl.

“No!” screamed Elisa, deeply afraid for her child. It was impossible for her to react in any other way at that moment.

Like before, Ella just stood there with a blank expression. In front of her was a massive reptile, eager to kill. Just before the creature could take a bite, Ella’s eyes turned fairly cold.

With a simple side step, she avoided the fatal-looking attack. Clenching her hand on the sword’s handle, she decapitated the reaper in one clean move. Kicking the enormous body dozens of meters away, Ella turned towards the next closest monster.

Swiftly and with great precision, she threw the sword. The weapon pierced the reaper’s eye and got stuck in its skull. Like the wind, Ella pounced upon her opponent. Pulling out the sword, her body started spinning in midair. With each spin, a new slash appeared on the monster’s body. In the blink of an eye, the reaper was hacked beyond recognition.

Not losing any of the momentum, she continued towards the next target. The creature opened its mouth wide, wanting to swallow her whole. A flurry of slashes turned the monster’s head into multiple small pieces. Jumping on its corpse, Ella propelled her body high in the air. The force exerted by her jump flattened the reaper’s body to the ground.

Ella was tens of meters up in the air. Raising her hand, she threw the sword yet again. The fourth reaper had its head nailed to the ground almost instantly. He was not so lucky as his mate and died on the spot.

Doing a few front-flips in the air, Ella landed next to her sword. Pulling the weapon out, she slashed to the side, all the blood present on the cold steel flying to the ground, leaving behind a clean blade.

While looking at the corpse in front, still twitching, her serious face turned to a very weird smile. Ella’s entire body was covered in blood, making her appear quite fearsome. Her height of around one meter and fifty centimeters made her look relatively inconspicuous and harmless; something utterly false taking into consideration what just happened.

The other three reapers were already killed. Everyone stared flabbergasted at Ella, at a loss for words. Elisa was the first one to rush towards the girl.

“Are you alright, sweetheart?”

Ella’s face turned to normal: “I’m alright. I hope you guys are not too mad that I had more fun than you.”

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“Fun?” Elisa made half a smile then continued: “It’s alright, darling. You can have all the fun that you want, but please be very careful not to get hurt. Do you understand?”

Ella smiled sweetly: “I understand.”

‘What the hell did I just witness?’ thought Rebeca, feeling jealous to a certain extent. Part of those moves were taught by her. Normally, she should have been able to execute them herself without any trouble. In spite of this, she didn’t; the reason being that she was too afraid of suffering any injuries, or even dying. ‘Fuck!’

“Rest ten minutes, then continue,” said Elisa, breathing a bit in relief.

While everyone was resting, Ella got to a reaper’s corpse and started to cut it into pieces.

“What are you doing?!” asked Rebeca in a displeased tone.

Ella completely ignored her, continuing with what she was doing.

“Hey! I asked you, what are you doing!?” Unbeknownst to her, or maybe intentionally, Rebeca’s way of speaking was very rude.

At this time, Ella collected a small red gem from the monster’s carcass. Putting it in her backpack, she continued to ignore Rebeca, and did the same with the rest of the monsters, except the one Rebeca killed.

Elisa’s eyes turned chilly. She barely controlled herself not to strangle Rebeca with her bare hands. Talking like that to her child, and even in front of her, was simply asking for a beating. ‘This is not the place to act rashly.’

She said that, but tolerating such behavior had a limit.

“Alright! Let’s move out!”

The enormous tree, at which they agreed to meet up, was getting closer and closer. It was the tallest tree around, at a height of around one thousand meters. An imposing view no matter how many times one saw it.

The group moved as fast as possible without attracting too much attention, and without losing vigilance. After being a few hundred meters away from the tree trunk, another group of reapers made its appearance.

This time there were only five reapers. An opponent for each one of them.

“Attack!”

Taking the initiative, the girls dashed towards their enemies. Unlike the previous times, their temperament was a lot more composed. A big reason for that was Ella. Her confident actions made them realize that they were stronger than they really thought. Surviving at such a distance away from the city was possible.

The reapers had no chance, and were quickly dispatched. This time, everyone dug out the monster’s core from their kill. Seeing them do that, Ella laughed slightly.

Coming in front of the tree trunk, everyone looked up. It was an intimidating, and terrifying sight for those afraid of heights.

“We must climb at least up to that branch to be able to avoid certain monsters,” said Elisa while pointing up in the air towards a thick branch, at a height of about three hundred meters.

Mara and Nora gulped, and said at the same time: “I don’t think I can do this.”

Elisa frowned: “I understand. There is no need then, I will carry you. Just hold tight onto me and close your eyes.”

Mara got on her mother’s back, trying to contain her nervousness.

“What about you, Ella?”

Ella grinned: “I’m not scared. Though, it’s a pity that we don’t go to the top.”

“Then I will carry Nora, and we can all climb together,” alleged Rebeca.

Nora made a peculiar expression, curving towards Ella: “I want you to carry me, Ella….”

It was a bland statement that she did not trust Rebeca. Ella was a little surprised, but agreed happily. “Sure, hop on!”

Nora glued herself to Ella’s back. It was a little strange since she was twenty centimeters taller, but manageable.

Ella went backwards a few dozen meters. Pausing for a moment, she asked Nora in a rather serious tone: “Nora, do you trust me?”

“Of course, I trust you!” the answer was direct and sincere.

“Then prove it by not closing your eyes while we climb to the top of the tree.”

“The top of the tree?!” gasped Nora, swallowing her saliva.

“Yes.”

“Do it!” said Nora with resolution, albeit trembling.

After witnessing her little sister killing those reapers with so much skill, her image grew immensely in Nora’s heart. Furthermore, being afraid of heights in such a place where climbing trees was the safest way of living could prove to be fatal. She didn’t want to be a burden to her family, thus using this chance to maybe lessen her phobia was worth a try.

In the next instant, she felt the wind wheezing in her ears, while the images in her peripheral vision turned somewhat blurry. Ella charged towards the tree at full speed. Using the momentum, she ran upwards tens of meters before grabbing to the thick tree bark.

Her sister’s weight wasn’t an impediment at all for her current monstrous strength. With great agility, Ella propelled herself, as well as Nora, higher and higher. It was an absolute blast.

Having front seats at such a trip, Nora’s lips turned considerably violet. She was extremely afraid, but her eyes were opened wide the whole process, barely even blinking. In a short time they reached the tree top. The tree’s design was in such a way that the top wasn’t pointed, but rather pretty broad, with some room for movement. Arriving at that place felt incredible. Everything could be seen in another light. Splendid beyond what words could express.

“This is not so bad as I thought,” said Nora while getting down from Ella’s back, standing there on her own. All of a sudden, a large amount of her fear dissipated into nothing.