Nico cut through the air with Nom-Nom on his back while the forest rushed beneath them in an endless green blur.
Ahead of them, far enough that Nico could barely make out the streaks of movement, X-97 flew with her wings of flames stretched wide.
He sent her ahead as vanguard to deal with any airborne monsters ahead.
And those poor souls barely had time to register her existence before being removed from it, which made her the perfect solution to the 'things that fly and want to eat us' problem.
Their objective was simple yet time-sensitive: Cross the Jubokko Forest before sunset.
And according to the system, it was around 4:30 PM.
That gave them roughly four and a half hours before the sun dipped low enough for the forest to start moving.
Although X-97, at her speed, could clear the entire forest in less than half that time without breaking a sweat.
Nico… could not.
