"How tall is this thing?"
Standing in front of the towering tree early after the passing of the storm, Noa and I crossed our arms and gazed to the top. Bloodied leaves were scattered all over the place while the branches continued to sway in the dry wind.
"Hundreds," I answered, unable to see the top.
Noa turned toward me.
I looked back at her.
"Damn. Man thank you so much for that answer. It was so helpful I can't even begin to express my gratitude. Hundreds! Hundreds of course, woe is me and my trash mind."
This bitch.
Don't ask stupid questions then.
I grit my teeth and turned back to the tree. This was where we would probably find a demonic 'monster.' I had already killed a whole rank of demons and knew that they didn't really drop those stones. From the way the innkeeper demon had cried, there were probably monsters in hell too.
"How should we go about this?" Titania muttered. "I want to see some entertaining fights so don't let me down."
"Hm, I can't think of any way to bring the monsters down. Should we strip and cut another demon and hand it over as an offering? Or should I send Catene up and force it bring any monster down?"
Catene furiously clamped around my arm at my words.
"What kind of beasts have you been fighting, Eugene Hall?"
It was a common tactic for adventurers. Especially with monsters that could fly.
"Let's go up instead, I want to see how tall it is."
Noa didn't wait for an answer and shot ahead. Her hand and feet touched the stump of the tree, and she was gone up within the blink of an eye.
This was the same girl who was having trouble with a motorcycle. I wasn't sure, but I had a feeling that her sense of balance was messed up after being stuck in the spatial dimension for so long.
"Catene, keep an eye on her."
Catene rattled a happy rattle and ran away. That perverted chain would jump at any chance to be near a girl.
I sighed and stepped ahead as well.
With a simple jump, I shot of the ground and started running up the tree. Bring it on, gravity!
The incline became obtuse at a point and I had to use my hands as well, but my speed didn't slow down at all. Hundreds of meters of pure stump were left behind us as we charged into the skies. Soon, the thicket of branches curved upward entered our path.
Dragon Blood trees all had their branches stretching upward, with leaves growing out at the same height on the very top of the tree, the hell's tree wasn't different. It was enormous, though, so the number and density of branches all over this tree the width of a racetrack were too high to count.
I took the support of the branches and started hopping up. As the black shriveled up appendages increased in number, the sight below started to be clogged away. I hooked one arm on a branch and peeked out of the coalescence. Noa was on the way to the branches too, Catene wrapped around her waist.
"HEY!"
Noa looked up. She stopped and pointed at me. I couldn't hear her, and lip reading was impossible. What was she even saying?
"Hurry up or I'll kill whatever on my own."
Noa started pointing frantically.
"Titania, is something behind me?"
"Checking…. Oh yup. Something huge."
I heaved a sigh and slowly twirled back into the thicket—
"KRRRRRAAAAA!!"
—A blob of saliva ell on my face followed by atrocious smell, it was nasal genocide.
Standing in front of me, screaming while spreading its giant black wings that merged with its front hands and flaunting the shitty stench that filled its beaks, was a Wyvern.
I hooked my arm and leaned out again.
"HEY NOA! You wanna hurry up!?"
Noa giggled and gave me the fly.
"Haah…"
"KRAAA!"
The wyvern screamed again and dashed at me. I jumped off the branches, kicked back and flipped before landing on the top of its head.
Right then, the monster flew up, ready to smack itself into another branch along with me.
"Damned wyvern!"
I jumped off and hopped to other branches. After reaching a good height, I raised my hand.
"[Intent Ki: Falling Skies—]"
Before I could materialize my attack, my senses tingled and I instinctively twisted my torso. A snap rang out as another wyvern came behind me and almost trapped me in its jaws.
"Hidden presence, huh. What a hassle."
The wyvern didn't take kindly to being called a hassle as both it and its friend below opened their mouths wide.
A giant magic circle formed in front of them, spinning rapidly.
And in the blink of an eye, a gust of wind came hurtling toward me from both sides.
"[Honeycomb Defense: Hexagonal Shields]x128"
The shields layered up around me, but the wyvern's wind attacks were too strong. The shields broke apart without putting any resistance whatsoever.
I rushed to my side and narrowly avoided the attacks.
"Is this demonic energy and not mana?" I asked Titania.
"It is. They're all magnitudes stronger than monsters you have faced, right?"
They were.
A smile spilled from my face.
It seemed it wasn't going to be all boring till I got to crush Dantalian.
"[Fire Magic:]"
A wave of mana spread through the tree, sending my hair aflutter.
"[Seven Serpents]"
Flames spread out from my palms. The wyverns charged right through them.
In the blink of an, the seven strands of sparks intensified and changed forms. The flames became swirling serpents of fire and wrapped themselves around the wyverns.
"KRA!"
"KRRR!"
The wyverns screamed out loud as the serpents dug into their flesh, burning every spot.
"That should settle it—"
Before I could finish my words, giant magic circles formed around the wyverns.
A crescent of wind shot out…
… and slashed their own heads.
"Hm?"
The wyverns committed suicide. Their wings flapped and bodies went hurtling to the ground.
"What in the world…"
My words couldn't finish for a second time.
As the blood that spilled from the bodies fell on the branches.
And the Dragon Blood tree started to tremble.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel