"This isn't a good sign," General Black Snow's eyes gazed at the river of animals and muttered to himself.
"But we need to move forward, so all of you need to move." A black glint spread across General Black Snow's eyes.
With a quick wave of his hand and the flutter of his robe, a thin bloody gas spread throughout the surrounding, sending a chill down everyone present. The animals were frozen with fear staring blankly at General Black Snow before they obediently opened a path for him and the army.
With a path opened up, Floyd watched as the army went through with ease and was able to make up for the lost time. However, as they grew closer to the Beast Hunter Sect's territory, they noticed that the number of animals that had fled the Branch forest and made it outside was more significant than they had imagined.
Instead of the thousands of animals, it seemed that tens of thousands animals were escaping rapidly. The sky had even turned as dark as the night sky as tens of thousands of birds of various species flew across the sky.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
"The Three-Eyed Fear Crows, Fire Hawks, and Flying Penguins are all extremely rare creatures whose appearance is said to be the signs of the beginning of the disaster. To see them all at once and in the thousands would mean the end of humanity." Floyd's mind raced as he felt a deep unease fill his body as the army marched on.
Looking around, he noticed that other than him, the army's strong will didn't waiver in the slightest. If anything, a bizarre gloomy blood lust started to spread around, infecting every soldier.
He could see that some soldiers' eyes became slightly bloodshot as their anxiety, will to survive, the weight of responsibility, and desire to be great grew at break necks speeds. Yet, in this strange atmosphere, Floyd felt his anxiety slowly replaced with excitement and a willingness to face whatever danger with the army.
"Hahaha! Look at this! This is what we expect to see when seeing the aftermath of a battle of legends!"
"Soldiers, prepare your minds as what we are about to see will be life-changing. Those who survive will be death-deifying soldiers who are unbeatable!"
Amid the strange atmosphere, hysterical laughter broke the air as the soldiers turned their focus and listened to General Devil Storm's speech. Though his words were irrational, they did their job of lifting the army's spirits, and even Floyd felt a bit better about all the strange things they were seeing.
Floyd looked around at the soldiers around him and felt he could guess their thoughts.
"Yes, this all makes sense. But, of course, the battle between a demon and an immortal would cause such a level destruction that countless animals would have abandoned their homes."
"If they didn't see this level of chaos, then that would have been even more strange and concerning. Aren't some grand lines rumored to be created by the battle between immortals and demons? So why should we be scared to see this small group of animals leaving the forest."
With the army's mood given a slight boost, they continued on their way until they finally reached the final destination, a beautiful forest with thriving plant life. Even from the back of the army, Floyd could see the building structures that previously belonged to the Beast Hunter Sect being wrapped tightly in roots, moss, and rapidly growing vines.
"Is this what it would look like if all of humanity had died and nature was able to reclaim its lost land?" A strange thought popped into Floyd's head as he waited for the Generals to discuss what was next.
At the front of the army, the twenty Generals of New Swamp Town silently watched as the trees, bushes, and every plant from the Branch Forest used to pull their roots out of the ground to inseminate the land around them. Shortly after, new plants would rapidly mature before repeating the process, quickly expanding the forest's territory.
"This is a bit different from how we expected to see, but this is a threat nonetheless. Therefore, I recommend that we send a small scouting team to try and enter the forest." General Black Snow calmly said to the others.
"I agree, but they need to be the best of the best since anything could happen when strange things like this happen. So we should send my elite team of scouts to deal with this." General Blazing Phoenix added, drawing looks of ire from the other generals.
They all could see that she wanted to send her own scout team to get the best information first before being able to report it to the other generals. But they couldn't refute her offer since she did have the best scout team.
Even though she had the least soldiers on her team, everyone was an absolute elite that could challenge above their rank. In almost every category, her soldiers would rank at the top, including her scout team.
To get the most accurate and valuable information from this scouting trip, they needed to send her elite scouts. So none of the generals refused General Blazing Phoenix's offer and allowed her to call her elite scouting team.
The moment the generals nodded their heads, they saw five soldiers wearing dark blue leather armor and faces covered in masks step forward. Without speaking a word General Blazing Phoenix simply waved her hand toward the forest for these five scouts to understand her message.
Without waiting, these five scouts silently rushed toward the expanding forest and entered without a problem. Half an hour soon passed before the five scouts returned entirely unharmed.
In that short period that the scouts were gone, the generals and the army watched as the forest had expanded ten feet forward and showed no signs of stopping. Instead, the speed at which the plants were maturing and spreading their roots continued to increase.
It had gotten to the point that as the scouts made their way out of the forest, one of the scouts was suddenly blocked as a tree grew below him. Another scout even tripped due to a bush suddenly extending its roots, causing him to hit the ground with a solid thud.
"He's dead," General Devil Storm said sharply as he watched the scout fall to the ground.
As if following his words, a newborn tree that had just finished maturing lifted its long thick roots out of the ground and slammed them into any available land. Not caring at all that one of the spaces it had selected had been occupied by a human body.
The scout knew that he needed to escape before the root pierced right through his body, he tried to stand up, but before he could even lift a finger, the scout felt the tree's tough and sharp root pierce through his leather armor, bones, and organs as if it were paper.
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