CHAPTER 205: CHAPTER 205: THE VILLAGE (3)

Gwen’s eyes widened as the vine speared through the hunter’s armor and stomach, bursting out from his back in a spray of blood.

Her grip tightened on her sword—she was ready to slash the vine apart—but she was a second too late. The tip of the vine blossomed, unfurling into a grotesque crimson flower.

Splurt!

Thorn-like spikes erupted from the hunter’s body, sending blood splattering in all directions.

"Shit! Everyone, retreat—outside!" the leader of Team 6 roared, snapping the others out of their daze.

Gwen gritted her teeth and spun on her heel, sprinting for the exit with the rest of her team close behind. There was no saving the impaled hunter now, and staying in such a confined space was suicide.

But escaping outside didn’t guarantee safety.

"What the hell is that?!"

"AAARGH!" A female hunter shrieked as a thick vine coiled around her leg, yanking her off the ground. It dangled her high above, swaying ominously. The vine tensed, the motion rippling down its length like a whip about to crack—

Whoosh!

A crescent of mana sliced through the air, severing the vine before it could fling her away. The hunter dropped, and her teammates lunged forward, catching her before she hit the ground.

Gwen’s blade dimmed as she scanned the chaos for her brother. He stood at the rear, his usual smile gone, his gaze cold and calculating as he studied the towering trees and the writhing vines surrounding them.

"Circle formation," Liam commanded, his voice steady. "Watch each other’s backs."

The hunters obeyed instantly, forming a defensive ring with Liam at the center.

Above them, more vines descended—thick as a man’s arm, creeping like serpents from the canopy.

"Don’t let them wrap around you or your weapons," Liam warned. "Their estimated Strength index is between 8 to 12, classifying them as Rank Two. They’ll pick you off the ground and toss you like a ragdoll if they catch you. Cut them down before that. Shorten their reach, and create a space to hold our ground."

His calm authority quelled the rising panic.

Gwen fell into position, her sword carving precise arcs through the air. Crescent waves of mana sliced through the vines before they could strike. The other hunters, though unable to match her ranged strikes, hacked away at the encroaching tendrils.

Slowly, under Liam’s direction, they carved out a safe zone granting them a small moment to catch their breath.

"Hah... hah..." The hunters panted, their chests heaving as they struggled to steady themselves. Sweat streaked through the grime caked on their faces, mixing with flecks of the vine’s sticky green goo—a foul-smelling sap that clung to everything it touched.

Their weapons, once honed to razor edges, now dragged like clubs, their blades gummed up with hardening sludge. Every swing required brute force, tearing through vines rather than slicing them.

Everyone’s expression was grim, a silent dread enveloping them. The image of their comrade’s body erupting in thorns still flashed behind their eyelids whenever they blinked.

"Hah... shit." Jayce’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the ground with a thud, his arms and legs splayed like a broken puppet. His hands were covered in sticky green goo, his gauntlets long since torn away during the desperate brawl.

Landur let out a dry chuckle, leaning heavily on his notched sword. The smirk on his face was strained—more habit than humor. "Resting already? We’ve barely started."

Jayce flipped him off without lifting his head. "Shut your mouth... I’ve been smashing these damn things barehanded since my gauntlets got snatched by that last one." He gestured weakly to a nearby vine, its severed end still wrapped around his now crushed gauntlets. "Just... gimme a damn minute. We’ve cleared the area, haven’t we?"

"We got movement on this side!"

The shout ripped through the momentary calm. Every hunter stiffened, heads snapping toward the voice.

Silence. Then—

Landur’s eyelid twitched. He turned slowly to glare at Jayce, who had gone pale. "...You just had to open your fucking mouth, didn’t you?"

Gwen ignored their bickering, her grip tightening on her sword as she focused on the disturbance ahead.

The bush.

It shouldn’t have been notable—just another tangle of foliage in this overgrown ruin. But it swayed when nothing else did, its branches jerking like spastic fingers. Leaves curled inward, trembling as if recoiling from an unseen touch.

"There’s no wind..." Hana’s voice was barely audible, but the observation caused Gwen’s eyes to narrow.

Her pupils flared dark blue as her mana-enhanced vision sharpened. The bush’s movements were wrong—unnatural. And there, amid the knotted branches she spotted it; pale, jagged fragments.

"Are those bones..?"

Crack. Snap.

The sounds of bones snapping and branches bending echoed throughout the silent village. The bush convulsed, its structure collapsing and reforming in a grotesque mockery of anatomy. Branches splintered like breaking joints, weaving around a central spine of yellowed bone. Leaves fused into sinew, knitting a hollow torso. At the top, bark split apart to form a crude face—and where eyes should have been, two bulbous flowers swelled, their petals peeling back to reveal glistening black pistils.

The creature’s form made her recall legends of old. The stories of the living trees—ents—flashed through her mind, but this thing was no guardian of the forest.

The ent’s head tilted as its flowery petals swayed gently, almost as if it was watching them.

A chill ran down Gwen’s spine. Her thoughts snapped back to the strange flower cluster she had seen earlier. Her gaze darted across the village. Dozens of identical blooms lurked in the shadows, nestled in crevices, perched on rooftops.

’The flowers are its eyes.’

’The vines, its limbs and the branches its armor.’

’The village—No, the entire forest—its body.’

Remembering how they were able to waltz right in here unharmed, Gwen had another realization.

It had let them inside.

"It’s intelligent." Liam’s voice cut through the silence.

The words barely registered before the corrupted ent moved.

One moment it stood there, a grotesque statue. The next—

Hundreds of meters vanished in a few heartbeats.

The leader of Team 6 reacted first, moving to intercept the corrupted ent. His battle axe cut a silver arc as he channeled the full force of his High-Rank strength into a decapitating swing.

"HAH!" He shouted out a battle cry as his axe came down. The corrupted ent slammed its foot down on the ground, the axe mere inches away from its head—

SPROUT!

The ground ruptured as it foot made contact with the floor. Barbed vines exploded upward, a forest of serrated spikes aiming to impale team leader 6 mid-strike.

"WHAT THE—?!" He wrenched his axe sideways, shearing through the closest vines, but the diversion cost him. The ent’s arm lashed out, its fingers elongating into dagger-like claws—

Swoosh!

Two hunters materialized at its flanks, swords flashing. A third—a broad-shouldered man with reinforced gauntlets—leapt between them and the leader. With a mechanical clink, his armor’s mechanisms engaged, plates shifting, gears whirring as twin shields unfolded from his vambraces.

Just in time.

The ent’s claws screeched against the metal, spraying sparks as the hunter flew back. He collided with team 6’s leader as both of them skid back several meters, digging a long trench into the ground.

The two hunters lunged from the flanks, their blades cutting deep into the ent’s branch-and-leaf body. But as steel met bark, the viscous vine goo coating their weapons dulled their strikes. Before they could pull back, fresh tendrils surged from the wound, wrapping around their blades with terrifying speed. The swords were trapped fast—swallowed whole by the ent’s regenerating form.

With a grotesque twisting of its waist, the corrupted ent swung its claws in a wide arc. The movement came with an earsplitting screech, like the very air was being torn apart. The hunters reacted instantly, abandoning their trapped weapons as they threw themselves backward. They barely avoided the first swipe—or so they thought.

Sprout!

Without warning, the ent’s arms elongated, its dagger-like claws shooting forward like spears aimed directly at the hunters’ chests. This time, there was no dodging. As the lethal points rushed toward their hearts, both men froze—the image of their comrade’s body erupting in thorns flashing through their minds.

Swish! Swish!

Just as death seemed inevitable, two brilliant blades of mana sliced through the air with a sound like screaming wind. The corrupted ent’s arms fell severed to the ground. The rescued hunters didn’t need telling twice—they scrambled back several meters, joining the others who were already moving to surround the creature.

Gwen didn’t wait. Her sword blazing with white light, she charged forward. "Hana! The eyes!" she shouted without turning. Two arrows immediately whistled past her shoulders.

The ent tried to dodge, but Gwen was already there—her blade cutting off its escape route with surgical precision.

Thunk!

Both arrows found their mark, piercing straight through the ent’s bulbous flower-eyes. Before the creature could even react to this new injury, Gwen’s sword flashed once more. The blade cleaved straight through the ent’s head, splitting it clean down the middle. A small, green fleshy core tumbled out—neatly bisected before it could hit the ground.

"Phew..." Gwen exhaled deeply as the ent collapsed. She stared at the twitching remains, brows furrowed. That had been too close. If she’d missed the core by even an inch, the creature would have regenerated instantly—and she’d be the one lying in pieces right now.

"This thing’s at least a peak-level Rank Two," she muttered quietly, her unease growing. She turned to seek reassurance from her brother, but found his expression still grim. His piercing gaze was scanning their surroundings, and as Gwen followed his line of sight, her own face paled.

Twitch! SNAP! CRACK!

All around them, bushes began to tremble. The sounds of snapping bones and bending wood filled the air as dozens—no, hundreds—of new ents began to emerge. Their numbers swelled by the second, some clawing up from the very ground beneath the hunters’ feet.

Color drained from every face. They had barely survived one of these creatures. Against hundreds...

Total annihilation.

Some hunters glanced upward, considering escape, but the writhing vine canopy above promised an equally gruesome fate for anyone who tried to flee. Gwen bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she turned to Liam. In this hopeless situation, only her brother stood a chance.

Liam sighed, his shoulders rising and falling in a slow, deliberate motion. He knew as well as anyone that the hunters with him stood no chance against this monstrous horde. Slowly, deliberately, he opened his narrowed eyes. His gaze swept across the encircling army of ents as a thick, sickly aura began to seep from his body—an invisible tide of death and murder that crept outward inch by inch.

Gwen shuddered as the aura washed over her. No matter how many times she felt it, she could never get used to her brother’s Mana Field. But just as suddenly as it had appeared, Liam withdrew the expanding energy, his eyebrows lifting in genuine surprise.

Before Gwen could wonder what had startled him, her breath caught in her throat. Her heart skipped a beat as the world seemed to slow to a crawl. For one terrifying second, everything took on a dull gray hue. An ancient, primal dread filled her chest, so heavy she couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think.

Then, as suddenly as it came, the feeling passed. Gwen gasped, her heart hammering against her ribs. Though only a second had passed, she was already drenched in sweat.

Tap. Tap.

Footsteps. Clear and measured, cutting through the unnatural silence of the frozen village.

Every head turned as one toward the sound. There, walking calmly through the motionless army of ents and hanging vines as if they were mere scenery, was a figure clad entirely in black. His face was hidden behind a half-mask and hood, revealing only piercing steel-blue eyes that regarded the world with detached calm.

The hunters parted before him without thinking, creating a path straight to Liam. The masked man stopped only when he stood face to face with the raid leader.

"...You’ve returned," Liam said after a beat, his usual smirk creeping back onto his face—wider now, more genuine.

The cloaked figure gave a single slow nod. "Mhm."

Liam stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Very well. We’ll discuss more later." Turning to the group, his voice took on its usual commanding tone. "Everyone prepare to move! We’ll be cutting our way through the vines!"

"W-Wait, sir!" One hunter called out, pointing a shaking finger at the silent army surrounding them. No one had forgotten how just one of these creatures had almost killed three of their own in seconds. "What about them?"

"Relax." Liam’s response was almost playful as he strolled forward. The crowd held its breath as he approached the nearest ent—a towering two-meter monstrosity—and gave its shoulder a casual poke.

The creature toppled like a felled tree, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

"They’re already dead."