The forest had come alive around them.

The full moon hovered over the forest, huge and haunting, casting its light over the moving monsters.

Ayah watched with rapt horror as the trees’s roots shot up, writhing like giant worms.

Harith stood up and motioned for her to do the same. She crawled out the hollowed out husk and stood slowly. She breathed as silently as she could.

Howling sounds emanated from the open maws of the tree monstrosities, an open cavity in the upper part of the trunk, with jagged broken pieces of wood serving as its teeth.

Ayah closed her eyes, wincing as their shrill cries reverberated through her skull. She swayed on her feet, barely bracing herself as another quake shook the ground.

Harith’s eyes were glancing to the side, expression somber. She had never seen him this grim before. He tilted his head to the side as if he was hearing something beyond the deafening cries of the monsters.

An even louder cry reverberated throughout the forest. The trees’ roots trashed on the ground as if in response to the new sound.

Ayah was still close to where they had sheltered for the night, close enough to feel the rumbling that ran over the trunk, quiet at first, then a buzzing hum like that of a thousand bees. She stilled as a groan sounded above her. She looked up just in time to see the tree branch swinging down towards her head. She threw herself to the side. The branch slammed into the ground with such force it snapped in half, held in together by a simple thread… then the two broken halves knitted back together, as if nothing happened.

Ayah stared, dumbfounded. Its regeneration was incredible.

“Watch out,” Harith yelled.

A root slammed against her, Ayah had barely the time to bring her arms up to protect herself. Her chest rattled, the breath stuttering as she was flung against the floor. The root hovered over her, ready to crash her. Ayah stumbled to her knees. She held her hand high, summoning her strength to her fist, hoping it would be enough. But before the root made contact with her arm, Harith was in front of her, his sword cutting through the root.

Ayah had a single moment of relief before the slashed part of the root writhed and sunk into the earth only to reemerge again attached to another.

“We need to leave. We need to get away from here,” Ayah said, her eyes unable to stray from the wriggling roots.

“The whole forest had awakened,” Harith said, his voice eerily calm.

“What? How?”

There was no record of this. This had never happened before.

Ayah frantically tried to recall a mention of these monsters in the books. Then she stilled. Why was she still relying on his words when, times and times gain, it was proven he had lied?

She gritted her teeth.

“Is this normal?” she asked, jumping from the way of an incoming root.

“No,” he said. “Something had happened. The last time they had awakened was roughly two centuries ago.”

“You think Something has roused them from their deep slumber.” Ayah glanced at an extended branch, sidestepping its attempt to swing at her. “What could it be?”

Harith narrowed his eyes. “Or who could it be.”

She whipped her head towards him. “You think it was intentional?”

“Possibly.”

She summoned her sword, using her Crescent Blade skill to cut three branches crowding her. She jumped from an attacking root, landing a distance away from Harith. She gritted her teeth. Cutting down the branches didn’t help much. They merely grew again. If she wanted to put a stop to their attacks she had to get rid of the main body. The tree itself.

She readied herself, then launched toward the nearest tree. The sword dug into the trunk. It sank a couple inches before it stopped. Ayah pushed and pushed, but the blade refused to budge.

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A root sprung from the ground and shot towards her. She released the blade and twisted around, evading the appendage’s attack. She used a branch, barreling towards her, to propel herself away from more charging branches. She landed on the ground, steadying herself on the quaking surface.

She summoned her sword into her inventory, then back to her hand.

She crouched down, observing her surroundings. She could see Harith using his shadows to immobilize the closest trees before he struck them down. The muscles in the arm flexed as he swung his sword with force, cutting clean through. He swung his sword again and again as it tried to regenerate. The speed of his slashes overwhelming its regenerative abilities. The tree fell down to the ground, twitching, before it stopped moving.

She couldn’t help the small twinge of envy as she watched him. He had already cut down two trees when her sword failed to cut half through the trunk of one. She gripped her sword tight, vowing to train more and become stronger. For now, she would do whatever she could to help him. She refused to be a burden.

If she couldn’t cut it down like he did, she would use its own appendages against it.

She summoned her strength, the muscles in her arms shifting and tightening. Unlike last time, her new sword didn’t shake nor groan. Using her Crescent Blade, she launched up in the air, clearing a path to the tree. She focused all her strength in her arm and swung down, hard, striking a point where two branches split from the main trunk. Her sword sunk a bit deeper, but like last time, it stopped.

She growled. The trunk was too thick for her to cut in one single blow. And once her sword was removed from the gash it had made, the tree would regenerate.

“I won’t let you!” she yelled.

She lifted her sword up, and using both her speed and strength, she swung it again and again, till it sank deeper and deeper and reached the open maw. She tightened her arm, and twisting her sword, she pulled it free from the side. Then swung it back, cutting the remaining side holding the upper side connected to the remaining body. It fell to the ground with a resounding crash, crushing some smaller roots in its path.

Ayah stumbled to the ground, panting with the exertion. She grinned, relishing her hard earned victory. Then rushed towards the fallen tree to put it out of its misery.

The muscles in her arms tightened as she brought her sword down, again and again, till the tree stilled and the system’s ding announced its defeat. She must have looked like a maniac. But Ayah didn’t care. She was glad she had killed such a strong monster, alone.

[You’ve defeated monster x 1 ]

[Congratulations! You’ve Leveled up!]

[Keep up the good work player!]

Ayah nodded, her grin widening.

Even better!

“Are you done?”

She startled. Harith was standing on a fallen tree, staring at her with an unamused look on his face.

“Let this be today’s lesson. When on a battlefield, don’t focus on one opponent and turn your back to the others.”

She glanced around her. Dismembered roots lay on the ground, writhing and twitching as Harith’s sword floated above them, cutting into them everytime one of them tried to reconnect to a main body.

She smiled sheepishly.

He glanced at the fallen tree and nodded. “Good work.”

Her grin came back full force.

A shrill cry, louder than the others, pierced the air. The trees stilled for a second, before their answering cries reverberated through the forest.

Ayah turned alarmed eyes to Harith. “What do you think that was?” she asked.

The trees seemed to act in whichever way that cry directed them. They uprooted themselves, and moved in the same direction.

“Whatever it was, it might be our key to stopping them,” he said, his eyes following the monsters’ retreating husks.

The monsters moved, completely ignoring their presence. Ayah jerked away from a crawling root. She stabbed it with her sword. It wiggled around, dislodging itself from the blade, then continued on its route.

Harith turned to her. Ayah swallowed, dreading his next words.

“We need to follow them.”

She sighed. “Of course.”

She launched herself in the air, ignoring Harith’s alarmed shouts, and caught a branch with her free hand. She swung herself around and sat down. She peered down at Harith, waving at him.

“Come on up! I’m sure they won’t mind,” she called.

She could see his deep sigh and sagging shoulders. He threw her a despairing look before he jumped, joining her on the branch.

“Better isn’t it?” she asked. “Who would turn down a free ride?”

He shot her a glare, but she could see the twitch at his mouth and the quiver at his eyebrows. “You’re going to get us killed one of these days.”

She punched him in the arm. “Don’t be so dramatic. I know what I’m doing.”

He gave an exasperated sigh. “Of course.”

Ayah hummed, deciding to let his mocking tone slide. She was in a good mood, and she wasn’t going to let his sulkiness ruin it.

The trees continued their trek through the forest till a hulking trunk towered over them. Ayah marveled at the sheer size of the tree.

How did it get so big? Such a thing, towering over the forest canopy, would never have gone unnoticed by anyone.

The giant tree shifted. One of its roots sprung up and grabbed the nearest tree. It picked it up like a child picking up his toy, then brought it to its gaping maw and bit down on it. The tree monster shrieked as it was devoured, but none of the others moved an inch. They all stood, waiting for their turn as the giant devoured one tree after another. New hulking branches sprang around its trunk, and new roots writhed at its base each time it feasted.

It was like a thing out of an eldritch nightmare.

“Is this the thing we need to kill?” Ayah whispered, her eyes not leaving the horrifying sight.