"This is indeed a problem." Rulu stopped in his tracks. He glanced at C.C., thought for a moment, then said: "How about this — Kallen and I will scout ahead, C.C., you follow behind us at a considerable distance. If you sense we're in danger, slip away quietly, and nothing should happen to you."
C.C. said: "Then you two go first. I'll catch up in a bit."
"That doesn't seem great." Kallen wasn't entirely on board with Rulu's plan. "This forest is so deep — it looks easy to get lost in. If we split up, we could easily lose each other."
Rulu said: "Don't worry about that. No matter where I am, C.C. has a way of finding me. Isn't that right?"
C.C. said: "That's correct. As long as you two don't get separated from each other, it'll be fine."
Kallen asked in puzzlement: "Why is that? Does C.C. have eyes in the back of her head, or do you have a tracker on you, Rulu?"
Rulu said: "Kallen, don't ask so many questions. Let's just keep moving."
"Alright…"
After that, C.C. stayed behind while Kallen and Rulu pressed on together.
By now the sky had gone completely dark. Light inside the forest was very dim. Rulu conjured a small fireball to light the way, and to avoid disturbing the creatures of the forest, the two of them spoke very little as they walked. The forest was quiet, with only the sound of their footsteps echoing through the trees.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from a nearby thicket. At once, Kallen and Rulu snapped to attention. They stopped and turned toward the bushes from which the sound had come.
Kallen said: "There was a strange sound from that bush just now — could there be some kind of wild animal in there?!"
"Possibly. Kallen, get in front of me and be ready to fight." Rulu stepped back a few paces, then summoned several orange-red fireballs and sent them crashing into the thicket.
The fireballs seemed to strike something in the undergrowth. A fierce roar rang out, followed by a loud crashing of leaves and branches, as a creature roughly one and a half meters tall — resembling a wild boar — burst from the bushes and charged toward Rulu and Kallen at tremendous speed.
"Kallen, deal with that beast — I'll cover you!" Rulu called out quickly. He leapt with wind-aided agility onto the trunk of a nearby tree, while Kallen gripped her black spear and charged at the boar, driving it toward the creature's sleek, dark hide.
With a sharp clang, the boar's skin proved incredibly tough. The black spear struck the boar but failed to pierce its body — it was deflected by the creature's flesh. The boar snarled and rammed its head toward Kallen's body. Kallen leapt with all her strength, vaulting over the boar and narrowly dodging the charge.
With a thunderous crack, the boar slammed into a large tree behind where Kallen had been standing. The tree, over a meter in diameter, was knocked clean through. The broken trunk crashed to the ground with a boom. The boar appeared completely unharmed by the impact and immediately spun around to charge at Kallen again.
*This beast is incredibly strong — I absolutely cannot let it hit me,* Kallen thought. She sprinted across the ground, nimbly dodging the boar's charges and jabbing at it with her black spear. But the boar's hide was too tough; no matter how she thrust, she could not pierce its skin. Rulu tried hurling fireballs at the boar as well, but the creature's body was smooth and hairless, its skin hard as stone — the fireballs struck and simply could not ignite it, doing no damage whatsoever.
"What do we do — this beast has incredible defense and attack strength! Our attacks aren't working on it at all!" Kallen shouted, beginning to feel she could not handle this creature.
From up in the tree, Rulu called: "This beast's defense and attack are both powerful, but all it can do is charge in a straight line. As long as we don't let it hit us, we'll be fine. Kallen, keep it occupied — I'll think of a way to deal with it."
"Got it." Kallen agreed and began running in wide arcs near the boar. Despite its enormous strength, the boar could only move in straight lines and couldn't manage to land a hit on the agile Kallen, causing her no harm.
While Kallen kept the boar occupied, Rulu used his Psionic power infused with Magic to conjure a freezing vortex nearby. As time passed, the vortex grew larger and larger, and the temperature around it dropped lower and lower. When the ice vortex had expanded to nearly three meters in diameter, Rulu called out to Kallen: "Draw the beast over toward me!"
Kallen immediately ran in the direction of the tree where Rulu was perched. The boar gave chase. When Kallen was less than ten meters from the tree, Rulu shouted: "Jump clear!"
Kallen leapt with all her might and landed on the trunk of a nearby tree. At the same moment, Rulu sent the freezing vortex hurtling toward the boar. The boar, massive and incapable of turning aside, had no way to dodge — the vortex struck it dead-on. Visibly, before their eyes, the boar's body began to freeze over at a rapid pace.
Rulu guided the freezing vortex to envelop the boar completely, driving the icy currents through its entire body. The boar let out a mournful cry and turned to flee, but it hadn't gone far before its limbs locked up with frost and it collapsed to the ground. The boar struggled and kicked frantically, trying to rise, but it could not get back up. About a minute later, ice had crept across its entire body. The boar became a crystal-clear ice sculpture — and finally, it did not move at all.
"We did it — Rulu, you're pretty impressive, you know!" Kallen said excitedly. Seeing the boar fallen and motionless, she walked over and poked its body with her spear. "Is this beast dead?"
Rulu dropped down from the tree and came to the boar's side. He summoned a fireball to illuminate the creature fully. The boar-like beast's eyes were closed. Rulu said: "It's probably not dead — just unconscious. We don't need to worry about it. Let's keep moving."
"Alright."
After that, Rulu and Kallen continued making their way through the forest heading east. Along the way they were attacked several more times by Strange Beasts, but working together they managed to subdue or drive off each one, escaping every encounter without serious harm.
Time passed — it was hard to say how long — and the two had traveled deep into the forest. Rulu climbed to the top of an exceptionally tall tree and gazed out into the distance. He spotted faint wisps of bluish smoke rising above the forest canopy to the northeast, with the faint flicker of firelight visible beneath. Suspecting that the source of the light was Princess Meiyu's encampment, he and Kallen set off in that direction.
Gradually, they drew closer to the source of the firelight. Rulu and Kallen could now dimly make out the glow ahead. Rulu grew a little tense. He stopped and turned things over in his mind — if the people ahead really were Princess Meiyu and her group, what method should he use to gather intelligence? Should he grab someone and interrogate them? Observe quietly from the shadows? Or use some other approach?
"Whimper… whimper…"
From somewhere unknown came the sound of what seemed to be a small girl crying, and at the same time a faint, barely perceptible pale-yellow mist drifted through the forest.
"Rulu, did you hear that just now? It sounds like someone's crying?" Kallen said, a little unnerved. She looked around, trying to locate where the sound was coming from.
Rulu said slowly: "Yes, I heard it too. It might be some kind of animal — it just sounds like a person crying."
"Should we go take a look at what's going on?"
"Might as well."
The two left where they were standing and walked toward the direction of the strange sound. Gradually, it grew closer. Then, all of a sudden, Rulu and Kallen spotted a small girl in a red dress sitting on the ground at the base of a large tree. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, her face buried against them. Her arms trembled continuously, and the crying sound was coming from her.
"Rulu, do you see that? Over there — there's a little girl?!" Kallen stared in the direction of the child beneath the tree, her voice full of surprise.
"Yeah, I see her. How could there be a little girl out here?" Rulu furrowed his brow and tried to reason through it — but for reasons he could not explain, his normally sharp mind felt sluggish. A powerful surge of tenderness toward the little girl welled up in his chest; he wanted to protect her, to look after her.
"She might be injured. Maybe we should go help her." Kallen said, stepping forward in the direction of the little girl. Her voice sounded oddly flat, like someone talking in their sleep, and her footsteps were light and unsteady — as though she were drunk — drained of all energy.