Chapter 147 Wood Elementals 7

The dagger girl only had one dagger as she searched for the other on the ground; while she appeared to be drunk, she was actually just heavily injured and healing way too slowly.

The sabre-girl was hopelessly slashing at one of the treant’s legs, but despite her slashing the treant’s health was still going up by 2HP per second.

A cold sweat and a sense of urgent fear began building in her.

Meanwhile Anya couldn’t help for now as she had to focus on clearing the nestlings for a moment; if the glaive guy or the mace-shield guy were hooked and pulled out of formation it would be all over.

Half of Jay’s body was engulfed in the dark twisting vines, spreading from the treant’s hand. As the vines and roots searched for entrances into Jay’s body he was desperately flailing his sword though.

Thankfully, the axeman was now helping too.

Immediately, Dan raised his two handed axe above his head, his mind suddenly sharpened as his eyes focused keenly on his target.

A red glow appeared around the axe, while some red runic symbols appeared on his arms – he was finally going to use an ability in this battle. The head of the axe glowed with a sickly blood red power as it hungered to decimate all that would dare to stand before it.

The treant immediately sensed immense danger behind itself; unfortunately it couldn’t simply avoid the menacing red axe since each of its legs were planted deep into the ground, greedily absorbing nutrients. All it could do was look on in fear and wait as it braced for impact.

*BOOM!*

The two handed axe descended in a flash, causing a long red arc of the after image.

It hungrily plunged itself deep into the treant’s wooden segmented hectopede body; for a moment it seemed like it caused ripples to go across the wood..

The power behind the hungering red axe kept pushing however, forcing the body of the creature to the ground despite all its legs. Some of its knee joints twisted and snapped as they gave way to the force of the blow.

For a second the creature couldn’t move, its body shaken and stunned for a moment.

With a menacing grin, Dan stepped heroically on the creature’s back and ripped his large axe back out. He made it seem like he was merely retrieving his axe from a chopping block, though pieces of bark and dirt were ripped out along with it.

As he ripped it out, some of the treant’s legs shuddered in response, it was like he had cut across its nerves since they temporarily spasmed uncontrollably before the treant could get them under control again.

Feeling its life threatened, the creature’s eyes pulsed brighter, and some more croaking noises of twisting wood came from deep within its body.

*CROOOoooOO—Criii!~*

One by one its legs began to move, then soon another, and another. It was retracting its roots from the ground.

It was clear to see that Dan did massive damage as the creature was moving more sluggishly now, it was like it could barely maintain its form.

It had to get mobile – but was it planning to retreat? Or was it now going to go after the powerful axeman?

*Dwoosh~*

…*PHOONK*

A heavy bolt suddenly pierced right through its chest. Anya finally had enough room to turn her focus onto the treant.

The treant suddenly froze from the damage; its hollow eyes flashing out a bright green light.

This was its final moment, its last spark of life – and then the light disappeared, its large dark-wood body collapsing to the ground with a final thud.

The sabre-girl immediately went and sliced off the treant hand that was still around Jay’s head and upper body.

*Crh, chh ahh*

Jay coughed on the ground for a moment while he had to rip a long root out of his mouth; small hair root structures had found their way into his lungs.

Another part of the roots had travelled all the way down his throat and into his stomach, and with only a few gags it was out.

The axeman and sabre-girl each went back to clearing the stick-balls and the nestlings; the battle was still raging on around them after all.

The dagger-girl was under half HP but physically fine now, and so stood next to Jay, defending him while he recovered.

Jay wasn’t ok, he couldn’t stand up as his torso was still healing while his head felt like it was spinning; he had a red notification too – a debuff.

[Dehydration]

[50% Less Strength, 50% less Dexterity]

[-1HP per 5 seconds]

Jay looked like shit, his eyes were sunken and his skin was pale.

Blood drenched part of his green coat as parts of his stomach were pierced and his ribs were cracked.

Immediately he pulled out his water skin and downed it as quickly as he could. It was a shame though as he ran out after only a few mouthfuls, he hadn’t refilled it for a while.

Dagger-girl was the closest, so he rolled onto his stomach and grabbed her ankle.

“Ah!?” she jumped slightly.

Feeling something grab her ankle she was startled for a moment.

On the ground was a pale looking man with cracked lips and sunken eyes. If she didn’t know any better she would think he was some type of undead.

All she could do was stare – a mix of both confusion and fright.

“Huh?” she said.

“..waterrr..” he was quiet, his voice raspy and his throat bone dry.

She could barely hear much more than a zombie-like groan, a strained breath. Perhaps he was an undead?

“What was that?” She leant closer.

He looked straight into her eyes with his dead-looking eyes.

“Water.”

“Water?”

Jay nodded weakly, holding out his hand.

His body could heal from HP but it seemed it still required food and water. Plus, it seemed that his broken ribs were still healing, he needed more time before he could stand again.

The girl complied, pulling out a plump, fat, juicy-looking water skin; beads of glistening droplets covering it.

“Here you go,” she smiled, popping the cork out as she went back to fighting.

Jay’s eyes beamed with joy, lighting up as he saw the glistening sack of fresh stream water.

For a moment he was like a baby, suckling on the water skin – but slowly, his strength returned.

Sitting up, he leant against the treant body with a pained groan.

He began sucking it in deeply – instead of a baby, he was now more like a vampire, smiling as he gripped it and squeezing it down his throat.

His eyes were looking at it like a hungry wolf as he sucked it dry.

As the water level decreased, the water bag sagged and made it harder to squeeze water out – of course, Jay was not having any of this.

It was either his life or the water bags, and Jay was taking no prisoners.

He heroically lifted it up as if he was Dan lifting up his battle axe, then continued to chug.

This battle for water was more glorious than slaying some boring treant hectopede, and Jay would be victorious.

The dagger-girl gave Jay a weird look as he was being weird with her water skin; she decided she would get a new one after seeing this.

The dehydration debuff finally left, but Jay took a few more sips to stay extra hydrated as he drained the water; it was like he was double-tapping the water bag corpse for good measure.

“I told you they could do it.” Paul smiled as he put his hands back into his pockets and went back to idly chatting with the other guard.

Yet this was only one treant in massive swarming sea of wood; the battle was far from over, so Jay recovered as quickly as he could.