Strangely enough, fighting a tree had never been on my bucket list. Even as a kid I hadn't tried to have a go at the big and gentle giants whose branches billowed in the wind. As I gazed upon the storms that brewed in the skies above us and the blue flames that swept across the giant tree’s surface it was clear that this tree was more than a worthy opponent.

Hopefully I’d be able to tell people that I'd won.

“Treasures go to those that are prepared.” Kyle said. “If you guys are confident in your safety, how about we split up?”

The third-year student glided across the air on a sheet of water and a stray blast of lightning lit up his eyes. I could see the excitement within them, and the anticipation in his posture.

He was having fun.

"Okay.” Amanda said.

I showed her a curious look and saw that she was trying to tell me something through her posture.

“Alright.” I agreed. “But stay safe.”

“I can't believe I'm hearing this from the man they called himself Crijik to start fights.” Kyle said.

A moment later he disappeared with a wave, moving toward the top of the tree. Instead of following his path I turned toward Amanda and saw her gazing down at the tree, its house-sized branches swaying violently in the wind.

Then I realised that they weren't swaying randomly. Dozens of glowing bugs were being swept off of the tree's body with each swing of a mighty branch. It was attacking anything they got near it.

“I don't know what's going on with this thing, but it's clearly attuned to something.” Amanda said. “Can you see anything?”

She nudged her head toward the branches, and I swept over them with my [Mana Sense]. All I saw was different types of mana clashing violently. Life, nature, fire, earth, water, and even lightning.

Then I spotted a single bright spot of mana.

"Over there.” I pointed toward it.

The area I'd spotted the anomaly in was one of the bigger branches and its surface was the size of an airplane. We dodged past branches, lining, and the occasional glowing bug and landed on it quickly.

In front of me was a small sprout growing out of the main trunk. For some reason it shone brightly in my vision, and unlike the other sections and branches it wasn't violently collapsing.

“It’s this branch.” I said.

I placed a hand on the trunk and scanned it with my [Mana Sense]. Now that I was close to the tree I could see past the violent storms and flames to check within the tree’s inner self.

What I saw horrified me.

Within my vision I saw the magical being that was in front of me. It was incomplete, and incompatible with itself. One moment the tree was attuned to lightning, and then it was attuned to water. It switched to nature, and then to fire. The shifting presences hurt to look at, and I was surprised that the tree was still clinging to life. With so many different types of magic coursing through its veins it should have imploded the moment it was born.

Instead, it was dying a slow and agonising death.

“Did I do this to you?” I whispered.

My question went unanswered as my words were dragged away by the howling winds. One way or another my mana had impacted the events of today. I would have to be more careful in the future.

“Yeah, this could work.” Amanda said. “Do you have a way to take it out safely?”

I withdrew my senses and focused on the prize in front of me.

"I think I do.” I said.

The branch I was aiming for was tiny compared to the house size behemoths threatening us. It was hardly bigger than my arm. Despite that, I could feel the harmony in the magic within it. The reason it had lasted so long compared to everything else was because a stable connection had formed between the attunements within it.

Unfortunately, all of those attunements were still growing in power and fighting each other for supremacy. The moment a single element grew stronger than the others the peace would be broken.

The temporary harmony wouldn't be enough to save the branch’s life, but it did mean that it would live a few seconds longer than the giant it was growing out of. If I was going to extract it then I needed a way to stop the elements from growing in power. Otherwise, they would continue to clash within the branch until all that was left was ash.

There was only one way to stop the branch from imploding. A bottle appeared in my hand, taken carefully out of my inventory.

It was the Time magic that Gerial had given me.

Every night I used it to freeze my body in preparation for activating my Mark. Gerial had been clear in his instructions. If I took it, my body would freeze in time. It wouldn't grow, or progress, and even my skills and levels would stop.

Exactly what I wanted to do with the attunements inside the branch.

I knew that it wasn't that simple. The Time magic worked differently from person to person. Gerial had given me enough for my body, and possibly enough for any grown man. But the tree was gigantic, and its magic was unstable. Most of it was collapsing under the weight of its own power, and the Time couldn't stop things from being hurt or dying.

It was impossible to halt the time of the whole tree, but a smaller section would be possible. I just had to remove it first.

The silver in my hands formed a blade and I cut through the blue veins of the branch, flames spewing forth from the tree as it wailed in protest. Clouds sprang forth from the treetops and lightning gathered together, threatening to overwhelm me with a sudden burst of attacks. At the corners of my vision I could see mighty branches the size of my house crashing toward me, destroying everything in their path.

The moment the lightning left the clouds it was met with golden fire.

Amanda hovered above me, her hand outstretched as a wall of flames enveloped the air, staving off the lightning and burning through the trunk of the tree. With a flap of her wings she shot into the air. At the tip of her finger a small orb of flames glowed white-hot and she met the branches of the tree with laughter as she split the wood with her concentrated flames. Blue fire threatened to overwhelm her, but she ignored it and crashed through the incoming branches as I worked on cutting the piece of tree in my hand.

I didn't have time to concentrate on freeing the branch and defending myself. I had to rely only on Gold’s handiwork.

A few bolts of lightning made it past Amanda’s barriers, and they met with orange shields as I activated Gold’s regents. Each attack was devastatingly strong, and soon half a dozen shields had been broken through.

In a few more seconds my defenses would falter.

Then the silver jolted as the resistance faded, and the glowing branch fell in front of me, held in place as I clasped it down with metal.

The branch was free.

I weaved the Time magic as carefully as I could onto the branch. It wasn't difficult to use since the spell was designed for the everyday person to wield. A single day was all I needed to use for the branch. I wasn't sure if that time would allow it to stabilize, or if it would only keep the branch intact until the moment it ran out, but that was a risk I was willing to take.

The Time magic stretched over the branch and its crackling branches dimmed. At first I thought I'd killed it, but looking at it with my [Mana Sense] showed that everything within the branch was calm. The ever-fluctuating attunements were still within it, as was the magic, but now they coexisted in harmony, frozen in place and staying there instead of clashing.

"It worked!" I shouted.

A figure wreathed in flames dropped down next to me.

"Good, because this place is about to blow.” Amanda said. "Where’s Kyle?”

I looked across the exploding tree as magic and nature threatened to tear it apart. At the top section of the tree where the clouds were at their strongest I saw the third year student holding his hands up high, rain and lightning showering down onto his body. A wide smile was spread across his face and he took in the attacks without a care in the world.

He looked like he was having the time of his life.

As though sensing my eyes on him, Kyle turned toward me and beamed. He gave me a small wave and smile, and then disappeared. The lightning and rain wavered, unsure where to go now that their opponent had disappeared. They settled for bombarding the only section of the tree that hadn't been destroyed.

My section.

“I guess that means that he’s fine." I said.

My hands clasped together, and a wall of dirt appeared and blocked the lightning strikes. Each bolt tore a chunk out of my spell, and I was forced to refill the wall with stone blocks from my inventory. Then they were destroyed as well. The lightning was growing fiercer, and the tree creaked and groaned as its trunk began to tear apart. The clash of flames and storm was reaching its peak as they consumed what was left of the tree’s midsection.

“We’ve gotta go.” Amanda said.

A thousand shrieks pierced the area as the tree’s trunk cracked into two pieces, its bark and insides protesting as they were shredded by lightning and blue flames.

In the next moment we were falling,

The section of the tree that we'd been standing on only a moment before was crashing to the ground below as it was forcibly cut off from the main trunk, and wind buffeted my body and cut off my shouts. As the ground grew closer, I put the branch into my inventory and focused on a solution to get away from the dying tree.

I reached into my inventory and pulled out the strongest thing inside. It was the Box.

A quick glance to my side showed Amanda and Agni falling alongside me, their transformation broken by the sudden change of events. Amanda shot me a look and I gave her a thumbs up.

Then I focused on getting us to safety.

[Earth Manipulation] activated and the Box flipped open, the door hanging wide as the stone block swallowed us whole. I softened the walls inside as Amanda, Agni and I smashed into the incoming room. The moment I came into contact with its walls, I focused on moving the box out of the tree’s assault, its branches crashing all around us and the winds threatening to knock us aside.

The door to the Box swung wildly in the breeze and refused to close as my mind failed to grasp it. Violent motions weren't conducive to magical cooperation. All I could do was hold on tight and watch as we moved through the air.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long. Because a second later the tree exploded.

The shockwave of energy split the sky and reverberated through the holy land. I saw waves of blue flames crash against the sanctuary’s walls, the giant buildings standing defiantly against the onslaught of nature.

A moment later, it was finished.

The storm's winds calmed and then disappeared as though they had never existed. The wave of blue flames evaporated into thin air, and the giant tree that had held so much magic inside of it was torn in half, ashes and broken branches scattered across the area that had been its domain only moments before. There were also a lot of dead bugs, their glowing bodies dimming as their corpses lay scattered across the destruction.

A quick check showed that the branch sat in my inventory and glowed a soft green. Two cloudy petals hung precariously off of a twig growing out of its side and crisscrossing its surface were a dozen blue veins filled with fire.

“Great. All that for a piece of wood.” I said. “Funnily enough, I think I'd do that again. Is that crazy?”

There was a groan beside me as Amanda rolled over onto her back, her uniform blackened by the ash of the tree. Agni chirped, her voice low and tired. The two of them had spent more time transformed than ever before, and it was showing in their weary expression.

“I didn't think that would be so terrifying. Or so fun. Did you know I managed to go my entire life without fighting a tree?” Amands said. “And now if people ask me if I've fought a tree I get to say that I have. But I guess I also have to say that the tree won.”

Amanda shifted her head to the side to face me, and her hair illuminated the ground. Agni was beside her, soot falling off the phoenix’s feather coat as she ruffled her feathers. Both of them had smiles on their faces, or so I assumed for Agni. I could definitely see one on Amanda.

“If anyone asks, we blew up the tree.” I said. “That sounds much more heroic than getting smacked out of the air by a branch.”

“Deal.” She said.

Agni let out a low chirp and Amanda’s head shot up. I followed their gaze and spotted a wave of water approaching us. At first, I thought it was Kyle, but then a head of blonde hair and a muscular teenager with a cocky smile stared down at us from the sky.

It was Roxxy and William.

“We're here to help!” Roxxy said.

Her proud declaration was met with zero applause as I collapsed back into the ground, my head digging into the dirt. Amanda managed a weak cheer and Agni followed with a puff of flames. The phoenix looked like she'd already recovered.

A pair of wings obscured my vision as a puffer dropped down on top of me and a pair of beady eyes looked down at me curiously.

"Hey, buddy.” I said.

Gold chirped and I took a treat out of my inventory for him to eat, but he ignored it and chose to sit down, settling down on my chest and making himself comfortable as I lay on the ground.

“What happened here?” William asked.

I paused, and then a smile tugged on my lips.

“We blew up a tree.”