My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode : 67

Chapter : 133

With a desperate, underhand toss, ignoring the horrified shouts from Faria’s group, Lloyd Ferrum hurled the pulsating Dark Vein flower directly at the Mire Monster’s gaping, chittering maw.

Time seemed to slow. The flower, a dark jewel against the eerie light, tumbled through the air. The monster, momentarily confused by this unexpected offering, paused its attack, its multifaceted red eyes tracking the bloom. Its maw opened wider, rows of needle-sharp teeth gleaming. It wanted the flower. It was going to eat the flower.

Well, that was monumentally stupid, Lloyd thought, bracing for immediate, painful evisceration. Forty coins down the drain, and now I’m monster food. Brilliant.

Just as the Mire Monster lunged to snatch the Dark Vein flower from mid-air, just as its grotesque jaws were about to snap shut around the pulsating bloom, the ground beneath them erupted.

Not with an explosion, but with a silent, terrifying upheaval. The black moss ripped apart. The earth heaved. And from the depths of Galla Forest, something immense, something ancient and scaled, rose from the ground with breathtaking speed and power.

It was a snake. A gigantic, nightmarish serpent, thicker than the oldest oaks in the forest, its scales the colour of obsidian shimmering with captured moonlight, patterned with swirling lines of deepest amethyst. Its head, vast and triangular, rose high above them, easily dwarfing the Mire Monster, its eyes twin pools of molten gold, ancient, cold, and utterly, terrifyingly intelligent. They weren't just eyes; they were abysses of primal power. A long, forked tongue, black as shadow, flickered out, tasting the air.

The Mire Monster froze, its lunge aborted, its multifaceted eyes swiveling towards this new, even more formidable presence. It let out a chittering sound that was less rage, more… apprehension?

Before anyone could react, before Lloyd could even process the sheer scale of this new horror, the gigantic snake struck. Not at them. But at the Mire Monster.

It moved with impossible speed for its size, a flowing mountain of obsidian and amethyst. Its massive coils, thick as siege towers, shot out, wrapping around the Mire Monster’s chitinous body with crushing force. The sound of groaning, cracking carapace echoed through the glade. The Mire Monster shrieked, a sound of pure agony and surprise this time, as it was lifted bodily from the ground, ensnared in the serpent’s inescapable embrace.

The Dark Vein flower, forgotten in the sudden, titanic struggle, fell unheeded to the mossy ground near the serpent's writhing coils.

The gigantic snake tightened its grip, its golden eyes fixed on the struggling Mire Monster with cold, implacable fury. It wasn't just a snake; it was a guardian. And the Mire Monster, Lloyd realized with a fresh wave of dawning horror, had just tried to eat its protected treasure.

The fight began. A primeval battle between two colossal, terrifying entities, shaking the very foundations of Galla Forest.

Lloyd stared, utterly dumbfounded, the forty System Coins momentarily forgotten. Fang cowered beside him, whining pitifully. Faria Kruts and her entourage looked on in stunned, horrified silence.

Okay, Lloyd’s internal monologue managed weakly, surveying the apocalyptic scene of a giant abyss-insect battling a guardian serpent the size of a small mountain. So, the flower had a bodyguard. A very big, very scaly, very possessive bodyguard. This… this was not in the Guild contract’s 'moderate risk' assessment.

He looked at the fallen Dark Vein flower, now dangerously close to the titanic, thrashing battle. The Mire Monster wanted it. Faria Kruts wanted it. And Lloyd Ferrum, for the sake of his maternal bloodline and his sanity, definitely still wanted those forty System Coins.

This flower-picking expedition, he concluded with a sigh that felt like it came from the very depths of his eighty-year-old soul, had just become significantly more complicated. And considerably more likely to involve being accidentally squashed.

The glade had transformed into a maelstrom of primal fury, a canvas painted with shades of obsidian, corrupted green, and the terrifying, multifaceted red glow of the Mire Monster’s eyes. The gigantic serpent and the chitinous horror were locked in a titanic, earth-shattering struggle, a battle that seemed to rip at the very fabric of Galla Forest. Trees, ancient sentinels that had stood for centuries, splintered and crashed around them like mere kindling, the ground buckled and heaved under the force of their monstrous impacts, and the air itself thrummed with the shockwaves of their blows, a visceral bass note of impending doom. The Dark Vein flower, the unsettlingly beautiful epicenter of this cataclysmic turf war, lay perilously close to the thrashing coils and flailing, scythe-like limbs, a dark jewel pulsing amidst apocalyptic chaos, seemingly oblivious to the chaos it had indirectly unleashed.

Chapter : 134

Lloyd stared, momentarily paralyzed by the sheer, overwhelming scale of the conflict. This is fine, his internal eighty-year-old sarcastically drawled, even as his nineteen-year-old legs felt rooted to the spot. Just a casual Tuesday afternoon stroll interrupted by a minor disagreement between a demigod-level snake and whatever eldritch abomination crawled out of the local swamp. Perfectly normal. Nothing to see here. Except for our imminent, gruesome deaths. His thoughts about System Coins were now a secondary, albeit still nagging, concern. Survival was screaming for priority.

"Okay, new plan!" Lloyd finally yelled, his voice cracking slightly but carrying a surprising amount of authority born of sheer, unadulterated terror mixed with a bizarre, almost giddy adrenaline rush. "Strategic withdrawal! Rapid tactical relocation! Unscheduled, high-velocity departure! Pick your euphemism, people, but MOVE! Like your fancy silk undergarments are on fire and the only extinguisher is guarded by that… that thing’s bigger, angrier cousin!"

He grabbed Fang by the scruff of his neck – the wolf-spirit was currently attempting to dig a hole to the center of Riverio with his paws – and practically hauled the terrified animal to his feet. "Come on, buddy! Less cowering, more… not being here! Your lightning claws are impressive, but I don’t think they’re rated for ‘mountain-sized serpent’ or ‘walking nightmare made of bad dreams and pointy bits’!"

He spun towards Faria Kruts and her equally stunned, white-faced entourage. They were frozen, a tableau of aristocratic horror, transfixed by the horrifying spectacle unfolding before them. "Lady Faria!" Lloyd barked, trying to cut through their shock-induced paralysis. "You and your… heavily armed horticulture club! Unless you fancy being an accidental casualty in a kaiju wrestling match that makes bar brawls look like polite tea parties, I suggest we ALL vacate the premises! Like, five minutes ago! Before we become a footnote in the ‘Stupid Ways to Die in Galla Forest’ handbook!"

Faria, jolted from her horrified stupor by Lloyd’s surprisingly commanding, if slightly hysterical, tone, blinked rapidly. Her amethyst eyes, wide with a mixture of raw terror and disbelief, flickered from the titanic battle that was currently leveling a significant portion of irreplaceable ancient woodland back to Lloyd. "Run?" she managed, her voice a thin thread of sound. Then, the ingrained aristocratic disdain, a surprisingly resilient weed, attempted to reassert itself even in the face of annihilation. "With you, Ferrum?" The implication was clear: You, the awkward, unimpressive lout? You think you can lead us? (She was still angry becauae Lloyd steal the flower.)

"Look, Your Ladyship," Lloyd snapped, patience frayed beyond repair, the immediate threat of being crushed, eaten, or possibly just vibrated into component molecules overriding any pretense of noble courtesy. "I appreciate your commitment to social hierarchy, I really do. It’s charming. But the giant death-snake and the walking nightmare-bug currently engaged in what appears to be a very enthusiastic demolition derby probably don't give a single rat’s backside about our respective noble standings! They just see 'squishy snacks with good marbling'! So, unless you have a better idea, like, say, a conveniently pocket-sized teleportation scroll that works for six people and a moderately traumatized wolf, I strongly suggest we follow the universal rule of 'big monster fight, small people run'! Run fast! Run far! And try not to scream too much, it might attract their attention from the other screaming!"

The ground bucked violently beneath their feet as the obsidian serpent slammed the Mire Monster into a cluster of ancient oaks with a sound like the world cracking in half. The trees vaporized into a cloud of splinters and dust. A shower of debris – bark, leaves, bits of what might have been unfortunate squirrels – rained down around them. That seemed to be the deciding factor for Faria’s rapidly dwindling sense of decorum.

"He's… he's right, my lady!" Scarface, the burly guard whose earlier bravado had completely evaporated, yelled, his face the color of old parchment. He grabbed Faria's arm protectively, though Lloyd doubted he could do much against either of the colossal combatants. "We need to get clear! Now! Before they decide we’re the after-dinner mints!"

Faria hesitated for another fraction of a second, her pride warring a fierce but ultimately losing battle with the undeniable, terrifying reality of their situation. Then, with a sharp, frustrated nod that looked utterly out of place on her usually composed features, she conceded. "Alright, Ferrum! Lead the way!" Her voice was tight, strained. "But if you get us eaten, I shall be extremely cross with your ghost! I'll find a necromancer just to tell you off properly!"