The orcs stood facing the humans, the tension thick between the two groups.
The leader of the humans felt a tinge of fear standing face to face with Ryan, but that fear was masked behind arrogance as he stood with determination.
"Trust me, you wouldn’t want to cause any trouble for yourselves..." The leader paused, as though searching for the right words to speak.
"Intimidating one of our own just to make him admit to a crime he didn’t commit?! That’s rather shameless of the orcs. You better apologise this instant!" the man said with a demanding voice, meeting Ryan’s gaze.
Ryan gave a slight smirk as he looked at the human mage.
"We can call it a truce, but..." Ryan paused, his tone dropping an octave.
The intense pressure coming from him became more threatening.
"This will be the last time I’ll hold back." His voice switched back to a casual tone as he turned to the beasts that were now making their way to the camp.
"I believe we all have more problems to deal with than these little scuffles," he said calmly as he left the group.
’That guy’s a threat. Just how strong is he? I’ll have to inform Lady Hale and Sir Samxon about him after this,’ the man thought, his gaze lingering on the retreating Ryan.
As he shifted his gaze away from Ryan, his gaze matched with that of Aria.
"You better listen to him. Even I am not sure I’ll be able to save you if you piss him off. I might even join in," Aria said with a smirk.
The human leader scoffed at her words and turned to the men behind him.
"The scenario is almost over. Let’s finish up with these beasts and get out of here before these orc genes infect me."
Without any words, the human forces dispersed.
Nibo stood by Aria’s side, a smirk on his face as well.
"Ryan really did a great job back there," he complimented.
"For real! He killed it," J chipped in from Nibo’s side.
"Yeah, at least now they know how strong he is. They’ll definitely not try anything stupid for now. It’s good to keep a bully around sometimes." Aria couldn’t hold back her smile.
"Yeah, coming from a bully... It’s not like we were lacking one before," Nibo said, but as his gaze met Aria’s cold blue eyes, he flinched.
"Who might you be speaking about?" Aria asked with a calm voice, her hands firmly gripping the hilt of her blade.
Nibo cleaned off the invisible sweat rolling down his face. "It’s J. He bullies me a lot... hahaha."
Nibo laughed awkwardly, turning to his side for J’s support, but the young orc had already disappeared.
"Huh?" Nibo turned to his side, his eyes wide with surprise.
Cold sweat dropped down his forehead as he turned back to Aria.
Aria rolled her eyes, leaving the burly orc.
"We’ll talk after this. Perhaps I might just know the bully you’re talking about," she said calmly.
"...."
Nibo’s words got caught in his throat.
’There’s no escaping this,’ he thought with a sore expression as he turned back to the battlefield.
---
~BOOM!
Just when he was a few meters away from the tree, the wall towards the left of the cave was smashed open and two people came flying in.
"You fucking bastards!" Akhil cursed out loud as he quickly avoided the large root that swung at him.
From the moment the two fell into the field, all the roots came to life in an instant.
Moving around like serpents.
Swiissh!
The roots moved so fast that Akhil was only able to dodge by a hair’s breadth.
And while he was still mid-air, three more roots darted straight for him with their sticky edges.
Swiish! Swiish!
’Shit! This is fast as hell,’ Akhil thought, trying his best to find balance mid-air.
With great difficulty, he found footing mid-air, landing onto one of the roots.
He turned his gaze to the two who had entered the dungeon.
He quickly recognised Samxon.
As for the other lady, he didn’t know her.
But just seeing Samxon was enough to sour his mood.
’If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when people constantly disturb the flow of my game.’ Anger flashed in his eyes as he stared at the two.
He was this close to accomplishing what he had come for, and the two just blasted out of thin air to spoil everything for him.
He didn’t like it one bit.
But then again, it seemed they had also brought extra for him.
Following behind Samxon and Hale was a horde of several beasts.
The horde had also stepped onto the sea of roots.
And the Vivo knew no comrade.
In the face of threat, the blind tree didn’t care.
It killed everything that was within its range.
All the beasts met a terrible end the moment they stepped onto the roots.
Some managed to escape, while the rest were ripped apart by the large roots of the tree.
The root held the beasts from both ends with its large vines and shredded them like paper.
In an instant, the once eerily quiet cavern had turned into utter chaos.
Shrieks from beasts could be heard all around.
The earth turned red from drinking blood.
But the tree didn’t stop. The roots shot out in all directions in a frenzy.
Whatever they touched, they destroyed instantly.
Some curled around the beasts, shooting sharp spikes through their bodies.
Squish!
The spikes sank into their flesh, piercing through and leaving only orifices filled with blood.
One of the roots held Samxon by the leg firmly.
And two more quickly darted straight at him.
"What the fuck is this!" he roared as he let out a wave of lightning around him.
The currents zapped through the vines and roots, causing them to go immobile.
He gritted his teeth, keeping the current around him.
Hale sent out a wave of flames that covered the earth where she stood, burning the roots instantly.
Akhil, using his Air Walk, stood mid-air as he watched the chaos below.
He turned his gaze towards the tree.
’I have to end this by getting to the core and destroying it.’
Akhil thought as he glanced toward the center of the tree.
A gaping hole could be seen within its trunk.
However, several roots were hanging above the branches.
Touching one of them would instantly alert the beast.
’They just had to make things worse,’ Akhil thought angrily. He took a deep breath.
’At least it can’t get any worse than this,’ Akhil thought as he rummaged through his mind for an idea to get to the core.
’I don’t think this will work out anymore... I might just hang around and try again when the beast isn’t on high alert,’ Akhil thought.
Just then—
The roots quickly climbed up the walls of the entire cavern, blocking all the paths of the caves.
All entrances had been blocked with sharp, spiky vines.
The beast didn’t look like it had plans of letting anyone leave the place alive.
Now, it was a do-or-die affair.
One side would either leave with what they came for... or die.