Chapter 51: Herbal Remedies

The hovercraft floated down to the surface. Carefully entering through the trees, it landed in a small clearing inside the woods. Florence and the team departed the hovercraft and began to search around the area.

“Stay silent and follow me. I see a good patch we can gather ahead.” Florence said.

The group slowly moved forward reaching a large patch of pale blue shimmering flowers. One of the medical staff stared at the flowers in disbelief.

“Are these mana convergers?” He asked.

“Yes.” Florence said.

“They’re huge.” He said as the flower heads were bigger than his hand.

“It’s thanks to the mana around here.” Florence said. As she recalled mana convergers are one of the simplest ingredients to create mana potions with, perfect for what they need. They were a type of flower that collect mana from the environment around them, hence the name.

Most mana convergers used for brewing were industrially farmed and didn’t grow this large. This would be quite the enviable harvesting spot if it weren’t for the various dangers around the area.

“There should be enough here.” Florence said as she began to gather the flower heads.

***

Bryson Coldwater stood atop the viewing platform looking downwards at the forest. He had just been informed that the group had safely landed and was currently gathering herbs. Bryson wished he could see them, but the dense forest made that impossible.

Properly looking at the magical forest did not ease any of Bryson’s tension. If anything, it only further exasperated it. Everything was so magical that Bryson was almost getting dizzy staring at it. His senses were getting overloaded.

Even the small amount of magic that Florence emanated from her had completely disappeared amongst the leaves. What’s more was the faint magic he could see off on the horizon. They were far away and would not reach them anytime soon even if they were noticed. But the fact that he could see that much magic concentrated that far away concerned him.

“The scanners are having trouble picking up anything. Too much magic. But the team has reported that they’ve begun to gather.” Nico reported.

“I’m aware.” Bryson said.

“Lord Bryson, I understand you’re on edge being here. But all we can do right now is wait.” Nico said trying to calm him down.

Bryson gave an annoyed sigh before he pried himself away from the window and sat down on a sofa chair. There he sat and impatiently waited, fidgeting as he waited for news.

Quickly glancing back over to the large window he looked down at the forest before turning away from dizziness. Only to whip his head back as he swore he saw movement.

Sure enough, he saw several bundles of magic that stood out from the rest of the forest making their way closer to the team below. Bryson sprang up and ran over to the window trying to get a better look.

The magic of these unknown blobs were all far weaker than what he had seen in the distance. Which was of some relief to Bryson. But he still had no idea how powerful these things were all he knew was that they were bad news.

“Tell the team that they have enemies incoming!” Bryson ordered.

“What? But the sensors haven’t seen anything!” Nico said confused.

“I can see them. I can tell the different magic apart. They’ll be on them in minutes!” Bryson snapped.

Nico nodded his head before opening communications. Bryson all the while stared out the window staring intently at the forest.

***

“Come again?” The one medical staff who received the call asked. A reply was repeated and their face went pale.

“What is it?” Florence asked, her bag now brimming full with the gathered mana convergers. Which was an impressive sight as the others hadn’t been able to even get half as much as she did.

“Beasts are headed our way.” They answered.

“How long?” Florence said as she peered into the trees, she couldn’t see anything dangerous.

“A couple of minutes.”

Florence took a second to ponder, looking over at the team and what they’ve gathered. More would always be better, but they had enough and there was no point of endangering the team.

“Get back.” She said, though there was little need as the rest already began to move back towards the hovercraft.

As they neared the hovercraft, they heard something large amount of rustling. A moment later the trees from where the noise came split apart and out charged a massive beast. It was the size of an elephant, a large canine head, long limbs with claws, and covered with purple fur.

It growled as it noticed the group and with a roar it charged at the nearest person to the hovercraft. At a terrifying speed it closed the distance with a single bound as it pounced forward, teeth bared.

The man helplessly closed his eyes and covered his face as it attacked. However, the shadow of the creature which loomed over him quickly disappeared. Looking up in surprise he saw that Florence had come flying out of nowhere and had hit the magical beast with a flying kick.

The power of that kick incredibly sent the creature smashing through a large tree. Florence landed gracefully on the ground in front of the man.

“Are you alright?” She asked, her scarlet eyes studying him.

“Y-yes.” The man stammered out.

A roar interrupted the conversation as they looked over to the magical beast now getting back up and shaking off the blow. It turned towards them ready to charge again.

Florence quickly reacted, from a hidden holster pulled out some sort of firearm. Pointing it at the beast she fired. A thunderous sound erupted from the firearm as a concussive blast shot hit the beast square on the head. Leaving nothing but a crumpled-up corpse.

A couple of seconds passed as everyone tried to take in what just happened. This was interrupted as two more similar beasts burst through on the other side, quickly followed by some sort of massive boar charging from another. Florence quickly fired at them all, forcing them to veer off their paths to avoid getting hit.

“Get on the craft!” Florence ordered. The group quickly scampered onto the hovercraft as Florence continued to fire at the increasing number of monsters.

As the boar came charging towards her, she plucked a mana converger from the floor and popped it into her mouth. Chomping down on it her scarlet eyes flared up as she pointed her firearm at it and blasted.

The blast obliterated the rhino-sized boar and she quickly leapt onto the hovercraft as it rose. A wave of relief rose amongst the group as they flew over the heads of the creatures beyond their reach and out of the forest.

It didn’t last long as from the tops of the trees that stood several stories tall something was waiting for them. In came gliding were three creatures that looked like horse sized mutated flying squirrels.

Florence pointed her firearm at it and shot three times. She only hit two of them, sending them crashing back down to the forest floor. The remaining one however was now too close to fire upon and about to land on them.

Florence took one last good look at the hovercraft. She saw all the team was accounted for and that the flowers were secured she looked back up at the monster with a determined look.

Without hesitation, she leaped upwards and smashed the chin of the beast with a flying knee. As it flipped around in the air from the blow, she grabbed onto it and together they were sent hurtling back towards the monster infested forest floor.