The tree of blood? No, I am the tree of death.
Crimson roots twist and dig into the saturated ground, seeking more blood, the fuel to our fury. I can taste it, more blood pours upon our family, we can feel the anger of a dying wish. Their death brings us life, we will take their wishes, we will take their blood, we will pay back that blood by killing all that tread. My family drinks and I feel our sorrow.
"Why must we carry this burden?" I hear them cry.
They can't stop, they must drink, it is their life, but I will save them. I will take all that vile liquid, I will save my family by sacrificing myself, I've lived longer than most, I will hold this fury, I will save the young.
I dig deeper, I spread my roots and take from my family, the crying voices subside as I bring them back to rest.
"Don't worry I will save you all" I roar.
"Stop resisting I must take it all"
I feel my insides rot, my leaves wither and my soul melds with the anger. My world is nothing, my family is gone, but I saved them... right?
I hear more blood above me, it is moving. I can't let them corrupt my family again, I will keep my family safe from the filth.
I command my roots to stop the blood, I must take it into myself.
The blood is caught and I drain it away, but one moving piece of filth escapes my grasp, it's heading towards my tree.
I open my eyes.
Eyes? What are those? but I can see. I see the blood. It's small and fragile, the blood has eyes too, it sees my trunk and collapses to the ground where my roots catch it. I walk to the blood with my feet? what are they? but I can move. I loom over the blood and open my hollow mouth to consume, eat the blood and save the forest, it is my duty, the only thing keeping me sane.
The blood explodes inside me, it coats my roots and runs down my branches, my job... done. Now the plants are safe, but I sense more blood, it's coming towards me, more than before. It hurts, moving hurts, my existence is pain, but I must continue, I need it all.
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After what feels like an eternity, Zeke finally remembers to breathe, but he does so quietly.
The crimson tree shuddered and the already scarlet bark darkens further as it spreads it's thin branches higher . A roaring groan echos through the silent tree graveyard as the tree of death contort it roots away from Zeke, to somewhere unknown in the distance.
Another silent moment passes before screams are heard in the distance. Goblin screams. Zeke was personally familiar with the sound.
Zeke opens his mouth and wordlessly calls forth his status.
Zeke Level 8, Survivor
Health: 224/224
Mana: 10/49
Skills: Avarice, Blood Regeneration, Mana Concealment, Fireball
Classes: Spearman 1, Bludgeoner 1
The tree's leave rustle slightly at Zeke's movement before returning back to a foreboding sway.
Ten mana was everything at his disposal, Zeke had a feeling that single weak fireball wouldn't affect this tree. He also knew that the only reason he was alive was his mana concealment, if he wasted mana now, his concealment would be removed.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
With utmost care, Zeke tentatively stepped back from the living tree. A few twigs snapped under the pressure and were amplified to deafening in the otherwise silent forest.
Zeke went as still as a statue.
His heart thumped like a war drum and sweat ran from his brow freely, his breathing came in sudden shallow gasps. He took another step back, and dead leaves crunched in the silence.
He took another step and once again and an uproar of dead leaves gave their all to reveal Zeke's presence to the now slightly pulsing crimson tree.
Zeke could feel the wind chilling his very bone marrow. His eyes felt drowsy and constantly unfocused as fear started to rule over his thoughts. He wanted to turn around and run, but he knew that there was no chance he'd survive.
He took another boisterous step as he inched closer to a nearby dead tree, an actually dead tree. This last step seemed to be the final straw as the red tree of death shrieked out another cry, the sound of brittle wood twisting and extending.
Zeke used the noise to mask his own as he quickly scrambled behind the dead tree.
With rugged exhales Zeke looked out into the bleak dead forest as he listened to the horrific sounds behind him. It sounded of hundred of trees being felled at the same time, the cacophony threatened to burst Zeke's eardrums. The gnarled creaking then gave way to the sounds of thumping, the unmistakable rhythmic footsteps of something moving with immense weight.
How the fuck is it walking? Zeke screamed internally.
The ground trembled as the walking tree stopped just short of Zeke's hiding place.
Another silence followed the tree's halt and Zeke closed his eyes, wishing that the monstrosity would go away. The paused stretched out for so long that Zeke began to think that maybe he was just hallucinating the terrible sights and sounds. His horrors were only drawn back when the tree moved again. It stomped it's way back to were it was originally sitting? and another gut-retching medley played as it lowered it's giant form back into the life-less hole in the ground.
Well, so far, Zeke had gained about 3 meters worth of distance from the living nightmare.
Zeke wasn't having fun, if he had to say, this was the least amount of fun he'd ever had. At least it sounded like the goblins were having just as much fun as Zeke, gotta look at the bright side to stay sane. Now he knew what had stopped the goblins from finding him. The Scarlet Ent as he now called it.
Now that Zeke could see where he was stepping, he resumed creeping as far away from the monstrosity as humanly possible. Every now and again an unseen twig or branch would crumble underfoot, but the Scarlet Ent ignored it. The reality of how lucky Zeke was, set it.
How was a human even supposed to kill something like that? It wasn't just a tree, it was this whole fucking domain of dead forest! It really gave the term 'nature's fury' a new meaning, putting a face to the name.
It definitely seemed as if the Ent could hear, no mistake about that, he also assumed that it had some type of vision on top of an ability to sense mana. Oh, not to mention it could sprout from the ground and walk around like a... well he didn't see it himself, but it sounded like it had two legs.
The silver lining of the situation was that so long as he avoided the tree of death, it probably wouldn't seek him out. At least he hoped that it was bound to it's own dead forest and couldn't leave.
Another bonus was that so long as it remained between Zeke and the goblins, it acted as a 'natural obstacle'. Untill they chose to walk around it, but if they chose to do that, the goblins would have trouble finding their way back to his trail of triangles. What a fortunate series of lucky coincidences!
Maybe someday Zeke could return after amassing a wealth of mana and burn down the freak of nature. He had a dreadful lump in his stomach that told him he was somehow responsible for the creature in the first place, it was his job to destroy it.
The dead forest scenery gradually changed back into Zeke's much prefered emerald greens, even the deeply hated birdsong in the distance sounded like the voice of angels beckoning Zeke back into the light. A calling Zeke answered by breaking out into high speed sprint, eager to exit the grey domain of the tree of death. All in all, the day so far had been quite terrifying,
Meeting the incarnate of death had really put Zeke's views in a new perspective. No longer did Zeke harbour any delusions of grandeur of slaying dragons and saving princesses with sword and magic, he was happy as long as he never had to look at that tree again.
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It was late afternoon when Zeke returned, satisfied and horrified with the amount of exploring done for today. He managed to think of another goal to finish the day off with, anything was fine as long as he forgot about that near-death experience.
Zeke pulled out the rickety and poorly made target board from his home and placed it in the forest, about 10 meters away. It was time for target practice. He hadn't forgotten how bad his aim was from previous goblin skirmishes, he was pretty sure he never once hit his intended target.
Each javelin was only good for about four throws before it fell apart or snapped in half, he had the materials to repair or create new ones so he wasn't too concerned with the mortality rate.
The first 20 or so throws were pretty abysmal, only 3 landed on the board, on the edges at that. The next 50 throws had a good 50/50 hit rate. At this point Zeke had to make more ammunition as he'd managed to destroy every javelin during the practice, all in the name of progress.
As dusk fell, Zeke wandered the close by woods in search of a bog dinner, this time he brought along his javelins for extra practice. When he came across the bog, Zeke was lucky enough to impale it's hind leg with one of his throws, then swooping in with two daggers and slicing it down in a drawn out game of chicken.
Avarice resulted in failure but Zeke came out of it with a decent chuck of bog meat. A meal that was ravished by Zeke's empty stomach.
The entire time Zeke was thinking back to the Scarlet Ent, each time he pictured the tree, he felt his heart rate speed up and his palms sweat. It would take some time to get-over that experience.
As Zeke fell asleep he decided to himself that tomorrow would be the day. The day he finally decimated a significant portion of the goblin population. Between his spears, magic and swords and daggers he was confident that he could bulldoze down their numbers. In comparison the Scarlet Ent, goblins were nothing to be feared, at least he could fight back against goblins, he thought with a shudder. Also, he was dying to know what sort of benefits were to be gained from leveling up his classes, something he would learn by tomorrow night if all went well.