"Daniel, you don't happen to something stronger?" Alice half-complained in the man's direction. Alice was pretty much clear on the answer after all.

"Nope, no luck!" The reply came as expected.

"Then deal with the small fries for now! Carl, what about you? Can your punch reach through?"

"In theory, yes, in practice, maybe. It depends on how resistant those roots are," the man called back from behind the enemy.

Okay, calm down! One is clearly some kind of shamanistic mage, which makes them absolutely unpredictable and dangerous. Also, they have some kind of magic shield.

The other is a Goliath and probably even stronger than the one with only the red aura. Who knows what it might be capable of besides using tentacle roots instead of stone spikes and having been given regenerating armor.

Hmmm... Unpredictable, highly dangerous, and seemingly invulnerable... I'm starting to notice a pattern here...

Originally, Alice had planned to deal with the Goliath first since it seemed more directly dangerous but also more familiar. Basically, she had wanted to eliminate the wild cards first before dealing with the actual problem. Obviously, that hadn't quite worked out.

Suddenly, one of the roots yanked at her foot, sneakily having wound itself around her ankle. Allowing it to drag her around for the sake of keeping balance, Alice did her best to kick at it with her other foot, happy to find out that she could indeed release Necrotic burst from basically any body part as long as there was a sufficient impact.

She was less happy to feel her foot now covered in something slimy, her boot having rotted away. She also wasn't happy to find out that that wasn't even enough, requiring a second kick to fully destroy the root and free her.

"Carl, you take the Goliath. If nothing else, try to keep it annoyed and busy!" Alice called out to the man.

It had taken her two Necrotic bursts to get through the root, and that was one that didn't regenerate and probably wasn't made extra tough to serve as armor.

Rather, Alice was willing to bet on Necrotic energies not only affecting material things but also other Mana.

Lightning crackled overhead and around, Daniel dealing with the other monsters. Alice would have to hurry. His Mana wouldn't hold out for much longer otherwise.

Running towards the Troll, Alice felt like a child playing hopscotch as she had to jump left and right in her attempts to evade the roots covering the ground, almost missing the five green orbs of light floating out of the shaman in her focus.

Alice tripped, one of the roots having hooked around her leg, luckily also making her dodge the first attack. Freeing her foot, she quickly got back up again, now also paying attention to the light balls.

On the one hand, the attacks weren't moving terribly fast. On the other hand, with the roots slowing her down and the fact that the spell seemed to have some kind of tracking ability, it became incredibly annoying to deal with.

The fourth ball finally hit her left arm, instantly growing into a root winding around her arm, restricting her movements and slowing her down even further.

"Huaghuaghuaghuaghuag!" the Troll let out a chortling laugh seeing her struggle so much.

Fuck it! Alice thought, going into a slight crouch. She could either take it slow and steady and play by that bastard's rules or take a bit of a risk and break through his obstructions. Her current state of undeath was a clear sign as to what kind of girl she was.

Putting all her strength into her legs, Alice left the ground and the final light ball behind. Desperately, she did her best to keep her body steady in the air as she hurtled towards her enemy. At the highest point of her jump, Alice noticed green specks of light floating off from the branches of the shaman's staff, quickly gathering into a swirling ball that, to Alice, gave of a much more dangerous feeling.

Quickly, she reminded herself of the pile of corpses on the football field, remembering the emotions, the anger, and pain she had felt when she saw that scene.

"ARRRRGH!" Alice screamed, provoking the enemy and throwing as much killing intent as she could at them the moment they tried to attack.

Annoyed, the Troll overreacted, only to suddenly freeze up in the middle. The spell was as fast as an arrow, passing the falling Alice by, by just a few centimeters. Still, she flinched, causing her to lose control over her body, the mostly under-control flight suddenly turning into a wild tumble.

It wasn't quite how she had planned things to go, but nonetheless, she pulled herself into a ball, activating Necrotic burst all over her body as she slammed into the glowing green barrier, the area where she hit it suddenly turning into a muddy brown and ripping apart like wet paper.

Had Alice seen the surprised look on the Troll's face when she cannonballed right into her opponent, it would have been her turn to laugh. However, she didn't, instead scrambling to get up before realizing that she was sitting on her opponent's chest. Not letting the chance go to waste, she quickly straddled her enemy, using her new leverage to punch it repeatedly into the face, activating Necrotic burst every single time.

Only when she literally felt its face cave in on her fifth punch did she finally stop, look up, and assess the situation around her.

Most immediate were the roots on the ground. Probably due to its shield, none had appeared around the Troll shaman, but everywhere else, they were still active since their source was the Goliath. That, in turn, told Alice that whatever the Troll had done to the monster was likely to be permanent, and just because the cause had been dealt with, the effect wouldn't disappear.

Looking back, she watched where Daniel was fighting outside the area with the roots. Shooting out a lightning bolt every few seconds, he quickly killed anything that got too close for comfort or was flying. Luckily, none of the earthbound creatures seemed to be willing to get within reach of the roots, and already Alice could see some of the attackers acting confused, the first few already running away or attacking their previous comrades, lightening the boy's burden considerably.

Finally, Alice turned to the current biggest issue. Alice had to admit that carl was doing an excellent job of keeping the Goliath occupied despite the obvious risk that came with putting himself into harm's way completely one-sided. Running and jumping around, Carl stayed just outside the range of the Goliath's fists, dodging roots and getting closer to it when it seemed to lose interest in him.

"Status?!" Alice called out to her companions.

"I'm still good for a while!" Daniels answer came first.

"I could..." Carl stepped back, evading a gigantic, root-covered fist, "use some help here!"

Her assessment had been may have been correct, but she was still no professional. She had to ask just in case there was a factor at play she wasn't seeing. Immediately, Alice moved in to help Carl.

Carefully, Alice made her way through the roots, quickly realizing that, now that she was more or less behind the Goliath where it couldn't see her, the roots were much less of a problem.

Within the surprisingly short amount of time it had taken Alice to deal with the shaman, Carl hadn't been able to lead the Goliath too far away, allowing Alice to reach them within a few seconds.

Wishing she had still one of her axes, Alice took a swing at the back of the monster's knee, hoping that the roots would be less thick on the inside of a joint.

Wood turned brittle and rotten, her right fist tearing through it before getting stuck. With a jerk, she pulled her hand out, instead punching with her left. The movement came out much more awkward than she had planned, having forgotten the root still wound around her arm, hampering her movements. Her fist landed with barely any force but still caused her to lose her balance.

Stumbling, Alice was unable to react when the Goliath kicked out with the leg she had just hit. With the force of a car, the giant's foot hit her in the chest. The crunching of breaking bones accompanied her as Alice was flung back several meters, her rolling on the ground quickly arrested by the roots that were trying to keep her down.

Ripping her arms and legs free, Alice tried to stand back up. Despite the sound, her injuries from this wouldn't be anything more than a bruise, the sound of breaking bones having come from her armor, the cracks on which were already mending themselves while also pulling a few more bones from nearby corpses.

"Okay, that didn't quite work as planned..." Alice mumbled under her breath, "And why, of all things, do we not have anyone with fire magic. That would be really useful just about now."

Before Alice could complain any further, the Goliath bent its knees and jumped.

There was something to be said about becoming unable to dodge while one was jumping. However, that fact mattered little when no one present could injure you in the first place. And if you had the size and weight to squish everything you land on to death, then it became a more than viable attack.

Seeing such an attack coming at her, Alice couldn't do anything but scramble away. Even with her Bone armor or her long since destroyed shield, there was no blocking that.

With a rumble rivaling Daniel's lightning strikes in volume, the Goliath landed right where Alice had been, but moments prior, both of its fists slamming into the ground with enough force two leave two large craters behind.

As a result, two roots shot out of the ground, one winding around her leg too quickly for Alice to pull away. The other caught her left arm, continuing to grow at incredible speeds, snapping her arm as it got thicker, the shackle tightening.

Continuously, the root grew, searching for gaps in her armor it could latch onto. Some offshoots had already grown threw where her arm had been broken, creating gaps in the armor. Just moments before the main root could find its way to her face and grow through the visor did Alice's struggling finally pay off, allowing her to get a good hit in, necrotic energies rotting through the plant and killing it off.

Quickly, Alice looked back up at her opponent, panicking when she saw the Goliath getting ready to swat her away like some annoying fly. There wasn't enough time. Neither could she get her leg free before it would hit her, nor did she have the capability to cut off her leg, no matter how willing she was.

Even if her Undead constitution allowed her to 'survive' that, Alice had her doubts that she would be able to come safely back to life afterward.

Fuck, was the only coherent thought Alice could produce, panic and the fear of death bringing her mind to a complete standstill.

Lightning cracked, splinters of wood exploding in all directions from where the Goliath had been hit. It stumbled back, falling when Carl suddenly landed feet first in its face.

Refocusing, Alice bent down, using another application of Necrotic burst to free her leg.

Alice looked up. She hadn't heard the crashing that normally resulted from a Goliath falling to the ground. She got her answer before she could ask the question.

The Goliath stood at a forty-five-degree angle, the roots on its back having given up their job as armor, instead now pushing against the ground, bringing the giant quickly back into an upright position. It was a surreal sight, reminding her of old vampire movies.

"You alright?" Carl asked as he came up next to her.

"More or less. Though, I won't be using my left arm any time soon."

"Do you have any ideas how to deal with this shit?"

"Nope. None besides waiting for it to run out of Mana. If it's in any way similar to my Bone armor, it should use one Mana per minute and more when it has to regenerate damage, at minimum. Though, depending on the Skill's level and the Goliaths Magic power... No idea. I can't even make an educated guess. We just don't know enough by any means. Not to mention, we have no idea how much Mana it actually has."

"What the hell is that thing? Some kind of wood golem?" Ava's voice suddenly rang through their heads.

Glancing around, Alice quickly noticed the rest of the team returning from where they had gone to heal Ava.

"The Troll magician put some kind of spell on the last Goliath, and now it's turned into this. Its defense is only slightly worse than the one with the red aura, but it's too thick for our Skills to get through, and it regenerates, so no chipping away at it," Alice quickly explained.

"Let me take a look..." Ava said cryptically, the Goliath already back on its feet and ready to charge at them.

Alice ran to the left while Carl took off to the right, the two splitting up to make it harder on the oversized monkey.

"There is something on its right flank, should be a weakspot," Ava said, before explaining further, "Got a level up and was hoping for a convenient self-healing Skill. Instead, got one to find weaknesses in magical constructs."

Of course, Alice thought, the charm that created this spell in the first place! She might have hit herself on the head if the situation had permitted. Clearly, it didn't, considering Alice was the one to receive the full attention of the monster.

"Carl, can you get its attention away from me for a moment? If my Necrotic burst works on this spell as well as it did against the Trolls barrier, I should be able to deal with it easily. But I need to get a hit in."

"Sure," he replied but got interrupted before he could make good on it.

"Let me try!" Debby declared.

"What have you got?" Alice asked, evading both, fist in front and roots on the ground.

"Something like an illusion. Works better the less intelligent the target is, and that Goliath dumber than any other I have seen till now."

"Perfect! Can you make it look as if I stay still where I am?"

"Should be possible."

"Then, on my command!"

A few more times, Alice dodged the Goliath's powerful but ultimately slow attacks until finally, she got what she had been waiting for. As the Goliaths left arm came more or less straight at her, Alice gave the command.

This time, however, instead of dodging back or t the sides, she went forward and a bit to the left, coming to a stop underneath the Goliaths right arm.

Behind her, she could hear the fist impact the ground, almost jumping away in reflex to dodge the stone spike. Instead, the Goliath stopped moving for a moment, probably confused that its target had disappeared. Taking full advantage of the moment, Alice took a look at the monster's flank, immediately noticing a point where a large number of roots were originating, spiraling outwards.

Now that she looked at it, it was so obvious that it might as well have been glowing red with a sign that said: "here is the weakspot!" Without hesitation, Alice punched it as hard as she could, activating Necrotic burst. Just like with the Troll before, she didn't stop at a single attack, jack-hammering the same spot until she could feel Flesh grafting getting a hold, and then giving it another punch just to make sure.

In hindsight, she realized that she could have stopped after the second punch, the monster having stopped moving since, but considering that she still hadn't gotten through the armor at that point, she had instead wasted her Mana. Well, better safe than sorry, as they say.

Finally, Alice took a step back, looking at the giant monkey standing there like some strange wooden statue, the roots that had returned to unmoving wood keeping its body upright.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Level Up!

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

In just a single fight, this was already the third time. But it also was the single longest fight they had fought until now.

"Is it dead?" Alice sent Debby the question.

"Wouldn't you know, with you soul sight?"

"The soul stays more or less where the body died. Since it just stopped moving, I can't tell."

"Well, yes, it is. Or it's become so incredibly stupid that it doesn't have a single thought in its head," the woman joked.

"I wouldn't make jokes like that. Considering the situation, I imagine it's absolutely possible for something like that to still try and kill us," Alice cautioned her before continuing out loud to her girlfriend, "Are you okay?"

"That's what I should be asking! What the fuck happened to your arm?"

"Just a bit broken?" Alice answered sheepishly. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized that it was very concerning that she was almost making jokes about her horribly mangled arm. Meanwhile, the biggest part of her mind was occupied with trying to make Ava worry less.

"That's not 'just a bit broken.' As you put it," Max said a minute later after taking a look at her arm.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, looking at the spot where Max was pointing.

A shiver ran down her spine when she noticed that a pretty thick offshoot had pierced through her skin. Immediately, Alice dissolved her bone armor on her entire left arm, revealing several bulging lines traveling up her arm underneath her flesh. Immediately, she put her right hand onto it, Flesh grafting conveniently telling her where there wasn't any flesh to graft. Of course, that included the bone, but also the three thick roots spiraling around and completely crushing them. Not just that, but much thinner roots were growing all throughout her flesh, halfway up her upper arm.

Not for the first time, her status of undeath was the only thing stopping her from throwing up.