To the surprise of both Emilio and Everett, thendscape of the mystical forest shifted as they reached a new sector: the green-leaves trees were now holding bright-red leaves like a fiery autumn, creating an atmosphere of a scarlet hue.


    “Woah…” Everett remarked.


    “This ce just gets weirder and weirder…” Emilio mumbled.


    There was a sweet smell that filled the air, crossing between a natural nectar and a strong aroma resembling syrup.


    “Are you sure this is the right way?” Everett asked, momentarily taking his helmet off to scratch his shaggy hair.


    “Pretty sure,” Emilio responded.


    It wasn’t just the overwhelming existence of the red leaves that clung to each tree, acting as a ceiling above them and the matching grass, but the perplexing geological structure of thend; it continuously caved in to provide steep, shallow ravines and provided steep hills.


    All in all, the crimson biome was simply a strange ce. Nheless, the two moved into it in search of Melisande.


    “Melisande!” Emilio called out, cupping his hands around his mouth.


    “Melisande–!” Everett helped.


    Though the young mage didn’t know how helpful it’d be to have an unfamiliar voice chip in to call out, even if Everett had more ‘boom’ to his voice.


    As the two descended a steep hill that went down into a section of tall, bright-red grass that stood as high as Emilio, the young mage stopped as a sudden yelp escaped from his newfoundpanion’s lips:


    “Aaaagh-!”


    Emilio instantly spun around, turning to witness the armord shielder be hoisted straight into the air by the grip of crimson vines that wrapped around his shin.


    “It seems…I require a bit of assistance!” Everett shouted, being hung upside down by the sentient nt life.


    “What the–hold on!” Emilio assured him.


    Raising his wooden staff, he closed one eye as he aimed it upward, trying to focus as the thick bundle of violent vines swayed around far too much.


    “Aaagh–! Please hurry, friend!” Everett called out.


    The youthful shielder was being swung around in the air in a disorientating fashion before the vine whipped around, aiming to m the figure into one of the sturdy trees.


    “–Give me a second, and…gotcha!” Emilio called.


    Finally finding his opportunity, he unleashed a precise cut of wind that traveled upward swiftly, bisecting the vines and freeing Everett from their hold, buting with its own price as the armord young man began falling downward.


    “Ahhhhhh–! Oh…”


    Before Everett could face-nt into the ground, he was stopped gently by a bed of wind that caught up.


    “Nice catch–”


    Just as the cheery shielderplimented the young mage, the wind was relinquished, causing Everett to gently face-nt the grass.


    “Urgh…” Everett released a muffled groan.


    Emilio didn’t bat an eye as his focus was forward, witnessing the bundle of violent vines reform itself, shaping into a humanoid form made of intertwined vines and d in leaves.


    “Get up! We’re not home-free yet,” Emilio said.


    Without a singleint, the recruit, suited up in heavy armor that was likely half his weight, promptly got up to his feet, holding his trusty shield on his arm like a sleeve.


    “This ce is really full of neat stuff, isn’t it?!” Everett excitedly remarked.


    In that moment, Emilio felt if the shielder had a tail, it’d be wagging as he had the same vigor as an energetic dog.


    “…I don’t know if neat is the word I’d use to describe this–more like ‘creepy’,” Emilio replied.


    Though their conversation was interrupted as the figure made of nt life extended its arm forward as a bundle of wriggling vines.


    This time, however, Emilio found himselfing to a jarring stop as he bolted to the side, looking down to find his left leg bound in the sturdy, crimson vines of the sentient nt.


    “Oh, crap,” he mumbled in an exhale.


    Before he could say anything further, he felt his stomach flip inside of his body as he was flung upward into the air, spinning around in a nauseating fashion.


    “Aaah-!”


    The catalyst he held in his hands fell from his grip in the brutal drag into the air, reaching towards it only for his fingertips to graze it before he found himself flung by a flick of the violent nt’s arm below, being sent into the trees.


    “Ghh-!” He winced.


    As he prepared to catch himself with a bed of wind at his back, he was surprised to find himself caught in the arms of something else, turning around to find the jovial smile of Everett greeting him.


    “I gotcha,” Everett told him with a thumbs-up.


    Emilio immediately jumped out of the burly recruit’s arms, “Focus!”


    “Right!”


    Racing through the trees, the crimson lifeform swung through the cedar, using its vine limbs to swiftly fling towards the two.


    “Get back,” Emilio warned, “I’m going to torch it.”


    “Oh! Alright, gettem!” Everett supported him, hiding behind the much smaller mage.


    As the bundle of vines and leavesunched towards them, whipping its arm around in a violent crack of wind, Emilio countered by unleashing a bright-orange fireball that soared between the trees.


    The sudden burst of heat caused the leaves clinging to the trees to brush aside before the fireball crashed against the ntlife’s body, swallowing it in an explosion of mes.


    “Are ya’ trying to bring the whole forest down?!” Everett called.


    “Would anybodyin if this ce was wiped off the map?” Emilio huffed.


    After an undeniable direct hit with the element that existed as the bane of nts, the two looked forward in certainty that the creature was dealt with, only to find the mes siphoned, condensing into the form of the crimson, humanoid nt.


    It’s absorbing the mes?…Emilio thought.


    “Hey! I’m no farmer, but don’t nts totally die from fire?!” Everett asked.


    “You’re right, but it seems like we’re not dealing with normal nts…look around,” Emilio pointed out.


    As the shielder nced around, he figured out what the young mage was pointing to: despite the existence of mes, none of the trees nor foliage were burned in the slightest.


    “Woah…” Everett let out.


    “I think this crimson forest operates how it looks: fire is sustenance for the nts here,” Emilio exined, “–and that means…!”


    Pointing that out, the young mage came to a realization as he watched chaotic heat building up within the violent ntlife with smoke billowing from the gaps in its humanoid shape.


    “Behind me!” Everett called seriously.


    Without wasting a moment, Emilio rolled behind hispanion, ducking behind therge shield that protected them both just as a massive release of condensed mes shot out from the nt’s body.


    The impact of the retaliated mes against the sturdy shield resulted in a roar of heat, propelling outward and brushing through the treeline.


    “Magic is great and all, but sometimes, good ol’ steel beats all!” Everett said with a smile, nting the shield down as the mes roared against it.


    “Yeah, well, this isn’t really the time!” Emilio shouted in response.


    Heat built up quickly as it flowed against the thick shield nted against the soil by Everett, who buckled down in order to keep himself from sliding back.


    “How much fire does it have stored in there?!” Everett yelled.


    “My bad! I might have overfed it!” Emilio replied.


    Feeling as though this was a battle of attrition that would only wear the shielder down, Emilio took things into his own hands while the nt-menace was focused on channeling the fiery wrath against the shield.


    Alright…I’ve got an idea! He thought.


    Using wind beneath his boots tounch upward, he soared past the trees, using bands of water like vines to swing from tree-to-tree, taking a page out of the nt’s notebook as he felt like a certain arachnidic book hero he recalled from Earth.


    He used the ropes of water,tching onto each tree as he wrapped around to the fire-absorbing vegetation’s nk.


    If it gains sustenance from fire, I’m willing to bet going by the dryness of this red forest…Water is the bane of these nts, he thought.


    As he arrived at the me-shooting nt’s nk, he stood on air before pointing his staff forward, just then gaining the figure’s attention as it began to bubble-up another channel of fire towards the young mage.


    “Try feeding on this!” He shouted.


    A massive coalescence of water condensed to the end of his catalyst, rippling as the azure aqua shot forward with extreme pressure, mming against the nt in a beam of highly-pressurized water.


    As the crimson nt-humanoid was mmed to the ground,pletely drowned in water, the immediate area of the bright-red, dense forest of a mystical autumn was drenched as well.


    “…Woah, look at that…” Everett said, looking past his shield.


    The crimson nts began wilting in the presence of water, losing their glow as the red grass itself decayed.


    As the beam of water fizzled out, Emilionded on the ground, looking towards the sentient nt life that was now shriveled up, shrinking down as it decayed from being engulfed in high doses of water.


    “Looks like I was right,” Emilio mumbled.


    Everett slung his arm around the young man’s shoulder, “Nice one, again! You’re amazing! Seriously–I’ve never met a smart guy like you before! Not many mages in my hometown.”


    Taken aback by the close camaraderie, Emilio bashfully scratched his cheek, “…It’s nothing. I just got lucky. Anyway, we’re not done yet.”


    “Oh, right…Your friend is still out here. Hmm…” Everett got serious, looking around.