Sara the facis arbor, even with the little intelligence of her monster species, felt very troubled.
Both of the invaders this time right now, the humanoid creature covered in armor and the lizardman with a scythe are very strong. At least, that's how they felt to her.
That's why, as soon as Gosh ran off, she turned anxious and started pounding away at the pair as frantically as she could. That tacit understanding that Gosh thought he had with her, wasn't as great as he thought. As his pet, their invisible connection only conveyed emotions between them, not precise words.
The armored man defended at a speed matching her's, but this seemed hard, even for him. His stage and level does not change the fact that the tree's branches are thicker than his arms.
"Micos, hurry up!"
"You try fumbling in a bag full of stuff with your eyes closed." The lizardman grumbled.
He took out a bottle of what looked like murky water, unscrewed it, and...
At that moment, a swing of a branch that the armored man couldn't fully parry grazed the lizardman's hand, knocking the bottle away and spilling it on the ground.
"Feces! Defend better Jason!" The lizardman complained.
"Tch." Clicking his tongue in annoyance, the armored man blocked another blow of the monster tree and backed away. Pushing the lizard with his back, he urged, "Retreat and cleanse yourself away from the tree's range!"
The lizard man didn't object. Eyes still closed, he turned around and ran backwards, followed by Jason, who found an opportunity between the tree's attacks to run.
Forward, forward, and endlessly forward. Only an single-minded idiot would not consider any other tactic other than that. Retreating to regroup is a valid and often useful strategy.
"Kuf! What hit me?!"
"Dirt! That dirty monster is flinging dirt and stones at us!"
But even as they retreated out of range, the monster tree, the facis arbor with a frustrated expression on her face, dug up with her branches soil and stones left around her from the construction days to toss at them. Her accuracy sucked, but the projectiles, being what they are spread out wide and some still hit, causing her targets to be disturbed.
Once far enough that even the rocks thrown could not hit them, Jason dug through his bag, grabbed a similar bottle as what the lizardman took out before and splashed it all over his friend's scaly head. It washed off the faux kat's poison ink in a single go.
The lizardman shook off the cleanser. "So what do we do? Beat this tree or go help Meyon?"
Able to catch his breath now, the armored man peeked at the monster tree, whose face was staring at them in vigilance. As expected of a common tree monster, unable to move away from where it's rooted and chase them.
The armored man considered for a moment. "...Trunk wood of the Facis arbor is great for building the shafts of spears and bows, and worth money. We'll beat this tree first. Meyon's around the same level as us, having developed a few uncommon skills. She should be able to handle that stage 1 faux kat by herself. Even if she can't, that faux kat didn't look so strong that it could kill her quickly. She should be able to hold on until we're done with the tree and catch up."
"Alright! Let's do this!"
"Die, monster!" Their conversation done, the two charged at Sara once again.
Sara uses her newly acquired skill, Throw, to launch soil and rocks at them again.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The duo block the rocks with their arms and armor, while ignoring the soil altogether, it having little effect on them, barely slowing them down.
When they got within the right range again, she swung her longer branches. When they got closer, she swung her less long branches. When they got closer again, she swung her mid length branches, whacking and poking them as they defended and wounded her many wooden appendages.
Luckily, the lizardman's weapon is not suited to cutting wood like the armored man's sword more so is. Otherwise, the damage that Sara would have been taken would have doubled at least.
Once they past median line, Sara grew more desperate. A look of effort, of gritted teeth and pulsed veins, appeared on her wood face as she forcibly lifted her roots out from under the ground, out of the soil and past the grass, just slightly, just enough to catch her opponents off guard.
"Agh!" The armored man tripped over an uplifted root causing him to fall to his knees, whenafter a strong and thicker branch came swinging down at him for a painful blow.
"I won't let you!" The lizardman stepped forth and blocked in front, giving the armored man time to get up.
"Thanks."
"No need to mention it."
They both resumed their advance, showing the power of comrades.
Sara began getting anxious, or more anxious than before. Her opponents are getting too close. And her shorter branches are the ones occupied with holding up this damn heavy treehouse. Over time, she had gotten more used to the weight of this thing, as the level of her Lift skill increased, but that does not means she enjoys it. Having it on her is still a spine-breaking pressure, along with a mental pain.
But her feelings would not stop the invaders.
The two entered that range.
Suddenly, two monster silkworms popped up from behind the monster tree and sprayed out a bunch of silk at the armored man and lizardman.
"What?! Worms!?" The two were caught offguard. Never would they have imagined that such small monster worms would have the courage and audacity to attack them, nor that the worms would surprise them with such a quantity of accurately spray spit.
The sticky silk sprayed over them as they blocked with their arms and weapons, covering them in the white movement restraining substance.
They groaned as they struggled to get out of the silk, giving a chance for Sara to knock them flying backwards with one strike each.
"Grh!" The two of them tumbled to the ground, rolled backwards for a while before coming to a halt. The tree pounded them with its branches repeatedly and relentlessly after that.
"Even though it's just a mere tree..."
"Don't think you've got us with something like this!"
Struggling under the onslaught and bruising, the armored man and lizardman used their sword and strength to break out of the sticky silk, ripping their binds apart and jumping back up to their feet. For the 3rd time, they charge at the facis arbor again.
Number 1 and Number 2 shoots silk at them again. But unlike the first time, when they had time to accumulate, their silk this time wasn't as wide nor as numerous.
"Annoying!" Jason dodged the silk and drew two throwing knives hung from his armor. He threw them at the two monster silkworms with good precision.
"Squeak!" "Squeak!" Number 1 and Number 2 were stabbed, the knives inserted into their tubby white bodies, light red blood seeping out. They stopped moving, unknown whether they're dead or alive.
Seeing that, Sara grew furious. Coupled with painful battle up to this point, and the stress above her head, she was pushed into making an erratic decision.
Exerting strength into all of her branches, literally ALL of them, Sara used her Lift skill to its fullest, advancing it another level as she pulled and pushed the heavy treehouse off her trunk and up above, stretching the silk attaching it to her branches to ripping point as her wood face scrunched up in effort to overexertion.
The armored man and lizardman quickly slid to a stop as their eyes widened in shock and their necks bent up, facing the looming shadow rising over their bodies.
"Crazy!"
"Retreat!"
They turned around and fled. However, they were a tad too slow, unable to escape the wide range of the coming attack in time. The house came smashing down, with them under it.
Glancing back and seeing that there was no hope, the lizardman pushed the armor man down, dropped his scythe and raised his arms, palms widened to catch, a determined expression on his scaly face.
"Micos, what are you doing?!" The armored man shouted.
DOOOOOOMMM~!!!
The treehouse smashed. The earth in this and the surrounding area shook. Birds were startled and flew away. Nearby small animals scurried off in shock and panic.
Then came silence. Ocassionally a crack or a crumble, as the broken treehouse broke a little more.
"..."
"... ..."
The silence continued, for a while really. During that time, no movement nor reply came from under the treehouse. It seems the two invaders might be dead.
However, a reply did eventually come.
"Me- MeOOWWWWW!"
Sara's master, Gosh the faux kat, had returned to the periphery of the forest clearing, dragging along something black and feathery with him. Upon seeing this sight of wreckage, he widened his eyes, dropped his luggage, dropped his jaw, and cried.
Sara did not know what she had done wrong...