Neo was petrified.
His bloodied, battered body remained rooted to the spot as he stared at the 9-foot-tall tree being, which was pushing itself out of the trunk like a crocodile emerging from water.
It was absolutely terrifying!
The tree being was almost humanlike, with a pair of arms and legs that bore a striking resemblance to those of a human. The major difference was that no human could be this thin and skeletal. It appeared to be nothing more than a wooden skeleton with no visible joints.
Neo's hair stood on end as two green dots appeared in the darkness, staring at him.
He remained silent as the tree being scanned him with its predatory gaze from top to bottom, lingering slightly longer on his spear and… his waist region?
Neo gulped.
He knew he should probably make a run for it, but he was too scared to make the first move.
What if the beast wasn't going to harm him as long as he stayed still, and sudden movement might provoke it into attacking?
Neo didn't know what choice to make.
'I knew those trees were bad news!' Neo lamented inwardly.
Everything seemed to be getting worse and worse. After surviving one ordeal, another one was waiting for him immediately afterward.
Neo's thoughts disappeared as the tree being suddenly made a cracking sound.
Its glowing green eyes flickered ominously before turning into a red glow.
Neo felt his back drenched with sweat. Nothing was more ominous than a green-to-red switch!
All horror movie directors knew that!
Roar!!
The primal roars of a certain group of monkeys echoed from some distance away. Neo was dismayed at the sound.
The monkeys had caught up with him?
So fast?
Neo could only guess that his bad luck was playing a significant role in how bad things were getting.
Not even a second later, the fastest of the three monkeys burst out from behind a tree and appeared near Neo and the tree being.
Neo's heart pounded in his chest as he slowly angled his body to keep both beasts in view.
The one thing he couldn't dare do was expose his back to either of them.
Hee?
The furious monkey that had been growling and snarling like the Monkey King himself suddenly trembled.
Neo saw its big brown eyes fill with instinctual fear at the sight of the tree being, and it slowly backed away.
A sudden blast of wind struck Neo in the chest, and he barely caught a glimpse of something long and green blurring past him and piercing the monkey's throat.
Puchi!
The monkey's eyes widened in horror at the sneak attack. The green thorn lodged in its throat had been too fast for it to react to.
Neo could barely discern the involuntary gaze the monkey gave before it slumped to the ground.
It probably hadn't expected its life to be so short.
Now it was just Neo and the tree being once again.
Now that he had seen how destructive the thorns launched from the beast's enormous weapon were, Neo wasn't going to let his concentration waver for even a second.
He kept his gaze on the smoking tip of the weapon, wondering at the peculiarity of such a deadly tool.
This beast was loaded, literally!
Bang! Bang! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The other two monkeys arrived at the scene and were welcomed with swift green thorns shot at them at deadly speed.
The soft thudding sound their bodies made as they slumped to the ground made Neo realise that the tree being was truly horrifying and dangerous.
He had to escape somehow!
The red glow emanating from the beast's eyes gradually faded, making Neo realise that the green-to-red switch had probably been triggered by the presence of the monkeys.
Neo guessed there was a feud between the monkeys and gorillas of this forest and the tree beings.
Then maybe he could probably be saf—
Shit!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Neo shivered as two green thorns shot at him.
He had been alert and was able to react in time, but his speed was too slow to completely evade the thorn attacks.
"Gah!"
Neo gasped as a thorn pierced his chest, missing his heart by just a few inches.
If he hadn't moved, he would have been dead!
Run!
Neo leapt for the bushes like a madman, tripping mid-dash and crashing right into a tree.
F*ck my luck!
Neo was tired of tripping at the worst possible times. Couldn't his bad luck give him a break?
No time!
Neo twirled around the trunk of the tree and swung his spear along with his movements. The tip of his spear collided with a thorn heading towards him and actually managed to deflect it!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Like a plasma gun, the enormous weapon spewed out thorns at a rapid pace. If Neo hadn't hidden behind the large tree just then, he would have been turned into a pincushion!
Still, this was only temporary! Neo knew he couldn't stay here for long. Nothing was stopping the tree being from simply walking over and getting a better angle to shoot at him!
One! Two!
Neo made a countdown in his mind but was forced to abandon it and run anyway when he saw another tree beginning to move!
Oh, hell no!
Neo sped deep into the forest as if his life depended on it—because it f*cking did!
Another round of thorns sprayed all over the place like on a battleground, and Neo fell to the ground and crawled out of the area like a veteran soldier.
Neo didn't even bother to look back as he ran and ran for hours once again.
He ran until he became dizzy from blood loss and until his vision swam, yet he kept running.
Every once in a while, Neo would see a pair of green glowing eyes in the darkness and would jump in fright before instantly changing direction.
He was reaching his limit and felt like he couldn't endure this haunted zone any longer!
He wanted to leave this place!
After stumbling over a thick root, Neo emerged into a small clearing.
The smell of blood was thick and pungent, and Neo's heart pounded with a feeling of foreboding as he squinted in the darkness, trying to see further.
Slice!
Neo's eyes bulged as he saw a tree being use green vine-like whips to cleanly slice off the head of a thin, bald monk—
Wait a minute!
That was the party leader!
Neo's stomach sank. He felt like he couldn't hear or feel anything. All he could see was the vision of the green vine slicing off the party leader's head and the bloodied corpses of the other party members sprawled around.
Neo's blood stilled, then it boiled!
Every hair on his body stood on end as three pairs of glowing red eyes stared at him from the darkness.
He had to run!
Turning around, Neo ran like a horse on drugs in the opposite direction.
He ran so much that his bare feet became bruised and bloodied.
He ran until he didn't even know how long he'd been running or how much time had passed.
He ran until his heart started slowing and his adrenaline rush faded.
Neo knew he was probably going to die.
He was too wounded, and there was no one to heal him.
In fact, his resilience had shocked even himself. It appeared that unless he was killed with a single blow, he would not be down for the count at all!
Gradually, the zone grew brighter until it had returned to the semi-darkness of before.
Neo had survived the night. And it was probably going to be his last.
'What a nice blue rock,' Neo admired a smooth blue rock he had stumbled upon in an inconspicuous spot.
His vision grew dark, and he felt himself grow weightless.
Before he knew it, he was already falling over, grievously wounded and unconscious.
His figure landed atop the blue rock and slowly sank into it.
Seconds later, Neo had disappeared into the rock completely.