Aru Shah and the Forest of Shadows [COMPLETED]

We're All Going to Die

Two days later, the Potatoes were still trekking through Kalivana.

The mist thickened, again. Aru could feel the vapor actually pushing them back. Every step was harder than the last, like they were trudging uphill. They might have, since Aru couldn't even see her feet at this point. For all she knew, they were about to walk right off a cliff.

"It's like something's trying to stop us from reaching the Trishubed," Rudy said, which Aru thought extremely obvious.

But then she thought of the spirit she'd met mere days ago, then seen again at the Safeway. If she was on their side, why was the mist, which she had control over, be trying to stop them?

A growl was heard to the group's left. Everyone raised their weapons.

The mist lightened up, and the visibility improved massively.

Now the Potatoes could see the massive army surrounding them.

There were plenty of normal-looking demons (or, as normal as a demon could look), but there were also monsters that seemed to be made from the forest itself. They looked like they were made out of thick fog, with branches for horns, deer skulls for helmets, mossy bark for armor with thorny vines holding them together, and wooden clubs for weapons.

The demons stood in a circle around the Potatoes. In front of them loomed a tall hill. At the top stood a slender figure flanked by the two biggest nature demons.

Aru peered closer, recognizing the figure in the middle.

"Sanemi!" She shouted.

There was no doubt. This was the mist spirit girl she'd met less than a week ago.

Sanemi gazed down at them. Her face was filled with sorrow and regret.

"I'm sorry, Arundhati," the spirit said.

Brynne, Rudy, and Mini all turned to look at Aru.

"You know her?" Brynne demanded.

"I-I'll explain later," Aru said desperately.

Aiden, meanwhile, looked like someone had just punched him in the face.

It might have been her imagination, but Aru thought she heard him whisper, "Sanemi?"

"What are you doing?" Aru yelled again.

"I have been sent to stop you," Sanemi said, sounding glum, but she raised her arms. "You will not leave here alive."

At those words, all the demons surrounding them readied their various weapons. Rudy whimpered, pointing his dagger at the nearest monster like he could intimidate it away (it wasn't working). Mini's knuckles turned white from clutching Dee Dee. Brynne looked ready to beat some demons up with Gogo. And Aiden still looked shell-shocked, but he blinked it off and his scimitars slid into his hands. Aru electrified them with Vajra.

Sanemi brought her arms down in a dramatic sweeping motion.

And the demons attacked.

Aru wasted no time ripping through the army with Vajra, but for every one demon she defeated, it seemed as if ten more took its place. Her friends seemed to be doing fine so far, but eventually, they would tire out. And the demons just kept coming.

Rudy had taken on his true naga form, his tail whipping back and forth and sending their enemies flying backwards into their evil comrades.

Mini fought next to him, creating force fields and illusion-clones of herself, distracting the monsters after her.

Brynne whipped up a tornado and the asuras closing in on her were flung into the air. She roasted a few more alive with Agni's fire. Other times, she turned into a blue elephant or rhinoceros and trampled them.