Most beings, upon having an experience such as what the Great Tree was currently going though, would have been completely disorientated, their minds sent reeling. After all, although it was only simple thought, this was nothing like the simple observations of the past. When compared, this new state was like an explosion of thought the likes of which those past experiences could never come close too.

However, there was no hesitation in the Great Tree’s thoughts. There was no time for confusion, or the chance to become used to this new state of being. Only one thing mattered, a single thing which was the focus of the entirety of the Great Tree’s newfound consciousness to concentrate on.

I must save this child.

Why it felt this was unknown. It had never felt any compassion for another being in its life, whether it be other Green Ones, its brethren Trees, or even itself. But this was of course completely irrelevant at this moment.

Utilizing its newfound powers, the Great Tree at once began to analyse the situation. The small girl was hidden within a small hole made up of its roots, whilst its attacker, the male Plain One, was less than 10 short metres away and closing.

Firstly the Great Tree began to try to manipulate its body, moving its great roots and branches, which by themselves were greater in thickness than cousins’ entire bodies. Yet, even whilst straining its new mind to the maximum, it was unable to move them faster than barely a centimetre every few seconds. However, it did find that the thinner roots were far easier to move, and so it focused on trying to move those instead.

To the Great Tree’s dismay, however, it found that the only roots it could truly manipulate at any great speed were tiny, wire like ones. Although, like all of its body, these tiny roots were very tough for their size, they were so thin that despite this it was unlikely they could truly trap the Plain One.

Sadly, this will have to do.

These were after all the only tools immediately available to the Great Tree, and so, exerting itself to the maximum, it focused its mind into the thin roots within the soil beneath the Plain One. The roots trembled for a moment, before exploding out of the soil like so many tiny whips all around the man.

For a moment immense shock could be seen on the man’s face, but the Great Tree did not care. Instead it focused all its effort on controlling the roots. Immediately they flew forward, targeting the limbs and neck of the man. Although initially successful, bogging the Plain One down like so many piles of webbing, this success was short lived.

The man soon reacted. At some point a sharp metal blade had appeared in his right hand, which he soon used to parry approaching threadlike roots and chop down on those already binding him.

Although the Great Tree controlled its roots well, tying down the arm with the blade, the man simply passed the weapon to his other hand and continued cutting down on his bindings. Soon he was mostly free and, after yelling out some unknown words with obvious frustration on his face, once more begun moving towards the hole holding the girl.

As the man moved forward more roots became available for the Great Tree to use, yet these were still only capable of slowing him down. This was especially the case as the Plain One was now on guard; many roots fell before even reaching his skin.

I cannot allow the Plain One to reach her, but I am unable to restrain him. At this rate it will not be long before he reaches the hole. In this case, I’ll simply block the opening!

Diverting some of its mind to continue slowing the man down, the Great Tree now changed its focus to its roots which were surrounding the girl. It tried to control these roots, moving them into an arrangement so that they would completely surround the young girl. But sadly, it soon realised how unrealistic this plan was: the roots were simply far too slow.

Although the branches and roots the Great Tree initially experimented with would have been able to move at a speed to complete this task in a fairly short time, short enough that it would be done before the man reached them at any rate, these roots surrounding the girl were among the oldest and strongest it had. As such, moving them was also a far harder task, and even given a far greater time it would still have been difficult to complete this task.

Frustrated, the Great Tree was forced to utilize the thread-like roots again, whilst slowly moving larger roots toward the surface for future reinforcement. The small threads weaved onto the opening of the small hole, masses of them forming a strong barrier in front of the girl.

Until now the girl wasn’t observing the situation, curled into a ball from the fear. Even when the Plain One started yelling after the roots burst form the soil, she had remained in this position. Yet now, with the roots moving so close to her, she couldn’t help but look, and when she saw what seemed to be the tree sealing her within itself, an even more horrified expression appeared on her face.

I’m sorry, but deal with it for now.

The Great Tree was unable to truly communicate with her, but after a silent apology in his mind, immediately turned his attention away from the girl. Preserving her life was what was important, she could be comforted later.

At this point the Plain One had reached the opening, and was hacking away at the barrier of threads blocking his way. Although his progress was slow, he would eventually break through, at which point saving the girl may prove impossible. Furthermore, at his current rate, the larger roots that the Great Tree was planning to use to reinforce the barrier definitely wouldn’t make it in time

Once the Great Tree realised this, it immediately began looking for another way to deal with the man. Knowing that its physical body had likely been exhausted of its usefulness for the moment, it tried looking toward other options, one of which was the energies which flowed through its body.

It had always observed the world more through these ethereal energies, as opposed to sensing physical objects. Indeed, the names the Great Tree had subconsciously given the various beings it had encountered were mostly based on its perceptions of their auras, which were precisely made of these energies.

The Great Tree’s own aura was huge in comparison, understandably so considering its long years of absorbing energies from the soil, as well as its huge body to accommodate them. It was also a strong blood red colour, and gave a feeling similar to that of the earthen Ones, yet also very different. If their brown aura was akin to the soil of the earth, its own aura was like strong steel, unbreakable and potentially dangerous.

The Great Tree quickly discovered that the reason its body was so strong compared to other creatures was precisely due to these energies; they seemed to directly imbue the body with various properties when present. Realising this, it attempted to circulate its aura, concentrating large amounts of it into a single spot at once. Although this seemed possible, it was also immensely difficult, as the energy would flow like water, and just a moment of loss of concentration would cause them to spill out.

The Great Tree quickly decided that, although it was just barely possible at this point to compress additional aura into a small root, this would take all of its concentration, and even if it somehow empowered the root, controlling the root and the compressed aura at the same time would be absolutely impossible. But this was not all for naught, as the Great Tree noticed something else which could be of use.

When the energies were moved into one area, the surroundings would obviously have a lower density of said energies, and in these areas, the bark would noticeably weaken. Not only this, but creating an area with few of these energies was far easier than compressing them, and so a plan begun to appear within the Great Tree’s mind.

If I cannot defeat this enemy by strengthening myself, then I shall do it by weakening myself instead.