All of the knights without question followed their captain, they had to pick themselves up and got ready to take another step into the Dark Magenta Forest.

They started to take a step nervously…

Captain: “Wait…”

The captain rose one hand up as the sign to stop them, all of the knights immediately held their breath, no one dared to move. They flexibly pricked up their ears and pulled out their swords.

However, something beyond their expectation occurred, all of a sudden, the dark purple smoke spread out of nowhere, just a few seconds, they were surrounded by it. Everyone instinctively gripped their sword firmly until their hand turned white and all the blood vessels on their hand popped up.

The young knight with ginger hair and light brown eyes shouted to their captain:

Gray: “What should we do, captain?”

The captain looked around, tried to make out each members position as well as the surrounding state, his voice was unshakable, he said composedly:

“Fight or Death”

After heard from their captain, everyone clenched their teeth, their eyes were shaking, Fuck it!

As if they chose to die, rather than die without doing anything, it would be better to fight to the death. They weren’t just nobody, they were a part of ‘Novaculata’. Struggling until the last breath was their pride.

AHHHHHHH!!!

All the knights steeled themselves then pushed their way all out into the Dark Magenta Forest.

Everyone moved their sword skillfully, they were cutting down the clingy purple giant vines which were persistently attacking them from all directions.

 

A while later, the knight’s hands and feet were started to trembling, they didn’t know how much longer they would last, their physical body was reaching its limit. Frankly, they were able to continue fighting by purely relying on the help of their willpower.

Their view slowly became a blur, they felt dizzy in the head even their inside was abnormally uncomfortable like someone was messing with it. If they didn’t guess wrong, it might cause by the poison of those violent vines. It must have been got into their body through their injured which was the result of their current condition. The poison might be even dehydrated their strength then made them exhausted much faster than usual.

It was truly a distressing situation that they couldn’t do anything about it.

They could see with their own eyes that the cut on their skin was loaded with poison because the surface of the wound was green, 100%, it must be toxic.

The vice-captain had a hard time using her sword due to the injured on her left shoulder, she was forced to shrink away by the vines until she dropped on her knee, she debilitating depended on her sword to keep herself half-standing.

She knitted her brow, she sensed that her feet would lose their strength sooner or later therefore she had to hold on as much as she can. If faced with the vines alone, she would be able to manage somehow, however, there was a strange smoke encircling them, it was unnecessarily helping to raise another level of difficulty for them to fight with the bloodthirsty vines.

The vice-captain squirted her eyes to scan her subordinates’ condition, no one was better than others. Each of them carried at least one injured on their body, it couldn’t continue like this though she said:

“Captain, shall we retreat?”

Compared with everyone else’s condition, the captain's state was much better off, he was still able to swing his sword effortlessly yet powerful, and when he heard his vice-captain’s words, the corner of his mouth hooked up, he leisurely replied:

“Do you think we can?”

His word caught everyone’s attention, while dealing with the vines they were also pricked their ears, ready to listen to their captain, the captain continued, “Don’t you think the rumor turn out to be the truth? After taking three steps into the Dark Magenta Forest, there was no way to retreat unless you have a lucky strike to help yourself away from here”

The knights: “…”

Deja vu, his reality talks was destroyed their fighting spirit and cut down their rope of hope into minuscule pieces again. They started to doubt, did the captain do it on purpose?

Vice-captain swiftly stood up expressionlessly, she dashed to go all out with the vines like a mad dog, she vented her irritability of her reliable captain on the bloodthirsty vines.

The knight continued to fight with vines nonchalantly (=_=), at this moment, they shared one brain cell that was ignored the existent of their captain. They felt fed up with his reality talk shit.

“Holy fuck, it keeps on coming, goddamn it”

The boy with the scar on his left eyebrow had just add a cut on his ankle which pressed him to lose his speed, he cursed out loud tearfully. Shit, he would die soon if the situation didn’t improve.

In fact, Ban’s body was peculiarly shivering, his head was hurt and dizzy, furthermore, he tried his best to suppress the urge to cough out a mouthful of blood, and yet still some were leaking out of the corner of his mouth. His body was reaching its limit.

Soya: “Try your best to hold on, Ban…Yahhhhhh!!!”

The carmine hair girl shrilling screamed, awaked the knights from dizziness. Vice-captain’s face filled with tension and concern so she quickly asked the girl:

“What? What? Soya, what happen to you?”

Soya: “I-I-I s-s-saw a big spider, it ju-jus-just crawl acro-cross me just now”

Vice-captain: “Spider? Are you sure?”

If there was really a spider appear, undoubtedly, they would certainly die in the next few minutes, how could they handle the vine and spider at the same time? It was unimaginable.

Soya: “Yes, I’m sure it’s a spi…”

“Hey you, sister, who’s a spider? How rude! I may be small, but don't dare to confuse me like a spider, what’s wrong with your eyes, girl?”

The melodic voice rang out from a hidden smoke, everyone was surprised by the beautiful voice but quite annoyed and arrogant tone, and then they automatically cased their attention to the direction of the voice.

Guess what they saw?

There was a creature that was recognized for its certain ability <<Fly>>. Yep, it was a bird…yeah, it was absolutely a bird…but somehow it…it seemed to be crawling???

Everyone: “???”

A certain bird: “What are you looking at? Never see a bird in your life?”

In everyone’s mind: ‘Of course, they used to see a bird, but, not the one that was crawling on the ground so confidently’

The bird observed everyone’s ‘what the fuck’ expression indifferently, then moved to their uniform, he was shocked. He didn’t expect to meet with the Novaculata Knight Team this fast. It was a golden opportunity. Was finally luck decide to look at his way (･ε <)☆?

The bird: “If you want to make your way out of here, I can be your guiding angel ଘ(˵ᅌᴗᅌ)*ﾟ¨ﾟﾟ”

Everyone: “???”

Huh? Why did suddenly the conversation change to their survival?

But wait…!!!

The knights: “Ahhh!!! The bird talks!!!??? Σ( ° △ °|||)?”

The vine was still attacking them aggressively, yet, their physical and mental were almost breakdown because of a tiny bird.

The most cold-head person in the team, the captain was also taken back slightly in his mind however he didn’t express it openly like his subordinates. Anyways, if he didn’t hear wrong, the bird clearly said it has the way to leave this forest?

Captain: “…”

Wait a minute, the captain’s brain started working, as he recollected the direction that the bird came out. It was from the inner part of the forest.

This goddamn forest was a well-known silent eternity graveyard, how it was a piece of cake for a mere bird to come out from the inner part of it except for the bird had its trick.

The captain was at least 60% convinced that the bird would know the way out of this damn forest. In addition, the bird's appearance was too clean, there was none of the injured or dirt on its whole body, and yet, it came out from the inner part. Actually, it was unbelievable nevertheless he witnessed it thus he had to believe it.

The captain cut off the vine that was in of his way, in the blink of eyes, he arrived at Soya’s side, he looked down at the strange bird sharply, his eyes held no any emotion, he said:

“Why do you help us?”

All of the knights were tactically understanding, everyone nodded their head at each other then got into their positions to circle their captain and the strange bird in order to left them a space for negotiating.

The bird ignored the icy gaze, it answered unhurriedly:

“I need you that’s why I help you, it’s so simple-But well if you aren’t from Novaculata, die, just die, I don't care”

Captain was a bit caught off guard, “You know us from Novaculata?” Captain impulsively put more strength into grabbing his sword which showed the sign, he was ready to attack at any moment.

The bird: “Huh? Do you think I’m blind? There’s a logo on your uniform like it’s telling me word by word, you’re from Novaculata, isn’t it?” The bird paused then it looked around, it said motionlessly, “Sir, your guys are dying, if you delay more than this, it will soon become your burial ground …oh!...and no need to worry about you fail your mission, with me here, your mission is already completed anyways, let’s go?”

The bird patted its chest conceitedly, acted like it’s on top of the world.

Captain’s face sank when he heard the bird talks about the mission, he frowned until his eyebrows almost connected.

Captain: “You even know about the mission!?” he couldn’t help but rose his voice slightly.

The bird rolled its eyes at the captain, “You’re wasting your precious time if you keep on question me, why don’t you just stay and die, I leave first, don’t waste my energy”

The bird did as it’s said, it turned its back and prepared to leave them behind.

“Captain…”

All of the knights were a bit panic when they saw that the bird was truly leaving as it’s said. Were they going to die here?

Captain took in a deep breath, solved the current situation first before found out about the strange bird’s objection, it wasn’t too late.

Captain: “How to get out of here?”

The bird answered without looking back, “Crawling”

Everyone: “…” For real!!??

The bird: “Believe me…so I lead, you follow”

In three seconds, the strange bird already crawled at least 5meters away from them, so damn fast, hastily they were also laid their body on the ground then started to (army) crawl following the strange bird. Had the bird nowadays become an expert at crawling instead of flying???

 

Unexpectedly the strange bird’s method worked, the vines didn’t attack them aggressively anymore, it seemed like they step into its weak spot where its attack lost power, how could it be possible?

A melodic voice yet arrogant tone pierced through the silence:

“When I say ‘Fly’, everyone tries to jump as high as you can, the higher the better chance to be alive, get it?

The knights: “Huh?”

While the knights were confusing, suddenly the bird yelled:

The bird: “Now, Fly”

The body worked faster than the brain, they didn’t take a second to jump with all of their strength to reach the highest peak. They kept on jumping from one giant vine to another one without taking any break.

To their surprise, the vines were still attacking them, however, it wasn’t so fierce, it was bearable for them to handle it, and even the weakest member of the team could still push through. They slowly had hope, they might be able to survive if there was nothing goes wrong.

The bird was flying at the highest point compare to the knights, it observed everyone below while casually avoiding the attack from the vines. It didn’t dare to take its eyes away from the knights. Based on what it saw during the time it talked with the captain, the other members, some had quite seriously injured, it guessed those guys wouldn’t last long, most likely, they would accidentally miss a step then dropped dead on the spot. Thus, how could it dare to take its eyes away? Moreover, saving those guys wasn’t useless, at least it could gain some good favors from other members or maybe…maybe also from Novaculata? ...It wasn’t bad to have hope, ok…

Panna: “Vice-captain!!! Ban!!!”

As the bird predicted, two members missed stepping at the same time. First, the vice-captain, and then second, Ban. They didn’t exactly suffer much from the injured but the affection of the poison was great, it was spreading all over their body which gave them a difficult time in breathing, each step was a tormenting, painful, and suffocation, as a result, it led them to miss stepping.

Both of them didn’t cry out, they had been prepare for this moment since before they met the bird, they did their best to go on.

What else they could do? Even they wanted to survive but they couldn’t become their member’s burden, it was a shame. Nobody’s fault that they died, it was their fault that they were weak.

Both of them shook their head toward their members as they (vice-captain and Ban) were falling down into a bunch of bloodthirsty vines, it was a sign for their members to continue, no need to waste time on them.

As vice-captain and Ban were falling, the vines didn’t miss this glorious chance, it went straight to devour the both of them, in that spilt second, the other members witnessed vice-captain and Ban's disappearance.

The knights: “Nooo!!!”

They screamed sorrowfully, they lost two members so easily, they couldn’t do anything about it.

They would remember this scene for the rest of their life and they swore to become stronger, this scene would never repeat. Especially Panna, she couldn’t stop her flowing tears, she thought she was the one who died first. But it was the vice-captain who received many strong attacks in her place so she could survive until now, she felt guilty and sorry! However, she couldn’t bear to throw away her life that vice-captain gave it to her. It was her treasure, she had to take care of it. She definitely would become a protector instead of being protected.

Captain: “Don’t stop, go!”

The knights didn’t show any dissatisfaction with the order, they picked themselves up then moved on without outer any words.

 

It didn’t take them long, finally, they reached the entrance.

Not a person said anything, they gazed at the sun that shine brightly in the sky, they blinked their eyes several times to get used to it.

Their expression clearly showed that they were glad that they survived but it also showed resentment.

It wasn’t a day have passed yet even so it felt like a hundred years in there. The knights remembered very well how everything began, the damn fake hero, and the bastard Solum Knight, if they (Aurora Knight) died, they would refuse to leave those wicked sides, cursed them, bought them suffering till the end of those jerk life.

The captain watched all the knights silently, he could read everything in their minds through their facial expressions. However, the captain still remained unbothered, he had another graver thing to deal with first.

Captain turned his head to face with the bird, he smiled yet not a smile at the bird then he said calmly:

“Now…it should be the right time to talk, right? Mr. Bird”

 

Author's Noted:

1. The dizziness, shortness of breath, and painful sensation are caused by poison but dehydrated strength is caused by smoke.
2. Venta doesn't expect to see the Novaculata Knight so soon thus when he meets them in a savable situation, it's in his favor that's why he acts superior.
3. This chapter is indeed adorable for me（・―・）.

 

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