The giant tree continued its feeding, disregarding Ayah and Harith's presence. Was it even aware they were there? It didn’t look like it. Or at least, if it was, then they were irrelevant.
If it gained power the more it fed, then they were in serious trouble. With the sheer amount of monsters waiting their turn to be consumed, the giant might soon become the strongest monster in the forest−The guardian of lost souls notwithstanding. Ayah had no idea about the guardian’s strength.
“What should we do?” she asked.
“It’s advancing quite quickly. We need to stop it before it devours the whole forest.”
Ayah stilled. A quizzical look on her face.
Harith threw her a questioning look.
Ayah glanced at him then back to what was in front of her. The message displayed on the screen.
[Harith sent a request to join your party.]
[Accept/Reject]
This wasn’t the first time they had fought together. They had fought the bear monsters and the trees earlier. Yet, why was the system showing her this message now?
[Accept/Reject]
The system insisted.
“Eh… Yes, of course,” she mumbled.
Harith nodded, thinking she was speaking to him.
Another screen appeared showing her the members of her party. Her name followed by Harith’s with two bars displayed in front of each name. A green and a blue one in front of her name. And a green and a dark purple bar in front of Harith’s.
Ayah could already predict the green bar as their health status. But what was the other one? Both she and him had different colors.
He stood up, unsheathing his sword. “We must take care of it while it’s distracted.”
Ayah nodded. She summoned her sword and readied herself, taking an offensive stance. They both launched themselves at the nearest trees, choosing different sides.
Ayah jumped from tree to tree, keeping an eye on the branches and roots despite their lack of response. One wrong move and things could go wrong.
Harith arrived at the giant monster faster than her. He held his sword up, and a purplish tint emanated from him as he swung it down. As the sword neared the monster, a dark purplish smoke wafted up from the blade. The tree shook violently as the blade cut through it. From one side of the trunk to the other.
Ayah watched as the upper part tilted to the side, completely separated from its lower region. Then, just as Harith’s sword made its full arc and the last tip of the blade lost contact with the tree, small veins protruded from the separated part and attached themselves to the trunk, sealing the breach.
The giant tree stood, the once cut part completely whole. Worse, the area that had been cut appeared stronger and sturdier.
The monster opened its maw, and a horrifying scream reverberated around the forest. At once, the other monsters started screeching and screaming. They turned their hollowed eyes toward them. One of the flailing roots caught Ayah mid-jump and launched her towards the ground.
Her vision blurred as she momentarily lost her focus. She blinked the daze out of her mind, and shifted her grip on her sword. She used her Crescent Blade skill to decrease the speed of her descent and reorient herself. As soon as she landed, she dived to the side to evade another attack.
She gritted her teeth. The monsters had been driven mad by the giant’s scream. They seemed to have one goal; to get rid of them. They flocked around it, like faithful guards protecting their monarch. Roots erupted from the ground like bamboo, and branches swayed in the air, ready to strike down any who dared come closer.
The system’s ding drew her attention for a split second. She nodded, allowing a small smile to pull at her lips. Her Crescent Blade skill had leveled up, and the cooldown had decreased by 1 second. Normally, Ayah wouldn’t consider it much. But with how things were going, anything could be helpful.
She glanced at Harith. Like her, he was fighting his way through the mess of roots and branches. But the more he cut down, the more sprung up from the ground.
At this point, none of them would be able to get closer to the monster boss.
She concentrated her speed in her legs and her strength in her arms. If she wanted to succeed, she had to do both at the same time lest she end up a splattered mess. She took a deep breath, and jumped towards a tree of her choosing. But instead of swinging her sword, she planted her feet on its trunk, readied her sword, and used her leveled up skill. Then with her speed, she launched herself in the air, speeding through her newly cleared path towards Harith.
She swung her sword in the air to slow herself down, landing on a spin a few feet from him.
“What should we do?” she asked.
“We need to destroy its core.”
Ayah’s eyes widened.
The monster’s core. A monster’s source of power and strength, and the original form of a mana stone. After a monster’s death, the core transforms into a mana stone containing its remaining mana. If they could locate it now, then they had a chance at winning.
“Can you find its core?”
Harith nodded. “But it regenerates before I can get to it.”
She looked at the bulking tree. “Its feeding is accelerating its regeneration. We need to prevent it from getting even stronger,” she said.
She glanced at the sea of trees around them. That was easier said than done. And if the giant tree was manipulating the whole forest, stopping it would be near impossible.
“I’ll take care of it,” Harith said.
He closed his eyes and when they reopened, they seemed to emit a faint glow.
Ayah glanced at the small screen by her side. She could see the purple bar dip a little, just a little bit.
So it was a mana bar, Ayah hummed to herself. Well, there was no need to show hers. She had yet to gain a skill that used mana.
The ground beneath his feet darkened. And in a split second, darkness spread through the ground. It covered the roots and the trunks, and every inch of ground. It reminded Ayah of her own skill. The one she had yet to make sense of. But instead of devouring the monsters, it merely immobilized them. The shadows reached the giant tree. For a split second Ayah thought this was it. But, like the Boss monster it was, the giant tree swung its still free roots down on their bound counterpart, and slashed them off. New roots sprung to life replacing the discarded ones.
The giant tree was free once again.
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Still, Harith didn’t stop. His shadows battled against the roots, engulfing them in darkness, again and again.
The tree howled, its shrill cry reverberated against Ayah’s skull. It screamed for its minions’ aid again and again. But Harith’s shadows held them in place.
Harith gripped his sword tight. With one swing, numerous slashes cut into the trunk. But just like before, they sealed before his sword had finished its arc. He cut again and again, each time its generation slowed a bit. Ayah smiled, he was wearing it down. Soon, he would be able to destroy it.
He swung his sword, but strangely enough, it lacked its earlier strength. The tree regenerated before he had finished his slash.
Ayah glanced at the screen, frowning as a noticeable dip showed in his mana bar. Her brows pinched, concern tightening her features.
Why was it decreasing so quickly?
She turned to him, an incredulous thought taking shape in her mind. “Are you holding the whole forest hostage?” she asked, bewildered.
He glanced at her, a bead of sweat ran along his cheek, and a noticeable strain fluttered at his temple. “There’s no other way to stop them.”
This won’t do. If he kept at it, he would use all his mana.
She gritted her teeth, a trickle of irritation and another well known feeling that Ayah refused to acknowledge− she had promised herself, years ago, that she would never allow that emotion to dig its ugly claws into her chest. Ever again− took root in her chest.
If only she was strong enough. Then he would have relied on her instead of facing everything himself.
Ayah hated it.
She gripped her sword tightly and turned her back to him, facing the trees. It wasn’t like she was avoiding his gaze. Because… she just wasn’t.
“Focus on the Boss. I’ll take care of the others,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Wha−”
“I’m not helpless!” she said more loudly than she intended. She took a deep breath to steady her raging heart. “I might not be as strong as you, but I can help,” she added, as calmly as she could. It was unfair of her to direct her anger− at herself− at him when all he did was save their lives again and again.
“Okay,” he said, his voice devoid of any hint of accusation.
Ayah glanced at him. He was staring at her.
“I’m−”
“I’ll be counting on you then.” He cut her off, giving her a sharp nod.
She nodded back, a determined look on her face.
She will not be useless.
She launched in the air the moment he relinquished his hold on them. She sped towards the nearest bunch and cut through the branches that swung toward Harith, then dived towards the roots.
She couldn’t remember for how long she flew through the air, cutting and slashing and spinning. Another ding announced her slash skill leveling up, but Ayah paid it no mind. She spun in the air, getting more accustomed to the wind whizzing past her.
Ayah glanced at Harith’s mana bar. It was decreasing with no sign of stopping.
She looked at the giant tree. What could be this monster’s weakness? Surely its powers weren’t limitless. And with its inability to consume other monsters to replenish its mana, it would soon run out of fuel.
A tree crashed to the ground.
She swung her sword to cut into a branch, and paused, looking down. Strange. She hadn’t killed it, and with one glance she had confirmed that neither did Harith. What killed it then?
The tree looked like a hollowed out husk. The wood was brittle and gave under her feet as she landed on it. She looked down at its roots. They were still moving, shifting under the surface.
No. Those weren’t the fallen tree’s roots.
Ayah jerked back. She looked at the giant tree. It was using its roots to feed on the others. Ayah gritted her teeth. She should have noticed it before. All those big words of being able to help and she still let such a thing slip by her.
She dived towards the giant tree, keeping away from the branches. They would just stall her. She had to cut the giant’s roots.
She used her Crescent Blade to cut into the surface.
“It’s using its roots,” she yelled at Harith.
She could see his nod as she dove under the surface and slashed at the writhing worm-like appendages. Soon, Harith’s purplish mana slipped past her and cut deeper, chasing the other hidden roots.
She sped towards him, stumbling as she nearly took a wrong step towards a heap of broken writhing roots.
“This might slow it down further,” he said. “We need to reach its core soon.”
“I can do it.”
He frowned. “Are you sure? Its regeneration speed hasn’t decreased much. You might get caught inside.”
An image of the tree’s trunk knitting back together around her sprung to her mind. Ayah shook her head to chase the unsolicited thought.
“I’m sure,” she said, her voice firm, booking no argument.
He opened his mouth to speak but her crazed look halted his words.
He sighed. “Fine. but retreat at the first sign of danger.”
Up in the air, swinging from branch to branch, Ayah waited for him to cut into the giant.
But first, she had something else to do.
“System, how many unused points do I have?”
[15 points remaining.]
She would have liked to add them to endurance. It was still a bit behind the others. But, oh well. What she needed to survive now was to be quicker than the tree’s powers.
“Add them to speed.”
[Speed : 130]
“Nice.”
She focused both her strength and speed in her legs and one arm, her eyes not leaving Harith’s sword.
Harith took a deep breath, then the ground under him shook and split, ominous dark purple light exploded around him, engulfing him. He lifted his sword and it looked so black, as if it was absorbing all the light in its surrounding. Like a black hole.
Ayah readied herself.
Harith swung his sword in a horizontal line. Darkness emerged from the cut and spread beyond.
Ayah had no time to think nor ask what it was. She dived through the space made by the sword, darkness blinding her. Yet, she didn’t stop. She sped through the monster, her arm ready to swing at the first sign of the core.
Then, she glimpsed it.
It was there. A sphere the size of a fledgling tree at the center of the darkness. Strong green light emanated from it. At first glance, one would think the core was undamaged. A testament to how strong the monster was. But as Ayah drew nearer, she saw the cracks, the broken pieces that run along its surface.
She blinked. No. it wasn’t just the surface. The center of its core was broken too. A fissure the size of her thumb ran through the middle, cutting it in half.
The monster wouldn’t have lasted long. Harith’s unrelenting attacks had damaged its core beyond repair.
Nevertheless…
As soon as she was upon it, she swung her sword, hard, shattering what remained of it.
The pieces that had started knitting together split apart. Still using the momentum of her speed, she barreled through the other side. Exiting the monster a split second before it came crashing down.
[You have defeated Founding Tree x 1 ]
[Congratulations! You’ve Leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You’ve Leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You have acquired a new skill : Regeneration Lv.1]
[Keep up the good work player!]
Ayah stood on shaky legs. She observed as the other monsters stilled, the hollowed eyes and the gapping maws on their trunks disappearing. The trees were returning back to their original form. She allowed herself a sigh of relief.
Finally, this long night, that seemed to never want to end, was finally ending.
“Ayah.”
She turned at Harith’s call.
He was standing over the giant’s husk, breathing hard, his concern evident by the pinch of his brow.
Ayah smiled. She waved up at him, taking a step towards him as he slid down to join her.
“I told you I can do it.” She put her hands on her hips, grinning.
He looked at her, a soft smile tracing his lips. “You did.”
“I’m still waiting for the celebration. You promise−”
She stilled, swallowing her words when a sound reached her ears.
When the monster had died and the trees had returned to being simple, big, towering trees, Ayah had thought that quiet and calm would return to the forest, at least for a while. But after the monsters’ cries had disappeared, another sound reverberated through the night.
Screams. Pained screams and cries.
Ayah startled. She sent an alarmed glance at Harith. “Are those screams human?”
He nodded. A grim expression replacing his smile. “We weren’t the only ones who had to deal with those trees.”
“We need to help them.”
“That much noise will only attract other monsters. In fact, we need to head in the opposite direction.”
She sent him a glare, her knuckles going white around her sword. “You can go if you want. But I'm going to help them.”
He sighed.
Without another word, she turned and started running towards the screams. She didn’t say a word when she glimpsed him a few steps behind her.