Mike turned back to the group of druids, confident in not dying now that backup had arrived. Before he had the chance to re-engage the enemy, Lucas shouted to him as he went into a straight dive towards the ground. “Get ‘em low!”
He didn't hesitate to follow the orders, and followed Lucas in the dive towards the ground. He briefly wondered how the man had gotten so high up in the air, thinking that maybe the rogue had a skill that gave him limited flight similar to his own blast step and wings combo. He shook his head as the rouges momentum was halted by Aaron casting some sort of spell that made a pillow of mana on the ground. The rogue slammed into the pillow, miraculously not getting injured from the fall. Mike slowed himself to a stop with his wings before hitting the ground.
He took a quick headcount, seeing that everyone apart from Vladimir was present in the group. He was busy guiding the people that had been evacuated. They had selected him for the role due to his booming voice he got from his musician profession. He could also bolster the strength of the group with his music thanks to the class he had picked, which was also related to music. Mike only prayed that the many people could be safely led back to the village.
He didn't have long to dwell on that thought, as the druids finally caught up to them. They had taken a bit longer to descend, as they had needed to hop down between branches to get to ground level, but when they got within about 100 feet of the group things began to change. The roots under everyone on the ground began moving, locking their feet in place as they wrapped around them. Mike used freedom to remove the roots from his feet, and a quick swipe of whatever weapon the others were using freed them. The only person who had trouble escaping was John, who didn't wield a sharp weapon nor did he have any spells to free himself quickly.
The captain of the guard quickly cut the roots, freeing the mage, while at the same time the druids landed not far in front of everyone. Chaos broke out as spells flew, spikes of wood shot out of the ground, and swords clashed. Mike had taken vanguard and was tanking the brunt of the blows with his high fortitude, but he was accumulating cuts and gashes slightly faster than Aaron could mend them. When he reached the druids he swung his hammer in a wide arc, catching every one of them with a use of Cleave. Half of them were knocked off their feet, while the other half quickly recovered and began entangling Mike with dozens of vines and roots.
Mike once more used freedom, noting that the cost to disintegrate the vines was quite substantial. ‘Can't let them catch me like that too many more times’ he thought as he hit one of the mages hard enough to blast him into the hollow interior of the large tree. He knew better than to follow, knowing that his team needed him here more than they needed that druid dead. He saw Lucas slip through the hole the man had left, following the druid into the tree.
Mike needed to side step several blasts of mana that had been fired simultaneously as John unleashed a wave of fire onto the ground, clearing the vegetation in a large area. They tried to center themselves in that space to minimize how much the druids could attack them with roots, but Lila was slapped to the side by a massive leaf that Roots had summoned. She fell onto her back, with vines and roots shooting up from the ground all around her. She was quickly encased in a cocoon of vegetation, and Mike took a step towards her to try and free her.
He paused when the roots around her began to wither, then blacken. She pulled herself free, several newly made holes visible across her body from where she had been stabbed by thorns. She held a broken vial in her hands that used to contain the plant withering poisons that everybody had brought with them, and seeing it had reminded everybody that they had them. Several bottles flew through the air towards the druids, and one even broke directly on the face of one of them.
The armor of that poor druid quickly withered away, evidently having been made of organic materials. He fell soon after as he became the focus of the incoming spells. Lucas emerged back from the tree, blood staining his golden fur coat. “Look what you did!” He yelled at the druids, before disappearing with a flash of golden glitter. Mike wasn't entirely sure, but he swore for a second that he saw some red mixed into the spell.
The rogue appeared behind another one of the druids, but instead of attacking, he retreated as a spike of mana shot out from the back of the druid's armor. Mike closed the gap between another druid, swinging his hammer upward and knocking his opponent a dozen feet into the air. He lept, slamming his hammer down and crumpling the druid into the floor. He saw Roots begin rocketing up the side of the tree on his leaf lift, headed for the canopy. This left just 6 Druids left for them to fight.
“You guys got this handled?” He shouted out.
“Just go get him.” John shouted, sending out more fire to burn the vegetation around him. Mike shot upwards like a firework as he used blast steps to climb ever higher into the air. He drank one of his health potions, trying to mend some of the wounds Aaron hadn't fixed. Despite his speed, he couldn't keep up with the leaf lift, and it made it to the canopy far before he did. His body pieced itself back together, cuts closing and bruises slowly fading from his skin.
When he made it to the top of the tree, he saw a glimpse of Roots in the room they had previously been in. He had swiped up the desert core, and was also holding the two forest cores he had been keeping in the tree. Mike felt the mana from the desert orb flow into the man, and the mana from the forest orbs flowing into the tree. He wanted to put a stop to whatever the man was planning, and flew into the room intending to slam his hammer into the man's skull.
Instead, the entrance slammed shut just as he was about to get through, and Mike slammed into the bark of the tree. He made it through the wall, but he had sustained several cuts across his exposed skin from the splinters of wood that dug into his body. He came to a rolling stop, dazed from the unexpected impact. He had enough awareness of his surroundings. To roll to the side as the sword he had made dug into the wood where his head had just been. He quickly hopped to his feet, but was impaled quickly by several spikes of wood that shot out from the ceiling, floor, and every wall.
“Why did you have to make this all so difficult?” Roots asked, seeming not worried about Mike in the least.
“I didn't make this difficult, you made it difficult by trapping and killing so many people.” Mike said, his voice raspy. He was pinned in place by spikes of wood, and couldn't move most of his body. He could break free at any time with Freedom, but he wanted time for his health and mana regen to fix what they could.
“I was just giving people the safe haven they needed in this new world. Order needed to be established, and that is exactly what I did.”
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“Quit trying to justify your actions! This is wrong and you know it is.”
“Maybe, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. Besides, who cares what's right and what's wrong when there is nobody to enforce it? Tell me, what do you think would happen if somebody like me wasn't around who could punish the thieves, murderers, and rapists of the world?”
“I understand there needs to be justice, but this isn't the way to do it!” Mike shouted. He was beginning to get real pissed off at the sociopath in front of him.
“Well it’s the way I’m doing it, and since I am at the top, it is the right way.” Mike felt mana flowing in all around him. He was about to break free to escape the attack, but he noticed it wasn't directed at him. All of the mana flowed directly into the druid's weapon, and it began to hum with power.
“What are you doing?” Mike asked.
“Just making the sword a bit better.” Roots responded, looking at the humming blade. Mike couldn't even fathom how much mana was coursing through the sword in that moment, as he had just never seen so much in one place. He had no reference point, and that scared him. He used freedom to disintegrate the spikes holding him in place, and he lunged at the druid, his hammer swinging to knock the sword out of his hands. The sword came up to meet Mike's hammer, and to his shock, deflected his attack.
Mike felt a small blast of mana is what had redirected his strike, but it was a shock that it made him miss entirely. His hammer weighed at least a ton with how much mana was currently infused into it, so for a weapon that was barely heroic rarity to just slap it to the side was just nonsense. He took several more swings at the man, his attacks being either dodged, deflected, and in the case of one weaker attack, blocked and halted.
With every second that passed, more and more mana flowed into the weapon, and its humming became a high pitched whine as it began to vibrate visibly. “Where is all that mana coming from!” Mike demanded as he maintained his barrage.
“I didn't just collect magic for months to let it sit around.” Roots said, taunting Mike. He swung his sword at Mike, and a cutting blade of mana much like when Mike used Cleave shot towards him. Mike dodged to the side, and the attack was reabsorbed by the tree when it made contact with the wood. “Besides, more mana in this sword means more control over my tree.”
Mike didn't know how much control the druid would gain, but he began forming a guess when he saw the walls rapidly closing in on him. A hole appeared for Roots to go through without being crushed by the walls, and Mike managed to squeeze through just in the nick of time to avoid a crushing defeat. Vines hanging down from the canopy formed a platform that Roots stood atop, and moved rapidly around, faster than Mike could keep up.
The whine of the blade grew even louder as more and more branches began shooting out and chasing Mike. He smashed through more and more, but everytime he destroyed one, two more seemed to take its place. “Just get over here you slippery bastard!” He yelled in rage.
He pushed empower self to its maximum limits, his mana burning away as his speed increased. He began throwing even more mana into every use of blast step, wanting to get as much speed as he could manage out of each use. He caught up quickly to the druid, and landed a devastating hit to the man's sternum. He managed another hit to the man's left leg before an entire log slammed into his side, throwing him against the tree. He was buried in a small carater of wood, and was kept in place without needing to support himself.
The high pitched whine of the blade finally reached some kind of crescendo, and Mike immediately felt a change in the blade. He knew that all of his skills in smithing, plus his profession, would show him what had changed. He identified the weapon as Roots began soaring towards him on his platform.
Stags Dying Song (Legendary)
A Sword made from the horn of a nature stag. This sword has been infused with 2 million mana and has reached heights the stag never could have hoped to achieve. For an expenditure of this mana, the wielder may control nature and bend it to their will. [Warning: The materials of this weapon can not sustain the amount of mana infused for an extended period of time. Estimated time to detonation: 5 hours]
He used his hands to push the sword off course as it stabbed towards his neck. Instead it dug deep into his shoulder, eliciting a cry of pain from Mike.
“Do you realize how much progress you have cost me?” Roots hissed, twisting the sword.
“I don’t care how much I cost you.” Mike spat. “You cost people their lives to get to where you are.”
“So you are saying you were playing mr pacifist to get as strong as you are?”
“I didn't say that. I have at least gone out of my way to make people suffer.” Mike began casting one of his least used spells while Roots drove the sword deeper into him.
“To suffer is virtue, and virtue brings growth.” Roots said. “You are preventing my growth, and the growth of my tree, so I need to get rid of you now. If things had gone differently, maybe you could have been my trusted smith.”
“Oh screw off.” Mike said. He finished casting his spell, and Mana Adhesion took hold as the sword bound itself to the tree he was stuck in. Simultaneously, Mike used freedom to destabilize the mana within the sword that had him pinned. He didn't have enough mana left to destroy it, as the sword had hundreds of times more mana in it than he could afford to destroy. Instead, he identified the weapon again after using the skill, focusing only on what part of the description.
Stags Dying Song (Legendary)
Estimated time to detonation: 10 seconds
He ripped himself off of the sword, blood flying and coating the faces of both of the men. Mike didn't realize until he began falling that his little maneuver had cut his arm clean off. “Still gives me better odds than surviving up there.” He said as his freefall gained speed. He used his free arm to drink his last health potion before placing his hammer between him and the druid.
After he had fallen just halfway down the tree, the whining of the blade finally stopped. It was replaced by an eardrum shattering boom as the sky lit up in a shower of blue and green mana. Mike remembered briefly how Raj had explained that mana liked to run off sharp edges, because otherwise the explosion would likely have reached him. Instead, most of the blast was concentrated into the space immediately around the sword, and all along where the blade was facing.
Mike didn't have time to watch the aftermath, as he was nearing the ground at very concerning speeds. While the blast hadn't reached him enough to hurt him, the blast of air that was sent out was enough to increase his speed substantially. He clenched his eyes and pointed his feet to the ground as he fell, bracing for impact. He hit the ground hard, his legs breaking and mind going blank for a moment.
Aaron leaned over him as he lay on the ground. He worked to heal Mike's body, and in no time had Mike patched back up. He still needed a moment to recover from the mental side of splating on the ground, but a moment they did not have. The tree had been cut in half by the focused blast that the sword had let out, and one of the halves was falling directly towards the group. Mike and the rest of the group ran out of the way, watching as both halves fell in opposite directions.
A boom rang out when they hit the ground. While it was loud, it didn't induce the same shock and awe that the explosion boom had made. Mike could only stand still for a moment, looking at the wreck that used to be a settlement. He didn't know whether to celebrate or to just begin the trek back home, but Lucas lightened the mood of everyone.
“Seems I have been out dazzled. I have got to rectify that.”