'Well this is not a pleasant surprise'
Continuing my stare off with the woman within the forests borders while still in my dripping wet clothes.
I stared at her Emerald Green eyes that stared back at my own, and noted on the woman's appearance.
Unlike what I first thought, the woman wasn't wearing conventional clothing of cloth and wool, but instead wore clothes of plants and leaves.
Thinking back to how I first had thought she was just wearing scant clothing and the plants were just conveniently in the way.
I now saw that the plants weren't conveniently in the way but were intentionally in the way.
Seeing as how the vines and leaves were covering all the important bits like pieces of clothing.
I settled on staring at the woman's face.
Mature face, large green eyes, pure white skin that was unblemished despite being in the forest, Natural green hair tied together by flowering vines.
She was the definition of a forest beauty.
Feeling slightly complicated as the strange woman with an unflustered look to her face looked me up and down with a... strange stare.
I felt naked under her gaze.
---
'What a strange being'
It started as a simple curiosity.
What was something that wasn't entirely human acting like a human doing in the in the forest?
That turned into slight concern when she saw that people with less than honorable intentions followed the man into the forest on horseback.
That concern turned into confusion when she saw the not entirely human use powers that even she hadn't seen since her birth in this world.
That confusion turned into awe as the man thrashed the seven pursuers with ease and took all their belongings while exiting the small hut without major injury.
Awe turned into amusement as she watched the man dump his pursuers into a hole he made with his powers and trapped them there, providing a light source for their troubles and marking the place where she saw they were trapped within.
That Amusement turned into astonishment as her head whipped around and looked at the stone hut when she sensed the overflowing vitality and a power that resonated with her own.
Hearing a scream of pain and hesitating whether or not to help the man.
She decided not to because the pain filled screams stopped.
Seeing the black gooey being who she could vaguely sense was the not human being run to a nearby river.
She was laid bare to the seen of a metamorphosis happening right in front of her.
Just like how a caterpillar covered itself with a cocoon to prepare for its transformation to a butterfly and shedding its previous shell.
This man got rid of the black goop on their body before making a reveal of their new form.
Pure tanned skin without any blemishes of the kind, Shoulder length black hair, Orange eyes that held a glow to them, tightly packed muscles that held immense power in them.
And a large tool swinging on their body
+++
If you know you know ;)
+++
Looking at the body with slight awe at how a physique that could only be obtained by the greatest of warriors who faced a certain type of battle on the daily.
A rarity that could only be found in a one in ten thousand chance.
That rarity was presented right in front of her.
But that wasn't all that she saw with her eyes of the Dryad.
Looking at the man put on his clothes with slight trouble with amusement.
The Dryad stared at the inner workings of the strange inhuman being and felt their core with the connection to nature she had.
A strange eternally burning flame burnt in the man's chest in the place where the heart was supposed to be.
Seeing the unusual flame burning in the heart that was supposed to represent the life force of living beings be an actual flame that burned within the strange half heart.
The Dryad moved her furrowed eyes to other parts of the body the inhuman now had.
The rest of the important organs were stranger as the stomach was connected to the rest of the body through a set of separate veins that allowed for faster regeneration.
The Legs had an unnatural strength to their musculature as despite their arrangement, the muscles and bones allowed jumps of immense heights without preparation.
The arms were more normal, being built to fight they had the muscles needed for fighting in all of the right places but the natural power that resonated with her own was focused on the arms.
The Head was what made her widen her eyes in surprise, because in place where a head was supposed to be a misty black representative of a head was in it's place.
Opening her lips and making the wind travel through her mouth as her tongue manipulated the sounds coming out.
Words came out of her mouth slowly as she was rusty from not using her words for quite some time.
"You... What... you...?"
Finally snapping out of their reverie, the man stared at her with a confused yet cautious gaze that seemed slightly embarrassed.
---
'How much did she see?'
Keeping those thoughts to myself as I wanted to cover myself up with something that could block the strange woman's gaze.
I saw that her eyes widened for a moment as the flowers on her hair seemed to close their buds as she looked at me with a glare.
Opening her mouth she spoke in rusty words as if she hadn't spoken for a few months.
"You... What... You...?"
Hearing the rusty words as she cautiously glared at my face.
A sight I thought was cute.
'The hell?!' Pinching my arms to recover from the reverie I seemed to have sunk into I looked at the strange woman in surprise.
Shaking my heads I decided to look at her and replied in kind.
"My name is Slade Dara Bridge" Slightly surprised at my smoother voice that vibrated in my throat, I grabbed a newly crafted balanced blade from my inventory.
Aiming it at the strange woman, she raised her hands and maybe it was my imagination but...
It seemed as if the very forest was rejecting me.
Holding my Balanced blade while equipping the Ice shards and Electric whip in my other slots.
I continued onwards despite the danger.
Mostly because I had the trump card of the Respawn to fall back on.
"Who are you?"
Holding my blade level to my chest, the woman opened her eyes widely before lowering her hand.
And because my eyes were now focused, I could notice how the plants seemed to lower their roots.
'Well... It seems I have accidentally met a plant element mage'
Counting my lucky stars that the woman held little malice.
She opened her mouth.
"My name... is... Celes... tia"
Rolling those words in her mouth, I looked at the woman for a moment.
Before using the ice shards and shot the ice shards at the woman's general direction.
+++
Dryad Tree