While I’d been focused on other things, the trail of life energy had all but vanished into the background, but now it came back to the forefront. With nothing better to do, I followed it. As I jogged through the forest, a kind of pressure seemed to grow on my mind. The sky darkened, and the already dark forest dimmed even further. The forest floor had already been devoid of life, but now the dead plants seemed attracted to my feet, briefly attaching themselves to me before falling away with every step. Ever the optimist, I took that as a good sign. Clearly, I was getting closer to my goal.

The density of the trees slowly decreased, and eventually I found myself in a clearing. The sky was covered in dark clouds, but there wasn’t a hint of thunder or rain. A fallen tree lay propped against a large rock, but there weren’t even the remains of life anywhere else in the clearing. Not unless you counted the thing at the center.

The monster’s every limb was a thick hunk of blackened woods, just like the trees I’d just left behind. Dead, broken branches stuck out of its back like spikes, each of them covered in a glowing, purple moss. Something dripped from the tip of each branch, some kind of poison if I had to guess. The face was deformed, the right half sunken deep into the wood, an expression of agony permanently implanted embedded in the bark. Just as I reached the edge of the clearing, the thing turned and looked directly at me. After staying at me for a few seconds with its empty, lifeless eyes, it cracked a grin and beckoned.

That simple movement yanked me into the clearing, barely a few feet from the monstrosity. Then it spoke in a gravelly voice.

“Another Treant comes, misled by the one who gave them life. Do you, too, seek death?”

Closer to the thing, I had a better view of what happened to its face as it spoke. Every time it’s face changed, parts of the wood went through a rapid decay and fell away from its face. Speaking was a constant repetition of death and growth as new wood replaced the old.

“But I sense no anger in this one. Perhaps you will listen to reason?”

Faster than I would have thought possible for something of its size, it reached out to me. I stumbled backwards in surprise, tripping and falling to the ground. The limb quickly approached me until it met a green-tinged shield that appeared in front of me.

“What?! You brought her with you? That vengeful whore really leaves me with no options. It fills me with regret, but you, too, must die.”

The limb pulled back, bracing itself to smash me into splinters.

“Wha-? No!” I cried as I dove out of the way. It looked like I wasn’t going to be given time to prepare for this battle. A health bar had already appeared over the Heart of the Forest, labelling it as a level 10 Elite. I climbed to my feet and launched myself at the monster. Twisting Fangs!

Target is immune to Bleeding.

Shit! Well, at least that’s better than him dripping poisonous blood onto me or something? Gotta think positive. I swiped a few more times, dealing very little damage, before he swung at me again with the tree trunks he called limbs. I dodged again, cursing my lack of preparation. I hadn’t had a chance to apply the poison I found in the pool. I probably should have just used it after I’d finished the Demons off, but I wasn’t sure there wouldn’t be something else that came up. Thinking quickly, I activated Shadowmeld and leapt back to cast Apply Venom.

“You can’t hide from me, Treant. I can feel you.” The monster raised its arm high into the air, where it started glowing purple. Just before my three second cast time finished, the arm crashed to the ground. His fist exploded, purple vines reaching out in every direction. The instant one of them touched me, it wrapped itself around me, thorns piercing my bark and refusing to let go. I found myself being yanked towards the monster with no way to stop myself. His other arm crashed into me like a truck, dislodging the vines, but tossing me several feet away with half my health gone. I couldn’t take another hit like that.

He lumbered towards me, still not giving me a chance to cast Apply Venom, so I went at him, tickling him with my daggers and dodging his massive swings. I still wanted to prepare the skill, though. I figured that since the game gave me the venom, it would be crucial to killing the boss. But I didn’t have time to cast it without stealth, and he would just yank me back if I tried to stealth. I’d considered trying to leave the clearing, but a wall of purple thorns had surrounded the area when the fight had started. Typical.

“Let’s see how you deal with this, spawn of the Forest Mother!” The thing stopped attacking me briefly and started shaking the branches on its back. The liquid dripping from the branches gathered together, rotating faster and faster before launching up into the air. The attack took a long time to activate, so I had plenty of time to respond, leaping away from where the ball landed.

It exploded outwards, covering a wide area with a purple haze. Call me quick to judge, but I was pretty sure I did not want to stand in that. I stayed back, forcing the monster to step out of the fog. Obviously, I didn’t want to fight in that, but I also wasn’t sure how long it lasted. If it only lasted a minute or so, I could just keep moving the boss. If it persisted the whole fight, however, I’d run out of room in the arena if I didn’t do something about it. I’d been using Kidney Shot off cooldown to maximize my damage (although I still hadn’t found what counted as a kidney on this damn thing), but I guess I’d have to interrupt that skill.

Soon, Shadowmeld came off cooldown again, and I looked around, trying to find an idea to avoid the vine pull. My eyes locked onto the fallen tree, which I’d coincidentally moved closer towards. I used Shadowmeld as I booked it behind the tree. I quickly used Barkshaping to fill in any gaps of my cover and started casting my Apply Venom. I tensed up when he repeated his line from last time. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was using his pull, and I was oh so prepared for those vines to punch through my flimsy cover like it was nothing.

Contrary to my fears, I got my cast off successfully and booked it away from the tree. I didn’t want the boss destroying the only piece of cover in the area. For the next 20 minutes, I successfully managed to block all of the vines and interrupt the poison clouds, but that initial cloud still persisted. The fact that this was a tutorial boss, even if was Hell mode, showed. The attack patterns were monotonous and easy to deal with once I figured out how. But things started to change when his health hit 20%.

“Filthy Treant! You think you can deal with me just because the Forest Mother gave you a little of her power? I will show you the error of your ways!” The monster punched his limbs into the ground and started to grow, layering dirt, gravel, roots, and anything else he could find over his limbs. At the same time, the purple moss on his back spread all over his body. When he pulled his arms out of the ground, poison dripped from them just like it had from his back. Clearly, the boss had gone berserk.

His attacks got a little faster, but I was still able to dodge them. The problem was the poison they sprayed with each swing was slowly depleting my health. I wasn’t getting a debuff, but each droplet took a couple points of health from me. Without any form of healing, that would eventually kill me even if he couldn’t land an actual blow. However, that wasn’t the only change. I was met with a big surprise the next time I tried to interrupt his poison bomb.

Target is immune to Stuns while enraged.

Fuck! I tried to fight on the very edge of the poison, making the AoEs overlap as much as possible, but it really limited the room I had to dodge. I had no choice, though. Once that poison covered the whole arena, I was dead for sure. I probably shouldn’t have even tried to use Apply Venom, but I didn’t think I’d have enough damage to kill him before the poison droplets drained my health. I casted Shadowmeld and hid behind the fallen tree as usual while I casted Apply Venom.

“The same tricks won’t work on me this time, fool!” I managed to finish casting Apply Venom, but this time the vines wrapped around the tree and squeezed. The tree exploded into splinters, knocking me to the ground, but without enough of a kick to damage me. The shape of some of the wood shards around me gave me inspiration, so I grabbed some as I ran at the boss while casting Barkshaping.

The next time he took a swing at me, I used the bark I’d shaped onto my arms to block the poison drops. The bark still melted on contact with the poison, but the extra layer of protection saved me from taking damage. Now my only concern was whether or not I could kill him before the whole arena was covered in poison. I didn’t have cover to cast Apply Venom anymore, so my damage was about to take a sharp turn for the worse. I didn’t like my chances, considering it had taken me 20 minutes to get him this low, but I kept at it. I didn’t have any better ideas.

The battle dragged on, and I’d reduced the boss’ health to 10%, but I was out of room. I covered myself with what was left of the bark I’d picked up as the poison ball fell on the last clean area of the clearing. At least, it should have. Instead, one of my daggers exploded with power, surrounding me with a force field of life energy. My dagger, Rage of the Forest Mother, trembled in my hand as her voice resonated through the clearing.

“This is the last help I can offer you, child. Finish this.” Her voice trailed off to nothing at the end.

“Hah! The last of your tricks is revealed, witch! I will grind you into the dirt!” The Heart of the Forest charged at me. At first, I thought it wouldn’t be enough. But my health, rather than decreasing in the surrounding poison, seemed to be increasing. I looked above my health bar, and sure enough, I saw another icon flashing there.

Blessing of the Forest Mother

Buff – 60s Remaining

Immune to Poison and regenerate 5% of your health every second for the duration.

Grasping onto the chance, I swung at the monster with wild abandon. Now each cut left a glowing green gash in my opponent’s bark. The boss’ health bar quickly depleted. Just as I swung for what I thought would be the final hit, the bark-covered monstrosity in front of me split in half, the decaying wood and poisonous moss falling to the ground around me. At its core floated what I could only describe as a child. She looked similar to the Forest Mother, but younger. In my shock, I stopped my dagger. Then everything went black.