Chapter 860: Tail and Hunt
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Faced with this tragic scene, Melody was shocked speechless. She was originally stroking the green and pleasant leaves of a tree but she immediately turned stiff at the sight. Only after a long time did she say.
"Just for cutting down a few trees....how can Mr. Grubb be so cruel?"
Sheyan sighed and explained to her.
"For us, trees are just trees. Yes, they are a very important part of life, but perhaps for Grubb and his tribe, the trees are their children and loved ones. They care for nature because of love, but they also become cruel because of love. A total of 300 people lost their lives to his hands, but perhaps in the eyes of some of the more radical Ents, he is a hero."
Mr. Ferrell remained silent. Sheyan instead said.
"Let's go. Those two are already beyond saving. Now isn't the best time to fight with Grubb. Our objective is to scout, and to obtain the Golden Fruits. We're not here to be saviours."
No one objected Sheyan's words. They began to withdraw slowly without drawing the slightest attention to themselves. After Grubb killed the two adventurers, put out the fire, and buried the tents, he walked a few times around the camp. Suddenly, the vines attached to his body shook a few times. The delicate tendrils pointed towards a direction.
It was the place where Sheyan's group had stopped before!
As Grubb slowly walked over, the tendrils crept up like snakes and finally pointed towards a slightly wilted young leaf that was touched by Melody before. When she saw the Dwarf and the human being roasted alive, she was so shocked that she accidentally broke the young leaf.
Such a small trace that they forgot to hide, was detected by Grubb!
Grubb buried his head and rubbed the leaf with his rough bark face, then slowly murmured emotionlessly.
"Another...group of vermin...trying to...run away."
He stretched out his finger, and on the rough fingertip covered in moss, a small, white flower slowly bloomed.
Immediately afterwards, a Koschevnikov's bee that was commonly seen in this forest flew over. The black-and-white-striped bee perched on the flower at the tip of Grubb's finger, sucked on the honey, then flew up with a buzz and hovered in the air.
Grubb said in a low muffled tone.
"Remember...the scent...of the enemy...then go to Mudbeard. The group...is escaping quickly. Only...the Leaping Ents...can catch up to them! I will rush over...to help...soon."
The bee swooped into the air and sniffed on the leaf, then flew away!
The forest turned quiet again.
After that, Grubb walked over to the clearing. The gap between his legs began to close, and then his roots quickly implanted themselves into the ground. He lifted his hands up high and closed his eyes. At this moment, looked no different to an ordinary tree. With the nourishment of the earth, the scars on the surface of Grubb's body began to slowly heal, and the barks that were destroyed during the fight also slowly grew.
Sheyan's group continued their progression in the forest. The furthered they travelled, the more they were shocked. At the side of Fangorn Forest that was near Isengard, the signs of deforestation began to gradually become more serious, and naturally, the conflicts also grew more fierce.
Under Saruman's request, the core of the dam had to be built with tough tree hearts with enough spiritual energy in them, so that magic can be used to control the dam's opening and closing. Therefore, a lot of trees were actually chopped down in vain. They were abandoned once the adventurers found that the core of the trees lacked enough spiritual energy.
This behavior undoubtedly further angered the Ents.
Some traces of small-scale battles could be easily wiped out, but it's hard to erase the traces of some large-scale battles. For example, fights involving more than 50 people including mages and heavily-armoured guards.
Sheyan stood in front of a completely deformed set of armour. No doubt, the armour wasn't empty. But the armor had been distorted to such a state that it looked like a lump of dough, and dark purple blood dripped out of it. One can imagine the fate of person inside.
Meanwhile, Franklin stood next to a large hole. Not one blade of grass grew around the hole. The upturned soil was scattered messily around the area. The surface looked burnt, and even the plants close to the hole appeared as if they were afraid of something.
"This is the residual left behind by magical obsession. A strong mage self-destructed here."
Melody picked up a piece of wood and carefully inspected it. It looked like a piece of wooden board at first, but if one observed carefully, the "wooden board" was actually a piece torn from an Ent's chest. It was similar to a human's ribs which protected the heart.
Despite the strong vitality of the Ents, such damage was surely fatal. Obviously, under the tenacious resistance of this particular group, the Ents also suffered some casualties.
But the most unbelievable sight only appeared two minutes later. Reef passed under a big tree that had been broken in half. He accidentally kicked something, so he looked down to see what it was. Then, his expression abruptly changed. He dug up the soil beneath his feet to reveal some "fertilizers" buried by the Ents.
It was the corpse of a woman, her body stacked with two young children who looked no more than five or six years old! The heads of the two children were strangely deformed. One head was trampled flat, while the other was rotated 360 degrees! The large heads contrasted with their tiny bodies to present a sad sight!
An incomprehensible anger flared up in everyone's hearts. Sheyan's mouth twitched a few times uncontrollably.
Wars were cruel, but to use the bodies of women and children as fertilizers was too much for them to accept. Although this behaviour was considered justifiable on the Ents' side, but...it still left a bad taste in their mouths. Melody's eyes were full of tears.
However, at this moment, Mr. Ferrell suddenly fell to the ground on one knee. His palm pressed onto the wet soil while the vines around his neck pierced into the ground. He cocked his head in confusion.
"That's odd. Although I couldn't sense anything wrong, why do I suddenly feel uneasy?"
Franklin, after hearing Mr. Ferrell's words, thought for a moment, and immediately cast a Rank 3 Arcane spell - the 'Eye of Stig'.
The Rank 3 Arcane spell essentially summoned a Magic Eye. The magic eyeball could not fight, but it would reveal all hostile creatures.
The front of the 'Eye of Stig' looked like a strange eyeball with a white pupil and black sclera, but the back contained a dense group of tentacle-like flagellums. The flagellums are scarlet in colour and could absorb the energy from alternate dimensions for their own use.
After blinking a couple of times, it suddenly looked west and projected out an image.
A lump of blurry glowing light could be seen moving at a high speed through the forest. After a certain distance, it stopped. The light was actually wrapped around a rather small, relatively speaking, Ent . His whole body was covered with black mottled traces as if he was previously burnt. His motion had a certain softness to it; even his arms were woven from some dry, soft branches.
More importantly, there were five red leaves on his head! One leaf corresponds to a hundred people, so the number of foreign races that died by his hands had exceeded 500!
"He's someone from the Leaping Ent race!" said Mr. Ferrell. "They are the fastest among the Ents because they are born with incredible dimensional ability!"
After listening to Mr. Ferrell's explanation, Sheyan immediately understood how this guy could kill so many people. Obviously, the ability of the Leaping Ents would be amazing in hunting people down! As the 'Eye of Stig' disappeared into thin air with a shrill laugh, Sheyan immediately asked Franklin.
"How long before that guy arrives?"
Franklin replied.
"The 'Eye of Stig' has a maximum scanning radius of two kilometers. Based on the Ent's movement speed, it should only take him dozens of seconds."
Sheyan nodded.
"Looks like we're his target so we can't avoid him. If we're going to fight, then let's make it a quick battle. After all, this is Fangorn Forest, the territory of the Ents. Dragging the fight on is unfavorable for us."
As soon as Sheyan finished speaking, a crashing sound resounded from the forest close to them. The Leaping Ent called Mudbeard emerged from the trees. His eyes instantly fell on Ferrell, making him grind his teeth!
"Look what I found? A pathetic Ent willing to join with the tree slaughterers! But wait! Why do you smell so weird? Why does your trunk show signs of withering?"
Ferrell turned and took a few steps to stand proudly in front of Mudbeard. He calmly said.
"Because this isn't my real body, you frog in a well."
Mudbeard was stunned.
"Nonsense! That's.... that's impossible!"