Chapter 45: Roar
Outside the outskirts of Moldova Fortress, in the early hours of dawn, the stars had not yet fallen, and the sun was just beginning to rise.
In the sky covered by overcast clouds, faint light flickered. A blizzard raged across the land, plunging everything into darkness. Yet upon the icy plains, a streak of cyan light sped forward, moving rapidly toward the mountains and forests.
Harnessing his deep cyan battle qi, Brandon departed from the fortress and flew at breakneck speed. The howling winter wind rushed to meet him but was deflected by a translucent cyan ripple. In an instant, he crossed the snow-covered hills and arrived at the small plain before the Black Forest.
On this stretch of plains and hills between the Black Forest and the fortress, the ground was littered with the corpses of magical beasts. Mutilated remains, torn apart by various spells and alchemical cannons, were scattered haphazardly across the ice and snow. The purple-red frozen blood stood out starkly. The blizzard had scattered the stench of decay. A rough estimate suggested that tens of thousands of magical beasts had died here.
But compared to the two hundred thousand frenzied beasts hidden deep within the Black Forest, this number was utterly insignificant—let alone the fact that come spring, when the Black Forest scattered its seeds, these corpses would become the finest fertilizer for its expansion.
"If the fortress falls, the Black Forest will spread, completely occupying this place. Even the fortress itself will be overgrown with twisted plants… This raid absolutely cannot fail!"
Light flickered around Brandon. His battle qi was attuned to the relatively common elements of wind and tearing. In this blizzard, where the wind raged, the blonde swordsman's pure linear speed far surpassed Joshua's. It was precisely for this reason that he had the confidence to set out later yet arrive first, catching up to the warrior before he could venture deep into the Black Forest alone.
Regardless, with two Gold-rank warriors covering each other and sharing the pressure of the beast tide, their advance speed would definitely be faster than a solo charge. This would also give them a better chance of killing the Gold-rank magical beasts near the space-time gate.
"A little faster."
Taking a deep breath, Brandon used his breathing to stir the pulsing power within his body. Cyan battle qi billowed like rising steam, and his flight speed increased further. The power of wind repelled gravity while also canceling out air resistance. Harnessing the force of the surrounding blizzard, the blonde swordsman now moved as if in a vacuum, streaking across the earth with the swiftness of a meteor.
Boom!
With the sonic boom of breaking the sound barrier, a long trail of cyan airwaves trailed behind Brandon. White air shockwaves rippled violently around his body. The raging blizzard was pushed aside. The violent shockwave shattered the frozen snow and ice on the ground. The hot wind generated by the high-speed friction of the air then swept across the land, melting frost and snow into murky ice water.
In the intensely friction-heated air, faint sparks of lightning could even be seen flickering. As the electric light flashed, vast amounts of snow water evaporated and decomposed, leaving only a massive plume of white steam rising into the air.
At such extreme speed, within just a few breaths, Brandon had plunged into the black jungle shrouded in purple-black mist.
However, shortly after entering the Black Forest, he abruptly slowed down, even coming to a complete halt. He slowly descended onto a patch of black, rotting leaves.
"The aura has vanished…"
Brandon looked around, frowning in confusion. "The chaotic mana in this mist is far too dense. Is this what's masking Joshua's aura?"
Every person has a unique aura. The stronger one's power, the deeper others' perception of it. If someone deliberately concealed their aura, that would be a different matter. But as far as the swordsman knew, Joshua was not the type to hide his presence. So, it could only be the work of the ubiquitous purple-black mist within the Black Forest.
Using the scale powder of a Black Dragon as a base, mixed with mana and snow dust, the purple-black mist filled the entire Black Forest. Even for a Gold-rank expert, visibility did not exceed thirty meters. Coupled with the disruption of aura perception, even a Gold-rank swordsman dared not wander recklessly. To find the path Joshua had taken, Brandon had to carefully observe the surrounding traces.
In this magically twisted Black Forest, there was no terrifying blizzard or howling wind. The leaves, still lush even in winter, and the abnormally massive tree trunks blocked everything. Compared to ordinary forests, the trees in the Black Forest had a much darker hue—both trunks and leaves were like this, covered in twisted serrations and sharp thorns, as if ready at any moment to drink deeply of blood and flesh. Natural mana nurtured its favored children, making each of these trees towering and immense, easily twenty or thirty meters tall.
Fortunately, it wasn't long before Brandon found traces of Joshua's advance. On that charred path, a scorching wind still lingered, refusing to dissipate. Around the path lay the shattered corpses of magical beasts.
No wonder he hadn't encountered any obstacles along the way—they had all gathered here!
Before he could dwell on it, the blonde swordsman's gaze suddenly sharpened. He spotted a massive body that was still extremely conspicuous among the piles of corpses. Covered in a gray-white carapace, the five-meter-tall giant monster's body lay like a mountain of flesh by the roadside. Purple-black blood still flowed sluggishly, emitting a hot, stinking vapor.
"White-armored Bears, six of them, all killed with a single decapitating blow?"
Seeing the corpses of these former jungle overlords, powerful monsters at least at the Silver High-rank, Brandon wasn't overly surprised—given Joshua's strength, killing all these giant bears was hardly a difficult feat. But the still-warm bodies proved that the distance between them was not far.
Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately took off again, speeding along the trajectory of the charred path. Brandon created a series of sonic booms, and countless black needles and leaves drifted down with the surging shockwaves. But the scene that appeared before him in the next moment forced him to stop and observe.
A massive black tree had been cut in half at the waist, lying horizontally on the ground. At the edge of the severed gap, black-red light flickered, corroding and burning the giant wood's body. Vaguely, a ferocious human face could be seen in the wrinkles of the bark.
"A Tree Ent?!?!"
This time, Brandon let out a genuine cry of surprise. His eyes were full of astonishment. "This small patch of Black Forest near the Great Aias Mountains can actually nurture a Tree Ent?! No, it doesn't have Gold-rank strength, and its aura is very chaotic. It's just an inferior product spawned by chaotic mana."
Tree Ents are guardians nurtured by the Black Forest, existing only in very vast forests. They are born with terrifying power at the Mid-Gold rank and above, along with many strange abilities, such as plundering the life force of other trees to heal their own wounds and strengthen their bodies. Relying on this ability, they are nearly immortal within the Black Forest. Even an inferior Tree Ent, with the Black Forest's blessing, could rival an ordinary Gold-rank magical beast in terms of physical strength alone.
Although it turned out to be a false alarm, Brandon was still worried. "It's already come to this. Thankfully, we didn't delay. If we had waited for the space-time gate to fully open and this chaos-corrupted Black Forest to nurture a few more Tree Ents, it would have been truly difficult to break in."
Beyond his relief, he also felt a sense of disbelief. From the wound of this inferior Tree Ent, he did not sense any trace of divine mechanisms, only the metallic smell left by the friction of steel. This meant that Joshua had used an ordinary steel greatsword to kill this Black Forest guardian, whose physical body alone could rival an ordinary Gold-rank magical beast!
Brandon knew that unless he activated his demonic eye, he would absolutely be unable to do this.
"Ha!"
Suddenly, a roar rang out from not far ahead.
Accompanying it was a streak of crimson light. This light forcefully pierced through the cover of the purple-black mist, as conspicuous as the morning star.
"He's right there! Looks like he's in the middle of a fierce battle!"
Brandon's spirits lifted instantly. Clearly, Joshua was just ahead and engaged in intense combat!
With the trembling sound of air vibrations, he once again harnessed his battle qi and sped toward that direction.