Suddenly... the massive egg that the Giant Sky Bird was holding between its claws slipped slightly.
The sound of the shell scraping against the giant claws was heard even through the howling wind.
The bird immediately stopped rolling, its entire body suddenly became still, and then it wrapped both claws more desperately around the egg.
Its massive head lowered, and all its attention... all its instincts... its entire being... was focused on that same egg.
"The egg... is still more important to it than us." Lian narrowed his pupils.
And this was a single glimmer of hope! If the monster was still forced to focus on the egg and forget about taking revenge on them, he felt... maybe... maybe they really would survive.
But time was very short. The bird had already finished that insane dive.
Now it was flying only a few hundred meters above the massive branches of the Forest of Giants.
Branches that even from this distance looked thicker than the federation’s defensive towers. If it climbed again... no hope would remain.
Lian looked down. His mind was working quickly. The ground was still far away, too far.
Jumping directly... was certain death. But... his eyes suddenly caught something.
A few hundred meters below... a massive mass of emerald moss was spread across a network of exposed roots.
Leaves as wide as building roofs were piled on top of each other, mushrooms as tall as small houses were sticking out of the soil.
And a little further away, a fallen branch stretched like a massive bridge between two parts of the forest.
Moss... was the best choice, if they were lucky.
"When we reach that branch..." His voice this time cut through the wind with all his power.
"We cut the ropes!"
"No! If we all jump at the same time, we might fall on top of each other!" Sera immediately raised her head.
Lian made the decision right then.
"Ravian first, you land on the trunk with Root Grip."
Then his gaze fell on Sera.
"Then you and Nemi, and I jump last."
No one objected, everyone knew there was no time to argue. This was their only chance to survive, if they lost it too, their death was certain!
At that same moment...
The Giant Sky Bird turned its head back again, its massive golden eye fixed on them.
Lian’s heart stopped for a moment, but right at that time...
Crack... the sound of the egg cracking again was heard, a new crack appeared on the shell, and the bird’s entire body tensed.
Its gaze was immediately lifted from the four small creatures on its back.
Its head went down in panic, its beak gently touched the egg’s shell.
The mother... no longer cared about them. Not because she had forgotten them, but because now, in its instinctive mind, nothing was more important than returning the egg safely to the nest.
Its chick was being born and it had to return it to a safe place as soon as possible!
Lian did not smile, he felt their plan had worked.
"Now..."
The bird opened its wings, another gust of wind, and this time it began to climb.
"Right now!"
Ravian was the first, with a quick movement, he cut his rope, and his body immediately separated from the bird’s back.
He fell for a few meters, then both hands, feet, and tail shone with green light.
Root Grip.
His body hit the massive trunk of one of the trees with great force, the sound of bone and skin hitting the trunk was heard even from this distance.
His shoulder was bleeding from the impact.
But... he did not fall, he was clinging to the trunk with all his being, and Lian breathed a sigh of relief.
"Next!"
Sera also jumped, and at the same time, after signaling to Nemi, Lian let go of her hand and released her, and both spun in the air.
The wind threw them a few meters away, then they landed on one of the massive leaves, the leaf bent under their weight close to the ground.
A moment later, like a giant spring, it threw them back into the air, and both fell into the thick mass of moss and disappeared.
Now... only Lian remained. He placed his hand on the harness around his waist.
He pulled, it didn’t budge.
The hook... was stuck!
The bird was climbing higher every moment.
In a few more seconds, everything would be lost. Although no sign of fear or worry could be seen on his face this time either.
It was just a rope, maybe he couldn’t kill that bird, but he could still pull this rope, and that’s exactly what he did.
The rope suddenly came free, his body was thrown backward, and the wind took all control from him.
The first impact... a massive leaf. His body slid on its slippery surface and then fell off the leaf’s edge.
The second impact... the stem of one of the giant mushrooms. The mushroom bent like a massive spring and threw him back into the air.
The final impact... a mass of moss. As if the entire world turned green, and a heavy blow hit his back.
Then... darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, it took a few moments to realize he was still alive.
He took a deep breath, his entire body was in pain. It hadn’t been long since the last time he had experienced such adrenaline.
Maybe not even a week had passed since he had survived the siege of the base by two monster races and a level 35 Fallen that had come for him.
And again, he was caught in such a situation... his fate was too full of ups and downs.
He slowly emerged from the moss, the first thing he saw was the sky.
The Giant Sky Bird was now just a black dot in the mist, holding the egg firmly between its claws.
It didn’t look back even once, with each flap of its wings, it got further away, and finally... it disappeared into the clouds.
A few minutes later... all four were standing together again.
No one was speaking, not because of exhaustion, but because the surrounding scenery didn’t allow for words.
Lian slowly raised his head, finally seeing the Forest of Giants from the ground.
And he understood that all his previous assumptions had been wrong.
This was not a forest, this was another world. The tree roots had emerged from the soil like multi-story walls.
Some of them were so thick that even dozens of people holding hands couldn’t encircle them.
The moss had grown up to a human’s chest, dew drops on the leaves were each the size of a human head, and green mana light was shining inside them.
Fallen leaves, like the roofs of massive houses, lay on the ground.
The gap between two roots... looked like a deep valley to them.
From a distance, the sound of unknown creatures moving, like the trembling of the earth, could be heard.
Sunlight barely passed through the canopy, thin columns of light had split the foggy forest air.
Green particles of mana were floating calmly in the air, an insect passed by them, its body almost the size of an elephant.
A few moments later, the creature disappeared.
Lian calmly looked up, the tip of the tree was not visible at all and was lost in the mist.
Now he understood even more how small he was in front of this forest’s trees.
The branch they had landed on a few minutes ago now from below looked like a bridge stretched between two mountains.
A few minutes later, when they were sure the Giant Sky Bird would not return, the silence among them was broken.
Nemi quietly came toward Lian, she just looked at him for a few moments, and her eyes were still trembling from the shock.
Then suddenly she wrapped both her arms around Lian’s arm, her voice trembling.
"We... we’re really alive... thank you so much! Thank you, thank you so much! You saved us!"
Lian said nothing and just gave a very faint smile, and Sera stepped forward, quietly lowering her head.
"You pulled us out of that monster’s saliva once, and the second time you saved us from its nest." She lowered her head again.
"Our tribe will never forget this debt."
Ravian said nothing for a few moments, his pride wouldn’t allow him to show his feelings easily, but in the end, he took a deep breath.
"If it weren’t for you..." His gaze went to the sky.
"We would have been dead even before that egg hatched."
Lian quickly changed the subject, his gaze fixed on the forest.
"I hope you at least know which direction your tribe is."
A few seconds of silence followed, and then Ravian laughed, the first real laugh since Lian had met him.
"Don’t worry." He placed his hand on one of the massive roots.
"As long as I can see the rivers, the moss, and the direction of the root growth, I can find the path." Then he pointed to the east.
"The tribe is that way."
Lian gave a brief look at the path, an endless forest, full of mist, full of unknown sounds, and creatures whose very breathing shook the ground.
"Then let’s go." He said quietly.