Li sat cross legged upon the grassy floor of the Winterwoods, the cold blades of green leeching their chill to his being. It was an unpleasant chill, even to him, and it was not because of their physical temperature, but rather the nature of it. It felt off, unnatural, as if it was not meant to truly be.

"Don't stop moving or else they'll overwhelm you in an instant," called out Li.

Around him lay a clearing.

One made within a short period of time, it seemed, based on the environmental evidence. Shattered remnants of rotted tree trunks lay scattered about. Patches of withered grass, some so thin that only barren ground remained, dotted the clearing with striking frequency. No flowers, herbs, or mushrooms grew – only the most basic, barest, and hardiest grass managed to even somewhat survive.

"Got it!" shouted Azhar as he leaped upwards, swerving midair to let a thorned vine sail past his body, slamming into the ground behind him and gouging out clods of dirt.

"That wasn't meant for you. You've been through five years of monster hunting school. It was meant for her," said Li as he kept his eyes on the wyrm that fought side by side with Azhar. A few long lacerations made their marks at her sides, welling up faintly with dark red blood.

Li had expected this fight would be a bit of a struggle for her. He had taken her and Azhar to fight the trio of Rootbeasts that he had scouted out the night before. The Rootbeasts were a fair bit more formidable than giant spiders, which was partly a reason why Li had decided to end Azhar's training to acquire [Scattershot] early the night before.

Li watched as the Rootbeasts wriggled in the air, their many spiked leaves stiff as they sensed for vibrations to track movements.

They were shaped like massive vines that burst from the ground, thicker than a man at their base and twice as tall. The spiked leaves formed a kind of armor, the poisoned purple spines forming an effective deterrent for melee attacks.

As a result, Azhar was dancing around the battlefield, picking up rocks, chunks of tree branches, and whatever he could get his hands on, to toss with [Snipe] to deal damage.

The wyrm, however, struggled a little more as she simply could not get close to the Rootbeasts not only due to their spines, but also due to their prehensile roots which burst forth from the ground, acting like powerful whips that could strike from any angle at staggering speeds.

The wyrm heard Li's words and kept moving, her pupils narrowing into fine slits as she focused on gauging her distance. The rootbeasts were stationary creatures, flowering in areas to absorb nutrients in the soil before taking a lengthy process to retract into the ground and burrow out into another nutrient rich area.

As a result, their main offense came from their complex network of whipping roots which spanned the entirety of this clearing. They burst from the ground, slapping away at the wyrm and Azhar with relentless ferocity.

The wyrm caught a few blows here and there, but her bark-scales had hardened enough to make any wounds she sustained shallow. She would have to get right in front of the rootbeasts where their control of their roots were strongest to suffer a significant injury.

Azhar, on the other hand, did fine for himself, using his exceptional agility to dart about at a range where the rootbeasts were unable to control their roots with maximum speed and strength.

As he tossed yet another rock with concussive force, he said, "These roots should be lyin' right under ya, but they ain't even touchin' you."

"Call it diplomatic immunity," said Li with a shrug. The reason for this was simple: the rootbeasts were basically mindless, functioning through a very basic sense of combat instinct that put self-survival above all else, and they had innately determined that striking Li would minimize their survival chances to zero.

"Should teach me that skill, cause' it's lookin' mighty useful," said Azhar as he ducked backwards, another root whipping past him.

"Maybe I should add a clause to my doctrine that only the patient are rewarded," said Li. He bantered with Azhar because he did not worry for the ranger. The ranger was a silver-ranked adventurer after all, and even if he fell short of his sisters in raw talent, he still ranked within the top end of all of humanity in terms of power.

Of course, humanity as a whole as almost pitifully weak, but Azhar was strong and experienced enough in fighting monsters that at the least, his life was not in danger. Especially because he did not have to cover for the wyrm as she simply could not even get into range.

Li had not intended for her to be truly useful in this fight. He just wanted to put her in a new situation where her usual abilities – her raw physical stats and venom – would be useless.

This way, he hoped, she would get a better sense of her limitations because he worried that her current eagerness for fighting might land her in an unfavorable situation in the future.

"Gotcha!" exclaimed Azhar, his good arm extended forwards.

Li watched as one of the rootbeasts fell, spurting gooey red sap from a hole at its base created from a particularly sharp rock.

Azhar had thrown multiple projectiles beforehand in that very same area with deadly precision, shearing spines, protective leaves, and the hardened epidermis, leaving only a soft spot barely covered with a tattered and thinned defensive layer to protect the precious life sap within.

"Just two more of these runts to put down," said Azhar as he stepped nearer with more confidence noting that with one rootbeast dead, he had effectively neutered one third of the offensive root network underneath him.

Still, two rootbeasts were enough that Azhar still stood almost ten meters away, constantly dodging roots that burst from his sides to strike him and beneath him to grasp his feet.

Li did not see any noticeable difference in Azhar's combat ability. Nothing that could be attributed to any divine power from Li, at the least.

"Don't push yourself," said Li as he noticed the wyrm standing further back from Azhar, perhaps a little nervous to get back into striking range of the roots. "There are things you can and cannot do. Enemies you can and cannot face. The human there can fight at range, and you cannot, that's all there is to it."

The wyrm pawed the grass with her front leg in frustration, her claws extended out but utterly useless in this fight. Unless she could get close to swipe at the rootbeasts, she could do nothing, and that was provided she could maneuver her way through the horde of swinging roots and punch through the spines.

She stared at Azhar with a low growl of jealousy, watching as the ranger shot forwards a jagged edge of bark he picked up from the ground. The bark, rotted and softened, did not make for a good projectile, but the sheer force with which it was launched made its impact strong enough to blow apart at least some of the rootbeast's spines, shearing away its defenses bit by bit.

"You don't have to feel bad about what you can't do," said Li. "Just watch and learn."

The wyrm stood still, seemingly heeding Li's words, but after Azhar threw another piece of bark, her eyes widened as her mouth opened, a nod of understanding moving her head.

Li watched in wonder as the wyrm's chest began to expand. She started to cough. Her jaws opened unnaturally wide, the flesh splitting at the sides of her mouth to make for more space. Patches of black light were visible through the skin of her throat. Her coughing had now become almost like vomiting, her chest convulsing with her mouth open.

"Azhar, I would advise stepping back," said Li.

Azhar jumped back, escaping a few roots that tried to grab his legs.

Finally, a burst of obsidian black light exploded from the wyrm's mouth before a fireball shot out. The whole motion reminded Li almost comically of a cat coughing up a hairball, but there was nothing funny about the strength of the attack.

The dark fireball, though perhaps only about the size of a basketball, struck one of the rootbeasts head on, exploding into a pillar of sweltering fire that roared high and mighty, towering over even the trees outside the clearing. The flames were darker than the night, flickering just as visible as a regular fire would have.

The unlucky rootbeast shriveled up, desiccating before burning into a blackened crisp.

"I take back what I said about limits. I guess you just have to surpass them," said Li to the wyrm, but she did not hear him. She fell to her side, her breathing shallow. Li immediately moved beside her, placing a hand on her back, but realized she was fine, just completely spent out of energy.

"Suns and spirits and gods above," remarked Azhar as he looked back, sidestepping a few roots that now were slow enough for him to dodge with ease. "Ain't her mother a Lerneas? That ain't poison. How'd she learn to breathe fire? And the hells kinda fire is that?"

Li saw the fire almost immediately extinguish once it had eaten up all the life it could in its vicinity. It did not so much burn as it wilted, withering organic matter out of existence. This was not regular fire. This was demonfire, utilized by high level fire demons to bypass fire resistances to deal true damage straight to life force, but it was not limited to demonkind.

Eldritch monsters also utilized it.

"I guess she really does take after me," commented Li with a nod as he hoisted the tired wyrm into his arms. She had evolved once more, and once again, she had taken up Li's characteristics. This time, his eldritch powers.

But demonfire was meant for high level monsters at least level 50. Considering she was barely above 20, the strain it must have placed on her body to conjure this up would have been massive.

The ground rumbled, and Li paid attention back to Azhar and the single remaining rootbeast.

The rootbeast was getting larger, pulsating with vibrant green energies that shimmered from its body down to the ground, echoing outwards in a faint shockwave that highlighted the countless roots underneath. Several roots were raised around it, wiggling around like tentacles.

It was taking control of the remaining two rootbeasts' root networks, empowering itself with a massive burst of nutrients while also tripling its offensive powers.

"It's time to head back," said Li to Azhar. The ranger had unsheathed his dagger, but that was a futile move. "A Clustered Rootbeast isn't something you can handle right now. Any hit you put out on it, it'll just regenerate with all that extra life its sapping up now."

"To handle all that extra juice it's munchin' on, it's gotta form a core to stabilize it," said Azhar. "Just gotta' take that out." 

"Easier said than done. You have to find it first, and it'll be hiding it. This thing won't be moving much now that its slowed down by so many roots. You'll have a chance to fight it later, and the wyrm needs healing."

"Trust me on this one, Li, I got this. It ain't gonna' take any time." Azhar grinned as his eyes scanned the towering rootbeast up and down. The rootbeast did not attack as it was still convulsing, its form growing as it morphed from the massive influx of three root networks worth of nutrients.

"I see what you're tryin' to do, brainless bastard." Azhar flipped his dagger, grabbing it between his fingers by the blade. He cocked it backwards, his eyes narrowing. With a powerful breath, he threw the dagger.

Not at the rootbeast's main body, but at one of the many upraised roots wriggling beside it. The dagger pierced through the root, taking out an apple sized black seed.

The core.

In an instant, the rootbeast halted its movements like a puppet whose strings had been cut. It collapsed to the ground, surrounded by withering and fallen roots.

"Ya might not believe me, but I could see it, all of it," said Azhar excitedly. "I could see where it was hidin' its core, where it was keeping all that life just packed up in that little ol' nugget."

It would appear that the wyrm was not the only one to take up after Li.