Asval woke up screaming as he ripped the branches from his body. This time he had his blades in his hands. He was no longer scared, he was angry. The tree creature would soon find out how scary human wrath can be. The man ran out in a blind rage. This time he didn’t look around for the creature. He ran forward, following the instinct leading him right toward the beast.

Before the monster could even react to the approaching man it was wounded in the leg, leaving a big cut that went through his bark, his protective thick skin. It turned around to face the man but he was no longer behind the creature and left another cut on the other leg. Asval ran around and swung his sword leaving deeper and deeper cuts. The tree creature was slowing with the regeneration of the wounds left by the man.

The creature stomped the ground, raising the grass around him to slow the man. He expected him to slow down or stop, worried about the possible injuries. Asval completely ignored that and jumped forward into the grass, leaving cuts all over his body. The monster threw a punch at the man but his reaction was too slow. Asval jumped on the creature’s arm and stuck his blade straight into the monster’s head. The creature fell to the ground and the man stood on its face.

He put away his sword, raised his fist, and punched the monster before it could try and stand up. One punch wasn’t enough to damage the creature but he stuck it repeatedly slowly breaking the protective bark and reaching the wood. His hands were covered in his blood but he ignored it, he didn’t want to stop until the creature’s head would be turned into splinters. He stopped once his own hands were torn with bones sticking out.

“Just as promised…” Asval gasped out.

He tried to get off the creature but he used almost all his strength to get revenge on the monster. He fell down face-planted into the ground. He raised his head blood pouring through the fresh cuts left by the grass.

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“I need to get out of this forest…” He whispered, whipping blood off his face.

He felt the earth shake a bit. Concerned about another enemy approaching he quickly stood up and took out his swords. His eyes moved from one side to another but they stopped in one stop, where the tree creature used to be a second ago. It vanished.

“I didn’t kill it? No… I have a feeling it was just a puppet.” Asval whispered looking toward the center of the forest. Behind the many trees, he noticed one that was high above them. “What I felt back then… Was it the forest’s heart? So I killed just a minion…”

Driven by the newly awakened hatred he decided to kill the heart of the forest before trying to leave. He wasn’t about to go forward with unfinished business down here.

First, he would need to rest after using most of his strength to fight just one tree creature. He thought of the possibility that there might be more monsters like that one or the one controlling them being much stronger.

“Will I even be safe sleeping on the tree? Hmm… Might be safer than on the ground.” Asval climbed up the tree and hid between branches, covered by the leaves. “Not safe at all… But I’ll rest here since I have a good view of the surroundings.”

He considered being on the tree safer than being on the ground but his mind changed the moment he was on the tree. That was the moment when he thought that he was being watched again. His body was able to rest for an hour but his mind was on edge the whole time.

“I’m not the only one trying to get rest before the fight… It does the same…” He whispered looking toward the biggest tree in the forest. “Better to use my advantage and attack it before it fully rests.”

Asval jumped down and began running toward the tallest tree in the forest. The watchful eye didn’t leave his side. He didn’t notice it at first as the area around him was a blur as he ran but the forest changed. The roots of the trees rose to slow him down. The grass grew under his feet to injure him even more than usual.

In time, he got increasingly annoyed by each attempt to slow him down. The building rage inside him slowly made him blind with only the thought of destroying the one who was behind those attempts.

The tallest tree looked to be slightly taller than every other tree but once he got close he could see that the tree was growing in a crater. The tallest tree was seven times bigger than the ones on top yet it still was above them all. The tree was gigantic and looked like it was made of many smaller trees that didn’t fill the holes. Between those holes midway to the top of the tree was a purple light.

“It’s hiding in there…”