Chapter 79 - Timber!

Its HP still being over a third full was insane; this was one tough son of a bitch. He didn’t have too many cards left that he could play, but there were a few.

Waiting a few seconds for his Mana to refill completely, he activated his random summon ability and crossed his fingers, hoping that it would be something that didn’t totally suck, for if there were ever a perfect moment for his system to screw with him, it would be now.

As the crack in reality appeared, the tree shapeshifting reacted as if it could sense what was happening and knew it needed to stop it. Up until this point, he had been unsure whether the creature had any sort of sapience, but the urgency with which it moved now that it felt threatened proved it was at least somewhat self-aware.

Whatever he had summoned had leeched away the majority of his mana, leaving only a sliver to power the shield he through up to protect himself and Mayry from the angered monster. Gritting his teeth and willing whatever he had summoned to hurry up and be summoned, he chanced a look at Mayry, who was lying on the floor behind him. The amount he had been able to heal had not been enough to restore her fully. It had been a stupid mistake; he should have taken a mana potion or even given her a healing potion, but the fight had rattled him, and he wasn’t thinking clearly.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Again and again, the tree monster slammed its weight against his shield, each time sending a jolt of static-like feedback through his head, leaving him with a raging headache.

A crack appeared, and he thought it was over. Killed by a tree! After all he had been through. Killed by a damn tree… not even a real tree! A fake one!

Another crack splintered down his shield, and he felt himself give in. The entire shield shattered. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped in vain that he would wake up in his bed on Earth, all of this having just been a dream. Nothing happened. He opened one eye and was surprised to see that the shapeshifter had been bodyslammed by what appeared to be a giant.

The summons was slightly shorter than the tree monster but still looked colossal compared to Mason with its stocky, muscular frame. Wearing nothing but a loin cloth, it wielded an enormous axe, its iron stained with dried blood, and gods knew what else. Its rugged face looked closer to Neanderthals he had seen pictures of in books than any human he had ever seen. He struggles to see any portion of its skin not covered in the scars of old wounds. He reckoned its sheer size was the reason it had taken so much mana and had taken so long to come through. It had pinned the tree monster under its mass and was using its thick arms to bring down its axe into the monster, chipping away at both its body and its HP bar.

Allowing himself to relax, he used his identify skill, and a message popped up:

Monster - Huntsman Giant - Level 69

From the birds in the sky to the fish in the sea, the ants in the hills to the veggies in the ground, in the world of the giants, everything is bigger, and everything more monsterous. As such, the giant you summoned has become quite proficient at killing giant tree monsters, as it is the most efficient method of gathering firewood. The difficulty in obtaining such basic resources has made technological progress in his world slow.

It was pretty incredible how many other worlds there seemed to be. If everything was bigger in the giant’s world, it sounded like the perfect place to power level. Taking another look at the huge axe-wielding giant, he reconsidered; maybe if he ever got to a higher level…

As the fight between the two behemoths continued, it looked as if the giant would claim an easy victory over the severely weakened tree; however, as the giant raised his axe for a blow that looked like it very well could finish off the tree, a root burrowed it’s way out of the ground, wrapped around the giant’s leg and pulled.

The giant, caught off guard by the sudden attack, sunk into the floor until nothing below his waist was visible. Another check of the tree’s HP bar showed it almost empty, with just a sliver of red remaining.

At that same moment, Mayry got to her feet and looked to be seething with anger. Her eyes glowed red and an aura of rage emanated from her. She gave Mason a look and he nodded in reply. In unison, they charged the tree monster, determined to finish it off.

As if sensing their plan, Nina also leaned into a dive from where she circled up above and attacked the tree with her claws, keeping the fire breathing to a minimum, having learned her lesson earlier.

The giant, still trapped in the ground, did not give up on his attack either. Even while stuck in the ground, he swung his axe at the monster as much as he could and even landed a few hits.

Mason was half worried that the tree monster, being weak, burned to a crisp and on the edge of death, might have tried to retreat, but no, it stood its ground and fought like a cornered animal. It let out a deafening roar and, in the space of a second, turned the battle in its favour.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Mason, who was sprinting towards the fight, watched helplessly as two vines moved quick as snakes; one wrapped the giant’s neck and squeezed until his face turned blue; with the giant distracted, the other vine wrapped itself around the handle of the giant’s axe and yanked it out of his hands and in the same motion managed to use it to knock a nose-diving dragon out of the sky.

Everything slowed as he watched the dragon fall from the sky. His mind numbed, and the turmoil of emotions that had filled him stilled. Idly, he noticed a wave of heat beside him; Mayry seemed to have exploded. Black flames were dancing across her body as she ran. A look of rage distorted her face, making her look, for the first time, truly demonic.

They attacked as one, but Mayry’s black flames were doing the vast majority of the work, melting away the bark-like skin of the monster until the nature spirit barely knew what hit it. Mason, of course, attacked too, with newfound vigour, eager not to be outdone by his girlfriend, but try as he might, nothing he did came close to doing as much damage as the enraged demi demon seemed to be doing.

He held back a moment and watched as the tree monsters’ HP got lower and lower until- BArely a slither of red remained when the tree went stock still and started to fall to the ground with a speed that felt unnatural. He thought that maybe it had given up and accepted its fate, but no, it only took him a second, but, too late, he realised what the monster was doing. The way it was falling, it would land directly on Mayry. He opened his mouth to shout a warning, but before any sound escaped, it was too late. Mayry, so blinded by her fury, hadn’t been able to get out of the way of the falling tree in time and had been crushed. He watched as Mayry’s black flames flickered out; he felt around inside of himself and felt the vague connection they had due to their bind and sighed in relief as he felt that she was hurt but still alive.

He had half hoped that this had been the nature spirits dying move, but no. It pushed itself off of the injured Mayry and turned to face his.

This was fine… it was already on its last legs, basically already dead. Or… so he thought. The bastard tree threw itself backwards into an area where the sunslight trickled in and bathed the forest floor in its ray. He was confused as to what it was trying to achieve until he saw its HP tick up ever so slightly. Jesus damning bloody Christ! The bloody thing used photosynthesis to heal!

Not having a better idea, he focused on his mana-shaped, shovel-like construct and began an attempt at digging his summoned giant out of the ground it had been trapped in. Sensing the imminent return of the being that had so far done the most damage to it, it wasn’t long before the Shizen put a stop to his plan. Staying where it was, bathing in the sun, it sent several vines shooting towards him. The attack broke his focus, and his mana construct dissolved. Dagger in hand, he slashed at the vines, and although he sliced through them over and over, more and more came a never-ending attack. Having had enough, he gave up on the rescue and teleported to the creature’s main body. He appeared in mid-air beside the tree and raked his Drake tooth dagger down as he fell. The tree could regenerate, but it was slow. The damage done by the dagger brought its HP bar back down to where it had been before it had retreated into the sun.

He landed on his feet and panted. It had been a long while since his Stamina had been quite this low; he was tired, but as long as he kept up his attack, he knew he would be the victor. Nothing could kill him; he was the alpha and ome- he pushed the odd thoughts aside, shaking his head. He made a mental note to see if this world had therapists and forced himself to focus. Unfortunately, the moment of distraction was all it took for the tree to swing a huge hardwood fist at him and knock him to the floor. The force of the attack was insane. He flew back hundreds of feet and crashed into the base of another, thankfully non-sentient, tree. In his daze, he had a flashback of his first-ever fight. The Giant, apparently baby Drake, had also slammed him into a tree; good times. Just like then, he was in no condition to move. He tried, but every attempt shot jolts of pain throughout his entire body.

He spat out a mouthful of blood as he noticed his own HP was almost mirroring the Shizen’s, but he wasn't worried. As long as it left him alone for a few minutes, he would regenerate and be back in the fight in no time. “Oh, hello again.” He said as he saw the tree had immediately followed him; he had hoped it would be enough for his sarcastic prick ability to be active, but no, of course not. That would be far too easy.

He lay there and watched in slightly concussed amusement as the tree repeated its falling down on its enemy’s attack; he really wanted to shout “Timber!” but thought that it would be the last word he spoke slightly to put him off.

Time seemed to slow once again and he started to wonder if his slowing of time was an actual ability he had or whether it was a normal thing. A last-ditch idea came to him, and he thought Fuck it, if he was going to die he may as well try the free of nature with him.

He remembered the first time he had ever used magic. It felt so long ago. He remembered the feeling of something moving through his body, a tickle of what he had known to be his mana. Pressure had built in his fingertip until it started to burn. Then, with a mental push, a small blue bolt of energy had left him in a burst.

* Used to overclock certain abilities.

That’s what it had said when he had unlocked the Essence distribution page. So, this time, instead of pouring mana into his mana manipulation ability, he willed pure chaos essence into it. With mere seconds until the tree crushed him, he had no time for the usual will-work suspense his system seemed so fond of, so he pushed every scrap of willpower he had into forcing it to work. And it did.

Instead of the normal tickle of mana, he always felt this was like lava burning in his veins as it built up. It built to a point where Mason almost wanted the Shizen to kill him just to end the pain. Time sped up again, and just before the tree monster was about to land on Mason, crushing him to death, the essence poured from his hands like a burst water pipe. It shot towards his attacker and pierced through its thick skin like it didn’t exist. As the essence touched the Shizen, the nature spirit began to unravel, disintegrating like a video of rotting fruit sped up a thousand times. In mere seconds, the monstrous body crumbled into a pile of dust.

The outpour of essence ceased, and there was nothing but silence for the few moments it took for his raddled mind to put together what had happened without warning; his stomach convulsed, ejecting its contents on the ground in front of him. He fell to his knees and felt empty in both body and spirit. His Mana bar was relatively full, but it was as if there was another, unseen bar that was dangerously empty. He half expected an affliction notification, but none came.