Chapter 245: Young Master Runs Away With Two Jade Beauties!

Both girls were trapped under thick roots that snaked in and out of the soil, curling over their torsos to shackle them to the earth.

Alexia was still unconscious.

My guess was that the Tree King had hit her with the same sleeping spores that had nearly knocked me and Michael out earlier.

Juliana, on the other hand, was very much awake.

She was pouting like an especially irritated cat, looking as if she might genuinely be considering biting through the roots out of pure spite.

But aside from the obvious frustration, she seemed far too calm. There was not a flicker of fear in those azure-blue eyes of hers.

"Hi, Juli," I said, walking up to her while panting like I’d run a marathon.

My body still wasn’t in its best shape.

Juliana sighed, slow and lazy, like the harrowing monsters around us were nothing more than an afternoon inconvenience. "Greetings, Young Master."

"I have so many questions," I said flatly. "Starting with,

what the fuck happened?

And ending with,

why are you and Alexia wearing leaf clothes like a couple of cavewomen?

"

She gave a small shrug — well, as much as the roots binding her would allow — and pointed at the petite redhead beside her. "I was with her and a few others back at the

Night Sanctuary

, evacuating the plaza when we got hit by a misfired fireball from one of our fellow Cadets. It did some damage, but mostly burned our clothes to rags."

I glanced around — and only now noticed it wasn’t just Alexia and Juliana.

Every other half-dead Cadet being used as a human planter, with a sapling jutting out of their sternum, was also either in makeshift leaf clothes or shredded uniforms.

It was a nightmarish sight, by the way.

Pale chests of young men and women cracked open like soil after rain, fresh branches splitting through their flesh and bone, bloodied leaves trembling faintly in the air under the red moonlight.

I even recognized one boy from my Hunter’s Ethics class.

Juliana went on. "We didn’t even make it five blocks from the plaza before we were teleported in this forest, a few kilometres away from here. Long story short, these tree monsters caught some of us last night and dragged us here. Alexia was one of the few who didn’t get captured. But, like an idiot with a hero complex, she came here anyway to try and save us."

I pieced together the rest of the story.

Alexia must’ve charged into the canyon alone and unleashed the full might of her Soul Arsenal.

Most probably, it was she who caused the ground-shaking rumble that Lily and I had heard earlier.

Then the Tree King must’ve knocked her out and detained her.

Yeah. I agreed with Juliana — it was a reckless move. Alexia shouldn’t have come here alone.

...But thanks to the fact that she did, both she and Juliana would now survive.

I glanced around again.

Of course, plenty of Cadets hadn’t been so lucky.

Besides the two heroines, there were about five other people here.

And all of them were already beyond saving, their bodies now little more than nurturing soil for the plants burrowing in their flesh.

There really was no way to help them.

I felt bad, sure, but it was the kind of

bad

where you know there’s absolutely nothing you could’ve done.

These people were side characters, after all.

In this arc, it was their fate to die.

Still... seeing saplings sprouting from their ribcages while their unfocused eyes were frozen wide and their mouths hung open in soundless screams was deeply unsettling.

"You look tired. Do be careful, Young Master. You wouldn’t want to overexert yourself," Juli drawled, her voice dripping with exactly the kind of out-of-place, sarcastic concern you would expect from a psychopath. "Anyway, if you’re done gawking at the botanical horrors, would you be so kind as to cut me loose?"

"Right," I blinked, forcing my complete focus back on her.

The roots pinning her down were thick, fibrous, and pulsing faintly — like... like they had their own

heartbeat

.

There was no way I could tear them off with my bare hands.

Hell, even with an axe or a sword, it would take too much time.

I could use my powers, but I had to be careful not to hurt Juliana in the process.

"Okay, let’s see," I muttered, activating my Origin Card.

Immediately, a wide patch of the ground behind me rose up and morphed into the shape of... a massive, serpentine dragon.

The dragon — sculpted from the rock and hardened earth itself — lifted its head as if it had just risen from beneath the land.

Then it opened its maw, revealing rows of stone teeth so

immense

and

dense

they could grind entire boulders to dust.

Without hesitation, I guided the construct’s head toward the roots.

The dragon’s massive jaw lowered.

And with one vicious

SNAP

, it tore through the fibrous shackles around Juliana like they were overcooked noodles.

The severed roots splintered, writhed, and oozed sap before curling back into the soil as if retreating.

The dragon turned to Alexia and crunched apart the roots binding her as well.

Once she was free, I picked her up and slung her unconscious body over my shoulder.

Then I turned to my dear

Shadow

. "Can you run?"

Juliana stood with a pained grunt, shook her head, and pointed to her right leg.

The wound on her calf — the one she’d sustained during the Massacre at the

Night Sanctuary

— had split open again, bleeding slowly.

"But I can still fight," she said, probably already thinking about summoning her swords.

By now, the tree-crabs had skirted around the majestic ice wall I’d raised earlier and were closing in.

"No need," I said as the earthen dragon’s body rippled like it was made of liquid clay. In an instant, its form collapsed and reshaped into a titanic hand.

Before Juliana could even process what I was about to do, the gigantic earthen hand scooped her up.

She shrieked as it lifted her high, pulled back, and

hurled

her toward the ledge like pitching a baseball.

I clutched Alexia tight and ran straight at the oncoming tree monsters.

I could hear their hungry screeches and the snapping of their pincers like oversized scissors.

But just before they could shred me apart—

A wide pillar of stone erupted from beneath my feet at a slanted angle, springing me into the air.

Fwooosh—!

Wind howled past my ears and the canyon floor blurred beneath us as I rocketed skyward.

From up here, the swarm of tree-crabs on the ground looked more like an army of oversized insects.

I gritted my teeth, making sure not to drop Alexia — when Juliana suddenly came into view up ahead.

She was flailing wildly, eyes wide, descending in an uncontrolled fall.

I caught her mid-air as we passed, wrapping one arm firmly around her waist.

Her skin felt warm against the cool wind, and I suddenly became very aware of the fact that she wasn’t wearing many clothes. Or any at all!

But then something far better drew my attention.

The ever-composed, unflappable, indifferently passive Juliana... was screaming!

Actually

screaming

!

She rarely

ever

lost her cool!

And it was such a high-pitched, girlish scream that I almost burst out laughing.

Almost.

If I wasn’t plummeting like a meteor, I might have savored it. Hell, I might have

framed

the moment in my memory.

But the ledge was drawing closer way too fast.

I willed Essence into my legs, feeling the burn as strength surged through muscle and bone.

Juliana’s scream climbed an octave higher before—

WHUMP—!

We hit the ground.

And the ground beneath us buckled like a trampoline as I softened it the instant my feet touched down.

The impact was cushioned, and I landed steadily, still holding up both barely-covered girls.