The sky... It was beautiful.
An endless blue as far as the eyes could see, clouds traversed overhead. Their presence so large and cast, and yet their existence was so fleeting and whimsical. It filled the squirrel with awe and stroked its feeling of adventure and wanderlust.
A breathtaking sight that it never had the luxury to viewing before now, because lowly beasts like itself were condemned to living on the ground amongst the others crawling on the dirt. Such views could only be enjoyed by those blessed with wings or high ranking mana beasts.
Those whose power ensure they weren't confined to the safety of the land and could freely roam the forest as kings. How envious.
There was a peaceful silence as the squirrel watched the sun slowly pass over the sky. It was a sleepy and laze day.
And it was all thanks to its new friend that it could appreciate such hidden wonders.
It can't wait to share the magic of it all with its tree friend! Hopefully, the tree won't be too worried about it, but surely it will manage just fine? It had done well without it before after all.
It was just a few days, what could possibly go wrong?
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How did everything go so wrong?
It was the mighty boss of these parts, the Steel Wolf King! Every hair on its fur-covered body was as strong as steel, as sharp as any blade, and as flexible as thread. Its fangs could easily snap a grown man in half, and its claws render the earth as easily as tofu!
Its family was two dozen strong!
They have been through countless battles, ruling undisputed as the sovereign of the area. Not even the local Shadow Panther tribe dared to provoke them despite their numerical advantage!
Even the arrogant invaders of the human villages knew better than to trespass our territory. It would take two Vetertan C class Adventurers to even threaten a single one of us.
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Yet, in spite of all our prestige, all our combat prowess, all our knowledge... I defiance of it all and common sense itself, this walking tree dared to attack us... and it was winning.
Its injuries healed within moments, its movement unnatural, unpredictable, and unbefitting any animal. They were only facing a single opponent, yet against its ever-growing snake-like vines it might as well have been a hundred. Large sinkholes started appearing as the monster's roots dug numerous pit traps all across the field. Unless they were standing on solid stone, then roots quickly emerged from underneath to drag us down into a living burial.
Unless one could sprout wings and fly, there was no escaping this demented tree lusting for blood. It had complete control of the battleground and nothing in the wolf's hundreds of battles, its wisdom cultivated in the midst of life and death, gave it a solution. They prided defense was rendered moot and point in the face of suffocation, their strength and speed useless against the thing's terrifying regeneration and crowd control.
It was their perfect counter.
Even fleeing wasn't an option as the thing had blocked off all exits, its vines had blended in with the native vegetation while it stalled us. We were trapped and it knew it had us. The air had steadily gained a tint of crimson. We didn't notice at first, but now it was obvious. Poison of some sort?
The King of the Steel Wolves didn't recognize it, however, it was clear it was rapidly weakening them. Even his own limbs were starting to feel tired, his eyes oh so heavy, but he knew if he were to close them even for a moment, he would never awaken again.
Like the cornered beast they were the King let out an ear-shattering howl and with increased vigor fueled by desperation they rushed towards the strange blue wooden spider with a small tree growing out of its back, the red spots on it glowed omniously as it welcomed the charge.
It raised its right leg which had sharped to a point. A brief glow occurred before it gained a red hue, and within a moment, it shoots the limb forward as if thrusting a spear. The silvery coating of the wolf ensured that it wasn't pierced through, however, the blunt force still caused it to cough out blood as it was shot backward, accompanied by a luminous red cloud.
Part of the spider's leg had actually exploded during the impact, releasing a dense and expanding mass of ravenous spores. The wolf quickly collapsed from oxygen deprivation. The other wolves suddenly stopped in shock at the creature's powerful melee capability. Thus far it had only been using ranged tactics and so they never expected its "weakness" to actually be so powerful. The spider quickly took advantage of their surprise to regrow the missing chunk of its leg, not forgetting to also coat spot on its other limbs after seeing its effectiveness.
The experiment was going well