Finally getting out of its range, I watched how the four Woodknights stomped violently while walking in a circle to provide the rotations needed for the Seed’s attack. I spotted Aisha between them, dodging and rolling around to avoid getting squashed.

  The wild spinning soon slowed and then stopped. We locked gazes and she smirked, looking much better off than I did. I had felt a little bad for shoving her in at first, but it was the correct decision in the long run, considering her boosted stats and martial prowess.

  We didn’t get to stare at each other for long, though, as I noticed the Seed raising both of its makeshift arms with the clear intention of slamming them down together and crushing me like an annoying little bug.

  I quickly lowered myself to jump aside and experienced a faint but sharp pain in my right leg. A brief glance at it revealed that one of the sharp tendrils had sliced into my thigh. It was certainly not a critical injury, but would impair my mobility by a fair amount.

  Trying to ignore the stinging sensation, I broke into a run to avoid the descending, viny death. Thankfully, it didn’t come instantly as the Seed’s movements were relatively slow, due to its massive frame. Plus, I bet the makeshift conjunction of Woodmen and Woodscythers which served as its appendages required some coordination and seemed to need a proper windup to do anything.

  With the wide shadow under my feet darkening at a quick pace, I could feel the massive wooden fists looming over me without having to look up. I chose not to glance that way, focusing all my efforts on getting out of the splash zone as quickly as possible.

  Suddenly, out of nowhere, some weird energy filled my body. Warmth spread through my muscles and the annoying pain in my leg disappeared. Rejuvenated almost back to full strength, I leaped forward, covering the remaining distance separating me from salvation.

  The ground shook a second later as the Seed’s arms slammed into the floor of the cavern just behind me. I rolled with the shockwave, hastily tumbling over my shoulder and back up into a crouch. A greenish tint covered my skin for a moment longer and dissipated into faint smoke, disappearing completely.

  I glanced up at the swarm of spherical lights hanging under the ceiling and smiled. I had no doubt that one or more of the Pixies had assisted me with their magic. I realized how difficult this would be without their support. Sending up a silent thank you to our allies, I refocused on the battle.

  Aisha would have never missed such an opportunity that the Seed’s attack provided, and she was already sprinting up the Seed’s thick arms towards the ancient tree.

  “Get ‘em, girl! You’ve got this!” I shouted after her, infusing my words with mana to trigger Encourage.

  With a ferocious roar, she crossed the half-point of the long limb and prepared herself to jump at the eye. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that easy and the Seed frantically pulled its arms back and up, throwing her slightly off-balance at the very last moment. I could feel Aisha’s frustration through our bond, but she did not give up.

  She launched herself off the Seed’s arm with her target remaining the same—its spooky eye. The tremors had fucked up her calculations a bit and I could tell that she wouldn’t make it. Her blade sank into the bark just next to the big hollow with a soft thud and Aisha hastily began sliding down its trunk, which proved to be a great decision.

  Its two huge arms slammed around the main body of the Seed, like it was attempting to hug itself. Easily avoiding this rough display of affection, the resulting impact helped Aisha’s blade slice its way down the Seed’s trunk even faster, and she was soon back safe on the ground.

  I had been running while watching this spectacle unfold, joining her soon after her boots were back on the cavern floor. After taking a quick glance at her body to assess the damage, she gave me a brusque nod, letting me know that everything was okay. I could see that she was pissed at herself, though, for wasting a prime opportunity to poke the Seed where it hurt.

  So, I decided to quickly give her another chance and lunged forward towards the injured Woodknight at the Seed’s front leg. Aisha picked up my intentions through our connection and ran after me before the big evil tree could try anything funny again.

  Rolling to the side to avoid the monster’s stomping kick, I landed on and remained on all fours. Aisha used my back as a springboard to launch herself at the enemy with a barbaric howl, which I recognized as her Piercing Roar.

  All four Woodknights froze for a fraction of a second and she had a sure shot at the wounded one without any interruptions. The blade of her axe bit deeply into its inner woodflesh through the hole eaten by the acid we had previously used.

  Kicking herself back off its chest, she made a flip and sent a single, violent, crimson arc of Sunder into the wound, not leaving anything to chance. She landed at my side, helped me up, and we ran away as the Seed’s amalgamation became a little unstable as one of its living legs shriveled up.

  Unfortunately, even though the Seed did look a tad inconvenienced by our blow, the remaining Woodknights quickly shifted around before it fell over. I clicked my tongue watching it awkwardly regain its balance, using only three big guys as its legs, which technically meant it had six lower limbs, in total.

  I noticed another glimmer around my body and an orange aura covered both of us for a second or two before dissipating again. The scratches and minor injuries I had gained since the last one didn’t disappear, but I could feel myself getting a bit more energetic and less fatigued.

  “They are really going out of their way to help us,” Aisha said, a tinge of wonder in her voice.

  “Yeah. We better not disappoint them. I don’t know that much about Pixies, but I bet upholding those barriers and aiding us at the same time is exhausting.”

  “No doubt. Expending this much of their spiritual energy could kill them.”

  “That’s why we need to end this fast. I don’t want any of them to sacrifice themselves less than a day after we saved them,” I said with a serious tone.

  “Agreed. Where’s your weapon?” Aisha inquired.

  I extended my right arm to the side and opened my palm. A pleasant hum reached our ears as something cut through the air and my handaxe landed in my hand with a soft thunk. A wide grin curved my lips and Aisha raised her brow at me.

  “You wouldn’t understand.” I chuckled and shook my head. “Now, I have an idea, but it’s a crazy one, and we’ll need to bait it into using its arms to slam them down again, or do something similar to keep them busy for a moment.”

  “Got it. Let’s run at it together, then.” Aisha nodded.

  “Wait for my signal afterward,” I instructed her and we leaped forward at the same time.

  The Seed had just recently gotten comfortable on its reduced number of appendages, turning its ominous eye right at us. We bounded toward it, shoulder to shoulder, carefully watching its movements to judge what it might do next.

  With a twist of its arm, it sent more spikes at us. That wasn’t what we really wanted from it, so we jumped apart to avoid the attack. With two targets, and only one limb attacking, it couldn’t follow both of us with a barrage of tendrils as far as earlier, and we got out of danger easily.

  We landed a few hits on the wooden tentacles before they retracted just to ensure it stayed annoyed with us. Then, I immediately ran forward while Aisha started sending Sunders into the Woodknights, knocking them back a little. They were forced to take a few steps backwards to keep their boss stable.

  The giant eye gazed at her for a brief moment, and I worried that it would again do something useless for my plan, but it then snapped its attention back to me with a renewed fury. I smiled to myself as it chose me as the target to vent its anger on and hoped for the best.

  It swung one of its arms to bring it back and I saw two Woodscythers detach from the appendage, flying right at Aisha. I did not look back, having complete faith in my companion to handle the two weaklings by herself. The Seed clearly wanted to keep her busy, so that she wouldn’t be able to save my ass from what it was going to do to me.

  But, it wasn’t going to be my ass that would need saving.

  I thanked my lucky stars after seeing it raise both bulky arms into the air yet again. Waiting just a short moment, to make sure that it would do what I needed it to, I bolted away towards Aisha the second its interlocked limbs reached the highest point and began descending, a bit faster than the last time.

  Sparing it only a glance, I noticed that it had gotten smarter and set its arms much wider than before.

  A smirk made its way onto my lips. I wasn’t going to run sideways this time to dodge it, like earlier. My legs carried me straight away from the giant Tree Gundam.

  “Now!” Aisha shouted at me from up ahead, having just finished cutting her second foe into two.

  The Seed’s arms slammed into the ground, and—thanks to her warning—I braced myself for the tremor. She sprinted my way immediately, and I continued my run uninterrupted.

  “Launch me!” I ordered with my Command and she knew exactly what to do.

  Aisha triggered her Berserk and firmly gripped her greataxe. Getting close enough, I jumped into the air, leaning a bit to the rear. She rotated her weapon in her palm to set its flat side towards me and I landed with my feet on the big blade just as she came to a stop, firmly setting her feet on the ground.

  I lowered myself to a crouch and grabbed the edge of the blade for some stability. Before I could feel the gravity pulling me down, though, Aisha released an earth-shattering roar and swung her weapon like a baseball bat with everything she had in store.

  Sent hurtling through the air, I twisted my body around to face the Seed, which was slowly picking up its arms from the ground. The eye locked onto me, but it was too late for it to react. I drove my hands into the pouches at my belt. Grabbing a handful of vials in each, I extended my arms to the sides.

  “Hoooooooooooooommeeeeeeee ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!”

  Getting close enough to ensure I couldn’t miss, I chucked seven colorful tinctures right into the hollow where the eye was hiding before I slammed into its bark with a pained grunt. The air was knocked from my lungs when my chest crashed into the bottom edge of the hole, but my arms grabbed onto it.

  Not even a full second passed before a violent explosion took place right in front of me and the shockwave sent me flying back the way I had come. I had thrown into the opening much wilder shit than just some saline solution and weak-ass acid.

  A heavy groan escaped my lips, and I squeezed my eyes closed to avoid getting any splinters or weird liquids in them. My body arced towards the ground as an insistent ringing filled my ears.

  I grunted again when something suddenly stopped me, but it wasn’t the ground. Opening my eyes, I stared up at Aisha, who held me in her strong arms. A frightening expression twisted her beautiful features, her face full of rage, as quiet growls reverberated in her throat. She was clearly fighting against her Berserk not to hurt me.

  My hand shot to her horn and her slitted eyes narrowed dangerously. I quickly pulled on it, bringing her lips to mine as gently as I could under the current circumstances. Her expression softened a bit and her eyes regained some clarity.

  I soon pulled away, since we didn’t exactly have time to play around.

  “Go all out. I will fill you up to the brim afterward.” I smiled at her.

  A wide, feral grin stretched across her face as she flashed me her sharp canines in the process, and the next moment, I was unceremoniously thrown into the air. Flailing my arms wildly, I somehow managed to land on all fours and whipped my head around to see the drakan Berserker charge after her prey.

  The big tree had fallen onto its back and the minions making up all the limbs unscrambled, perhaps having their connection to their boss disturbed by the huge amounts of pain the Seed was experiencing. A steady column of grayish smoke rose from the hollow which housed its eye.

  As I was watching Aisha attentively and trying to figure out what she would do, the edge of her axe began shimmering with scarlet energy. I assumed she was going to send Sunders into the hole after getting close enough, but I was mistaken.

  She reaffirmed her grip on her weapon and swung it to the left. That action threw her into a spinning motion just like her Whirlwind provided and her quickly rotating figure leaned forward at a sharp angle.

  I watched in confusion and awe as she crashed into the downed tree and began tearing through its spooky bark like a fucking Beyblade. A mesmerizing, crimson glow painted the edge of her spins and followed her in an afterimage. Bigger wooden chunks and smaller splinters exploded to the sides as she carved her way forward, uncovering the Seed’s acidic green inner body.

  She reached the top end and gradually came to a halt. Segments of the Seed’s true flesh had suffered some cuts and bruises, but it didn’t feel lethal yet. It certainly hurt, though, as Aisha’s blade was obviously coated with our special salt soup.

  Fully stopping, she shot me a glance and smirked, panting heavily. I quickly picked up on her intentions, and jogged over, summoning my trusty handaxe to my hand once more. We met right above the bootleg eye of Sauron, standing on its ugly woodflesh.

  Exchanging a nod of understanding, we sank our weapons into it at the same time. If the monster could screech in pain, it would certainly have done so as we continued to chop the fucker right in the pupil repeatedly. Its body twitched and spasmed under our feet.

  After about four minutes of hard labor, everything came to a standstill. We paused our chopping and looked around. The Woodmen, Woodcatchers, Woodknights, and Woodscythers caught behind the barrier had all fallen to the ground, none of them showing the faintest sign of life.

  The Seed was dead.

  Immediately, the adrenaline bled out of my system, and I stumbled back. Aisha was there to support me with her body, dropping her axe into the slurry of greenish blood and pulpy flesh under us. She chuckled softly as she pushed herself under my armpit, holding me up.

  “Take a rest, partner. You’ve earned it.”

  I smiled wryly and glanced over at her face. No signs of dangerous thoughts could be spotted on Aisha’s dazzling visage, so I assumed that her Berserk was no more. She gave me a gentle smile, too, and brushed some woodflesh off my cheek.

  “Thanks. You were the one who handled most of it, though. Couldn’t have done this without you. Or our temporary allies.” I directed my gaze to the ceiling, and she followed it.

  The Pixies broke their formation and began descending towards us as the barriers gradually faded out. Rose appeared before us and buzzed happily. She immediately pushed herself into my minor wounds, starting to heal them.

  I was just glad that she had stayed away from the big fight, knowing well where her strengths lay, instead of unnecessarily trying to be useful where she would have had a difficult time doing things.

  An unending stream of flashing orbs surrounded us and began lazily circling our position. We stared at the colorful spectacle which seemed to calm our chaotic minds and bodies in the process. I felt like I sat in the middle of a beautiful, enchanting carousel.

  Moving my eyes to Aisha again, I found a charming smile on her lips. She met my gaze and it got even more dazzling. I couldn’t stop myself from placing a hand on her cheek and we each leaned in, joining our lips in a slow, loving kiss.

  Then, our wrists buzzed like hell, spooking us both.

  We chuckled and stared at them in amusement. The vibrations wouldn’t stop for what seemed like ages. It seemed we’d have a lot of reading to do, when we finished enjoying the moment in this lovely atmosphere.

  Ignoring the violent tugging of our watches, we shared another tender kiss inside the rainbowy glow.

  Chapter 32

  Well-Earned Promotion

  A light chuckle escaped my lips as I pulled back from the kiss we shared.

  “Alright, guys, it’s time to stop. I’m getting dizzy.”

  My fierce partner joined me with a quiet laugh of her own, and we watched the Pixies gradually slow down. As beautiful as the flashing carousel was, I could only bear so much of it, and I was starting to approach my limits. I’d prefer not to suffer from a head-splitting migraine a day after our big victory.

  The rainbowy cloud came to a stop and tens, if not hundreds, of flashing orbs bobbed slowly in the air around us. Rose finished taking care of our minor cuts and bruises and floated back up between us. We each took a deep breath, and glanced down at the mutilated body of the Seed. Its inner woodflesh had lost much of its acidic glow, but still shone faintly in the dark cavern.

  “So, here’s that. Another assignment completed,” I said with a smile.

  “And in record time, at that,” Aisha added. “I’m not sure if this will count as a Perfect Clear, but I’m sure the rewards must really be something, with how long our watches were vibrating.”

  “Well, we’ve seen all the monsters collapse, so I assume they are done. The Seed was clearly in control of the husks with the Sprouts planted inside them. This place should be safe now, but I’d like to confirm it first.”

  “I guess we’ll need to take another tour.” Aisha sighed softly and stretched, cracking her neck.

  Rose buzzed between us, and then zoomed away to stop in front of the wall of Pixies. She made some loops, bobs, wiggles, and whatever else a glowing orb unaffected by gravity could do. After a moment, a swaying wave passed through the other small entities and they all surged out of the chamber through the main entrance in one mass.

  With the Pixies gone, Rose floated back over to us, and I could tell she was proud.

  “What did you do, girl?” I asked while deploying some pats to the cute orb.

  She received a few light taps and ran away, stopping next to the Seed’s body. Making a few circles around it, she rushed to the edge of the cavern and made a big one above the pile of Woodmen and other subtypes. Then, she did a few bobs towards the big exit, before joining us back in the middle.