Mark cast [Shape Mana] pumping in Prana as well to reinforce it. Shaping it into a large half-dome. Increasing the size to cover their front.

They all watched as the charging tree came barreling into them.

“Stay together, I’ll try and restrict its movements. Hit it with everything you got. If this gets out of hand fall back to the room.”

They had always thought it might be a possibility that the tree would attack them. Mark had hoped the damned tree was just that, a tree. Unfortunately, with the way the apocalypse was, he would have been disappointed if the thing didn't try to nibble them at least a little bit.

What they didn't expect was that the bloody thing would get up and charge at them.

Now Mark sent more Mana and Prana into the construct, he had to stop its initial charge to give them a chance. The thing was moving fast but Mark had no doubt the Aura users would be able to escape in time. Sadly it was not the same for Grace, Ethel, and himself.

Mark held his breath as the six-meter-tall creature crashed into his construct, knocking the air from his lungs.

It held.

Branches twitched down like sythes, cracking into the top of the dome.

“Hit it!” he panted.

That single charge had drained nearly 30 Prana and 7 Mana in one go.

The Aura users dashed forward while everyone else attacked.

Grace hit the tree with two [lightning bolts] at once. Aiming to deal as much damage as possible before anyone got in the way. It screeched as Lichtenberg patterns arced along its bark.

Donny brought his ax down, cleaving through a good portion of its roots on the left side.

Daphne jumped straight at its trunk, interlocking her hands and swinging down. The wood groaned and twisted where she landed.

Ethel was glowing green pulsing light. While Boe in his large form charged and ripped into the roots on its right side, in doing so causing the tree to list to the right.

The whole trunk wobbled, while it tried to remain standing.

Multiple branches swiped down at all of them. This caused a lot of them to have to stop attacking to defend or dodge.

Regaining its foot, more branches swung down. Donny cut any and all approaching branches, swinging his ax with very little wasted movement.

Mark was sure there was a lumberjack joke in there somewhere.

“We need to get rid of the branches!” Mark yelled towards their backline.

Grace began targeting them with her [wind slash], each one pruning back five or six branches.

The tree screeched and its bark began to bubble. Branches rapidly started to regrow.

Fresh-bladed stems crashed into Marks's construct trying to get to Grace. She screamed recoiling from the tree.

“Keep going!” Mark said as he brought the construct to a full dome, shielding them from all directions.

Roots and vines wrapped around the base of his shield. Branches rained down, each one chipping away at his resources.

Daphne released a feral scream while tearing into the trunk, ripping away bark and ichor.

Boe was pulling the tree backward with all his might, playing a game of primal tug of war. Roots were wrapping around him but still, he pulled.

This was not looking good. The tree was taking damage too slowly. Mark was just starting to think it was time to retreat when Donny shouted.

“Heads up!”

At some point, he had moved over to where Daphne was, bringing the bladed ax directly to the hole Daphne had been ripping into. As it turned out the outer shell of the bark was incredibly durable the same could not be said for the soft diseased wood beneath. The ax cleaved into its side, sinking about halfway in. Screaming in triumph Donny began hacking away with dizzying speed.

If Mark thought he had heard it scream before, these screeches didn't even compare. Mark had to clamp down on his ears to stop his eardrums from bursting.

All pressure left his dome as the roots, branches, and vines rushed up toward Donny. He had just become its primary target.

“Donny retreat!” Ethel screamed.

Completely ignoring them he kept hacking away, already a third of the way through.

Daphney moved forward to block for him but there were just too many.

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Grace seemed to wake up at that moment sending four [wind slashes] at the incoming attacks.

Mark drew in his construct to send out a faster one, he wasn't going to make it.

Numerous attacks rained down on Donny, however, at the last second Boe jumped up from where the roots had left him. Diving in the path, using his coat to shield Donny as much as possible.

Ethel's green glow flashed to a brilliant blue as did Boes coat. Both Boe and Donny let out screams of pain falling off the side of the tree.

Donny had managed to cut almost halfway through the trunk, exposing some kind of black core.

Terror turned to rage. Completely abandoning his own defense Mark cast [Shape Mana] again. This time he dumped everything he had left into it. 40 Mana and 60 Prana coursed into the spell. Exploding out as a wave of force crashing into the side of the tree. It quickly began to thrash, pushing up against his construct. Mark didn't even blink. Tightening the spell into two huge bands on either side of the tree’s trunk. Then as if he were trying to snap a stick in half he applied pressure. The tree screamed and shook. Twisting, trying to free itself. The wood began to crack and splinter where Donny had cut into it. Making it the perfect breaking point. Slowly, the tree bent, warping under the force of his construct, until a sickenly wet crack sounded out in the mall.

A Ping echoed in his ears.

Panting he drew in the construct, watching for any movement. When there was none he began searching for them.

“Donny! Daphne!” he shouted.

Movement near some of the vines caused Mark to freeze.

Standing up and disentangling herself from the roots was Daphne. She was clutching her hand to her side. It looked mangled beyond what any human hand should.

“Shit, Daph!” he moved to her.

“I’m fine, quickly we need to find Donny he took way worse than me” she panted

Nodding, he began looking. Ethel dashed straight past them to where the branches were.

They followed, finding Boe at his normal size curled up against Donny. Neither was moving.

Dashing to Donny Mark used [Prana pulse], he had multiple lacerations and heavy blood loss.

Broken ribs and one of his lungs was even punctured.

It could have been much worse. Mark's eyes flickered over to Boe. Ethel had red eyes and was hugging him to her chest. Mark checked his reserves. He was sitting at about 5 Mana and 17 Prana. It would have to be enough. Checking Boe he didn't find a single scratch but whatever Ethel had done to him hadn't stopped the blunt-force trauma. There were multiple breaks and fractures in Boe’s bones.

“Shit, they are both pretty bad, if I pass out drag me back to the room.”

Mark didn't want to move either of them too much. Placing his hands on Donny he sent what was left of his Prana. He tried to target his lungs first. Removing the bone and fusing it so it didn't move back out of place. Then repairing his lung and growing new tissue.

His head was spinning.

He moved on to all the cuts simply closing the wound up to the dermis. They still looked messy but it would stop most of the blood loss. He gave Donny a small jolt to get his blood production going but had to stop there to save his strength for Boe. He used 8 Prana to help Donny. His breathing was short.

“Okay, now Boe,” he said crawling over to Ethel.

He placed his hand on Boe’s shacking flank.

Boe gave a whimper in response.

“Hey now, you did amazing boy. You did so well.” Mark whispered.

He sent Prana into Boe, looking for the greatest damage first. Moving to Boe’s internal organs.

He stilled, everything was a mess, and he didn't know much about canine anatomy. With such heavy internal bleeding, he didn't know which fire to put out first. He looked up at Ethel, she was staring right back at him with puffy resolute eyes.

He set his jaw a closed his eyes to get a better feel for what he was doing. He began gently pouring Prana into Boe’s worst areas. Boe’s body slowly soaked the energy up. Pouring faster he started searching for the cold zones, void of life, or Prana. Mark's breath came out harsher.

Searching still he sent Prana to protect Boes little heart. Vertigo set in and the world spun.

He was almost done but he felt dread, he could feel he just wouldn't have enough. No matter how he tried he didn't know a dog's body like a human's everything was costing too much.

He was moving to Boe’s brain when he felt something. A connection, between Boe and Ethel. Or at least he thought it was her. He felt her life force her Prana, pulse from her side of the connection.

He had a thought, he just hoped that this didn't count as a prohibited act by the system.

Without opening his eyes he said.

“Ethel, you can help me here. If you are willing to give up some of your energy to Boe, make your connection to him as strong as you can”

Without any hesitation, Mark felt a tender hand rest on top of his and Mana surged from the other side of the connection.

Growing in strength. Building a pathway from her to Boe. Mark watched it create a bridge between the two, the Mana was beautiful.

When it looked stable he sent some of his last Prana to draw hers into Boe. If he had to quantify it, Ethel only had about 6 points of Prana in total. The Prana came willingly as if it knew. He drew out 4, the bridge flickered and Ethel let out a shaky breath.

He brought it over and sent it to help everywhere. Then with the last of his own Prana set a very weak [Regeneration] going.

Taking a gulp of air Mark looked down at Boe. Mark had a single point of Prana left. He was really struggling to stay conscious. It would be touch and go. If he didn’t use more Prana soon Boe would be right back where they started.

“I going to meditate, someone wake me in half an hour” he whispered and closed his eyes, he began to concentrate and could almost feel when the skill triggered. A single moment later Daphne was shaking his shoulder. He poured the newly made Prana into Boe, checking Donny too, before repeating the cycle twice more. Each time he did both Boe and Donny looked better. Until eventually Donny woke up dazed and Mark was sure Boe was safe to move.

Mark got up on shaky legs.

Daphne and Grace had been guarding them while Mark worked. He went over and tried to reduce the pain Daphne was no doubt feeling, but a real fix would have to wait.

Looking around he spotted the fallen tree. Broken in half he could see the round core of the creature sticking out. Slowly he made his way over. Daphney followed. Looking at the core he could feel corruption oozing from it. Mark realized he had just found a perfect test subject for his [Draw corruption] spell. He had tested it on people, but not yet on environments or things.

Reaching forward he griped the baseball-sized sphere and tried to pull it from the tree. Something flashed in the corner of his eye. He ignored it for now.

With a sickening popping sound the core came loose from the tree.

“Are you really going to take that?” Daphne asked with a look of disgust on her face.

Mark nodded.

“I need to test something”

They all retreated back to the room, Mark needed a moment to rest so he could help everyone. Hopefully, they could free the survivors tonight.