Chapter 483: Another Ambush

"Um. Dann old bro, didn't you say your concealment technique is unrivaled under heaven, that even a ninth-tier might not necessarily be able to find you?"

After a brief pause, Greta pulled out a spare set of clothes from her spell satchel and put them on.

While dressing, she moved a bit too vigorously, brushed against her wound, and instantly grimaced in pain.

She had no idea whether that man had done it on purpose or by accident.

After stripping away the magical leather armor on her body, his palm had, with uncanny accuracy, grabbed her right chest.

Damn, it hurts like hell!

What made it even more infuriating was that the bastard had grabbed her while she was in her bear-form; after she changed back into human form, he didn't even bother to look!

"Mm—"

Dann sat up over there.

He spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm with a "pwah."

Compared to Greta, he had clearly suffered far heavier injuries.

He could barely get up.

His expression was awkward as he covered his cheek in pain:

"It's not that I won't help you, but that guy is a pure monster. Concealment requires slipping past the opponent's line of sight in a single instant, but this guy acts as if he has eyes in the back of his head—no matter where I am, he can lock onto me."

Greta secretly rolled her eyes.

If this guy weren't an eighth-tier, she would have given him a few sarcastic remarks for sure.

Right now she just felt her chest killing her with pain.

She lifted her collar and looked down—damn! A huge bruise had bloomed there!

Dann said again, "Are you still going to do this thing? I don't really want to get involved anymore."

The snake scales on his body had been smashed and knocked off in large patches, some even flipped up and embedded into his own flesh.

It looked rather miserable.

"Do it! Why wouldn't I do it!"

Greta gritted her teeth. "When I was talking to Vivian during the day, I already confirmed that the contingency spell I planted before is still there. As long as I can successfully activate it, I can enslave her over to our side."

". That forest warden held back this time, and you still want to move against his person? I think you really want to die."

"Vivian's family is the Windwall Forest wardenship family appointed by the previous two kings of Etheron. The 【King's Contract】 lets their bloodline innately govern half of the Windwall Forest. By borrowing her and our Witherers' spells, even without going to the Windwall Forest in person, we can absorb the natural force within the forest from afar—no need to face that warden at all!"

"Half?!"

"Can't take half! If we take the whole thing, Vivian will die on the spot!"

Greta's gaze was complicated; there was actually a trace of reluctance.

Dann clearly noticed this and gave a cold laugh:

"At this point, are you really going to start caring about old ties?"

"It's none of your business. And the order from Bahadur Academy of Magic is to curb the forest's expansion, not to destroy the forest outright."

Dann gave a cold snort.

He thought for a moment.

With a cold laugh, he took out a healing magic potion, poured it over his wounds, and the pain twisted his snake face into something savage.

"Let's get out of here first. We're too badly hurt—even if we really want to carry out your plan, we'll have to wait until we've healed."

Greta nodded.

"Let's head to Stormwind City first. I have a little hideout in a nearby village."

She was speaking as she stood up, when she suddenly realized a person had appeared beside her like a ghost.

Greta broke out in a cold sweat on the spot; the clothes she'd just changed into were soaked through in an instant.

This person stood in front of a large tree, wearing an open robe woven of silver-white moonlight silk, the hem trimmed with a ring of fine, dense spider silk.

Inside the open robe was a slightly oversized men's linen sleeveless shirt.

Slightly curled teal hair just reaching her neck, and pointed ears like an elf's.

The most eye-catching feature was those large eyes filled with white radiance.

Flawless and pure.

"Vivi-vian?"

"Greta."

The dryad girl was like a formulaic program—whenever the other party called her name, she would always respond.

Dann was even more panicked; he directly screamed out:

"What are you here for?! Did that warden send you??? What I just said wasn't my idea!!"

Hearing this.

Greta nearly toppled over on the spot.

Stupid snake-man!

In her heart, the filter for this so-called eighth-tier expert shattered all over the ground.

She forced herself to calm down, breaking out in cold sweat as she recalled the gentle smile she had once shown:

"Vivian, why have you come again? Didn't we just see each other?"

"Vivian, miss, Greta, meet."

The dryad's words still carried no intonation or emotion.

But being able to say something like that was enough to prove her place in the dryad's heart.

It also, for no reason, made Greta's heart ache.

She couldn't help but recall her druid days.

At that time, she wasn't yet so full of hatred and malice — she had a gentle, kind personality, warm toward others.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have become friends with Vivian.

"I—"

Greta recalled certain agonizing experiences that came later, and clenched her teeth hard.

She secretly tried to take out from her spell pouch the magical item used to control Vivian.

She couldn't get it.

Hmm? Where's my spell pouch?

She looked down and, to her shock, discovered that countless sentient vines had, at some unknown point, already wrapped around her body and carried off the spell pouch.

"Vivian?"

The tree spirit before her wore an expressionless face.

As if she had never done a thing.

The snake-person Dan over there seemed to have searched the area once, confirmed there really was no one else, and then let out a sinister, cold laugh.

"Young Lady Tree Spirit, if you'd brought that Forester along, I might actually have looked at you with some respect. Since you haven't the sense to come alone, daring to show up by yourself — it's not that I can't teach you the etiquette one should have when facing an eighth-tier."

Bound as she was, Greta was utterly speechless.

Are you running a script? You've said that exact same line twice now.

Vivian hadn't even bothered to look at the snake-person Dan.

As the other tried to cast a spell and summon another rotting vine-creature, she lightly raised a finger and pointed.

A sentient thread shot at blinding speed into Dan's body.

"Hahaha, a mere seventh-tier 【Polymorph Hex】 — you don't actually think that would work on me, an eighth-tier, do you??!! Hahaha, a tree spirit is a tree spirit, no brains."

He hadn't even finished speaking.

His face stiffened, and he looked down at his own body as if he'd seen a ghost.

The next moment.

With a soft poof, he turned into a sheep.

Vivian didn't stop there — she raised a finger.

An iron-vine with the texture of steel burst from the ground, piercing straight through the sheep's body and hanging it high in the air.

【Steel Vine Impale】 +13.

Immediately after.

A storm of green leaves swept through — every single leaf a blade for the lingchi execution — and, accompanied by screams, struck the sheep again and again, peeling away flesh and blood without pause.

【Storm of Leaves】 +18.

Before long.

Only blood and wool were left scattered across the ground — not even the bones remained.

Greta was terrified.

Watching all this, she finally remembered.

A tree spirit is an extreme protector of trees — they would never allow anything that harms trees to exist!

That Forester Rod might still reason with you, but with a tree spirit, that simply won't fly!

(End of Chapter)