The next morning, the light once again tried to penetrate every corner of the forest.
Last night was an unforgettable experience for Ari, she has never thought that even sleeping would be so difficult. Her nerves are always in a state of tension, not knowing from which side the Pan will jump out, taking advantage of her sleep to tear her to pieces as they did with the ill-fated deer last morning, even the sound of insects rustling around also become scary.
Ari carefully checks her bow and arrows again, her father used to remind her that:
– If you fail to prepare, you are preparing for failure.
So, at every important action, Ari tries to control her haste and prepare everything as the best she can.
While she was standing guard, Ari suddenly smelled a threat.
she sensitively sensed the slight shaking of the ground that the others had not yet noticed.
She wakes everyone up from their sleep right away:
– Wake up guys!
Although other members are sleeping, they don’t loosen their minds, hearing Ari’s warning, they immediately get up even when they don’t know what is going on.
Staring at the tree terrain nearby, they saw blue many savage eyes and claws of the small Pans lurking behind the rocks and wither trees. They sniffed out the place of human by their smell and gathered a herd for chasing.
She stands up and points her bow toward the direction of the tremor and warns everyone at the same time.
– They have arrived already!
Nic – who is closest to the pans drew the sword from behind her back to clear the decks for action. The ray of light reflects from the blade just passed, the pans break out, and the thorny black balls rushed towards the five people like crazy. Even the big craggy rocks could not stop their advance, soon one of them rushed right in front of Nic.
Nic raised her sword to the front of the group, she decided to keep the pans for everyone to escape.
The sword’s shadow flashed, only to see Nic lightly swing his arm and jump into the melee Pan. Many Pans were killed by Nic’s blade, but the whole group behind seemed fearless, they jumped at Nic with a fury fiercer than any wild carnivore.
One after another pounced and attacked directly, causing Nic to both slash and dodge, trying to stay firmly in the heart of the enemy, both hands swinging her sword without knowing where to stop.
-Too many of them still remain.
To face the chaotic situation, Rin rushes to support Nic, Ari also poured all her strength into shooting support for the two.
Behind her, the doctor could no longer keep his gentle and calm face as usual. Fearful eyes look at the ferocious Pan, his hands clutching the medicine box held in front of his chest, he is shaking, but as a physician, the instinct to save people triumphed over fear.
-No worry, you have me here sir!
He shields himself in front of Duong – who is invited by them to destroy these Pans.
Constantly fighting with the dangers in front of them, they didn’t realize that the most dangerous place was still the one they were unable to see.
If before, Pan was just a slow gentle forest creature, when endangered only to dodge, now everything has changed. The inherent nature of the Pan species is also gone. The souls of the Pan species have been cursed, they have become a violent and cruel entity, the transformation not only robs the Pan species of kindness but also gives them more weapons that people do not know about – the cunning. Now, along with strength, the Pans also know how to fight with calculations that humans do not anticipate. Seeing the targets that appeared to be incapable of combat, some Pans snuck back, they glared at Duong Duong and the doctor and then simultaneously attacked.
The nearest Pan is like a bullet that shot straight at Duong Duong. He started and prepare to fight back when the doctor in front of him turned around. The doctor, with a plump body, turns his back to Pan while his eyes are closed. He is shaking all over, he pushes Duong back cause him to Wobble unsteadily. The doctor’s voice trembled as he repeated:
– Don’t be afraid mage, I will protect you.
In a dangerous situation, a precise arrow pierced Pan’s back before its sharp claws left a scratching deep furrow on the doctor’s plump back.
– It’s not okay! We have to run. Nic, help me cover Rin, I’ll take Duong and the doctor first!
Ari shouts. She knows that if she continues to fight, wasting energy in this place is not a wise choice.
So instead of continuing to fight, they withdraw their weapons and turn to run away.
They run life-threateningly recklessly without turning their head, regardless of the direction. They do not dare to stop and turn their heads, wherever there is a way, they run into it. The other Pans are equally fast, the sound of “Eek eek” always ringing in their ears.
Not knowing how long to run, it seems that the sound from the Pans is much lower, Ari dares to turn her head to take a look. In dire straits, the Pans are still close behind, Ari nervously runs back to Duong asking for the next response plan:
– Mage, where are we going? we can’t run forever.
Duong also turns his head to look, Nic right behind him is the last runner, closest to Pan, she has just moved, and the place where the leg has just lifted is immediately scratched by Pans into the space. Nic has just taken a step forward, another one jumps to show sharp teeth wanting to scrape that little leg in half.
Duong doesn’t say anything, just turns ahead and keeps running, thinking for a moment, he comes up with a new plan for Ari:
– We’ve been exposed, we’ve got to hit fast. Go straight to their cave and kill the lord when it can’t take precautions and gather all the small Pans.
Looking back from yesterday morning until now, the whole group act emotionally and impulsively, everything was passive and derailed. But the fact that their team did not go to the forest and pray to the gods for helping destroy the beast, on the first night Duong stays in the tree house, and the group once gathered there to discuss the plan.
That night, after some discussion, Duong decided to show the group some pretty cool things that surprised them all:
– You can’t use normal weapons to fight the monster, so I have upgraded them with energy stones.
Power Stone – the tool that Duong has just talked about is a blue gem embedded in the middle of Ari’s bow. He said mildly:
– Ari’s bow, Rin’s whip, and Nic’s sword have all been upgraded for greater destructive power and damage. Now they’ve become magical weapon.
In an instant, all three weapons glittered with the light of the magic stones. Picking up her beloved bow, Ari crooned, her eyes shining like a child who had just received a new toy, an unutterable joy raises in her heart:
– Awesome!!
The word of thanks came out in an amused manner. At that moment, she just wanted to experience the power of this bow as soon as possible.
Sitting beside Ari, Rin was equally interested, she is very curious about this weapon upgrade. Rin’s eyes and attitude were also different from the first time she meet Duong:
– So, is there anything different from normal use, mage?
Rin asked.
– I have used stones that are suitable for each person’s physical condition. In the battle, you need to pour energy into the weapon, the stone will amplify that energy to create super-strong shock waves. You will see that your weapon has changed, they are no longer ordinary whips or metal swords, they are sharper, stronger and contain power.
– Magic weapons are objects created from energy stones that are capable of receiving and amplifying original energy, creating important contributions to human life. However, the energy of the stone is limited and depends on the quality of their class. Therefore, magic stones are very precious and highly sought after by humans.
Energy stones are divided in quality by color. The brighter colors such as yellow, pink, and orange,… the more valuable it is. White is the rarest kind which also cost you an arm and leg to own one.
Hearing Duong’s explanation to the doctor is in seventh heaven and has an itch for:
– Mage, what about me?
– You’re a doctor, you don’t need to fight.
Duong leaned over and looked at the doctor in surprise.
– I know, but at least I should have something to back me up, I’m afraid I’m going to entangle people.
The doctor replied shyly, putting his hand to scratch his head.
Thinking it makes sense, Duong holds out a small yellow tube to the doctor:
– Then take it, blow it once and you will see something worth seeing.
– Really? Thank you, thank you very much.
Although he does not know what would happen, the doctor feels reassured and somewhat more confident about the trip ahead.
