Yuurei was in the front, and no he didn’t ride on any horse. He was running through the front line as he wasn’t using his transformation right now. He had everyone pace themselves as he didn’t want them to be tired out before they got to fight the giants that were here. The Nephilim could feel the breeze that had come with running and he could also feel nice weather around him. Renji was holding on to Yuurei’s shoulder as he was used to the man running this quick. He enjoyed the breeze that was coming from it all, but he wondered what was going to happen.

While they were getting close to the Deep Green, he would speak loudly. He wanted to make sure that everybody would hear him clearly.

“MEN WHEN YOU GET TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE FOREST, DO NOT VENTURE TO FAR IN! YOU WILL GET LOST, AND YOU DON’T WANT THAT! MAKE SURE YOU LET YOUR HORSE GO BEFORE ENTERING! THE GIANTS DON’T ATTACK THEM AND WE CAN ALWAYS GATHER THEM LATER ON!” He shouted at everyone as they were getting close.

When they had gotten to the forest, everyone would do just what they were told to do. When they were now on their feet, they would quickly climb up the trees that were around them. Yuurei would do the same thing as he would help Haru if she needed him to. Once he was on a tree, he would look around to see where the giants were. He figured that they would be arriving soon, or they were already here. Either way, they were going to find out soon enough, and the final bout between the two and the giants would start to conclude.

The members would do the same thing and it would become a bloodbath.

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Unlike the light mage, Haru had opted to ride on horseback, behind one of her fellow rangers. She had no riding experience herself, but it was faster than her trying to keep up by foot. As the forest line approached, her golden eyes scanned the perimeter, stopping each time they spied unusual movement within the trees. Large beings were definitely hiding inside, knocking trees about, but with no real purpose or direction. The sun was setting on the horizon, once night completely fell would the darkness be their ally or a hindrance? She couldn't say.

While the forest was known for hiding magical creatures within, those beasts would not stick out quite like this, why would they destroy the trees that were their home after all. Whatever it was, did not live here normally, its unnatural movement patterns indicated such. It seemed the information Khalfani had gathered was indeed correct, they were more than likely nothing more than stragglers from the previous battle that had no direction or orders given to them and hence were wandering aimlessly through Worth Woodsea.

Her silver ears pricked up as the light mage's shouting voice resonated through the air. It was time to dismount and proceed on foot, leaving the horses behind to be gathered up later. Being part feline, Haru was a born climber, having little to no issue ascending toward the canopy above. Her rangers split off into the scout groups they had been assigned to assist, following suit and preparing for the battles that were to come.

Leaping from branch to branch, tree to tree, Haru managed to keep her footing and balance as she swiftly followed the light mage's lead. Her guns were always at the ready. Her honey-hued eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Her ears constantly twitched to pick up any strange ominous sounds reverberating through the air. It wouldn't be long until she'd hear the menacing moaning from her nightmares emerging from the ever-darkening forest, it sounded close.

"There." The feline woman whispered to her comrade to alert him to the nearby threat, hoping they could get a quick, silent sneak attack on it and end its life before it got a chance to respond.

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Yuurei would move around within the trees as he was trying to figure out where one of the giants was located. They would start taking these things out and call it the final ending of the giant invasion. While they were moving around, Yuurei would hear Haru’s words. It would seem like she found one and she was being quiet, so she didn’t alert it. The light mage would make his moves as he would push off the tree branch and straight toward the giant. He would find himself behind the creature’s neck and he would have his arm stretched out as he was reaching for a lariat.

The power behind the attack was strong enough to go through the bone of the giant’s neck. It would snap, and soon enough it would come right off. The head flew off and hit a tree before dropping. Yuurei would land on the giant’s body and push off it. He was heading back to a tree, but then another giant would show up. This one ran towards him and would punch him straight on his arm and sent him flying into another tree nearby.

Yuurei would gasp for air and scream when he hit the tree. The pain that he felt from that wasn’t fun as he coughed up blood. What giant ran? He didn’t remember them running, or did they do that in Rush Valley. Still, he would fall to the ground and get up quickly. The giant had blown some steam out of its mouth as it was looking at Yuurei and started running towards him. This wasn’t good and it would seem like this giant had set a trap for him.

He had killed a lot of his comrades, so he was probably hoping he would show up. Yuurei would open his hands to pour mana into them both as he saw the giant coming toward him. The stars would come out and they would go inside of him. When the giant got close enough it would kick Yuurei, but he would cover himself with his hands as his gauntlet would take all of the damage. Still, he would be sent flying as he chuckled from the pain.

“What the fuck are you? You even look different than the rest of them.” He said as he needed to get up on a tree and take its head off.

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Her silver furred ears flickered as her golden eyes carefully observed the creature. Her ears picked up the sound of something else large approaching, however, before she could mention it Yuurei was already moving. As the light mage leapt from the tree, he seemed to be using the force of the leap combined with his immense strength as he landed on the giant, and shoved his fist into the back of its neck before it had even noticed his presence. Easily killing the giant monster,

Haru went to smile at his small victory, but it faded as quickly as it appeared as another giant came racing towards Yuurei. Before he had the opportunity to leap back into the treetops the giant was already swinging, punting the light mage like a toy back into one of the trees, causing a loud cracking noise to reverberate through the forest. Her golden orbs widened in horror as steam poured from the creature's mouth as it charged toward the light mage once more. Without a second thought, Haru drew both her pistols firing shot after shot in an attempt to draw the creature's attention away as she had done so many times before. Hoping to give her guildmate an opportunity to properly steady himself before fighting back.

Alas, her attempts seemed futile, her shots not even bothering this giant of a humanoid monster that focused all its energy and attention only on the light mage, ignoring all else around it. It seemed this one had slightly more brains than the rest of the easily distracted giants they'd dealt with up until this point. Scowling, the demi-human would keep firing her pistols in an attempt to do anything to the creature, her magic attacks were definitely striking it, yet it seemed to heal quicker than her bullets could pierce its flesh.

"Tch." She tutted audibly, irritated that their usual plan of dealing with them wasn't going to work with this one. Her ears flicked once more as she heard her comrade chuckling and talking, at least he seemed to be having fun at least. A real challenge she supposed, although she feared that his overconfidence might get the better of him in this situation. They had very little information on the creatures, with no time to study any of them. Who knew what it was truly capable of. Her thoughts momentarily thought back to a certain man she'd met in the mines, hopefully not something like his destructive magic.

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Yuurei’s knockback would stop when he the young man had hit a tree. He would cough out blood from this as he would fall to the ground. The giant that had hit him was getting closer to him. The Nephilim would get up from the ground quickly as he was going to have to go strong in this battle. The light mage would take a deep breath and his gauntlet would be fed mana. In return, he felt himself becoming stronger and he would get ready.

This giant was freaking quick though, and when it got close to Yuurei it would try to ram its knee into the man. He would dodge the attack and the knee would hit the tree. It would cause the tree to crack and soon enough it would fall to the ground. The berserker would chuckle in disbelief at how strong this thing was. The half-elf was going to have to pull everything if he wanted a chance to win this.

Yuurei would stretch his arm out as he was moving through the ground and a magic circle would appear in front of him. A second one would appear in the sky and a bunch of light arrows would come falling toward the giant.

The giant would see this, and it would cover its neck as it would feel the pain of the arrows that would hit him. This would confirm that this giant was smarter than the other ones by a huge margin. Yuurei would be able to use this to climb up a tree quickly as his spell finished. The giant would look around and it would see that Yuurei was now on high ground.

“If you see it coming toward you, run!” He shouted to Haru but never looked in her direction.

The giant would start running straight toward Yuurei quickly and it would use its right hand to strike at him. The Nephilim would jump toward another tree like the one he was on would find itself being destroyed. Yuurei would suck his teeth because he didn’t want nature to be harmed like this.

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Haru felt panic rise in her chest as she continued to watch the scene unfold before her, her continuous shots doing nothing. In a desperate attempt, she poured as much of her magical power as her two pistols could hold into them, firing away. The bullets would hit their mark, yet only left small scratches that lingered for only a moment before the flesh began to repair itself rapidly. Within seconds it was as if all the damage she had done had been completely nullified through the giant's healing capabilities.

To make matters worse, it still didn't even so much as a glance in her direction its attention forever locked onto the light mage. It seriously didn't see her as a threat she supposed, well it wasn't wrong, but why was this one so much smarter than all the others they'd fought? Haru sucked air through her teeth in irritation as she scowled at her companion's words aimed at her.

"Tch. Of course!" Haru tutted back, her golden eyes glancing momentarily towards the light mage's direction as he called out to her. Did he think she'd be stupid enough to fight this thing head on the way he was? If she attempted something like that she'd be minced meat within mere moments. The demi-human may be sturdy and used to receiving beatings from brutes bigger than herself, but even she could tell she was no match for this monster.

Her focus soon shifted back to the beast as a thunderous crack of wood and bark being shattered rung through the forest. Whilst Yuurei had managed to leap out of the way thankfully, the poor innocent tree was now left in complete ruins, splintering out from the trunk where it had snapped in two. The monster's strength was nothing to sniff at, even if she did manage to somehow pull its attention away from Yuurei, she wasn't sure if he'd be able to finish it off before it left her splintered in two, much like the tree.

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Yuurei was going to have to use his Angelos Mode against this monster, wasn’t he? It was not something he wanted to use, but it would seem like that was the case. He didn’t want him to destroy any more trees and if he kept going to them, then that’s what was going to happen. It seemed like Haru was trying her best to do something to the giant in front of them. He was sure she was hurting the monster, but it kept healing. That was not good because it meant that they had to do an all-out attack to finish it off.

The giant would look over at Yuurei and it had a serious expression on its face. He would shake his head because this couldn’t go on any longer. The light mage’s wings would start sprouting out from his back. They were longer than they were before. His body was becoming taller as well as he was not the same size anymore.

What made him look different than anything else was the mask that materialized on his face as he was ready for battle. The giant was running straight toward Yuurei, but before he got too close, the berserker would fly off the tree and towards the giant. It would swing at Yuurei, but the light mage would find himself dodging the attack without a problem. He would move to the side of the giant’s face, and he would punch it straight in the face.

Yuurei would destroy a chunk of its face from that one blow, but it would start healing as it looked over at the Nephilim. This wasn’t good, and he knew that he would have to get behind this monster’s neck. The giant rushed straight towards Yuurei once Again, but it would continue to swing at the half-elf. He would continue to dodge as he was serious about this. His transformation was enough to put fear into this man’s heart.

“I cannot let you destroy anything else around here. You must perish here even if I want answers.” He said as he felt this was the only way.

Yuurei would move through the air as fast as he could at this point, and he would disappear from the giant’s line of sight. He would end up behind the giant and he was ready to attack. It wouldn’t take long for the giant to realize what was going on and it would put its hand in the way. The Nephilim wasn’t going to allow that to stop him though. He would break through the hand of the giant with a left hook and then used all his might to lariat the giant with his right arm.

This would cause the head of the giant to fall right off and onto the ground. The body of the giant would fall to the ground as it was lifeless now. He would sigh with relief because he couldn’t stay in this form too long. He would fly straight to Haru and he would land right next to her as he looked at her with the mask covering his face.

"I should have done this in the first place." He said to her as he shook his head.

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Haru had experienced the power of the light mage's angelic transformation first-hand before, regardless, it still left her awestruck as shimmering light burst forth from Yuurei. His majestic wings burst forth from his back as she felt the aura of his power wash over the area. The feeling of being weakened was not one the demi-human overly enjoyed, but at least it would also be affecting their giant enemy. Her golden eyes narrowed a bit as she tilted her head at the sight of the light mage's transformation. Something about it seemed different. Was he bigger?

Haru was left a little confused, perhaps his abilities as a Nephilim had grown since she'd last experienced them, or maybe he had been holding back all this time? She wasn't entirely sure. Regardless, now was not the time to be gawking or asking personal questions, they still had a monster in front of them to deal with. Or well, they momentarily did as the light mage didn't hold back as he took flight and charged at the beastly humanoid, striking it directly in the face with his first.

A large chunk of flesh went tumbling to the ground, already starting to steam as the beast groaned something fierce at losing part of its cheek. It attempted to lash back out, but was too slow, as Yuurei had already swiftly shifted behind it, striking at the back of its neck in an attempt to decapitate the monster. The creature tried to stop him but to no avail as the giant's head was sent soaring and the body collapsed to the ground. Successfully killing the monster.

With a sigh of relief, Haru would return her pistols to their holsters. They weren't completely done with their job in the forest, there were still more giants to scour and remove of course, but at least they were down one more. One that would have easily bested most of the other guild members, thankfully it had been Yuurei who had found it first. As Yuurei landed beside her she felt the energy of his aura all the more strongly.

"Well yes, that would have been far more beneficial time-wise. However, you were not to know how difficult this particular opponent was to be when we were first engaged upon." Haru folded her arms, closing her eyes in thought, "You seem bigger and more..." She shifted uncomfortably, "Irritating isn't quite the right word..." She trailed off, finding his aura annoying, but not knowing how to politely ask him to either stop or go fly off and deal with the other monsters in the forest.

"It doesn't matter, we should keep going and ensure the whole forest is cleared out before we return back home to the guild." She sighed, rubbing the back of her neck as she prepared to move to complete their work. Hopefully, they'd be done before nightfall.

[EXIT]
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Yuurei would hear her words and he could see her expression. He had forgotten for a quick second that his form bothered people. It was weird, but he would find himself dispersing the transformation. The Nephilim would shrink in size, going back to their normal height. The mask that covered his face would dematerialize as well. The wings would be the last to go as his eyes returned to normal. She was right though; they weren’t done with clearing this place. They had to do more, but of course, that would change when his scout units and her units came back.

It would seem like they checked the entire place and got rid of all the giants that were remaining. It would seem like the plan worked because he didn’t see anybody missing from the crowd.

“Alright let's all head back to the guild. Good work everyone and I’m proud of all of your hard work.” He said as he looked over to Haru.

It was time for them to go back and he would explain the transformation to her on their way back home.

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[exit]