Chapter 96 - Cut the Roots

Chapter 96: 96 - Cut the Roots

The cavity opened by the two [Lightning Bolt] spells was already changing. Splintered wood shifted around the blackened wound as mana poured through the roots connected to the Ancient Tree. The yellow-brown Heartroot Crystal inside its torso pulsed faintly each time another current reached it.

"It’s healing," Amelia said.

"From the entire room." Adrien followed the mana as it traveled from the floor and walls into the creature. "Attacking the body alone isn’t enough. The roots are feeding it."

Lucien kept his bow manifested, accepting the continuous drain while the fight remained active. "Then tell me which ones matter."

Mana surged beneath the stone before Adrien could answer. "Move!"

All three separated as thick roots tore through the floor. Another descended from the ceiling, sweeping through broken masonry. Adrien raised Umbral Root and cast [Ice Wall] at an angle. The root slammed into the frozen surface, slid upward along it and passed over Amelia instead of striking her.

"Left wall," Adrien called. "The thick root beside the crystal cluster. It’s carrying more mana than the others."

Lucien shifted onto a fallen block and drew a normal arrow. He released at the section Adrien indicated, but the shaft struck dense wood and barely penetrated.

"Too hard."

"Use something stronger."

Lucien’s free hand moved toward his Inventory. A specialized arrow manifested between his fingers, its reinforced head carrying a narrow mana pattern. He set it to the string immediately and fired.

The penetration arrow punched deep into the root.

Adrien followed with two [Frost Lance] spells. The first struck around the embedded arrow, cracking the damaged wood, while the second froze the exposed interior. Lucien manifested an explosive arrow and released it.

The blast tore the root apart.

The effect on the Ancient Tree was instant. Mana flowing toward its torso diminished, and the wound left by Lightning Bolt stopped closing for several seconds.

"There," Adrien said. "That’s what we need. Cut the main connections and it can’t regenerate as quickly."

Several smaller shapes began moving around the chamber. Barklings detached themselves from trees, walls and clusters of roots, their green eyes opening one after another. Amelia remained near the center with her mace and shield manifested, both items drawing mana while she kept them physical.

"I’ll handle anything that reaches us. Keep working on the roots."

Three Barklings rushed from the right. Adrien cast [Veil of Mist], restricting it to that side of the chamber. Dense white mist swallowed the creatures and several ruined columns while leaving Lucien’s position clear.

Absolute Mana Sense continued tracking every signature perfectly.

"First one through the middle. Two farther right."

Lucien drew from the ordinary quiver on his back and waited. The first Barkling emerged from the mist and took an arrow through the eye. Adrien raised an [Ice Wall] across the wider route, forcing the other two toward a narrow opening beside a collapsed pillar.

Amelia met the first there. Her shield caught its arm, and her mace struck the exposed joint beneath its neck. The second tried to move around her, but Adrien sent a shortened [Frost Lance] through its knee. Ice spread across the joint and dropped it low enough for Amelia to finish it.

The Ancient Tree moved again.

A massive arm of compacted branches swept across the chamber. Adrien sensed the mana gathering before the attack began and shouted, "Down!"

Lucien dropped flat. Amelia crouched behind her shield while Adrien formed another [Ice Wall] between them and the attack. The wall shattered on impact, but absorbed enough force for the branch to pass above them instead of crushing their formation.

"They’re getting faster," Amelia said as she stood.

"The main roots are reacting when we damage the network."

Adrien expanded Absolute Mana Sense farther through the chamber. Thousands of minor roots carried traces of mana, but only a limited number transported enough to matter. He isolated another thick connection running from the ceiling into the Ancient Tree’s back.

"Lucien, above it. Behind the left shoulder."

"I have the angle."

Lucien climbed onto broken masonry while Adrien kept two Barklings away with [Frost Lance], pinning one through its wooden foot and freezing the other’s arm against a wall.

Lucien manifested another penetration arrow and fired. He didn’t keep special ammunition physical any longer than necessary. Every manifested item consumed mana, and his bow was already draining him continuously.

The shot entered the ceiling root.

Adrien sent four [Frost Lance] spells into the same point. Instead of scattering them, he concentrated every projectile around the arrow wound until cracks spread through the frozen wood.

"Again."

Lucien manifested an explosive arrow and fired.

The root ruptured.

A second stream of mana vanished from the Ancient Tree. The creature convulsed, and several branches slammed against the ceiling hard enough to rain dust and fragments over the chamber.

Amelia suddenly turned. "Adrien."

A Barkling had reached Lucien’s blind side while he was still elevated. Adrien felt it before Amelia finished speaking. He cast [Ice Wall] directly between them, and the creature struck the frozen barrier instead of Lucien’s exposed back.

Lucien jumped down, pivoted and put an ordinary arrow through its eye.

"Thanks."

Adrien nodded. "Keep watching the roots. I’ll watch everything else."

After that, the three of them found a way of working.

Adrien held the space. Mist where it would blind the tree and not Lucien, ice across the floor to take away the ground it kept using, and a running list of targets out of Absolute Mana Sense called aloud as fast as he could find them.

Lucien destroyed whatever Adrien named. Ordinary arrows wherever ordinary arrows would do the job, and the special ammunition kept back for the thicker roots, because there was a finite number of those in his quiver and both of them knew it.

Amelia watched the angles neither of them could and closed shallow wounds before they turned into real ones.

It was not enough.

The torso Adrien had opened two minutes ago was already knitting over, mana finding new routes through the chamber the moment he cut the old ones, and there were still dozens of major connections feeding it.

"Don’t focus on the body anymore," he said, eyes moving across the network above them. "Not yet."

Lucien followed his gaze.

Adrien raised Umbral Root toward the roots covering the chamber.

"We cut enough of this away first. Then we make an opening it can’t close."