My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 918 - 919: Hugging The Right Thighs

Bones littered the sandy ground—remnants of the long deceased. Damon’s eyes fixed upon a body ensnared amid the trees, dark roots thrusting through its ribs like twisted tendrils seizing a prize. The tissue had decayed ages ago. Tarnished arms and fragments of faded hide still adhered fiercely to the frame. Based on the surviving garments, he discerned it had been a man's form.

A thoroughly lifeless fellow, as far as he could judge; the style etched on his blade suggested origins in the second epoch.

Nearby rested a battered helmet and a fractured bow, its cord ragged and thinned to the breaking point before it tore. Mud encrusted the relic, its inscriptions dimmed and stripped of every enchanting power.

Perhaps he might hawk it to some enthusiast or another, yet by now his fortune rendered such scraps irrelevant.

An oppressive hush bore down on the group as Damon’s heel crushed the skull of a hapless animal. The brittle fracture rang out with a sharp snap, echoing excessively in the quiet.

Signs of the ravenous earth appeared everywhere. Its handiwork. Its insatiable hunger.

The exploration team advanced wordlessly, hoarding even the effort needed for talk. No one squandered air on chatter. Only steady, weary breaths trailed them like a pulse of endurance. Every bit of vigor counted.

This woodland expanse stretched across hundreds of kilometers alone.

Damon yanked his boots from the yielding dirt with clear strain, the terrain gripping him tightly as though unwilling to release. Revulsion curled his mouth. It seemed the woods opposed him fiercer than the rest.

“Hmhmm,” he grumbled, shrugging his shoulders while weariness seeped into his muscles quicker than expected.

“What’s that mean?” Seras queried in a hushed snap, her pace unbroken.

“Nothing. Just pondering why nobody attempted to eradicate the Evil Forest. It’s wretched and sprawls over the entire continent,” he grumbled, eyeing the foliage as he trudged.

Seras shot him a sidelong glance, one eyebrow dipping.

“Someone tried. Forgot the event that called forth Rashi Ignath and emptied the Empire’s coffers?”

Damon’s stride faltered. His chin dropped.

Of course. Emperor Rashnet had sought to incinerate it. The woods retaliated by invoking Ignath. The fallout had ravaged the terrain and ushered in the present era with the initial verified emergence of the primordial dark entity Ignath.

“Slipped my mind. Believe it was second-year stuff.”

“Indeed,” Kael chimed in, shifting his hold on the staff while proceeding. “Prior accounts mentioned smaller appearances. They got labeled dubious and ignored. Post-event, royal experts ramped up studies on dark spirits, particularly Ignath, until the Temple banned the subject.”

Damon leveled a dull stare at Kael Blackthorne.

“Professor. I’m already trapped in a damned woodland. Spare me the lesson. I expect top marks after this awful trek.”

“You’ll get full credit,” Kael answered with measured tolerance.

Damon halted abruptly in his step.

His foot plunged deeper than anticipated.

“Did you catch that?”

Seras froze at once, fingers clenching her blade. Her gaze scanned the nearby trunks.

“What? Saw nothing.”

Damon wrenched his leg loose as slender dark tendrils shot up, just grazing his ankle. Soil flung aside.

“Hmm. Probably the breeze.”

He swiped perspiration from his forehead using his hand’s reverse.

“I fret excessively. It’s not as if a root-born fiend would emerge at my back and attempt to seize me.”

The exploration team turned to regard him gradually.

A vast shade engulfed his outline.

Damon let out a breath.

“I just had to voice it.”

He dove and tumbled ahead without glancing rearward. Simultaneously, he flung an arm back and loosed a bellowing rush of fire. Flames erupted in a savage surge, scorching hot yet laced with that eerie, spirit-freezing chill.

A solid thud ensued.

Enormous tendrils surged to guard the beast, shining crimson like molten iron while they soaked up the onslaught.

Seras dashed in the moment Damon vacated the spot. Her sword slashed in a slender, exact curve. The atmosphere tore. Trunks beyond the fiend sheared neatly, along with the colossal root cluster.

Crimson ichor gushed from the gash as the abomination toppled with a deafening rumble.

“Phew.” Damon rose, brushing grime from his jacket.

“That was tight. Only one. Figured we’d face a horde. Guess I overthought it. We’ll sweep this area without issue. The ravenous earth isn’t so fierce if you stay in motion.”

Lana, now quietly serving as his dedicated mender, raised her palm as though to hush him. She paused midway and eased it down, mindful of her role.

The dirt quivered.

Its face undulated and boiled like some colossal presence below stirred in annoyance.

Seras blinked once.

Then she rapped the rear of Damon’s skull.

“What’s your problem? Why say that? You trust in curses more than anybody.”

Damon clamped his hand over his lips.

True. He did.

’I get it. It’s Deathless, right? Clever move. Clever indeed.’

He eyed Seras.

“Didn’t intend to. It escaped me.”

Kael advanced, staff fully drawn into his hold.

“Theories propose the Evil Forest acts as a unified being. It might sense purpose or words. Never thought it could react with feelings.”

Renata regarded Wendy, who steadied a crow and a rodent serenely on her shoulders.

They exchanged looks before uttering in flawless harmony.

“Well done, Damon. You’ve expertly provoked a whole woodland into fury.”

A system tone echoed in his mind.

[Rage bait +30]

[Rage bait +40]

[Rage bait +20]

[Rage bait +100]

[Rage bait +250]

[Ragebaiting lvl 7] +4

His ability climbed four tiers in a flash.

He hadn’t even aimed for it.

Following weeks of calculated taunts, success struck now. When peril truly threatened his existence.

Seras unsheathed her tachi completely, arcane power flowing over the edge.

“Form up for combat. Advance steadily. Rotate in circles. Avoid planting your feet.”

The exploration team rearranged swiftly, heels scraping the treacherous ground.

The terrain burst around them. From the torn soil, dense muck ascended. Within the muck, tendrils coiled and formed into human-like shapes, slathered in filth.

Each displayed a unique human visage.

Countenances of those consumed by the ravenous earth.

Damon sensed annoyance ignite.

He faced the strained troops.

“Hold firm. They appear daunting, but stay resolute. These are echoes of past times who couldn’t conquer this wretched woodland. Fell them.”

The troops stiffened, grasps firming on their arms.

Still, the presence encircling the root figures intensified. Their gazes glowed scarlet. Arms rose aloft.

Seras pivoted her head gradually toward Damon.

Damon swallowed hard.

“That wasn’t on purpose.”

“Quiet.”

The woodland ignited in dazzling bursts of sorcery as opposing forces hurled barrages.

Damon lightly deflected a fireball with a wrist snap, scattering it in flight.

“They wield spells. Assumed they depended solely on raw power.”

The root figures hesitated.

One advanced. Its garb identified it as a slain sorcerer. Slime oozed from its bony digits as it emitted a spirit-rending wail and charged straight at Damon.

Rationally, it ought to have stayed distant.

Its stare revealed indifference to logic.

In its undead state, it craved only him.

Damon adjusted his footing and dodged at the final second. Wendy’s osseous blade arced high, slicing the entity neatly mid-leap. Its form spasmed wildly before merging back into the dirt.

“Radiant Knights, form a shield wall. Guard Lord Damon,” Silas ordered as barriers interlocked about him.

Damon scowled at the barricade.

This felt unfamiliar.

Abruptly, he burst through a gap and released a twisting blaze, reducing multiple root fighters to ash instantly.

The faster they perished, the preferable.

But reinforcements emerged.

They scaled one another, fusing into a seething pile of tendrils, charging ahead in a frenzied rush. Every one targeted Damon.

He lingered for a beat, gazing at the expanding horde as flames danced in his sight.

Then he looked to Seras.

She met his eyes.

He offered her a gentle, unapologetic grin.

In the following moment, he shifted instantly to her side, forsaking the frontline.

He chose what struck him as the wisest choice at hand.

His view dropped momentarily.

Then he encircled both arms around her sturdy legs, clutching without delay.

No opportunity for speech existed.

The horde slammed in, spells detonating overhead, tendrils cracking, metal clashing against reinforced timber.

Seras swore softly as the onslaught pressed upon them.

From Damon’s unyielding hold, she grasped his plan at once.

He showed zero desire to release.