Ball of Nothing

Zero nodded and passed the fragile note from the bottle to Bob and Truen to read. At the same time, he explained the ecosystem in the reclaimed swampland.

"If you defeated the dark tree ent, the rest of the dark faes would disperse and cause havoc elsewhere. It wouldn\'t be good for anyone."

Bob frowned at the handwriting. "I don\'t understand what it says."

Truen didn\'t understand the language either, and Zero blinked. "It\'s a map of where Pocky is stuck in and a plea for help. Sure, he might be slightly terrible at drawing, but surely you can tell from the signature cute otter whiskers here and the distressed expression, right?"

Both Truen and Bob deadpanned. That was a drawing? Gosh! Even Seff could do better. How was Zero able to identify the drawing so quickly? Also, where was Pocky trapped at? The map wasn\'t very detailed. Truen didn\'t know where to start the search no matter how much he stared at the old piece of paper.

"Do you know where Pocky is hiding?" Truen asked cautiously, and Zero nodded. The wood elf didn\'t know what to think of Zero\'s ability to understand bad handwriting and drawing. Bob didn\'t look too surprised.

"He is hiding in a cave on the side of the mountain somewhere," the Eternal Dragon said, and Truen snapped his neck over.

"Even you can understand?"

Bob nodded and pointed to the poorly illustrated map. This is a side view of where he is. There\'s only one sea, one special tree with a scary face and one wall in this area. The otter is inside the wall. Clearly, he is hiding inside the mountain."

Was this even reliable? Truen didn\'t know what to think about Zero and Bob\'s simplicity. Perhaps they were right. Maybe Pocky was residing inside the mountain wall. It was better than not having any clues. However, the location of this bottle was also strange. When they split the search territory, Bob flew to the area closest to the old coastline. Truen searched around the centre of the reclaimed forest. Zero searched close to the mountain range but not close enough for a bottle to be thrown from the top of the mountain. How did it get here?

Before they could brainstorm Pocky\'s possible location further, the dark tree ent howled and launched a huge area attack. Bob helped Zero find his balance as the ground shook and Truen cringed at the sheer volume of that howl. The dark tree ent was furious, and Truen was now glad that he retreated. While dealing with a tree ent wasn\'t something too life-threatening, Truen would still suffer heavy casualties dealing with a tree ent on a rampage. Thankfully, they were not the tree ent\'s target.

Before they could decide what to do, the tree ent\'s root struck the side of the mountain and Bob\'s jaw fell open. The mountain\'s side cracked, and part of the rock surface fell off, causing a landslide. The tree ent continued to strike the mountainside, and Truen wanted to put more distance between the tree ent and the mountain to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

Just when Bob thought the tree ent would rip a hole in the mountainside, something unexpected made all three of them jump.

Zero recognised that sound. It might be too quick to see, but after hanging out with the lab members for long enough, Zero knew how a cannon sounded like. The tree ent howled in pain as one of its roots broke off from that shot. It was coming from the side of the mountain, and Zero frowned. The cannonball didn\'t look like the usual ones crafted from shiny metal. Instead, this cannonball was rough and shattered upon impact.

"Rock?" Zero tried to get closer for a better look, but Truen and Bob pulled him away as the forest became a deadly battleground.

As the battle raged on, dark faes screamed in agony. Hundreds were buried from the landslide. More perished from rock splinters shooting in every direction as the tree ent and Pocky played a deadly baseball game. Every cannonball that Pocky shot from the mountain, the dark tree ent would use a root to smash it to smithereens.

Truen pulled Zero onto Bob\'s back when the Eternal Dragon transformed into his magnificent body and took to the skies. From above, they witnessed the destruction. The person hiding in the mountainside had to be Pocky. Zero asked if they could confirm the identity of the attacker in the mountainside, and Wii volunteered. The eggplant fairy created a clone and sent it as a scout.

The fight lasted for almost an hour before the dark tree ent retreated. Many dark faes were killed, and Zero frowned. Wii confirmed that the one firing cannonballs from the mountain wall was a small sea otter beastman.

"What is he doing now?" he asked the clone.

"He\'s repairing his weapons. I also saw a very efficient system inside the cave. There is a farm for shellfishes and various sea creatures. At the same time, the cannonballs were fired by a huge slingshot fashioned out of monster silk."

"Let\'s approach him," Zero said, and Truen looked uneasy.

"Must we approach him now? He just finished fighting the tree ent."

Zero nodded. "I\'ll let him know that I\'m a doctor, and we found his note. He will listen to us."

Truen paused. "If he doesn\'t?"

Zero sighed. "Then I\'ll leave you to do the hard negotiations. I hope we don\'t have to resort to that because I\'m going to ask him for a favour. I don\'t really want to sail in a ship made by someone who hates me."

The ship should sink as part of its functional design. However, Zero didn\'t want to go on a voyage in a vessel made by someone who held grudges against him. Pocky didn\'t seem like a difficult person to talk to. Like all beastfolks, he should be a simple person to approach. Zero didn\'t come empty-handed either. The globe sitting in his inventory should be enough to get on Pocky\'s good side.

"Let\'s go," Zero urged Bob.

The dragon swooped down and flew towards the mountainside quickly as Truen readied some illusion spells. There was no need to traumatise the poor shipwright by the sight of a dragon.