I started running towards the trees which were slowly creeping closer to our location. I was getting ready to cast an earthen spike when suddenly one of the roots moved, and, with lightning speed, lashed out at me. I barely managed to create an earthen wall to block it before backing off.

“Wasn’t expecting that. Last time I fought one of these it was slow, incredibly slow.”

“How about you try to block things and I try to attack?” Cellestra suggested.

“That could work. Problem is, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get close enough for that. It might be worth targeting their roots first. I had to do that back then in order to bring down a separate barrier that protected the orb. While my spell should be stronger now, it’s not a bad idea to sever the roots one by one anyway, just to reduce the risks we take.”

“Got it,” Cellestra said with a nod. “Ready when you are.”

I cast my weapon imbuement and readied my halberd, ready to strike down any roots that would be blocked by my walls. I figured the best way to go about this fight was to use the experience I had from the previous time I fought something similar. That would be weakening it as much as possible, before shattering their shields.

“If you see a certain glow at the base of their roots, do warn me. We have yet to confirm they possess the same protective measures.”

The brunette nodded again as I approached one of the trees. As expected, more roots converged on me, some of which I blocked with an earthen wall, while others, slower ones, were cut down by my halberd.

Green sap oozed forth from where the tendrils were cut. Just like before, these roots weren’t protected by any kind of barrier, at least not physically. Moments later, a larger, thicker root neared us which Cellestra severed with a well-aimed earthen spike while I protected us both from some smaller ones.

It seemed that physical attacks weren’t the only ones we’d have to be worried about. Bolts of a liquid that looked similar to the plant fluids were flung our way, but collided with an ice wall. At the same time, a barrage of barbs was aimed at my head. Some of them collided with me, but were stopped by my multi-barrier before I managed to summon an air wall.

I was forced on the defensive and couldn’t cast damaging spells while I maintained both walls. I was, however, free to use my weapon and did what I could, cutting through tendrils that got too close.

Cellestra continued to summon earthen spikes, rarely missing, and doing significant damage while I continued to make sure that no harm would fall to either of us. I ran a few circles and let her cast whatever she could before backing off, keeping walls up to block ranged attacks as we deliberated.

“How’s your mana pool looking?” I asked.

“Plenty left,” She replied. “It looks like we’re starting to make progress. I think I saw the orb you talked about too on one of our passes.”

“Glad to hear that,” I said as I charged back into the fight.

We were fortunate enough that our enemies, despite being faster than I’d expected with their melee attacks, were still slow to move around. They, in part, made up for that with ranged attacks, but none of their attempts was the kind that would bypass my defenses, not as long as we played it safe.

I looked at the many wounds we’d inflicted. Many of the trees’ roots had been cut down at least to a certain degree. We hadn’t been able to get close enough to sever them at the base of the trunks due to the fact that there were three enemies, which meant there would simply be too much for me to block. We’d get there, but not taking large risks meant that we’d burn through additional mana.

We could take risks in hopes of speeding things up, and perhaps save mana, but risks were to be avoided, at least in my book.

We continued our methodical destruction of our enemies by cutting off their limbs, one by one. One thing I noticed during this fight, as opposed to the dungeon guardian, was that none of these produced any sound that could be mistaken for speech, let alone form coherent words. It wouldn’t have made a difference as we’d attack them either way, but it made things easier on my mind.

We kept whittling away at our foes, inching closer to our goal – the orbs – with each attack that we made. Retaliation against us weakened as we cut through the trees’ ‘limbs’, which allowed me to join Cellestra’s attacks as I could make do with just a single barrier.

Our devastation mounted, sundering more and more of the enemies’ weapons. As we got closer, the trees now started using their branches in an attempt to squish us, but we were simply too fast. Cellestra and I both kept summoning earthen spikes, sapping the trio’s strength until the orbs were vulnerable.

Three more earthen spikes were summoned under their trunks, which shattered glass and brought down the magical barriers that had protected our adversaries from harm. I fired off one ice lance and watched it strike bark and remain there, telling me what I needed to know.

From there, I kept a bit of distance and started channeling my flame beam spell, engulfing the trees in fire one after the other. All this fighting had taken its toll on my mana reserves and I knew that I’d have too little remaining to safely engage in more fights after this one, so I kept the spell going, watching it grow in intensity and heat, ensuring the demise of our foes.

Wood burned and charred as the creatures toppled, defeated. I canceled my channel and watched as the flames licked away until four messages showed up, confirming their deaths, and notifying me of an achievement.

You have killed a Large Ent: No experience was awarded.

You have killed a Large Ent: No experience was awarded.

Achievement earned: Nature’s Bane

Kill any 3 Nature-type adversaries

You have been awarded 150 EP

You have been awarded 0 EXP

You have killed a Large Ent: No experience was awarded.

I sighed, knowing that this battle was over, but also because I knew that our trial had come to an end. It wasn’t viable for us to continue from here.

“How are you feeling?” I asked. “Honest answer.”

“I don’t think I can do much more. I have some mana left, but most of it was used here.”

“Same,” I replied. “I think it’s safe to say that this is how far we got.”

Cellestra nodded. “Let’s inform Selleron.”

“Yes, but first…” I said as I walked towards the gaping holes left in the ground where the trees had been rooted. “Let’s see if there’s any treasure here.”

The brunette giggled as I skittered through the dirt, looking for valuables. If there was any place to store them on this floor, I imagined it would be somewhere here.

I looked around for a few minutes, even going as far as digging some, but my search efforts came up dry. There was nothing here, to my disappointment. After one last attempt at finding something, I made my way back to the guard captain and informed him of our decision to stop here.

“I admire your decision, Kealyna, Cellestra. There aren’t many new adventurers who know their limits. You did great, and exceeded my expectations by getting beyond this obstacle. Only a few manage to do so.”

“I had luck on my side,” I started. “Luck that I fought something similar to them, so I more or less knew what could await me. Turns out it was pretty much the same.”

“I see,” Selleron said. “Either way, congratulations. Felmar will finish your assessment and you both will have a rank and tag tomorrow. Feel free to explore this dungeon as much as you want, I think you know your limits well enough, but do be careful if you plan to advance beyond this point. A group of five or six members is advised in general. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get a bunch of information tomorrow about things so I won’t go into it much further.”

He turned to one of the men in armor.

“Felmar, will that be all?”

The guild clerk, disguised as a guard, nodded in response.

“All set.”

“Great,” Selleron said, a smile behind his helmet. “I had a great time observing you two go at it. Thank you for that.”

No doubt he’d seen a few interesting things I had up my sleeve. I knew that there was always the slight possibility he’d view me as a threat, and, from a military perspective, I could somewhat understand it.

I hoped he wouldn’t, and I’d make sure to not give him a reason to.