Chapter 107: Who is the Nightmare?

Rachel jumped high into the air, drawing her free locks around to hold in front of her arms as she held them up to take the brunt of a root that struck out; the blow recoiled, shattering the bark while whipping her toward the forest, but she’d angled herself to land near the wooden creatures.

Flipping back, her square heel landed against the face of a wooden werewolf, yet its roots kept it planted as she repositioned. Kicking off, she landed on a trunk and ping-ponged to the ground with the forest in pursuit. Her forearms smarted a bit from the previous attack, but that was the extent of the damage.

She pivoted, with a roundhouse kick meeting a slow goblin’s face. They were all so slow. Wood caving in under her blow, Rachel could feel her increased enjoyment in contrast to the Blood Moon. There had been no satisfying crunch or resistance against her fist under the liquid crimson sphere like the grit she felt under her heel right now; the Blood Moon tempered her love for battle and made it a somber chore.

The hobgoblin’s feet ripped out of the earth, propelled by her momentum-charged kick. Limbs tried to intercept her, yet it was too easy to use even the thinnest roots as rails or stepping stones to get to her next target. In the next second, she was gliding through the air, making short work of the wooden army.

It wasn’t like she could win this way, which likely had Dionysus cackling from on high. He’d cut off her mid-match cheerleader, Eostre, but MoonMoon was probably dancing across the seats right now.

Rachel just wanted to see how much she had grown without these Singular Lunar Event hacks, and under the Harvest Moon, she was practically immune to fear or surprise. Everything felt like a wonderful dream while dancing through the horrific forest.

Typically, the Creeping Forest would welcome her with open arms if this were the real world, yet it had been taken over by the Hateful Heartwood, which was her true opponent. Dionysus, being the very knowledgeable entity he was, had managed to wrap the environment and monster into one super monster.

Of course, there was no way he would be able to tell how the Harvest Moon would affect her, and the cursed frostfire was certainly one fascinating addition that gave her a way out of this.

Nia popped up from a cloud of orange fog beside a tree, wearing a thoughtful grin as she skipped back, defending herself from a volley of projectile thorns, vines, and the closing-in twisted trees. "Need help, Major? I decided not to select any Feats until we can coordinate. Something new might pop up on the Grade V Advancement. I did unlock more Pool Slots, though!"

Rachel chuckled, catching a few scrapes and cuts that Karma sent back; she could be harmed through [Fear-Dependent Immortality] since the forest wasn’t afraid of her—at least, not yet.

Having tested her physical improvements enough, and not wanting to waste any more of her stamina, Rachel’s hands sparked to life with vermilion flames as she dove into a tree hollow; it bowed in to spike her inside, only to find her gone.

Take care of our fun little forest, Nia; let’s put the fear of frostfire in its heart!

"Roger that; smoked pine coming up!"

A shiver ran through the forest as Rachel peered through the lunar beams and winding paths the Harvest Moon shared with them; Nia took the offense, cursed flames coating her hands. She busted up the wooden creatures, having a harder time of it than Rachel, given her reduced Stats and their synchronization level.

Hmm. We’re going to have to work on our Sync Union so you can share more of my strengths.

"I think—heh, I’m doing fine right now... Don’t tell me you’re afraid I’ll get a few scrapes or expose a bit of your skin?"

Rachel nodded as she turned away. The Living Denier took the vicious step of tossing the burning kindling she started through the misty routes, spreading it far and wide. It didn’t take long for the forest to give up on them both, with dead leaves catching flame and a layer of ice creeping over the earth that the flames touched.

"Dionysus!" she sang, holding her burning hands behind her back as the forest began to part and run away from the growing inferno. "Clever move with the environment and hidden heart in a forest, but...what if the forest runs away? Haha."

Nia soon exited out of a misty cloud ahead of her, the bunny chasing the now terrified wooden constructs as she vanished in and out of the haze. "Aww... Hehehe. You’re so cute, running away from me; you know you can’t escape! Am I a little scary now?"

Creaking wood and wooden creatures attempted to dig out ditches to stop them, only for a grinning Nia to appear behind them, hair dangling to the side as she leaned over to wave at them. "Is this really going to work? I don’t think it will."

Their soft whistles and harvesting flames only grew higher, the smiling orange moon gleaming and glistening under their rampage. Black sap bubbled and froze over in their slow and constant hunt, slipping into the mist to appear in a dull flicker that trailed after their hair and fists, but their little horror story had only just begun.

As they skipped about, hunting the Creeping Forest, the vibrant vineyard merged with the frostfire, pumpkins growing out of the grapes to take on sinister lantern shapes, overtaking the wheat fields and abandoned forests. With the haunted vineyard’s growing strength, more attractions emerged, scarecrows coming out of the conquered golden fields.

Nia and her no longer needed to dodge the desperate attacks the Creeping Forest made; its fear made them invulnerable to its attacks, the unlucky woodland only further igniting upon contact with the horrific hare and rabbit figures it contended with.

The nightmarish frostfire couldn’t be stopped, and the strangling vineyard was now their ally; after all, monsters hunted the weak. Under the vermilion moon that had abandoned the predator-turned-prey, the Hateful Heartwood could only wait and shiver for its cover to be scorched away, the fertile hoar-frosted ground bringing the reaching vineyard ever closer.

Truly, misfortune was on their side, and this Challenge Rating 1 fight wasn’t even a contest when adding these powerful celestial spheres, yet it was this that enticed the crowd. They wouldn’t show it, but within their hearts, they wanted to see Dionysus fall, and that Chapter was closing in.