Chapter 25. Wood Revenge VI
Episode 25.
Wood Revenge VI
Maybe because it was level 50, the experience I'd been steadily accumulating finally hit the ceiling.
So was I level 20 now?
'A new skill.'
I was dying to check it, but I didn't have the luxury.
I climbed the tree, feeling the vicious heat.
I couldn't sprint up the wall the way Seigrena did, but I could at least leap continuously from branch to branch.
Slice!
That made two.
I finished off the critically weakened Avenger more easily than expected.
Normally, each one is the kind of enemy I'd have to risk my life against, but with their whole bodies ablaze, they were easy to finish off.
'This is why securing the Pyromancer's corpse was the key.'
It made the disaster much easier.
Grragh, urk!
Two left.
Maybe these things could think after all, because at that point they stopped mindlessly climbing the tree and started glaring at me.
Wham!
In that opening, Seigrena's kick drove into the back of one's head.
The moment the thing staggered off balance and fell, I quickly swung my scythe and finished it.
'One last one.'
So much for the freebies.
The last Avenger looked perfectly intact—enough to make me think exactly that.
The others had been wreathed in bonfires, but on this one's body there were only a few small candle-flames and scorch marks.
'......A mere level 20 has to take on an Avenger.'
It was almost laughable, but if I failed, I died.
Live or die...... thinking of it that way, wasn't it about fifty-fifty?
Just as I was starting to think my head was going a little funny, the Avenger reached out.
Crack-crack-crack!
The Woodman's hand grew like a vine and reached right up to my face.
'<Wooden Claw>!'
Since I knew the skill, I dodged it without much trouble, then grabbed the Woodman's hand with my bare hand.
Tsssss!
......Fucking hot.
I barely swallowed the scream that nearly burst out and yanked the Avenger toward me.
But why was this bastard coming along so easily?
Crash!
It must have meant to throw its body at me from the start, with no intention of resisting.
Tangled with the Avenger, I rolled across the ground several times. Between the heat and the sensation of the world flipping upside down, a chill slipped in.
Without thinking further, I kicked the Avenger away.
Wham!
As the Avenger rolled across the ground, its hand had transformed into a hammer.
'Son of a bitch.'
That was probably meant to smash my skull. Anyway, had the inside of my mouth torn while I was rolling? I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth.
That was the moment the Avenger, which had sprung back up in the meantime, charged at me again.
Screeeech!
The weasel sleeping on my shoulder...... Weaselly sprang up.
The instant I saw the creature bolt out, I prayed it would cast one particular skill.
[Activating skill, <Telepathy>.]
[Magical Beast, 'Weaselly,' is carrying out your command.]
Weaselly flinched for a second, then unleashed a Blade Whirlwind straight ahead. Exactly as I'd wished.
Crack-crack-crack!
Of course, <Blade Whirlwind> didn't inflict a fatal wound on the Avenger. It didn't even seem to land properly.
Didn't matter. The attribute of this skill wasn't only slashing.
Fwoosh!
The embers clinging to the Avenger's body—
the flames on the verge of dying out swelled in an instant the moment they met the gale.
In the blink of an eye, the Avenger's whole body was engulfed in flame, and a shriek burst out.
I didn't miss the opening and drove my scythe down.
Thunk......!
Damn. Had the debuff not applied properly to this one? The scythe split about half its head, then jammed.
Thud! Thud!
Twice, three times....... I slammed my fist down on the already-embedded handle.
Like punching an axe stuck in firewood to split it.
Crrrreeeak......!
Even engulfed in flames, the Avenger flailed its arms.
The outstretched hand grazed my cheek.
[Status effect, <Burn>, has occurred.]
[Health will continuously decrease until proper treatment is received.]
I felt the searing sensation on my face, but if I backed off here, it was over.
Thud! Thud! Wham!
I dodged, then struck.
I blocked, then struck.
I kept striking even while getting hit.......
How many close calls had been omitted from that simple sequence? The dangers I'd noticed and the threats I hadn't flashed past like streaks of light.
'Dizzy.'
Pain and exhaustion dulled my mind. With my vision starting to blur, I swung my fist again for I don't know how many times.
Thud.......
This time the feeling was a little different.
Craaack—!
With a sound like something splitting apart, the Woodman Avenger's body was cleaved in half.
And then—
[All Woodmen have been dealt with.]
Only after confirming that message did I let out the breath I'd been holding.
'Goddamn.......'
My whole body stung and ached.
It was pain like salt rubbed into a wound, the kind of pain I couldn't imagine ever getting used to.
"K-Kaindel......."
A stunned voice came from below the hole.
From her voice, I could tell I must have looked pretty bad.
"Y-you did it?!"
Meanwhile, Seigrena's face up above had brightened instantly, but here was the problem.
"No way."
I denied it in a cracked voice.
Because the real ordeal started now.
Splat—!
"Eek......!"
Seigrena jumped at the somehow unsettling sound. I stared at the source of the noise.
"......."
The fallen fruit was crushed to pieces, scattering what it had held inside in a flower-like pattern.
It wasn't exactly beautiful.
The flesh was so red it looked like scattered entrails.
'There were two fruits hanging.'
The fruit represented the number of sacrifices to be offered, but at the same time it also signified the Black Tree's reserves.
We'd just killed the Guardian and the whole Avenger pack, so one fruit had fallen.
In that case, what would show up next?
'Best case, second-worst case, worst case.......'
The Avenger appearing was the second-worst case—
and now only two patterns remained: best and worst.......
[The <Black Tree> rages violently.]
[Entering the next phase of <Wood Revenge>.]
Rrrrrrumble......!
The ground shook violently, and cracks formed in the floor.
I saw something emerge from beneath the cracks.
[Hidden boss, 'One Left Among the Roots, Godrak,' has appeared.]
Yeah. I knew it.
I let out a hollow laugh at the worst-case scenario.
* * *
A hidden boss is, literally, a boss mob that only appears when specific conditions are met. If you play within normal bounds, it's the kind of enemy you'll almost never encounter.......
They're stronger than ordinary bosses, and their rewards are correspondingly better.
'Naturally, research on them was active too.'
The appearance conditions for hidden bosses were a hot topic among community users.
I knew hidden bosses well myself, and the hidden boss of <Wood Revenge>, <One Left Among the Roots>, was no exception.
'Abbreviated, <The One Left Behind>.'
The creature called that had about two differences from my memory.
First, the name 'Godrak' had been added to its title.
Second, perhaps because of that influence, it was much smaller than the <One Left Behind> in my memory.
Unlike the <One Left Behind>, which had been close to a giant, this one was nearly human-sized.
'It was never a named mob.'
My first thought was what the hell kind of bullshit was this, but it wasn't probabilistically impossible either.
If I'd seen this kind of pattern in the game, I'd probably have been thrilled. The reward tier would jump by at least a level or two.
'......Even if it's named, the basic attack pattern should be the same.'
Right?
It had to be.
-.......
Godrak was clad head to toe in wooden armor.
Honestly, of all the Woodmen, it looked the least alien. At a glance, it resembled a person wearing wooden armor.
'Judging by appearance alone, it's a swordsman.'
The moment I saw the sword at its waist, Godrak drew it.
Swish.
My bangs fluttered, and a blade of wind passed over the top of my head. At the same time, something fell limply from the tree with a tearing scream.
"......."
Chills ran down my spine.
The thing that fell was probably Seigrena.
Was she dead? I didn't even have time to check. Because I had to meet Godrak, which had closed the distance in an instant.
Clang......!
The sound of the scythe's shaft clashing with the wooden sword rang out clearly.
'Damn it.'
I forced the curse back down. A single exchange made the gap in our levels painfully clear.
At the same time, I felt relieved. If this place hadn't become a fire pit, I'd have ended up like Seigrena.
'In other words, this is how the thing moves with its stats cut at least in half?'
I backpedaled, barely managing to defend and evade. I'd thought I'd adapted to this body through all these incidents, and gotten pretty used to combat.......
Apparently not. Facing this monster made all that experience feel as if it had been erased.
Wham.
I hadn't even let my guard down, but my stomach caved in. The pain flipped my insides; I felt like I'd vomit up my stomach.
Before I could even exhale, the next attack followed.
'Fuck.'
A clean spinning kick. I hastily raised my right arm to block, but I couldn't withstand the impact and rolled dozens of times across the ember-strewn ground.
Crash!
I could feel the heat of the lingering embers.
Had my back caught fire?
But more than the heat, a cold alarm rang through my mind again.
Creeeak!
I defended with my scythe before I'd even finished standing. With the scythe screeching, I saw Godrak, already on me, bringing its sword down.
"Kaindel......!"
I heard Kria's shout.
'I told you to stay hidden.'
I wanted to say that, but I didn't even have time to open my mouth.
'Shit.'
This wasn't going to work.
It wasn't a question of winning or losing. This wasn't even a fight.
Creak, creeeak......!
I could see the scythe bending almost to the breaking point. If I lost my weapon in this situation, it would truly be over.
What do I do?
Even if I wanted to move, the moment I relaxed even a little, that wooden sword would shatter the scythe's shaft and cleave my body.
Screeeech!
At that moment, Weaselly broke in again.
Whooooosh—!
Had it learned in the meantime? Weaselly unleashed a Blade Whirlwind at Godrak.
The flames remaining nearby mixed into the whirlwind, and a fierce blast of flame-wind slammed into Godrak's torso.
-.......
That was all. A few scorch marks appeared on the surface of the wooden armor, but it didn't seem to have taken meaningful damage.
Godrak's head turned toward Weaselly.
'Shit......!'
My scythe couldn't reach.
In desperation, I pulled out the Tentacle Whip and lashed Weaselly.
Screeeeeech—!
The moment the tentacle struck Weaselly's back, a scream-like shriek burst out.
Thanks to that, Weaselly avoided Godrak's sword strike, but..........
'The damage isn't going through, right?'
For that to be true, Weaselly's scream was way too agonized.
But something even more surprising happened the next moment. Weaselly, which had been sprawled on the ground, sprang up.
ROOOOAR—!
Then it let out a mighty roar.
Why was it suddenly doing that?
[Magical Beast, 'Blade Weasel,' has entered <Frenzy>.]
[All stats temporarily increase.]
Wrapped in a red aura, Weaselly slammed its body into Godrak with explosive speed.
-......!
Then the creature, which had been utterly unfazed no matter how it was attacked, flinched for the first time.
'A buff state? From getting hit by the whip?'
How the hell did that work?
Well, was it like a trainer cracking a whip to rouse an animal's spirit?
'Come to think of it, the Woodmen that got hit by this thing did enter an excited state.'
But that wasn't the only unexpected development.
"You......!"
A voice, seething like boiling lava, rang out.
I looked back and saw Seigrena wreathed in golden radiance. She was wearing gauntlets I had no idea where she'd gotten—
and even more unexpected was the emblem engraved on the back of her hand.
'That's the same as Laurent's.'
It was the Order of something or other.......
Was this girl not just some religious nut, but actually from the <Monastery>?
"You're dead......!"
The moment she kicked off the earth, the ground overturned.
That was startling physical ability. Seigrena closed the distance to Godrak in an instant, and her fist smashed into the enemy.
Wham!
The moment Godrak's head whipped around, I realized Seigrena's true class.
'She was a <Monk>.'
And the golden aura enveloping her whole body was probably holy power.
<Paladin> or <Monk>....... Anyway, it's a special energy available to clergy classes sworn to religious orders.
'Level requirement is 30.'
It was absurd. Seigrena, whom I'd treated as dead weight, was actually the highest-level one among us.
Crack-crack-crack!
The weasel and Seigrena pressed Godrak.
The momentum wasn't bad.
At least compared to when I'd faced it alone, this was much more of an actual fight.
'At a glance, that is.......'
I looked at the battlefield as objectively as I could.
The enormous consumption of <Divine Release>.
Weaselly's temporary buff state, which would surely come with aftereffects.
The surrounding embers slowly dying out.
If the holy power ran out, Weaselly's aftereffects hit, or the embers died—if any one of those happened first, we'd lose.
'In that case.'
What should I do right now? What could I do?
As I looked around, my gaze soon landed on the Black Tree.
More precisely, the lizard at its top.
"......Tch."
No other option came to mind.
Even as I thought it was ridiculous, I immediately started climbing the tree. After all, my class right now was <Summoner>.
"Hah......."
Before long, I reached the top of the tree. Seen up close, the lizard's condition still hadn't changed much.
"You little bastard."
When the hell were you going to wake up?
Of course, it hadn't even been ten minutes yet.
The important thing was that holding out a few more minutes didn't seem likely to revive this thing.
So what choice did I have?
[Attempting to tame Lv.▓▓ 'Ember Lizard'.]
I had no choice but to tame this bastard.