There were no sounds except the sound of the car and Joseph's voice as he directed Jesse toward the path he should take, while Nicholas was sleeping, waiting for them to reach their destination. As for Ethan, he kept staring at the white flower he had brought from the garden. Meanwhile, Jenny was just looking at the road, lost in her thoughts with a frowning face.
Joseph interrupted this atmosphere saying: "I want to warn you about something, guys. I don't know if you've all heard about this, but I have to tell you. As you know, monsters are considered a real danger in this world, but there's an additional danger you need to be careful of."
Jesse looked at him with surprise from the corner of his eye, with signs of confusion on his face, saying: "What is it?"
Joseph took a deep breath while relaxing in the car seat, saying: "Human monsters. I can only describe them with one characteristic: monsters with human bodies. Humans who exploited this chaos and absence of laws in this world to carry out their sick desires with complete freedom. They kill their own kind with complete brutality without a grain of care, they enjoy torturing humans like themselves. But the big problem is that these human monsters have gathered under the roof of one empire, the Katoran Empire, where everyone in it is human monsters distinguished by having burns in the shape of a circle with a dot in the center (☉) on their right or left shoulder. They consider themselves better than normal humans and distinguish themselves through those marks."
Jesse replied with signs of surprise on his face: "How were they able to understand each other despite their violent nature?"
Joseph replied: "No one knows, man. All we know is that they were unified by an unknown person 20 years ago."
Jesse took a deep breath and said: "Alright, man." They continued their journey until the features of the forest began to appear gradually. Joseph spoke in a loud voice: "We're getting close to arrival, guys."
Nicholas slowly opened his eyes and said in a low voice: "Have we arrived?" Then he began to yawn. After a short time, they reached the forest to find Jesse that it was full of trees everywhere, and they wouldn't be able to use the car inside it, so he stopped the car and asked everyone to prepare their belongings.
Jesse brought his personal gun (with "William Thornfield" written on it) while everyone had a regular gun, and Jenny was carrying a bag with some medical tools, food, and some empty space to put the herbs in.
Joseph stepped forward with steady steps, followed by the others quietly one by one. The place was full of trees with dense leaves everywhere to the extent that the sky wasn't visible due to the abundance of tree leaves. Joseph kept moving forward while Jesse and Nicholas raised their weapons in preparation for any potential danger.
Joseph suddenly stopped and began examining the place. After several seconds passed, Joseph turned toward them with his usual smile: "Well, we've arrived. This is the intended place." The place was slightly different, as it was a circular area free of trees, which allowed them to see the sky above them.
Joseph approached one of the plants in front of one of the rocks. Its leaves were dark green with prominent veins, its thin and winding stems extended upward and ended with small purple flowers. He pulled it from the ground and directed it toward the team to see it. "Your mission is simple, all you have to do is cut any plant that looks like this." Everyone looked at the flower, and then he gave it to Jenny to put in the bag. After that, he asked them to go collect the flowers and not to go far away.
Everyone spread out in the area searching for the flowers. Jesse and Ethan headed north, while the rest headed east. While Ethan and Jesse were walking, Jesse stumbled over one of the rocks, causing him to fall to the ground. Jesse quickly got up from the ground with worried features on his face. A few drops of blood fell from Ethan's head. Jesse took out some bandages from his pocket and wrapped them around Ethan's head. "It's not a serious injury. Luckily for you, the blood will seal the wound soon."
After putting on the bandages, they continued their way to search for the herbs. Only a few minutes passed before they found many of them in front of one of the huge rocks. They headed toward it and began cutting the flowers one by one, then headed back to the area where they had separated after bringing the maximum they could carry of the herbs. There was nothing to break the silence except the whispers of the wind playing with the tree leaves and the sounds of their feet on the wet ground.
Jesse turned to Ethan and said: "The situation is a bit boring. Let me give you some advice that might help you instead of walking uselessly." He stopped talking for seconds because he stumbled over a rock on the ground, but he quickly regained his balance and continued speaking: "I'll tell you how to deal with creatures that don't have eyes or can't see in some way. Dealing with these creatures might seem a bit difficult, since any sound you make, even small, will make them know your location, but at the same time it's a weakness. All you have to do is pick up anything on the ground and throw it forcefully away from you. That will make them follow the sound, and keep doing that several times until you escape from them or kill them somehow. But there's something you need to know: sometimes if you use this trick too much, you'll make the beast angrier, causing it to become agitated and much more aggressive, and this might lead to an unexpected increase in its strength or it starting to destroy the place around it as a way to kill you if you're in the vicinity."
After finishing his speech, he and Ethan reached the place where they had separated last time. There was no one there except them. Jesse and Ethan put the herbs on the ground. Jesse looked right and left and said with surprised features on his face: "Strange, they went before us but we arrived before them. What's the reason for this delay?"
But suddenly Jesse heard footsteps coming from in front of him. He pointed his gun toward them in preparation for any coming danger. The sound of footsteps kept becoming clearer and clearer, until Joseph and the rest appeared running quickly as if they were fleeing from something. Jesse looked at them with surprise, but Joseph shouted at him saying: "Run!!" Jesse didn't understand what was happening, but he glimpsed something strange from afar. He noticed that the trees were falling one by one. Seconds hadn't passed before he noticed that there was something giant heading toward them. Its skin was the color of trees, so he didn't notice it quickly. And before he could comprehend what was happening, he found a giant creature larger than the trees themselves looking at him. Its face was a giant eye with a yellow color. When Jesse looked at it, he fled quickly without looking behind him between the trees with features of terror dominating his face.
(End)
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