Chapter 28: Wait... did he boom?[2]
"The fuck man, where did he place it?"
I stepped deeper into the forest, pushing aside wet branches that clung to my coat. The air smelled of rotting leaves and old rain.
My boots sank into the soft ground with every step, but I kept going, eyes scanning the underbrush for any sign of that damn bush.
Something hissed nearby. I didn’t look at it directly—just flicked my wrist. A silver chain shot out, coiling around a thick branch. It pulled me sideways, and a thorned vine whipped through the space where I’d just stood.
A single ringed vine monster was attacking me, but I ignored it.
I kept moving. The light barely reached through the thick canopy, and the ground was littered with roots and half-hidden holes. Every few steps, I felt the earth shift under me, as if something was waiting just out of sight.
Then another sound came from behind. I turned, sending a chain snapping through the leaves to keep whatever it was at bay. The chain glinted, then curled back to me like a living thing.
Sweat clung to my neck. The deeper I went, the thicker the air felt, as if the forest itself was alive.
I stepped around a cluster of mushrooms that oozed dark sap. My chains swayed at my side, ready to lash out again if something lunged.
A few more steps, and the undergrowth thinned. My eyes caught something half-buried behind a fallen log—small, gnarled branches heavy with dark yellow fruit.
I found it—a bomberry bush.
I quickly plucked a fruit from it and injected a thin stream of mana into its core. The skin of the fruit pulsed, veins of faint orange light spiderwebbing across its surface.