Chapter 95: A Shadow of Treant Lineage

As the tree branches, sharp like spears, were about to pierce through the backs of the two women, their shadows on the ground trembled slightly.

From Celene’s shadow, Titus suddenly appeared. Standing about two and a half meters tall in his full frost armor, he held an ice shield nearly as tall as himself.

As soon as the branches hit the ice shield, they pierced through it, but they weren’t able to go any further. Their momentum stopped and they froze in place.

From Rowena’s shadow, a man came up as well.

He wasn’t as big as Titus, but he had a lean body, holding two crimson-colored daggers in his hands.

He also wore a full body armor, but unlike Titus’s armor, which looked completely made of frost, his armor was made of cooled magma. Red lines running across the whole armor made it clear just how hot it was.

As soon as his dagger moved, his hands blurred, and before all the broken branch pieces could even reach him, they were cut and fell to the ground, wrapped in flames.

After everything happened, Rowena and Celene turned to look behind them, at the tree that had just attacked them.

"Looks like we have a guest here." Rowena said while her body temperature started rising.

Celene just nodded, her face not changing in the slightest.

Even though they couldn’t see the attacker, they could already guess who it was just from the type of attack.

Only the Thorn family, from the enemy alliance, had this signature attack in their arsenal in the region.

But there was more to it, as it wasn’t just a spell.

"Hmph... I had hoped to settle this as swiftly as fallen leaves. But no matter. Deep roots do not rush." The tree suddenly spoke to them in an old, aged voice.

It was really speaking. Its trunk opened up like a mouth right in the middle, producing the words.

Rowena’s frown deepened even more when she saw it. "Sable, huh? I wonder what the head of the Thorn Family is doing so far from home, in a place like this."

She recognized their enemy from the tree right away.

They still didn’t know about the Golden Sunberry farm, so it was strange to see a Witch travel all this way onto their land just to attack them like this.

While Rowena kept her focus on the tree and got ready to burn it down with a spell, Celene’s calm voice reached her.

"Be careful. The tree is just her Shadow. She might be somewhere else, getting ready for a sneak attack."

Rowena nodded, just to show she already knew.

The reason the Thorn family was one of the strongest families in the region wasn’t only because Sable was a 12th Trial Witch, but also because of her unique Shadow.

He came from a family with Treant blood running through their line.

"Corvo, keep your focus on the tree." Rowena said to her Shadow.

"Titus." Celene simply called out her Shadow’s name, and the big man nodded, understanding the command without needing more words.

"How disrespectful." The tree suddenly shouted, as if angered, and the branches began attacking again, striking like spears, this time faster and heavier than before.

While Titus kept the branches at bay with his large frost shield, Corvo kept cutting them down, setting every branch he sliced on fire until only ash hit the ground.

Meanwhile, Celene didn’t just stand there and watch. She started chanting her detection spell to find where Sable was.

"O Vein of the Living World, River that has flowed since before the First Dawn, Silent Mother of Rain and Sea. Condense the mist, resonate the tide."

A thin layer of water suddenly appeared around her body.

In an instant, it burst outward in every direction, turning to vapor and spreading like mist. With her at the center, it raced through the entire forest like a high-speed wave of sound.

Celene suddenly turned her gaze, sensing that the wave had struck something, far away, at the top of a tree.

"She is there." She said, pointing at a tree in the distance.

Rowena answered with her own chant, listing the honorific names first and then finishing it with the words of the spell.

"Let your judgment come in flame."

The spell was the same fire pillar her 9th Trial daughter, Morrigan, had used before.

But when Rowena cast it, the pillar of fire that shot forward was much wider and much denser, striking like a laser aimed straight at the distant tree.

Everywhere the fire pillar passed, branches and treetops turned to ash and coal in an instant, before the air even had time to catch fire, destroying everything in its path.

The spell only lasted a few seconds, but when it ended, all that was left behind was total destruction.

Still, Rowena’s frown didn’t ease even a little. "I missed."

Celene noticed it too. The moment the fire pillar was cast, she had felt Sable’s body vanish from where it had been.

"She’s using the ground and the trees to move." Celene said right away, since she already knew a few things about Sable’s spells.

Meanwhile, the tree’s attacks in front of them had grown even fiercer.

New branches kept growing back in place of the ones that were cut or burned, bombarding the two Shadows without stopping.

"Let’s deal with this headache first." Rowena turned her attention back to the giant tree and cast the same spell again, hoping to finish it off in one strike.

"Let your judgment come in flame."

As soon as another pillar of fire formed and shot toward the giant tree, the ground beneath it suddenly shook and rose up, turning into a massive shield of earth to protect the tree.

The moment the fire and the earthen shield met, a huge explosion and shockwave followed, sending burnt and melted stone and soil flying outward like magma.

Titus quickly shielded Celene with his own body, while Corvo kept cutting down everything flying toward them.

"If this keeps up, we’ll end up at a disadvantage." Celeste quickly analyzed the situation they were in.

Sable was the kind of Witch who never showed herself, only supporting her Shadow from a distance with spells.

The tree alone already had enough strength to hold off Titus and Corvo and slowly corner them.

If Celeste and Rowena couldn’t find Sable and attack her directly, the longer the fight dragged on, the more it would turn into a battle of mana capacity.

There was no way they could come out as winners against the massive mana capacity that came with the 12th Trial.

At that moment, Celene thought of something that could turn the situation in their favor. "Let’s go inside the dimension."

She said, pointing at the cracked barrier.

At least inside, the space would be narrower and more limited, which meant fewer places for Sable to hide.

It would also work better for someone like Rowena, who had pure destruction spells, since she could burn through the whole area without worrying about leaving any ground or trees behind.

Agreeing with the plan right away, Rowena went in first with her Shadow.

Then Celene followed behind her, and last came Titus, holding his large ice shield, protecting their backs from the long, sharp branches that were still attacking them.