The Laughing Swordsman

Several wooden spikes rapidly closed in on Apollo. They were not only sturdy, but would follow his path, making them very difficult to dodge.

Apollo was able to handle one wooden spike, but not two.

He looked towards the black flame match he was holding onto by pinching from under his clothes. The majority of the match had been burnt through, but still enough to last a decent amount of time.

Without hesitation, he grabbed onto the match.

Apollo's vision beyond ten meters immediately disappeared while he himself disappeared from Otis' vision.

The wooden spikes continued forth towards his last location, but since they were no longer tracking him, Apollo easily flew out of the way.

Otis clenched his fist.

"Show yourself, coward!"

He was a bit of a hypocrite considering Otis was hiding within the foliage, but the technicalities weren't too important to him right now.

Apollo hovered in the air for a moment and scanned the forest below him.

It was hard to see anything because of the excessive amount of leaves. There weren't too many trees, but their branches extended far, covering nearly the entirety of the view from the sky.

The overall radius that this new forest spanned was roughly a few hundred meters, meaning Otis' location was going to be hard to determine.

Apollo decided to dive into the forest and try his luck. He flew through quickly knowing that there wasn't too much time left for him to continue using the match.

In his rush, Apollo brushed by a vine. To his surprise, the vine jumped at him like a snake and wrapped around his arm. He immediately slashed at it with his bokken, but several wooden spikes formed right next to him.

One wooden spike formed to Apollo's left. He was barely able to dodge it by twisting his body. Another formed underneath him, prompting him to shoot his bokken out towards the previous wooden spike and rebound off of it.

The wooden spike brushed by Apollo's face, blowing his hair aside.

After that, another wooden spike shot towards him from the front.

Apollo giggled, feeling the pressure bear down on him.

Right when the wooden spike was about to hit, Apollo pivoted his body and stepped on the wooden spike behind him.

And disappeared.

He reappeared to the side and continued flying out of the way. The wooden spike ended up crashing into another one. Right after, countless vines shot out in the surrounding area, scouring the area for any trace of Apollo.

Unfortunately, he had already left.

Apollo realized that Otis was able to use the forest to feel as though it was part of his body. Not to mention the ease of control Otis had over the various plants.

He took more care so Otis would not be alerted, but inevitably went slower because of it.

Apollo looked around, but despite the vastness of the forest created, he could hardly see further than ten meters. There were simply too many leaves, vines, and other plants that blocked his vision.

He also noticed that vines would randomly shoot out in various directions and attempt to capture as though something was there. Thankfully, none of them got Apollo so far. He guessed that Otis was randomly attempting to attack him throughout the forest.

Apollo mentally prepared himself in case any vines appeared next to him.

So far, none of the vines reached for him. In fact, they were quite far away. Thus, Apollo kept flying through the forest essentially unimpeded.

However, things were not so simple.

He quickly realized that the vines appeared to be closing in on him, almost like they knew his general location. The attacks the vines sent out before were not to get Apollo, but to create a boundary that gradually closed in.

Apollo let out a soft sigh and hovered just above one of the tree branches. He waited patiently, watching the waves of vines close in faster and faster.

Right when one of them was about to touch Apollo, he placed his foot onto the tree branch.

And disappeared.

The vines snapped towards his location frantically, almost like desperate snakes. There was even a wooden spike that pierced through his old location.

However, their target was already gone, setting his sights on other parts of the forest.

Apollo figured that it would be difficult for Otis to create another situation where the vines slowly entrapped him since he could've been anywhere.

However, moments later, Apollo was proven wrong.

Although the vines didn't appear next to him, they already appeared relatively close around him. This couldn't have been a random sweep, as it did not encompass all the places he could've gone.

In other words, Otis could track Apollo to a certain extent. It definitely wasn't the most accurate given how he had to check the area around Apollo, but because of this tracking ability, Otis would end up wasting quite a bit of both their time.

Given that the black flame match would run out sooner or later, Apollo was on the losing end of a stalemate.

He decided to reveal his location by stepping on a tree branch. Numerous vines immediately shot towards him as did several wooden spikes, but he disappeared before they could hit.

Soon after they missed, Apollo stood on top of another tree branch.

The vines and wooden spikes changed their direction to get towards Apollo. However, he disappeared once more.

Apollo continued this charade for quite a long time, going in a fairly clear path.

His foot touched a tree branch, causing it to jostle up and down. Vines and wooden spikes shot towards his old location. Once they hit nothing, they began to scour the general area.

However, this time, Apollo did something different.

Instead of stepping down on a branch, he lifted his bokken high into the sky. Apollo's thumb was firmly planted on the hilt.

It looked like he was going to swing, which was true.. However, it wasn't a swing aimed to kill.