The Ent swung its right arm towards the people to its front, causing all of them to leap backward.

Kara was the only one to dash in, ducking low enough for her nose to scrap against the floor. She stepped to the right, and then to the left, getting under the Ent Core as it swung diagonally with its other arm.

Now that Kara was right under the Ent Core, she stepped forward, rotating the focus of her Life Force with the movement of her shoulder and hips as she stabbed the Ent Core in its stomach. Once again Short-Breath gave her a respectable boost.

Minor Penetration!

You have dealt 23 damage!

The blade went halfway in, not dealing much damage. Kara quickly pulled the blade and stepped under its left arm.

The Ent Core’s right fist left a large hole in where Kara was previously standing. Seeing their chance, all three people to its front had charged forward, putting in a couple good stabs after her.

Even though Kara was at its side she did not bother attacking, knowing her attack would be even less effective against the thick flesh. She could build up little momentum with a one-armed attack, and even with the Ent Core being injured, and its Life Force Armor would be reduced, she still would most likely not be able to penetrate.

Instead, she jumped forward, placing a foot against the monster’s thigh as she pushed herself up. She needed better positioning.

The Ent Core swiped forward with its left arm, extending forward and scattering the people to its front, and kept spinning around, missing Kara as she dug both the dagger and her sword into its back. She’d only gotten minor penetrations with 20 damage on both stabs, but more importantly, she got a good grip. She swung along with the Ent Core, holding onto its back as it turned a few rounds. Having her face squished against its shoulder blades Kara smelled the full stench of burnt flesh and wood.

When the Ent Core stuttered a step to the side, off-balance as its limbs returned to their original forms, everyone not hit by its attack took advantage of its opening. The others lunged forward, stabbing and slashing, but Kara was still not in position. She kicked its buttocks and climbed up. Her dagger went into its neck as she raised herself to its shoulders, dealing 26 damage by itself.

Still on one foot, the Ent Core reached for Kara with one hand while the other defended itself from the people to its front, its thorns thrusting from its eyeholes to impale a surprised warrior. Arrows flew at the Ent Core, and though they did not pierce through, they did leave a dent behind.

Kara quickly focused Life Force into her quads and jumped up high into the air, hoping none of those arrows would hit her. She avoided being grabbed, but the Ent Core’s hand remained above it, waiting for Kara to drop.

So Kara decided not to drop. She balled up in the air and then kicked her feet up into the air, letting her drop face first. She let her sword lead, but did not stab with it, and rather allowed the tip to rest on top of the Ent Core’s stretched finger.

She balanced herself on the edge, using her Life Force and what was left of her Kinetic Energy as best as she could, wiggling her body to adjust for the erratic movement and vibrations caused by swords and arrows. She dropped her dagger, finding little use for it anymore, and tugged at one of the Life Force strings she attached to her left hand.

One of the swords on the ground began to skid towards Kara.

When the Ent Core’s palm closed, Kara did a one-armed push up in order to raise herself an inch, and then allowed the tip to once again rest on its closed fist, buying her an extra second. Her left arm swung to the side as she flung her wrist up, causing the sword to fly into the air.

The Ent Core, not finding Kara, stomped its foot into the ground and swung that arm forward, retracting its thorns back into its eyes. The arm extended, squishing one of the warriors against the ground like a fruit.

Kara dropped down. She balled up again, this time throwing her legs under her, and her arms high into the air. As the sword finally reached her hands, Kara landed with one foot on each shoulder, the Ent's Core head reaching to her knees.

Keeping her legs straight, Kara, with both swords in hand, swung downward with all the force she can muster.

Complete Penetration!

You have dealt 195 damage!

Complete Penetration!

You have dealt 253 damage!

You have dealt Moderate Bleed damage!

You now have the highest contribution points in the raid boss Incomplete Undead Ent Core.

Kara felt the blades digging deep into its brains, going as far as the hilt allowed until it stopped against its eye socket. She wanted to twist and deal even more damage, but seeing the Ent Core trying to slap Kara with both of its hands made Kara jump backward. She began to pull on the spear, not yet knowing where she’ll need it for even as she was in the air.

The dumb thing smacked itself, each hand on both sides of its face. While that typically would have resulted in little damage being done, the Ent Core apparently did not yet know how swords worked, or how smacking them would not stop the pain.

The two blades went even further in, stopping at the inside of the skull, causing an additional 141 and an increase to the bleed damage. The hilts broke off, with it any hopes of the Ent Core removing the blades from its eyes.

At first, she doubted whether the Ent Core even had a brain, with it having thorns come out of its eye socket and all, but from the way the Ent Core began rampaging around the room, she knew she had struck true. It was probably placed at the back, near the skull, otherwise, there was little reason in even having a head. It was probably copying human bodies in order to become a sentient being.

The thorns left its eye sockets as well, singing widely, but that only added to the damage as it pushed against the metal.

Third lesson: look for the jackpot. Kara yelled as she caught the spear. She only had a minute and 41 seconds, and she wanted to make the most out of it.

The Ent Core, the darn thing, didn't seem to care. It kept charging around the room mindlessly, raging indiscriminately. It was probably the first time it had experienced that much pain in its existence, with it being a tree and all.

Its face, previously absence of mouth, ears, and nose, now had a large circular hole below its eyeholes. A larger, four-meter tall thorn appeared from it. Its tip was thick and the tip was rounded with thorns. It smashed into the ground like a heavy ball of metal, sending splinters everywhere. The tremors combined with the Giant Undead Tree’s own shaking.

Those with arrows began to run out, but the last few were used with precision, being fully charged with Life Force and exploding into its face.

The rest of the raiding party, 5 people now, waited for it to finish its attack before getting within its arms range. Kara made things easier for them when she took out two of its attack patterns, considering they only had to worry about the thorn that permanently stuck out of its mouth, and had a delayed time to dodge one of its extension attacks, as those had an obvious predictor to them.

Level 52 Incomplete Undead Ent Core

...

HP: 730/2640

After allowing her STM to regenerate, Kara chased the Ent Core down. It was dangerous, but she could not wait any longer.

She had a minute and twenty seconds left. She dropped the spear and picked a sword from one of those who had recently fallen, and the dagger she had discarded. It could do little damage, but it had its utility.

Not taking a single point of damage afforded her a couple of risky maneuvers, though it was important to keep in mind that a single hit would probably shave off most of her HP.

From the way the Ent Core was charging forward, never stopping in place for more than a moments, a repeat of her previous attack was probably the right choice. The beast was supposed to have low intelligence and probably have not learned how correctly rid of those that climb it.

Kara instantly closed the notification. Unfortunately, she could not just wait for it to finish an attack before moving in, as that would require too many movements; getting on the back and then climbing up.

Running, however, gave her enough momentum to rise to its neck with one quick movement. Hopefully, she would get a hit in from the side of its neck before switching to the other, as the Ent Core will probably attack her where she is, and not where she will go next, which was a common tactic for dumb things.

“Iris, don’t!” someone yelled. She glanced behind her to find the little rogue at her heel, a giant smile plastered on her face. The spellsword kept yelling, not bothering to chase them down; both were going too fast, almost catching up to the Ent Core.

Always beware those who smile in battle, a distant voice said. They are either fearsome or fools.

“I didn’t know you...you were good!” she yelled over the rummage and twisting of wood.

Met her before?

Ignore her.

Well ahead of you, Kara said, tightening her grips. This girl was a fool. It made sense for Kara to play recklessly; she was level 189 in a starter Mission.

The girl was not. She would only get herself killed, if not here then later, because of her overconfidence.

There it was. After the Ent Core attacked the back with no success, it turned back and ran towards the middle of the lair, leaping high into the air and coming down with enough force that a shockwave scattered everyone around.

Both she and Iris were out of its range, and had sped up before the dust even settled. Kara jumped forward, nearly missing the Ent Core as it rose up and moved to the side. Her dagger did find the back of its neck, dealing 17 damage, but more importantly allowing her to swerve in the air and to bring her feet around, landing on the beast’s collarbone, her sword stabbing the monsters cheeks.

She botched the attack, however. Kara was not able to build enough momentum to penetrate its defenses. Her balance was simply off having to stand in such a tricky position. The tip of her sword only went a couple of inches in and ricocheted off.

This was when Kara would have jumped to the other side, anticipating the Ent Core retaliating, but all her plans went to the ditch when she saw Iris on the other shoulder, two daggers halfway into its neck.

That girl was either a genius or a maniac. If she did not know what she was doing, being at the front of the Ent’s Core not only limited her movements but also shortened the time she would have to react.

Kara could not predict the beast’s next movement. It would have to fall to her quick observational skills and reaction time to stay alive, something a wise warrior should always avoid. Because of the two blades jammed in its eye sockets, the Ent Core stopped using the thorns from its eyes, but the larger, albeit slower thorn still proved to be a problem that needed to be cut off.

Would it attack me first, or her?

The Ent Core attacked both, slapping its neck and shoulder.

Kara stepped up on top of its skull with one foot while the other pressed against the side, increasing her balance. She placed her sword directly above the Ent Core’s skull, her left hand with the dagger placed sideways over the handle.

One second was all she needed to channel gravity on her hand. She had recovered a few points of Equanimity and Energy. Using Amplification would give her enough momentum for the blade to go to the hilt, and then some more.

Under her, she noticed Iris had let go of the daggers in its neck and clung to its chest with her feet on top of the Ent Core’s thigh.

That brat used the same trick Kara did. When the Ent Core slapped its neck, looking for Iris, it had smashed into the two daggers inserted daggers, causing major bleed damage.

One hand reached for her, while the other reached for Iris under her. Kara jumped to the shoulder that was freed up, cursing. Half a quarter second and she would have had the kill.

Iris somehow crawled under its armpits. That was smart; if Iris had let go, she would have been right in between the Ent Core’s legs, and right under the large thorn was keeping everyone else at bay. Running in between its legs was still a big risk, as the Ent Core was hoping from one place to the next, attempting to shake them off.

Kara had no opportunity to attack. The hand chased her, going above its skull in attempts to grab her. She jumped up towards it, stepping on its fingers and then quickly bringing her feet back up without jumping again.

The palm closed instantly and would have crashed her legs if she was a moment slower. She brought her feet down on its fist but had to immediately jump up again as the thorn thrust from below her.

The vultures were smelling the blood. The other raiders began to creep closer, taking advantage of Kara’s flamboyant actions that were attracting the Ent Core’s attention.

Kara could tell the fire swordsman was the second-largest contributor. His flames have done consistent damage to the Ent Core, and if one couldn’t see it they could certainly smell it. His Control Field also gave him contribution points, considering that the bonuses helped her early attack.

Kara landed directly on the thorns, their pikes digging straight through her crude boots.

One or two good penetrations and the kill reward would go to the victor, and hell if Kara was going to be beaten by newbies for it. She began to channel gravity once again, but the thorn lifted upwards.

The Ent Core still had a hand allocated just to get rid of her, which was reasonable considering the agro she had accumulated, right beside the thorn, making jumping back onto its body near impossible.

The best option was to retreat. She had done well to distract the Ent Core for so long; damage was not the only thing that boosted contribution and increased mission rewards, but none of that would help her get the kill.

Kara could not retreat. Her time was quickly running out, and with this body, there was no way to deal significant damage without aiming for the head.

She had enough of messing things up. She ran on the thorn towards its tip, wincing each time her flesh was mangled. The damage and bleed damage was low, but the pain was not. The thorn began to swing above the Ent Core, attempting to throw her off. It kept a hand above its skull, causing Kara to curse. The entire purpose of her delaying her time was that hand would be removed.

One second, that’s all she needed. Gravity had the longest channel but was the most cost-effective for stabbing--she didn’t have enough Energy for a strong Kinetic push. Amplification didn't just add momentum behind a movement, it multiplied it.

The spellsword began to move in. He didn’t need a Scouting skill to realize the Ent Core was dying. He had gathered the flames around his sword, a similar but more advanced technique than what Kara had used. He had his sword at his far side, the flames a danger to him as much as it was to everyone else, even with all the Fire Resistances he must have had.

They were extremely concentrated, circling the blade in thick tendrils. A skill or two prevented the metal from simply melting off, but his time was also limited. It took a great amount of Energy to hold that much Thermal Energy together.

If that hit penetrates Ent Core’s torso, then it would be a guaranteed kill, and it would most definitely penetrate with the Ent Core’s HP being so low. It’s Life Force shield must have dissipated by now, and the Ent Core was too low leveled to be able to re-cast it in battle.

He dashed forward, leaping over a low swipe from its free hand. He began to lift his sword up to the front but had to step to the side when the large thorn swiped straight down, nearly crushing him.

Kara had jumped from the thorn moments before it went down, straight towards the Ent Core’s head. It’s hand, however, blocked her path towards the Ent Core’s head. There was no way forward.

The swordsmen under her charged, dodging the thorn as it swung sideways from the ground. He brought his sword up, grunting from the power held within it, ready to thrust into the Ent’s abdomen.

Kara spun mid-flight, turning away from the Ent Core. She landed on the Ent Core’s palm, and burning the few points of her Equanimity to cast Deviation, Kara sprung from the palm without a before it closed, her sword plunging down with both hands.

In mid-thrust the fire swordsman looked up to see Kara’s sword pierce cleanly through his head, killing him instantly.

Full Penetration!

You have dealt 321 damage!

You have struck a mortal blow!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You are now level 38!

Kara grunted as she spun her entire body towards his right side as the blade sunk further into his head. She twisted it, giving her enough leverage to throw herself towards the ground, and then released it as the Ent Core’s fist smashed into the fire swordsman's head, squishing him to the ground along sides his torso.

The charged sword was a breath away from the ground before Kara bent and picked it up, lifting it upwards and skewering it into the Ent Core’s guts.