Chapter 148 Wood Elementals 8

Jay and his little group of humans had successfully defeated a treant hectopede, all while holding off the level one and level five wood elementals constantly swarming them.

“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.

Jay stood up, his ribs finally healed. He didn’t really care that he looked weak, was caught by the treant and had to be helped – but the dagger girl looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

She could already imagine the foolish chatter that would soon follow:

“Wasn’t he supposed to be level 9? Pff, strongest adventurer my ass.”

“Yeah, he was probably just getting power levelled this whole time. Talented my ass.”

Still, Jay stood up without a glimpse of worry, handing the water skin back to her.

“Thanks for that, that drain ability is no joke” he gave her a sunny smile. It seemed he truly didn’t even care that he needed help. There was no shame at all. Why didn’t he care about how pathetic he just looked?

“O-oh, no problem” she smiled back.

“Sorry I couldn’t help you while you were knocked down, that treant was a real pain.” Jay said as he slashed three more stick-balls in half.

“It’s ok. I could see it was intense… with my one eye” she laughed.

“Jay, another one!” Anya called out.

She just slayed a nestling with a throwing knife before launching another heavy bolt at the new treant emerging from the forest.

*Dwoosh~*

Taking heavy damage from her bolt, the treant began charging at Anya around the side of their V-formation, completely out of their killing box.

“Fuck..” Jay only had a few seconds to think – but their problems were only just beginning.

“Another one!” Anya pointed to the forest again. A second treant was emerging..

“Shit.” Jay pursed his lips.

He was becoming flustered, only just recovering from fighting one treant hectopede and now there were two of them – and to make matters worse, the first one had completely avoided their formation.

Jay glanced back at Paul who was watching them back; he was tempted to call for help but in a split second he made a decision.

He quickly looked at the tall lanky bow-wielding guy, analysing him to find his name.

[Peter – Level 6]

[HP 100%]

[MP 100%]

“Peter! Take my spot and fire at the new treant! Keep it busy!” Jay barked orders out as he ran over to Anya.

The treant had already passed by the mace-shield guy and was bearing down on Anya, its antlers lowered into a charge.

“Ah shit, sorry Anya…” he gritted his teeth as he dashed at her.

Jay knew he wouldn’t make it in time, but still, he flung an unstable tooth at the treant just as it was about to skewer her.

However instead of impaling Anya, the confused elemental kept charging. Where was the thud it was expecting from hitting her? Was she extremely light? Did it miss somehow?

*BOOM! Tat tat~*

The unstable tooth exploded against the creature’s body, a chunk of wood missing from its side instantly causing it to stop its charge.

Meanwhile, Anya had simply disappeared – replaced by a black swirling mist.

It seemed that the mist was spinning chaotically in a strong storm, even though there was not so much as a light breeze around today.

The black mist itself had no effect on any of the flowers or grass, none of them swaying in the slightest. It was like the mist wasn’t even there, either an illusion or simply unable to interact with the physical world.

The only thing that seemed to be affected by the black mist were tiny little grey bits of ash – but it seemed that they were part of the corporeal mist itself.

Suddenly the ball of mist moved to a new position; It was fast – even faster than the treant, maybe three times as fast as Jay’s skeletons. If Jay blinked he would have missed it.

Next, the dark mist suddenly burst and dissipated into nothingness; Anya reappeared with her crossbow ready to fire.

It all happened in a matter of moments: Treant charging Anya – Anya disappearing into mist – Anya suddenly reappearing further away and firing her crossbow.

Somehow she became an untouchable shadow, avoiding all damage and getting into a safer position in the very back of the field.

Jay looked at the stunned creature, it seemed to be as confused as he was.

*Dwoosh~*

…*PHOONK*

Unfortunately for the wood elemental, it was given no time to think as another heavy bolt pierced the creature – this time landing right in the centre of its large deer-shaped blackwood head.

“Nice,” Jay smiled, jumping into battle as well.

“Damn, a head-shot wasn’t a critical hit…” Anya said, a little frustrated as she went to reload her crossbow.

All this time she had been trying to find the creature’s weak spot – the critical hit area where she could do double damage.

“Not the head… not the chest… not the body. Don’t tell me…” Her eyes travelled over the lower parts of the creature.

There were only two more places she hadn’t attacked… though it may cause everyone to grimace a little.

Jay had no time to think about Anya’s black mist ability as he dashed in to deal damage. He had to get the monster’s attention so Anya could continue to freely attack.

“Asklin!”

A burst of air and dirt exploded from Jay’s boots as he dashed across the field, almost matching the speed that Anya was going while in her black mist form.

Before, the creature ignored Jay and had prepared to charge again – but now Jay was already in front of it.

*Shring, Swing, Clang!~*

[14.4][14.4][14.4]

Jay took it completely by surprise as he opened up wounds across its chest; some glowing green sap tainting his ossein blade.

Jay didn’t outdamage Anya by any means, but the creature would have to deal with him if it wanted to move towards the main target.

“AAHHHH!” a shrieking squeal came from behind Jay.

“Oh no! Stop!” the sabre-girl called out.

*DOON!~*

The squeals from both girls was followed by a deep booming sound. Jay had his back to the V-formation so it came behind him – followed by a gust of wind.

Jay quickly stepped back from the fight and glanced behind him in case he was in danger. Something was definitely wrong.

A string of organs and blood were strewn across the second treant hectopedes antlers, they had fallen out of Peter as it lifted him up into the air as if he were a trophy.

The antlers weren’t just inanimate either – each of them could move around, slicing up whatever was caught on them, digging around in Peter’s flesh.

“…” Jay had no thoughts, he was only glad that wasn’t him; the drain ability was much more preferable to whatever this barbaric brutal torture was.

Peter’s eyes had rolled back into his head from the pain, his body spasming on the antlers, only causing more damage. It seemed the higher level a monster was, the more brutal it could be.

This was just before Paul had intervened, pulling out a large glaive and ending the creature swiftly in one precise attack. This was the ‘doon’ sound they all heard.

Paul had instinctively pulled out his own weapon to help – not one of the flimy metal spears given to all the guards, but the one he personally used in dungeons.

The glaive blade was a deep glinting blue colour with white clouds that gently travelled across its surface. The shaft was a pure white polished stone of some sort.

It was clearly a magical weapon found in some high level dungeon; an older adventurer would eventually find one if they persevered enough.

The other adventurers were similarly all standing around watching for a moment as the spike-balls were about to prod them – the glorious display of viscera interrupting the flow of battle.

Paul cut off the head of the treant and brought Peter down from the antlers. He wasn’t too worried as Peter still had 32% of his HP left, and would just need some time to heal before rejoining the battle. That was if he wasn’t psychologically damaged anyway.

Unfortunately, Jay didn’t have time to keep looking – the treant was right behind him and about to slash.

Jay had no time to dodge – he quickly pulled out deathwalker’s sentry;

*THUD! scrr~*

As the heavy root hands connected, Jay was pushed to one side. Bone dust scraped away as the sentry shield took most of the damage.

[-4]

Jay quickly stored it in his inventory again before anyone noticed – everyone except Anya of course.

*Dwoosh~*

…*PHOONK*

Another arrow flew in, connecting with its target – this time aimed a little lower.

Jay looked back, giving her a confused look, as if to say ‘Why? Just why?’

Anya only frowned, “The rear then?” she guessed as she pursed her lips, already feeling out of her depth.

“It would be better if it just has no weak point… then I wouldn’t have to do what I’m about to do.” she mumbled to herself as she reloaded another bolt.

Thankfully, the treant hectopede went down before she could fire again. It only needed a few more hits from Jay and it collapsed as if it were an oversized puppet.

“Not bad,” Jay smiled.

He and Anya had killed it without anyone else attacking it; they would get all the exp for this one.

Both of the two new treant hectopedes were slain, so they slowly returned to Jay’s V-formation.

Of course, Peter was still recovering.

*Br – CUR- CRRrrrr-oooo!*

More thundering noises came from the south, soon followed by some deep earthly groaning noises.

“Seems like they’re winning.” Jay thought as he returned to his position at the bottom of the V.

The adventurers of Losla all had roles to play. While they were not as strong as the guards in the south-west, what they did was just as important.

More of the small stick-orbs rolled over and were easily culled; the barrier made of their dead bodies getting larger.

It wasn’t hard to kill them, but fatigue was starting to set in. The energy levels of the party were dropping slowly.

The only ones who seemed to be doing okay were the rangers along with the other ones with high dexterity: the dagger girl, the glaive guy and the sabre girl.

To the adventurers, it seemed like the battle was almost over as less of the stick-balls were leaving the forest now. Everyone just wanted to sigh in relief.

“No way…” Dan said, raising his axe.

“What the? What even is that?”

They were all wrong, that battle wasn’t over; a powerful enemy made its way onto the battlefield.