The Great Magical Mixup

Chapter 10: Forest of Furious Fumbles III

Alex looked around nervously for Peredur after the previous fight between him and Solar got both of them launched far away from Rux and him. He became filled with anxiety, aware of the imminent danger that the plants are going to be in, as well as he and Rux if they don't get out of the sinister forest quickly. 

"Peredur! PEREDUR! Where are you?! Shout, grumble, yell! Let us know where you are! You too, Solar!" Alex fruitlessly called out to the plants. Rux had gotten up from the blast, saw what Alex was doing and facepalmed in response. "Alex, that isn't really helping out right now." Rux calmy spoke after a bit. Alex turned to him. "Well, what do you suppose we do then?" 

"I have an idea." Rux pulled out two glowing yarn balls, much to the bewilderment of Alex. "Whoa! Where did you get these?!" Alex childishly asked. "Alex, have you forgotten? You gave me these a while back before all this happened." Alex stood there for a bit, before being embarrassed at his forgetfulness. "Oh dear, is this another side-effect of the forest?" Alex inquired. "Children can be forgetful at times, so childishness might have an effect..." 

"Now then, with these threads, we'll tie them up to any branch on a dead log on the ground and go look for the plants." Rux quietly explained to Alex, to be sure nothing was listening in on their conversation. Just then, a loud scream is heard and a large fiery blast is seen. "Or, we could follow that," Rux dejectedly said in response. 

Alex started off towards the direction of the blast, while Rux put up the golden yarn balls. Soon, he heard another scream, this time, he saw some trees topple as a result of a collision from a large green sphere. "(That must be Peredur!)" Rux thought to himself, as he ran towards the source of the commotion. 

When Alex got to Solar's location, he was frightened to see two menacing trees attacking Solar. With no time to waste, Alex jumped in and assisted Solar. He took a look at the enemies' stats and took out the appropriate spell cards to attack. He told Solar to step back, which she surprisingly did. Alex used three spell cards on the two trees. The first spell card was a spell that paralyzed the trees in place; the second one sent a humongous fireball that blasted both trees that defeated both of them; the third one is a rather morbid one. It sucked the sap out of both of the trees, which then wilted and died off. Alex put the saps into two test tubes, which he appropriately named both of them and placed them into a sciencey box he pulled out of thin air and pushed back. Solar somehow looked on unfazed by what she witnessed. 

When Rux got to Peredur's location, he saw some zombies wearing some sort of makeshift armor, made from the surrounding tree barks. "Now this is gonna be a cinch!" Rux gleefully said to himself. He snuck up on the zombies and engaged them into battle. Rux attacked first. He pulled out two RPGs in the shape of sunflowers, which shoot out large sunbeams. He shot at the zombies but was surprised to see they were still standing. However, their tree "armor" had been destroyed. It was still Rux's turn. He pulls out a Fire Peashooter, while he was wearing fireproof gloves. He shot at the zombies, which all of them went down in one hit. Rux triumphantly poses and after a bit starts looking around, much to a confused Peredur. 

"Uh, Rux? What are you looking for?" Peredur asks, suddenly calm. "Where is that leveling-up system? You know, that same one that appeared above you and Solar's heads earlier?" Rux also asked calmly. "Look above you" Peredur answered. Rux looked up and saw it. His level went up from level 7 to level 10.  

"Huh.. oh right. We have to find out where Alex and Solar are. Let's go Peredur!" Rux remembered. He looks over to Peredur to see how he reacts to hearing the sunflower's name. Peredur just looks at Rux confusedly. Rux picks him up and carries him over to Alex and Solar, who also were headed towards them. It wasn't long before they all ran into each other. Alex and Rux looked at each other and at the plants before scooting away from each other. They didn't want another fight to break out between the plants. Fortunately, the plants seemed to avoid eye contact with one another. 

"Well, that's the major problem out of the way. Now we need to get out of here!" Alex announced to Rux. "Right! Let me check the map and see how much further the exit is..." Rux said as he proceeds to check the map. He was surprised to see that they were barely 1 kilometer away from the exit. He happily told this to Alex, to which he and Rux nodded and began sprinting towards the exit. 

Soon, everyone has finally exited that dreaded forest. Alex and Rux both stretched themselves, while the plants had fallen asleep. They seem to have been unaffected by the forest, which Alex and Rux noticed. Rux shrugs and suggests they gain more distance away from the forest before stopping to rest to ensure none of the effects linger.