Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Chapter 412: Trembling Walls
"Incoming!" Douglas roared at the top of his lungs as he brandished his sword and horizontally swung at the rapidly descending darkness. Brown flames met the blazing darkness as he hit it with all his empowered might. There was a satisfying crunch of bone as the monster was flung into the side of a runically enhanced battlement following the arc of his sword—obliterating it.
"Hah," Douglas let out a gasp as he raised his sword up once more. That was a good hit, but he could tell that wasn't enough to down the beast. He squinted his eyes and peered through the rain pour and haze of dust quickly being whisked away by the gales.
The darkness that had shrouded the beast during its descent like a haze washed away, revealing a grotesque and half-decayed lizard. It had purple-tinted hardened flesh, and half of its face had melted away to expose the dark blue flesh below. Its last remaining beady red eye glared at him with hunger and malice as the monster snarled and sluggishly righted itself.
Douglas got ahold of himself and used his spiritual sense to probe the monster. Oh, thank all that is fucking good in this world. It's near the peak but still in the Soul Fire Realm. I should have a chance, especially with how hurt it already is. Despite this discovery, his hand still tightened around his sword handle, and he gritted his teeth. He was used to fighting humans in the streets of Darklight City, not brutish monsters.
The monster's bones cracked ominously as it stretched upwards to reach its full height, a head taller than Douglas. It tilted its head and watched him through a narrowed vertical eyelid with its one working eye.
Now that Douglas had a better look at his foe, he noticed its sleek body and the lethal claws at the ends of its four limbs digging into the stone wall. He wasn't an expert on monsters, but he could guess this one's fighting style from a glance. It would likely hunt at night under the cover of the darkness. Once it eyed prey, it would silently dive down and impale them with its claws before the target could react.
It was a monster that relied on surprise and speed to hunt, both of which it had lost, meaning it should be beatable. Though it will take my head off if it swipes at me with one of those claws at full strength, and I don't block it. Douglas took a hesitant step back, which turned out to be the right move as the monster lunged forward at the same moment.
"Woah!!" Douglas yelped as he felt the wind of the claw passing his nose. His instincts reacted faster than his mind as he pivoted, and his sword met another set of claws coming from above in a shower of sparks. His posture was poor, and the monster had caught him off guard, but his superior cultivation came into play. Even without the use of a technique, his raw strength more than made up for it. "Agh," he grunted as his Star Core blazed in his chest, flooding his body with strength, and he pushed the monster back. Now that it was off balance, he struck forward with a Qi-wreathed foot right into the monster's chest, toppling it.
The wall beneath him trembled from the large monster's weight slamming down, and a fissure formed between them. Finally, I got you on the ground—right where I want you. Douglas pushed his Qi into the wall and felt his presence spread out into the structure as if it had become an extension of his very being. I may not have Star Core Realm techniques, but I wonder how you will feel with a sharpened basement support pillar through the brain. He smirked and gestured upwards. The monster noticed its impending doom a moment too late and was too sluggish to dodge. The stone spike ruptured below it, impaling the surprised beast through the neck. It let out a gargled scream and clawed at the spike, leaving deep gouges before finally going limp.
"I missed its head despite how confused and half-dead it already was," Douglas clicked his tongue, a little disappointed in himself. The enemy was a whole realm below, and monsters were considerably more stupid than humans until the later cultivation realms. Did I hit its spine? He wondered as he leaned in closer, only to see something coming for him in the corner of his eye. With no time to dodge, he coated his arm in conjured earth and ate the attack head-on. It was weak, barely managing to push him back a step. Though it did crack the hastily conjured stone and tear into his suit and skin.
Bringing up his other arm, he grabbed the monster's wrist and ripped the claw away. Losing all strength, the monster's arm swung and clattered against the stone spike.
"You were still alive?" Douglas blinked in disbelief at the blood trickling from his arm. The fucker literally has a stone spike through its neck, and it still made a weak but last-ditch attempt to kill me? So this is what fighting a bloodthirsty monster is like. It may be stupid, but god damn is it ruthless. It had nothing to gain from that last ditch attempt other than killing me with it.
Fuck. Douglas spat to the side in disgust that he had almost lost his life to such a weak foe in such a way. Stella would make so much fun of me if she saw this. I bet she could pull this monster apart without moving a muscle.
"Grand Elder!"
Oh shit, I forgot about Hugo. Douglas turned around to see his fellow earth cultivator covered in a suit of earth and trying to fight the monster with his fists.
He was barely holding out his own. Blood, like red and blue war paint, stained his robes from head to toe. Hugo was in a battle to the death with a monster that could end in either favor at any moment.
Douglas helped end the fight with a flare of his Star Core pressure, sending the monster off balance and letting Hugo get a solid punch right into the monster's face, decapitating it in a shower of blood. Just for good measure, Douglas ruptured a stone spike out of the wall to impale its body and keep it in place.
I can't believe I forgot about my Star Core pressure in the earlier fight. Douglas berated himself. While it wasn't strong enough to make weaker beings kneel at his feet, it was still something he could rely on.
"My greatest thanks, Grand Elder. You honestly saved me there." Hugo staggered over to him and gave a short and seemingly painful bow. "My life is indebted to you."
"No need for that, Hugo," Douglas put a hand on his shoulder and encouraged the man to stand again. "How is your condition."
Hugo gave a pained smile, "Not good. I used up most of my Qi reserves, and unless there's a healer around here, I will be bedridden for a while."
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"I understand," Douglas looked to the skies. They had defeated two—yet there were hundreds still to come. This was the true terror of the beast tide. Not the individual monsters but the sheer number of them. Fighting cost cultivators Qi, and if they got ganged up on, they could also lose their lives. A sect could ward off the tide for a while, but eventually, people would run out of Qi, and then the deaths started soaring as they got surrounded by stronger monsters than before while being weakened.
Douglas knew neither of them were great fighters, and it showed. But it was still quite alarming that he had gotten injured due to carelessness while fighting one, while Hugo had nearly died.
Is it really a good idea for us to stay? Douglas clenched his teeth. I know the Boss is unable to move as he's a tree. But can he really save us all from this nightmare?
An explosion drew his attention, followed by a blinding flash of light in the sky. One of the flying monsters seemed to have been hit by the blast as the darkness shrouding it fizzled away. The monster was on fire. It glided along with the other monsters while trailing smoke before tilting downward and nosediving to the ground. Douglas watched in slow motion as the large beast smacked into the ground in a gory pulp. Black mist from the wasteland engulfed it, and the pile of flesh and bone was reduced to nothing within seconds.
What was that explosion of light? Douglas traced the trajectory and saw a group of Mudcloaks on the wall reloading what looked like a large cannon. It took up the entire wall and was ten meters long. Buckets of spirit stones were lined up alongside its length, with Mudcloaks passing them to one another and pouring them into a hole at the top.
"Oh yeah, the Mudcloaks built a few cannons," Hugo said, wincing halfway through the sentence due to the pain. "They are bloody impressive things, you know? Those cannons can take out a few monsters at a time if they are grouped up. There's just a few problems with it."
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"Such as?" Douglas inquired, curious as to Hugo's insights.
"Slow reload time, the number of spirit stones they use per shot is more than I'd make in a year, and worst of all..." Hugo pointed to the sky at the monsters that had changed course and were now diving down toward the Mudcloaks, "It's a giant fucking target."
A dozen monsters similar to the one they had just fought off dove toward the cannon at insane speed. They were merely a shadowy blur, only briefly illuminated by a flash of lightning overhead. Douglas watched as the Mudcloaks hastily tilted the cannon upward to point at the incoming threat. The world went white before the monsters reached them as the cannon was fired point-blank. Half the monsters blew up instantly, pieces of them falling short of their target and smashing into the wall below.
One of the still-alive monsters that seemed disorientated from the blinding light managed to hook its claws on the cannon's barrel and, using its momentum, topple it to the side. The Mudcloaks let out a cry as they jumped off the falling cannon to avoid being crushed by it.
"We've got to go and help them." Douglas panicked.
"Hold on, Grand Elder," Hugo's bloodied hand clasped his shoulder, rooting him in place.
"What?!" Douglas glared over his shoulder. If he didn't act quickly, the Mudcloaks would be slaughtered.
"They are strong," Hugo gestured to the skies with his chin, "And we need to worry about ourselves first."
Douglas looked at the incoming darkness and gulped. "This... is impossible. We can't fight this. Shit, I have an idea." Fumbling at his suit pocket, he retrieved a communication jade. Surging Qi into it, the artifact lit up with a green glow in his hand. "Come on, come on, come on. Please work. Someone pick up—"
"Who is this?" a voice came through. The person was distorted due to the distance, but Douglas recognized it.
"Diana, thank the heavens. It's Douglas. Can you get the Boss for me?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"I'm at the forest on the front lines. A horde of flying monsters is about to murder us all here." Douglas shouted at the top of his lungs into the tiny pendant over the roaring rain and horns. He could flee on his sword, but he didn't want to leave the Mudcloaks to be slaughtered. Yet staying was suicide. He simply wasn't strong enough to deal with this.
"Understood." Diana said with all the professionalism he had come to expect from her, "Stella is with Ashlock now in his Inner World. Hold on for a moment while I contact her."
Douglas had never been so relieved to hear Stella's name.
"Thank you, and be quick." Douglas cut his Qi to the artifact, and it dimmed, returning to an ordinary-looking piece of jade. He stared at it for a moment. He felt rather pathetic calling for help but also recognized it was good not to be stubborn sometimes and to accept his limits. This is not your fight. Leave it to the true powerhouses.
"Called for help?" Hugo asked.
Douglas nodded as he looked to the sky, "Yeah... yeah I did."
Hugo snorted, "That's not like a powerful earth cultivator. Everyone I've met, especially those from the Ironfist Brotherhood, would stand and fight until their last breath."
Douglas smirked, "And how many are dead?"
"All of them, a bunch of blockheaded idiots," Hugo said, "Yet we still stand here, half dead with our swords raised. Just like them."
"Some things never change."
They both heartily laughed in the face of death as five monsters descended upon them. "Hold strong. The fight's not over yet. Let's not join those fools in death!" Douglas unleashed his Star Core toward the monsters to try to flatten them with his soul pressure. The monsters faltered and tumbled toward the wall. Now! Douglas pounded his foot into the wall, causing many earth spikes to erupt outward.
The monsters fearlessly barreled through his attacks, showering them in rubble. Douglas shrugged off the falling stones with a determined grin as he met a set of claws once more in a shower of sparks. Despite his resolve, the force was too much to bear with his injured arm this time, so he was sent flying. Ugh, what the? Was that monster in the Star Core Realm? Douglas was dazed as he slumped against a battlement. His head was pounding, and his body was alight with pain. I really should have practiced fighting more. Curse the seven mountains of Aymar. This is a stupid way to die.
Hugo screamed as his body soared over Douglas's head. Douglas managed to tilt his head to watch Hugo crash behind him, rolling a few times before coming to an abrupt and painful stop on a battlement.
"We really are—" Douglas gulped as two half-decayed monsters emerged from the downpour. One was still munching on Hugo's arm, which had been torn off. "—so fucked. But to hell with this."
He gritted his teeth and raised his sword with a trembling arm. For a Star Core Realm earth cultivator to be reduced to such a state by some flying lizards was truly pathetic.
"I can't die here—not now." Douglas staggered to his feet, "I still have too much to live for. Elaine is waiting for me back home, and I swear on the heavens I ain't going to give Stella a reason to laugh at my corpse!" Activating the artifact ring on his finger, he picked up some rubble with telekinesis and flung it at the beasts before they could react. Under the cover of the flying rubble, he propelled himself forward by exploding the battlement behind him and shot at the monster on the left. His sword, held by both hands like an arrow, impaled the monster's stomach that had raised its arms to block the rubble.
"Take that, you purple fucker," Douglas twisted his sword and, with all his strength, drew it upwards, attempting to slice the monster in half. "Aha!" He triumphantly shouted as the monster fell backward in a shower of blood but then gasped as the air was squeezed out of his lungs by two sets of claws seizing him. He tried to pull his sword out, but it was lodged firmly in the downed monster's shoulder. His feet left the ground as he was pulled upwards, and the sword's hilt fell out of his grasp.
No, please. Douglas's fingers flexed but grasped at nothing but air. Ow—shit—ahhhHHHH. The pain of being squeezed to death by sharp claws was agonizing, and it was made all the worse as the monster opened its maw and loomed over him.
Looking down the abyss of the monster's throat, he was overwhelmed by the putrid stench that made his eyes water. Douglas cursed his earth Qi for giving him nothing but more durability. Anyone else would have been crushed and torn to shreds by now. Lucky me, I get to experience death from being chewed alive by an overgrown lizard.
The monster's jaw wrapped around his torso, and he could feel the wet tongue of the beast running down his back, followed by its set of razor teeth impaling his skin. If this is what death felt like, he couldn't blame all those vengeful souls that inhabited the Boss's sword.
"I'm sorry, Ashfallen Sect. Stella, Diana, you two be good. Little Jasmine, too. I hope she grows up not too corrupted by Stella's teachings." Douglas screwed his eyes shut, "Elaine, I'm sorry. I never got to ask you the question if you would—"
The monster let out a strange gargle, followed by a tearing sound. Douglas opened his eyes in time to witness as the beast was seemingly pulled apart perfectly down the middle. The two bloodied halves fell to the wayside, exposing him once again to the pouring rain.
"Douglas, were you seriously about to be eaten by this weak-ass lizard?" Stella stood there with her arms crossed. White aether flames flickered across her skin, making her seem like an ethereal angel sent to save him as her whole body glowed. Or at least she might seem like an angel if not for the trail of dead bodies in her wake and her amused smirk.
"No, I actually had the lizard right where I wanted him." Douglas said sarcastically as he clutched his arm, "Any moment I was about to unleash my secret move and win."
"Uh huh, is that so?" Stella said lazily as she side-eyed the sky. The silver rings on her hand flashed with power, and a hundred swords appeared at once, floating above her head and pointing toward the monsters. With nothing but a flick of her finger, the swords vanished into the aether, only to reappear a second later and brutally tear through all the incoming monsters, reducing the horde to a bloody haze.
What was left of them crashed into the base of the wall, making it tremble.
Douglas was speechless. They were in the same realm of power, but the gap between them was like heaven and earth. "Thank you, Stella, " he said, as that was all there was to say. "You really saved me."
"Huh?" Stella glanced at him, clearly distracted by micromanaging a hundred swords through another dimension. "Did you say something?"
Douglas shook his head and smiled, "Nah, nothing at all."
Stella shrugged, "Okay. Why were you fighting anyway? Didn't you come to get your buddies for the city project?"
"Yeah..."
"Just leave this to Ash and me," Stella said, looking away. "We've got it covered."
"The Boss? He is coming?"
"Any moment now—ah, here he is." Stella brightened up. Douglas looked around, not noticing any change until a godly presence washed over him and blanketed the land. Unlike the pressure of a powerful cultivator with an obvious origin point, the Boss's presence was all-encompassing. It was as if he were the overlord of the land itself, and there was no escape from him.
The tree nearest to the wall behind him erupted with divine power. A flame of gold reached up to the heavens like a beacon for all, blazed with a radiance that calmed the hearts of all and instilled absolute fear in the monsters.
Overhead, the sky was torn apart by a portal of ridiculous size. Multiple Bastions cruised through the rift with their shields up and artillery ready to rain hell upon the world.
Yet Douglas focused on the tree that the Boss had taken over. A portal through the wall opened, and black vines erupted from the soil around the golden tree. They went through the portal to wrap around the corpses and drag them back.
What is he doing?
Douglas assumed the Boss would devour the monsters, but waves of death Qi followed. If not for Stella casually throwing up an aether shield in front of him, he might have been knocked out.
"Thanks," Douglas said as he stepped away from the edge.
"Can you just leave already?" Stella huffed the hair out of her face, "And take your half-dead friend over there with you."
Douglas nodded and went to pick up Hugo, but he cast a quick glance at the tree. The dead lizards piled up around the tree were twisting into wooden creatures wreathed in shadows. The revived monsters looked to the skies and flexed their new bodies.
The Boss hasn't come here to feast. Douglas's eyes widened. He's here to make an army.
