“Half an hour out,” Mousethief said loudly, snapping me out of my nap. I shifted a bit and slowly opened up my eyes. I very carefully rubbed the salt out of the corners. My new skill Proprioception making sure I didn’t poke myself like I had after getting my claws coated.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Hmm, no problem,” Mousethief replied. It was getting dark out. I stretched my arms and flexed my claws, letting out a huge yawn. I shook myself to help get my blood moving. Sleeping in the car wasn’t comfortable, but some rest was better than no rest.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

“Tired, but I have had longer periods of work. We have the location of the cult, so I am going to get close, drop you off. Then come in once you have caused a distraction,” Mousethief said.

“Tree cult, right?” I asked, making sure I wasn’t misremembering.

“Yes. Kill the cultists and I will burn the tree after that,” Mousethief replied.

“Sounds like a plan.” I nodded, focusing on the task ahead as the car sped quickly along the road. I couldn’t afford to look back. I needed to be focused on the fight in front of me. Not battles that were over. This was my job.

I shook my head. It melt like if I kept repeating that enough to myself, I would believe it. But I couldn’t back out now. I needed power to chart my own path. Come on Mittens, enough moping! Let’s get ready. I inspected my claws and paws. There was some dried blood on them. I would have to take care of that after this mission.

Everything was working properly, even though I felt a bit sore and had a headache. I debated if I should check my Interface, but decided to wait. I had quite a few skills already, and I would like to save up for a tier 3 skill or a new feature. If I was going to face the snakes, I needed better skills that tapped into this energy Mes liked to talk about.

Mousethief swerved off the highway we had been on to a side road. The road led through a town, to a wooded area behind the town. I noted an old abbey and a graveyard behind it. Mousethief came to a stop. “This is it, behind the abbey, good hunting while I get the napalm ready,” he replied.

I unbuckled myself and got out of the vehicle. Doing a quick stretch, I then took off. I noted another mouse hurrying over to the car, but that was probably one of Mousethief’s contacts in the area. He could handle himself. I went behind the abbey and followed the dirt path into the cemetery as the light began to fade and mist began to rise up.

Going up a small hill, I saw a group of younger creatures standing around a large tree that made my danger sense tingle. It leaves had a reddish tint even though neither of the moons were out at the moment.

I counted the cultists, there were twelve. They were all gathered in front of the tree, chanting. Who would want to chant to a tree? And behind an abbey? That was just asking to be discovered and killed. Some creatures had absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Rushing silently behind them, I cut their throats with my claws quickly. One after another the cultists fell, their blood splashing over the ground and the tree roots. By the time some of them realized what was happening it was too late.

A couple of them fell against the tree itself as their life blood ran out. Surprise attacks against poorly trained creatures were incredibly powerful to quickly move a fight in my favor.

They were all dead. That had been incredibly easy. A cold wind blew through the graveyard and I shivered. There was an unnatural stillness in the air. ‘Avatar,’ I called on Mes.

Mes appeared with a tiny toothpick of a sword in their glowing blue hand. ‘Be on guard Mittens!’ I looked around, but I couldn’t see a threat even as my danger sense grew worse.

‘What is it?’ I hurriedly asked. Mes didn’t say anything, and I moved away from the corpses. I looked at Mes but they were turning around looking in various directions, their tiny sword up in front of them.

‘The energy is thick. There is a concealed presence.’ That wasn’t good. Anything that could hide from Mes was clearly packing some power. Where was the danger coming from?!

“Show yourself!” I challenged whatever was out there. The mist increased and began to swirl. I forced myself to stay calm by managing my breathing. Fear wouldn’t help me out. Only finding the threat and ending it. I couldn’t smell anything besides the damp air and blood.

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The chill increased as I kept looking around. ‘Mittens!’ I looked at Mes and glowing red roots had appeared in the air around Mes who was fighting it off. Hacking at them with their tiny sword. I looked at the tree and the leaves rustled in the slight breeze. Their reddish appearance seemed to darken in color and the tree took a much more sinister appearance. ‘It is trying to absorb the energy of the creatures you killed! Take it out quickly!’

The tree was only about as thick as my leg. It was fairly small compared to thicker trees but was three times my height. I rushed forward to attack it, but quickly leapt back as a hazy red shadow in the shape of a tree root swiped out at me.

I quickly backflipped after dodging as physical roots burst out of the ground. I landed on my hind paws and skidded to a halt. “Ah!” I yanked my tail back from the mist. The fur at the end had been slightly scorched. I had missed the mist being dangerous, since danger was everywhere. The glowing blue form of Mes was still fighting in the air against tiny glowing red roots that appeared around them.

The tree shook some more, and the ground began to groan. More roots burst from the ground. Dirt and rocks well away as the tree began to rise up. ‘Mittens the tree has awakened! It is incredibly powerful and is trapping us in an illusionary space. I can only bring so much power to bear to hold off its full might without causing an incident, while it is here physically. You need to kill it quickly,’ Mes shouted in my head.

“I know,” I replied, while cartwheeling away as several shadow roots sought to bind me. “Is there are a weak point?” I shouted out.

‘It’s a tree. Cut it down!’ Mes replied. I had never seen them this worried before. But it wasn’t easy. There were physical and shadow roots everywhere. I dodged a shadow root and swiped out at it with my claws. The shadow root dispersed. Alright, time to do this.

I dodged under a large physical root. I then dipped to the side as another root swept by me. Slashing out with my claws, a shadow root was destroyed. Ducking under another physical root, I dived forward. Rolling up to my feet I leapt. Twisting in mid-air I dodged a final root and my claws impacted the tree.

My fore claws dug into the reddish bark. Black sap leaked out and began emitting putrid smoke from around my claws. The entire tree shook and stumbled back. Yanking my right paw free, I then dragged my claws down along the bark. More black sap from the tree leaked out.

Danger sense spiked from below, and I quickly clawed my way upwards, leaving wounds in the tree as the roots swirled beneath me. “Ahh!” I shouted as a leaf had shot off the tree and cut into the back of my right leg partially. Kicking off the tree, I flipped away from the tree, and yanked out the leaf. I could already feel my body pushing against whatever poison had been in it.

Landing on the ground, I maintained my momentum, and did a backflip. Roots slammed into the location where I had landed. “Any help Mes?” I called out and saw them still fighting off the glowing red roots around them.

‘You weakened it. But the sap you drew from it has already sealed up the injuries. You need to do more Mittens,’ Mes hurriedly replied.

“We need Mousethief with the napalm I replied as I dodged more roots, getting ready to move in again.”

‘Alright. I can help out a little bit. Just blame everything on the tree. But I won’t be able to do anything else for you in this fight. Aura!’ I felt a split second of overwhelming pressure. Mes glowed bright blue and a wave of blue, swept out. The illusionary roots around Mes were blown away. The mist and shadow roots were quickly blown away as well. I felt like my soul was about to be ripped from my body.

Mes disappeared right after, and the pressure disappeared. The tree appeared to have been staggered as the roots slowed down and even the tree’s looming presence seemed to be pushed back. The burning mist had been dispersed as well.

I quickly retreated towards a vehicle I saw approaching. I ignored the bleeding from my leg. The tree began to gain its strength back on top of the hilltop. The car came to a halt. “We need to burn it down,” I hurriedly said.

“Got it,” Mousethief said and hit a button on the dashboard of the car. The trunk popped open. I quickly raced to the back. There was a padded crate with six cannisters. “Once you pull the pin, you have five seconds before it will ignite.”

“Thanks,” I replied and grabbed three cannisters. Two in my left paw, one in my right. At that moment the pebble exercise Paladin Bloodclaw had made us do didn’t seem as stupid. Focusing on the task in front of me, I quickly raced back up the hill. The burning mist wasn’t coming back thankfully. The tree was slowly pulling itself fully out of the ground.

Bringing my right paw up to my mouth. I pushed down on the locking lever. Then I pulled out the ignition pin with my teeth. Tossing the cannister of napalm, it soared through the air. The roots ignored it and it landed at the base of the tree. While it was flying through the air, I quickly moved another cannister to my right paw, and pulled the pin.

It went sailing through the air as well. Just as the first cannister exploded. I held onto the third one for an extra two seconds, before throwing it. The second cannister of napalm exploded at the base of the tree, igniting more of the roots. The third one sailed high up into the air.

I had timed it well. The cannister of napalm went off just as it hit the tree. Burning gel rained down all over the trunk. The tree began to trash about. I retreated back to get the rest of the napalm. Best to be sure it was all burned down.

As I got the last three cannisters, the tree stilled for a moment. And then the flames all went out. That wasn’t good. “Got any more napalm?” I asked Mousethief.

“No, I thought six cannisters was more than enough,” he replied a bit nervously. First Mes, now Mousethief was struggling to come up with an idea to kill this tree.