Chapter 142: Away from the Danger
They froze for a split second, breath caught, as that wet scuttling echoed all around them, as if the very trees had begun to breathe.
"We can’t avoid it," Maggie ground out between her teeth, already staring at a thinning gap in the woods ahead. "We need to head straight for that open ridge and run."
Élisa nodded once. Wordlessly she lowered her spear, focused her sigil: a green vibration rippled through the air, grazing the trunks, scrambling the senses of anything trying to track them. A fragile psychic veil, but enough to sow confusion in creatures attuned to the mind.
Dylan gripped his sword in front of him, knuckles white. "If we meet anything, we dodge the fight unless we really have no choice."
He stepped forward, eyes scanning the shadows. Maggie followed, stepping softly on the leaves, ready to strike... or to dart back the other way if needed. Élisa slipped between two trunks, almost ghostlike, her mental shield swallowing the sound of their steps.
Ahead, a sharp crack rang out—a chitinous limb striking bark. Three creeping forms slid into view, wary. The beasts stopped, sniffed the air... and saw Dylan.
He didn’t try to scare them. He sidestepped, and his blade sliced the air silently, cutting a dead branch that crashed to the ground with a thunderous crack. The noise echoed like a gunshot through the forest.
The creatures lunged... straight into the bramble trap Maggie had set in a few swift motions: three claws snagged on the thorny thicket. A guttural snarl. They backed away, tearing free one smacked paw at a time, bloodied claws clawing at the vines.
Élisa didn’t wait for them to recover. She swept her spear across the gap, opening a path. "This way!"
They burst out, running in a broken line. The monstrous shapes pursued, but Élisa’s psychic illusion veered them eastward. Their confused screeches faded as the trio bounded over and under roots, putting ground between each footfall.
The slope suddenly rose, a bank blanketed in tall ferns. They climbed it in silence, panting, until they reached the open crest. Before them, the forest ended, giving way to a clearing bathed in harsh light.