*Boom!*

The huge bear flew in the air two meters from the ground, while still burning in flames. I completely didn't understand what just happened. I could feel that most of the roots that I grew with the *Grow* skill were burning and breaking apart.

The impact from the explosion was something, but thankfully it didn’t kill me outright, most likely because I didn't have any organs in my body. So the shockwave barely could damage me internally only breaking most of my branches and roots, but many of them were from the *Grow* skill anyway, so it didn’t really matter to me.

It took me a few moments to come back to my senses even after we touched the ground. The thing that helped me recover faster was the pain coming from the burning roots that I created, thankfully they weren't part of my body.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit!” I rolled on the ground trying to extinguish the flames, but sadly it didn't help. I couldn't just ditch the roots they needed to be cut or plucked with force, but of course, I couldn't do that right now.

Luna was sitting on her ankles a little to the side to where she dodged, she was a little shaken by all that happened and even her eyes weren't in focus but not for long, she came back to her senses and saw me rolling on the ground in flames.

She immediately ran to me and used a materializing skill to materialize water on top of me, with some *ptssss* sounds of the extinguishing flames I stopped rolling and looked at Luna that was holding me on her thighs.

”You alright little guardian?” She asked with a worried face.

After a few days, I learned more words in the Lingua language even though my language skill didn't improve by a lot. It still was enough for me to understand what she said.

“I am alright you reckless girl.“ I answered her without thinking, to my surprise her eyes fluctuated and even her face showed traces of surprise as if she heard me.

I looked at her confused and remembered that I had acquired a new skill. I wanted to check it but didn't have the chance because the young old elf Fortis came up to us from the side.

“You bastard, you almost blew me up, couldn't you shoot weaker magic at the damn bear?” I felt a spark of anger in my head as I said that.

I saw Fortis and immediately understood what happened. The first time I saw him I thought he was just a kid with milk still not dried on his lips, but not only is he Luna's Father he is even the head of the village, not to talk about that part where he is a high elf.

I didn't really know what a high elf was but I saw him use magic once he made a whole tree grow from the ground in less than a minute. Shooting a fireball or two would be an easy task for him like breathing, I wanted to inspect him but for some reason, I was too afraid to do so.

”What kind of monster is this?” He looked at me with the same expression when he saw me for the first time, his gaze was filled with confusion and a little bit of fear, and a lot of disdain.

“What's wrong?” I was a little confused when I saw this kind of reaction.

Forti's eyebrows furthered and his eyes released a weak yellow glow. It was so weak that anyone would be able to miss it, a weird feeling of ants crawling inside my body spread out but stopped just in a second.

Blood slowly started dripping from Forti's nose as if someone punched him in the face. I didn't know what he was trying to do but I didn't like it. But Fortis didn't stop and his eyes glowed once more and more blood started to come from his nose he even started to shake, the feeling of the ants came back as well.

“What is he doing?” I asked myself.

”Father stop! There's no need for that.” Luna pleaded but Fortis didn't stop, his eyes glowed once more and this time the feeling of the ants in my body was much stronger than before. It gave me the feeling that something was escaping from my body and just like that the weird feeling vanished, for some reason, I felt completely naked even though I really was.

Even Fortis’ eyes started to bleed, the yellow light in them became only stronger. His eyes became unfocused and they started to twitch around as if he was reading something.

“What?! What is this thing?!!!” He shouted in horror for a moment as his eyes slowly came back to focus he immediately pointed his staff at me.

”We should never have let this thing enter our village, not only did this thing bring those monsters into our village, it is even worse than them!” A red magical circle appeared in front of the staff, I could feel a strong mana flowing from him into the circle.

“I don't know what is going on but if I get hit by that I am dead.” I tried to run away but discovered that it was impossible because of the huge mass of burned roots that were still connected to me.

Fortis shot a fireball from his long staff, but just as it was a few meters away from me Luna jumped in front of it to block it. The young elf's face became ashen as he swiftly pulled up his staff and changed the direction of the fireball that flew into the air and exploded above the village.

“Luna what the hell do you think you are doing!” Fortis shouted as he looked into Luna's eyes.

“He is not a monster, he is a fated person that is destined to protect us all!” Luna was still holding up her hands trying to protect me from her father.

“You have no clue what that thing is! At first, we thought that it was some mutant of a monster or even a world tree sapling, or maybe a lost soul that had fallen to the wrong place!” He shouted stronger and stronger.

“But no, we were wrong, that thing is not alive! That thing is nothing but just a piece of something immeasurable evil and if we won’t stop it now it will consume and destroy us all!” The young elf's face became twisted as blood still was slowly pouring from his eyes.

He pointed the staff at Luna and said, “Even though you are my daughter, I won’t place your wants above everything else.” A blue circle appeared around his staff and a bubble of air surrounded Luna as it started to float into the air.

“The world tree told me he is my fated person that will save us all!” Luna shouted once more.

Fortis hesitated for a moment as he heard her words but then shook his head, “The world tree prophecies were wrong many times before and we are sure that this time it isn’t any different.” He said as the magical circle around his staff changed into a red one.

“*Gulp* I guess the negotiation failed.” To tell the truth, I only understood half of what they said, something about a prophecy and me being evil, but one thing I understood for sure and it was that I need to get the hell away from this crazy ass elf, but before that, I need to know what I am dealing with.

“*Self Awareness*.”

***

*Self Awareness Status*

-Visavil Bush Lv3-

Experience: 56/60

Rarity: Uncommon

Health: 3/13

Mana: 27/44

Stamina: 1/11

Health regen: 1.25/week

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Mana regen: 3.9/hour

Stamina regen: 1.67/hour

Race: Berry Bush

Status: Intelligent(Unique), Shadow Mark

Skills:

*Magic Perception Lv4* *Self Awareness Lv3* *Calm Mind Lv5* *Inspect Lv5* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Pain Resistance Lv1* *Mana Manipulating Lv2* *Wood Element Control Lv4* *Dig Lv4* *Stealth Lv4* *Detection Lv3* *Lifesteal Lv2* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv2* *Stamina Storage Lv2* *Throwing Lv3* *Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2* *Grow Lv3* *Increase Mana Regeneration Lv1* *Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1* *Thorns Lv1* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1* *Roll Lv1* *Fruits Production Lv1* *Mana Storage Lv2* *Overtake Lv1* *Mind Wave Lv1* *Evil Lv1* *Digging Lv1* *Lingua Language Lv4* *Forced Absorption Lv1* *Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1* *Soul Link lv1*

Titles:

*Clutz* *Novice Trapper* *Guardian*

***

“Lovely I am almost dying again… *Inspect* crazy elf!” I mocked myself a little bit before inspecting Fortis.

***

-Fortis Lv??-

Health: ???/???

Mana: ???/???

Stamina: 89/???

Race: High Elf

Jobs: ???

Status: ???

***

“Wtf? Is the *Inspect* skill going highwire again?” I looked at all those question marks completely baffled, the only explanation that came to my head is something I didn’t want to believe, it was that his stats were so high that I couldn't inspect him.

“I shouldn’t have screwed around these days and at least leveled up the *Inspect* skill more.” I continued to look around his stats trying to figure out what to do, but then it slowly started to dawn on me.

“I am really not his match aren't I?” The only stat I could figure out is his stamina which was many times higher than mine, but he is a mage so his other stats should be at least in the hundreds so I knew that I was toast.

“It even has a skill that connects him to Gaia, and it has no backlash while using it. Ha ha ha ha!” Fortis started to laugh like a maniac but his cold laugh only made me feel more fear than anything else, as I knew that this little elf went insane.

I was going to use this chance to try to escape, but he suddenly stopped laughing and immediately continued his attack. It felt as if time started to slow down as the magical circle around his staff started to shine brighter and brighter.

The thick feeling of killing intent started to grow stronger and stronger around me, it reminded me of the feeling the devil cat exuded every night.

“Wait, it is the devil cat killing intent.” I said to myself as I looked left behind the young elf and there I saw the open mouth of the devil cat looking straight at him. Darkness condensed into its mouth as if it was devouring the world. I wasn’t sure what was happening but one thing I knew for sure it was going to attack Fortis.

The young elf immediately stopped the fireball and started to apply another magic unto himself but it was already too late, the devil cat finished its attack and released a ball of shadows from its mouth that eerily glowed with purple light.

This ball of energy flew into the young elf but just before hitting him, the air around him rippled as a thin blue shield formed around him.

*Boom!*

An explosion happened and Fortis was blown away by the blow and flew to the direction of the shrine, his fate unknown.

The devil cat didn’t move and continued to breathe heavily where it stood. I noticed the many wounds on its body that were most likely from its battle with Ray.

“Shit Ray lost?!” I asked myself not sure if to be happy or sad, but I didn’t have time to care as its gaze fell on me.

“You saved me again, my hero!” I said to it mockingly.

*Roarr!!!*

Surprisingly it roared at me angrily as if it understood me and a moment later started to run straight at me.

“Well from the fire into the frying pan, eh?” I said as I dug myself into the ground with my roots and stood against the devil cat, as I knew that I couldn’t run away so I chose the last option and it was to fight to the death, even though that most likely I was the only one dying today.

“Come at me you ugly cat!” I shouted one more as the grass around me started to wither away while I started to feel energized.

*”Forced Absorption” leveled up to Lv2*

With a happy surprise, I tried to use the *Thorns* skill and *Grow* skill and they worked even though I barely had the stamina to use them.

“I can use that skill to take stamina from the flora around me? But it won’t change much…” I said as I looked at the upcoming devil cat. I immediately created roots from the ground with thorns in front of me to be my shield against the devil cat attack. But it was for nothing as with only one claw attack the roots were broken to smithereens.

“Well, it was a nice try.” I said as my imaginary face gave out a sad smile, but as I started to lose all hope a sudden wind blade came out of nowhere and hit the devil cat from the side, which threw it away from me as blood poured from its new wound.

I looked to my far right where I saw Fortis barely standing with his long white hair completely messy, you could even see some dirt and leaves on him.

“Why are you playing with my emotions like this!” I shouted as I felt myself dying and getting saved by those who are trying to kill me again and again.

“So you were the one that brought all those monsters into our village.” Said the young mage and pointed the staff at the devil cat.

*Roar!*

At the same time, the devil cat released an angry roar at Fortis looking him up and down, as if thinking if it can defeat it or not, and with a determined look something weird started to happen. The devil cat slowly started to exude dark smoke and before I was able to notice the smoke turned into identical devil cats, I instinctively inspected one of them.

***

*Shadow Clone* - Condensed clones that are made out of shadows, and form into the shape of their owner, shadow clones are not physical and can’t do any damage but are useful for deceiving the enemy and escaping.

***

“Why don't I have cool skills like that!” I asked as I was burning inside with envy, but before I could even finish that thought the three devil cats split apart and started to run in three different directions. One of them ran at Fortis, the other one ran at me and the main body that had wounds and blood on it ran away in the direction of the city gates.

I shook my imaginary head a little bit as I looked at the illusionary devil cat that was running at me, it looked completely life-like but it was too perfect to be real. I wasn’t stupid enough not to use this chance to escape from Fortis, so I removed my roots from the ground and started to prepare to run away.

“You want to leave?!” Fortis shouted as he pointed his staff at the devil cat that was running away, by the looks of it he hadn't fallen for this simple trick too, as he ignored the upcoming devil cat and created a new circle at the end of his staff, this time it was bright blue in color.

Suddenly the sounds of thunder came from the air as lightning materialized above the running devil cat and hit it perfectly at its back from above.

*Thudoom!* *Bang!*

The devil cat completely disintegrated into a big cloud of black smoke from the hit from the lighting.

Fortis looked confused for a moment before immediately looking at the devil cat that was rushing at him and immediately attacking it with the same magic spell as before, but as I saw it I gently shook my imaginary head as I already knew the devil cat too fucking well to understand what it really wanted.

I immediately used the *Grow* skill to grow more branches from my body and after that, I used the *Thorn* skill and grow thorns on these branches until I couldn't use it anymore, as I knew that the real devil cat was right in front of me.

The devil cat opened its huge mouth and jumped straight at me, its perfect fur vanished and wounds started to appear on its body, as the stench of blood assaulted me. I looked at its big maw and barely remembered the nightmare that I saw some time ago.

“Heh, how funny…” I looked at it and didn’t even flinch as my resolve became even stronger as I knew that I just can’t run anymore.

*”Calm Mind” leveled up to Lv6*

“Come at me you fucker!!!” I shouted and braced myself for impact with every being of my body.

*Crunch!* The beast maw closed down on me and in the process broke many of my branches and thorns, but at the same time damaging the devil cat's inner mouth as I felt blood dripping at me as my thorns pierce into its flesh.

The pain of breaking branches was something I barely could withstand.

*”Pain Resistance” leveled up to Lv2*

“Yey, so many skill level-ups, but I think this skill should have risen a long time ago!” I mocked myself as usual and took a big breath as I knew that my health was most likely critical and that I need to use maximum effort to survive.

I moved my perspective to the branches that were still hanging outside the devil cat's mouth and from there I saw that it raised me up into the air and looked at Fortis who had just destroyed the second Shadow Clone.

He raised his gaze at us with shock and confusion, I could swear that the devil cat released a mocking sneer at him, and then turned to the direction of the gate as he started to run away.

“No, you won’t!” Shouted Fortis as he prepared another lighting spell but before he could finish it the devil cat slowly started to sink into its own shadow until vanishing completely with me in its mouth, leaving Fortis looking at nothing in disbelief.