Chapter 274 Corruption In Many Forms

"Squad 3, fan out!" Halys ordered.

"Yes, sir!" The squads answered. Each squad started to fan out. Halys touched his crystal and led his group forward. Lee Seng's eyes focused on what was ahead of him. He could spot small spots of purple-black energy.

"This place is creepy." Ysa commented. "Nothing but a dead zone." The forest was quiet. Too quiet for Lee Seng. They slowly scanned the area, making sure to not leave any space unlooked. Energies grew and waned in certain areas. Lee Seng had to study and watch the areas.

"No," he shook his head, standing. "Not this one either." He turned to look at his group. Halys, Ysa, Victoria, Chrono and Vedi. They all had different tail colors. Vedi had full black tails and was simply on watch every time they stopped to look at an energy source.

"Anything you can give from the last curse you fought? Anything that stood out with that one?" Victoria asked. Lee Seng looked up into the sky. Victoria and Ysa noticed this and looked up.

"I climbed a tree and scanned the tree top. Anything with a high view got me close to the cursed tree we managed to purify." Lee Seng explained.

"Ysa. Vedi. Go up and look." Halys motioned. The two nodded and flew up above the tree tops. Ysa and Vedi looked around for a bit. They eventually came back, Ysa shaking her head.

"Nothing, sir." Ysa shook her head.

"Don't you think the forest is too quiet?" Vedi finally asked the question Lee Seng had observed. "It's too quiet. It's like we're walking into something unprepared." The halo necklaces lit up and the group tapped on it.

"Group 3-1, reporting!" A panicked female voice came over. "We've been ambushed!"

"Keep your halo on! 3-2 will come to you!" Halys told them. Screams were heard followed by a disconnect. Lee Seng's ears twitched as he looked behind him. Black-purple energy was starting to build behind them. He tilted his head as he watched the ground began to slightly roll. His eyes narrowed as he stepped forward.

"Lee Seng, we have to help them." Victoria grabbed him. Lee Seng raised his fingers up to his lips. His body was erupting with goosebumps. His ears could hear something crawling towards them. Something was coming at them. Before Lee Seng could warn the others, Vedi was already grabbing him and pulling him into the sky. A large boulder monster with purple and black energy coursing through it flew up and chomped right where Lee Seng and the group was.

"What in the God King's name is that?!?" Vedi shouted. Lee Seng gulped as he watched it dive back into the ground. The noises began to swarm him. They sounded like rocks grinding together.

"It's here." Lee Seng shouted. "That's it!"

"3-2 has found the curse!" Victoria spoke. "Group 3, collapse on the signal now!"

"They're everywhere!" A voice shouted.

"There's so many of them! What do we–" A loud disconnect sound made all of the Foxes wince.

"Sir, what do we do?" Victoria looked at Halys for instructions.

"Call the other groups. Send a signal here. Something's wrong… I hope the other groups didn't find what we found." A large rock fin protruded beneath them as Lee Seng studied it.

"It's stronger than the rest of the energies… but it's weaker than the tree." Lee Seng observed.

"Could it be a newly formed curse?" Ysa asked.

"Mmmm…." Lee Seng began to think back to the section on the curse. "This area is the hardest to find the Conqueror… Did it really mutate?" Smaller rocks flew out at the group. Lee Seng lifted his hand and deflected a couple of rocks as Victoria caught some rocks with a wall of water. The water began to turn purple, ripping Victoria of her control over it.

"It corrupted the water!" Victoria shouted. The rocks began to fly back down. Vedi flicked his halo to 2.

"This is group 3-2, Vedi speaking." Vedi began. "Group 3 has engaged with unknown entities we think are related to the curse. Requesting backup!"

"Group 2-1, Lady Vix'i speaking. We've encountered a strange phenomena as well! Some of our men have been captured by corrupted ents!" Lady Vix'i spoke.

"Group 1-1, Chimera speaking. We will split ourselves to assist accordingly! Sub units 1 will go towards Lady Vix'i. Sub units 2 and 3 will head to Group 3!" Chimera said.

"Roger." Vedi spoke.

"Roger." Lady VIx'i spoke. Vedi tapped the halo and looked at the others.

"Group 2's encountered a strange phenomena as well with corrupted ents. Commander Chimera is splitting their forces. We're getting two subunits that're heading this way. What do we do now?" Vedi explained the situation to Halys. More rocks flew at them. These picked up speed and blitzed straight past Lee Seng and the others, before Lee Seng could swipe at them.

"Argh." Lee Seng winced. He felt some of the rocks cut at him as they flew past. Something tried to enter his body but was immediately burned away by his aura. "It's trying to infect us."

"I can't do anything if I'm holding Lee Seng, sir." Vedi told Halys.

"Let go of me then." Lee Seng tapped Vedi. "I can somewhat fly."

"You're not fully healed yet. Don't stress your body out with a maintained amount of energy keeping you up!" Ysa told him.

"Then I'm going down!" Lee SEng ripped Vedi's hand away and began to descend.

"Kid!" Halys began to curse in Fox tongue. "We need to hold out for backup. I need to see if we can find a way to hold those things down enough so the kid can purify them!"

"Sir!" Victoria pointed. The large rock shark shot upwards towards Lee Seng.

"Kid!" Halys shouted. Lee Seng could feel a large amount of condensed Conqueror energy coming from within it. Dark Matter flew out of his body and pierced the rock, bouncing off as he fell closer to the shark's mouth. Fox fires appeared around him shooting themselves into the rock shark's mouth. Lee Seng sucked in a deep breath as energy started to condense around his limbs.

"Devour." Lee Seng whispered as the rock shark clamped down on him.

"Let's go!" Halys shouted. Their forms shimmered. Nature covered Halys while water covered Victoria and shadows covered Vedi. Ysa's form shimmered as she shot yellow energy into them like she had already rehearsed this a million times.

"You're empowered!" Ysa told them.

"Vedi, cut it." Halys commanded.

"Roger." Vedi rocketed forward, shadows condensing around his arms. He pulled his arm back and punched the rock shark. The energy collided wit the shark, sending it straight into the ground with a large thud. The corrupted rock shark cracked as smaller sharks flew at them. Halys slashed at the rocks with ease while Victoria managed to bubble the rocks. She watched as the bubbles started to turn black-purple and release the sharks.

"Tori, stay with Ysa." Halys commanded.

"Y-yes, sir!" Victoria pulled back towards Ysa. Ysa's eyes focused on the large corrupted rock shark.

"I can't sense his energy in there. Is it blocking me?" Ysa whispered. Her halo glowed brightly.

"You can't sense him?" Vedi responded as he twisted his halo back to the channel.

"Is he gone?" Halys asked.

"I don't know, sir. He's not–"

"RRAWWWR!" The corrupted rock shark shouted in pain. It sounded like a grindstone. It's mouth opened as Lee Seng pulled out with black-purple corruption burning off of him. He coughed, waving his hand in front of his face. Gold and black energy poured out of the monster as Lee Seng slid across the ground, coming to a stop.

"Dammit, it rejected me right as I was about to burn it!" Lee Seng shouted.

"Lee!" Halys shouted. "What did you do? Ysa couldn't sense you!" Lee Seng tapped his halo and cleared his throat.

"It was trying to consume me. That's probably why Ysa couldn't see me." Lee Seng told them.

"More rock creatures?!?" A voice cried out into the halo.

"The biggest one is on 3-3!" Another voice shouted

"Oh my god what is that!"

The gold energy pulled purple energy out of the corrupted rock shark, burning it as it touched his body. Ysa could tell energy was entering his body.

"His aura… ate the energy?" Ysa quietly spoke. "How is that… possible?" The gold energy pulsed as Lee Seng watched the rock shark burrow itself into the ground, again.

"It's moving." Vedi told them.

"Vedi, you and I will have to hold it down so Lee Seng can cleanse it. Got it?" Halys instructed.

"Got it." Vedi and Lee Seng nodded. They felt the ground rumbling all around them. Lee Seng could see different energies. None of them seemed huge at all, but he could follow the biggest energy. It was circling them like it was circling its prey. The Dark Matter suit pulsed as Lee Seng's white-gray tails swayed side to side.

'Does it know I'm a threat?' Lee Seng wondered. The large rock shark flew out straight for Lee Seng. The corrupted earth shot up, clamping the rock shark in mid-air as Vedi quickly leapt on it, binding it with shadows.

"Now!" Halys shouted. Lee Seng ran forward as smaller rock sharks flew at him. They slashed and bit at him as he made his way towards the shark. Water shot the rock sharks away, clearing a path for Lee Seng as he stuck his arm into the rock shark's mouth. He could see a small dark black-purple seed moving around. He tried to grab at it. The shark tried to pull itself away as sharks began to barrage Lee Seng from behind.

"Ah, it's ineffective!" Victoria shook her head. She was trying her best to protect Lee Seng. The earthen grasp began to meld into the rock shark as the shark's mouth began to slowly move.