Chapter 180: Prep For War; My Beast(P3)

As per my order, Panda twirls the newly acquired blade and bursts into action. Very well skipping over the line of men still confused at what's happening my beast springs into combat with whatever that thing is that's controlling the bushes.

And I watch, eager to learn what exactly this thing is as well as discover the capabilities of my beast.

Panda covers the distance within seconds and with the skill of a berserker pulls back an arm to cut down the tree being.

His attack never lands however.

The bushes roll into form, several of them coalesce and with a simple flick of the tree creature's wrist, Panda is skewered in branches, held up in the air for a moment, roaring and growling down at the creature or spirit before effectively being tossed aside like a neutered dog.

"Fuck."

"Yeah, no shit." Anselm concurs, frost seeping off his being as he too readies himself. "I'm pretty sure that's a forest spirit."

"Why do you say so?"

"Because it came out of a tree and threw your new fancy under away?"

I roll my eyes but I'm starting to get nervous.

"Bone Shield." I command and in all direction's bones from the fallen Werebears erupt from their bodies, it's strengthened and elongated by my mana before hovering around me.

Six of them, long and wide white strong bones. My only defence right now as I have no prelude.

The corpses of the Werebear are a mess, not worth the effort of raising as undead, especially seeing as many of them don't even have full head or torsos.

Shaco really went crazy with the Blood Scythe.

Speaking of which, "Shaco?"

"I understand, Master." My familiar doesn't speak anymore than that before slithering down my shoulder and off through the grasses, encroaching the tumbling bushes that have boxed us in.

"Juri, keep the men back, I don't think this is any ordinary monster."'

That said, Panda isn't any ordinary monster either it seems.

With a deafening roar my beast springs back to life, gripping Juri's blade and glaring at the tree spirit.

"That's it Panda, that's it. Shaco, Death Grip!" I realize my two little helpers working in tandem may be the key to killing this thing, spirit, creature, whatever it is.

Dozens of green hands burst out from a point in the grass, with a pincer attack like this I doubt this creature can handle it.

The hands are quick to latch onto as many of the bushes as they can, some tumble away, towards the charging Panda but I can already see the bushes wither away.

The creature shrieks and jumps away, but Panda, although newly skewered does not let it get far.

Swinging Juri's blade like you would an axe trying to chop down a tree, Panda lands a solid hit on the creature.

I switch to Shaco's eyes to get a proper look and what I see is…a female hollow form of branches and glittering lights.

It screams with pain as it drips yellow blood, or would that be sap. The thing raises an arm toward the growling Panda and just as I expect, its fingers burst out in long branches, attempting to take of my beast's head.

Panda sees this coming however and as though punishing the thing for retaliating it pulls out the blade, causing a spring of yellow blood to spurt out. And then, with even more force, Panda hammers the blade back down at the same spot, right below the shoulder and this time, the blade goes all the way through, relieving the creature of the burden of a head and an upper body.

The lights on the thing go out, snuffed out by it death one after the other until nothing remains but it's corpse, frozen in an enraged shriek.

"Well, that was anti-climati-"

"No!" Anselm cuts my victory boasts short, "Something is happening to it."

I look back at the fallen thing and surely enough, something is happening to it.

Rather than die and stay dead at the feet of my beast, the thing's corpse begins to prop itself up, roots digging into the ground and before I can order Shaco to properly drain the life out of it – as it seems that Death Grip will be the only thing capable of killing it permanently – it bursts out of the ground, whole and new.

And now, there are two of them.

The tree creatures don't waste a heartbeat mulling over their new life, instead they spring out into attack.

The one closest to Panda launches with precision, as in it sends out a skewer of branches from its body and into my beast's. There was no escaping the attack.

Panda roars, likely not in pain given its undead state but rather in annoyance. My beast swings Juri's blade once more, hacking and slashing at the branches.

But I don't have time to spectate Panda's struggle with the tree creature. Shaco is in danger.

Several splinters have been rained down on my familiar as it slithers away, trying to escape, I don't dare burden it with a command to turn and attack, rather, I take matters into my own hand and jump into the fray, Anselm gliding with chill frost behind me.

"Anselm, either we freeze these things entirely or I burn them to dust with my necrosis."

"Or else they'll just keep multiplying every time we don't take care of them properly."

"That's right." I grunt, in range of both tree creatures, "I'll get this one you get the one troubling Panda."

He snorts and mutters, "Panda." But nonetheless flies off to deal with the pesky lizard like regenerating tree creature.

Shaco slithers up my leg and finds refuge on my shoulder, "Apologiesss Massster, I was unable to end your enemy."

I smile, staring through the rapidly rotating bone shield, protecting me from the blight of the tree creature barrage of needles.

"That's alright, Shaco, a lot of this is my fault." Staring at the seemingly mindless creature, one driven by a single goal…whatever that is.

I can't help but wonder.

"What opportunities would open if I stole its soul?"