Chapter 160: Surrounded By Bosses!

"Be careful Tempest, don’t touch these Trees." He quickly instructed, as Tempest continued moving from right to left, dodging the trees more accurately now, his sharp eyes picking out the invisible threads of motion before the branches could even twitch.

​"I am going to die." Marianne muttered, holding her mouth shut with her arms, as the landscape blurred into a dizzying streak of green.

​"I don’t think I will be able to stand after this." Denise added, his voice vibrating with the sheer force of the G-force pressing against his chest.

​"I can see the exit." Asher announced to the two below, his voice calm and anchored despite the chaotic wind whipping around his barrier.

​"Who cares about the exit if I die from this speed!!" Marianne yelled back at him, her pride as an SSS-Rank Guild Leader entirely swallowed by motion sickness.

​"This speed? Compared to the speed of our future enemy, this is nothing... If you can’t even handle this, you shouldn’t have followed me." He said flatly, his gaze fixed straight ahead, completely unbothered by her distress.

​"You..."

​Marianne was stunned speechless. She was a renowned SSS-Rank Guild Leader, a figure who commanded reverence across Silverspire. Even if she had chosen to submit to him, at least he should try and pity her. Instead, he treated her like an inconvenient piece of cargo.

​"You want to leave my Abomination Forest, how cute."

​"....?!"

​The three froze, their blood turning cold as the eerie, echoing voice sounded from directly behind them. They all turned around, seeing a green-skinned woman moving towards them with insane speed, her glowing green eyes fixed on them with terrifying malice.

​’Damn it, I need to stop her!!’

​Asher activated Sword Sovereign, sending a wave of crimson energy blasting towards the moving target, but to his shock, massive tentacles burst out from her back, enveloping her in a dense sphere as the wave smashed right into the defense.

​{Skill Effect: Neutralized.}

​"The hell?!!" Asher was stunned, his mind racing as the system brought up her profile:

​{Name: Abomination Forest Queen.}

​{Titles: Queen of Abomination Forest. Life force sucker.}

​{Rank: SSS-Rank.}

​{Species: Demon.}

​{Class: Special Boss.}

​{Agility: 1,500,000.}

​{Demonic Energy: 5,000,000.}

​{Defense: 10,000,000.}

​{Health Point: 50,000,000.}

​{Physical Attack: 2,000,000.}

​{Magical Attack: 2,000,000.}

​{Skills: [First stage]: [Blood Tentacles]: Instantly absorb energy and life force from any amount of targets to boost her stats by 10%, absorption can stack up to 100%.}

​{[Absolute Defense]: Use her inner vines to create a defense barrier which blocks out all debuffs and attacks.}

​{[Absolute immunity]: Completely immune to all magical attacks, and Earth Elements.}

​{[Forest Domain]: Can manipulate the forest.}

​"The hell?!! This monster’s stage one has four abilities!! Not only that, she is a demon, and a special Boss... Damn it!! Her skills are even crazier!!" Asher spat, evaluating the sheer wall of numerical stats standing between them and safety.

​"Hey!! Can we outfly her?!!" Marianne yelled up at him, her eyes wide as she took in the terrifying demonic aura behind them.

​"I don’t see that happening! What we need to do now is leave this forest." He answered, his voice dropping into a razor-sharp focus.

​"What annoying pests... Running from a beauty like me." The forest queen raised her hand, her face contorting into a cruel smirk, and snapped her fingers.

​BOOOOM!!

​"....?!"

"Huh?"

"What?!"

​The three blinked as a powerful force smashed right into the ancient trees directly ahead of their flight path. The next moment, the rough bark surfaces shifted, and pairs of glowing red eyes opened wide, staring right at them as millions of vine tentacles unfurled.

​"Hey!! We need to get out of here, fast!!" Marianne yelled, raising her sword.

​"I know that. Tempest, use apex screech."

​Tempest gave a sharp nod, and the next moment:

​SCREECH!!!!!!!

Asher looked over his shoulder at the Forest Queen, who instantly activated her vine defense again as the catastrophic sound wave smashed right into her.

​"....?!"

​Asher was stunned as she froze dead in midair, her absolute defense crumbling as she plunged straight down from the sky. He turned his gaze to the surrounding Abomination Trees, seeing their glowing red eyes dull as they were all rendered completely stunned.

​’What happened to her? I thought her skill blocked all debuffs? My attack proved it, then why couldn’t she block Tempest’s stun attack?’ he thought as Tempest shot forward like a white beam of light.

​’Wait!’ His eyes instantly went wide:

​’So that is how it is.’ He nodded inwardly as the pieces clicked into place.

​They finally reached the edge of the treeline, and Tempest flew out of the oppressive forest into the open sky.

​"Tempest, stealth!"

​Before Marianne’s and Denise’s disbelieving eyes, the massive eagle instantly vanished from sight and sense, taking them right along with it into the veil.

​’Wait, is it because this mount is holding us that we all entered stealth?’ Marianne thought, completely speechless at the broken utility of the mount.

​’Good, with this we can escape even if she chases us out of the forest.’ Asher thought, letting out a small breath.

​Ten seconds later.

​"That actually affected me." The Forest Queen muttered, shaking her head lightly as she hovered above the canopy, her green skin twitching with rage. She turned toward the open expanse where the humans had already left her domain.

​"Anyone who escapes my Forest gets the chance to live, but you humans have angered me... I won’t rest until all of you are dead!!!" She screamed, shooting forward through the boundary, destroying all the obstacles in her path with her thrashing vines.

​"I will kill all of you, Humans!!" She screamed.

​"Move Higher!"

​Asher quickly instructed as Tempest shot straight up into the clouds the moment they cleared the tree canopy. But before the eagle could reach a safe altitude—

​WHOOSH!!!

​"Dodge!!"

​With a violent, emergency burst of speed, Tempest veered sideways, but a massive, white-hot fireball still smashed heavily into his right wing, draining his massive health bar by half in an instant.

​"Tempest!!" Asher yelled in shock as the mount lost balance and they dropped rapidly from the sky.

​"Let them go!!" He added, signaling the mount to release its grip. Tempest freed both Marianne and Denise from his claws. The two SSS-Rank quickly stabilized their flight magic, swooping down alongside Asher.

​"Tempest, withdraw!!"

​Asher recalled his mount, which instantly vanished into a stream of golden particles, merging back into his chest.

__

​BAM!

​The three landed heavily on their feet on the jagged wasteland soil. They snapped their heads toward the heavens, seeing a gigantic, scales-clad Wyvern flapping its massive wings thousands of feet above them, blotting out the light.

​"My goodness!! That thing is twice the size of your mount." Marianne muttered in sheer shock, her sword arm trembling slightly.

​{Name: Corrupted Fire Wyvern.}

​{Titles: None.}

​{Rank: SSS-Rank.}

​{Species: Wyvern.}

​{Class: Special Boss.}

​{Agility: 1,000,000.}

​{Energy: 2,000,000.}

​{Defense: 8,000,000.}

​{Health Point: 30,000,000.}

​{Physical Attack: 1,000,000.}

​{Magical Attack: 1,000,000.}

​{Skills: [First stage]: [Fire Ball]: Unleash a fireball that deals 50% extra magical Attack damage.}

​{[Hell Fire]: Summon waves of fire meteors which deal 200% Magical Attack Damage.}

​"It is also strong." Asher muttered.

​"I will kill you humans!!!"

​The three turned their gazes back toward the edge of the forest as the Forest Queen burst out from the treeline. Her tentacle vines shattered the rocky ground with each strike, her face distorted in absolute fury as she closed the distance.

​"Damn! We are surrounded by two Special Bosses... We are so cooked." Denise said in shock, taking a defensive stance beside Marianne.

​Asher gritted his teeth, his grip tightening as the oppressive pressure of two world-class threats settled over the barren wasteland. This wasn’t looking good. But as he looked between the screeching demon queen and the soaring fire wyvern, he knew one thing with absolute certainty—no matter what happened, he wasn’t going to die here.