As the group moved to the forest happily looking forward to getting more levels and maybe finally a chance to wash off all the smells and filthy substances heavily caked onto their skins, unbeknownst to them that 20 floaters were hunting them.
Jacob led the group on their run towards the forest, overhead the three suns still beating them mercilessly with constant heat. The trio of Jacob, Riley and Brian was used to the initial forest changing into a desiccated and eerily leafless forest. So as the group neared the illusion of forest, Riley and Brian looked back to see Aurelius reaction.
For Aurelius, everything happening was new so the duo was looking forward to it. However, as Riley and Brian looked to Aurelius for his expression as the previously vibrant green forest turned into a lifeless one filled with only trees and arid ground. Aurelius only raised an eyebrow at the sight leaving the two to stumble and almost fell flat on their faces at the lack of response from Aurelius. Aurelius smirked a little at the antics of the duo in front of him.
Riley and Brian recalled their own confrontation with reality at the changing forest, they basically gave up on being able to eat before Alexander and Turner persuaded them to explore further and that ended up with them nearly being cooked for food by the floaters instead.
The duo recovered their bearing and continued running in front of Aurelius, their current formation was Jacob leading the group in front and the duo of Riley and Brian in the middle with Aurelius bringing up the rear incase of any possible assaults. They could keep the two weakest people safe while dealing with any threats.
As the group powered through the arid forest sweat already dripping with Jacob not noticing the slight hiccup as his full attention was in looking out for any threats within his field of vision, with how fast they were speeding through the forest even with his enhanced vision from gaining more stats. The vision was still rather blurry, given the sparse and rather thin trees it was not a problem for now.
Hence, Jacob was more worried about the verdant green forest that was to come. Jacob raised his right hand while still running with Flowing Water in his left hand, he slowly flagged his right hand up and down to signal that he was gonna slow down the run. As he moved his hand, Jacob slowed down enough where he could accurately scan the surrounding while running. The three behind slowed down to follow.
As the group moved through the unending heat of the three suns, their chance for shade from the suns appeared in the form of a warm green forest. The faces of everyone in the group lit up as the chance to soak in some cool air had presented itself. With the sweet allure of the forest, the group unintentionally sped up.
Once they reached the cool shade of the forest safely, Jacob called for a break once they moved a bit further in to allow all of them to rest. As the group basked in the cool shade feeling the much lessened heat due to the trees blocking them, allowing them to rest comfortable and feel the wind on the uncaked part of their body.
While the group was peacefully resting, with Riley and Brian chatting about their life before the System came in just a mere 4 days ago but felt like a lifetime to all of them. Jacob listened in while they chatted. Apparently Riley was studying for her Masters in Biology at a rather prestigious university and Brian was a mixed martial arts instructor who had a record of 23-9 before becoming an instructor to continue teaching to others what he loved.
As the duo moved on to topics like favourite food to eat and places to go, their peace was violently interrupted as Jacob and Aurelius moved to block the sharp gleaming strikes from the floater claws. Jacob got Flowing Water across him as he covered for Brian and Aurelius blocked two strikes with both of his hands covered in red essence for Riley. Brian although slightly startled immediately got up to ready position which was very good for him as another two floaters came behind for him, he felt that Jacob had the two floater in front of him covered so he turned to his back to cover for Jacob.
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Brian had never been more glad as he saw two floaters coming at his face, he channeled essence from his core throughout his body. He deftly avoided the incoming crisscross attack from the floaters by ducking in between the X formed by the two floaters, as he avoided the attack he threw one punch to his left and threw the floater out of its initial path. He quickly turned to the remaining floater and boosted his legs with more essence to catch up to the floater, this time he landed multiple punches once he caught up to the floater. Causing the floater to vomit yellow blood and flying away from the punches.
Meanwhile, Riley after receiving help from Aurelius screamed at the sudden appearance of the floaters. Not knowing three floaters were approaching her from the back, Aurelius was able to deflect the two attacks and while the two floaters in front of him were recoiling from the attack, Aurelius quickly covered the space between the two floaters and him with his two fists.
Upon contact with Aurelius' fist each of the two floaters wanted to scream from the damage had their chests collapse spilling yellow blood from their wounds due to their collapsed lungs their screams were cut short and with the damage done, the floaters collapsed on the floor as two trails of dark blue essence escape from their bodies and flowed into Aurelius. Aurelius after finishing the two floaters amidst Riley’s screaming, quickly moved to the back of Riley and blocked the three strikes, this time two of the hits were blocked by each hand. The last hit with Aurelius guard opened up by the other two floaters, threatened to hit Aurelius in the chest, however red and black essence appeared around Aurelius’ chest and easily stopped the sharp claws of the third floater.
Jacob meanwhile after being pushed back slightly by the total force of the two floater, he pushed Flowing Water back against the two floaters. In a near re-enactment of what happened with Aurelius after the the floaters were pushed back, Jacob swiftly brought Flowing Water across the torso of the two floaters. Causing yellow liquids to spill out from the two separated body parts of the floaters followed by two dark blue essence to enter Jacob.
After both Jacob and Aurelius finished the 4 floaters, while Aurelius moved to defend Riley. Jacob did a quick check to see a floater still flying towards him as it was course corrected by Brian. He brought Flowing Water and pointed it straight towards the incoming body, the body slid smoothly into Flowing Water with barely any resistance. The floater still alive as the sword was sliding through its body let out an unearthly scream, the scream was quickly exacerbated as Jacob brought Flowing Water upwards to cut through the torso and shortly afterwards the head and brain.
After he cut off the scream of the floater and saw that Brian was finishing up with a floater, he looked around and this time a set of 5 floaters were floating in at high speed claws at the ready from the direction where they attacked first. Riley having recovered from the fright, got her emotions under control. She took a deep breath as Aurelius was still blocking the three floaters, she looked behind and saw the relative ease at which he was fighting with the three floaters. Decided to engage the five floaters coming in from their front with Jacob.
The two figures one with raven black curly hair covered in red, yellow and gray while the other with straight apple red hair covered in red and gray both shot forward to meet the 5 floaters, Riley with both fists encased in green this time and with her mental faculties recovered from the initial shock. Met the four swinging claws coming at her face with her two fists, directly blowing back the two floaters engaging her from two different directions.
As she moved to land her finishing blows on one of the floater, a third one came at her from the side forcing Riley to punch out at that floater instead forcing it back. Laughter from the floaters danced across the forest, as the two floaters having recovered also came back at her. The floaters continued their unnerving laugh as they kept repeating their actions, slowly siphoning Riley's essence, however their plan was put to a stop as Jacob immediately decapitated the third floater as it came back to force out another punch from Riley.
The two floater that engaged Jacob laid separately in multiple pieces, Riley as she was punching out to the now missing third floater was met with a visage more frightening than the sand skinned floater with an actual horn sticking out from their head. She saw Jacob with a smile reminiscent of a deranged patient from a psychiatric ward, what was shocking to her was his teeth was covered in yellow blood.
They quickly finished up the remaining two floater of the 5 while Riley was still processing the previous scene. Meanwhile, Brian and Aurelius still on alert after finishing up their side of the battle looked around for any remaining floaters. No more floaters came out to confront the group as they kept on guard for the next few minutes. While the group kept on alert, Jacob told them he would start cutting off the claws of the 14 floaters they killed if there was any to be had and ripping off the black cloth covering them to use as a bundle once again.
Meanwhile, not far away 6 floaters looked together at the scene of their massacred fellows and the 4 culprits where one was cutting off the claws of their comrades. These 6 had two pointy horns instead of one and instead of the black sash covering their one horned comrades, they were the colour of red offsetting brilliantly against the skin of the floaters. Foreign words were exchanged between the 6 as they discussed the scene they had witnessed.