After taking a moment to gather their composure, Leonis signaled Bird to slightly crouch while advancing. It was eerily quiet; the only sounds that could be heard was the sand crunching beneath their feet and the swaying of the leaves above.
Bird did not like the eerie peacfulness of the forest; it felt like the calm before the storm. They had been moving for around five minutes, still covered in forest, consumed by trees.
'56 . . . 57 . . . 58 . . . 59 . . . 60 . . . 1'
Bird counted in his head to keep a tab on the sunrise. He had counted 8 minutes since their departure, 22 minutes until sunrise, 22 minutes until the "severe danger" Leonis spoke about would dawn on them.
Eleven minutes in Leonis froze. In front of him, a small shadow with an extremely subtle grey outline stared at them. Leonis immediately drew the knife from his waist and started to form a small ball of light above his finger. In the exact moment the light started to form, the little shadow turned its arms into deadly sharp blades and lunged at Leonis's feet.
Bird watching all of this unfold, realized that summoning the light on his finger was stealing almost all of Leonis's attention; he had failed to realize the little shadow had already materialized and started its attack.
Two blades cut like a pair of scissors straight through the legs of Leonis, except the blades never reached his legs. Instead, Bird slid into the trajectory of the dark blades, allowing them to chomp into steel and iron instead of flesh and bone. The dark blades were repelled by the iron boots, causing the metal to ring through the thick forest.
Staggering backward, the little shadow figure fell flat to the ground, dematerializing, slithering away to create distance from Leonis's light. Leonis had fully formed the orb of light, now chasing the shadow with the light on his finger. Bird was starting to understand how to vanquish the shadow figure.
'Light, I just have to allow Leonis to cover it in light!'
Bird ran to the nearest tree and started to fluctuate between branches, moving them in all directions, trying to let any sunlight pass through and catch the shadow off gaurd. Bird had found the branch; when he moved it, a small patch of sun shone through the ceiling of leaves.
At a moment's notice, the shadow shifted forms into a smaller snake-like form, dodging the sun. Bird shifted the branch just as fast as the shadow had dodged, bringing the sunlight forward just enough to catch half of the snake in the light. Just behind the snake, Leonis made a grand leap, plunging the orb of light onto the lower half of the shadow snake.
The shadow started to pulse under the light, but something was off. The shadow started to materialize, tuning into a condensed ball with a sinister face. It was ginning, staring at the pair with empty sockets. Both Leonis and Bird knew exactly why it had taken form in its final moments.
'Oh crap!'
Bird acted quickly, positioning his legs to cover most of his body. Meanwhile, Leonis only had time to cower as he watched the dark shadow ball explode, launching hundreds of tiny shards in every direction.
If the ring from Bird's boot had not awakened most of the horrors lying in the forest, then the shriek of pain Leonis had just let out surely did. After the explosion, multiple shards flew towards Leonis, impaling him in various parts of his body, the most crucial being one of his eyes. The shards that flew towards Bird clashed with his legs and skimmed through the skin of multiple parts of his body. Bird's legs felt broken after being shot at and crushed. It only made sense for the blunt force of these attacks to deal him a fair share of damage.
Seven minutes remained. Bird rushed to get Leonis on his feet. He knew impending doom waited for them if they stayed still any longer. After reaching Leonis, Bird winced at his wounds. Leonis was bleeding on nearly every inch of his body.
"We have to leave now."
Bird nodded, and the two started to run as fast as their bodies would let them. Leonis, though he was still injured, was in front of Bird by at least a hundred feet, but his sense of direction was severely thrown off by the sudden loss of an eye. Bird could tell something needed to change. At this rate, they would be caught in the forest by the time the sun rose.
Bird thought frivolously, how could he change their situation?
'What options do we have? Leonis is missing an eye, and I am a normal human with metal legs. What can we do?'
Bird braced for a wave of anguish as he strained the muscles in his legs, desperate to catch up to Leonis. Slowly, as he tried to catch Leonis Bird's eyes darted around the chartreuse landscape to find any hope of survival.
The mental pressure was starting to catch up with Bird. He had never had to make calculations with his life on the line, counting every second, keeping his balance through the pangs in his legs, and rapidly observing their surroundings. The pressure was crushing him.
Bird had caught up to Leonis. Three minutes until sunrise, no sign of the forest ending.
'Did we go in the wrong direction? Where in The Cone are we going? Wait what? The giant tree?'
Bird didn't bother to turn toward Leonis and angrily murmured.
"Leonis, we went in a damn circle!"
Leonis slightly slowed down and finally took a second to glance at his surroundings. He had been leading them in one giant circle. They were not exactly where they had started, but the giant tree was visible again.
Leonis abruptly stopped his run. Bird had to stop himself from running too far ahead before scanning behind him. All of the color in Leonis's face was gone; he was pale as a ghost, staring into the sky, frozen from fear.
'What is he doing? We are going to be killed any minute. What could be more important than our survival?'
Turning his head, Bird saw the giant tree slowly ascending and turning around. The Giant Tree had come to life. The sun had risen. At the base of the tree, a large gaping mouth filled with sharp bark teeth started to form. Bird was now feeling the same dread as Leonis. Bird regained his composure rather quickly, now at a complete stop, observing the forest became much easier. Bird's head swiveled back and forth; his eyes finally caught something.
'A hole? A chute! That's our escape, I have to wake Leonis!'
Bird had no idea why the chutes existed in The Cone; they had been his enemy in the past, but right now their option was falling a layer or dying. Falling a layer was a much better option.
"LEONIS TO YOUR LEFT!"
Leonis looked at Bird and then to his left. Hope. His trance instantly broke after seeing the hole; there was hope. At the same time that Leonis had noticed the hole The Giant Tree had heard Birds call to Leonis and was now starting its pursuit to ensure the forest trespassers could never trespass anywhere ever again.