Trees also needed sleep. And the King was in his daily slumber. However, his face contorted into a frown upon feeling something dripping onto his face. Something vile. Something sanguine.
He opened his eyes, squinting to have better vision in the darkness. But even without the ability to see in the dark, those bright red eyes hanging right above him was impossible to miss.
“Scrumptious—!” The King quickly got up and swung his arm at Esther, flinging her against the room.
Coughing up blood, Esther slowly got up and dusted herself. “Eugh, as expected of the boss.”
“Forest Kin.” The King conjured a sword-shaped tree from the ground and pointed it at Esther. “How you escaped, I do not know. But you’ve just made a big mistake. You should’ve ran away when you had the chance.”
On cue, roots sprung up from the ground and covered the two combatants in an impregnable dome.
Esther stared at the dome in bewilderment. Before she could gawk at the wonder of it more, the King held up his sword in an overhead slash.
Esther immediately snapped her head forward and rushed toward the King. She conjured an [Ice Wall] before the sword could hit her. The wall grew into the wooden sword, trapping it.
She ran along the length of the sword and leaped at the King. Covering her entire right arm in blue flames, she struck him.
Once, a wisp-like blue flame appeared above her head.
“You know-”
Twice, another next to the first one.
“-Ihwa has always amazed me, using spells as easily as breathing. It’s second nature to her— no, I believe she started shooting spells before she even breathed.”
Thrice, a third one came into existence.
“I can’t do that. I’m not a genius like her. But what if I trained my brain to drain my Mana at a low rate and keep my spells in a standby state?”
“W—”
Esther covered the King’s mouth with a thin layer of Ice before he could say anything. Simultaneously, a spiky ball of Ice appeared next to a wisp-flame.
“The answer is, I can prepare my spells beforehand. Of course-” she smirked- “you won’t know what it is. To you, it looks like just a ball of Flame or Ice. Choose, King of Treants. Which one would you like me to use?”
The King couldn’t answer nor did he want to. However, Esther still followed his gaze, which landed on a wispy Fire.
“Unfortunate. [Flame Cannon]”
That same Flame unfurled into a highly-condensed pillar of Fire that dug a hole through the King and the dome behind him.
With her enemy immobilized, Esther jumped off and turned around. However, she soon spun around again and fired off her ball of Ice. It blocked off the hole in the dome. “I know you’re still alive. There’ll be no escape for you.”
The King creaked and got up. The hole in his body generated at an unbelievable speed. He reached a hand out and clenched his fist, making roots grow even denser.
Hmmm…. I can’t cut those roots. Not even with Requiem and Flames.
“Forest Kin, you are strong. This King will give you that. Unfortunately, my real body is somewhere else.” The roots grew even denser. “Even if I cannot defeat you, I can keep you from slaying my subjects. Now, let us begin a battle of attrition.”
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A battle that you’ll win no matter what. Sly bastard.
Despite that, Esther still kept her smiling face. Her eyes wandered to a specific spot on the dome, but always lingering back to the King.
-”FATHER!”
A loud shout rang out from outside. Hearing this, Esther covered her mouth and tried to contain her laughter.
The King’s face went pale. How wood could go pale, she did not know, but it did regardless. “NO! STAY OUT!”
-“I’M COMING!”
The wooden dome listened to the son’s command and parted ways. He rushed in and stood right next to his father, heaving for breath.
“Unfortunate.” A wisp of Flame pointed its head toward the son.
Everyone knew the King wouldn’t be fast enough to protect his son even if he’d tried.
“Young Treant, come closer.” Esther conjured a throne made of Ice and sat down on it haughtily.
The son gulped. With slow and calculated steps, he inched closer toward the Fox-girl. When he arrived, bars of pure Ice grew and entrapped him.
Knowing what this meant, the King closed his eyes. “W-What do you want?”
“Simple. Let me go.” Before the King could rejoice, she continued. “But I can’t just take your word. Not after what happened.”
“...I did it for the forest.”
“And I don’t fucking care. I need some insurance. Give me your heart; your real body.” She tapped a finger on the cage. “And we will sign a Contract. You have one since you’re planning on negotiating with the humans, right? Even if you betrayed me, I can at least take you down with me.”
That didn’t make any sense, the King wanted to say; but he knew better than to voice it out loud and risk losing his only son. He let a beating heart form in his hand and a Contract in the other.
A root lightly pricked his heart and dripped the blood onto the paper. Throwing the Contract toward Esther, he growled, “Check.”
Esther skimmed through the Contract and let her blood drip onto it. No attacking me. No attacking him. I leave. Simple, I like it. “Checked.”
As the Contract burned into nothing, Esther held out her hand. “Your heart.”
Just as roughly as he threw the Contract, he lobbed the Heart toward the Fox-girl.
Esther caught it nimbly. She inspected the disgusting mass of flesh and wood in her hands and grinned.
With hollow eyes, the King looked at his son. “Now leave. Let my people be alone. Never come here again.”
“Oh, I will.” Esther gave him an evil smile and threw the heart into the son’s cage. “But after just a little bit.”
Before the King could process what had just happened, his wood rotted at an immense speed. With large pieces of his body falling down, he fell to the ground with no support.
The last thing the benevolent King saw was his own son’s foot—a foot stained with blood.
…
[The Boss has been truly eliminated. Level completed. Calculating rewards….]
[Coins x300
Points x2]
[Bonus for discovering and completing hidden event - The Uprising:
Coins x200
Points x3
Heir of the Great Devourers]
[The timer will be resumed. You can return to the Bazaar at any time]
Esther kicked what was left of the King’s corpse. Although the blue screens told her that he was dead, she wanted to be sure. “He’s not going to, like, come back, right?”
The son walked up to her and similarly kicked the corpse. “It was over when I stomped his Heart. Father was a coward. He’d pretend to be dead and then escape whenever his fake body is significantly damaged.”
“That’s so?” Esther sat down on the rotten wood and propped her elbows on her knees, resting her face on her hands. “Still, I didn’t expect you to have the guts to slay your own father.”
“It is not about bravery. It is about desperation,” he said with the utmost conviction. “The forest will head to its doom if things continue as is. Like you said, violence is the only answer.”
“Hmmm…. Good choice.”
“Enough about the past. Tell me, Forest Kin, what will you do? Will you leave, or will you stay with me and become my general?”
To the son’s expectant eyes, Esther stood up. She stretched her arms and she yawned, “Add everything to Arcane.”
With a huge surge of Mana swirling around her, several fist-sized Flame Wisps appeared all over the village after a second.
“Might as well squeeze everything out of this level.”
[Bonus for clearing the level entirely:
Coins x100
Points x2]
…
Esther returned to the Bazaar. The first thing she did was search for her party members, but she could find no one.
Come on now, there’s still a dozen minutes left. Let’s not get too ahead of myself.
With nothing else to do, she turned toward her Cube and asked,
“What’s the Heir of the Great Devourers?”