(MC POV)
Looking at the animals that slowly returned back into the forest, I went to the giant fireball and removed the shield.
"Is master okay?" Chuyan came out holding Linda's and Lynda's hands as they looked at me with worry.
"I'm fine, but it seems things are getting complicated," I answered as I looked at the forest in front of me. "We are dealing with a Leshy."
Seeing their confused looks I decided to explain, so that they could understand the situation we were in.
"Leshy, just like Linda and Lynda, who are dryads, is also a creature that is born by the gathering of a high amount of life and wood elemental energy. But unlike dryads, who can mostly control plant-related powers, a Leshy is more powerful in a way," I said, carrying both Linda and Lynda in my arms as I looked at Chuyan and that disciple. "They love to play tricks, changing road paths inside forests, controlling trees and animals, and the most annoying is them being able to literally rearrange the whole forest they are in. it's like fighting someone who can suddenly decide to change the terrain from a land battle on open ground to a battle inside a volcano."
Chuyan looked at the forest in front of her with fear in her eyes, and so did the disciple.
"So what are you going to do?" She asked.
"The only way to beat a leshy is to bring him out of his forest, but I believe he is not alone, or rather he was also created just like Linda and Lynda." The two girls looked at me with smiles after I called their names.
"So that means the same thing that happened to Guming village also likely happened here too? Those villagers we sent to the sect could have also passed here."
Right, those villagers from Guming village—it has been some days since I sent them, but judging how this leshy was already created, it seems they might not have made it...
Wait, all the villages around Tang city were also facing this situation. if these creatures, like the leshy, are being created by the dark sect, then this is really bad and also infuriating at the same time. Since most of Qidian is full of mountains and forests, if this is also happening not only around the villages of Tang city but every village, then a disaster is bound to happen.
But I can't start panicking now since I don't know how far nor how much of their plans have been achieved.
"We need to capture those people or that leshy in the forest and get some questions answered." I looked at the forest and sighed. "It seems I would have to burn this forest down."
"Burn fowrest down?" Lynda asked after she heard my statement.
"Yes, we might have to burn the forest down to flush those bad men out like the rats they are." I said, hiding the killing intent that threatened to leak out of my body.
"But sister Linda can make the fowrest hers," Lynda said, looking at Linda, who, after hearing her name, stopped focusing on a snake she had gotten from who knows where.
"Eh?" She looked around after she realized that everyone was looking at her. "This is Bai Qi!" She said, raising the snake, thinking everyone was looking at her snake.
I guess she has better naming sense than me.
"Can Linda make the forest hers?" I looked at her.
"Owh, Linda can make fowrests hers, turning fowrests intwo powisownows fowrests!" She said, with exaggerated hand gestures, looking at me with eyes asking to be praised.
That was a lot of 'ows.'
Right, she has the power of poison, and she can, in a sense, poison the forest, making it into a miasmic toxic zone to flush that leshy out, but only in one section of the forest, though, since I don't think she has that much power, and when he comes to check on what is happening, I would then ambush him.
What a great plan.
"Let's do this..."
I laid out my plan for them to hear.
...
(Leshy POV)
That was close; that man was stronger than expected, especially with that ungodly speed.
Not only could he use elemental magic and techniques without chanting, but he could also skillfully manifest his magic and techniques without a cast or any form of action.
That messenger was right; this man is dangerous. I thought that the information he gave me about my sisters falling into his hands was fake since Fiora and Flora have perfect coordination with each other to be taken out that easily, and by a human no less.
He could even control their children.
Looking at the state of my hand after sacrificing it to escape that man, I felt rage well up in me. This was the first time I was this gravely injured to the point of having to sacrifice a body part.
I have to tell mother about this when I head back with those humans. I don't know why mother is even working with them in the first place. They are the reasons we are in this mess in the first place.
I waited for my arm to heal as I spread my senses throughout the forest in hopes of at least catching that man off-guard when he stepped foot inside. Mother said I should use the element of surprise since most humans and even those practitioners don't have any knowledge about us, so he might not know about my ability to control the whole forest.
"Hmmm?" I looked in the direction I had escaped from as I felt that that part of the forest was decaying... No, this is Fiora's poison forest technique!. She is still alive!
It seems she is fighting that man; since she is using this move, it means that Flora might be in trouble.
I quickly headed there, cradling my still-healing stump, hoping to get there before it was too late.
Seeing the forest animals that were running away from that direction and sensing their thoughts, it really seemed that Fiora was really the one behind it.
I got close to the edge of the now toxic forest, and I could not help hesitating since if I entered here, I would lose my connection with the forest and might not escape if everything went wrong, and that man was just too powerful.
But thinking about my little sisters, I steeled my resolve and entered, dashing to where I felt Fiora's presence.
"Welcome," I heard a voice almost as soon as I stepped in, and looking behind me, I saw the man standing there with his hands behind his back as he looked at me with an unsettling smile.
Quickly using my leaves-in-the-wind technique, I quickly headed to the lush and green forest I had just come from.
"I don't like it when guests leave without saying goodbye."
I did not even bother to listen to his voice, as I was just mere inches away from the forest. That was when I realized that the forest looked to be stretching farther away from me; it was like those few inches suddenly became meters and were still increasing.
"I am sorry, but I need to ask you some questions."
That was all I heard before everything went dark