The treant hectopede charged aggressively.
In his hand, Jay had readied multiple unstable teeth spells to throw in order to aggro it.
The wooden beast had already started charging at Dan the axeman with its antlers down - he was the closest after all.
Needless to say, Dan was figuratively shitting himself.
*BOOM!~ tat tat tat tat*
[10]
Suddenly a chunk of the treant’s chest disappeared, bits of wood and dirt flew everywhere, leaving only a melon-sized crater behind.
Jay’s first unstable tooth spell had landed.
Some of the other adventurers look back at him with bulging eyes for a moment - “He can use fucking magic?” some of them were thinking.
Seeing Jay’s unfazed, focused gaze on the creature though, they each returned to focusing on the battle too.
The creature stopped its charge completely as it responded to the massive damage.
“Oh, maybe it can feel pain?” Jay smiled, “I guess that’s what happens when you merge with your element.”
The creature was charging at Jay now. Jay always had the option to run back to Paul, the high level guard - but he remained still, not too worried about the wooden antlered creature bearing down on him.
“I might not even need my shield for this one… If I do, well, it will be a painful lesson...” he thought, rolling a tooth around between his fingers. He was counting on the spell stopping the treant in its tracks again.
Jay stared down the treant, looking into its hollow eyes with a sly smile as if he was a hungry wolf, taunting it, challenging it.
Both sabre girl and dagger girl took a few steps back as the large creature rushed into the midst of their V-shaped formation - and just before the antlers impaled Jay, another explosion rang out across the battlefield.
*BOOOOM! Tat tat tat~*
[9]
Just like before, the creature’s body seemed to freeze up in pain, its threatening charge coming to a complete stop. Jay slyly smiled seeing his plan work.
*Shring swing shring~*
Immediately, he began slashing his sword at it.
[14.4] [14.4] [14.4]
The creature’s natural armour had reduced his damage slightly, but it was still plenty. In only a few moments and already it had lost 62.2 HP from Jay’s spells and sword attacks alone.
[HP 119.8/182]
Suddenly, the creature slashed with one of its spindly twisting hands - Jay quickly ducked it.
Next, it leant forward while its hand unwrapped into a plethora of squirming, writhing roots.
“Fuck” Jay slashed his sword at its hand to no effect. It was too late however before he realised it was using its drain ability.
*Dwoosh~*
…*PHOONK*
A heavy bolt pierced right through its arm, successfully cancelling its drain skill as its hand reformed into the normal shape.
Jay smiled, seeing that Anya had his back.
*Ting ting ting, ting-ting*
The dagger girl joined the battle. She wasn’t going to let Jay have all the fun.
From the pain of Anya’s bolt, the treant slashed its hand randomly in anger - successfully landing a hit on one of the fleshy sacks.
“AH!” the dagger girl squealed for a moment.
The spiny hand of the treant had seized a chunk of flesh; it had slashed right across her face, dealing massive damage.
Her right cheek skin had been ripped off - along with part of her nose. As for her eye, well there was no eye - it was non-existent. The same went for her ear.
She dropped her twin daggers and fell on the ground, writing in pain as she waited for her health pool to fix her up; trying not to touch her face and just focus on breathing.
Obviously she didn’t invest many points in vitality, or she would have been fine by now.
Perhaps if her dexterity was higher, she would have been able to dodge its attack too. Despite putting most attribute points into dexterity she was still too slow, it seems she was simply too low level for this fight.
Jay would’ve helped her, but had his hands full as he had the full attention of the woodland best - she was merely collateral damage.
Suddenly its attack pattern changed from flailing its arms randomly in frustration to slamming its root-like hands down as if a giant hammer.
“Get back!” Jay quickly pushed the sabre girl onto some of the level 1 elementals, she fell right on top of them.
She winced from the pain, but was glad Jay pushed her as she saw the treant bring its enlarged hand down where she was just standing, cratering the ground.
*DOON!~*
The ground shuddered.
Immediately Jay slashed at its hand a few more times while it was recovering from its own attack.
*Shringg~ Slash~*
“Argh, surely it’s getting low now?” Jay checked its health.
[HP 21/182]
[HP 26/182]
“Dammit, regeneration.” he said, noticing its legs had grown root systems into the ground, “We have to end it, it’s almost down!”
Jay went to slash once more but the creature had already leaned in for him while he was distracted by its roots sprouting.
Its hands unfolded once more, forming a writhing net of vines and roots. Each of its root-like hands grasped Jay; it was like a swarm of snakes as it quickly wrapped around his head and engulfed his face.
It wasn’t just one attack either. It used its brute strength to crush his chest while at the same time it activated its drain skill.
Now it was healing 10 health per second while Jay couldn’t even call for help.
[-17] [-5] [-5]
The sabre girl only just got back up off the ground after slashing away the stick-balls around her. She took both spike damage as well as spirit-leaf damage, but the attacks were only skin deep so she was still battle-ready.
Seeing Jay’s head had disappeared into a system of roots, her eyes bulged - immediately she began slashing at the treant.
The dagger girl was only just recovering; it was made harder by all the level one stick-balls around her constantly poking at her sides.
She was doing much worse than the sabre-girl as she had loads of tiny wounds all over her body.
The treant was still draining Jay of all fluids from his body.
For a moment however, Jay summoned some willpower from somewhere and fought back; he managed to slice at the hand grasping him - though he was simply not strong enough. It wasn’t anywhere near enough to sever it.
[58/182]
His sword attack only made it pause its drain for a moment before its body made a deep croaking noise and then continued to drain Jay.
One of the guards went to step forward - it seemed that things were getting out of hand.
“Just wait a moment…give them a chance” Paul said, holding the other guard by the shoulder who wanted to rush in and save them all.
“Dan, we could use some help over here!” the sabre girl called out to the axeman.
Dan and Conroy were keeping the smaller enemies at bay while the three of them (Jay, dagger and sabre) dealt with the treant.
Just as he ripped his axe from the head of another slain nestling gatherer, he turned around, his eyes bulging at how badly they were doing.
“Well shit.”
***Bonus Chapter 2/5. Also it's free-chap-15th. Other three will be released when I can manage it. Enjoy :)***
