Caught in Time

Chapter XIX: The Lady of the Forest

As the night wore on, both Alicia and Kyleas made their way north through the densely forested area to find Adran, Irina, and Rosa. With the moonlight barely penetrating the leaves above them, they could only rely on the light orb that Alicia's students gave her as a light source.

"Kyleas, please watch your steps. Since it's so dark, this place could easily be filled with traps", said Alicia.

"Got it", replied Kyleas.

Right after their brief interaction, suddenly thorny vines burst out from the ground beneath them. The vines turned towards them to attack. With a quick raise of her right hand, Alicia managed to cast a spell. Her spell caused additional branches to quickly grow from all the trees around them, which blocked every single vines.

But it's not over yet, as more vines burst from the ground. This time from directly beneath their feet, Kyleas immediately blinked towards Alicia to grab her hand and blinked forward with her.

"Looks like we've set off one of the traps, time to get out of here! Lead the way, Alicia", said Kyleas.

"Seems like it. Okay, follow me! Watch your steps again though, don't want any of us to stumble and fall and get caught by those rogue vines", replied Alicia.

The two of them started running north, doing their best not to get tripped over any roots, rocks, or any of the sort. While also constantly trying not to hit their heads against the tree branches. Looking behind, Kyleas could see that more and more vines were bursting out of the ground and chasing them. He occasionally turned around to destroy the vines with his mana bolt but, of course, more vines took its place.

"Kyleas, how is our situation back there? I heard some explosions", asked Alicia while running.

"Not good, more of them are after us still", replied Kyleas, also running.

"I see, there seems to be a small clearing up ahead, we can easily lost the vines there", she said.

They continued running until they reached what seemed like the edge of the dense forest where the clearing was. But before they were able to reach the clearing, suddenly even more thorny vines appeared in front of them. Alicia was surprised by it and immediately running the other way. As Alicia ran past Kyleas, who was still running north, she tapped him on the shoulder and winked at him.

"Already on it", said Kyleas as he created a concentrated mana bolt.

He fired the mana bolt at the vines in front of them which created a huge explosion that cleared their way forward. Meanwhile at the same time, Alicia raised both her hands towards the vines that chased them. As she did that, a massive wooden wall rose rapidly from all around them which blocked all the vines.

"Hell yeah! Not bad huh, Kyleas?", said Alicia while pumping her fist in the air before turning towards him.

Before Kyleas could say anything back, several thorny vines appeared under Alicia's feet, trying to grab her legs. He immediately slowed down time around him and blinked towards Alicia to blink her back to safety. As time returns to normal, Kyleas blasts the remaining vines with a concentrated mana bolt.

"Maybe we should go to the clearing first before started celebrating", said Kyleas.

"Good idea hehe", she replied.

Both of them walked a few hundred feet when they finally reached the small clearing.

"So, what do you think of my new spell back there? Quite impressive huh?", said Alicia.

"Yeah, it certainly is impressive", replied Kyleas.

"And...?", she added.

"Huh? What do you mean?", responded Kyleas, looking confused.