The ground shook violently under the massive roots crawling along the forest floor. By this point, all creatures had run away in fear or were devoured by the monster servant. He only followed his own instincts. He was a half-plant, half-beast creature who wandered the Old Lands in search of something.

A sudden noise called his attention. It came from a mountain on the right. He moved with tremendous speed, crushing trees and rocks under his roots. It didn’t matter what it was; he had to destroy it, eat it, and kill it.

Three massive roots charged in the direction of the sound. They grabbed small boxes made of metal with animals inside. They were squirming and making noises as the roots brought them closer to the mouth on the chest of the monster.

They had no chance to escape. The mouth opened, revealing his giant teeth, and the tongue dragged them inside. The metal was crushed along with the animals into a bloody pulp. The teeth minced it to pieces, and it went straight into the body of the monster. There was no time to waste. More noises came from the mountain.

He moved deeper into the mountain and grabbed more boxes with animals waiting to be devoured. An intelligent creature could feel something wrong, and a person would realize this was a trap. The cages with animals were obvious bait. But this servant wasn’t that smart. He was only focused on his task.

The ground above shifted as he moved his roots deeper into the mountain. The trap was sprung, and a landslide fell against the monster’s body. Earth and rocks crashed against the massive body.

Despite the top of a mountain falling on him, the servant was almost as tall as the mountain itself. The rubble and rock only buried about half of his body. His roots and lower half were stopped for a moment, but that was the signal.

"Attack!" yelled a voice from the small trees below. Hundreds of small, green-skinned creatures jump at him with swords, maces, and other weapons. It didn’t matter. There was only one job to be done.

He raised a single root from the rubble and was about to crush them, before someone else blew away his root with a punch. It was another creature; he didn’t know what kind of creature it was, but the result was the same. He had to devour it and kill it.

The pix were close, but the servant had already raised half of his roots to the surface. Valks and Franco were in the front, leading the formation, punching the roots away or cutting them.

The fight turned into a bloodbath; dozens of pix were crushed and torn apart by the ferocious onslaught of attacks. The pile of bodies grew as they tried to get closer. The number of roots kept increasing. Despite being trapped in rubble, the servant had no trouble dealing with them.

"Behind me!" Nathan jumped forward and summoned his shield. The barrier extended several meters to protect the soldiers as they advanced. It was almost like a dome, but the back was being guarded by soldiers.

Two more giant roots came from the ground. Franco smashed one to bits with his hook, and a barrage of shots came from the trees and passed the barrier. Jacob’s attack, combined with Nathan’s power, blew up the other root. There was no time to rest.

Nora talked to those on the front line. "Silas finished stealing its power. He said it has regeneration and another skill that gives him power on the ground. It can also recover by eating bodies."

"What is the plan?" Franco asked as he sent a group of roots away with a strike.

"Jacob is going to deal the last blow after Emily attacks with her spells. I’ll give you all my power for that moment."

"Roger that, partner!" Jacob was ready, he kept blowing roots away in the back while standing in the cup of a tree. He was aiming perfectly thanks to Nora, but he was still in range of the monster's attacks. Sorry, please keep fighting a little more!

He felt terrible asking that so many pix were dying to buy him time, distracting the monster by sacrificing their lives. He kept shooting to save as many of them as possible.

The ground began to crack from below. The monster was about to break back to the surface. If he got free, there was no way to keep up with the number of roots he could control.

The second trap was activated. The ground turned into sand and dragged the servant back down. Not only was the mountain made weak, but the bottom too. It was all controlled by Nadine. She was on the other side of the mountain, with a small guard alongside Rebecca and Emily.

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"How do you like that! I worked my ass for two straight days to make this giant pit especially for you." The spikes she made pierced the body of the servant.

He bled sap and blood, but he didn’t care about the pain or the attack. He was only focused on his mission to eradicate them all.

The army finally reached his body, and they started to chop and slash his roots and the strange meat that formed his central body. The regeneration of the servant was insane. He was being attacked from all sides, and Franco punched holes through his body, but they began to heal in a few seconds. They needed to deliver a powerful attack to bring him down.

The only way to do so was to attack the monster's core directly. They couldn’t hope for another miracle like the fight with Gloom Scent. They must find the core and make a precise attack to kill it. Silas was running all over the place, trying to find a clue.

He was invisible thanks to his new necklace, which he got from Denku. He still made noise when he moved, but the monster was busy attacking the army below, so he didn’t notice Silas running along his half-buried arm.

Where is it? Nora, can you hear me? I need your power to help me find it.

"I hear you, Silas. I’m looking with you." She made his eyes shine yellow with power, and they looked at all angles, trying to see the flow of energy.

It wasn’t Silas who found it, but Nora, using Emily’s eyes.

"In the upper center, right above the giant mouth."

"Thanks!" He jumped right over the mouth. He smelled the monster's breath. It was like an old butcher shop full of half-rotten meat. He was too close for comfort; the tongue could stretch at any moment and eat him. He took the green sword from his hip and stabbed it right where Nora pointed.

The sword reached the core, and for the first time, the servant had a reaction. As the roots below wriggled and squirmed in all directions, he shook his body, trying to get free. The mouth opened and bit into Silas’s leg.

He didn’t have time to take the sword back, so with the other leg, he kicked inside, making sure to leave it deep in the core like a thorn, hurting him constantly. The roots around him almost grabbed him, but he broke his own arm to get free.

The invisibility came undone, but he didn’t need it anymore. He regenerated his missing limbs as he fell, and a red whip took him back to safety.

"That was a close one." Cink grabbed him and brought him to the back of the fight before the roots could tear him into pieces and devour his flesh. He noticed how weird Silas looked.

"That mouth in your chest is weird. Are you sure you can keep fighting?"

"You’re kidding. I've gotten used to becoming some weird monster or beast during a fight. I felt weirder against Denku when I only grew my ears and my skin turned green! Besides, I’m thankful for the regeneration, so Rebecca doesn’t have to waste her healing on me."

In the front line, Valks kept slashing the body of the monster with his soldiers. "Don’t stop keeping him busy! We are close to victory!" a root that moved over him like a whip and hit him in the head. He fell to the ground, bleeding. He probably had a concussion, but he stood back up and attacked. He moved right below the attack and cut it off.

Four more came from all sides, but a barrier stopped them. "Don’t fall now!" Nathan was right by his side, and Franco kept punching the roots with more soldiers.

As the servant's desperation grew, he shook his body violently. He grabbed some of the pix close to eat them and heal his wounds. He was almost free, but Emily was ready.

She saw the wound above the mouth and finished preparing her spell. She was holding her orb and expended almost all of her energy and stamina to launch the most powerful attack she could muster. Not one nor two, but three.

"[Green Slash]!" She moved her hand, and the tree blades went flying toward the chest of the monster in quick succession.

The servant reacted to it. He turned his head just as the first blade slashed his body in two. The second blade cut through the roots and plants trying to regenerate, exposing his vulnerable core. The third blade pierced the chest without losing power, severing the core.

Sap and blood spray everywhere like rain. The servant howled and made a noise. Everyone could tell it was a painful sound, the type of scream a wounded animal makes before death.

"We did it?" Valks yelled, but another volley of shots came to finish the job.

Jacob wasn’t distracted by the scream of the monster but focused all his power into a single bullet, plus Nora's power to direct the bullet he aimed at one of the pieces of the core. It burned and exploded into a green light of organic matter.

That should have been the end. They got close, and their plan worked, but they only destroyed half of the core. If this monster was a regular servant, that would have been enough to kill it, but this one was different. It had mutated into a different being.

Silas knew it because he got his power. [Mutation]: The creature can change its body and gain other abilities. He only assumed he could heal his wounds by consuming flesh, but that was his mistake.

"Run away; don’t stay on the ground!" He tried to warn them, but it was too late. The ground finally broke and revealed the truth.

All the roots below transformed into hungry mouths and devoured everyone. Franco lost half of his body, and Nathan could only protect Valks and some pix soldiers that were close by putting his barrier against the floor and being lifted into the air by the hungry mouths pushing the shield.

The plants grabbed the other half of the core and began to heal it with the blood and flesh of hundreds of pix, who were devoured in an instant. It regenerated at an incredible speed while making a terrifying scream.

Jacob tried to attack, but he was out of energy. His bullets bounced off of the bark and plants covering the wounded core.

On the other hand, Emily was out of stamina; she couldn’t cast more spells. And yet she was the only person who wasn’t feeling the despair and terror from the scream of the servant. It was a sad and depressing cry.

She had an idea, but she was the only one who could try it. "Rebecca, go heal everyone!"

"W-where are you going alone?" She ignored her words and ran to the front line. She was the only one who could understand the pain and words of the servant.