Chương 74: Great Tree

"You are absolutely, one hundred percent correct about that, Aiko-chan," I said, offering her an appreciative nod while staring out at the distant, goo-covered landmark.

"That giant piece of infected broccoli over there must definitely be the magnificent Great Tree we have been looking for. You know, the very place where that terrible monster Killerboo the Soulthorn is currently hanging out and waiting for us." The absolute second that highly creative name left my mouth, June's pristine eyebrows aggressively furrowed into a tight, deeply offended knot of pure aristocratic irritation.

"The actual name of the entity is Kullervo the Thornsoul, you utterly uneducated, hopeless simpleton," June snapped back with an incredibly sharp, highly defensive edge, her thick British accent practically dripping with a massive amount of narcissistic majesty as she looked down her nose at my general existence.

"If you are going to insisted on dragging us into a dangerous confrontation, the absolute least you could do is get your nomenclature correct." I simply shrugged my elegant shoulders and rolled my eyes, letting her know exactly how little I cared about her superior vocabulary lessons.

"Let us waste no more precious time standing around in the ashes, my splendid companions," Dimitri suddenly declared, stepping forward as his thick, booming Russian accent rumbled through the chilly forest air like a tide of pure, unadulterated kindness.

"We must march onward with bold hearts to utterly defeat the final remaining minions of this extraordinarily powerful Nature Spirit, and once that glorious deed is accomplished, we shall finally stand together as one to face Kullervo the Thornsoul in the ultimate test of our warrior souls!" I was just about to lift my boots and take my very first glorious step toward that giant, purple-stained piece of corrupted forestry when I suddenly caught sight of Fiona out of the corner of my eye.

Our resident druid was standing completely still, her delicate nose twitching up and down at an incredibly high frequency as she aggressively sniffed the chilly forest air like a hyper-focused hound tracking an invisible trail through the smoky clearing. She smoothly closed her eyes for a brief second to fully process the complex ambient aroma, but then she abruptly snapped them right back open and locked her gaze directly onto my face.

It was entirely possible she had just noticed that I was standing there staring at her in a slightly intense, borderline unhealthy, and deeply weird manner. Instead of calling me out for being an absolute creep, she simply twisted her features into an incredibly sweet, heartwarming smile that radiated pure, unadulterated kindness right through the hazy forest atmosphere. I mean, can you honestly blame me for gawking?

I was literally looking at a girl who possessed a legitimate, superhuman sense of smell that could probably detect a rogue mushroom from three miles away. Who on earth would not be completely amazed by that kind of spectacular biological superpower?

"Did your incredible nasal radar happen to sniff out something interesting over there, Fiona?" I asked, throwing my hands out in a curious gesture to find out what exactly had caught her attention. Fiona gave an enthusiastic, highly energetic nod of her head to confirm my suspicions.

"Och, aye, ah can smell a hail muckle cluster o' thae glaurie Fungal Shamblers creepin' closer, ye ken, they're straight on their gait headin' richt fur us across the braw woods!" Fiona cheerfully declared, her voice practically dripping with absolute, genuine kindness as she delivered what sounded like a deeply complex, completely baffling linguistic puzzle. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

To be completely honest, I still could not fully comprehend a single actual word escaping her lips because her thick Scottish accent was a literal, impenetrable fortress of syllables, but I somehow managed to decipher the grand hidden meaning by analyzing her massive, incredibly animated body language gestures. She was actively carving out wide shapes and mimicking a lumbering monster walk, which honestly deserved a gold medal for theatrical clarity.

I felt like I should be vigorously congratulating my own superior brain cells for adapting to her unique communicative style at such an incredibly high velocity.

"Alright, team, I am pretty sure Fiona's incredible nasal radar is telling us that a brand-new welcoming committee of Fungal Shamblers is currently on their way to our exact coordinate sector," I announced, turning toward the rest of the group while pointing a thumb over my shoulder toward the deeper brush.

"She did not explicitly state it in standard terms, but knowing those health-bloated wood-beasts, they are probably moving at a pathetic, lumbering crawl, so maybe we should proactively march out and meet them halfway to clear the path." The absolute second those words left my mouth, Fiona began to nod her head up and down at a thoroughly frantic, high-speed velocity while her features erupted into a brilliant, face-stretching smile.

She looked absolutely, profoundly ecstatic that I had successfully managed to translate her complex dialect on the very first try.

"In that case, we must stride forward immediately to greet our challenges face to face, my brave friends!" Dimitri loudly proclaimed, his massive arm sweeping forward as his thick, booming Russian accent injected a ridiculous amount of pure, unfiltered kindness into the situation.

"For a warrior does not wait for the storm to break upon him, he marches directly into the gale with a smile on his face!" Without a single shred of hesitation, our burly vanguard practically glided past the rest of the group, setting a direct, heavy-booted course straight toward the distant silhouette of the Great Tree.

Fiona did not waste a single millisecond, immediately skipping after him with an incredibly cheerful bounce in her step, while June followed a few paces behind, executing a highly dignified, hyper-aristocratic glide that made the muddy ground look like a royal red carpet. Aiko brought up the rear of the main pack, keeping her head ducked low as she cautiously shuffled forward to stay within the protective shadow of the group.

I was just about to fall into line behind them when I stopped, slowly shifting my gaze to scan the dense treeline surrounding our immediate perimeter. Thanks to the decent investment I had dumped into my personal intelligence statistics, a strange, prickling sensation began to tickle the back of my brain, allowing me to faintly register some incredibly blurry movements hiding just beyond the shadows of the bark.

To be completely honest, my sensory perception was not exactly potent enough to give me a crystal-clear radar read on the situation, but I could definitely tell that whatever was shifting out there was remarkably fast, incredibly small, and thoroughly vicious. They were not charging us head-on like the previous lumbering log-beasts.

Instead, these stealthy little menaces were intentionally lurking just out of plain sight, perfectly frozen in the brush and patiently waiting for the absolute perfect microsecond to launch a coordinated ambush on our highly distracted party.

"What on earth are you standing there loitering for, you absolute peasant?" June suddenly chimed in, halting her elegant stride for a brief fraction of a second to cast a thoroughly unimpressed glance back at my stationary torso.

"Do not tell me your remarkably fragile physical constitution is already far too exhausted to continue a basic march?" Her thick, hyper-aristocratic British accent was practically dripping with its usual heavy dose of majestic grandeur and narcissistic vanity, making it sound like my mere existence was a massive inconvenience to her royal schedule. I slowly turned my head, locking my eyes right onto her pristine features while twisting my lips into a highly confident, thoroughly amused smirk.

"You should seriously try speaking for your own slow royal self, princess," I shot right back at her, injecting a healthy amount of casual mockery into my tone to let her know her snobbish feedback was valued at exactly zero credits. She let out a sharp, deeply offended huff, instantly tossing her chin high into the air before turning her back on me to resume her majestic glide after the rest of the vanguard caravan. I did not waste another millisecond standing around the empty clearing.

Shaking out my palm wraps, I quickly fell into a steady jog to catch up, keeping a very close eye on the suspicious shadows while I followed right after them into the thick wilderness.