Upon the jet-black earth, a burst of emerald light filled with life suddenly erupted around Gavil, and a woman with long, verdant hair, surrounded by floating tree roots and vines, her features exquisite, even perfect, appeared there, her slender, flawless figure exuding an aura of life, yet her gaze toward the countless monsters before her was filled with a murderous intent that seemed incongruous with her nature.
“Who... Who is it?”
Gavil, who was on the verge of death and had almost lost his will, suddenly felt a trace of strength returning to his body, and he barely managed to turn his head to look at his side, but all he saw were a pair of jade-like feet standing on the grass.
“My name is Toreini, a tree spirit known as the ‘Great Forest Guardian’. Lizardman, thank you for your hard work.”
Toreini lowered her head slightly and glanced at Gavil at her feet. A vine emitting a faint green light wrapped around Gavil, and a visible glow began to flow into Gavil's body, rapidly healing the wounds on his body.
After healing Gavil to a near-perfect state, Toreini finally raised her head and looked at the densely packed, indescribable monsters before her. In fact, as early as a few days ago, when Lolina and the Nest of All Things had just arrived in the Jura Great Forest, it wasn't just Rimuru who sensed its presence; Toreini, as the guardian of the Jura Great Forest, had also sensed it.
Moreover, as a tree spirit, she sensed the terror emanating from the Nest of All Things and Lolina even more clearly than Rimuru, that hunger that seemed to devour everything and the aura that twisted and eroded all existence.
Toreini immediately regarded Lolina and the Nest of All Things as her greatest enemies. Even though, in her perception, the Nest of All Things and Lolina were only Upper-Rank monsters at the time, it didn't diminish Toreini's determination to find them and eliminate them or drive them out of the Jura Great Forest.
However, the aura of the Nest of All Things and Lolina disappeared in just a brief moment, and Toreini could only vaguely confirm the direction in which the Nest of All Things was located, but this was completely useless because the Jura Great Forest was too vast.
If the Nest of All Things and Lolina weren't deliberately emitting their own aura, finding them in this forest would be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
And during these past few days, Toreini had been searching within the Jura Great Forest for the owner of that aura. During this time, Toreini also noticed the sudden appearance of those sub-bodies. The moment she saw them, Toreini was certain that the sub-bodies were related to the owner of that previous aura.
She also tried to use the aura of the sub-bodies to track Lolina and the Nest of All Things, but when she caught one of the sub-bodies and wanted to use its aura to track, she instinctively felt a great fear, as if she was about to peer into a dark, deep, bottomless abyss.
That terrifying, even despairing, feeling made Toreini abandon this method and choose a clumsy one: quietly following those sub-bodies, wanting to find their lair.
However, over the course of several days, Toreini discovered that those sub-bodies had no intention of returning at all, only constantly devouring any monsters they encountered that they could kill and eat, turning them into nourishment for their growth.
Until a few minutes ago, Toreini, who was troubled by how to find the Nest of All Things, suddenly sensed the voices of the three escaped lizardman followers and learned from them what had happened here.
At that time, Toreini understood that the sub-bodies she had encountered were most likely just newly born, and that the monster the three lizardmen were talking about was definitely an adult, even the strongest existence among the sub-bodies.
Therefore, Toreini rushed here as quickly as possible and rescued Gavil as a matter of course.
“Are you the legendary guardian of the forest, the tree spirit Lady Toreini?”
At this time, Gavil, who had fully recovered, climbed up from the ground and asked curiously as he looked at Toreini in front of him. For these monsters living in the Jura Great Forest, they had long heard legends about the forest guardian, and in the legends, Lady Toreini possessed powerful strength no less than that of a Demon Lord. This was Gavil's first time seeing her in person.
“Mm.”
Toreini glanced at Gavil beside her, and with a light tap of her toes, Gavil was directly teleported away from here. Toreini wasn't confident in protecting this little guy beside her in the upcoming battle. After all, he had just been saved; it would be a pity if he was accidentally killed by the aftermath of the battle.
“Lord Gavil!”
On the other side, not far from this forest, by a lakeside, Gavil's three followers were anxiously waiting. Suddenly, they saw Gavil appearing not far away and hurriedly ran up to surround him, their eyes filled with concern as they looked at Gavil.
“Lord Gavil, are you alright?”
One of the followers looked at Gavil's blood-stained clothes and asked with concern.
“Mm, I'm fine now, but what about the other comrades?”
Gavil shook his head to indicate that he was fine, then looked around, but besides the three followers in front of him, there were no other lizardman warriors. Only then did he lower his head and ask one of the lizardmen.
“...Lord Gavil, they are all dead.”
The three followers fell silent upon hearing Gavil's words. After a few seconds, one of the followers finally raised his head and slowly said to Gavil that when they escaped from that forest earlier, all the other lizardman warriors had died there, torn to pieces and devoured by tentacles.
The three of them had only managed to escape thanks to the desperate efforts of those lizardman warriors.
“I understand.”
Gaviru listened to this, remained silent for a few seconds, then nodded, forcefully suppressing the sorrow from showing on his face, because they were all qualified warriors. As warriors, dying in battle was their pride. Gaviru wouldn't allow himself to show sadness, because that would tarnish the last pride of those fallen Lizardman warriors.
“Lord Gaviru, are we going back?”
Another lackey Lizardman looked at Gaviru and asked. Originally, they had come out this time to subdue all the Goblin villages, but now they had suffered heavy losses, with only a few of them left.
“No! Continue. That Goblin village from before must have already been destroyed by those monsters. This time, we'll go to another one. Didn't a Goblin village say before that there was a Goblin village ruled by the Fang Wolf tribe? We'll go there.”
As he spoke, Gaviru turned and headed towards the destination according to the directions on the map. Seeing this, the three lackeys behind him hurriedly followed.
.......
At the same time, in a forest about fifty kilometers away from Gaviru and the others, a giant spider monster, tens of meters tall, was frantically fleeing, occasionally turning its head to look behind it, its eyes full of fear and dread.
“Big spider, why are you running?”
Suddenly, a childlike voice sounded in front of the giant spider monster. A little loli with golden hair, looking no more than ten years old, like a porcelain doll, was tilting her small head and looking at it. Her cute appearance made people unable to resist wanting to hold her in their arms and dote on her.
But it was this cute little loli that made the giant spider monster's huge body begin to tremble, as if it had seen a natural enemy. It directly opened its big mouth, and purplish-black viscous venom shot towards the little loli in front of it like a water gun.
Instantly, a large area of forest was corroded away by the venom. The purplish-black venom on the ground seemed to be boiling, making gurgling sounds. A faint purplish mist permeated the air, filled with a fishy, pungent odor.
“How dangerous! How dangerous! I almost got sprayed.”
Just as the giant spider monster was looking at the forest being corroded in front of it, suddenly Luo Yina's voice sounded from above the giant spider monster's head. Luo Yina was sitting on the giant spider monster's hard shell, her two tender little legs swinging in the air, propping her chin with one hand, looking at the disappearing forest with a scared expression.
“Roar!!”
Looking at the two tender little feet dangling in front of its eyes, the giant spider monster let out a huge roar. A long spider leg directly launched an attack towards Luo Yina, and its huge body also directly rushed into the forest full of venom, constantly struggling, trying to throw off Luo Yina on its body.
Bang!
Suddenly, the giant spider monster, about to rush into the forest full of venom, stopped. The spider leg that had originally attacked Luo Yina weakly slammed onto the ground, and its huge body fell heavily, breaking tree after tree.
And Luo Yina, on top of the giant spider monster's head, slowly raised her tender little fist, her small face showing a hint of grievance as she looked at the monster that had already died. She clearly wanted to play with it a little longer, but she only gently tapped its head.
This giant spider monster died directly. She just tried out her new unique skill, stirring the big spider's brain into a mush the moment she tapped down. Why did it die?
“Luo Yina!”
At this time, the hunting squad riding the Ranga tribe members finally caught up. Gobuta, running in the front, breathed a deep sigh of relief when he saw the dead monster and Luo Yina, who was pouting her little mouth with a grievance.
Gobuta wasn't worried about Luo Yina's safety. After all, regardless of whether Luo Yina and it had similar height, Gobuta had personally witnessed monsters stronger than it being sent away by Luo Yina's tender little fists, one punch at a time.
“Gobuta, did you find any new prey?”
Looking at Gobuta, who was panting for breath, Luo Yina gently exerted force and jumped down from the top of the giant spider monster's head, walking to Gobuta with her short legs and asking.
“Luo Yina, let's stop for now, it's already enough!”
Looking at Luo Yina, who was in high spirits and wanted to continue, Gobuta quickly waved his hand, indicating that today's prey was already enough, even exceeding too much. In the past, when they encountered monsters while hunting, they might need to fight hard to kill the opponent, and even the prey might run away.
But today, with Luo Yina, no monster encountered since leaving the village has been able to survive, all of them being sent away by Luo Yina, punch after punch.
“Oh, I know… Hmm? This is….”
Looking at Gobuta, who indicated that there was enough prey, Luo Yina could only nod her head to show that she knew, but her small face still looked like she hadn't had enough fun. Suddenly, under Gobuta's puzzled gaze, Luo Yina turned her head to look in a certain direction in the forest, muttering words that he couldn't understand.
“What's wrong, Luo Yina?”
“There's an interesting big sister fighting over there. I'm going to take a look. Gobuta, you go back first.”
After saying that, Luo Yina didn't wait for Gobuta to reply. The skin on her back began to squirm continuously, and in the next second, a pair of ferocious and domineering blood-colored dragon wings unfolded, directly flying towards that side, leaving behind Gobuta and the other members of the hunting squad with a bewildered look.
