"Christa, what are you doing here? ...Are you the one that stopped whatever is happening in that direction?"
"Yes. I've taken good care of them. Though I was too late to save the trees that were burned."
While Titania and Christa continues to talk with one another, the people being surrounded by Titania's body gaze upon the girl with red clothes, standing above a huge branch of one of the giant trees as she face the giant snake.
"Who's that person?"
"She is talking to the giant snake as if they know each other really well."
One of the man began thinking, if the girl standing above the tree is somehow related to the giant snake, if they can talk to her to make the monster go away, they'll be able to go back to whatever they were doing. Thinking it was a good idea, the man who seemed to be in charge of this group shouted at the girl in red tunic.
"Hey, you up there!" The two stop conversing with each other as the man got their attention. "Are you affiliated with this giant snake?"
Christa did not speak to give a reply to the man, although he could see that the girl and the snake are somewhat close to each other, and so he continues. "I'm going to ask you for a favor nicely, would you make your friend go and let us meet with the others? If you do, I'll give you a reward handsomely."
Christa and the man began staring at each other for a few seconds. While the two gaze upon each other, Christa noticed that the man and the rest of the group were wearing the same black plated armor unlike the wood cutters she encountered earlier. They wear an armor of a soldier of a kingdom, yet the kind of armor they are wearing aren't the same as from the soldiers of Reilaea Kingdom. And thus, it makes Christa wonder.
"Black armor... Are they soldiers? But some soldiers from the Reilaea kingdom have a touch of pure white and red in their armors. Could they be...?"
"Christa..."
Just then, Titania calls the name of the girl in the red clothes. she looks at the giant snake and talks at one another once again, but the conversation was not audible enough for the man and the people to hear. As they gaze on them with a puzzled look, thinking what they were talking about, they saw Christa showing an expression that seemed like she was in an argument with the giant snake, until the two slightly moves away from each other, flames began forming in the middle between them, two forms of flames, began taking the shape of scissor-like hand, a fist and an open palm.
It was then they realized, the two were playing rock-paper-scissors using their magic.
"They're playing that rock, paper and scissors..."
"...With their magic."
"Seriously...?"
The game between the two continues, the flames continues to take shape. A scissor and another, a rock and another rock, and paper and another paper. The flames continues to share forms with each other, until they change form once again, taking the shape of a scissor and a rock. A rock that beats the scissor, in favor on Titania's side.
"Dammit!" Christa screamed at the top of her lungs, with defeat on her side. "I get it, do your thing, just don't kill them. And leave one of them here. I want to ask them some questions."
Titania wiggled her gigantic tail in reply that spooked everyone from behind. "Okay, I'll just make sure they'll never be able to return here."
So as Titania said, the feeling of uneasiness began running through everyone's veins as the giant snake stares at them with an ill look on her yellowish-colored eyes.
A horrific view of a giant snake's head approaching them sends chills down his spine, he could not help but tremble in fear as his feet froze on the ground and renders him from moving any step backwards.
Everyone's eyes meets the giant snake's, and in that moment... "Predator Instinct." Titania uses her ability that terrifies and fears the people out of their minds.
Everyone in her vicinity has lost themselves as they started running away aimlessly for their lives. Others could not help but pass out, seemingly telling that the ability is more effective to the people who are easily getting afraid of.
But while those type of people who tend to pass out of terror by someone or something that fears them, that which makes them an easy target, among the people who were left lying on the ground.
There was one man who stood up, seemingly keeping himself together to stand up against the overwhelming fear the snake instills onto his mind and the others.
Titania was dumbfounded, seeing a single black armored knight, among all the other black armored knights, he kept his feet on the ground, as if he doesn't fear anything, or even Titania herself.
"What's going on?"
"Oh?" Christa tilted her head in surprise.
"This is nothing!" The man spoke in a raging tone, as if he was shouting his war cry on to the giant snake. "This is nothing! Compare to that evil king and her evil daughter, this is nothing!"
"Evil king? Evil daughter?" Watching the man posturing on using his magic with his blade, Christa thought there was something strange about the man being able to move, but with him pointing out that Titania's "Predator Instinct," an ability than instills fear to anyone or anything she glares at, was nothing compared to this evil king and daughter.
Aside from having a strong will or mentality, something more terrifying than a Predator Instinct ability is most likely the answer, and that answer are these two mysterious evil king and evil daughter. But that's not all. Whoever that king and his daughter is, Christa suspects that those two are probably the ones who gave orders to the guy and his men to cut down the trees, that which they failed after making a mistake and accidentally burning a few in the forest.
"Ha!!" Without thinking about the difference in size or in strength, the lone man valiantly charges forward with her sword flowing with his magic.
It all seemed like that the man was about to fight an unwinnable battle, facing a monstrous enemy knowing that he and his group could not do a thing against its shielding ability. But when Titania was about to attack, as if she was about to feast on her meal with her mouth wide open, Christa steps in the middle and grabs the sword with her hand.
"What?"
"Christa?!"
Both the man in his black armor and the giant snake was shocked after stopping the man from delivering himself to danger, or perhaps death. Christa then turns around to Titania and says:
"You've done your part, now leave this to me, Titania."
"Ah, right. You have something to ask them, my bad."
"Don't worry, you've done good." Christa gave Titania a sweet smile before turning back towards the black armored person.
But in that short moment, the black armored soldier finds an opening and takes the sword out of Christa's grip.
"Ah..."
He then proceeds to storm Christa with sword attacks. He hacks and slash with his blade, not giving himself a single second to stop. But Christa unbelievably dodges his attacks rather easily, not taking a step back from where she stands.
The man noticed it too, but his flurry of attacks doesn't seem to stop despite watching the girl effortlessly avoiding his every swing. After a storm of attacks that did not land a single hit.
"Damn it!"
He jumps back to give him and the girl a distance. There, magic or mana started channeling onto his sword even more as he prepares to fire his magic. But before he could even swing his blade to blast a wave of his magic, Christa teleported onto him in a blink of an eye, pulling the sword from his grip and throwing it away.
"My sword...!"
The black armored soldier tries to get and reach the sword with his gauntlet, but Christa simply stops him from doing so by kicking his stomach through his armor with her left leg.
"Kah...!"
The man sure has without a doubt felt the pain as the armor that is supposed to protect him from the same kind of attacks was easily broken like a glass.
"That's enough." Just when Christa thought it was over...
"Haa!" The man with the broken black armor stands up once again and goes in with his fist clad in magic. But seeing it coming straightforward, an attack just like what he does with his blade, Christa stops his fist with a simple tap on his hand. It was then the man accepted the inevitable, and gives up on attacking the girl.
He fell with his butt sitting on the ground from exhaustion. "I don't care anymore. I'm sure the wood cutters have gathered enough wood... and me dying to protect them should at least keep the safety of my family for a long while. Now, do it."
Without anyway of fighting back, the man closes his eyes and waits for his death while thinking that the wood cutters did their job and that his family's safety will increase considerably. However, as she was the one who stopped the fire that was caused by the wood cutters, and is also the one who drove them away, Christa tells the black armored soldier what happened on the other side of the forest.
"I hate to break it to you, but the wood cutters did not get any. In fact it was their own fault that the forest was in fire, and because of that they weren't able to get any."
"Now tell me..." Christa approaches and stands right in front of him, asking: "Who is that evil king and his daughter you were talking about a while ago?"