Gard, seeing Claudia being pierced in front of him, rushed madly toward Aurora with a menacing look, as if he would hack her into a million pieces.
Just as he was about to approach the other party, a sentence suddenly flashed in his mind: "Don't believe what you see and hear easily!"
Gard abruptly halted his steps.
That's right; Aurora had no grievances with them. It absolutely made no sense that she try to kill Claudia, right? If she wanted to do so, she would've already done it when they were ambushed by rat plague. There was no need to wait until now and did it so blatantly like this.
'There's something wrong going on here!'
He quickly took out the glass in his arms, plucked it open, and gulped down the flower juice inside. A sense of coolness rose from his stomach and went straight to his mind. His mind gradually became clearer.
Gard took a look once again, and the figures of Aurora and Claudia gradually dissipated. In front of him, two twilight poisonous spiders were spreading their claws menacingly. As long as he took a few steps forward, they would shred him apart with their sharp forelimbs.
The old warrior gulped hard and broke into a cold sweat. He nearly died in vain!
"Go to hell, you disgusting thing!"
Gard swung his sword around furiously, splitting the sharp claws in front of him. The two twilight poisonous spiders found that their prey seemed to have escaped the illusion and rushed up to fight him with a roar.
These two poisonous spiders actually knew how to divide and cooperate during the battle. One confronted Gard head-on, and the other withdrew from the battlefield, focusing on the situation in the field. Once it found an empty place, it immediately sprayed a poison web and tried to block his movements.
"Haah…"
Gard, who was at a loss for time to dodge the spider web, was a little slow and was hit by the poisonous spider, which caught the opportunity to hit his left arm. The left arm was pulled apart from the shoulder, revealing the white bone inside. A large amount of blood gushed out of the wound.
Not only that, but the skin around the wound also quickly turned black, exuding a fishy-sweet stench.
"Not good! its poisonous!"
Gard's pupils shrank, and he decisively cut off his left arm by the roots. It took only one or two breaths for the left arm to fall to the ground, and then the entire arm turned black, and even the grass next to it withered, which shows that it was extremely toxic.
The twilight sun poisonous spider screamed excitedly and threw itself on the left arm, gnawed away at it whole in front of Gard, and smacked its mouth when it was done, looking like it had an endless aftertaste.
Gard stared closely at the two monsters, bit the sword's grip with his mouth, and reached into his arms with his right hand to take out a pack of medicine powder, open it, and sprinkle it on the wound.
The severe pain at the moment of contact with the powder almost made him faint. He clenched his teeth, and beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. He knew that if he passed out at this time, he would definitely be swallowed by these two poisonous spiders.
"Must think of a way..."
When Gard was fighting with the two twilight poisonous spiders, Claudia had already led the merchant far away.
"Slowly...slowly...let me rest for a while...I can't walk anymore..." The merchant staggered and his fat body slumped on the ground with a bum.
The initial fear did make him unleash a lot of potential, but no matter what, it was absolutely impossible for a person who lacks exercise to have so much physical strength, let alone a fatso merchant who was pampered and spoiled like him.
"Lord Rodrigo! It's too dangerous here! We can't rest here yet!"
Claudia anxiously helped Rodrigo up, but no matter how hard she tried to sit on the ground, the man didn't move at all.
"I can't... I'll be exhausted if I go any further." The merchant shook his head like a rattle. "And isn't it very safe now! Look, it's quiet, and there are no people or monsters around. We can take a rest for a while, right?"
"We can't…"
Before Claudia finished speaking, Rodrigo waved his hand and lay down on the ground, spreading his body carelessly, as if saying "I just want to rest now, what can you do with me?"
"Oh, it's not okay to go on like this..." She sighed, looking around, although there was no movement, she always felt uneasy in her heart.
Now that she calmed down a little bit and thought about it, Claudia feels a little weird.
Even if Aurora and the others move faster, it was impossible to leave her far behind, and the mercenary members who are with her will definitely not ignore her and the captain to flee for their own safety.
"Lady Aurora! Everyone! Where are you?!"
Claudia called out to her surroundings several times, but there was still no response.
"If you ask me, these bastards must have left us and run away!" snarled the merchant. "Aren't we a burden anyway, and they can escape the forest better if we leave us!"
"Your Excellency Rodrigo! Please don't slander my companion!"
"…"
When he saw Claudia get a little angry, the merchant curled his lips and turned his head away from her.
The small conflict that broke out brought the two of them a short period of peace. During this period of time, Claudia kept thinking about all the details of the journey since she stepped into the forest.
Originally, she was following right behind Aura, until Gard was attacked by a twilight poisonous spider halfway, and then Gard stepped forward to help while she continued to move forward. The total time spent was only three minutes.
"Could it be?!"
Claudia stretched out her hand to her eyes and closed her eyes, slowly chanting a spell.
"Purification!"
A golden light shines from the palm of her hand and spreads around.
The originally peaceful scene was distorted, and noises and hacking sounds began to enter Claudia's ears. As the voice became clearer, a figure appeared in front of her, along with the figures of other mercenaries.
They were protecting her at this moment, and several poisonous twilight spiders' corpses that had been chopped into pieces were piled up in front of them.
"Thank goodness, you are finally out of the hallucination." Aurora pierced the poisonous spider's head, and once she turned around, she saw that the eyes of Claudia and the merchant had regained their color.
"Ahh! Spiders! So many spiders!"
The merchant, who was still sitting in a daze, jumped up directly and hid behind Aurora in extreme horror, sticking like glue.
"This, this, this!!"
His mind was a mess.
Wasn't there nothing around just now? Why are there so many things popping up all at once?
"Lord Rodrigo, can you step back a little bit? You may accidentally be hurt if you get too close." Aurora swung her left hand, and the light blue water condensed into a ball of water in the air. Like a cannonball, a poisonous spider that was approaching quietly was blasted away.
Rodrigo swallowed hard, his fat body trembled a few times before slowly returning to the original place.
"Cure!"
Claudia immediately played the role of a priest on the team. She dragged her hands upward, and a soft light fell from the sky on Aurora and the mercenary beside him. Under the influence of the holy light, color returned to the mercenaries' faces.
Aurora sprinted forward and swung the crimson sword fiercely. The light blue sword energy splashed out and cut the poisonous spiders blocking the way in front of him into pieces.
"Follow me closely!"
Aurora cleared a path and shouted back. She knew that the blood of the twilight poisonous spider was also poisonous.
Now there were more and more poisonous spiders being killed by them in this area. If they didn't leave in time, the risk of poisoning will be higher. Moreover, the poisonous twilight spiders that lurked around would also be attracted by the blood of their kind.
She didn't want to fall into the dangerous situation of being caught in a pinch by these bastards.
"Lady Aurora! Captain isn't here yet!"
Claudia shouted, and the mercenaries who had been advancing stopped immediately.
"No! We can't ignore the leader!"
"Yes! We're going back to find him!"
These mercenaries ran back to Claudia to ask for Gard's location so that they could go back and rescue him, and when Aurora saw this situation, her face suddenly turned grave.
"The situation is not good..." She knew in her heart that going back to rescue at this point would not only waste the time they had spent escaping, but they might not be able to save the mercenary leader.
It had been almost two hours since they entered the forest, and they had to leave the forest before night fell; otherwise, not only would the toxin become stronger at night, but elite-level twilight poisonous spiders would also be spawned.
According to the situation in the previous game, Aurora's most sensible decision was to give up these teammates who acted on emotion rather than logic and kick them out of the next raid.
But after all, this was real life and not a game. You only have one life.
"Flowing water protection net!"
Aurora controlled the surrounding water elements to form a cobweb-like protective cover to cover Claudia and these mercenaries.
"Eh?! Lady Aurora?" Claudia panicked when she found herself and others being protected by the current. Could it be that Aurora didn't want them to save her captain?
"You continue to move forward. With the protection of this flowing water net, you should be able to leave this forest safely. As for Gard... I will save it!"
Aurora shook her dizzy head and pointed the sword in one direction in the forest. She didn't want to waste more than half of her magic power setting up maintenance guard time for them here.
"No…"
"This is an order!"
Claudia wanted to say something else, but Aurora interrupted her directly.
"Just listen to me. This way, we have the biggest chance of passing through the Twilight Forest safely. Don't dawdle anymore; we don't have that much time left before the night!"
"..."
Claudia bit her lip; her eyes showed complicated emotion. The other mercenaries were also looking at her at the moment. It was up to her to decide whether to stay or leave.
"Lady Aurora... can you really rescue the captain?"
Aurora nodded and then shook her head. "I can't give you a guarantee. All I can do is try my best."
"Phew... we will leave the captain over to you... you must also ensure your own safety..."
Claudia bowed deeply to Aurora when she heard Aurora's reply, and then pulled the merchant in the direction pointed at by her under the guard of mercenaries. A poisonous spider jumped from behind the bush at them, but when it came into contact with the flowing water protection net, it was blocked by the flowing water and bounced away, and other mercenaries swarmed up and killed it with their swords.
After Claudia and the others left safely, Aurora looked in the direction she came from before, took out the glass bottle in her arms, drank the flower juice inside, and opened the system panel to check her current status.
---
Aurora Silverburg - 18 years old
Level: Level 6
Race: Human (???)
Occupation: Spirit Swordsman (Legendary Occupation)
Occupational Skills: Magic Cannon F, Elemental Control D, Spirit Sword Art D, Elemental Transformation F, Elemental Affinity F, Sword Spirit Awakening
Sword skills: Mirage Sword Art F, Magic Enhanced Sword Dance F
---
Although she had leveled up and become a bit stronger, after a few rounds of battle with several twilight poisonous spiders, her magic power had been reduced to one-fifth, while her stamina had been considerably spent.
In the worst scenario in which Gard was severely injured, the chance of both of them escaping the twilight forest was less than 60%.
"This won't work... unless..."
She turned her head to look at the corpses of the monsters on the ground, and a firm look slowly appeared in her eyes.
"Let's give it a try!"