A chill ran down his spine as he saw the strange flesh beasts. They were not clearly visible when he looked at them from afar, but as they came closer and both sides engaged, Hao Ren vowed, if given the chance he would never want to meet these beasts again.
Their severely twisted and soft bodies resembled a lump of deformed flesh with a pair of toothy, barbed tentacles hanging from the back. As they died, they emitted a very unbearable, stinky smell. Without a weapon in hand, engaging in close quarters combat was all the more disgusting.
To avoid being splashed by the beasts' stinky body fluid, Hao Ren managed to borrow a "demon sword"—made of demon stone—from Y'zaks.
Luckily, these beasts had a very obvious flaw—they were afraid of fire. Vivian could easily scorch them with her Lightning Strike, it was so much easier than the rock monsters.
Wielding her sword, which was burning with magical flames, Becky zigzagged between the flesh beasts. The flesh beasts howled in pain as lumps of scorched flesh were pierced off their bodies. Though ineffective against the rock monsters, her sword and magic worked like a charm against the seemingly "traditional" monsters.
Meanwhile, Lily was also having a field day with her Frostfire Claws; inspired by Becky, she emulated Becky's strange sword skills, which involve of spinning and striking. With her superior physical strength, Lily's pirated copy of Becky's sword move was equally devastating. Both Lily and Becky became the brightest stars of the battle; fire and ice storms revolved around them like a pair of out-of-control tornadoes, striking the enemies with enormous speed and strength. Not long, only a few half-dead and hapless flesh beasts were still left standing. There was no need for Hao Ren to intervene. He stood by and exclaimed, "What a revolving duet!"
Lily shouted mid-battle, "Landlord, stop the crap!"
It did not take long for the flesh beasts to be KOed completely. Even though these creatures looked strange, they were just average-ranked monsters in the Gnarled Grove. Meanwhile, Y'zaks was almost done with the tree giant as well.
Although the ten-metre-tall tree giant looked frightening, it did not possess any regenerative abilities. As long as it could not regrow, it was a walk in the park for Y'zaks.
A loud blast was followed by a huge fireball, which landed on the tree giant. Y'zaks was up in flames. As if he just walked out a pool of lava, he had conveniently blew the tree giant up with the explosion, and scorched it with an endless flame. The tree giant of almost three-storeys tall was left helpless and it did not stand a chance to fight back. Despite the devastation, Y'zaks had actually used restraint to prevent an uncontrollable forest fire. The tree giant's weakness was apparent—it feared fire. Though its body contained a vast amount of fluid, it was like fighting fire with just a drop of water—it was futile. In just a few minutes, the battle was decisively over.
The tree giant was up in flames and smoke. Fire burned from within it. The violent giant was down amid a round of creaking sounds. The earth trembled and sparks of fire spread everywhere as the dying tree giant fell to the ground.
"Siren maiden, please put out the fire! Quick!" Y'zaks called Nangong Wuyue for help as the enemy fell. "The fire is spreading!"
A large cloud of water and ice crystals gathered around the burning tree giant and suppressed the burning flames. Visibility was only restored once Vivian summoned a draft of strong wind, blowing away the steam. All that was left of the strange tree giant was char. It was barely recongnisable as it was totally scorched from the inside out.
Concurrently, Lily had just come out from her daze. She gasped as she took a closer look at the scene, marvelling at the charred body. "What is this thing? A mutant like the rock monsters?"
"I have a feeling that they're forest warriors summoned by the elves." Becky came up to them too, but she was still a little dizzy. "I've seen tree giants summoned by the elves, the tallest was about four metres in height; it's hard to form anything bigger than that."
Hao Ren looked around, the whole place was a mess. The flesh beasts were easy to deal with, but the tree giant was really nasty; if it had not been for the Y'zaks'out-of-spec combat abilities, he would not have been able to fight it. Now, he could roughly understand why the forest was unusually quiet. "This giant could be the reason why other monsters didn't show up earlier."
"Hard to say," said Y'zaks as he frowned. "During the battle, I found something strange; this thing was unusually violent. Normal tree giants are gentle, at least that's the case in my hometown, where tree giants are just protectors of the forest. They would never attack indiscriminately. But, what we saw here was totally different; it attacked us like it was out of its mind."
Hao Ren looked at Becky, and asked, "Have there been any tree giants in this forest from the beginning?"
"No." Becky shook her head. "If it existed here, other monsters would have not survived till this day."
Just as Hao Ren was about to continue with his questioning, crackling sounds, like someone stepping on leaves were heard nearby.
Before their adrenaline waned, everyone once again braced themselves for the incoming danger. However, what came out of the forest was not something they had expected: A woman clad in white was walking towards them.
She was slender, wearing a weird-looking, white robe with a hood. It was actually a long wind coat, which the wearer shortened and added a belt for ease of movement in the forest. The unknown woman was roughly Vivian's age. She was delicate and beautiful, her chest-length blonde hair visible despite the hood being on—she perfectly matched the description of the otherworldly visitor that the mountain people had mentioned.
She looked worried as she appeared from the south of the forest. She was taken aback when she saw the group. But quickly, her eyes landed on the smoldering corpse of the tree giant.
When Hao Ren saw her, he almost recognised her instantly: this was the otherworldly visitor he had been looking for.
Before he could ask any questions for confirmation, the woman came up to them hurriedly. She pointed at the corpse of the tree giant and said, "You guys did this?"
Hao Ren nodded inadvertently.
"It was my tree guard," the blonde said softly. "But, it was out of control."
Hao Ren felt a bit perplexed. He never thought this was how the tree giant came about. He wondered if she was going to claim compensation for it. "I'm sorry about that. It attacked us—"
"I know." The blonde woman nodded. "It lost its mind and became violent. I was tracking it and thinking of putting it down myself—and now, you've done me a favour. I apologise for all the trouble caused. Are you people hurt?"
Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief after learning that the woman was not after compensation. As he cleared his throat to identify her, she said, "Please excuse me. I have to go now."
She turned around and left before the others could give their response.
Vivian immediately ran ahead, blocking her way. "Wait a minute! We've got something—"
"Please excuse me. I have an emergency," said the blonde woman as she nodded politely, expressing her regret to Vivian while she swiftly walked past her. Hao Ren glanced at Becky and then, said to the blonde, "Wait a second! Are you looking for a way to go home?"
The blonde woman halted.
She wheeled and stared at Hao Ren, bewildered. "How do you know that?"