“What the hell?” Rory called as he stumbled backward. The damn tree was pulling itself out of the ground and four of its largest branches were reaching for him. He kept backing up to stay out of the reach of the glowing branches.
As Rory was watching the moving tree and not his own feet, his heel hit the risen root of another tree and he tumbled backward onto the ground. He grunted as his back and head struck, stings raking all over his back and butt. Just as Rory was climbing back to his feet, the tree completely freed itself from the ground. Moving its roots in a sort of snake-like slither, it slid forward toward Rory. What he felt was worse, his back was to the tree he had fallen over so he couldn’t back up anymore.
As the two longest branches bent forward and reached for him, Rory instinctively swung both of his chakram defensively. To his, and likely the walking tree’s, surprise, each dug deeply into a branch. It shuttered and yanked its branches backward, pulling his chakram with it. Rory barely managed to hold onto his constructs, resulting in them being roughly torn free releasing a spray of sap from each deep slice. A deeply pitched creaking moan came from the tree and it backed up a foot or two, pulling back those two injured branches. Rory saw an opportunity to run again, but just before he could take a step in either direction to get away, it lurched forward again, its other two large branches whipping forward at him.
Figuring what he had done last time had worked just fine, he took the same approach., This time with intent and attention, Rory sliced at the approaching branches with even greater force. As those tree limbs were only about half as thick as the former, his chakram sliced almost all the way through. When he yanked them free, sap flew everywhere including all over Rory’s exposed skin. He was nervous for a moment, but thankfully, nothing seemed to be immediately toxic about it, so he observed the effects his strikes had had on the walking plant.
He saw that those newly sliced branches just dangled, held in place only by a few fibers and the bark. Then the creature once again backed up, but this time with an even louder groan. And beyond that, it backed up further and even started turning, likely trying to slither away on its weird root-feet.
Rory mind was pretty much pushed to its limits, and he found himself completely unable to control himself. “Oooh no, boyo,” he called to it in his brogue as he ran and leaped at the thing, his chakram slicing with all the force he could put into them.
The tree moaned and tried to swing its branches at him again. He sliced into one of the thicker ones with both weapons and smashed at it twice before his black weapon cracked entirely through it and the branch fell to the ground. Unfortunately, he wasn’t expecting to have no resistance, causing him to stumble forward a few steps.
It was then what felt to Rory like a M-steel rod smashed his lower back and he left his feet and flew forward. He struck the ground and rolled over and over for what felt like forever. After finally coming to stop, Rory lay there, dazed. Thankfully, his mind cleared quickly and with it, his focus returned. He got to his feet a little wobbly, but he did manage to steady himself. Then he looked himself over and found that he had thankfully hit nothing on his little flight but the soft exposed ground bordering Lucifer’s nest area. He had many more slices, scrapes and some forming bruises, but nothing serious..
Feeling good enough, Rory turned back towards the tree which was trying to flee again, now more than ten meters away. Growling under his breath, he ran after the sentient tree. As he got closer he recalled his weapons when he passed them. They had flown from his hands when he had taken the blow to his back.
He immediately rematerialized them and then threw first the right and then left underhanded at the retreating tree as he sprinted after it. Both smacked into it just as he’d been practicing and he reached the much slower moving creature. He leaped at it and recalled and resummoned his weapons again, then swung them down onto the one last thick branch. It thwacked to the floor in another spray of sap and a moan. He leaped at the tree again, this time yelling out his frustrations as he used all his body weight and strength to slam the chakram home in its wooden flesh. It moaned louder and Rory started smashing at it with his weapons and tearing them out as roughly as he could.
Chasing as it fled, Rory swung down again and again, striking the tree with his serpent chakram and ripping them free, sending chips and sap all over, all while yelling his throat raw. Eventually, the tree fell over with a groaning crunch and crack, but Rory didn’t stop. He kept smashing the same spot, taking out his rage and frustration out on the creature. In his mind, it wasn’t the tree he was fighting any more, it was… his life. It was eight years of living in pain and destitution. Of barely surviving. And of the betrayal from so long ago. That was all that went through his mind as smashed his Soul Weapons into the creature beneath him over and over again, screaming until he went horse and then screaming more., Finally he sliced all the way through and the tree was cut in half, causing Rory to fall. He collapsed and rolled onto his back beside the tree creature, heaving in deep breaths through a throat sore from yelling out his despair and fury. A mix of tears and sap stung his eyes as he blinked up at the glowing canopy above.
Slowly his eyes closed and exhaustion took him into darkness, his emotions having been drained as much as his emotions had been.
***
Buzzing on his wrist woke Rory, but he ignored it. Blinking he looked around.
"Oh, shit!” he exclaimed and checked the time on his commo. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized it had only been about twenty minutes. It was just after nine in the evening so there was not as much time pressure as he had feared.
Laying his head back down, Rory took in a deep breath, just inhaling the jungle’s air. Strangely, he noticed the air was really fresh. It was a little wet and maybe a bit moldy, sure, but it was the freshest air he had breathed in a long time. Probably since he moved to this dump of a planet and its stuffy and acidic-smelling atmosphere. Then he realized that the vegetation was likely why there was any air in the facility at all. The snake door had been cracked open..
After another minute of just breathing, Rory sighed and sat up, looking at the tree and surroundings. Sap and pieces of wood were everywhere in the open area, including all over him. He was bathed in the stuff and had swallowed who knew how much. Blech.
He felt around in his mouth with his tongue and spit out a few small slivers of the wood. He really needed to wash his mouth out, which returned his mind to his original goal before the weird walking tree: water.
Walking trees and talking snakes… right. Is that normal for Soul Warriors or is this place just bonkers?
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Realizing it didn’t matter either way right now, Rory looked around and said, “Okay. Water.”
How long had it been since he had drunk anything? Thinking about it for a few moments , he spoke out loud, “Why am I not thirsty any more?”
He checked himself over and discovered that not only could he move easier, but he also didn’t hurt, even a little – not even his back. On top of that, all the small cuts he had were either healed or mostly healed.
He stood up and confirmed he was neither sore nor hungry and thirsty. In fact, he felt amazing and filled with energy. He looked down at the tree and saw the sap slowly drip onto the ground from where he cut it in half. He kneeled down and cupped his hands under it, gathering some. After a few moments, he drank it from his hands and his body tingled pleasantly.
He immediately touched his commo to see what this tree thing was.
{Infant Living Spring Treant} slain…
Stopping at the first line, Rory called, “No shit!”
In his twice-weekly walks from school past the posh areas of Brompton, Rory saw advertisements for a super expensive Soul Enhancement product line for Soul Wielders called the “Living Spring Line” that supposedly helped them improve their bodies. Different medications in the line did different things, but they all improved the body in some way.
Living Spring. Could this tree be where they were from?
Immediately cupping his hands under the tree again, Rory drank. The tingles returned. He excitedly repeated the process a few dozen times until the remaining sap fell to just a drip. Staring at it, Rory called his chakram back. If there was anything he had learned from scavenging and living for his next meal in the slums, it was how to get all the value out of anything he could, especially one of his few creature kills.
He immediately started carving off a small flat piece of the tree and put it in his mouth. It was a little bitter but he chewed and sucked on it, feeling slight tingles. Once he got all the sap he could, he spit it out and repeated the process. Oddly, no matter how much he had been consuming of the thing, he never felt full. It also appeared to either hide or entirely eliminate his hunger and thirst, which was certainly a positive side effect in his current situation.
Let’s just hope drinking it straight from the body isn’t going to turn me into a tree or something.
He continued to carve up the tree until he decided to stop due to time passing. He couldn’t leave his mother forever or she’d do something horrible. That said, he would not just leave the pieces of tree out in the open to be taken by… well whatever was around. He dragged the two tree halves to Lucifer’s nest and pushed them inside.
Finally, he pulled back up the commo messages because he had stopped reading them after he saw the creature's name.
{Infant Living Spring Treant} slain…
Calculating…
73% Myst Gained…
Vessel filled…
Summoning Tree Updated…
Yes! Rory thought with a mental fist pump. Summoning tree updated. Must be random luck. Either way it’s brilliant.
Sure, the myst was great and gaining a vessel was even better, but he had gone through this whole thing to gain a summon that could help him. A glowing tree was exactly what he needed to see his way out of here. The fact that it was a special tree with smashing sap was a nice bonus too.
Rory immediately looked into his ghost and saw the new branch under Summoning (1/X). It said Living Spring Treant (0/63). Rory guessed that meant the treant could grow to be as strong as having sixty-three vessels worth of myst.
Wow. That’s really really strong. I’m glad this one was just an infant.
Either way, when went deeper into his ghost he looked at the treant, what he saw was a tiny partially transparent thin stick with short roots and three small glowing leaves sticking out of it.
Well, that’s kind of underwhelming… Where’s my big tree that can whap things? Rory stared at the tiny finger-sized stick and thought for a bit. Maybe I need to invest vessels in it?
That would make sense he supposed. Hoping for the best, Rory pushed a vessel inside and the treant absorbed it. There was no change except that it was no longer transparent, but like a solid living creation.
Progress at least…
Nodding to himself, he pushed another vessel at it and watched as the treant grew. The trunk thickened and grew taller while a few more branches with leaves sprouted. It was still no bigger than his palm though. Gritting his teeth, he pushed another vessel into it and it grew again, gaining height, thickness, and more branches and leaves.
Pulling out of the ghost he spoke out loud, “Let’s see what you look like,” while in his mind he was thinking, Please work, please work, please work.
Pressing his Soul Power with his will, he held out his hand and thought of the treant being on his palm while mentally pushing “summon.” A slight weight pressed his hand down as a tree the size of his full hand appeared on it. The few leaves it had glowed a gentle light and swayed slightly.
Rory let out a high sigh of relief. This was everything he had hoped it would be. Looking it over, he knew he would need to invest more, but it appeared as though his gamble had paid off.
***
After putting his last two vessels into the treant with only a slight wince, Rory watched as it grew to the size of his head and he plopped it on his left shoulder. Remembering that the description said it would do what he told it to, Rory sent his thoughts towards the little treant. In response, it tangled its roots around his neck and in his hair as best it could and he smiled over at it. “We’re going to be good friends, you and me.” Then he patted its leafy canopy lightly and walked towards Lucifer’s nest. As he entered, he found the glow from his little tree was bright enough to see about three feet around him, which was more than good enough for today’s purposes.
The first thing Rory did was walk around the edges. This served to purposes in his mind. First it would expose any water sources there. Thirsty or not, he figured he should drink. Second, it allowed him to get an impression of the size of the next. In short, it was cavernous. But Rory supposed that made since Lucifer himself had been on the rather large size.
Having found nothing interesting on the edges, he walked towards the middle. It was there that he found the only thing of any value or use inside the nest besides what he himself had added. The pile of Lucifer’s molted skin.
The first thing that came to Rory’s mind was, Bloody hell, that’s fucking huge!
And it was. A not-quite-translucent black layer of scaled skin was curled up and took about a quarter of massive empty cavern. Rory ran his hand along it, recalling its giant owner. Thinking Lucifer would want it used well, Rory summoned his chakram and tried to slice a piece off. It took at least ten minutes of sawing to just barely make it through, but it worked.
I guess I really needed to prioritize making my weapons sharper. Not that he would change any of his decisions. Still, sharper was better. Yes, Rory reflected. I am a genius. Poison is bad and sharper is better.
Sighing at his own idiocy, he thought, Whatever.
Moving on, he reflected that the skin was too difficult and time-consuming to cut right now. That said, he knew he’d be back. He figured he could maybe sew himself a little armor out of it. Rory didn’t think he could make himself sell it. It would be like selling a piece of Lucifer and that did not sit well with Rory at all. Either way, he figured it was time to move on.
Exiting the nest, Rory moved towards where the jungle was thinner, thinking it would be closer to the exit. He was right, and thanks to the light of his treant, he made his way down to retrieve the lamp, backpack, and as many empty cells as the bag could hold. He immediately released the treant back into his soul as soon as he wound the lamp and found it still functional. He had discovered that he was tiring quite quickly and, after a moment of concern, felt his energy was being drained into and by the summon. Finding that as good to note for the future, he put it aside and finished his tasks.
Those complete and his immediate goals met, he climbed out of the facility, worked his way through the caverns to his school clothes, and returned to the world above and all the problems that brought.