"This is the worst shortcut I have ever seen" complained a woman in a low tone as she picked leaves that had gotten stuck in her hair.
"Listen, we always took this one before, I have no clue why the forest is so much denser than before, it looks like we are in a jungle for some reason" responded a man that was walking in front of her.
"Perhaps it is a sign that we should turn back instead of stubbornly going this way?" she said back.
"Stay quiet you two, it's not like backtracking is an option at this point, we can just push on, we are less than five kilometers away from a road" as a second man, who was at the very front of the line finished his words, he turned around and suddenly stopped.
"We're missing someone" he declared as he raised a brow, he wasn't very worried since this place wasn't dangerous, there weren't any sharp drops or anything of the sort around.
"Damn, when did she break off? I saw her a few minutes ago!" remarked the woman as she stood on the tip of hers toes, trying to look further into the distance to no avail, the foliage was too overbearing.
They were about to start shouting her name when the fourth member of the group suddenly showed up, emerging from a curtain of vines.
"Where were you?" asked one of them to her as she was busy trying to remove some spiderweb that had been caught on her face.
She didn't seem particularly well.
"Did you see a ghost or something? You're beyond pale" noticed the man at the front.
"I don't know, I just know we need to get out of here quickly, I just stopped for second because my feet caught onto some plants and when I raised my head, I couldn't see you guys at all, so I just walked forward and went to the direction I was hearing your voices..." she started explaining as he pushed them to keep on walking.
The forest turned jungle had suddenly become incredibly silent, as if listening to her words as well.
The common sound of leaves and plants being brushed by insects and animals in the distance died down instantly, the singing and flapping of birds came to a sudden halt.
"...But right before I got to you guys, I ran into someone else, I walked up to them, thinking that it was one of you, since the guy was dressed just like you" she said as she pointed at the man second in line, she looked around nervously.
"He had the same face as you too! But when he spoke to me, he only said nonsense, it was like he was speaking in tongues and without any warning, he then ran off and disappeared from view in seconds!" she revealed, everyone felt like eyes were digging into their napes now and it wasn't simply that, it truly felt like someone was right up against their backs.
"There is or are some things in here that can mimic appearances, I am certain of it, we better get the hell out before it shows up again.
"Surely, we can just kill it if it shows up again, until then, everyone will be holding onto one another and we'll move next to another person, we are going to form a cube, like this" demonstrated the man at the front and they quickly began moving forward in this arrangement.
Each of them felt much tenser than before as the silent of the forest wasn't broken by anything but them.
"Something is not right" muttered one of the men.
"Yeah, we should have reached a road a while ago, right?" said the woman that had met with the copycat.
"Are we lost?"
"No way, we've been forcing in a straight line even when there were some obstacles, obstacles I recognised for some, there is no logical explanation to this" spoke the man in response, unless they were stuck in some sort of space loop, there was no reason he could find for this, there wasn't any trace of a spell or anything.
And furthermore, there were foor of them here, affecting four people in the same way at once wasn't exactly simple and to what end? That just seemed unnecessary, the most logical option was that they were actually lost but none of them believed this could be the case.
Just as they wondered what could be the cause of all of this, the group came upon another obstacles, not one they recognised, one due to the jungle-ification of the surroundings.
One of the men tried to push what appeared to be a bundle of thick vines away alongside everything else present.
However, the moment the back of his hand tried to push the bundle, it revealed itself as not being made of vines but thorns, the prickles dung into his skin, their slightly curved shape allowed one of them to get right underneath one of his veins, resulting in a ghastly sight as he suddenly tried to jerk his hand away from it.
A hand came from behind the wall of greenery, grabbing his wrist and pulling the man into the foliage swiftly.
The scenery aroud the shocked survivors suddenly changed as the trees and plants started chaging and shifting, preventing them from chasing after their friend.
From behind them, the being whose whole head was entangled in thorns walked out, the entirety of its form was covered in the same thorns.
It strongly waved its arms forward, wrapping thorns around two necks, raising the two people in the air before throwing them away after the sharp sound of bones breaking came from each of them.
The creature of thorns prepared to attack the last remaining survivor, the woman that had had an encounter with the so-called copycat.
This had only been something of the work of the monster in front of her, using its control over nature to intoxicate the group, causing hallucinations and making them walk in a circle without them suspecting a thing.
Now, it was here to prove its combat capabilities.
However, before it could deal the finishing blow, she pulled a scroll out and opened it, displaying its content to the creature.
Then, a torrent of flames washed over it, setting it alight as it flailed around.
Not having complete defeat on its mind, it ran over to the still stunned over and just tackled her to the ground, burning to death with her.
The flames consuming the jungle died out at the same time as the unnatural plants slowly died out.
"I guess it is time for PH-2 then" remarked Theli as he stepped out from nowhere, scratching his chin at the fact that another PH had died by flames, although it was to be expected, their weakness to it was too much for any PH to be given a mind.