That was too close; those were Oscar's thoughts as he meditated to recover from the unreasonable, drastic, and idiotic attempt to climb that somehow worked. If any portion of their climb were off, whether it was the timing, duration, or length of their respective abilities, they would have plummeted straight down. His heart beat uncontrollably, recalling how Austin's dark tendril almost didn't reach the branch.
Putting aside his worries about what could have happened, Oscar opened his eyes to get a clearer view of him. The branch he rested on was wide enough to fit him, Austin, and Erik on it and extended out so far that Oscar was sure it went past the borders of the ruins. The size wasn't the only thing that attracted his curiosity as his hands felt a patch of grass and dirt.
Somehow, dirt had gotten on the branch, and all kinds of greenery, not just the tree leaves, grew on it. Rather than a branch, Oscar felt it was like a small garden placed by a ledge, tranquil and with an amazing view as Oscar looked out to see the ruins below and a glimmering forest. Inside the dirt, small creatures moved about that Oscar recognized.
"Worms? How on earth did these little fellows get here?" Oscar grabbed one in his hands as it wriggled to get out. The worm was plump and long, indicating how healthy it was. After briefly observing the creature, Oscar placed the worm back to burrow in the dirt. "Is this a tree or a mountain with many cliffs and ledges? If not for the large leaves, I wouldn't be able to tell."
Along the branch were protrusions that connected to a large green leaf, some having pools of water within them where Oscar could see tadpoles and frogs. He grabbed one of the leaves stems and tried to pull, but even with his incredible strength, it remained unmoved. The leaf was so strongly connected to the branch that pulling it made Oscar feel he was pulling the entire branch.
"What are you doing?" Austin asked as he cracked his wrists.
"Trying to pull this leaf off. This tree is unique. I wonder what it's called." Oscar answered with a smile and looked at Erik, who stood up on his stubby legs. "Are we ready to move on?"
"Ready!" Erik pumped his fist up, feeling refreshed.
Together, the trio looked up, their faces twitching as their eyes realized the countless twisting, straight, spiraling branches that continued upward to an unseeable peak. Oscar groaned, Erik stammered, and even Austin could not help but make a blank face. Just how far up did this tree go?
"There's nothing to do but go upward." Oscar roused himself and gathered Reis and Ein into his feet, jumping up high and onto the next closest branch. Thankfully, the branches were not too far from each other, making the traversal upward easier. Oscar turned down toward his friends on the first branch and said, "Hurry up. We can't waste more time."
"You have to be kidding me." Erik cursed and burst through the air with flames blazing from his feet and gauntlet anima.
Austin said nothing, retaining his indifferent expression; a dark tendril whipped out from his hand, grabbed onto Oscar, and leaped up.
With the dark tendril wrapped around his arm, Oscar pulled to help Austin up onto the next branch.
"Look!" Erik moved over to a shrub that had numerous berries. "A starberry bush." He picked off all the berries, placing them in his space pocket. His eyes gleamed with delight. "This tree alone is a treasure trove. Who knows what else lies on the other branches?"
"Seems like this may have been worthwhile, after all." Oscar leaped onto the next branch, finding more precious resources, mainly the value plants for alchemy. However, he felt something was off. If herbs and treasured plants grew on these branches, then surely some Exalt Beasts should be living here. "Let's not split up. Although we can cover more ground, we can't let our guard down."
Erik and Austin nodded in agreement. The prospects of great treasure were great, but their survival was the main priority. Together the trio leaped from one branch to the next, growing progressively wider and longer than before that Oscar believed they might find one so large that calling it a plain would suit it.
"More resources!" Erik wobbled happily to the growing stalks of bamboo.
Suddenly, Oscar felt his instincts screaming, and he rushed out, grabbing Erik and pulling him back. Erik's face distorted from his's sudden powerful pull, but Oscar didn't care about how rough he handed him because a fast green leaf snapped where Erik last stood with a sound of teeth clanging and chewing. However, as Oscar had saved Erik, the large green leaf moved around as if it was confused about the disappearance of its prey.
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With sweat pouring down his back, Erik pointed at the large leaf that wriggled and jerked around like it had a nervous tick in its nonexistent brain. "What is that thing?"
"You mean, what are they?" Austin answered.
"They?" Erik looked around and saw these strange leafy enemies surrounding them.
The leaves were enclosed like tulips and green on the outside but then opened to reveal a red inside with rows of sharp teeth. They opened like blooming flowers, each petal moving in and out like a strange, cursed mouth.
Oscar frowned and gripped his bulwark. "Didn't I say to be careful? You might have been severely injured by those teeth if not for my timely aid."
Hearing Oscar's scolding, Erik did not feel insulted but ashamed of his weakness. He stood up and summoned his gauntlet anima while wearing his gauntlet armaments. A surge of flame gathered around them, and he punched out, releasing multiple balls of fire.
The many maws of the strange leaves contracted and opened up, squirting out a stream of green liquid that extinguished the flames and fell on sections of the branch, hissing and decaying the greenery and dirt it touched, revealing the deep brown bark under the dirt. The green liquid was highly toxic to melt through the ground, but thankfully the branch was not affected.
"We don't have to worry about footing. Handle these things!" Oscar formed a 'Silver Star' and shot it out toward one of the leaves, but it dodged. His Prinstyct worked hard to see its future movements, but the flexible stem that controlled it was fast, and little feelers along its surface could feel the vibrations in the air.
'Silver Star Four-fold'
As Oscar moved about, dodging the sharp teeth and acid, he shot out four miniature silver stars, landing one on a petal. The sharp teeth shattered, and the petal fell off; the rest of the leaf wriggled and widened as if it could scream, revealing a tunnel that led deeper down its stem to whatever grotesque place it sent the remains of its prey.
On the other side, Austin wielded his two daggers, wrapping them in his highly corrosive acid spell. Unlike his usual self, he strode with a burning resolve across his face. He swung his daggers to deflect the acid streams, combating them with his acid, and the two dangerous poisons mixed and attempted to consume the other. "My poison won't lose to yours."
His pride in his spells sprouted in him a rare desire to compete to see how he'd fare against other poisons. Austin locked himself into a rare battle of poisons; the grounds around them dissolved from the excessive splattered onto them. He stabbed into one of the leaves, corroding the petals and leaving on the stem that fell to the ground, lifeless and shriveling up.
Meanwhile, Erik balanced his round body on top of one of his gauntlet animas, flying low and speeding up to dodge several of the leaves' attacks. His gauntlet anima burned with a dense magma, and he punched out in a blazing dash against one of the plants, incinerating it.
His mastery of fire combined with the unique mobility atop his gauntlet anima made him an unpredictable force that stumped the leaves.
"Doing fine," Oscar bolted around with his deer anima, thrusting his silver lance into another monstrous leaf, letting his 'Shattering Wave' tear it apart. "But these leaves have no defenses, is this everything this place has to offer?"
As he said that, the loud stomping of a massive creature shook even the large branch he stood on. Oscar stared at the newcomer, a large creature with four stumpy legs and a hill-like mound for its body. Its entire body was covered in gaping maws of sharp teeth and pretty flowers, an unsettling view of two opposing features.
From its body, large stems extended out, connected to the leafy maws that Oscar and the others fought. The maws opened wide and let out a bellowing screech that shook Oscar and the others, making them stumble to the floor.
"A powerful Lower Elite Exalt Beast." Oscar spat out some blood in shock. That screech just now affected his organs. Then pollen spread from its flowers, raising Oscar's alert as the pollen quickly made its way toward them.
'Flame Shroud'
'Dark Veil'
'Silver Sheen'
Coated in fire, darkness, and silver, Oscar and the others did not allow the pollen to touch their skin or enter through their breathing. Oscar screamed from inside his silver armor, "Its legs are rooted to the branch. Move with my anima!"
'Duo Lance'
Two silver lances formed on Oscar's deer anima's antlers, and it charged forth, closing the distance between it and the mound of maws and flowers.
'Dark Rend'
Austin threw his dagger anima, darkness bursting from its tip like a flaming arrow.
'Flaming Spear'
Erik formed a spear of fire, gripping it with his gauntlet animas that flew forward, pointing it straight toward its target.
The power of their three spells tore a devastating path against the mound beast and impaled it from three places. Erik's flames spread well over the flowers, Austin's darkness corroded the inside, and Oscar's wild deer anima's thrashing tore it apart.
"It's done," Oscar sighed in relief and went forward to collect the creature's core. He turned to Erik and Austin, who seemed fine. "Let's rest. We should get to each branch while in our ideal conditions."
After a period of rest, they moved onward, going up from branch to branch, facing more foes, and gathering more resources. Finally, the trio stepped onto the very tip of the tree. The tip of the tree was odd in that rather than a sharp, narrow tip, a large piece of land lay on it, not made of branches, but a real piece of earth from below.
Atop this land, Oscar and the others had their mouths wide open in awe of the large stone fortress wrapped in vines and leaves, ironically holding it together from collapsing.
"This must be the vault."