15 Chapter 15: Mokuton

Before starting to read, you might look up the soundtrack below for more dramatic fight scenes.

- Naruto OST: Hishou

- Naruto OST: Raising fighting spirit.

Chapter start →

"Don't just stand there! Move!"

Commander Meld's voice helped Kouki's party to regain their senses. The Behemoth soon began to dash forward, and then it jumped towards Kouki. The red-hot helmet fell towards him like a meteor.

Even though he jumped sideways immediately, the shock wave caused by the impact still blew him away. Shizuku and Ryutaro who were there beside him also received the impact from the shock wave as they rolled on the ground with a rumbling sound. When they finally stopped, they had wounds all over their body.

Commander Meld, who finally regained his movement, rushed over. The other knights were still being treated by Kaori. The Behemoth's horns were stuck on the bridge. After bracing its leg, the Behemoth pulled it out.

"All of you, get up!"

All he got in response were groans, after all, they were paralyzed by the same shock wave that the Commander and the knights received earlier in a head-on collision. It seemed like they received considerable damage to the internal organs. Commander Meld turned his head around to probably call out to Kaori. What got into his line of sight instead was my figure with relaxed expressions...

"Boy! Carry Kouki and retreat with Kaori!"

The commander gave me such instructions. "Kouki", only take Kouki along with him. That instruction indicated that it would be great even if only Kouki was able to get away, it was probably that kind of wish.

'What bullshit!' thought in my mind. After that, I replied with "I refused!" as I stare at his dumbfounded faces.

"Wha-? Don't joke around! Hurry up and do it!!!"

As He yells at me to do his command, I can see that Hajime finally comes to this place as I failed at my promise to bring Kouki and end up causing a ruckus.

'Perfect timing, now the plan can start. After all, even though I can hold the behemoth alone, I also need to make Hajime fall to the abyss. Without the transformed Hajime, the story will be incomplete if I have to say.'

I looked at the commander who tried to exchange his life for the survival of the Hero and said to him.

"I have another plan. I will hold the behemoth down using plants along with Hajime transmutation as all of you retreat to the back. You will all then set up a formation ready to attack as all of you cover us in our retreat to safety."

It sounds so ridiculous and silly as it would put me and Hajime in the most dangerous position. Furthermore, He probably wonders if we really can do it. Commander Meld hesitated, but the Behemoth already got into battle mode. Its helmet started to sizzle red-hot again as he knew that they had no time.

In the end, He can only ask me "...Can you two do it?"

Hajime who had just arrived is still dazed as he finally stares with firm expressions and resolute gaze as he says "I can do it."

Meanwhile, I just smiled with confident expressions as I Immediately started my preparation to attack the Behemoth.

<Play naruto OST: Hishou.>

I first throw 5 seeds to the ground that I control as it forms the shapes of a catapult. After that, I grow a special kind of plant called 'spikeball' that is round-shaped for the projectile. This projectile plant is a touch-sensitive plant like the touch-me-not plant or in Latin, Mimosa pudica. However, instead of doing harmless action after it feels touched, it will grow spikes on its surfaces as it pierces 1.5 meters of everything around it.

In a way, it can also be called sea urchin plant or pufferfish plant as it is very similar to those animals. The reason I used the catapult is also because the cannon is too strong as the spikeball will just explode before it leaves the barrel, making the catapult more suitable for this type of projectile.

Seeing that I created a catapult out of a plant, a shocked expression emerged on Commander Meld and Hajime.

Ignoring them, I command the catapult to throw the spikeball as it moves in parabola toward the top and side of the behemoth. As the spikeball hits the behemoth, many spikes immediately protrude from its surfaces as it pierces the skin of the colossal beast.

"Groa~a~a~aaaaar!!"

The Behemoth immediately became more enraged after being injured as many spikes drilled inside his wound. Although normally the spikes can only grow to 1.5 meters, my skill [Plant Growth Stimulation] is able to surpass this limit as I immediately form an entanglement.

Seeing some initial success, I immediately start the second stage of my plan. I throw some more seeds in that will grow fire-resistant wood as I know that the spike will not last long from the fire that the Behemoth created.

Seeing the seeds already planted, I immediately started to active my magic circle.

"[Mokuton: Jukai Kōtan]!" (Wood Style: Nativity of a Sea of Trees!)

With my shout, the area around the Behemoth turns into a vast forest in a matter of mere moments complete with trees and even grass growing out of the bridge we are standing on. Why shout? Because my opponent is just a beast and it is way cooler that way.

With the Behemoth trapped in my artificial forest, I immediately called out to Hajime who was still standing in a daze.

"Hajime, Transform the bridge and trap its limb to further reinforce my trap! Then shift his center of gravity and sink his head to the ground."

"yes!"

He immediately did as I say as the Behemoth's movement out from the plant trap I created was further restricted. Even if it smashed the plant and stone in the surrounding, I would continue to add more branches and Hajime would continue to transmute new stone.

Bracing its legs, the Behemoth was going to forcefully shred all obstacles around it, but Hajime transmuted around the foot this time. While it was struggling, the Behemoth lost its balance as its head sunk one meter into the ground due to transmutation.

Seeing this, I immediately gave more orders to Hajime "Now! Bury more of its body as I prepare another thing."

The Behemoth's power was so terrifying, many branches were broken as I grew more of them and cracks would appear the moment Hajime let up for a brief second. It wanted to escape, but it was stopped by our skill every time. In the end, the Behemoth's entire head was buried underground.

Commander Meld firmly fixed his gaze on the Behemoth with an indescribable shock as He finally decided to retreat according to plan. In the meantime, Kaori and the recovered knights gathered everyone together and attempted to carry Kouki's party back. At the skeleton soldier's side, it seemed like some students had regained their composure and started to cooperate with each other. The reason for the recovery was because of some of my initial help along with Sonobe who I saved earlier that is stabilizing the situations in the backline.

"Wait! Nagumo-kun is still over there!"

Facing Commander Meld who urged them to retreat, Kaori protested fiercely which I heard from afar as I retorted in my mind 'Oy! I am also still over here!'

"That is their battle! We are going to break through the Skeleton Soldiers and unfold an all-out magic attack after we secured a safety zone! Of course, they will retreat during that time! We will hold up the Behemoth with magic until they get back, then we will retreat to the upper level."

"Then, I'll stay and help!"

"That's out of the question! 'Let Kaori retreat and heal Kouki' That's what he said!" Facing the unreasonableness of Kaori, Commander Meld can only tell a lie as He still prioritizes the Hero.

'Well, it can't be helped. After all, they think that Human is in danger of extinction and only the Hero can save them'

"But!"

Kaori, who still wanted to say something, came to a pause after receiving Commander Meld's sermon.

"Don't let the boy's effort be in vain!!!"

"——!?"

Including Commander Meld, the one with the highest firepower was without a doubt Kouki of course with me excluded as I never show them anything that gives high firepower. If she did not use her healing magic to recover him, they may not have sufficient firepower to stop the Behemoth when the time comes. That is why it is necessary for her to heal Kouki while retreating. By the time both of us exhausted our magic power and couldn't use our skills and magics anymore, the Behemoth will start to move.

"Breath of Heaven, Fill to the brim, Purify and Heal, [Heaven's Blessing]"

Kaori was crying, but even so, she continued to chant. A pale light engulfed Kouki, as she heals Kouki's physical wounds and recovers his magic power. Seeing her start healing, I can see that Commander Meld and the Knight start to retreat with the Hero party.

After they retreat, I focus my attention on the Behemoth again as I can hear Kouki's shouts while He unleashes His skills and spouts more of his bullshiting lines at the back.

While they are retreating, I have already grown a network of roots on the bridge in order to control the time for collapse later on. This way, even if Daisuke doesn't betray and try to kill Hajime like in the original, I can still collapse the bridge to make it look like an accident.

With them finally out of the area, I began to start my next plan. First, I gave Hajime a respiratory mask that I created in this world to him which He received with startled expressions as He finally nodded to me as He probably understood that I will make some poisons or the sort.

Well, He is not wrong as I will do something similar. I then throw more seeds to the area around Behemoth as I start my chant for my next magic or ninjutsu, whatever you say.

<play Naruto OST: Raising fighting spirit>

"[Mokuton: Kajukai Kōrin]!" (Wood Style: Advent of a World of Flowering Trees!)

With this magic, I created a dense forest of flowering trees. The forest I create produces a lot of flowers with pollen spreading around them. The pollen produced by these flowers is then released into the atmosphere and when inhaled, renders any afflicted target unconscious.

Unlike the original user Hashirama, I can't control where the pollen spreads which might affect anyone else in the area. That's why I give the mask to Hajime while I only start to use this magic after the other is far away.

Although the Behemoth will not be poisoned until he was unconscious, He will slowly lose some of his strength as He slows down and become more sleepy.

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As the behemoth is trapped in the plant, rocks, and poisonous pollen, the back-line has started their counterattack against the skeleton soldier. They launched their magic and martial arts which descended upon the enemies like a surging wave. The enemies were wiped out at an astonishing rate, they had finally passed the spawning rate of the Magic Beasts.

Soon, the path to the stairs opened up.

"Everyone advance! We must secure the open space in front of the stairs!"

Kouki started to run as soon as he shouted. The fully recovered Ryutaro and Shizuku followed closely behind. They cut through the encircling Skeleton Soldier like a hot knife through butter. Finally, they broke through the besiegement. Behind them, the Skeleton Soldiers wanted to enclose the path to the stairs again, but they were scattered by Kouki's magic.

The classmates revealed an astonished expression, it was only natural. The stairs were just before their eyes, it was only to be expected that they wanted to get to a safety zone at once.

"Everyone, wait! We must help Nagumo-kun and Nomura-kun! they have been suppressing that monster all this time!"

Hearing Kaori's words, the classmates exposed a doubtful expression. They thought it was impossible, after all, both of us were tagged as non-combat personnel due to our class. However, when the perplexed classmates looked over at the bridge, the two of us were really there.

"What the, what is going on there? Are that mists poisonous?"

"That demon's… upper body was buried?"

Facing the students who were filled with doubts, Commander Meld issued the orders.

"That's right! They suppressed the monster by themself to let us retreat! Vanguards! You guys deal with the Skeleton Soldiers! Rearguards! Prepare your long-range magic! Their magic power will exhaust any time soon, attack simultaneously the moment they start to retreat! We must stop the Behemoth!"

The students braced themselves when the voice resounded, although some reluctantly looked in the direction of the stairs, they still returned to the battlefield from Commander Meld's Shout. Of course, among them was Hiyama Daisuke. Since all of this was caused by him, Hiyama was really terrified, he wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible.

However, remembering the event of Kaori's night visit to Hajime fuelled his anger as he looked at Hajime who was suppressing the Behemoth with me. At the same time, the figure of Kaori praying for him entered his line of sight... a dark smile gradually bloomed on his face.

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Just at this time, Hajime's magic power had already run out several times as he consumed lots of recovery pills. You might wonder how in the original Hajime can only do some simple transmutation while in this stage He is able to use transmutation on a large scale. This is because of these recovery pills.

This pill is made out of a special plant that can store neutral mana in which when consumed as a pill will allow the consumer to regain their mana quickly. Of course, there is a drawback as these pills are relatively expensive for most adventurers and can't be consumed too many times in a short amount of time.

Although it is neutral mana, there is still some impurity in these pills which will slowly accumulate in the body and cause body harm. Hajime who continued to consumed the pill like a snack this whole time will probably be hospitalized if not for him to recover from the God crystal in the Abyss.

Unlike Hajime, my huge amount of mana allows me to still keep on going as even till now, I only used a third of my total mana. As for the reason why making a forest repeatedly is cheaper than making a bottle of acid, it is because of the difference in creation and manipulation.

In manipulation, I just catalyze the plant growth through energies while creation needs to be done through matter creation. As the famous formula says [E=mc^2], the energy required to make 1 kg of matter is c^2 joules or 9 times 10 to the power of 16 joules(9 x 10^16 joules) or simply said 90 million gigajoules which are unobtainable on the earth. Even Arc reactor can't do this as it only has the power of like 3-8 Gigajoules per second.

Anyway, after Hajime had run out of recovery pills. We immediately started to retreat as the backline already got into formation and were preparing to chant. The Behemoth was still struggling albeit less violent than the start. Seeing this, I start giving the order to retreat to Hajime.

"Hajime! Retreat first, I will follow you after that!"

At the same time when dozens of cracks appeared, Hajime used the last of his [Transmutation] to restrain the Behemoth. After that, Hajime started to sprint. With him sprinting, I also grew more trees as obstacles in the bridge pathway as I started to retreat with him.

Five seconds after we started to run, the ground split open. The Behemoth crushed the ground and let out a roar as it stood up. That angry look in its eyes was unlikely to be mistaken. It began to scan the surroundings for the enemy that humiliated it —— both of us entered its vision. Again, the Behemoth let out a roar, even louder than before. In order to catch up to us, it began to store up power in its four limbs.

However, in the next moment, every kind of magic attack arrived in succession. Multi-colored magics like stars bombarded the Behemoth. Although they were unable to deal any damage, they were able to stop it from advancing.

We continued to run until we pulled thirty-meter apart from the Behemoth where Hajime instinctively loosened his cheek. However, just at this time, his expression froze as, among the endless stream of spells, one fireball bent slightly... It was the shot from Daisuke toward Hajime for his parting gift as he unleashed all his dissatisfaction toward Hajime through this shot.

'Looks like he still chooses to do this… I don't plan to do anything to save Hajime as I know that he will grow up after this event. As for Daisuke? I will leave him alone for Hajime as revenge that you do yourself is more satisfying. Of course, not before making sure he is not running around."

That fireball still struck the ground right in front of him. He was blown back the way he came from by the shockwave. Although he avoided a direct hit and didn't suffer from any internal injuries, his semicircular canal was damaged. His sense of balance was thrown into disorder.

It was at this moment that I knew the signal had been lit up. I immediately collapse the whole bridge using the root network I planted earlier. With the Behemoth point as the epicenter, terrifying cracks began to spread. The bridge let out a crunching sound.

And finally... the bridge collapsed.

After I removed the foundation of the bridge along with finding the resonances of the bridge that I also found earlier, the bridge finally gave in to my effort of destroying the bridge.

"Guaaa!?"

The Behemoth let out a cry and desperately used its claw to scratch the slanted rock bridge. However, the place it was clinging to also collapsed. In the end, the Behemoth fell into the bottomless abyss. The Behemoth's death throes were still resounding.

Along with the Behemoth falls, the bridge under us also starts to fall as I pose a sailor salute before the ship sinks for our parting to make them more dramatic. Of course not before giving a parting gift to Daisuke too.

"Yo Daisuke! If you want to kill Hajime with a fireball, make it more believable. Your acting using magic in the middle of a magic barrage sucks!" I shout as I wonder what will happen to him.

'Will he be imprisoned? I am not sure, but he will be persecuted for sure. I just hope that it doesn't turn for the worse with Nakamura Eri, the second yandere.'

On the other hand, Hajime falls to the abyss with his arm stretching toward the light as he turns his widened gaze towards his classmates at the opposite side who had pale faces or covering their eyes or mouth while Meld and the Knights also had a mortifying expression.

In the end, Hajime saw Kaori who was being held back by Kouki and Shizuku as the light gradually became dimmer.....