3 Bonetree Golem

Standing up, Sydra looks around the empty valley, the smile on his face fading into a look of confusion, 'Crap, with all the flowers gone, I'm not sure where I came from,'

Making his way up the side of the valley, Sydra searches for anything that looks familiar, but every direction appears identical. Knowing that just picking a direction to walk in could make him even more lost, Sydra decides to climb a tree in the hopes of spotting the mountain he came from.

Grabbing onto a low-hanging branch of a nearby tree, Sydra begins to climb up, getting about halfway up before he runs out of branches. Already being thirty meters above the ground, Sydra looks for another way to go higher without having to climb back down first.

'Maybe I could use that vine? I could probably jump to it, but there is still a chance I might miss,' Sydra thinks, his eyes focused on a vine that was dangling a few meters away from the tree. Holding onto the trunk with one hand, Sydra breathes deeply as he prepares to jump, 'It's not that far, I got this,'

Tensing his body, Sydra slowly lets go of the tree, "Okay, on three. One... Two... Three!"

Yelling loudly, Sydra leaps off the branch and soars through the air towards the vine. The moment his palm touches it, Sydra wraps his fingers tightly around it to keep himself from slipping, "Woah, that was terrifying,"

As he hangs from the vine, Sydra looks around for a tree with more branches. When he finds one, Sydra begins to shift his weight back and forth to make the vine swing towards the tree he chose.

'Almost... Got it!' Sydra thinks as he grabs onto one of the branches. In the process of pulling himself up, Sydra feels the vine snap, causing him to lose his grip on the branch and fall. As he falls, Sydra adjusts his body at the last moment to grab onto the branch below him.

"Ahaha," Sydra's scream turns into a nervous laugh as he pulls himself up onto the branch. Gripping the tree to the point where his knuckles turn white, Sydra glances down at the vine falling to the ground, 'I don't think I would have survived that,'

Tearing his gaze away from the ground, Sydra steels his nerves and returns to climbing the tree. It takes him the next few minutes before he reaches the top, but the sight that greets him erases the fear of the near-death experience.

The sun is beating down from the middle of the sky, turning the treetops into an emerald ocean. Beyond the treetops are several mountains, including the one Sydra came from, that are reflecting the light of the sun with their snowy tips. Although entranced by the sight, Sydra realizes that he only has half a day left to make it back to the town before dark.

After climbing down the tree, Sydra heads in the direction of the mountain, climbing a tree every few minutes to make sure he is on the right track. Fifteen minutes pass before Sydra sees the edge of the forest, but before he can rush out, his foot catches on something, causing him to trip.

'Did I trip over a root?' Sydra wonders as he glances down at his foot, which turned out to be entangled in several roots protruding from the ground. Before he can pull the roots off his foot, they begin to move all on their own.

Slithering like snakes, the roots move across the ground in the direction of a bush before disappearing underneath them. Staring at the bush warily, Sydra begins to back away from it, but he doesn't get very far before noticing that the bush is losing its color.

'Why doesn't this body have any powers that can tell me what's hiding under the bush?' Sydra wonders as he watches the bush closely. Summoning the Ice-Dragon staff from the Arbor Sanctum, Sydra aims it towards the bush in case whatever is inside is dangerous.

Suddenly all the leaves on the bush wither away, leaving nothing to keep Sydra from seeing a lizard skull resting upon several branches underneath.

'That's it? That doesn't look dangerous,' Sydra thinks as he lowers the Ice-Dragon staff and walks over to the tiny skull. Reaching through the withered bush, Sydra flicks the skull to the ground, prepared to jump back in case something happened.

After waiting a few seconds, Sydra sighs and stands back up, 'Well, that was a waste of my time,'

Turning around, Sydra prepares to leave the forest, but before he can take a step he feels the ground beneath his feet pulse, 'Please tell me that was an earthquake?'

Wanting to make sure it's safe, Sydra pauses and looks around, noticing for the first time how quiet the forest is. At least until the sound of bones tapping against one another comes from behind him. Slowly turning around, Sydra looks back at the skull laying on the ground, which is now twice as big as before.

'So it grew in size, that's no big deal, right?' Sydra thinks as he tightens his grip on the staff. Suddenly, the ground pulses again, and the sound of bones clacking grows louder.

"Where is that sound coming from?!" Sydra shouts, his eyes darting back and forth around the forest. As he looks around, Sydra sees multiple vines making their way to the tiny skull, dragging bones of all shapes and sizes behind them.

The vines all converge in front of the skull fit a few seconds before Sydra feels another pulse from the ground, causing the skull to double in size for the third time. Now the same size as an alligator's skull, the lizard's skull opens its mouth and begins devouring the vines as if it was an endless void.

'I'm not sure what's happening, but I should probably get out of here,' Sydra thinks, but his feet stay rooted in the same spot. By now, the roots that were devoured have begun to reappear as they form the body of the creature.

As the roots spread out from beneath the skull, they form the upper body of the beast, which is covered in a layer of small bones that had been fused into the shape of a breastplate. Sticking out from the shoulders are four long bones, two on either side of the head. Extending from the chest are four arms, each one ending with the skull of an Alphaleaf Wolf.

As the skull devours more of the vines, they grow out of the bottom of the body, creating a long tail that lifts it off the ground. The end of the tail is in the shape of a giant sphere, covered in thousands of needle-like bones. Once it is fully grown, two green lights flicker to life inside the eye sockets of the creature, gazing directly towards Sydra.

"That's... a Bone-Tree Golem," Sydra says, recognizing the creature from a description he had read in the book. Although they weren't the most difficult creatures to fight, the Bone-Tree Golem was known for being incredibly durable, and able to grow back missing limbs, 'The book could have at least said something about how to defeat it,'

Before Sydra can move, the Bone-Tree Golem whips its tail around, the needle-like bones heading directly towards Sydra's face. Suddenly, Sydra feels his body acting on its own, the years of training hidden in the muscles reacting to the oncoming danger.

'I'm not sure what's happening, but I'm grateful,' Sydra thinks as he flips through the air, his back inches above the tail. Landing on the other side, Sydra takes control of his body back and points the Ice-Dragon staff at the receding tail of the creature.

Activating his aura, Sydra releases a blast of ice that manages to hit the tail, covering it a solid layer of ice, 'Alright! I managed to hit the thing I was aiming for,'

With its frozen tail hindering its movements, the Bone-Tree Golem roars loudly before raising one of its fists. Slamming its fist into the ice, the Bone-Tree Golem manages to shatter it, but it also loses a chunk of its tail in the process.

Taking advantage of the Bone-Tree Golem being focused on its tail, Sydra fires off a few more bolts of ice towards its chest. However, right before the bolts were about to hit it, the Bone-Tree Golem grabs onto the four bones sticking out from its shoulders. As it pulls them out, Sydra sees that the bones are actually incredibly sharp blades, and the Bone-Tree Golem is holding them like swords.

'The book never said anything about this either!' Sydra internally shouts, cursing the old man for leaving so many important details out. Rushing forward, the Bone-Tree Golem swings the Bone-Blades towards Sydra, whose body uses its training to dodge three of them. However, the fourth one manages to slam into Sydra's shoulder, causing him to drop the Ice-Dragon staff as he gets thrown into a tree.

Getting up, Sydra finds blood dripping down his arm from a large gash that cut cleanly through the muscle. Grimacing, Sydra pulls out the dagger from its sheath on his hip and eyes the Bone-Tree Golem warily, 'I'm going to die if something doesn't change, but I'm not sure my body can move the way I want it to,'

Gritting his teeth, Sydra flips the dagger around in his hand as he gets into a running position. The second the Bone-Tree Golem moves, Sydra dashes across space between them, his body dancing its way between the widely swung blades. Reaching the open spot right before the Bone-Tree Golem's chest, Sydra plunges the dagger through its skull, shattering a green gem that had been hidden inside.

The green gem had actually been the heart of the Bone-Tree Golem, and when Sydra unknowingly shattered it, he also killed the Bone-Tree Golem. Without the heart to keep the roots and bones together, the Bone-Tree Golem began to fall towards Sydra.

"Ancient Root Defense!" Sydra yells as he digs his fingers into the ground. Ancient Root Defense was another ability of the Nature Spirit, which called upon the roots of Ancient Trees for protection. The roots would create a domed defensive barrier around Sydra, and use the attacks barraging it to increase its durability. Of course, if the attacks were too powerful, then the roots would become brittle and break.

With the roots protecting him from the falling shards of the Bone-Tree Golem, Sydra waited until it was done. Once the Bone-Tree Golem had finished falling, Sydra released the barrier that kept him from being crushed under a pile of bones and roots. After making his way out of the pile, Sydra sits down by a tree to begin healing his shoulder.