Chapter 45: Actively Hunting III
Boom!
It only took a second for a bike to slam into Damien and send him flying and tumbling into the distance once again.
«-100 units of Life Force!»
"What the?" He didn\'t even have time to catch his breath before another attack descended on where he\'d landed.
Boom!
The vine slammed into the thick green grasses on the ground, leaving a long trail of ruin and decay. The grasses on its path would never be growing again. Why?
It was because of the same reason Damien had suddenly lost a hundred units of his life force so suddenly.
As he looked at the trail of dead grasses in where he should\'ve been lying down, Damien understood why he\'d lost that amount of life force.
"Those annoying vines are sucking the life force out of whatever they come in contact with." He murmured to himself.
It was only now he noticed that Fenrir and Cerbe were actually dodging or destroying whatever vine came close to them. The vines posed more of a threat than the tree trunk itself.
Damien slowly stood up, taking slow steps backward do he didn\'t draw the attention of the trees anymore than he already had.
Crunch!
He stepped on another tree vine behind him and he felt something wrap around his leg. "Damn it!" Damien cursed as he felt his life force drop again.
«-100 units of Life Force!»
«-100 units of Life Force!»
The tree vine pulled his legs off the ground and after a full spin, he was released, flung toward another part of the battlefield.
Boom!
There was another muffled explosion as Damien\'s back connected with one of the normal trees around.
There was a small dent in the tree that suggested Damien had collided heavily with the tree trunk.
"Damn it, Damien! You\'re supposed to be stronger than this and yet, here you are!" He cursed under his breath, slowly rising from the ground in frustration.
"You were given a second have by the God of Summons and yet, you\'re still getting tossed around like a ragdoll by trees! Trees!" Damien\'s eyes took account of the entire battlefield as he wanted to pinpoint where to join from and where he could best hit to cause maximum destruction.
Rooooaaar!!
Fenrir let out a feral roar once again, its sound shaking the surrounding area that one wouldn\'t know where they were heading it from.
Damien had just moved a few steps when he spotted his bone sword still embedded in the bottom of the tree he\'d been fighting against. They were dead from Cerbe\'s magic (Flames of Hell) but his sword was still stuck in it.
Damien gritted his teeth, muttering words only he could hear. "Those bastards are really annoying."
He turned toward the direction of his sword, running off toward the weapon without a moment of hesitation. "You better be worth it. My life\'s on the line."
As he closed in, entering the range of the other Tree Demons, three vines shot out from three different angles as they looked to drain him of his life force once again. "Not this time you bastards!"
Damien roared, charging forward despite the approaching vines. The first one arrived from his front in a slow sweep and Damien slid forward on his knees, bending backward to dodge the vine that would\'ve struck his head if he\'d been any slower.
"That\'s minus one." He laughed as he jumped back to his feet and continued his race down toward his sword. The second vine arrived from his left side, its sharpened tip shooting forward as though it planned to impale Damien.
From the right side came a similar attack albeit a little slower than the first. "They lack coordination. Good for me, bad for them."
Damien paused his run and then jumped back slightly to dodge the vine coming at him from his left.
Swisssh!
The vine shot past his front and Damien sighed in relief just for a split second before he remembered the other one coming for him from the other side.
He slid under the first one in his front and rolled over to the side.
Another unexpected fine landed where Damien should\'ve been.
"I\'m beginning to see it. Their attacks. It\'s becoming clearer as I push forward." He smiled as he pushed himself up again, continuing his race to his sword.
Finally, he arrived in front of the bone sword, pulling it out of the crisply burnt Tree Demon. It was then he noticed what he\'d missed before. "They each have a different spot for their core. That\'s great! Now I have to start sensing their cores to know where it is located before attacking."
Damien sighed and turned back to the others. There were still two dozen Tree Demons present but it still felt overwhelming.
Damien could see the exhaustion on his Summons. Although they were both Grade Five mana beasts like the Tree Demons, they had limits. Their stamina could dwindle at any point. And even more astounding was that they\'d managed to slay more than a dozen Tree Demons already.
Just when he finally thought they could win or at least slay enough to make a run for it, things went sideways.
Boom!
There was a louder explosion compared to the previous ones that had been happening all around the battlefield since the beginning. The explosion blew up smoke that covered the entire battlefield momentarily blinding Damien.
"The hell\'s that?" Damien asked, trying to blow away the dust with his hand so he could see the silhouettes covered by the smoke.
Kreeeeee!!
The screech was even more ear splitting compared to the previous ones he\'d heard. The smoke slowly died down revealing a new figure.
Actually, multiple new figures. There were over a dozen new Tree Demons and among them was one that towered over fifty metres in height.
"Huh?" This one had a scarier auram one that Damien had only felt from one beast. One he\'d felt from Fenrir. "That\'s definitely not good!"