Sophia rolled on the ground, and she accidentally discarded her sword. She kept avoiding the attacks of this giant monster tree they were facing. She almost lost her breath every time she was making an attack, and she knew that this was her weakness. As a result, this incident brought her to this current situation.
Sophia curved her body inward, and she looked like she was embracing herself. Flora used her strings to support Larch's triangular attack to counter more than two branches at one slice.
"Flora! Watch out!" She urged at Flora even though her back was still on the ground, feeling the pain due to her body's impact. Through her help, Flora successfully dodged more attacks from the monster tree.
While Sophia was trying to overcome the pain, Flora used her strings to support Larch's triangular attack to counter more than two branches at one slice.
Flora ran at the side branches of those non-monstrous trees while looking at their squad leader's positioning. When she noticed the dropped of Larch's resistance, she quickly jumped in front of him, raised her arm, and cast the string. Larch can feel his legs shaking, and his body seemed to tangle towards the inner self that made him feel weak. While he was kneeling on the ground to gather strength in a circular motion, Flora ran around him to cover him from the branches' attacks.
She did her duty without saying any words. No mumbling and no complaints. From being a jolly-faced and cute lady to being a firm and tough one when she is aggressive to fight. Larch saw the change in her expression. Her initiative made Larch's trust build up even more. Flora was mindful of her squadmates, and this made him felt fulfilling as a squad leader.
A slight smile was evident on his face.
The strings slowly get elevated as Flora's speed went fast. Now, it looked like Larch was resting inside a cocoon. Flora's skill lasted for more than a minute, which drove the soil to create ashes. It also made it hard for the monster tree to capture both of them.
A few moments later, Larch was able to fix himself physically. He raised his head while looking in front of him. Although he only saw the strings and Flora, his eagerness to end this monster tree's life was all on his mind. His positive mindset right now was the crucial part of him to maintain.
"I need to focus! I am the squad leader of Agila. I should not let them see that I get tired or weak at all. Therefore, I need to be a brave example for them!" Larch disputed inside his thoughts.
After that, he commanded Sophia calmly. "Sophia, I will start the count down from three. When the number one strike, you switch the string's arrow towards the monster tree's bearing. Execute the casting swiftly as possible that the monster tree would not notice it as you administer the attack." His voice was slowly getting impaired, which made Flora had a hard time understanding his instruction.
"Huh?" She reacted with a furrowed forehead while still running around him. The switching of directions to where the strings' arrows should go was the only thing she heard at that moment.
"What was the squad leader saying? I only understand the few, yet surely he probably wants me to do it perfectly." She whispered on her mind. Even though there was uncertainty she felt when understanding him, Flora had an instinct of doing the order as accurately as possible.
The sight from the side of her eyes made her noticed how injured Larch was. "This is probably my fault. If only I responded earlier than this, the squad leader would not get too much in danger and will not end up harming himself." Flora thought as she declined her eyelids while greeting her teeth in desperation.
As Larch expected from her, Flora found the exact timing as she swayed her arms to give the strings enough strength to go up to the bearing. The thin rope supported the arrow to attach towards the circular object in red. After she did the command, she drew herself closer to the tree to make a better view of whether she hits the bearing or not. However, the remains of sun rays were making her blind.
The ray of the sunlight instantly struck when the tip of the arrow attached successfully to the bearing. And in the blink of an eye, the monster tree stopped attacking. It was an indicator that she was successful.
"I did it..." She whispered as her eyes widened while looking towards the bearing, swaying with the wind's coldness. Her heartfelt was satisfied that it seemed like her chest began to lose those heavy feelings she felt a while ago. She did not even bother to notice that her skin was full of scars now. Instead, she smiled and turned around to face their squad leader.
"Squad leader, I did as what you commanded!" She exclaimed in joy as her fists were close to her chest. She made rapid footsteps while going closer to Larch.
Larch managed himself to stand and walk towards her. But instead of giving a praising look, he pretended to seem unimpressed even though he was proud of her. "You did not wait for me to count." He steadily said, and his eyes direct towards her like sharp knives.
When Flora heard this, she felt upset. She moved a bit back and looked down. Flora wasn't expecting him to act like this. She thought she was doing it right. How incompetent was she that she did not even hear him instructing those words?!
Flora did not mind making an argument towards him. Larch noticed that her embarrassment, so he looked around him. Larch thought of other distractions to where he can focus his attention.
Meanwhile, he suddenly remembered Sophia when his eyes accidentally glanced towards her sword. He looked around him to look for her. "Go and help me find Sophia." He told Flora.
Flora nodded and struck her way to find her closest friend.
While Larch and Flora kept looking for Sophia, Sophia's eyesight slowly went clear as she saw Hanaele walking towards her. Wait, Hanaele is here?!
"Sophia, I am sorry for coming too late." It was Hanaele's voice. She leaned closer to Sophia while holding the side of her head. It looked like Hanaele had a headache.
But, how did she find her? Sophia felt kind of weird as she noticed Hanaele's presence. They parted ways as soon as they resumed the expedition, and there was no freaking way for the Esperers to locate them without firing the gun powder of color yellow.
Yellow is Agila's identity.
Hanaele held Sophia's back and helped her lean on her arms. "H-how d-did y-you find me?" Sophia asked, even though she was still completely injured. Her eyes were half-opened, at her back felt sore.
Hanaele looked away a few seconds before looking at her back. Hanaele's eyebrows curved, and her eyes shrunk smaller than normal. "Your thoughts kept pondering in my mind." She explained, but this made Sophia more confused. Her eyes widened a bit.
When Hanaele noticed her reaction, she suddenly realized what she said. Oh, crap! She slipped! Maybe because she was trying to control herself from passing out in the middle of having a headache that she forgot to rethink the words that will come out of her mouth.
Sophia waited for Hanaele to clarify what she said, but Hanaele did not mind it anyway. Hanaele closed her eyes deeply, making wrinkles on her forehead, stretching her neck, and spoke. She was trying her best to eradicate this illness.
"Let's wait for Cassius to come. The rest of the Esperers are still fighting together with your squadmates a few meters away from here."
"Y-you guys also knew their lo-location? H-how come?"
"Yes, we are bringing maps with us everywhere we go. Also, we are doing a forecast for the places that every squad might pass by or rest. There is nothing to worry about the reason as to how we knew your spot. Besides, isn't it being mindful with each other is one of the best things that we should acquire as members of the same goal?"
Goal? Sophia could not help but wondered after she heard the last line of Hanaele's question to her. What goal is she talking about? Also, Sophia did not even know the reason why she is joining the squad, and now Hanaele was talking about their goal?
"I have no idea about the primary reason why we need to risk ourselves going to the forest and kill monster trees where it is us who evaded these Anito's property at all," Sophia said. Even though her voice was like a whisper to the wind, Hanaele can still hear it.
Unfortunately, Hanaele did not respond according to what Sophia was expecting.
"You will understand in the long run."
Here we go again.
Sophia did not bother to argue since her body completely gave up right now. But even though she wasn't reacting physically, she still could also not stop overthinking when Hanaele said, 'Your thoughts kept pondering in my mind.' Like, what does it mean? Don't tell me that Hanaele knew what Sophia has been thinking all the time?
This is definitely impossible!