Confused screams rang out as seven students were impaled and killed by the Ent in the blink of an eye. Some screamed and ran away in fear and the others rushed it in anger.

The Ender Ent's mouth trembled in a peal of sadistic laughter as it sent its roots after the students. One by one, the Ent crushed the students like ants in a field.

"Goddamn!"

"Circle from the right!" Anna, the scout, ordered the people of her unit. A three-meter-tall giant student nodded at her words and jumped through the fields. With a large halberd in hand, he jumped over the flailing roots. He rolled under one and closed in on the monster.

"Take this, bastard!" the giant student's halberd was covered in a blue curtain of mana as he swung it down on the Ent. Sparks flew out as the blade of the halberd clashed against the Ent's tough trunk.

The blade cut through the wood and chopped off one of the many roots.

"GRAHH!?"

Ender Ent's manic roots froze in place as a bloodcurdling scream emerged from its mouth.

The branches above swayed with the leaves rustling.

The Ent twisted its body downward.

A tempest blew amid the rainforest as hundreds of leaves fell off from the monster's body and danced in circles.

"AGH!"

One leaf touched a student on the opposite end, grazing right past his neck and slicing it through. Like a storm of blades, the hardened leaves mercilessly struck through the air, ripping apart anything that dared touch it.

The giant student was left stunned in place as the tempest of leaves closed in on him. He tried to cover himself with his halberd.

Just then, a pair of white wings flapped in the air. Zachary pulled the giant from the hems of his clothes and soared into the air. From the back, Anna and Reina along with a couple more students that had maintained their calm followed them behind while the other panicking students continued running in the storm of leaves.

"Y-you saved me again..." the giant student thanked Zachary who was grinding down on his teeth. They turned to take cover behind a tree when Zachary dropped the student back down and folded back his wings. They crashed onto the ground and the other four followed right back.

"Ralph! What the fuck is going on?!" Zachary screamed at Ralph who was waiting for them behind the trees. Ralph's eyes were fixed on the monster not too far away.

Ralph's mind was racing too.

'What in the world is this? Why is this boss monster so powerful?' Such thoughts were rushing through his head as he observed the battle.

"This thing... it's definitely not just at D+ rank, it's at least C," he said.

Anna caught up to Ralph and Zachary and widened her eyes at his words. "C rank? Are you kidding me? How do they expect us to take on a C rank?!"

The storm of leaves started to subside in the distance, and not even a handful of students were remaining on the battlefield. Seven, just seven of them there and seven here. Their militia of over 40 was reduced to a fraction of what it was in just this much time.

"Hide again! Take cover behind the trees!" Ralph stepped out of the cover and screamed at the students himself. As long as people were still around he should be able to use them somehow.

"GOOD? DAY!?"

The Ent was alerted by Ralph's voice too. The roots of the monster spread out once again as it lifted its body off the ground. It menacingly continued speaking random words as it closed in on the students that were too late to take cover.

'Fuck, should I step in? Do I go in myself?'

Ralph's mana gathered around his hand, he was torn between whether he should use magic or not.

Right then, a faint yellow glint entered the corner of his eyes. Standing on a tree on the other side of the battlefield was a young blonde man with sparkling yellow eyes. Dirt and tears covered his high-end clothing while sparks of lightning danced around his two daggers. His eyes were staring right at Ralph, unmoving.

Ralph had no idea who he was, but he could gauge a simple thing.

This person was strong.

Ralph nodded back and raised his hand. Dark mana traced waves around his hands as a signal for him. Ralph gestured at the people around him to stay in their place and crouched as he ran towards the Ent.

The Ent reached closer and closer to the students it had trapped in a ring made of its roots.

"[Dark Degrade (E-)]"

And then, the Ent stopped.

The winds stopped blowing. The Earth stopped trembling. Everything was covered in a veil of darkness. The Ender Ent was robbed of all its senses.

As soon as the effects of Ralph's skills showed themselves, the blonde student brought his daggers together in front of him.

"[Lightning Strike (D)]"

A zap of light covered everyone's gaze. The crackling sound of lighting tickled the air and he disappeared from the tree. A beam of yellow lightning filled the sky, streaking right through the Ender Ent.

The thundering boom of the lightning strike spread through the air moments after the attack. This was their chance.

Ralph immediately turned to Zachary and gave him a nod.

"NOW!! Attack it with everything!!"

Zachary's roar combined with the enormous hit they had landed on the Ent was enough to snap the students out of their daze. Zachary flew over to the Ent and made the first strike while the others followed right behind.

The lightning strike had stunned it to the point it couldn't fight back well enough.

A barrage of attacks fell on the tree as the students thought of its inactiveness in a similar manner. Halberds and swords clanged out. Magic arrows and even bullets, the remaining fourteen attacked the Ent with all they had.

Ralph clicked his tongue as he saw the raging battle. Damage continued to pile up as wounds festered on the monster's body.

Still, it wasn't enough.

Though it had stopped in its tracks, this amount of damage wasn't enough.

The lightning strike could only hurt the Ent, it was none other than Ralph's S-ranked Expertise mixed with his Dark-Awakening skill that had robbed the monster of all its senses for these few seconds.

They needed more firepower. Ralph turned to look at the blonde youth in hopes of seeing him execute another attack, but he was already engaging the monster.

Arrows landed on the Ent followed by vines wrapping around its enormous frame. Locks of red hair fluttered from the distance as a spear covered in flames shot through the woods and lodged right into the center of the monster.

Seraphina Exise and her party stepped in and attacked the monster with all the firepower they could summon.

"GOOD! DAY!!"

The Ender Ent wailed as all its senses returned to it, bringing the pain of the wounds to an unprecedented height all at once.

'A little more.'

They needed just a little more.

But they could only do so much.

Wounded to an intensive degree, the Ent could still move. Its roots fluttered again and it raised its branch in rage—

"[Boundless Sword]"

—When a crescent of light crashed into the center of the Ent. The spear embedded there was dislodged by the attack.

A gaping crater appeared on its body, revealing the shine of a pink magic stone.

The Ent raged again, crying in pain. Its branches toppled downward.

"The stone! Break it!" Luke Reese's words rang out.

Zachary's wings flapped open again. Summoning all the mana in his body, he pushed himself off the ground and charged toward the magic stone.

Everyone was stunned in place, their eyes fixed on the thick branches of the Ent.

They were going to be crushed.

-CRACK!