The aerial battle grew increasingly fierce. The man riding the wind, though still swift, was clearly beginning to tire. His clothes, lashed by the whip-like vines, were soon in tatters, and his body was covered in countless new wounds.
Below, a vine as thick as a python was about to coil around his ankle from an extremely tricky angle! Once caught, he would be immediately dragged from the sky and plunged into an endless siege of vines!
At this critical moment, a cold glint of light shot through the air like a meteor!
It was Zephyr!
He had thrown his tactical dagger with all his might! The dagger spun at high speed through the air, carrying a fierce energy that could tear through anything, and precisely struck the vine that was about to succeed, severing it with a clean slice!
Simultaneously, a violent blizzard, mixed with countless ice crystals, erupted from Zephyr as its center! The frigid air currents instantly swept across the entire clearing, forcefully bringing down the originally humid, high temperature of the area!
With the sudden drop in temperature and the condensation of water vapor on the ground, the figure that had been hidden finally revealed itself!
On the ground below the wind-riding man, another similarly small man suddenly popped his head out of the dirt! Seeing his companion in the air was safe, he immediately slammed both hands on the ground!
"Earth Flow Wall!"
With his low shout, a thick earthen wall, as if alive, rapidly rose from the ground, steadily catching the man who was falling from the sky due to exhaustion!
The "mother tree" seemed to be thoroughly enraged by Zephyr's sudden intervention!
The ink-green outer skin of the vines wrapping the golden cocoon began to crack inch by inch! From the cracks, a viscous, magma-like sap, glowing with an ominous red light, seeped out!
The temperature in the center of the forest instantly soared to an unbearable high! The air itself seemed to warp from the terrifying heat!
Zephyr bore the brunt of it. He felt a massive heatwave wash over him, causing the operation of his ice ability to become somewhat sluggish. He let out a low roar, pushing his ability to its limit, his tall body taut like a bow, using the frozen domain he created to stubbornly resist the terrifying heat.
Cassian also attacked at the same time! His water ability was no longer the gentle support from before but had transformed into a raging torrent! A massive flow of water appeared out of thin air, crashing wave after wave against the high-temperature vines!
The clash of water and fire (magma), the confrontation of ice and heat—under the interweaving of these dual forces, a huge, sky-blotting cloud of steam instantly rose in the center of the clearing, obscuring everyone's vision!
And just like that, the two sides were temporarily… locked in a stalemate!
But on this chaotic battlefield, filled with steam and high-temperature vapor, a figure, like the most agile dancer, weaved and leaped at high speed among the frantically dancing vines.
It was Elara!
Her spatial blades, on this chaotic battlefield, displayed a terrifying, ghostly power! Her attacks were no longer limited to her own position but could appear out of thin air wherever there was a spatial fluctuation! Wherever a vine revealed a weakness, a fatal spatial cut would appear!
Visibly, the vines that had been primarily attacking the man in the air, after dozens of them were severed by Elara, seemed to have noticed this new, more threatening target. They began to divert a large portion of their "forces" to madly pursue Elara instead!
Meanwhile, Jorah and Alan had already run to the side of the two just-rescued soldiers and were helping to bandage their wounds. Under Alan's "professional" guidance, Jorah mustered his courage and tentatively channeled his plant ability, producing a gentle, life-filled green wave of energy, which he slowly infused into the wind-riding man's wounds.
A miracle happened! Nourished by the green wave, the man's bleeding wounds began to slowly heal at a visible rate!
In a lull in the fighting, Elara caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of her eye, and her gaze sharpened.
Just as I thought! Jorah's ability really can heal! Before, she had only suspected it, but now… she could be completely certain! This seemingly most useless "dead weight" could, at a critical moment, become the most important "healer" of their team!
In that moment of distraction, another vine, glowing with molten magma, shot up from the ground like a venomous snake, aiming straight for her back!
Elara snapped her gaze back, and her honey-colored eyes instantly filled with cold killing intent! She didn't dodge. Instead, she backhanded her dagger, which was enveloped in fierce spatial energy, and plunged it viciously and directly into the root of the vine, pinning it dead to the ground!
After dealing with the sneak attack, she looked up at Cassian, who was still contending with the "mother tree.
Stung by Elara's glare, which was half-reproachful and half-urging, Cassian finally stopped "slacking." He let out a long, seemingly helpless sigh. The churning waves in his deep blue eyes slowly calmed, replaced by a darker, more dangerous atmosphere, like thunderclouds gathering.
Within the dense water vapor created by the collision of water and high heat, dangerous sparks of silvery-blue electric light began to flicker and dance!
The electrostatic field in the air instantly became abnormally active! Seraph's brilliant red hair stood on end without a breeze; even Elara's neat short hair flew upwards as if drawn by a powerful static charge!
"Get down!"
The moment she felt the terrifying electrical energy building, Elara reacted instantly! She yelled at Jorah and Alan, who were bandaging the wounded at the rear!
At the same time, the tactical dagger in her hand flew from her grasp without hesitation, thrown like a javelin, accurately and deeply into the frantically dancing thicket of vines ahead!
Almost at the exact moment her dagger landed, Cassian's attack arrived!
A bolt of powerful, silvery-blue lightning, as thick as a dragon, tore through the dense water vapor, descending from the sky with world-destroying power!
The lightning's target was not the vines themselves, but precisely and simultaneously, the two metal daggers that Elara and Zephyr had thrown and which were now deeply embedded in the ground!
In an instant, the two daggers became perfect lightning rods!
Silvery arcs of electricity, like writhing giant pythons, surged down the metal blades of the daggers and crazily, unreservedly, into the earth!
"ZRRRAAAAACK—!!!"
The blinding electric light made everyone instinctively shut their eyes! The terrifying current ravaged the ground beneath, and the entire core area of the forest seemed to tremble violently!
The vines, which had been so arrogant and full of fiery energy just moments before, were instantly sapped of all their strength after this "electrotherapy" from their roots. They immediately became limp and weak, even beginning to show signs of charring and withering!
And the huge, ink-green cocoon, which had been held fast by the vines, disintegrated with a roar, having lost its energy support!
A slender female figure, glowing with a soft golden light, tumbled out from the disintegrating cocoon and fell heavily to the ground!
She seemed to be in a deep coma, but the soft golden light from her body still shone stubbornly, like a natural protective shield filled with the essence of life.
One of the golden rays happened to fall on Alan, who was standing nearby in a daze. Just that faint touch sent an unprecedentedly warm and comfortable energy surging into his body. The fatigue from the running and tension was instantly swept away!
This is… a healing ability! And a very high-level one at that!
Alan's pupils contracted sharply! He immediately realized that this woman was an absolute "living treasure," more precious than any research sample! Without a second thought, he rushed forward and, together with the earth-ability soldier, scrambled to pull the unconscious woman back behind the protection of their temporary earthen wall.
Under the double blow of having its prey snatched away and being severely wounded by lightning, the "mother tree" went completely berserk!
Just as Elara thought the crisis was temporarily averted and she could breathe a sigh of relief, she was horrified to discover that the ground beneath her feet began to writhe and churn in an even more violent, more frantic manner!
And the vines that had become limp, their ink-green, bark-like outer shells began to peel off in large flakes!
Beneath the shedding husks, what was revealed were brand new vines, glowing a strange, golden-red, like red-hot branding irons!
It seemed they were about to… enter their second form!