The splatting sound of woods bumping towards the rocks, trunks, and anywhere it gets hit occupied the whole place. The sudden breaking noise of branches and the sharp clattering of metal swords gave disturbance to Nover's hearing. These phenomena made him a hard time concentrating on fighting against the tree monster alone.
In addition to that, seeing his fellow squad members died in front of him made his desire to fasten up. However, the exhaustion of thinking for revenge caused a decline in his duty to execute the offense well. He constantly covered his ears from time to time while his eyes were wandering around him. He felt uneasy that he failed to fire his launcher on-point. His forehead wrinkled as he closed his eyes in exasperation of absorbing too many events on his brain.
He can't even make a step from the middle of the current occurrence. It seemed that his legs weren't cooperating with his thoughts, the need to escape from this catastrophe. His body froze while trying to get back from himself. The world around him was like shaking. In his perspective, his surrounding appeared to be spinning. His sight slowly got blurry, and his head started to ache. He felt the dizziness he never knew he would.
"Shit!" He cursed. His hands were shivering, which made him miscarried the launcher. His eyes were slowly getting red, and tears were visible as they fell on his cheeks.
"Wh-What is happening to me?" He squeaked as he stared at his hands. When the monster tree in front of him started to roar tiny debris, he managed to move back. There was this strong wind from the trunk that flew towards him. He slowly covered his eyes while converging his body from being out of balance.
Although the remaining squad members ran away from the tree, some of them were getting hit by the monster tree's flying debris. The drifting woods were small, but it made their life come to an end.
Nover was wondering why the monster tree didn't hit him? The distance between him and the monster tree was way smaller than the others. It was a strange thing that almost all of them in the area died except him.
"Bring it on! You monster! Come and wrap me in your trunk!" Nover shouted in exhaustion. His mouth was as wide as his face, and his eyes narrowed. His arms were starting to get bleeding as the debris started hitting. The monster tree even flew sharp leaves towards him.
One leaf even made a scar on his face.
Nover pretended not to get affected by any of these attacks. Even though deep inside he was physically weak, he endured the sharp debris that made a wound on his skin. The wind became fast, and the dull sky slowly covered the delight ray of sunset. It was then he knew it was raining.
The monster tree began to raise its huge branch at a position where it was possible to hit Nover at any time. Nover can feel himself getting intense about the situation. As he looked above, it was not just his hands that were shivering, but also his whole body.
At the same time, a green, tiny stem grew at one of his fingers. This mysterious plant appeared in one of his wounds. When Nover noticed a prick on his pinky finger, he instantly switched his attention to it.
His shoulders shrugged as his eyes widened. He let out a narrow-eyed while twisting his mouth in disbelief! He placed his pinky finger closer to his eyes, and he saw how the plant curved its stem out from the wound! And when he felt his body reacting to it, he felt like he was about to vomit! He bent his knees on the soil, looked down while still seeing the plant on his finger.
Nover can also observe the shadow of this enormous branch that was covering him. For that reason, he speculated that it was going to end his life.
Not too soon, he heard a sound of a familiar neigh from a horse. So, there was someone who was coming to help him? Nover knew who rode that horse, and it was no other than the Esperer Special Force, Cassius Vayu.
As the distance between these two men became lesser, the more noises Nover heard. Oh, it only means one thing. Cassius brought the rest of the Esperers! Damn, Nover did not expect them to find him.
"E-Esperers?" Nover muttered as he saw them dodging the branches and attacked the monster tree using their specialized skills. The sound of the blades creeping with the woods was echoing all over the place. He can't figure out what he should be feeling right now.
Should he allow happiness to enter his consciousness knowing that they came to help him? Or should he not feel too safe right now since they only came to eradicate the monster tree but were not done as a concern of his situation?
No one knows the real intention of Cassius to them, including Hanaele. We never know that these Esperers were just playing tricks with them. Tsk, for sure if he is Sophia, Cassius would initiate to rescue him immediately.
Cassius showed his skill in manifesting excellent ways to operate a horse, most especially when one of his subordinates fell from making an attack. Cassius quickly turned over towards the back area of the tree to make his fellow Esperer sat on the horse he was riding.
Nover decided to turn his back away from them. He had an injury at his one leg, but he slowly made steps while his one hand was holding his finger. He kept looking back at them, and he can't deny admiring the fighting skills they had.
Their reflexes, the timing, the positioning, and how they managed to hold their weapons were all on-point. Well, as expected from the Esperers.
When Nover focused his attention back on his finger, he found out that the stem stopped growing. He felt a sigh of relief. But when his eyes went down his palm towards his elbow, he froze.
His nerves reflected a similar hue of green, connecting to where the plant grew! Oh, shit! What is this?! What does this plant have done to him?!
Nover heard a horse's footsteps coming from behind him. It was Cassius and that Esperer whom he didn't recognize the face. He quickly turned his head at his side as soon as Cassius stopped a few feet away.
Cassius surprisingly lent his hand in front of him. Nover remained stagnant for a second before he could process the moment. Did they leave the scene just for him? Nover blinked his eyes twice. He could not believe what he witnessed right now.
Cassius seemed to notice the strange thing that happened to Nover's hand, but it looked like it wasn't a big deal for him. Cassius just took a look at it for a second with the normal way he looked at things. So there was a great possibility that Cassius knew about this thing already? Hm, this sounds suspicious.
"Come with us."
"I-I can't move my arm... "
"I know. Let the two of us help you then."
Cassius quickly discharged himself from the horse, held Nover's arm, and let his colleague guide Nover to be comfortable sitting at his back. After which, Cassius sat on the front part of the horse seat. Then, they escaped, leaving the rest of the members to stop that monster tree.
As they went further away from the spot, Nover looked back. The monster tree became more active as the speed of its branches went faster, and the Esperers were still fighting against it. They can choose to run away, but they did not. The rain became heavy, and it was hard for everyone to see each other clearly. The ashes faded, and the sun finally has rested.
Nover consulted his self, "Am I making the right choice?"
"The choice of allowing myself to be clouded with wrong thoughts?"
"The choice to let Cassius rescue me instead of helping them?"
"But I need to live too... I don't want to die yet..." Nover whispered while looking back at his finger.