Chapter 61. Closer

After I cut off the vines, they froze for a second. They squirmed a little and then receded back into the water, only to come out with the whole plant in tow.

The surprising thing was that it didn't look like a plant monster, the main body was a quite humanoid. Its torso was made up of intertwined roots, while the place where its head should be had multiple flowers.

An especially large flower was present on the right side of the head. It was also uneven, with a withered arm on one the left and an inflated one on its right.

The monster roared as it stepped out of the water, yes roared. A plant was roaring like an animal.

It did sound like scratching nails on a chalkboard, unpleasant, but a plant looked like it was about to gain intelligence. 'Mana does wonders,'

This made me think, was it possible to bring him back from the dead. I would look into it, but if I had to turn him into some abomination of sorts, I would give up.

I focused on the monster before me as more vines attacked, and this time they were harder to cut. Nearly a dozen vines tried to tie me down and a couple of them were extremely tough.

The force behind each one was also huge, pushing me back with each block. The vines were faster than me, tougher than me, and stronger too. It outclasses me in every stat.

But I still had to fight, and the only thing I had were my two swords.

I started to minimize my movements, my dodge movements became smaller and my hits became my precise. I started using skills in short bursts, like [Slash], right before my swords cut the vines.

[Dash] to flash away if there are too many vines to dodge. Every time I tried to close in, to land a strike, the vines returned to form a wall and defend it.

This went on for five minutes and I noticed something. 12 vines were attacking me earlier, now there were 10. The wall when I closed in was also shorter.

The monster was running out of its vines, now this turned into a fight to see who had more stamina. And stamina was what I had a lot.

The number of vines reduced as it kept attacking.

9

7

4

That was my chance, I suddenly rushed in. Four vines would not be able to stop me, and they were too less to block my attacks. This would now become a closed ranged fight.

I swung my sword when the monster entered my reach, it raised its thick arm, and the sound of metal clashing against each other rang out.

'I even used slash there!'

Its arm was tough and was not something these swords would be able to cut. It had lost all of its strength by now, but surprisingly it didn't move or chase me, instead it tried to make some distance between us.

Then I realized, it was a plant. It has never moved from one place to another, coming out was probably an act of instinct but now that it did, there was no way it knew how to walk.

'I can probably use that skill now,'

[Overload]

[Release the body limiters for one minute to bring out more strength than the brain allows. There might be side effects.]

It was a skill that I selected to get out of trouble or to fight opponents stronger than me. It was my first time using this skill, so I had no idea what the side effects were going to be.

I had one minute to finish this.

My body started to heat up, it felt heavier but strength filled me as the heat reached my fingertips.

I dashed in once again. This time no vines attacked me, they just focused on defending, but somehow the monster's feet were slowly moving towards the lake. Maybe it did sense the change in me.

I was on two different timers and had no idea which would reach zero faster. I could have less than a minute, so this had to be done fast.

The vines were just there to hinder my movements, while the big arm tried to knock me out. I dodged the swing that came my way and slashed my sword towards the flowers.

Somehow the plant brought its arm back to block my attack, but I was expecting that. I released the sword in my hand, ducked, and dashed to the right,

Towards the withered arm.

My other sword slashed upwards and cleanly cut its arm, separating the arm from its body. I spun and thrust the same sword inside its body using the wound I had just opened.

It screamed and took bigger steps back. It was now really walking back to the lake, trying to escape. I couldn't let that happen, this was my only chance and I was not letting that slip through my fingers.

I picked up the fallen sword and used three skills this time, [Dash], [Empower], and [Slash].

The sword now glowed in a greenish pale hue. The sword cut the monster's neck(?). The flowers scattered as its body fell to the ground, wilting to never bloom again.

[Killed a Half-Ascended beast. Experience gained.]

[Bonus experience for killing an entity two tiers above you]

I stood there and looked up, 'I am a little closer to my goal.'

Those were my last thoughts as I lost my consciousness.