Cast Out (Book 1 Done; Book 2 In-Progress)

Chapter 8: Part 4.2

PREVIOUSLY:

Wahshi was betrayed by Zhang and his party, and died at the hands of the "Elder Dragon". He revived at the Mist of Souls, where he then proceeded to rush out of there, at the cost of immense amounts of pain. And several pounds of flesh. After jumping through the pool near Gaia's tree, he plummeted through the canopy and managed to survive. He gained a new power which lets him track Zhang and his party.

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"Misa, watch out!" Zhang yelled out as he pushed me aside. An arm shot out of one of the trees and just barely missed my throat.

It was chaos all around us. Zhang and I were weaving through the trees as we dodged attacks from the Dryads that were chasing us. Some were still in their human-like form chasing us down on 2 legs, some were down on all four limbs and their beast form, while others were literally hiding inside their trees, waiting to ambush us. Alexa was sneaking around somewhere like the assassin she was, her high DEXTERITY letting her [sneak] through and sabotage the enemies that were following us.

It had started near the end of the 2nd layer, right when we were about to cross the boundary between the 1st and the 2nd layers, Dryads had suddenly ambushed us. Splitting off from the giant trees the way a branch might snap off, we'd found ourselves boxed in from the front and sides. Thinking fast, Zhang grabbed at what looked like thin air and scattered something from his [inventory].

All 3 of us had been working together in the game for a little less than 2 Earth years now, so most of the time we didn't even need to say anything. As soon as Zhang made a swipe at what looked like thin air, I already knew what he was going to pull out. Clapping my hands together in front of me, I sent out a mental message to my Patron. 'Sun Spirit, your disciple asks for your support!'

Immediately I felt Solar Mana flow into me from the Sun Spirit like a warm breeze in winter. It pulsed out of me twice and hit the scattered items swaying in the breeze, making them swell to twice their size.

The three of us headed straight for them, with Zhang and Alexa leading the charge. The living trees that boxed us in on the sides rushed in as they saw us running straight for them. The glow from their eye sockets flickered as surprise appeared on their faces. I can probably imagine that to them it looked like we'd just decided to serve ourselves up on a shiny platter. After all, they were more than 60 levels above us, and we were only able to win last time because of the fact that I'd used one of my forbidden spells, and the fact that the Druids and Dryads had suddenly started fighting each other.

This time though, there weren't any Druids for them to fight against.

Alexa branched off from us and used [sneak] to disappear from sight.

Zhang and I weren't worried about the fact that she might just leave us, it just wasn't like her to leave her 2 "best friends" to die. Especially since she knew what my contract with the Sun Spirit entailed. This wasn't just "some game" to any of the three of us. For Zhang and I, it was the chance to find the man that we'd become monsters for; the only chance we had at ever getting revenge. To Alexa, it was the opportunity to get redemption and her 2 childhood friends back. This was all her fault anyway.

While they were still on 2 feet and in their human-like form, the Dryads were slower than the average player because of the fact that they were heavy and built like tanks. As long as they didn't become the beast-like abominations that they had in the last battle, we could easily stay ahead of them.