I quickly joined Aisha inside the final prison, along with all of our temporary Pixie allies. I hastily scanned the chamber. Fewer enemies roamed around it than I’d expected to encounter. Perhaps the reinforcements hadn’t arrived yet, and we had accidentally left the least protected objective for last. I certainly couldn’t see the two Woodknights from earlier, which was great.

  We got to work, not wanting to let this chance slip by. It could be that the Seed was starting to run out of puppets, which would be even better, but I preferred not to lean on unconfirmed assumptions like that. Though, we could certainly try something different here.

  “Aisha, kill them all first, cages after,” I instructed my partner, changing our strategy.

  It certainly surprised the enemies who had started throwing themselves in front of the cages or covering the captive Pixies with multiple bodies to block our weapons from smashing into the little prisons. One second, we were trying to avoid them, but the next, we were suddenly chasing down every single walking tree like overexcited lumberjacks.

  Too bad we didn’t have any chainsaws. That would be a scene.

  Somehow, we managed to chop all the tree dudes down before more began popping out of the walls. One or two did eventually arrive, but they weren’t destined to step onto the ground as Aisha cut them in half during the motion. We freed the Pixies without any other issues and looked around at the swarm of dancing orbs in a full rainbow.

  As we were catching our breaths, Aisha lifted a hand and we bumped fists.

  “What now?” she asked.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “With all those regenerative and supportive effects on me? Like a fucking god.” She chuckled heartily. “I could take this entire Dungeon alone. It’s so intoxicating.”

  “Don’t get cocky.” I smirked at her.

  “Make me,” she quipped back with a sly grin.

  “Later.” I landed a slap on her ass, and she purred in response. “Want to take a peek at the boss room? I’m pretty sure I sensed a thicker condensation of energy when I was tackling the jails on the lower floor.”

  “Same.” Aisha nodded. “We could as well. It will be good to grab some more intel, at the very least. Maybe we’ll get lucky and catch the Seed with its pants down.”

  “Let’s not push our luck too far. At the very first sign of danger, we are out. I can teleport and bring you back only once.”

  “Got it, chief. You are the leader.”

  I glanced up at the cloud of floating orbs.

  “Alright, guys and girls, I think this is everyone, right?” After a brief pause, a wave passed through the spherical crowd. “Great. I’m glad we could help. You are free now. Stay vigilant until we get rid of the Seed for good. We are going to go take a look at it, no need to follow, though. I think we will be safer without a big cluster of mana flying behind us. No offense.”

  The Pixies remained relatively still after my brief speech, floating up and down in their places. I wondered how to shoo them away—politely, of course—but Rose suddenly flew closer to them and began bobbing and wiggling in front of her friends.

  Shortly after she stopped, there was another awkward pause, and all the Pixies began joyfully dancing too. A bunch of them zoomed up to Rose and circled her happily before the whole group raced out of the chamber. We watched them go with smiles on our lips.

  Rose floated up to me after we were left alone.

  “Thanks, girl. Excellent job.” I patted our Pixie companion softly.

  She buzzed under my palm, making us chuckle. Then, we got serious again as the walls began crumbling. Not in the mood to throw a welcoming party for them, we jogged out of the destroyed prison and were on our way. Rose seemed to know the place we had mentioned and took the lead.

  Cutting a bunch of Woodmen and Woodscythers on our path, we reached the lower level and ran towards the source of the ominous energy. I sensed it before Aisha did, perhaps thanks to my Mana Control and general experience with it, but neither of us could hold a candle to Rose in that regard.

  The number of enemies increased as we got closer, clearly a good sign. Or a bad one, depending on your point of view.

  Only one Woodknight blocked our way and we had to stop to take it down. With the three of us together, it wasn’t too great of a challenge. I melted part of its armor with acid while Rose kept annoying it until Aisha dealt the finishing blow.

  Soon, we noticed the tunnel getting both wider and taller, until we saw a giant hole in the wall up ahead, about the size of a castle’s gate, I would say. Warily watching the walls with the utmost attention, we approached the edge of the opening and waited. After nothing jumped at us for a full minute, we took a peek inside.

  A spacious cavern opened before us, its size roughly equivalent to a three-story family house at first glance. Plenty of Woodmen, Woodcatchers, Woodknights, and Woodscythers walked around inside, either patrolling aimlessly or taking care of some task.

  But, the most striking feature of the chamber was clearly the huge-ass, withered tree partially embedded in one of the walls. It was black, as wide as five or six people standing shoulder to shoulder, and as high as three people standing on top of one another. Just like its puppets, it had no leaves, only spooky branches stretching upwards.

  To top it all, green, acidic veins ran all over its bark, glowing and pulsing like they were filled with a radioactive substance. A big hollow could be seen in the middle of the thing’s trunk, like the hole where birds often made their nests but slightly bigger vertically than it was wide. Inside, I swear to god, was a giant eye or something closely resembling it.

  The part that looked like an iris was of the same color as the pulsing veins, but I could also make out the shape of a black, demonic, vertical slit of a pupil, jumping around with janky movements. It would lock onto one of its spawn for a brief moment before switching its focus over to another one.

  Great. We were up against a bootleg Sauron hiding in a dead tree. I certainly hoped it didn’t have any riders.

  Returning behind the wall, I exchanged glances with Aisha.

  “Want to cut some fuckers down and run away?” she suggested. “As far as I know, they shouldn’t be able to grow from a Sprout to a mature minion in less than a day or two, needing more time. We could trim its army down a little.”

  I could tell that she was confident in her words and clear-minded, not driven by the urge to smash and destroy things. Therefore, I nodded.

  “It might show us what it can do, helping us prepare better for the main raid. Save your Berserk. We will need it when we are going to run. Don’t let the rush take over. Let’s stay close together and whittle their numbers down as much as we can.”

  She smiled and pulled me into a soft kiss.

  “I’ll take it easy. I have much more to lose in this life than ever before.” A faint smile painted her lips.

  I chuckled wryly. “Now, that’s a flag.”

  We checked our gear one last time, reapplying Woodmen’s Bane to our weapons, before lunging into the boss room. It didn’t look like the Seed had set up any proximity sensors by its door, because it didn’t notice us until Aisha sank her greataxe into the first Woodscyther.

  The giant eye locked onto her, clearly recognizing us as the thorn in its side that had wrecked its plans. The entire cavern rumbled as it shook in fury—at least I assumed it had. The wooden legion turned towards our position immediately and we soon had a swarm of enemies throwing themselves at our blades.

  We remained wary of the ominous tree in the side of the chamber while chopping down its small army. It didn’t seem like it had managed to work something out against our salt poison as it remained as effective as ever. One by one, stick and log boys fell over, thrashing weakly.

  Woodknights were our biggest problem, but we saw only three in our close vicinity, and they had a hard time coordinating their attacks so as not to slam into each other or their smaller comrades. Not that it seemed to bother them too much when they had but it was clear that the Seed tried not to aid us by accident, with its more fine-tuned control of those puppets.

  After getting rid of one big boy, roughly fifteen Woodscythers, twenty Woodmen, and a bunch of Woodcatchers—it had gone pretty quick, thanks to our one-hit, one-kill policy for most of them—we began to notice a serious increase in the numbers facing us. Reinforcements kept pouring in from all sides. Thankfully, the Seed either had no way to fight us directly, or didn’t feel threatened enough yet to do so.

  I sent Aisha an order to withdraw using her Berserk to clear the path, but the very moment she received it, something unexpected happened.

  An uncountable number of Pixies suddenly burst into the huge cavern through the main entrance, flooding it completely. The constant stream of colorful orbs lasted for more than thirty seconds before the last one flew into the chamber.

  When all of them were inside, they stopped creating chaos amongst the wooden soldiers and soared up into the air in one solid mass. A blanket of all imaginable colors covered the ceiling, capturing our and our enemy’s attention.

  Then, the Pixies spread out in seemingly random directions, forming various shapes, circles and other geometrical patterns. Before I realized that they were making some kind of a magical array, they had finished.

  The formation moved as one body, with various parts spinning in alternate directions, and it glowed strongly. Something shone under our feet, and I had to cover my eyes a bit, still trying to see what the hell was going on.

  Energy pulsed from that spot and rushed to the sides. We watched as multiple thin walls passed through us, tickling us a bit but otherwise doing our bodies no harm.

  Our opponents, however, weren’t as lucky. Each Woodman or other type of animated kindling was pushed back by the brilliant lights. After fifteen seconds, the explosions of mana stopped, and we looked around.

  Not a single enemy remained next to us. All of them had been shoved to the far end of the cavern, trapped there by weird, semi-transparent, colorful barriers that pressed them up against the earthen walls. None could get through the multi-layered barricade that had formed. Only us and the Seed were left unaffected.

  “It did say that the Pixies would give us a hand in clearing the Dungeon, didn’t it?” Aisha grinned at me.

  I chuckled. “I think we owe this one to a certain someone, though.”

  Rose buzzed proudly by our side.

  “Well, let’s not waste their goodwill,” Aisha said, gripping her weapon harder. “We might as well end this right here, right now.”

  “Agreed. Time to chop this asshole dow—”

  A strong tremor shook the ground and the entire cavern rumbled. We instantly looked over at the black tree. Apparently, it had finally decided to act.

  The earth around its form began crumbling from the wall as the Seed tore itself out of the Dungeon’s muddy embrace. It slid forward a bit, some of its roots shooting out to the sides and rushing at the barriers. These wooden tentacles managed to penetrate the magical barricade, but we could see that it hurt the Seed a lot, as puffs of smoke and a loud sizzling sound filled the air.

  Fighting through the pain, the dark monstrosity grabbed four Woodknights, a bunch of Woodmen, and a few Woodscythers. Forcefully dragging them through the barriers, and damaging them slightly in the process, it pulled them close.

  We watched, mouths agape, as it raised itself on its roots and shoved four Woodknights under its body, attaching the Woodmen and Woodscythers to its sides in two braided pillars. Finally assembled, it turned its quite unhappy eye at us.

  “Fucking perfect.” I snorted. “The only thing lacking was of course a Tree Gundam.”

  Things were about to get hella hectic.

  Chapter 31

  The Bigger They Are the Harder They Fall

  We stared at the towering amalgamation of all the enemies we had faced in the Dungeon during our previous delves, plus the big bad, of course. The Seed had comfortably surrounded itself with its minions and created something neither of us would have ever expected to see, no matter how much fantasy I had consumed in my life.

  I took a quick glance around, to check if we were still alone, or if some other monsters had made it through the multi-layered barriers laid down by the sea of Pixies. Fortunately, the answer was no. It was still one-on-one. Well, maybe actually two-on-however-the-fuck-many-there-were-around-that-thing.

  Aisha gripped her greataxe tighter and stepped closer to me. “Any bright ideas or are we doing this the good, old-fashioned way?”

  “Save your Berserk for now.” Our eyes met briefly and she nodded. “I think our best bet is to get rid of its legs and then aim for the hollow with the eye. We are kind of fucked without a ranged attacker due to its size.”

  “Granted, it won’t just pull in more Woodknights to replace them,” she replied.

  “Then we need to be fast. Come on, it’s time to move. Let’s split up and talk mentally if necessary.” I eyed the hulking monstrosity awkwardly waddling our way.

  “Be careful,” Aisha threw at me before running to the other flank and I smiled.

  I had no intentions of being anything but that. As she had said earlier, I had way too much to lose now. We were going to chop this wannabe Ent down, get back to our small love nest, get all the juicy rewards, and finally go on a proper date in the outside world. I had wanted to take Aisha out for days now, so this assignment better dropped us a good bundle of Time Off or I was going to file a complaint.

  The Seed hesitated for a moment, indecisive about who to focus on first, and I saw its acidic green eye shift back and forth between the two of us. In the end, it might have judged me an easier target to squash quickly and continued to waddle my way.

  Naturally, that didn’t mean it completely ignored my drakan partner. It swung one of its convoluted arms out as she was starting to circle it and sharp roots shot out of its fingers, which technically were either Woodmen or Woodscythers. I didn’t get to observe its attack for long, as the same strike was aimed at me, too, and I had to dodge.

  After sidestepping away from the initial point of impact, I had to continue my evasive dance for several more steps, as wooden tendrils bore into the ground where I had been standing just a moment earlier, following me relentlessly.

  For some reason, after getting attached to the Seed, the bodies of the tree monsters had gained some cool new abilities, like the one which had almost gotten me just now. I just hoped there weren’t that many new tricks in its arsenal as I swung down my handaxe at the last sturdy tentacle.

  My blade sank only halfway through it, confirming that they were quite durable. Thankfully, the saline solution still seemed to work, as all of the tendrils in this bundle began writhing in pain as I drew my weapon back. They quickly retracted and I followed them with my eyes.

  My little chop didn’t have much effect on the giant tree mech but I’d had no real expectations that it would from the start. I was able to see that Aisha had managed to outmaneuver the tentacles that had been fired at her, even cutting a bunch of them off with her impressive greataxe.

  Still, there was hardly any damage done to the enemy.

  We shared a mental ping and rushed forward together from opposite sides. It seemed like it could split its attention between us, but not perfectly. Perhaps it could sense lifeforce or tremors, just like its minions, but I had a feeling that the big eye wasn’t just for show and the attack it launched at me was clearly better coordinated than the blind poke it sent Aisha’s way with its other arm, from behind its back.

  With a grunt, I dodged the rain of tough, viny spikes while still running forward. One of them hit my hand, and knocked my weapon out of my grip. I cursed under my breath but pressed on.

  Soon after I’d jumped beyond the small forest created by the wooden tentacles, my axe flew back to the ring attached to my belt like an obedient, self-navigating boomerang and I smiled. I kind of felt like Thor, but with a slightly more intelligent Mjolnir. The difference was, I could have more than one.

  But, one was all I could use at the moment and had to be enough.

  Seeing the extended tendrils retracting above my head, I sprinted to cover the remaining distance before another shower of spikes rained down on me, reaching the front left Woodknight which was serving as the Seed’s leg.

  Fortunately, it had to use its bulky arms to hold onto its god from below, so it could only glare at me with its nonexistent eyes and head. It still had its own legs to defend itself, though.

  I stepped out of the way of its brutal kick and pulled out a vial of acid as I dodged. It could only watch as I lobbed the vial at its chest and the corrosive liquid immediately began eating through its black armor.

  Aisha swiftly danced between the two Woodknights serving as rear legs to reach my position. I extended my arm to the side, and she grabbed it without stopping. Using me to change directions while retaining her momentum, she leaped into the air with her axe held overhead. A mighty shout escaped her lips as she slammed her blade into the still sizzling wound.

  Unfortunately, the acid hadn’t melted all the way through the armor yet, and she didn’t reach the body. Instead, her weapon got stuck in the hard surface. She leveraged her foot on the Woodknight’s chest and tore her axe free from it, landing next to me.

  I could feel her intention to follow up with another strike, but there was no time.

  “Inside!” was all I could yell before putting a hand on her lower back and giving her a shove.

  Aisha rolled forward while I jumped away to avoid the incoming arm of merged monsters. She landed safely under the feet of the wounded Woodknight, but I got smacked in the face by the tough vines, though I did manage to cover most of my head by crossing my arms in time.

  The hit sent me tumbling backward with a groan. The very moment my body stopped rolling, I threw myself back into the same motion as the Seed decided to start spinning around with its arms and tendrils extended to the ground, whipping with them everywhere in its close vicinity. A small tornado of dust rose from the ground near it as I kept rolling away, getting spanked occasionally by a lucky vine.