Chapter 118: Our time to strike (3)

'RUMBLE!'

"Ack! Scatter!" I shouted and grabbed the shocked little girl by the hood of her jacket and leapt into the air, as did Jeanne. Now that the ground was totally ruined, the safest place should be the sky... Right?

'Fwoosh!'

'Crackle!'

"Oh gosh! I didn't sign up for this!" I yelled in frustration when an arrow suddenly went for my eye, which luckily failed because I froze my arm and used it as a shield.

"Ah! It's blackie!" Firiell called out while pointing down on the ground.

Blackie? I felt like I've heard it somewhere before...?

I raised an eyebrow and just in case, made an ice cage around the both of us for extra protection.

'BANG!'

"Dude! Chill, what the heck!?" I flinched backwards when something slammed against our cage.

Upon closer inspection, it was... A branch?

Oh! It must've been that tree monster thingy! Wait, if that was true, then...

"Firiell! We're ditching this cage! Come!" I hugged her with one arm, while holding my rifle in the other.

"Eh!?" She exclaimed in surprise.

"Crap, shield, Firiell! Up!" I shouted in panic, and luckily, she obeyed with a plausible reaction time.

'Thump!'

"Great job!" I praised her when the branch that was slamming against our cage suddenly grew another branch that was fortunately shielded by her.

This monster was pretty troublesome, considering its ability to just grow branches anywhere on its body. If I remember correctly, though, it could only move its four main trunks. So at least it had some restrictions.

I quickly ditched the cage and looked around me. Where were the rest of my team?

"Ah!" I spotted Jeanne and general Emilio struggling to fight against the tree monster on the ground, while general Zhang was keeping the elf king busy.

"Ahahahha! Let's have a little bit of fun while they're dealing with your pet, shall we?" General Zhang's maniacal laugh made me concerned. Sometimes I wonder if he needed a therapist?

"Blackie is not my pet. It's my contracted companion," the elf king replied, "aren't you concerned about them?"

"Sometimes you gotta let the kids learn through experience, you know~?" General Zhang answered with a laugh while they exchanged physical blows.

A high kick, parried with an arm, and then two straights, one jab. Everything was perfectly deflected by Erenduill, although I could see his skin started to tear, judging by the red colour that was smeared across his arm. General Zhang could hit that hard!? Wasn't the elf king's physique super high or something!? And why weren't they using their magic?

"Firiell, what did he mean by contracted companions?" I quickly asked as I headed down towards Jeanne using my psychokinesis.

"Uncle Erenduill's authority power only works with monsters that he has defeated," she explained, "and to my knowledge, it's limited in number, but I'm not sure how many..."

Hmm, so his crest wasn't as overpowered as I thought it was. Good to know. Anyway, while the madmen were busy with each other, we gotta finish this tree, and fast.

'Tap!'

"Jeanne, take the kid, please!" As I landed beside her, I quickly handed the little girl to Jeanne, and erected an ice wall just before a branch was about to pierce us, "and please provide support for me and general Emilio, thanks!"

"Huh!?" She was visibly bewildered, but took the kid regardless, and backed away a little further to safety.

"Hey, you. You know what to do." General Emilio called out to me with an unusually calm voice, which was pretty creepy in this situation.

"Yeah. Arson?" I nodded and ran alongside him as we hopped and jumped and parried the incoming branches. Me with my fragile ice sword that kept breaking every few seconds, and him with his trusty spear.

"Arson." He nodded.

Great. Without much explanation needed, we parted ways. He ran straight towards one of the main trunks that were acting as a leg, while I made myself some ice claws on both hands, and climbed my way up through his summoned branches.

"Argh! It hurts, stop moving!" I winced as I kept digging my claws into its big, thick branches.

'ROOAARR!'

Suddenly, it belched in anger and started flailing even more. Could it be feeling pain from my claws? Well, me too, tree monster, me too. Even though my ice claws had turned red from my bleeding nails, I still climbed, slowly but surely.

'Thunk! Thunk!'

I was getting nervous by the second, because every so often, new branches would pop out, trying to puncture my body. Luckily, my armor was durable enough that I only felt like something was repeatedly punching my stomach, instead of poking holes into it. Not a pleasant feeling, but at least I wasn't instantly a skewer.

Once in a while, when I got thrown off of it, I had to use my psychokinesis to propel myself back. I'd rather just float instead of climbing my way up, but it was too hard for me to maneuver with so many branches going at me.

"General Emilio! Ready whenever you are!" I shouted when I finally reached the back of its neck.

"Ignite!" He commanded, and suddenly, fire burst out from below, where he was standing at.

Following right after him, I sliced open its neck and plunged my arm inside, and closed my eyes to focus on my mana.

"Get crispy." I opened my eyes and a colossal amount of flame burst out, burning the whole tree from the inside. It was so fierce that even I was starting to have a hard time breathing normally, and I had to squint my eyes right away.

'ROOOAR!'

It yelled out even louder, and started stomping its feet in an attempt to kill general Emilio.

"Gener--"

'SLAM!'

My words were cut short when it smashed its hand-like trunk to its neck, exactly where I was latched onto.

"Kkuh--!" In a last-second attempt, I hit the branch back using my fist, which shattered the branch that was right above my head.

The other branches, though, the ones that I didn't hit with my fist, connected and left a huge bruise on my left shoulder, all the way to my lower arm. I guess this was what happened when I invested points in my strength while neglecting my physique...

I quickly repositioned myself and held onto its other upper trunk, while igniting everything I touched.

"Just burn down already!" I shouted, and a loud boom ensued as the tree monster's trunk started to explode, specifically the one I was latching on to. Suddenly, I found myself hovering in the air, either falling to my death or getting stabbed by multiple branches.

I hastily tried to propel myself to the right, but only ended up bumping into a branch. Gah, it was so hard to control myself. Using multiple magic while not really knowing which way was up and which way was down, was starting to fry my brain.

'Fwoosh!'

"Oh shi--"

A dark, burning branch was headed straight for my neck, which I noticed a bit too late. The only thing I could do was brace myself for the impact while praying that my brooch armor was sturdy enough to keep me alive.

"Chae! I got you!"

Jeanne's voice shot up from below me, and suddenly I felt my body move by itself, avoiding each and every branch with extreme precision.

"Whoa!" I gasped with amazement as she moved me using her wind magic so flawlessly, that I got out scratch-free and landed on the ground.

Wait, if Jeanne was helping me, then what about general Emilio?

"Emi!? Where are you? Hey, you stone-face, are you dead yet!?" I shouted and ran towards the flaming trunk where he was last seen at, the moment my feet touched the ground.

There was no response, which made me held my breath for a second imagining the possibilities. I quickly improvised and summoned a big chunk of ice on top of me, and burned it down until it melted and poured water onto me.

Oh, couldn't believe that actually worked. Cool.

Now that I was thoroughly soaked, I removed my black robe that would've just been a nuisance, and plunged myself straight into the fire, searching for a certain general that hopefully survived the stomping.

I wanted to shout his name, but I probably shouldn't inhale too much smoke now, so I just tried my best to deflect all of the stompings that were still going on.

Dang it, was he already dead now? For real?

"What are you doing, you fool?"

"Eh?" I yelped when something suddenly pulled me back... By my hair.

"Are you out of your mind!?" The person responsible for pulling my hair turned out to be none other than general Emilio himself, who managed to get survive the stomping, although half of his chest was charred, and his upper clothing was nowhere to be seen anymore.

"Ah! So you survived!" I gasped happily.

"Yes. Now let's get out of here." He replied concisely and proceeded to grab my hand instead of my hair, and when I stumbled with my steps, he clicked his tongue and lifted me up while he ran away from the burning tree monster that was starting to collapse.

'ROOOAR!'

The aforementioned monster, still not losing its vigor, thrashed around and kept flinging its dead, burned branches everywhere, burning everything that came into contact.

"Tch. It's still going." General Emilio cursed while he kept running away with me in his arms.

"Wait--!" I yelled out and pointed at the tree monster.

"What now!?"

"It's doing something!" I exclaimed as I watched the burning, smoking tree started to curl up like a fetus. What the heck...?

I squinted my eyes to get a clearer view, because all the smokes made it harder for me to see. On the spur of the moment, something hit me, and I understood what it was about to do.

Perhaps it was instinct, or perhaps it was experience, I wasn't sure.

But somehow, I saw something that I was all too familiar with.

A last resort spirit.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping that my voice would reach everyone.

'STAB!'