As Jake ran forward, the hedge walls parted before them. He could hear the fighting at the base of the Mother Tree as he approached. The cracking sound of the thorn warrior’s whips and the deep bark of the Tunnel Wolf Matriarch pierced the hedge that blocked off sound so well.

Shadows of both wasps and bees began to dance upon him and Thorn and their corpses began to appear upon their path.

Jake spared a glance to the skies. The air above him was so dense with the flying insects that he doubted there would be enough room for him to slip through if could fly.

He placed his gaze back on the path before him. The sounds of fighting became louder, but the cracks of the thorn warriors’ whips became less frequent.

Mother Tree’s Defense Integrity: 15%

They’d lost ten percent when the Mother Tree’s reserve guard was bombed. They’d lost twelve percent more between then and now with the thrashing the royal guard was currently getting.

Three hedge walls down from the clearing where the Mother Tree sat, one of the thorn sentinels defending her came flying over the hedge. It spun in the air as its ruined body flew towards Jake.

“Woah!” Jake dived forward, barely able to dodge it in time. It crashed into the hedge behind him, then slid across the paved tile scattering shattered pieces along the way.

“You okay, Thorn?” Jake asked the thorn sentry on his back.

Thorn placed a gentle vine upon his shoulder.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. You can’t talk anymore without Will here.”

“He has told me that he is fine,” Jake heard a voice whisper. The voice was sweet to the ears as honey was on the lips.

“Who’s there?” Jake asked. He pushed himself back up onto his feet.

“It is I,” the voice said, “The one you wish to protect. You are close enough to me now that I may speak with my whispering roots.”

The sound of something like a boulder smashing into the Mother Tree rang out.

Mother Tree’s Defense Integrity: 12%

“Hurry,” the Mother Tree said, “Our time grows short. You must see and then you must depart.”

She opened the rest of the way through the remaining hedges and Jake proceeded forward.

Beyond the last gap through the hedge laid a giant square the Mother Tree called her courtyard. Unlike the rest of the garden maze, not an inch of the courtyard’s ground was paved. There was only the Mother Tree and the soil that surrounded her.

Or at least that would have been all there was before the invasion started. There were surprisingly few bee and wasp corpses scattered about, but there were plenty of corpses for the wolves and the sentinels to make up for that.

The wolves had lost at least three dozen of their own—with a few goblins mixed in—and it had been about the same for the garden’s forces.

Both sides had been brought down to their last soldier. The invaders had the Tunnel Wolf Matriarch and Mother Tree had a lone thorn sentinel.

The two weren’t an equal match. The thorn sentinel was a half broken mess laid out against the trunk of the Mother Tree. Its arms had been torn away and its wooden flesh was cracked and shattered.

There wasn’t strength left in its legs to hold it up. Wooden spikes, one sprouted from each stub that remained of its arms, were stuck in the ground, keeping it up like a scarecrow.

That was all that was left to face the Tunnel Wolf Matriarch. She was a beast taller than a grown man and wider than a car and there was little doubt in Jake’s mind that she’d end up crushing the sentinel like a twig.

The platoon of thorn warriors hadn’t gone without a fight, however. The wolf matriarch’s fur was bloodied and matted with nasty gashes streaking through it and plenty of thorns sticking out of clumped up hair.

Still, the lone thorn sentinel was far from on equal footing with the matriarch. It didn’t stand a chance. At least not without somebody stepping in.

“Hey, Thorn,” Jake said, quickly assessing the situation. “Can you get down?” He knelt down and let the thorn sentry off of his back.

Thorn knotted his twin vines over and under themselves around Jake’s torso.

“Thanks,” he told the little warrior. “Pull me out if I get into trouble, okay?”

Thorn of My Vines nodded.

“So it comes to this,” the Mother Tree whispered her lament.

“You’re not going to stop me?” Jake asked, half expecting the gap in the hedge in front of him to close.

“This One was not such a fool to believe that you would actually listen to her,” she said. “And she is still not enough of a fool to believe she would be doing either of you or herself any good trying to stop you. She only wishes that she could do more.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“You’ve done enough,” Jake said. He stepped through the hedge and into the courtyard.

As the wolf matriarch was getting ready to charge at the last sentinel and the Mother Tree behind it, he whistled at her. Quick as he could, Jake ported out his chainsaw and revved it.

The giant wolf turned back to face him. As soon as she did, thorned vines shot out from the ground and wrapped around her hind leg.

The vines tried maiming the wolf’s thigh, but she was too strong. The matriarch rushed to the side with such a force that the vines were torn from the ground.

Jake revved his chainsaw again, but the wolf mother gaze had locked back on to the broken thorn sentinel. Like a speeding truck, she closed the distance with the thorn warrior.

She bit down on the wooden warrior with her monstrous jaw. The spears that kept them standing snapped.

The wolf mother threw her head from side to side and split the last sentinel in half. Its torso and whatever else was left of the wooden warrior above the waist was sent flying.

Mother Tree’s Defense Integrity: 9%

“Ten points to agility,” Jake said after witnessing that spectacle. He was sure he’d need them.

Strength and vitality couldn’t be relied upon against that beast, even if he dumped all his free points into them.

Stats Allocated!

Agility Increased!

10 → 20

Total HP Increased!

450 → 475

“Ten points to mana capacity,” Jake said. He couldn’t afford to run out of mana at a crucial time.

Stats Allocated!

Mana Capacity Increased!

10 → 20

Rather than returning to ramming the Mother Tree, the wolf matriarch turned back to Jake.. It was a good thing she did. The Mother Tree couldn’t handle much more of that before they’d end up failing the quest.

Swiftly, the final confrontation began. The wolf mother wasted little time and came charging at Jake.

Jake could already feel the benefits of his increased agility just from watching her. To him, her movements were slower, much clearer than they were before.

The chainsaw disappeared from Jake’s hands and into his Inventory. He replaced it with two cans. In one hand, he had pepper spray and in the other was the last of his bear spray.

Jake fired the bear spray in the wolf’s path. He felt a slight terror waiting for it to run into the mist it formed.

The beast dived straight into the caustic cloud and suffered greatly for it. It shook its head wildly and barked, but couldn’t stop its forward charge.

It tried jumping back, but its momentum was too great. The matriarch came crashing into the hedge behind where Jake had been standing. There was a heavy crunch as the thorned branches hidden within held strong against the fumbling wolf.

Jake whistled at the wolf. “Come on, girl!” he shouted from a good fifty feet away down the hedge.

The giant wolf paid him no mind. Instead, it placed its head against the ground. It brushed its head back and forth so fast against the dirt that it kicked up a cloud of dust.

Not, but five seconds later, it stopped and looked straight at Jake. There was a smattering of dirt covering its face from chin to snout and snout to ears. From the way it was looking at him, rolling its face around in the dirt had neutralized the bear spray.

Uh… That’s not how it's supposed to work. Jake thought, a bit flabbergasted.

Perhaps, it had to do with the sort of magical nonsense that had allowed the tunnel wolves to live underground in the first place? Jake didn’t have the time to think about it. The wolf mother was coming.

Jake sprayed his dwindling supply of bear spray again. Again the matriarch came charging through the caustic mist. He barely dodged out of the way as she wildly swung from side to side, blinded.

She smashed her side against the hedge, but when she didn’t find him, she cleared eyes in the dirt.

Again, the Mother of Wolves came for Jake. This time, even faster than before.

Jake fired the last of his bear spray. The wolf matriarch came running through the mist, already scraping her head against the ground. This time, Jake barely even stepped to the side.

As the wolf mother closed in, he opened a portal above her head. The acid he had collected earlier from the venus acid spitters came pouring out.

The wolf matriarch erupted with roars of pain. Just on contact, the strong acid was burning away her fur.

“Oof!” Jake grunted. He didn’t have enough range with his portals. He needed to be in the wolf mother’s reach if he was going to fight with her. The frantic wolf slammed into his side hard enough to crack ribs.

Just a graze from the wolf mother’s side was enough to knock Jake down. It was lucky for him that she was too busy panicking to take advantage of the fact.

As she tried the dust away the searing chemicals on her face, Jake was able to get up. He could hear the wolf mother’s pained whimpers, but they failed to move his heart. It was only going to get worse for the beast from here.

He ran up to her side and summoned his chainsaw. With one swift motion, he thrusted the whirling blade into her side.

She cried out and swung her weight. Jake barely managed to teleport his chainsaw back into his Inventory before he was thrown fifteen feet to the side. It would have been further if Thorn wasn’t acting as an anchor from the other side of the hedge with his vines.

His back slammed against the ground. Heavy damage, but he wasn’t stunned.

Before he even had a chance to look, he could already hear the wolf matriarch coming towards him. He summoned half a storage container’s worth of Legos at his feet in a hurry while rolling to the side.

Jake heard the giant wolf shriek. Her shadow covered him as she jumped up into the air.

Thorn yanked him with his vines. He barely managed to pull Jake out of the way before the mother of wolves came slamming down on top of him.

The ground shook as the beast came crashing back down against it. Louder than when the acid had hit her face, the wolf matriarch howled in pain.

As someone who had once stepped on merely a single Lego barefooted before, Jake could understand.

“Good job, Thorn,” Jake said, getting back to his feet. A wolf the size of a car landing on him would have been very bad.

He put some distance between himself and the wolf, but stuck near to the hedge. He could only go so far from Thorn.

The wolf matriarch did not follow. She kept her distance and kept her eye on Jake.

Eye as in her last eye. Jake’s acid attack had eaten away at half her face. The wolf beast had been left disfigured and one of her eyes had melted away.

It spoke to her having great will that she hadn’t turned tail and fled after what had been done to her. She had the will of a dominator, a killer.

Unfortunately for her, Jake had great will of his own at the moment too. For his grandmother and for his life, he’d fight.

The two warriors stared each other down, neither making the first move. Jake held the Mother Tree’s defense integrity number in the corner of his eye.

Mother Tree’s Defense Integrity: 6%