Chapter 596: The Battle Took A Drastic Turn.

Back inside the massive underground chamber, Thoren and his undead were still locked in battle with Cressida and her enormous tissue-like tree body.

The entire battlefield already transformed into a chaotic mess of broken roots, strange red liquid, and scattered pieces of flesh across the stone floor.

At the start of the fight, the undead had held the upper hand. All five moved together under Thoren’s command, pushing the countless roots backward with overwhelming strength.

They tore through anything blocking their path.

The undead Royalty Stonewall led the charge, its enormous blade cutting through thick roots, while the undead Guild Captain followed close behind.

Its massive broadsword cleaves through fleshy tendrils with powerful, repeated swings.

The undead Kharv’s axe proved just as destructive, splitting apart thick roots with every swing, while the undead Elite Jackal Beastmen moved between roots.

But the most aggressive of them all was the Horn Lizard King. The massive creature advanced on Cressida in long, heavy strides, its cudgel smashing through everything in its path.

Boom!

A thick root was crushed to pieces.

Boom!

Another was smashed apart.

Boom!

A third was struck hard enough to scatter flesh across the chamber.

For a moment it seemed nothing Cressida could summon would slow them down, the distance between the undead and the enormous trunk steadily shrinking.

Then, as the battle wore on, something began to change.

Thoren noticed it first through his connection with the undead.

The roots were coming back.

A severed root lying motionless on the ground suddenly twitched.

The exposed flesh at its cut end began to move, tissue pulling itself together as thin strands extended from both sides and wove into each other.

The broken root grew back whole in under five seconds, rising from the ground and immediately attacking again.

Whoosh!

It shot toward the undead with even greater speed than before. Thoren’s eyes narrowed.

Another root, sliced apart by the undead Guild Captain, regenerated the same way, flesh twisting violently as thin fibers grew outward and merged.

The wound sealing shut in seconds until the root stood restored.

What had started as easy destruction was quickly becoming something else.

Every time the roots came back, they moved faster and grew tougher, as if the act of being destroyed was teaching them how to survive.

Worse, each regeneration seemed to make them stronger.

The first roots had been thick but predictable.

The next wave moved faster.

The one after that resisted cutting entirely, and the roots that came back after that twisted with a flexibility that shouldn’t have been possible for something made of flesh.

It was as though each destruction pumped them full of something that made them better than before.

Thoren’s expression turned more serious.

"This is troublesome."

The undead Horn Lizard King found itself surrounded.

Dozens of dark, flexible roots whipping around its massive body at breathtaking speed, striking from every angle.

It swung its cudgel.

Boom!

One root exploded.

Before the pieces even finished falling, another struck from the opposite side. It turned and swung again.

Boom!

Another root destroyed.

But the one it had just smashed apart was already regenerating, flesh crawling over flesh, broken pieces pulling together.

Whole again within five seconds and lunging forward once more.

The undead Horn Lizard King was trapped in a vicious cycle where destroying one root only cleared the way for another.

Its overwhelming strength was no longer enough to carve a path toward Cressida. It kept swinging with everything it had, but its movement had nearly stalled entirely.

In another section of the chamber, the undead Royalty Stonewall’s situation was growing just as dangerous.

Thick roots had wrapped around its legs, more following to coil around its waist and arms like enormous serpents.

Pulling it violently from behind in an attempt to drag it down.

The undead Royalty Stonewall planted its feet firmly and held its ground, but the regenerated roots kept getting stronger with each cycle.

Some now thick enough to require several strikes to sever.

Still, it fought on, its blade cutting continuously through everything trying to bind it.

The undead Elite Jackal Beastmen fared worse.

Half its body was already bound tight, tendrils wrapped around its waist and chest, others coiled around one arm and leg, the grip tightening with every second.

Crack.

The pressure mounted, bones creaking under the strain, though pain meant little to something already dead.

It kept swinging its spiked club.

Bang!

A root shattered. Another wrapped around its arm immediately.

It tore free and swung again.

Bang!

Another root destroyed, only for the tissue to begin regenerating almost instantly. It swung again.

Bang!

The root broke, and within seconds it was whole again, wrapping back around the undead’s body.

Still the creature didn’t stop, its club striking again and again, destroying root after root even as more kept coming.

The battle had completely turned.

What began as an advance had become a struggle just to stay standing.

The undead Kharv’s axe was slick with strange red liquid as he hacked through roots attacking from every direction, slowly losing ground despite his effort.

The undead Guild Captain swung its broadsword faster than before, its strikes growing more violent as several regenerated roots closed in on it at once.

The chamber filled with the sounds of destruction, weapons striking flesh, bones cracking, roots tearing apart.

Cressida watched the struggle from the center of the chamber; the human face embedded in the tree slowly curling into a smile. A chuckle slipped from her lips.

"Hehehe..."

The sound carried through the chamber, carrying no joy in it at all, only disdain. She watched the struggling undead as though their resistance amounted to nothing more than an amusing show.

"Although you have many undead under your control, against me, they are useless." Her voice echoed around them as the roots spread faster across the floor and walls.

It was as if the entire chamber were becoming an extension of her body.

"Today is the day I feast on your soul." She licked her lips slowly, eyes burning with anticipation.

To Cressida, the outcome was already decided.

Watching the undead struggle against her endlessly regenerating roots only deepened her confidence.

No matter how powerful Thoren’s servants were, they would eventually be worn down by attacks that never truly ended.

Thoren’s expression, however, didn’t change.

He stood behind his four undead shield soldiers, watching the entire battlefield through his perception without missing a single detail.

Rather than waste time trading words with Cressida, he chose to answer in the most direct way possible.

Boom!