The Trent Chaos Spawn was being felled.
The Trent thrashed about, using light orbs, branches, and roots, but I used 〖Leap〗 two or three times to escape its range. I figured it would die if I just left it alone, but,
“(…No way, right? It’s recovering from this?)”
Looking again, the Trent had stopped tilting.
Even though it was leaning at an acute angle to the horizon, it showed no signs of falling further. On the contrary, its wounds were gradually closing, and its body was starting to return to normal.
Looking closer, the area of decay was spreading from the branches and roots stuck in the ground at the fastest rate I’d ever seen.
Was it forcibly healing its body with that?
“(Then I just need to break it again, 〖Heavy Shot〗)”
I quickly fired an arrow.
The explosive arrow slipped through the small gaps between the branches and roots and reached the trunk, blasting the cut that had begun to close.
“Gigi, gigi…”
This time, the Trent’s body was split in two.
The branches, which were even sturdier than steel, did not break even when caught in the fallen tree, and the Trent’s body was leaning slightly.
I was about to let my guard down, thinking it was over, when I suddenly felt a sense of unease.
The sensation of my 〖Level〗 increasing never came.
Wasn’t there enough 〖Experience Points〗? No, that shouldn’t be the case.
Since becoming a 〖Feral Beast〗, the amount of 〖Experience Points〗 needed to level up had been almost flat. Lately, even defeating 〖Feral Beasts〗 didn’t make it rise rapidly, but it was strange that there wasn’t even a single change.
This meant—,
“(It’s not dead yet!)”
I instantly drew my bow towards the fallen tree, but immediately after, I realized with 〖Mana〗 detection that the enemy wasn’t there.
The eerie 〖Mana〗 unique to Chaos Spawns was being emitted from the stump.
Looking closely at the cross-sections of the fallen tree and the stump, there was a hollow like a wormhole in the center of the growth rings, and I could see the Chaos Spawn’s roots passing through it.
Then I realized that during the felling, the attacks of the black roots had suddenly stopped at a certain point.
“(Damn it! Was the mouth a bluff? 〖Compact Shot〗!)”
All the roots crawling over the Trent’s body were coming out of its mouth.
That’s why I thought the seed itself must be there, but I was too hasty.
Before the explosive arrow I fired could land, the stump jumped up.
It pulled out its white roots and used them like legs to leap. It seemed that the Trent’s body could still move even when it was just a stump.
“(Is that even possible?! Lightning Strike!)”
I fired five consecutive lightning strikes, but the stump used its entire body—from the cross-section of the stump to the tips of the white roots—to shift its center of gravity in mid-air as if dancing, and managed to evade all of them.
“(Is that even possible…)”
While dumbfounded, I prepared my next attack.
It seemed that even if it could shift its posture a little, it couldn’t move in the air. If I launched a ranged attack, I could hit it for sure.
“(〖Replicant Form〗)”
The stump was small. With 〖Thousand Blades Burst〗, which I couldn’t aim properly, there was a chance of a mishap.
I would imitate my second Poison Bow.
Then I would also replicate two Stone Cannons. These were for follow-up attacks.
I was aiming at the predicted landing point, waiting for the right moment to fire, when I saw the Trent’s white roots extend and pierce the fallen tree.
“(Is it planning to bounce off the roots?)”
I fired an explosive arrow and stone bullets at the same time.
I aimed the arrow at the spot where the roots were stuck, and the stone bullets at the stump itself. But they were all blocked. By the fallen tree that suddenly started moving.
“(What the!?)”
The fact that it started moving was literal.
It arched its trunk like a freshly fried fish and used it to block the arrows and bullets.
“(So, if the severed body parts are reconnected, they can move?)”
In the case of a slime, if it’s severed, the cells would die, but was it different for a Trent?
“(…No, but it doesn’t look like it’s trying to connect the cross-sections.)”
The current Trent was using the crown of the fallen tree as a foot, facing downwards, and the stump, which seemed to be the main body, was attached to the middle of the fallen tree—right next to the Trent’s mouth.
The Trent was in an upside-down state, but it wasn’t trying to fuse the severed parts.
“(〖Escalating Warfare〗)”
I tried analyzing it for a moment.
This 〖Skill〗, which is repelled by living things, passed through the Trent’s fallen tree without any problems.
“(It’s confirmed, the fallen tree is completely dead—is this a 〖Skill〗 that manipulates corpses?)”
At first, the Trent sent the Demon Beasts it had killed to attack me.
At that time, it had also pierced them with pieces of white roots, and if it matched this far, that must be it.
It didn’t seem to intend to control them remotely like before, as the stump remained attached the whole time.
“(This time, destroying the corpses completely will be tough… I’ll aim for the stump if there’s an opening.)”
Just as I was thinking that, the Trent, which had been glaring at me, started running. In the opposite direction from me.
“(It’s trying to escape… No, that’s not its goal!)”
To prevent Fiss from getting caught if it escaped, I had positioned myself as high up the mountain as possible.
It was the same now. Behind me was the summit of the mountain, and behind the Trent was the plaza, which meant there were the corpses of the 〖Feral Beasts〗 I had defeated.
The Black Shadow’s corpse disappeared as soon as I defeated it, but I hadn’t had time to collect the rest and had left them there.
If those were manipulated by a 〖Skill〗…
“(No way! 〖Rampage〗!)”
I chased after it at full speed.
Of course, I wouldn’t just do that, I also prepared some means of obstruction.
“(〖Replicant Form〗, Lightning Strike!)”
I fired lightning strikes, launched stone cannons, shot explosive arrows, and swept with Heat Rays. I unleashed a barrage of long-range attacks.
But the Trent dodged most of the attacks with swaying movements, and even dealt with the Heat Ray by jumping.
It dodged as if it had eyes in the back of its head.
In fact, the Trent’s field of vision might be omnidirectional.
“(Well, that jump was a bad move, though, Electrification)”
What I enhanced with my 【Unique Skill】 was the explosive arrow I had just taken out.
I threw it… no, I snapped it behind me.
In an instant, I was pushed by the blast and accelerated rapidly.
“(〖Leap〗!)”
Then I leaped into the air.
If I continued straight, I would reach the corpses first. But I didn’t have enough time to turn both into weapons and store them in 〖Weapon Storage〗.
So, I would create a big bang here to buy some time.
The Trent’s weakness. It was that its movements in the air were limited.
It had tried to intercept me with roots and branches as I flew through the sky, but I dodged them with two 〖Air Jumps〗, and wrapped the Red Whip and Forest Shackles around the fallen tree.
“(〖All-Out Throw〗!)”
Then, I threw it with all my might.
Because of 〖Air Jump〗 and 〖Last Stand〗, I could brace myself even in mid-air.
The fallen tree flew horizontally at a speed that was disproportionate to its size.
“(…It chose the fallen tree, huh?)”
Of course, I hadn’t taken my attention away from the stump during that time.
If it had abandoned the fallen tree and jumped towards the corpses, I had planned to concentrate my attacks and finish it off in one go… It seemed that it wasn’t that short-sighted.
“(Haa, haa, 〖Arms Craftsman〗)”
After that, while panting from my second 〖All-Out Throw〗 of the day, I roughly processed the Dragon and Skeleton. I wrapped myself in them and stored them.
Then, I turned to face the Trent that was coming towards me.
“(Alright, final round.)”