"No," I said.
They turned around, confused. The swords turned to mist, and my hands ignited on their own.
"Is there a problem?"
I tried to remain calm and said, "There is a problem. There's no introductions, I don't know who you three are, what place this is, why you are trying to hurt mom and me - I have so many questions. But here you are, ordering me around as if I'm your underling."
The cat-girl faced me and said, "Why should we tell you? We don't even know you."
Tired by all of this, the flames turned off, all my energy went away, and I dropped to the ground, heaving.
"Oh my, looks like you won't be able to defend yourself, " the guy shrouded in mist says. He was showing some kind of expression.
"What if...I bring you to everyone?"
He grinned.
With that, he double tapped his stick on the ground which on the second tap stuck to the ground, then clapped twice. A barrier surrounded me, separating me from mom and those three. I had no strength left, nor could I for some reason get angry, but felt relieved.
I closed my eyes, giving in to whatever would come.
And a surprise.
"Yellow...snow?" I questioned.
From the top of this enclosed barrier fell yellow dust-like particles. One could call it the icing on as wherever they fell, I was being slowly healed there. They took time to fall, accumulate and entirely cover me. Yet, the effect was absolutely remarkable. All cuts healed, my blood refilled and my mana restored.
*Mana processing - Full restoration*
"I knew it..." I muttered.
Within a few seconds I was ready to rumble. The barrier was removed from over me, and I noticed another one forming over mom.
"Why did you not fight back?" The tall guy raised his eyebrow. "Or rather, why did you stop resisting and give up?"
"Your voice," I answered,"it felt calming instead of the usual normal or hostile ones."
And I dropped, unconscious.
-----------------x-----------------x------------------x-------------------x------------------x---------------
I woke up after what felt like too long and surprisingly didn't have any flashbacks at that time. I looked around and could see some people chatting but they all were shrouded in this damn mist. Mom was next to me, still asleep and safe in that barrier. We both were on some kind of a pedestal or a small stage made out of wood, as if we were supposed to give an announcement.
I could see the overlines of the flora, but not enough to make sense of.
My nerves were tingling a little and I could feel the confusion lingering within everyone regarding (hopefully) this mist and even possibly, me. Additionally, something was off. I couldn't see it but I could feel it. And it was worsening ;slowly but steadily.
After a few seconds, they noticed I was awake and pausing their chattering, walked towards me. I believe this is the place where mom lived till I came to be. Then again, she was the daughter of nature itself.
Not everyone came out of the mist. Some did while some stayed. I thought of this as a safety precaution. But seeing the pattern by which they stood, I was surrounded in a circle.
The first thing I noticed was that out of all of them I could see, not all of them were humans. Some were a mix between humans and a particular animal. It did make a little sense since this was a forest, but what was surprising was how they all lived in harmony. Had this been my previous world, a place like this wouldn't have possibly existed. Yet, it looks like my previous world will be on my mind for a long time.
At least till I find that girl if she reincarnated here as well. Pretty much impossible, but who knows?
Besides, I still had a job to do.
"Now then Osvaldo," someone said from my left. I turned and saw a man taller than me, not a very bulky figure, but one noticeable thing. A stick in his hands.
"Are you-" I began and got interruped.
"The one who met you with those two and healed you? Yes that is me, for my name is 'Ezra' meaning 'help', though that is not the only thing I do. The barrier in which I enclosed you, I can use it for both healing and hurting. Depends on what commands I am given," he smiles.
I asked the question in mind. "So, what is this place?"
This forest was apparently a place that wasn't directly there in real life. In a sense, it doesn't exist anywhere in the real world, so one could say it's a fabricated reality, except this place and the people in it were real, but shielded from the actual world. My mom was the daughter of nature and essentially, this is a sacred place created by her; and as such, the environment here changes based on her emotions. I guessed the fog was because of her uneasiness.
He introduced everyone to me one-by-one, and I was a bit surprised to know that he wasn't the chief of this forest. I asked him about the little half-elf whom I met earlier somewhere and he was surprised that I met him before coming here.
"That is Orson, and well, he is the Chief of this forest. He is our elder and the strategist. He's one of the mysterious ones out of all of us. I dunno how he made contact with you though in the first place," he answered, shuffling from foot to foot.
I didn't feel very energized despite sleeping for a long time, but I got down the pedestal and shook my legs and arms, jumped around a little, and did a little exercise to wake up my body. I opened the screen and went around a little to see if something new had come. There was an exclamation mark over "spell maker" so I thought maybe the label finally was removed. But things never go the intended way and that was again the case, except it was more different than I expected. This power actually updated itself and now there were two divisions in it - the first one I could use to create weapons for a few seconds using whatever raw materials I have and a spell that I need to cast aloud. The second one was the usual one.
The 10th power had not yet come, but well there was no time to wait around.
I walked up to Ezra and asked him, "So, what do we do now?"
-----------------x-----------------x------------------x-------------------x------------------x---------------
A nasty grin.
"The first thing, is to prove yourself."
A barrier over me, but black in colour and a bit cold.
"What is this," I ask sternly.
"You see," he says, "we don't trust you fully. There is something weird about you that makes us want to kill you, even if it means going against one of our vows - never kill someone the Daughter of Nature herself chooses; though this time it's her own son. Despite that one vow, we can't help but feel anxious. Hence what we're gonna do is put a barrier over you. You have to escape this barrier in the next 5 minutes while everyone present here takes 10 seconds each (by turn) to attack this barrier."
His idea seemed fishy. If a barrier is attacked from outside or inside, then with enough force one could destroy it. But if everyone takes turns to attack the barrier, then it should be easier to break the barrier. There had to be a catch.
"Let the show begin!"
Red snowflakes from the ceiling of the barrier. Just like those yellow ones, these red ones fell the same way, but when they touched different parts.....nothing happened.
A finger snap.
For a few seconds, nobody came. Then emerged an accelerated wind blade shaped like an arrow that hit the barrier right where my heart would've been, were the barrier not there. I experienced a slight pain throughout my body. Two seconds passed. A small figure came at a flashy speed with a hammer and jumped with enough force that through the momentum, he landed heavily on the barrier, giving me a slight shudder. It was a humanified snake.
Someone with a damn big hammer emerged from the mist. They weren't visible, but then they came closer and I realized it was an Ogre. Ogres are generally violent and cruel from what I had heard then. But when the mist unfolded, it looked like they were in a trance. Black eyes, spiky hair and a muscular body. He had no armor or even a helmet on him and a light green slime like thing was coiling his entire body. He walked towards me and spoke silently, almost whispering, "I'm sorry, but this is a test even for us."
With the hand holding the hammer, he muttered, "Force, 50%."
The slime turned darker. He struck the shield with force that should've been enough to break it which in fact didn't happen. But what instead happened was immense pain throughout my body, wherever the red snowflakes fell.
"Force, 65%"
Another strike. Even more pain. My shoulders felt it the most, but some part of it acted on my legs too. I could hold myself in but I had to retaliate, even if it meant hurting mom's allies.
For the third strike, the ogre put both his hands on the handle and once again muttered, "Force 80%." The slimed further darkened, and started glowing a little.
The pain wasn't a black-out level high, but I felt that it would be fatal if I didn't act right now. With vicious force, he struck the shield and that's when I acted, not on the space but on the ogre.
*Enhance, 30% - Gravity enhance*
A circle formed around the ogre midair, restricting his hand movement.
A head-on collision. Gravity acted on the ogre at triple the intensity, splitting the earth in chunks and totally stopping his movements. I increased the force by 10%, and the shield started to shake a little. I couldn't see the outside very well, but looks like something was happening.
Yet, it looked like he wasn't gonna give up. Despite the immense force, and the shield blurring my sight every so slightly, I could see a subtle movement in the ogre as he tried to free himself. His eyes became bloodshot, blood streamed from his ears as he tried to escape.
The surprising thing was, the force was just an additional 40% of the current gravity of the planet, yet that was enough to make him bleed. This meant a little more force was required to break him completely.
I thought of another technique so that I could break both the ogre and the shield at once. Even if not together, at least it should not take much time or mana. I decided on the name as "Duet", a part of gravity enhance and pictured it like gravity acted in two opposite directions; inwards and outwards at the same time.
I mouthed - Gravity enhance : DUET
A moment's silence. My power came to a halt and the ogre stood the way he was. The shield stopped shaking as well. Suddenly, his head cracked.
Or rather, the slime at his head cracked and covering his entire body, shattered then disappearing into thin air. The ogre fell on his knees and heaved. It looked like he wouldn't be up in in some time so I decided to use my fist like always.
Since physique enhancer was always activated now, I didn't feel the need to put a limiter on it. Still as a caution measure, I decided to try and coat my body in mana on the outside. The process should be similar to the way I shot out mana that time while trying to defeat that enemy girl (reference to chapter 8). I closed my eyes and imagined mana flowing out of my palms, covering my arms, my neck and chest and stomach, and then slowly my entire body.
I opened my eyes, and saw....the same scene as before. I looked at my arms and legs but they didn't show any change as such. Or at least it wasn't visible.
Nevertheless, I got into my fighting stance, pushed my back (right) foot into the ground. The air vibrated and the shield shook. I passed some of my strength from the left hand into my right and felt it.
"This should be good," I thought.
In one swift move, I punched straight into the shield right in the middle, the side facing the ogre.
And it blew.
I saw exactly what happened, even if it should've been tough. Just before the moment of impact, the compressed air due to the speed of my punch was pushed into the shield's front face at such a violent speed that it the whole thing cracked and became like a crystal, and blew outwards with a violent hot air, blowing into the ogre and throwing him back, such that he landed on his back a few centimeters afar. The rest scattered around at high speed. Some got hit though not with the equivalent force while some dodged. The rest just vanished.
I looked around and found Ezra in a different place than where he was initially. He looked at me, eyes wide and raised his stick. Before his stick could touch the ground, I teleported over to him and stole his stick.
"NO!" he screamed. He held his head in his hands and muttered, "This shouldn't be possible." He looked at me, and tried to grab his stick back.
"HOW! THIS CANNOT BE. WHO ARE YOU. WHAT ARE YOU!?"
"What are you talking about?" I asked him.
A sharp tingle in my head.
I grunted.
"I'll tell you," a voice spoke in my head. But it wasn't just me, because the stick guy also had a horrified look on his face.
A bright light from the stick; so bright I got blinded. The tingle went down and a screeching sound arrived. A heavy presence in my head, causing me and somehow everyone around me to become unstable and they all fell.
"What...*huff-huff*...is..happening?" I try to say,
"You'll see Os, you'll see. Your real purpose and....."
That's where I lost, and fell to the ground, unconscious.