Something had happened. Whenever Leica was busy with his projects, he seemed to go hunting by himself. The experience gained from this was also shared for both of them. Even if she was further away, he could still get intermittent experiences. All of the hunting, along with his research, skill leveling, projects, and everything else he did, kept him moving forward. In the last few days he gained a few more levels and almost reached level 79, which actually already felt perverse how much experience was needed for the next ascent. He transferred the 45 points he gained to his intelligence while running. Something told him he would need it.
Leica spent her points after his assessment of her status in the perception, which should help her to avoid these crazy trees when he was not by her side to search the area with his mana waves and still something seemed to have happened. His mind raced as he rushed over to her, busy going over all sorts of situations. The thought of losing her almost made him sick.
Despite his speed, he did not forget to ping regularly so as not to accidentally end up in a hopeless situation himself, because if he lost his head it was no help!
In the heart of his heart he already knew what hit Leica, but part of him just refused to admit it. The moment he reached the scene, he could see Leica hardening her fur to ward off the roots that were trying to invade her flesh.
Everywhere, under the pressure of the roots, the hardened iron spikes broke apart with the crack of steel! It was a terrible sight. The more she seemed to be fighting back, the tighter the roots tightened. In her eyes he could only see the blind fear, the panic of dying. No, the fear of being alone.
From this point he had to be careful, his only advantage being that it wasn't too close to the tree itself and yet he wondered what he could do about it. It wasn't a beast whose skin could be easily pierced and if that wasn't half as durable as the trees he felled, then his chances were terrible or nonexistent.
Most of all he feared another emotional outburst, that he might fall back into that frenzy that would allow his Void and his something to act. Even if the Void was a very effective weapon, he just couldn't afford to have his mind shut down.
He really didn't have much to choose from. At first he penetrated the tree with some of his spells in hopes of diminishing this creature's attention to Leica, but his Standardized Magics couldn't do any real damage to the creature. Perhaps there was nothing more than an annoying fly in the eyes of that tree, dancing about on its bark. Instead, it struck at him with a few roots instead of parting with its prey, which it was already beginning to devour.
The question he was facing was just how? How should he fight this thing. He didn't even think of destroying it. While he was still focusing on this tree and trying to identify it, it opened his eyes to stare directly at it. The eyelids were made of bark, whereas the eyes themselves had a strange milk white. Could he uproot it? He reached into the ground with the earth forming, but there was already a cavity under the damn thing. So he didn't have to dig up anything there.
After a few more attempts, his identification finally succeeded and provided little or no information [blood willow? Step ??].
Basically, he could just keep staring at this flora. In the end, it didn't get him anything. But these trees could perhaps be one of the reasons people avoided the deeper parts. The real danger has never been the fauna.
Until now he believed that knowledge was the most powerful weapon of all, but at that moment he would have given a lot for an easy way to become a Rockefeller and swing an ax or even a chainsaw.
Magna: "I'm not Ash, but you are clearly Evil Shit"
The situation was dire. A cool head as well as a quick decision was required and a joke always had the potential to gain new focus. At first he tried some of his napalm balls, expecting the clinging fire to distract it, but it didn't even seem impressed. Instead of solving the problem, he fought a burning tree from there. Murphy's Law had more than come true.
The cavity shot through his head, he was still outside the roots. This at least gave him scope for experimentation and the increased intelligence accelerated his thinking processes, but also his memory. He must have had the stupidest grin in the world on his face, because he had two ideas, one of which was stupid than the other. He had always tended to point out his crazy ideas with the look on his face.
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Leica meanwhile was still struggling, but one of the roots was already penetrating her leg and starting to sip blood like grape juice. Veins at the root itself turned dark when the blood was sucked from her leg.
In his hand he created a ball of flame. Anyone else would have tried to shoot it at the roots in an attempt to cut them, but he began to modify the ball bit by bit. For one thing, he added the adhesive gel for the flames. On the other hand, this time he fed the flames with a different hydrogen-oxygen mixture. This little special mixture in connection with magnesium should bring the fire to several thousand degrees.
Indeed, the ball soon got so hot that he had to shrink it down to the size of a baseball and refine it further away from him. While his own mana didn't harm him, it could harm his equipment. His cloak was already starting to blister. These two actions brought his supply to an all-time low and he hoped the missile would at least distract it.
A moment later the ball flew towards the face of the tribe, who ignored it at first, for nothing so weak could harm it. In fact, the tree was immune to common fire, but this was no common fire! It was so hot that it couldn't be seen with the naked eye. The tree felt an enormous amount of mana but could not find a target for it. The moment the ball hit the wood, the blood willow screamed a horrific scream that echoed through the forest.
The irony for him was where the scream came from. From the open tunnel into the ground, which led to the cavity. The tree's eyes widened, but they weren't the only ones. Previously he had pumped a lot of hydrogen mixed with oxygen into this cavity in the expectation of blowing it up from below in an emergency, but what if the ball penetrated through the bark and the thing was filled from the inside?
He didn't even have to think anymore. Because next he threw himself to the ground, whereupon he formed a small hollow under himself as quickly as he could. Before he could get deep enough, the forest was shaken by a massive explosion. The shock wave spread out about three feet above the ground and was accompanied by cracking, breaking and splintering of wood.
Contrary to expectations, he had actually blown it up. Unexpected, but from the inside. The thing must have inhaled the mixture without perceiving it as a threat. At the moment when the fireball only penetrated the smallest millimeter through the bark and the flesh behind it, whatever rank the creature had sealed its fate.
Leica was also thrown away by the blast, crashing into another tree. But he was in his ears. They rang the doorbell, bled and the pressure wave felt like it had turned inside out.
Leica dragged itself wounded out of reach of the roots and yet it was not yet defeated. After looking up, he could see a writhing mass of meat that was thrashing around with its roots! Everywhere there were meat, wood and other lumps that he couldn't even identify with the skill. Half-eaten beasts, even a humanoid resembling a lizard, were among the creatures that fell victim to the tree.
He felt dizzy himself, but this thing would keep attacking. In fact, he even managed to pull himself out of the ground just so that it slowly crawled in his direction on its own roots.
The bond with Leica told him that she was alive, but it was also badly damaged, which meant that none of the three parties were doing very well! She must have lost a lot of blood in battle. In the corner of his eye he could see her trying to walk towards him, limping on one leg.
When he tried to get up, he stumbled heavily and had to admit his state of shock. It had really been two terribly stupid ideas that turned the creature into a second Hindenburg. That cramped pressure had turned it into something even more hideous.
He didn't have much of his mana anymore, but it should be enough for a few spells. A few minor healings for herself, as for Leica, should stabilize her condition for the moment. It was only after the swaying stopped that he could see the countless scattered bones of various forest dwellers everywhere. This thing was really fed up with its surroundings.
With a clearer look, he was more certain that he would hit the target. A few napalm balls from his skill appeared over the thing, only to burst there and pour their burning liquid over it. Writhing in the new flames, the thing screeched even louder than before!
It was really like something from another world. Literal horror could also apply. Over time, he would surely have come up with a lot more terms to describe it, but at the same time they didn't really feel up to the horror as terms.
His skull was still ringing incessantly from the explosion, the blood that was dripping from his ears had a slightly blackish color which also unsettled him. Confused, he stared at his hand, which seemed to have his own blood on it. Why was his blood black? Was it the void?
Stumbling back a few times, he found his back resting on another tree. A root of this being stuck above him like a spear in a tree. Rammed into it like a harpoon.
With his last mana he created one of the ultra-hot fireballs, but this time the size of a medicine ball and the moment this thing was hit, it screamed its death scream, only to collapse into a burning heap. It was just a bubbling amount of meat that dragged away trapped in itself.
For a moment he could see two messages that made him smile, while one of them even frightened him slightly and yet he lost consciousness a second later. His eyes closed on their own without any action on his part. Grinning, he just fell forward on the floor. Like a falling shelf, he no longer had any control over the situation.
The next time he was conscious, he could only capture moments of his surroundings. Apparently Leica is dragging him back to their home with her teeth. The pictures were just blurry. A bush out of the corner of my eye. Past a tree. About a small bump in the ground. Once he could hear the noise of battle and only feel the feeling of "protecting" from her.
In those moments he just felt powerless, hadn't he come to save her? Had he really neglected his training that much? Was he getting too confident?
The last impression was the one that lasted the longest, because he was dragged up the stairs to the forecourt of his little dwelling in the rock. There it was put down and out of the corner of his eye he could see her. Just as battered as he was, she lay right next to him. Looking at the stairs, resting, watching and waiting.