Arnold got the temporary charge of the team after some protest from Sonya and her team. But with Arnold's summons surrounding them, they did not have much choice but to accept his conditions. They still had no idea how were they going to uproot the tree. So, Arnold's first phase of testing commenced. 

He told them all to attack the tree one after another to see if something happens. He was hoping Nicole's ability would work, but sadly that wasn't the case. She could only make a dent where Arnold had shot the tree.

Johnny used a trick Arnold had never seen him use before. He summoned the lightning from above the dark clouds and controlled it expertly, forcing it to slam against the tree where Nicole and Arnold had attacked the tree. The entire area suddenly turned too bright to see anything. Everyone was forced to avert their gazes and for a second it seemed to have worked... but it didn't. The tree was already blackened but it turned darker where the lightning bolt had hit it.

Sonya used a bow and arrow to show her expert control over the arrow. The Arrow broke the sound barrier the moment it left the bowstring and hit the tree right where Johnny's attack had landed. A small crack appeared on the dense wooden exterior of the tree.

The paladins wasted no time and went to strike the stubbed arrow and they managed to further deepen the crack on the external surface a bit. Other than that, nothing else happened to the tree. 

"Haha! Take that sucker!" One of the twins bellowed, "The tree is so defenceless if we concentrate our efforts!"

Arnold then commanded his summons to attack the tree as well. But to their surprise, as soon as the summons started attacking the tree, rather than inflicting more damage, the tree absorbed their attacks to heal the little of what minuscule damage the vassals and the paladins had done to it.

"Baldy is correct. If we simultaneously attack the tree, he might be able to take it down. But only we can attack the tree. If someone else does, it would backfire on us. It would take a lot of time but we have no other option." Arnold mumbled while flexing his shoulders, preparing to attack once again, "Alright then, let's give it our all in the next attack... Wait- something is not right... the tree is moving!" 

Arnold blinked again to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and he wasn't. The others could also witness the world tree as it bent the branches as if trying it was trying to hug the ground. The following moment, the gigantic black leaves from the branches started falling down. The contestants thought it was a response from the tree because they had managed to 'hurt' it.

Arnold, however, looked at it differently. The tree could have been hurt by their attack for sure, but the falling leaves were not an indicator of the pain. As the leaves started falling down, Arnold could sense a sinister aura oozing out of them. Just the aura itself was more than what most A ranked warriors possessed. 

"Everyone fall back!" Arnold roared as soon as he realised what was happening, "Get away from the leaves and prepare for battle."

None of them questioned him and did as he told them to. The next moment they realised why Arnold instructed them to fall back. The moment the leaves touched the ground... they transformed into people and animals the tree had consumed before. All of them have been mutated into sinister-looking creatures, ones they had never seen before. But not only that there were a lot of wood golems as well. These were the things Arnold had sensed through his nature affinity. 

"You just had to jinx it. The tree was enough of a trouble and now we got these jokers to deal with on top of it all." Sonya slapped the bald twin on his head, "Keep your mouth shut from now on!"

"Y-Yes... ma'am." The baldy replied back while rubbing his head.

[The world tree has entered the second phase of its evolution. Wooden Golems and Consumed souls have risen to defend their master from its assailants.]

A system announcement was made for everyone there. Arnold couldn't help but smile when he read the notification. Unlike the roots of the tree which were directly connected to it, these Golems or the undead humans covered in wooden armours were not in physical contact with the tree. Hence he could try and control them using his nature affinity or at the very least try to manipulate them for long enough for them to deal with the situation.

"I don't think just my affinity would be enough to control all of them, that too in the presence of the tree." Arnold Scratched his chin, "It's been a long time since I have used 'that' title's effect."

"What do we do now?" Sonya's teammates panicked as the golems charged towards them. 

They were severely outnumbered, to say the least. The leaves kept falling and the strength of their enemies kept growing. If they did not start doing something about them now, it would get too late for them to get rid of the tree.

"What are you people waiting for? Let's go!" Johnny roared and charged his fist once again.

The others followed his lead and attacked the enemies. A battle between the tree and the ones chosen by the deities began. Arnold's summons didn't stay behind either. After Arnold, they were the deathliest presence on the battlefield. The situation was so dire, the elite summons that remained behind had to go all out as well. 

They could not harm the tree but these golems and undead were not so fortunate. Tiamut even reverted back to her dragon form to destroy as many enemies as she could. Talos, Duke and Cerberus transformed to wreak havoc on the wooden army. Asterios and Dread jumped to action as well. These were the only elite summons who managed to survive the aftermath of Arnold's god slaying bullet. 

Except Nina and Johnny, who had fought alongside Arnold's summon on various occasions, the others were in complete awe. Their coordination was better than any team they had known. It was as if their brains have been integrated into one.

They did not even need to communicate among themselves, because they already know where each one of them was and whether they required help or not. They might have been vassals and paladins, but the truth was, they were being carried by Arnold's summons. But what was their master doing?

___

Title bonus activated : [Crouching Figure]

Please select a summon whose attribute you would like obtain temporarily :

• [Duke] or [Miro]: Accuracy (ACC) +500 (Max)

• [Talos]: Intelligence (INT) +500 (Max)

• [Cerberus]: Agility (AGI) +500 (Max)

• [Bad-Breath]: Stamina (STA) +500 (Max)

• [Asterios] or [Dread] or [Grock]: Strength (STR) +500 (Max)

• [Natasha] or [Yan]: Mystic (MYS) +500 (Max)

• [Alice]: Mana +2000 (Max)

• [Tiamut] or [Ogur]: HP+2000 (Max)

• [Shyok]: Nature Affinity control +20 Levels (Max)

___

'Shyok.'

Arnold selected the attribute he needed. The next moment he felt a surge of electricity flowing through his vein as his eyes started glowing. He felt like he could control anything around him. From the freshness of the air to the wetness of the ground, nothing was untouched from his control.