Chapter 14: Fatal Mistake

Escape was within our reach. Unfortunately, our newfound hope was short-lived. Just as we could see the exit, the tree could see us. We didn't even realize how close the tree had gotten to us.

I turned back to see the tree. It was grey, and looked like as if it had been suffocated, with its leaves wilting. It looked like a tree of ash.

Maria backed away from the tree as fast as possible.

I was far enough away from it, for it to not be an immediate threat. Maria however, was not nearly as lucky.

The palm of one of the tree's hands hit Maria. She was thrown flying into a burnt tree.

The tree turned its attention to me next. Great.

The tree was no longer using its roots to attack, it was using it just to move. That meant two things. One, it was weaker than before. Two, it wouldn't be able to surprise attack me.

But realistically speaking, I couldn't do much on my own. I had to stall for time, until Maria woke up, and let her handle this.

The tree tried slapping me similar to how it did Maria. Unfortunately for it, I wasn't stupid enough to stay within its reach.

Wait a minute… this might actually be possible…! I just had to run away from it , making sure I kept my distance from it, while luring it away from Maria! And since the thing wasn't particularly fast, only it's hands were. I could escape quite easily. There wasn't even the chance of it surprise attacking me, its roots were out of commission…!

A sliver of hope lit up inside me. The movement of the tree slowed down, again, and so did mine. At this point, I knew it was a talent of some sort. Three times was too much to be a coincidence. And if stopping someone in their tracks was possible this was probably possible too.

I kept dodging the hands. No matter how fast it came at me, I dodged them. It was like catching a tennis repeatedly… put simply it was easier than I expected… could I actually defeat this…?

Its three hands repeatedly tried slapping me out of the air, but I dodged them with relative ease. I got cocky, and climbed up on the trees hands. In hindsight, this was a mistake on my part. But I was too caught up in the sheer power of my new talent. It felt like I was a god, looking over a child's play.

At this rate, I would just be dodging it. I also started breathing in from my mouth. Was I getting tired? This ability must affect my stamina somehow… I had to end this quickly.

I looked at the three hands, and decided to draw out my sword, in an attempt to do some damage to the tree. The three hands were at a relatively safe distance away from me, so I backstepped and drew my sword.

This was without a doubt, my biggest mistake so far.

All of a sudden, I felt like a truck had just slammed into me. What hit me…? My head was shaken, and it felt like I had just had a severe case of whiplash.

One blurry look at the tree told me the tree was waiting for this moment. The face of the tree, which previously looked monotone and like a Halloween decoration was now grinning aggressively, the same way a 5 year-old would after winning a competition.

It basically slapped me out of the air, and I went flying, the same way Maria did. I am pretty sure I heard one of my ribs crack. Either that or my bones were broken.

How did it…? I had accounted for all 3 of its hands right?? My vision was getting blurry, but I could roughly see what was going on. The tree… had 4 hands? Why the fuck did I forget that?? Or did I never even notice?

It didn't really cover up the fact that, I had fucked up. I didn't think the tree would be smart enough to hide away one of its arms.

My vision was blurry, my head felt like a hammer hit it, and I was just sitting on the ground. I felt a metallic taste in my mouth. That tree really did a number on me with just one attack.

The only silver lining was that Maria was back in action. She grabbed the sword I had dropped, and started luring it away from me.

"OI DUMBASS! GET UP AND GET OUT! I'LL BE FINE!!", I heard her shout from the distance.

I wanted to say no as a show of modesty, but I didn't have much of a choice. I got up, painfully I might add, used whatever nihilism I had to strengthen my body, and started limping away, hoping Maria would survive, or at the very least survive long enough for me to get out.

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.

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Ha. What had I just gotten myself into? I don't know how Cecilia was dodging those hands so effortlessly, but it sure wasn't possible for me.

Wait a minute. Why exactly do we even need to dodge again? All I had to do was keep my distance. In fact, the endless trees that were previously stopping my escape were now Halloween decorations. Its roots were out of commission and it couldn't really move that fast.

At this point there wasn't much to think about. I ran towards the nearest hut I could find, with my tail shamelessly between my legs.

It didn't take long for me to exit that unending forest. That was way easier than I expected…

Coincidentally, I happened to run in the same direction as Cecilia. She was collapsed on the ground, groaning in pain. Her hands were crooked and were probably broken. She looked like she was just run over by a bus.

I reached out for my pockets. Yeah, the whistle was still there. The whistle was a 'convenient' way to get back to base. It summoned the green flames of teleportation, the ones that make you nauseous.

I had tried using them back in the forest, but it just didn't work. Back there, it was nothing more than an ordinary whistle. I was still surprised I had it, I was pretty sure I had thrown it out of frustration.

While I was waiting for the green flames to appear after whistle, I thought to myself what exactly would I tell the director.

I had almost forgotten this was an investigation, and not a survival test.

Was I going to say going to say something like, 'We underestimated the power of the remnant. It was an R-1.'?

And not to mention Mr. Dead David. What was I going to say about him? Up to my knowledge, David was basically like the director's favorite child. There was even a rumor that he was the director's actual child. He used him for investigations of high importance and surveillance.

Going and telling him his favorite child was plant fertilizer wasn't exactly something I wanted to do.

To add insult to injury, we didn't even kill the damned tree remnant, we just escaped with our lives, with nothing to show for it.

That aside, where in the hell were we? Was it a realm I had heard so much about?? And how was Cecilia able to dodge those hands so effortlessly, when even I had a hard time?

Too many questions, and too many things to worry about. Ah well. The green flames now lit up in front of me. Future me problem I guess…

I threw Cecilia in the flames, then went into it myself.

That nausea was something I could never get used to.

I arrived in the same green flames we left from. I dropped Cecilia on the ground. Neitzsche was sitting on his chair as usual. He turned around to see who it was, and dropped the coffee he was holding.

"Maria…? Is that you?", he asked cautiously.