Chapter 28: The Tree Knight

After the fifth tile, the group paused to rest.

Aside from Raive and Khamish, no one else was injured—though Shymine suffered a backlash from her ability, leaving her with a dangerously high fever.

Even with Hershey focused entirely on healing her, it took over half an hour before her condition stabilized. They spent another thirty minutes resting before continuing on to the next tile.

Naturally, after taking down the first one, the second came easier.

This time, Hazel skipped blasting the enemy into the air and caught it in a ball of earth instead, immobilizing it just like before. Shymine froze its body starting from the head, and Therese delivered the finishing blow.

The approach was close enough to how they’d handled the normal monsters that it barely tired them out, and the pattern held all the way to the tenth tile.

Counting only the distance between tiles—ignoring the times they’d had to "return" to a previous one by moving backward—they were now roughly a kilometer from where they’d started. At last, they reached what looked like a different lot entirely.

"This is..."

Everyone paused upon arriving, confused by the sudden change.

Earlier they’d been crossing wide plains; now they stood in the middle of a barren, flat plateau. Grassland was visible just past its edges, leaving them to wonder where exactly this giant had even been hiding.

But that wasn’t their main concern at the moment.

"What is that...?"

After all, they weren’t alone on the plateau.

Ahead of them stood what looked like a cherry tree, its petals drifting slowly down in a scene that should’ve been beautiful—and somehow felt eerie instead.

Nothing lived on this plateau, after all. Not even a blade of grass. Only the cherry tree stood there, alone.

"Everyone, prepare for battle." Raive quickly called to them, his expression turning serious. "That tree is definitely the boss monster. Don’t lower your guard!"

Just as he finished his command, something happened.

The trunk of the cherry tree split open, vertically, revealing what looked like pitch darkness within. Everyone’s hair stood on end, chills running down their spines.

It was as if the trunk was hollow, connected straight to the deepest, darkest parts of hell. A dark purple fog rolled out of it, carrying the scent of death, and made them all shiver in fear.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

And then, from deep inside it, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed.

The unmistakable sound of someone in heavy armor, walking closer—and with it, the weight of an overbearing presence.

Raive, despite his trembling lips, quickly appended a new order to what he’d just said.

"Everyone... Focus on survival!"

He’d already resigned himself to another death. But before that happened, he needed to learn the boss’s attack patterns—and if possible, its weakness. Without that, a restart would just mean another wasted scouting loop.

Everyone adjusted their positions, spreading out wider.

And then, as they waited, a figure stepped out of the cherry tree’s opening.

An armored foot emerged first, followed by a hand that gripped the trunk’s edge so hard it left a handprint in the bark. Then, as if hauling itself free, the "monster" finally emerged in full.

It was a knight covered in full plate armor from head to toe.

The armor wasn’t metal, though—it was visibly wood, grain patterns running across every plate, almost as if a tree had twisted itself into human shape and come to attack them.

In its hand was a wooden sword, ordinary in size, with even a small leaf sprouting near the pommel.

Of course, a glance was enough to tell them that the wood armor and weapon were definitely not weaker than a metal one.

It was puzzling, but they were convinced of it.

Suddenly—

"DODGE!"

Nobody knew who shouted, but everyone moved as one.

They saw the tree knight move but couldn’t tell what it was doing—the moment the command rang out, they all threw themselves out of the way as fast as they could.

The knight moved.

It was barely an action—all it did was swing its arm.

The wooden sword slashed down, sending a cutting wave forward in a straight line.

The ground split open, the cut running straight through where Raive had stood only moments before—roughly ten centimeters thick and over a meter deep.

’If that hit me, I’m dead!’

Everyone thought the same thing.

But nothing would push them closer to death than doing nothing at all.

At the same time, the three girls moved. They each attacked at their own discretion, but thankfully, ended up working in tandem.

"Freezing Wave!"

"Sword Wheel!"

"Earth Bind!"

Their skills activated at almost the same time, heading for the target—and landed squarely.

The Freezing Wave froze the lower half of the knight’s body. The Earth Bind coiled around it, wrapping it up almost like a spring roll. And Therese’s six mana blades, spinning fast as a wheel, sliced in rapid succession, one at a time, like a saw.

The knight couldn’t even dodge!

"...!"

No... It didn’t even bother dodging.

With a single swing of its sword, it bounced every attack away.

The frozen parts broke free, the earth restraint crumbled to dust, and the mana blades shattered into pieces, vanishing into thin air.

"Kuh...!"

Therese came out worst of the three.

Her mana blades were practically an extension of her mind, so having them destroyed hit like a hammer to the skull. Dizzy, with a splitting headache, she dropped to her knees.

A source of delay.

SLASH!

And a fatal opening.

Another flying slash came from the monster, heading for Therese. It was so fast it was nigh impossible to block.

But, at the last moment—

"MOVE!"

A body came crashing against Therese’s, pushing her out of the way.

It was none other than Raive!

He shoved her clear, but the cost was his left arm—severed clean off. He felt no resistance at all; one moment it was there, the next it lay on the ground, bleeding and still.

"Tsk!"

Adrenaline kept it numb instead of painful, for now. He was sure that soon enough, the pain would have him fighting back manly tears. Still...

"Don’t stop attacking, Shymine, Hazel! Don’t let him get a chance to attack!"

Despite his injury, he still commanded the battlefield.

A one-sided, and pretty hopeless one at that.