As he ascended above the trees, he spotted a dark stain on the horizon, about a hundred miles away. He smiled. That seemed to be his target. Two teleports took him to his destination, and he hovered in the air next to what looked like a rod of rot and darkness, sheathed roughly within a cylinder of wood. Rot oozed out from between holes in the tree, creating waterfalls of toxins that cascaded down as gravity took hold. It was a bit stunted compared to the previous arboreal titan Sam had visited, but it was still a good portion of a mile in height.
The surrounding land for a dozen miles was completely devoid of life, and the ground beyond that was sparse, with only a few boulders peeking out from between drifts of churned earth and filth. Something large had passed through this area recently.
Sam let gravity carry him down onto one of the branches of the rotted tree, and bent his knees slightly as he felt the wood give beneath him. It was incredibly mushy, almost as if he were standing on a bog rather than a tree.
A foul smell assaulted him, but he simply cut off his sense of smell, his nostrils closing over. Then he walked forwards, trying to find the guardian the Forest Folk had been talking about.
There was nothing before him save for the colossal trunk of the tree and the highway of a branch that extended forth. However, as he neared, a dull creaking noise started up, centered within the trunk. He cocked his head and listened intently. Whatever it was, it was getting louder.
Sam teleported next to the tree, and the noise grew to a fever pitch. The rot before him started to swirl, and a portal made out of wood and filth formed, growing until it was fifty feet in width.
A claw pushed out through the portal, and a body emerged behind it. A titan of wood and dark slush came into view, girded in plates of bark that seemed hardly equipped to keep the rot from dripping out.
Sam teleported back and watched the beast as it took one shuddering step onto the ground before it, its claws digging in.
“Consume. Spread. KILL!” A voice that sounded like the creaking of trees in the midst of a hurricane sounded out.
Sam held his hammer loosely, readily to spring forth at any moment. The monster regarded the area around it and then set eyes on Sam. It thrust one claw forwards, a spear of wood seeming to appear from nowhere, questing for Sam’s neck.
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He sent his own hand rocketing forwards, and a pulse of energy emerged, burning through the wood like a hot coal dropped into a pit filled with gasoline.
“Resistance?” The monster asked, cocking its head. “DEATH!”
“What the hell is your deal?” Sam responded, not really expecting an answer.
The claws dug into the tree’s rotting wood and the monster seemed to fall apart, merging with the branch. A faint bulge traveled along the rot encrusted tree, and appeared in front of Sam, a pair of claws streaking up to skewer him. He parried them with his hammer, and then thrust the weapon down, a wave of Dao energy cascading out of it.
The bark beneath him boiled as searing heat inundated it, forcing the monster out. Despite this, it was barely harmed. A claw came whipping out at supersonic speed, and at such close range, Sam had to teleport to dodge.
He crossed his arms just in case, and his precaution was proven wise as the monster teleported as well, sending its palm down onto his chest like a meteor. His armor groaned, and he was sent hurtling down, traveling a hundred feet into the rotten tree. It grew harder the further he went, until the E Rank wood was too durable for him to carve through.
Sam teleported again, just in time as a beam of concentrated rot came hurtling down the borehole, turning the wood to liquid. It was odd, fighting against a living tree, but not as odd as some of the sights he had seen in the Multiverse. Well, he supposed, his Multiverse. A lesser man might have seen this as an opportunity for escape, a way to truly be free of the problems of his old world. He could live here, gathering power until he could escape the Tower, at a higher rank. Then he remembered the explicit explanations that there was only so much essence in the Tower. There had to be something stopping him from enacting the half hearted plan he had created.
When he emerged into the air once more, his hammer poised to strike his foe, he saw it. As he emerged from the ether, his Dao senses at their maximum, he spotted an orb made out of energy coating the entire planet. It contained mysteries beyond his meager understanding, created to prevent any not from this Multiverse from leaving Vallenar.
His hammer descended in the same instant, crashing into the tree monster’s head. It was sent crashing to the ground, its body undulating as the force was distributed. Because of the guardian’s semi liquid form, blunt force was less effective. However, the wave of Dao energy that boiled its flesh was.
The monster steamed as Sam weaved the caustic power of his Dao Seed around it, creating a pressure cooker. Another Dao rose up, one of fetid multiplication and progeny. It was just as strong as his own, perhaps at the third level of the Dao Seed stage, but wasn’t fused.