“AHHH!” an adventurer screamed in the field nearby.
The guard in their field immediately severed the segmented wooden cord; the guard moved so fast that it caused a shockwave of air that even pushed the stick-ball elementals back for a moment, sending them temporarily rolling away.
“The power of a level thirty…” the sabre girl next to Jay gasped.
Neither Jay nor the sabre girl could tell if it was an ability or the results of really high dexterity - they were leaning towards ability though, as most people wouldn’t dump all their attribute points into dexterity, and neither had they seen any other high levels moving that fast.
Of course, this simply was speculation. It could even have been the guards equipment giving him a speed boost or extra ability.
Jay glanced back at Paul and the other guard to check their reaction - they weren’t even watching.
Apparently they were already familiar with the speed of that other guard. They were chatting to each other as if it was any other day on guard duty.
“What the fuck…” Jay pursed his lips, shaking his head at Paul before focusing on the fight.
*Fwoosh!~*
The blue rails on Anya’s crossbow glowed as another heavy bolt was released, piercing deeply into the body of a Nestling Gatherer, ending it in one hit; Jay nodded in approval.
Anya had taken one out with every single bolt, significantly taking pressure off the mace-shield guy and the glaive-guy on the right.
The rangers on the left were the composite bow girl and the tall lanky guy. They were doing well too, but were simply not as proficient as Anya - they had even missed a few times.
Perhaps it was Anya’s easy access to the ranger training ground, perhaps it was the crossbow weapon. Either way, she never missed.
The nine people under Jay’s command were working well as a team, but the truth is, the real battle had only just begun.
“Shit, what the fuck is that thing!” The guy with the glaive just finished off a nestling gatherer as he looked up at something larger coming out of the treeline.
“Just focus on what you’re doing. I’ll handle it.” Jay calmly said.
In truth, he hadn’t seen the large thing emerging from the forest yet, but he had to calm down the glaive guy.
His calm voice brought a sense of safety in the midst of battle, a sense of security over the group. Each of them nodded and focused on what they were doing.
The creature emerging didn’t stop its charge out of the forest though. It was fast and large. The front part of its body was about the size of a horse.
First its head poked out of the trees, but in an instant its whole body was out.
Like all other wood elementals, its whole body was made from wood, the difference was though that its wood seemed much older, being a dark colour.
The wood was dark, mossy, and even had bugs running through it. Various spiny sticks as well as the odd leaf dotted its long body.
Speaking of the body, it was also bug-like. The body was long and slender with many segmented spiny legs running along each side, similar to a centipede.
Like the rest of its body, its upper torso was also made of wood - the only difference was that it resembled a humans’. Almost like the centipede version of a centaur.
Its torso came complete with a dark, wooden deer head which was covered in more moss and dirt, crowned with a large pair of antlers.
A bright green glow radiated from somewhere in its throat, only coming out at its empty eye sockets.
It had two long, slender arms which seemed like sinisterly twisted roots, ready to suffocate a victim with the creeping tendrils it was made from.
Some of the other adventurers thought that Jay was probably just putting on a show, trying to seem like he wasn’t scared.
However, nothing could be further from the truth. Oddly enough, it reminded Jay of a dihexapede soul eater - except this one wasn’t level 133. In Jay’s experienced eyes, it was like a baby.
A baby which was much stronger than him, but still, a baby.
Paul had already taken a few steps closer to Jay, ready to back him up in a moment's notice - but Jay held his hand up.
“Wait a second. We got this.”
“What do you mean we got this? We haven’t got this!” The sabre girl saw Jay stopping Paul from intervening.
“We’ll be fine, and if not, we have two guards here. Let’s just give it a try.” Jay shrugged, “There’s never going to be a safer opportunity to fight something above our levels anyway.” He said as he slashed some more stick-balls into pieces.
“We’ll just lure it into the middle of the V formation and then all attack it, sound good?” Jay called out.
Axeman and shield-sword looked back with a smile and a nod - both of them were on board. So far for these two, the battle was going smoothly… Perhaps even boring.
After slaying another nestling, the shield-mace guy looked back, “Sounds good.” he said excitedly.
“I guess we don’t have much of a choice.” the sabre girl finally capitulated.
“Heh, don’t worry. It’ll be fine.” The dagger-girl said, then gave Jay a trusting glance before quickly going back to fighting.
The guy with the glaive however didn’t say anything, it was like he was having tunnel vision and only seeing the enemies in front of him; It seemed that fear had taken root in his heart.
“Oh well.” Jay thought uncaringly; they wouldn’t need him anyway.
The wooden abomination was already well on its way to attack the group, its speed was perhaps as fast as the skeletons.
Each time one of its many feet landed, it crushed one of its own brethren. It seemed that all it cared about was crushing those who were stopping their nest expansion - these strange fleshy creatures.
Jay quickly analysed it, checking its level and health before engaging. If it was too strong, he would just send Paul in.
<[Treant Hectopede - Level 13]>
[HP 182/182]
[Damage]
- 17 (Raw strength)
- 6 (Antlers)
- 10 (Appendages)
[Armour 120]
<[Skills]>
[Drain]
- 5 damage per second
- 5HP regeneration per second
- Sucks the moisture from its enemies with its root-hands
[Planted] (Passive)
- Requires 12 seconds to activate
- 5HP regeneration per second
- Its legs pierce the sooil, growing downwards into the ground, absorbing nutrients for itself.
[Endless Growth] (Passive)
- Immortal
- Limitless size
<[Description]>
[Renouncing its ties to the spirit realm, the elemental has become one with its element, giving itself a more powerful form - turning both the wood and itself into something in between either of them. However, if its body dies, so will its spirit.]
“Damn, it’s actually pretty high level, so much regeneration too. Maybe we can’t pull it off?” Jay carefully thought to himself, squinting as he gripped his sword a little more tightly.
All in all, he didn’t care that much about fighting it. After all, if he wanted exp all he had to do was wait while his skeletons roamed about in dungeons.
To Jay, this was all just good practice, and finally it was getting interesting.
***The first of 5 (1/5) for completing my mission :)***
