The wood beneath Sam creaked ominously, and suddenly, a reverse waterfall of energy cascaded upwards and into the Guardian. Its form swelled with both power and physical might, before it slammed all of that down into its fist. The wood bulged out, becoming wider than Sam was tall.
Sam’s defences crumbled instantly, his hammer slamming into his chest. The metal dented his armor, compressing his flesh. His body protested, pain shooting up and down his limbs. Before he could be swallowed up by the tree again, he teleported, but the momentum remained.
Sam shot off into the sky like a meteor, crossing miles in the blink of an eye. He regained his composure high above the tree, hovering there for the briefest of moments. The entirety of the vista around him was revealed, and to his horror, the entire horizon in one direction was black with rot, a hellscape of decay and entropy. The shadows of other corrupted trees could be seen in the distance, surrounded by nothing but endless rot.
Then gravity took hold, and he pinpointed the location of his foe, still standing on the branch. No wonder it had been so troublesome to the Forest Folk. With the ability to draw upon the power of the tree, and the conceptual might of a force able to take over half a planet, it would prove to be an insurmountable challenge to most at or below its level.
Sam was no ordinary fighter though, and he meant to prove that to the Voidrot, and to himself. As he fell, pure white energy erupted from his form, beams of light shooting through his body. His stats skyrocketed, and his body pulsed with power. Sam flipped in the air and started to build up speed with his Dao, twin flames of conceptual energy propelling him down. The horizon diminished as he fell, and soon all that he could see was the titanic tree below, and the form of the Guardian.
Terra’s Will was still at its maximum size, and he pointed it downwards, its massive head like a comet of star-metal sent by a god to punish the unfaithful. As energy flickered around its form, the image only strengthened.
Sam channeled the pattern of his most powerful skill into his weapon. Had he been more like the standard E Rankers of the Multiverse, he would have shouted out the name of his skill. However, Rage of a World Unbound was a bit too pretentious for him. He was sure that his father would have loved it though.
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The Voidrot Guardian stared up at him with eyes made from liquid wood, and pointed both of its hands upwards, each one surrounded by a haze of darkness. The energy was channeled through the tree and into the monster, turning into a cloud of decay capable of bringing a country’s population to its knees. Then it condensed down into a single point, and shot forth. Reality wept as the concentrated bolt of Dao energy ripped through it, the air bending and warping in ways that should have been impossible in Euclidean space.
Sam ignored this and focused on his attack, aiming it away from the tree. He was still mindful of his mission to not destroy the actual arboreal giant that towered over the lesser forest below, only its guardian. If this worked, all he would destroy was the monster and the branch beneath it.
As he fell, the world around him quaked as the two incredibly potent attacks collided. The speck of energy from the Guardian hit the head of his hammer about five hundred feet above the branch. It seemed to possess an almost physical presence, and Sam’s body crumpled as his hammer impacted it. Had he still possessed bones, they would have all shattered in that instant. As it was, pain exploded across his body as flesh tore.
The charge of power within his hammer finally reached the tip, and exploded outwards, impacting the Guardian’s strike. The mote of energy was blasted backwards, shattering apart into a million pieces. Darkness shot down like a storm of comets, peppering the tree below. Then Sam’s hammer struck, straight on top of the Guardian. It tried to teleport, but Sam simply followed it, his hammer continuing to press into its body. Then it was crushed down into the branch, and the true power of Sam’s technique was released.
A cone of red and blue light blasted out of Terra’s Will, enveloping the Guardian completely. Wood burned to ash in a moment, and the branch below the monster snapped in half instantly, carved straight through by Sam’s strike. He descended along beside his falling hammer, and watched as the Guardian was seared into oblivion as it was disconnected from the tree that kept it alive. Caught midair, there was no escape.
The monster died in a plume of ash, and essence was carried up through the air to Sam. It was a decent chunk, more than half a level, but still too little to gain his next one.
A ray of green light exploded upwards from the tree, piercing the sky. Sam watched as its bark fell to the ground, the rot burning off with it. New wood grew out at an immense speed, rebuilding the tree into its full glory. A minute later, a tree identical to the one the Forest Folk called home stood before him.
A presence swept across the land, and the darkness on the horizon receded out of view. Despite this, nothing happened in terms of quest completion. It looked like he would need to return to the Forest Folk to collect his reward.