Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1079 - 194 Dancing Tree

Chapter 1079: Chapter 194 Dancing Tree

"Aooo~~~~" Another tremendous roar of a tiger resounded, seeming much closer than before. The girls each opened their mouths and drew in a deep breath, easing their eardrums and calming their hearts a bit. Just as the roar came to an end, Catherine noticed Pannis suddenly raised his eyebrows in puzzlement. She, too, subsequently heard a faint scream emanating from the dense forest. The scream seemed to come from a great distance, and had Catherine not been paying such close attention to Pannis’s expression, she likely would have missed it entirely. Now that she had noticed, she frowned and asked, "What was that?"

"The three nearest spotted wolf squads have all been wiped out, eight in total," Pannis said, "Their primary target wasn’t us but those poachers. It’s hard to say whether this is good news or bad; no one can be sure."

"If they’ve killed so many spotted wolves, that should be enough food, right? Will they attack us again?" Lina, holding a spellbook in one arm, didn’t grasp her hammer in the other. Her hand was empty and hanging by her side, ready to form the divine spell glyphs at any moment: "But no one knows their size; maybe eight wolves isn’t enough for them."

"Not ’they,’ ’it,’" Pannis shook his head and raised a finger, saying, "It’s just one deceiver, at least only one is making the noises. Based on our last encounter with the deceiver, eight spotted wolves would be enough for one to feed on for many days, but the key issue isn’t food."

"The key issue is whether it considers us as invaders, right?" Catherine countered, "For magical beasts, the entry of a rather special sort of creature like us into their territory would surely put them on alert, wouldn’t it? So I think that an indiscriminate attack on us would be normal, meaning we’re definitely going to be attacked by it."

"You’d be right if we were dealing with ordinary magical beasts, but this is a deceiver," Pannis suddenly looked around as if searching for something but continued speaking, "Deceivers are extremely cunning creatures that go to great lengths to disguise themselves and trick their prey. However, cunning creatures share one common trait: intense suspicion. After all, those accustomed to deceiving others are always on guard against being deceived themselves. So, if we appear strong enough, it might avoid us due to its excessive doubts, allowing us to dash through its territory. Anyway, this territory isn’t that large."

"It might avoid us?" Lina said in surprise, "I’ve never heard of a magical beast dodging a fight over territory."

"It just prolongs the fight, not abandoning the struggle completely," Pannis explained, "When it realizes the enemy is strong, it tends to halt its attacks temporarily, following the enemy at a distance, waiting for a moment of negligence to deliver a fatal blow. This surveillance could last for many, many days. Of course, we’re not going to stand still and wait for it; we’ll keep moving towards the border. Soon, it will realize we are just passing through, and it won’t attack us anymore. You could call it an understanding. But there’s a precondition—we have to make them truly sense our strength, otherwise, they won’t back down."

"What are you looking for, exactly? I’ve noticed you’ve been searching for a while," Catherine asked with a frown, noticing Pannis’s continued survey of their surroundings, "Are you looking for something to use against the deceiver?"

"You know about this too?" Flare looked at Catherine in surprise and, after noticing the knight girl’s puzzled expression, nodded in confirmation, "Her Majesty can confirm that the past five days have indeed allowed Catherine to show significant growth. She can now deduce Pannis’s intentions from a single movement," Flare explained on behalf of Pannis, "Our Elves have an ancient proverb which translates into the common tongue like this, ’No matter how powerful a magical beast is, there must exist something near its lair that can be used to counter it.’ This is the wisdom accumulated over thousands of years by generations of Elves at the expense of their lives. For instance, in places where the highly venomous red silk snakes are active, there must be a growth of white soursop which is best at absorbing the toxins, and where acidic black-browed worms that constantly secrete a highly corrosive mucus gather, there will be an abundance of anvil grass that resists corrosion. Similarly, in the territory of the Deceivers, there must exist Dancing Trees that can counter them."

"I’ve also heard about the first two phenomena," said Vivian, who was drawing some inscrutable arrays on the ground with her head lowered. She looked up after hearing what Flare said and added, "It’s actually quite easy to understand. The thorns need to absorb a large amount of toxins to compensate for some of the substances they lack for proper growth. The white soursop is even more obvious, and the toxicity of the red silk snakes causes all plants to wither in the areas they pass through, with the white soursop being the exception. Over time, a large number of white soursops will naturally grow in their range of activity. The reason behind the acidic black-browed worms is similar. However, what are Dancing Trees?"

"A specialty of the Forest of Death, they don’t have a scientific name, we commonly call them Dancing Trees," Flare explained. "They are extremely sensitive to sound. Whenever there’s a loud noise around, all their leaves will twist non-stop, as if they are dancing, hence the name Dancing Trees. If you’re next to them, sounds will mysteriously diminish, with louder volumes more noticeably affected, while normal speech remains mostly unchanged."

"Catherine," Pannis suddenly turned and said, "Help."

"Okay!" Before Pannis could specify the help he needed, Catherine had already understood his intention. Her Aggression surged, and she shouted her response with a knight’s battle cry. The roar had barely ended when the battle cry filled the woods again, and even the distant valleys echoed faintly.

As for the pair’s flawless cooperation without the need for words, Flare looked down, curving her lips with a smirk that went unnoticed, but as soon as she looked up, she met two pairs of mocking eyes eager for amusement—one pair with yellow-green vertical pupils, and the other as deep blue as the ocean.

"Ha, found it," Pannis finally brightened up, jubilantly proclaiming, "This makes things a lot easier. We don’t have to deal with getting our noses and eyes bloodied from their attacks anymore. With the Dancing Trees, let’s see how they try to attack us now."

Following Pannis’s gaze, one could see a sparser area of the forest, where the trees had tower-shaped crowns and very dense foliage. The roar had brought with it wind, making it hard to see, but this time, with the battle cry just falling, the light green leaves were slightly twisting, truly as if dancing.