Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Soti was finally recovering from the disease status, thanks to the support of the various priests from the raid party. Although she felt ill, she roughly knew the situation. The bard was gone and the massive beasts were currently held back by the parties that regained their ability to act.

Demus faced the legendary bird and Jarvan was hunting the Minotaur. The bishop didn't need help but if she could take down the Minotaur's support, the flying centipede, and the Imugi, Jarvan would be able to quickly dispatch the beast and return. With Jarvan here, it would be easy to turn this situation around.

At this point, Soti knew that this was a fruitless struggle. Just to resist and re-assemble they were exhausting their resources. Once Demus got rid of the eagle, they would have to make a decision. Try to keep fighting the tree, or retreat through the portal the tree kept open.

Resisting the vertigo still left of the symptoms, she looked at the sky. Past the golden giant being blasted by spells, she could see the two beasts giving Jarvan a hard time. They were floating just below the emerald crown of the tree. One was a black Imugi, like a giant serpent with a dragon-like head and four stout, strong legs.

The other was a creature she had never seen before. Appraisal called it an Ivicer. It looked like a giant centipede, even longer than the pseudo-dragon. Its body was covered in a white carapace, smooth like porcelain and covered in golden markings.

Its massive golden head resembled a scarab, with the neck shield looking like opened wings. Soti raised her legendary bow and aimed her at one of the six eyes. This one was the biggest obstacle, so she decided to take it out first.

She had nocked the arrow and aimed the shot, but she hesitated when the golden colossus suddenly evaded the magic spells and bent over to the wall of wood, the giant tree trunk that covered her left field of view completely.

It had grabbed onto a branch that the elf had not noticed before. No, she would have remembered if it had been there before. It had appeared there! Pressing his other hand against the trunk he started... pulling the branch out?

Her jaw fell open when the branch actually moved. As if unsheathing a sword from the tree, the colossus pulled and the branch became longer and longer! The wood emerging from the trunk was smooth, with sharp edges glinting in the sun.

Soti was too busy staring at the colossal wooden sword the giant had just pulled from the trunk, to utter a curse. The colossus took a practiced stance with his new weapon as if declaring himself the King of Delta, after pulling the sword from the tree.

The wooden sword had a menacing aura, even when it was just held still. The next moment she heard an incredibly loud sound. It was huge amounts of air, screaming as they were cut apart by the giant blade. With one, terrifyingly quick move, he had swung the sword and blocked most of the spells shot at him.

Her heart sank. The spells were already unable to harm the giant before, only able to push him away from the barrier, but now? The colossus took a stance, unmistakably the stance of swordsmanship! The wooden sword in his hand actually began glowing with sword aura.

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The golden colossus was going to use a skill in addition to sword aura. The barrier was already barely holding up, despite their best efforts. Soti looked to Krista, who was staring at the attack, too. her gaze told the elf all she needed to know. If that attack landed, in addition to the tree's, the fire titan's, and the abomination's pressure, it would break.

“Shit. We have to get away from here!” the elf exclaimed.

“What are you saying!? Krista asked incredulously. Her pleading gaze turned accusatory. “J-Just shoot it! Kill the colossus!” the support urged her, but Soti couldn't comply with her request. if she could, she would have done so already! But she didn't have the time to explain why shooting the colossus would not solve their problem.

Soti's was a skill that allowed her to instantly grasp the weaknesses of her opponent and judge the likelihood of a decisive attack. The problem was that she could see no vitals on the colossus. She could see some weak points, but even if she severed a leg and showed the colossus in arrows, nothing could stop that next attack.

Under Krista's and the raid party's shocked expression, Soti turned away from the colossus and let her arrow loose. Flying through the air, the one arrow began multiplying over and over and the massive barrage that had even taken a chunk out of the tree trunk rained on and into the portal behind them

“Everyone through the gate, quickly! Aiden, get them through the gate!” she commanded the tank of her party directly.

“What about Jarvan?” “Our Bishop is still fighting!” voices of dissent came from the raid party, but the decision was made...

The elf had not thought that she would be forced to make this decision this early, but if they stayed, the raid party would be wiped out. She didn't really care for the Order of Covdite, or Jarvan, but she was not ready to sacrifice her party in this battle.

As the last arrow passed the gate's horizon, the wooden sword began moving. It was a mighty swing, straight from above, as if the barrier was a watermelon he wanted to split. Seeing this, she knew there was no time for hesitation. Ignoring those who still didn't move, she grabbed her mage and priest who were still running toward the gate, and passed through herself. �

Before her appeared the familiar plain that surrounded the world column. Earlier, eight armies with 15.000 high-level players each, had stood here in orderly rows to invade Delta once they secured the landing zones. Now there were only the people that passed the gate before her in sight.

Saying the landscape had changed was an understatement. Soti's barrage of Arrows had torn a hole into the thicket of roots and vines that covered the plain like a jungle. The people before her were staring upward toward the gate behind her. Following their gaze, she had to do a second take, questioning whether they really left Delta, when she saw the same emerald crown covering the sky.

Atop the world column stood the same tree they had just run from! Maybe it was a little smaller, but it was a huge fucking tree, sitting right on top of the column hewn from a small mountain! But the tree couldn't compare to the shock she felt when she looked into the crown.

“So this was why they called it the Hangingtree...” she thought to herself in horror, witnessing hundreds, or thousands of figures, hanging from the branches of the giant vegetation. The sight was especially bad for her because she could see all the details, unlike her companions.

All the people hanging from the branches, with nooses of vines, were still alive, They looked like mummies, struggling, as their life force was slowly and constantly drained, as if they were just some small mana stone used to replenish power.

No wonder the tree was endlessly regeneration on their side. Here he had thousands of high-level players to draw power from, what about other places? Fighting the guardian tree was worse than fighting a hydra! Who knew how many heads the tree had? How many stomachs were there, supplying it with unending amounts of power...?

The realization struck her harder than anything so far. They were just a joke. Them thinking they could beat the tree, was like a bunch of brats believing they could slay a real dragon with the funny, little sticks and wooden shields. Now, this thing had a foot in the door, literally.

“Run, run, RUN!” she started shouting over and over, shouting at the people that came to this side. The gap she had created with her skill started closing and the roots surrounding them began stretching for their lives, too.

Everyone started running, and the next moment a paladin of Covdite, who judged his life to be worth something, was suddenly struck. The holy shield negated the attack, but he was catapulted forward, rolling across the ground.

“It's the vines! Be careful of attacks from above!” The elf shouted when she processed what just happened. Looking up and back toward the tree, she saw a few more figures making it through the gate. Several of them were immediately snatched up by the vines.

“Run, Krista!” the elf shouted at the legend who was among the ones that fled. She shot several arrows to cut off the caught members, but couldn't help all of them. She wanted to give Krista better cover fire, but she also had to get her own people to safety.

Leaving it up to the stragglers to follow, they took the lead, to cut a way out of the thicket.

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