My legs blurred together in a storm of motion.
The tree's at the edge of the clearing came back into view.
There was no way that I was gonna survive a direct confrontation with that many wyverns this underequipped.
(If you guys don't know what a wyvern is, it's basically the same thing as a dragon but instead of four legs and a pair of wings, they have 0-2 hind legs and wings.)
Thankfully I wasn't facing any dragons, I didn't have the kind of firepower to either seal or directly eliminate those immortal beings.
The wyverns were still in pursuit of me, a chorus of shrieks and roars filling the air behind me.
Some were flying above, the tree's preventing them from noticing me.
Others pursued on foot, the tree's becoming obstacles obstructing their malicious advance.
The once ominous, lifeless forest came to life, more rotted abominations rising from the ground.
Bears, deers, wolves, the animals absent from the forest returned with a vengeance, becoming obstacles preventing my escape.
The vibrant green of the forest gave way to shades of dark, lifeless red, rustic brown, and a moldy gray.
The entire forest had turned against me.
I hadn't spent any time adapting to this body, and it showed.
I had seemingly little to no endurance, my heart thundering in my chest like a drum.
My dynamic vision was lacking, I was relying mostly on preplanning and predictions to plan a route for my escape.
My movements were inefficient, this body was build differently, smaller and thinner, compared to my previous one.
On the bright side, I was adapting fast, my footwork became smoother as I dodged and evaded the attacks of the rotted abominations.
Most of my training in my second life was based off of martial arts principles I had heard of in my first.
The one that influenced my fighting style the most was one I heard from a novel, Seamless Sublimity.
Seamless Sublimity was a realm of absolute perfection, it was the removal of any flaws and achieving the peak of optimization in one's movements.
I had chased perfection, absolute optimization of movements, a continuous state of flawlessness and achieved it around the time I became an 8th star constellation.
That previous world training was working against me in this new body. My mind and technique were those of a transcendent, my body not so much. The harmony of my mind, body and technique were disrupted, my body too fragile to handle the weight of my insight.
While I was able to get by, the rotted abominations moving slowly and unintelligently, I would definitely have to work on this later.
The inefficiency was painfully obvious, a complete mockery of everything I had been, to everything I had achieved.
I felt disgusted.
The sword in my hand wouldn't be able to handle more than a single aura boosted strike. I had been avoiding using it at all in combat, feeling that it would be a waste to detonate it on foes I could easily outrun.
I weaved underneath the trees, dodging claws and fangs in my hasty escape.
The platinum glow of my body was starting to recede, a sign that I was running low on starlight.
I couldn't keep this up, my body protested, my heart beat thudding against my ribs like a jackhammer.
I had to think of something fast.
I had to create an opening for my escape.
The wave of rotted abominations was closing in on me, while they were individually quite weak, there was strength in numbers, and clearly they were playing to that strength.
'Shit, I guess I don't have much of a choice.'
My gaze sharpened as I mobilized my aura.
The worn steel sword in my hand hummed softly, and as I layered it in more and more of my aura, the blade whined in protest.
A dark amethyst purple glow illuminated the forest, an oppressive weight seemed to take hold on the rotted abominations.
The short sword in my hand screamed, its chipped, worn blade cracking under the pure force of the color of my soul.
Drawing in a breath, I rotated slightly, positioning my feet in a pseudo javelin throwing position.
I took aim, and as I exhaled forcefully, I launched the blade forward at a blistering speed.
As soon as the blade made contact with one of the abominations, a rotted skeletal bear, it detonated, bathing the forest in a brilliant gem like hue.
The blade shattered, sending steel shards flying at incredibly high speeds, piercing through the abominations, distracting them and giving me just enough time to pierce through the blockade and make it to safety.
The bona fide sword grenade had done its job, and I ran into the outer edge of the forest, in the direction of the creak I had found earlier.
As I got further and further, the color of the trees returned to the vibrant emerald I was used to.
When I had gotten far enough, I breathed a sigh of relief, collapsing on the forest floor, thoroughly exhausted.
I was out of aura, low on starlight, and tired.
Forcing myself to stay awake, I leaned against a tree as I got my bearings, alert and watchful.
I couldn't take any chances anymore, at least not now.
I turned my head towards a small message floating in the air, it had popped up earlier, but I ignored it.
[You have slain a dormant demon, Offspring of decay.]
[You have received a Memory: Skeletal Chain.]