“{I think there’s something about your aura,}” Higure noted curiously as she watched her devourer slice deep into a giant treant with green-auburn leaves and a sort of crown around its truck made of thorns.

‘Is that so?’ Rakna replied blankly and pulled his greatsword out. He jumped back to retreat from the many sharp roots that shot toward him from underground. To the side, Tyran stomped on a large root and blew a fire breath to the treant with a roar.

“{Yes, it is so. Last time you caused a Stampede. And now a Wild Boss came at you. There must be something about your Aura that attracts monsters… Perhaps your smell is tasty to them? Or is it that you’re just too luckily unlucky?}”

‘Is that sarcasm I hear?’ The therian deadpanned and turned Sonata into a bow. After all the small evolutions it had gone through, the bow was now a lot more threatening than at the beginning and there was a bit of red sheen to it. It was closer to a longbow. ‘It’s more than enough strong,’ Rakna thought as the familiar feeling of his bladed arrow appeared in his hand.

“Scatter,” he ordered out loud and Allan who was at the forefront, crushing and taking the roots of the treant along with Tyran, retreated together with the Dreorin. The Treant King let out a growl akin to wood grating as its entire body was ravaged by both red and black flames, courtesy of the succubus of the party.

“[Dáinsleif,]” Rakna muttered and shot the spell construct with Sonata. It whistled in flight and pierced the creature in the middle of its face. The blades rotated and exploded a second later. The werewolf lowered his bow as the cold implosion went on. When it died down, the treant had a large hole in its body and was seemingly inert.

“There is no kill notification…” Flavia noted from the back together with Nyx and Marie who hadn’t had the occasion to do much against the Wild Boss. It was true that being in numbers meant more power but it was an unspoken rule in any organized team to never act all at once if there was no need for it. It would only make things complicated otherwise.

“You’re right,” Rakna nodded and Sonata silently shifted back to a Guandao. As if on cue, the wood that composed the treant began to move again but this time, it wriggled like a gelatinous mass as it mended itself.

“Ew, creepy,” Allan helpfully said.

“This thing has no regeneration ability in its status,” Rakna said musingly. “But its wood magic is probably the reason… It can use that magic on itself because it is made of it. So… as long as it can cast magic, it can rebuild itself.”

“Could you drain its mana?” Evelyn suggested as the treant was almost fully restored.

“I could. But it would be slow. Its level is 50. It also has high attributes as a Boss. At best… I could perhaps drain eight MPs every half a minute. But I don’t think it would let me do that so easily.”

“If I may,” Nyx spoke up. “If it is not much trouble, could you hold it off for me? I know most of you have spells powerful enough to finish it but I would like to experiment something more… big with this element of mine,” she said as she raised her palm with black lightning sparking around it.

Rakna hummed as the treant started moving again with an unearthly roar. “It’s no problem. But I don’t think an extended fight against this thing would be favorable, even for me. And… it also stopped holding back,” he added as, on top of the sharp roots, a rain of auburn leaves started falling in masses.

They swirled around the Wild Boss before glowing and rocketing toward the party. Rakna reacted quickly and erected a barrier in front of him. The leaves embedded themselves on the GHB and cracked it. The others shielded themselves with their own skillset, except Flavia and Nyx who were standing behind the werewolf in the first place.

“Flavia, do you think you can use your Wood Magic to counteract this?” Rakna asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “Taking control of someone else’s magic would require me to be leagues above their level. And it’s not the case here.”

“Well then… Tyran, Evelyn, focus on burning the leaves. Allan, protect Nyx while she figures out her spell. Flavia, Marie, Pronos, with me. We’ll hold him off,” the werewolf instructed and whirled his oscillating glaive.

“You got it, boss,” Allan laughed and placed himself in front of Nyx. “[Nua,]” he intoned with his hand extended forward and a screen of void matter appeared, swallowing all the leaves getting close to it.

Rakna nodded and blurred away with Flash Step once the flames of his companions had started dealing with the deluge of leaves. He reappeared in front of the treant and promptly hacked with his weapon to destroy the roots around him that were even harder than stone.

“[Coiled Winged Serpent,]” Marie’s voice echoed soon after, and her giant snake was summoned in no time. The reptile huffed a cloud of poison before lunging at the treant. It ignored the countless roots in its way, even letting them stab into its body, and coiled around the massive tree creature.

The Treant King roared in anger and numerous spikes were formed from the wood of his trunk to skewer the snake. But, even when its entire body was being pierced, the snake didn’t let go and began to constrict the treant even more, causing several cracks to appear on it due to the pressure.

Marie grinned. “Unfortunately for you, my snakes don’t die unless they’ve expended all the mana that they’ve been invoked with. And squeezing you… doesn’t consume a lot,” she said and closed her hand into a fist, making the snake’s grasp even tighter.

The treant growled but before it could anything else, it saw some of its roots suddenly changing course right back into his body. From above, Flavia floated with her eyes glowing with power. She waved her hand and her telekinesis got hold of the roots. She redirected some of them with a bit of effort from her part and outright severed the rest from the main body.

The former teacher smiled as she felt the Wild Boss’ glare on her and casually pushed her glasses back in place. “Oh my, have I inconvenienced you? I apologize for the discourtesy,” she said with a dark, obviously sarcastic tone that even made Allan shiver in the distance.

“{Oh no… It’s too late. The pure and lovely lady has already been corrupted by you,}” Higure lamented exaggeratedly and Rakna rolled his eyes.

‘Don’t blame me. Blame the old man for always telling her to be more assertive,’ Rakna retorted and extended both of his arms to the sides. “[Star Hearth,]” he uttered, and interestingly, the sound of a forging hammer echoed around him for a second as he conjured dozens of blades around him.

Rakna glanced at the star constructs to confirm there was nothing different. ‘That sound… that’s new. Did it occur because of how many weapons I created? Might be a hint for the next evolution… Food for thought,’ he noted to himself and launched the constructs hovering next to him.

They all stabbed into the treant’s body and the cold energy that seeped into the creature forced it to slow down. Then, at that exact moment, the Boss noticed something creeping up its body, and the hollow pits it had for eyes shifted downward, where a sort of cobweb of light cyan energy was spreading on its bark.

Then, as it spotted a slithering flash of blue get away from it, the cobweb shone and exploded out of nowhere. A chunk of wood abruptly disappeared and splinters scattered. Everyone had to cover the ears because of the unexpected detonation.

“What was that?” Marie asked with widened eyes as her winged snake sustained too much damage which forced her to dispel it.

“Eion Poison,” Rakna answered. “This is commonly known as Eion Overload. When an amassment of Eion becomes unstable enough, it will explode. That is…” He trailed off as he realized something unbelievable. “The same principle as Eion Nukes,” he whispered whilst glancing at Pronos.

“Eion Nukes?”

“Later,” Rakna said and prepared to snap his fingers. “My turn,” he said and the snapping sound of his fingers resounded. The swords skewered into the treant glowed and buzzed before imploding. None of them inflicted damage anywhere near what Dáinsleif did but several large holes were opened.

The treant roared in pain and anger and the leaves stopped assailing them as the Boss commenced fixing itself. “Nyx,” Rakna said calmly but loud enough for the former goddess to react.

“Yes,” she replied with a shiver-inducing tone. Rakna looked back at her and was surprised to see her conjure a sheathed katana with her shadow skill. She slowly took a well-known stance and his eyes widened.

‘Iai…’ He thought. But that wasn’t what grabbed his attention the most. He was familiar with that technique, not just because he had practiced it, but because he had seen someone else perform it many times. ‘Why… does it look so similar?’ He wondered and before his confusion could turn into doubt, they all heard another roar coming from the Treant King.

They collectively turned toward it and trembled as countless big and small roots were converging and pointing at a single spot where an orb of pure green energy was gradually being formed.

“That’s-!” Flavia exclaimed and Rakna promptly used Appraisal on it.

❮ ◈ ❯

An amalgam of raw natural energy condensed through Wood Magic. It is being expanded and compressed in repetition at unbelievable speeds.

The preliminary analysis points to the Tier 5 Wood Magic Spell, Emerald Orb of Nidhogg.

---

You have used Appraisal on a conjured magic for the first time, the skill has leveled up!

❮ ◈ ❯

Rakna didn’t have the time to spend rejoicing about the improvement of Appraisal after so long before the forest suddenly became denser and the trees moved closer to each other to enclose the party so that they wouldn’t be able to escape. The path to the sky was also obstructed by multiple branches and a swirl of countless leaves.

The werewolf clicked his tongue and inspected the spell itself with Appraisal. He skimmed over the most important details and grunted. “I hope you’re done soon because if that thing is cast, we won’t get out of it unscathed,” he uttered and Nyx looked up at the treant as her eyes sparked with black lightning.

She smiled faintly. “No worries. [Shrouded in Darkness, Aeter Strikes True The Honor And Spite of Eternal Night,]” she chanted and the blade she was holding began to gleam red. “[To Wield the All-Consuming Lightning to Which He Partakes. Be Judged; Ae – Nittiya Iravu!]”

Her hand turned into a blur and the shadow blade was drawn in an instant before crumbling down just as fast. Rakna’s Fabled Sight automatically activated itself as he saw an incredibly fast arc of shadowy lightning with red outlines head toward the ceiling of leaves.

Without even getting resistance from it, the leaves were split and blown away, letting the rays of the sun pierce through the gloom of the forest. The spell reached the clouds and burst out into a massive drape of darkness that swallowed the sunlight once again.

The darkness rapidly turned into an inverted whirlpool of black clouds. Then, thunder roared with extreme force and even Rakna couldn’t help but shudder. Black and red lightning sparked around the center of the whirlpool and was increasingly becoming louder.

Nyx extended her hand at the terrifying formation in the sky and waved it down as her crimson eyes shone resplendently. “[Vīḻcci,]” she uttered and an ear-deafening thunder resounded and in the blink of an eye, a pillar of black and red destruction befell the Treant King.

The sentient tree roared as the annihilating nature of Eternal Night snuffed out the natural energy of its spell and only served to magnify the potency of the explosion that followed.

Every single bark and leaf of the creature was destroyed to nil and Rakna’s party hastily shielded themselves from the blast that shook the whole area as if an earthquake had occurred.