Chapter 15 Forest of Monsters (I)
The room had gone silent, broken only by the noise of choked-back tears and restless footsteps pacing back and forth.
A hand gently rested itself atop my shoulder. I looked up through teary eyes and intermittent sobs to see Nat's face. She had a look of pity—as if that would help.
"We have to go," she whispered to me gently. It had only been about a minute before everyone decided this was pointless and that we had to leave. "Maybe Jing can help sustain them when we get back," she continued, trying to give me some hope.
It was futile. I knew he didn't have enough mana to do that with two more people, even worse off than Aria. No one else could pull off that miracle either, not without our damn analese. If only I could figure out how to do that, but I couldn't.
"Please, Jenny." Nat knelt to look me in the eye. "I know this is hard for you, but we have to leave before more roaches return. You need to find the strength to keep moving."
She was right. I knew that, but I still didn't want to move. I wanted to stay curled up here for the rest of my life. I had neither the energy nor the will to move.
"Let me help you up." Nat lifted my arm, guiding me to my feet.
As I made my way out of the room, my eyes crossed paths with Andre's as he stepped inside to pick up Simon. He had a pained, yet furious, look in his eyes. Unlike my own, which undoubtedly mimicked those of a corpse.
We made our way out of the dirt stronghold and back into the narrow tunnel. Getting Simon and Jessie through was awkward, but Andre and Havi tied them to their backs and sprawled their way through it.
As we reentered the larger part of the cave, we were greeted by a roach lying dead in front of us. I thought we had killed them a bit farther ahead, but I didn't pay it much mind.
We began walking past it, but then—
A twitch.
Not a twitch of flesh, but one of mana.
All of us took a step back, staring at the unmoving roach. It was weak, with a hole in its chest, and not a sign of movement. Not an ounce of mana could be sensed from it. Everything told me that it was dead.
Then—another twitch!
There was no mistaking it; it was coming from this roach.
The twitches of mana became more frequent as the bug slowly moved its head up to look at us. Its creepy mask stared at us with an eerie shadow covering it. With a sudden jolt, the bug's mana flared back to normal. A creamy, golden-white light glowed from the engraving on its back.
"It was suppressing itself!" Andre roared out as he stomped its head. I watched as the golden light faded alongside the mana of the dead bug. "Shit!" Andre yelled once more. "What was it doing?"
"That light was different from the one before, and it had no pull." Nat quickly pointed out. "It did something different this time."
"It's obvious what it was doing!" Havi exclaimed. "It signaled to the rest of its creepy friends! We gotta get out of here!"
All six of us sprinted toward the entrance before coming to a stop at the first sign of outside light.
We sensed it; more of them had arrived with others nearby. In quick succession, nearly thirty bugs had gathered outside, three of them being the second variant.
"What now?" Sunny asked.
"I think you know." Andre put his hand on Sunny's shoulder. "Stay close to me."
They were closing in on us. If we fought them in the cave, we'd have a harder time escaping. Our only choice was to fight them outside. Powerful gusts slammed into our faces. The roaring of the wind ramped up until it sounded like an approaching tornado. We gave each other a look. These were the people we were trusting with our lives now.
Taking one last deep breath, I charged straight into the horde of monsters. I was met head on by a roach lunging back at me. My response was to send a punch flying right through its head. That was met with another roach flying at me. I hit it aside, but then another came at me. This one hit me, but I stood my ground, unmoving. Then another came and pushed me backwards. Then another, and another, until I was finally knocked to the ground.
Before I knew it, the second variant was in the air, diving straight for me. Its bladed arm hovered inches in front of my face before I saw it go flying back.
Nat had saved me.
Using her boot, she stomped one of the roaches pinning me down. With my newly freed hand, I punched through another one while Nat killed the final one.
She offered me a hand—big mistake.
Immediately, a moving cyclone of wind collided with her, knocking her to the ground.
A roach appeared from within the attack and used its weight to keep her pinned as three more cyclones barreled toward her.
I had no time to help. The new variant had gotten up and formed its own cyclone around its arm. The wind compressed around its arm in a strange way, sharing more similarity with the samurai's attack than with what I was used to seeing them do.
The bug slashed the air. A crescent of wind launched out at me at blinding speeds.
Barely jumping out of its way, I instinctively followed the trajectory of the attack to see where it went. I saw the attack rip through two of its own kind before colliding with a tree, causing it to explode into splinters.
I turned back—only to see its blade in front of my face once more. But yet again, I was saved.
Andre bodychecked the creature, sending it skidding. He was bloodied, bruised, and huffing like he had run a marathon. There was a feral cadence to his breathing and a beastly look in his eyes.
Another cyclone charged at him, but he caught it with his whole body before tossing it aside. I looked back at the caret-eyed roach only to see it restrained by Sunny.
He had climbed its body, wrapping his legs around its serrated arms and his arms around its neck. Another roach collided with his back, causing him to cough up spit, but he refused to let go. It then slashed at his back but that only made him hold on tighter.
I rushed in to kill the roach attacking Sunny. I ripped it apart like paper, but it was only replaced by two more. Dispatching them, more and more flooded in. I kept killing them, attempting to keep them away from Sunny, but the horde seemed endless.
A loud thud rang out behind me. Andre had charged in and delivered a devastating punch to the restrained roach's face. Sunny followed it up with his own strikes and together they pummeled it to death.
In the corner of my eye, I could see Dwight surrounded by six of them—one of them being the strong variant. He was in danger, but I couldn't do anything about it because another slash came at me and met its mark.
Like a paper cut, only a bit of skin came off. It stung, but it was nothing compared to the wound on my arm.
I dispatched the attacking roach only to see another cyclone coming at me. I jumped over it, but was met with yet another one, knocking me down and bruising my right arm. I let out a grunt as I fell to the ground. Knowing better than to stay down for long, I forced myself up and killed the roach who had attacked me.
I turned to go help Dwight, hoping he was still okay, only to see most of them dead and Havi fighting the strong roach with Dwight.
A thought shot up my spine.
Where's Nat!?