Chapter 78: True Beast Form
The dark green haired girl sat under a large tree, her back against the rough bark.
The trunk was old, its roots spreading across the forest floor like veins beneath the soil.
Moss grew on the northern side, soft and green, and the canopy above filtered the remaining light into scattered patches.
A squirrel had given her a fruit. It was small and red, no larger than her thumb, and she ate it slowly, juice dripping down her chin.
The flesh was sweet, tangy, and warm from the sun. She chewed and swallowed, then took another bite.
The bird from earlier was gone, but other creatures had gathered around her.
A rabbit rested near her feet, its nose twitching as it sniffed the air.
A fox lay curled a few meters away, its golden fur rising and falling with each breath. A small lizard had crawled onto a nearby root and sat motionless, its eyes fixed on her.
The forest felt almost peaceful. Almost normal.
Then the formation activated.
The girl paused mid bite, her amber eyes narrowing.
She felt the mana pulse through the ground first, a deep vibration that traveled up through the roots and into her spine.
Then it came through the air, a pressure that pressed against her skin and made the hairs on her arms stand up.
Then it came through the trees, each trunk carrying the pulse like a heartbeat.
A barrier was forming.
She could sense its edges spreading outward, covering miles of forest.
The mana was thick and dense, woven together with precision and care. This was not a crude formation.
It had been planned.
She stood up and looked around. The creatures near her had grown still, their ears twitching, their noses sniffing the air.
They could feel it too.
The rabbit had stopped chewing. The fox had lifted its head. The lizard had flattened itself against the root.
"You guys should hide," she said.
The rabbit was the first to leave. It bolted into the undergrowth, its white tail disappearing between the ferns.
The fox followed, its body low against the ground, its golden fur blending with the fallen leaves.
The lizard scurried up the tree and vanished into a crack in the bark.
One by one, the animals scattered until she was alone.
The girl started walking toward the barrier.
She wanted to study it, to understand what kind of formation had been activated and who had triggered it.
The mana was unfamiliar, but the structure was not.
She had seen similar formations before, in different forests, different territories.
They were always used for the same purpose. Containment.
But as she moved, she sensed three presences heading in her direction.
All three of them were [Platinum] rankers.
She frowned and changed her direction, stepping off the path and into the denser part of the forest.
The trees here grew closer together, their branches intertwined, their roots forming natural walls.
She moved between them without making a sound, her feet finding the soft patches of soil, her body turning to avoid the dry twigs that would crack under pressure.
The three presences changed their direction as well. They were following her.
The girl understood.
These people were somehow tracking her. She trusted her hiding capabilities.
If they had found her, it was not because she had made a mistake.
They had another method. A skill, perhaps. Or an artifact.
But she was not someone who hid from things. And certainly not when it came to battle.
The three presences stopped moving when they reached a hundred meters away.
Then their presence vanished completely, as if they had never existed.
The girl smirked.
They were underestimating her sense of range.
Three [Platinum] rankers did not think a [Gold] ranker could sense beyond a hundred meters.
They were wrong.
Her senses were sharper than most, honed by years of living alone in territories where a single mistake meant death.
That said, she could no longer sense them.
Their concealment was too strong, their control too precise.
It made her a little irritated.
She preferred her enemies to be in front of her, where she could see them, where she could fight them.
Fortunately, they did not let her wait long.
A massive lion of flame lunged at her from the trees.
It was six meters long, its body made entirely of fire, its mane crackling with heat.
The air around it shimmered, and the leaves beneath it blackened and curled into ash.
The ground where it landed cracked from the sudden weight, and small flames flickered along the edges of the crater.
The girl sensed the danger immediately.
She did not think. She did not plan. Her body moved on its own, instincts honed by years of survival.
She dodged sideways, her shoulder brushing against a tree trunk, her feet finding solid ground just as the lion’s claws passed through the space where her head had been.
The heat brushed against her cheek. Warm, but not burning. Close, but not close enough.
She looked at the flaming lion and muttered,
"Unification Art? Moreover, it is a [Perfect Platinum]."
A smile appeared on her face, clearly amused.
Yes, she was amused by the situation.
She could use the State of Resonant and crush this lion effortlessly.
Her resonance was perfect, meaning she would suffer no backlash.
But that did not mean she would feel no strain on her body.
And besides, she wasn’t helpless without the State of Resonant.
As far as she was concerned, that power was not hers. It was borrowed strength, from the resonance, from something outside herself.
After all, unlike others, she knew where this power originated from.
The girl stood up straight and muttered,
"True Beast Form."
Her amber eyes turned gold. The change was subtle at first, a deepening of color, a darkening of the iris.
Then the gold spread, consuming the amber until her eyes were two pools of molten metal.
Her fingernails extended into claws.
They grew slowly, curling outward from her fingertips, sharp and curved.
The nails darkened from pale white to deep black, hardening into points that could tear through flesh and bone.
Her side teeth sharpened into fangs.
She ran her tongue along them, feeling the new edges. They were not long enough to be obvious, but they were there. Ready.
Her heartbeat slowed, then steadied, syncing with the rhythm of the forest.
She could feel the pulse of the trees, the flow of sap through their trunks, the spread of roots beneath the soil.
She could feel the insects crawling through the leaves, the birds hiding in the canopy, the small mammals burrowing into the earth.
The wind brushed against her skin, and she felt every leaf, every branch, every living thing within her range.
The forest was no longer just around her. It was part of her.
The girl and the flaming lion stared at each other for a fraction of a second.
Then they charged at each other.
-BOOM
...
Cael finally reached the formation barrier.
The interface did not appear as it used to, but Cael had already expected this.
He had already tried to copy the academy’s spatial barrier but failed.
But back then, he didn’t know about his innate ability, and now, it was different.
He stood at the edge of the clearing; his eyes fixed on the shimmering wall of mana that stretched across the forest.
The surface was translucent, faintly glowing, and it pulsed with a rhythm that matched with forest mana.
So, from the outside, nothing has changed; only the people inside can sense the changes.
He placed his palm against it.
The barrier was warm, almost hot, and it vibrated faintly beneath his fingers.
He could sense it now, the way the formation twisted the mana inside the barrier, locking it in place, so Teleportation would not work past this barrier.
Cael pulled his hand back and exhaled slowly.
He had walked into a trap.
By touching the barrier, he gave away his position to the other party.
Not intentionally, but that did not matter.
The formation was already active, and whoever had activated it knew he was here.
He thought about the strange snake and the bowman.
This formation may be connected to them, a response to something he had done.
Killing the bowman, perhaps. Or following the deer. Or simply existing in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But Cael did not dwell on what he could not change. He focused on what he could.
He studied the barrier, tracing its lines with his eyes, feeling its structure with his mana.
His SS-Rank Copy skill had worked on teleportation circles before.
It had worked on skills, on elemental abilities, as well.
But Spatial restriction was not a skill. It was a formation, a structure built by multiple people over time.
But the principle was the same when he copied Teleportation.
Mana woven into a specific pattern.
Cael closed his eyes and focused.
The interface did not appear. The Copy skill did not activate. But he did not give up.
He reached out with his mana, touching the barrier, feeling its shape, its flow, its contradictions.
Soon, one minute passed, then two, three... five... seven...
Cael’s violet eyes shone open as he muttered,
"I understand now."