Sam stared at the Elders approaching with sadness. These people were heroes of the human race, considered one step below gods in the eyes of the common people. Each elder was the effort of entire cities, or nations to produce. Together the Conclave of Guardians had stood firm against the monster races for countless centuries, until the Demon King’s arrival.

He didn’t want to attack them, which was why he was willing to talk first. Dryad had given him strict instructions to defend Tree, yet she hadn’t said to kill anyone who approached. He was willing to bend her order if it meant a chance to prevent bloodshed.

Sam glanced back at the tree and paused as he noticed a strange new addition. Where before the bark had appeared like milky whiteness, now veins the color of blood seemed to pulse along the trunk. The strange red veins went all the way to the branches in the top, and were lost among the leaves. It made the tree like a monstrous living creature, pulsing with life.

It was rather disquieting.

Shrugging, Sam ignored the creepy tree as he turned back towards the Elders who were now only a few feet away. They had all paused upon approaching close enough to realize he wasn’t a puppet, or golem.

The leader of the party, the Water Elder apparent from the small drops of water rotating around her, stepped forward, “There is no need to fight. Move aside, and let us take the tree hostage. From there the Dryad will agree to any of our demands! There is no need for battle, we are both humans.”

Sam paused for a second before replying, “If you leave now, I won’t have to act. Lady Dryad is already on her way back, if it were not for the delay of bringing another with her, you would all be dead now. Depart, and I will not mention this, you are all living heroes of the common folk. Don’t become dead villains, please, leave.”

Sam felt a strange force surround him, and moments later a tiny voice gradually became louder in his mind.

Hello!

Hello!

Hello!

Dammit, say something you mongeloid human!

Is this guy ignoring me on purpose? No wait….maybe he can’t hear me? HEY CAN YOU HEAR ME!!!

How was Dryad able to deal with these idiots for so long, I’d probably have melted them till only the intelligent ones were left…

Hey. If you are listening, Mr. Human….duck.

Sam responded on instinct ducking down, although he didn’t know where the voice came from, he chose to trust it. It was the same feeling that had led him to his current position, a feeling he attributed to the mage blood in his veins.

A fraction of a second after he ducked, Sam saw thousands of roots fly past his head striking at the Elders in front of him. Another set of roots approached him grabbing his legs, arms, and head holding him still.

This might hurt a little. The mental voice said.

With incredible speed, the runes on his armor were stripped of power, and quickly re-written by roots engraving them at lightning speed.

The color had also changed, now they glowed a soft, shimmering purple. Each rune was smaller than his thumbprint, and there were thousands of them covering him.

Ok. I’m going to let them go now. Try out the new stuff! the voice said, before the roots holding the Elders released.

Sam had just a moment to realize the voice hadn’t told him what exactly his powers were before elemental attacks swarmed at him.

***

Oh! Oh, my!

Yes. If I had a head, I’d nod it right now. Since I don’t my branches are swaying sagely.

These new runes are very interesting.

Goodness, I didn’t even know you could use them like that!

What a talented human Dryad found to watch over me.

I didn’t help him out of sentimentality! It’s not like I saw another Robert or Emily and felt I should help out….

No…

Definitely not!

It was for science! Science I say!

Indeed.

Besides, Dryad is almost back. So I have to get some testing data before these idiots are dismembered into their component organic parts.

My test subject, I mean, my loyal guardian is gradually getting the hang of his abilities.

First, the simplest one, Time Reversal, is a rune that in essence allows one to move backwards in time. In the simplest of terms, you can step back up to twenty seconds of time. It’s good for those times you forgot your significant other’s birthday and need to pretend you knew the exact date all along. Also, it’s helpful for dodging lethal instant kill attacks. Both of those are very similar, so it works out.

The second one, is more of a work of art. I consider it a personal masterpiece!

Clockwork Kingdom. All enemy test subjects within the radius of a few hundred feet start losing time. In essence, their time is drained, and given to the rune’s user. To the poor enemies, it appears as if their opponent simply starts moving faster, faster, and faster.

The third and fourth runes are a complex synchronization. Bubble and Boost, both combined together are bad enough, but with Clockwork Kingdom things get really nasty.

Imagine if you struck your opponent with a mortal wound, you did it enough times in a row that they couldn’t go backwards in time to dodge it. That would stop Reversal from saving them.

Assuming they didn’t have Kingdom, Bubble, and Boost up, that is.

Bubble provides a complex shield that prevents damage by spending seconds of the user’s lifetime to block attacks. The shield can only block attacks that occur up to twenty seconds ahead in time, and subtracts double the cost to the user’s own lifetime. Boost of course, multiplies this effect immensely, and Kingdom feeds it a steady supply of time making the shield a work of art. In essence, without breaking through the synchronous shield created by all three working together, the user is almost invincible. There are a few attacks that could work, such as destroying the space around the user in a large enough area, or melting the user’s time. Those are extreme examples though, and enemies of that nature are not something I would expect my servant to be fighting.

I would take care of such, personally, after all.

Good work if I do say so myself!

There is of course an attacking rune setup, as well.

While the defense is maintained through my understanding of Time, the offense…

Is not.

What kind of Tree would I be if I didn’t use the main form of Dao that has helped me through thick and thin!?

I watch proudly the moment my servant, well Dryad’s really, so technically mine too, realizes the pathetic flames from the human mage do not harm him.

Mere flame without a trace of Dao? As if that could even touch one of mine, bah!

Flame ripples out in beautiful multi-colored hues of blue, black, orange, and red. It looks exactly like someone has smeared the air with thick fiery paints.

I mean, if you ignore the brief screams that occur…

Ah…delicious.

So it seems the souls of mages are so much more rich and tasty even raw.

I still need to get that to do list of finding a cook done…

***

Sam watched, his emotions unstable, as the Elders were consumed in unholy flames of incredible power. The runes on his armor felt smoking hot, so much that he wouldn’t be surprised if the armor burst into flames.

It was obvious there was a world of difference between the runes Dryad had used, and the ones the Tree placed on him.

If he were to describe it, it was as if Dryad’s runes were pushing mud through a thick pipe. Tree’s runes were like a perfectly formed aqueduct, maintained by slaves, and built to perfection.

In effect, he could tell the difference even without a high level of magic sensory. There was no doubt in Sam’s mind that whatever else Tree was, he was a genius in the realm of magic.

It felt strange to have this obscure feeling of wanting to worship a tree, though. Very odd.

As the armor started to cool off, Sam was about to check if the tree needed anything. However, his attention was caught by the appearance of Dryad at the far end of the bridge. Behind her, was a hobgoblin with the shiftiest eyes Sam had ever seen before.