27 Stampede Part 4

When I woke again it was a little later than usual, my wife was still waking up too, I went to wash myself a little, since I still felt sore all over, luckily the Outpost was using the Fire Mana Stones together with the Water Mana Stones, making a delightful hot water basin, which I gladly used to make some. I washed my face and used the hot towel to clean myself while I still could while I was taking of my shirt I noticed how buff I got from all the work I have been doing, aside from that I still got the horns and tail which are characteristics from being a Tiefling, I started by wetting the cloth with the hot water on the tub and as soon as the cloth was dampened, I started cleaning my body. The damp cloth started transmitting I warm sensation through my fingers and body, removing the grime and dirty from working a lot last day, it was an extremely blissful feeling.

After wiping my whole body with that cloth I put it at the dirty stack of clothes on the basket inside the faucet room in the corner, it was full of dirty and oily grime from my work.

After rejuvenating myself with the damp cloth, I washed my face with some cold water on the other basin, since I wanted to feel better and more energetic in the morning.

Finishing the whole process of cleaning myself, I went towards the maintenance of my equipment, since it took quite a beating from yesterday. The gambeson is useless, since it is dyed with poison from those Red Maned Vipers, so it is better to just burn it outside, lest anyone will inhale any toxic vapors, it is a good thing that there are many others to substitute, since Nordya and Mr. Guido mass produced these. I took the upper and lower parts from the gambeson of everyone who had been hit by a toxic jet in the armor and put them all on a barrel outside, while I made sure to take a torch and a little bit of oil to burn those outside. It took some time to ignite the first piece of cloth, but after the first went on flames it became easier for the rest to also burn. I soon left, since it wasn't my fetish to breath in burning cloth dyed on poison. One problem down, all I need to do is clean the grime formed on the metal plates of my half plate armor, the gauntlets, boots and shield, so I went after some pieces of cloth to wipe away those Vipers spits and put it at the burning barrel outside, I started with the shield, since it was an easy thing to begin with, took the cloth and started to cleaning it away. After some minutes of wiping metal plates, I ended up with three cloths completely dirty with the poison spits and so I proceed to throw them away in the barrel, surprisingly it was still burning, but there wasn't a lot of smoke and fumes coming out, so I just threw the cloths there too. Now, all that I need is to apply some oil for preservation purposes and it would be done! To apply the oil all I needed was some clean cloth, dampen it on the oil extracted from the fat and lard of the monsters that I and Ti'oh hunted during the preparation for this monster horde, all we had to do cook it on low fire and stir it until the scum separate from the fatty oils, producing oil for cooking and preservation of the equipment, the scum would be used as fuel for the fire on colder seasons. Yup, all wiped with a little bit of oil, which is good, now for this beautiful indigo blue sword, which was used to cut through a lot of these trees, I can already notice a bunch of small nicks on the blade, so I take a whetstone and I grind it against the edge so there is no more nicks on it, but the edge was so dull now. Since it got dull, I just had to sharpen it with the whetstone again. So I just put the whetstone on a clamp by the forge, put some oil on it and started grinding the sword edge about a twenty degrees angle, it took about an hour for both sides, at this time everyone else was up and working by the time I noticed, so I wipe the sword with the oil damp cloth and put it on my scabbard, it makes a nice slicing sound, proof that the edge was there again.

After a refreshing morning of cleaning and maintenance of my equipment I feel refreshed after doing it, my mind was sharp now, so I went to have some breakfast with my wife and Ti'oh family.

Granny was complaining about the timing that such stampede came to be, Ti'oh was more relaxed than yesterday when he came to get me for our shift, I hope nothing was out of place today, since he looked so worried, Grandpa was just trying to calm down Granny since she was almost fuming from the annoyance she felt. Nordya was almost falling asleep while carrying the plates with Granny, she must be tired from worrying yesterday, let's make it up for her by making sure she can rest easy today! I am sure that weird sound from yesterday was nothing big for us, since it haven't happened any-

*Thump* *Blam* *Crash!*

Yay, me and my rotten luck. Why did I have to think about it just now?

I looked at Ti'oh after snapping out of my indignant daze and he just waved me not to worry, which made sense, since there wasn't any bell alarm being rung, so we were relatively safe for now, so we kept having breakfast while Granny had a bigger outburst of frustration, Nor woke up from her sleep walking with the plates, a little bit more flustered so I also, just like Grandpa, kept trying to console and assure her. Ti'oh also went to calm down Granny, since Grandpa was looking at him with pleading eyes. Aside from our circumstances it was a good breakfast.

I hope it is nothing that big thumping sounds and earth shaking, nonetheless it is time for me and Ti'oh to get up and ready ourselves for our watch turn, meanwhile the crashing sounds got louder and louder, which I am sure is not a good omen.

We finished putting on new armor and readying our weapons, we departed from our family, reassuring them that nothing would happen.

When we went outside towards the post to change shifts, we saw a huge tree piercing the sky really close to the village now, but at the other side of the river, at least we had a deterrent to make that huge thing think twice before coming here. Unfortunately, it seemed to be walking in circles, while over there, while, fortunately, we don't have any other invasion from mutated beasts trying to cause havoc at our village.

We got ourselves ready in case anything happens. After something close to half an hour, the huge tree started moving in the direction of the village, this time it was in straight line, we probably won't be able to escape this incoming disaster, but we still didn't ring the alarm bells, waiting to get a better view of what we would be dealing with.

We spent ten minutes feeling suffocating from the pressure we felt heading our way.

I rang the bells out of fear, this is the first time coming this world I felt like this.

"Ti'oh, what is this feeling? And what is that thing?" I asked while cold sweat start to pour from my forehead.

"That is a high realm being walking towards our direction, this feeling is the amount of Mana that thing has amassed." He explained with a strained face, also feeling the pressure.

Soon, Metania and Jivs came towards the wall, only to also stop after looking directly at the tree which was exuding that pressure and suddenly started to sweat profusely just as I have done and soon to follow was Elder Brontus and Captain Vermont with strained faces after looking at that aura.

"There wasn't supposed to be any kind of monstrosity like that around here... What has actually happened?" Said Elder Brontus apprehensively.

"No idea, it is a good one to send someone to take a look at what was actually happening now, Hyugin!" said Captain Vermont still looking towards the approaching tree.

"Bah! Why don't you go, old bastard!" Ti'oh replied annoyed by that, although he was the hunter of the village and had more experience stalking prey.

"Tch! I didn't say alone, did I!?" Captain Vermont replied with a smirk on his face "Let's go together with your Ta and take a look at what is coming our way."

"I was kinda of expecting that, but I don't want to take him with us." Ti'oh said while I tried to maintain my calm all this time "He is too green."

"Well, we are understaffed, all right? Do you think I wanted to send the younglings towards such scary bastard like that one?" Captain Vermont shouted exasperated.

Suddenly, many trees broke down and we could finally see what was coming towards the village, it was the same huge tree with many thick and gigantic roots spreading from its base, where they were covering a giant azure creature with the head of a dragon, the eastern kind, with green antler horns protuding from the forehead, while it was crawling towards the village with big azure paws and a blueish green tint could be seen with the reflection of the sun on its scales.

It looked pitiful, as if he starved for a long time and it was suffering a lot from something, that I could only guess it would be that huge tree on its back.

"Ti'oh, it looks to be suffering from that huge tree on its back..." I said looking at it, mystified by it's appearance "Its eyes look even as of someone passing out from pain."

While observing it, it didn't feel like some symbiosis, it felt as if the tree was a parasite towards the dragon, some of its roots engorged towards the base close to the dragon and the engorgement moved towards the trunk as if it was swallowing the essence from the dragon, making the dragon suddenly fall.

*THUMP*

There was the same earthquake which was happening through yesterday and today, just this time it was really close, raising a dust cloud.

So it is this humongous thing the one responsible for the loud earthquakes happening around here, it looks really miserable from here, but that tree should be something else to be absorbing the dragon like that, so I shouldn't make any call like this, it is really hard to know what is happening there.

"Ti'oh what the heck is that turtle thing with a dragon head and what is that tree doing? Eating it? Is it even a tree anymore?" I gunned a bunch of questions at once without stopping to look at the humongous beast at our gates, it was a truly horrible view to witness, I miss the cliff gazing with my wife, it is a truly brilliant and vivid world and it has such awful looking things happening here too.

"I don't know what that huge tree is, but the dragon looks like the Senryuu from legend, it should be represented by its azure scales and verdant luster and horns, it is supposed to be loved by all forest trees and a Holy Beast, so I highly doubt that thing on its back is even a mutated tree, it looks more like a Curse or even a Mimic." Ti'oh gave his conjectures on the subject.

"Nordya! Try some Wood Magic to control the roots on the tree!" I shouted to her and Ti'oh and Captain looked at me confused.

She quickly cast some Roots Manipulation Magic which we could see from the way the magic circle manifested close to the dragons paws, but nothing happened.

"So, did it feel like a plant?!" I asked just to be sure.

"No! It didn't respond in any way, as if it is something else entirely!" she shouted back.

"So Mimics copy whatever they want to eat right? Or something to give an edge on the prey?" I asked "Because if that thing was a Mimic it would be exactly a tree so it should have worked, right?"

"Not exactly like that, it will still remain a monster on its core, so that thing could be a Mimic too." he said.

"But if it was a Curse it would have repelled that magic instead of even working." I said

Like a lighting shocking him, he gave a consent with a nod of his head.

"So it is likely a Mimic Tree then?" I said.

"Yes, it is." He said feeling nervous.

"If it is an anomaly thing like that, it would surely come our way, since it already passed the barrier." I said "I think our best bet is to act fast and take it out, while trying to pull the Senryuu to our side."

Ti'oh and Captain looked at each other and then at Elder Brontus, waiting for his final say on this, put their gazes indicated they were inclined to fight the strange tree on the back of a Holy Beast.

"Listen here, we will have all hands towards the battlefield, every single one of you will use their magic spells to destroy that thing, those without Mana to keep up will throw Spears as practiced in the security drills, in case of a calamity of this magnitude, so get ready and start to chant the incantation for your magic spells!" Elder Brontus gave his x, orders for the back lane of the village militia "While you, Warriors will focus on a full frontal assault with the reinforcement of our citizens, since it is an extremely important battle, both shall strike simultaneously, understood?"

"Yes, Elder!" everyone exclaimed.

All hands readied their battle formations and the warriors started approaching the creepy dragon and tree, while we were all ready to strike at the given moment we heard Grandpa hitting the hammer on a bell, signaling to start the assault, so all of us took our Ki Tempering Method to the limit and started to hack at the roots, while many spells flew over our heads, towards the trunk in a attempt to topple down that huge thing. I manage to cut down five roots connections with the dragon with the first strike, but the staggering amount seemed as if there were thousands of those.

I kept trying to slash all roots when the magic spells all hit the Tree Mimic.

A huge blast of magical energy threw the dragon a little bit to its side while some roots snapped away from its back, but still not letting go entirely from its back, the freed roots grew spikes and started to maim us on the front lines.

It were a bunch of light blows, which actually made it hard to keep being pelted by such so I started running around this wretched Tree Mimic while releasing its roots from the back of the dragon, which looked passed out, after little bit of warm up I finally activate the Presas de Lycanrir Espada de Lamúria and dash madly while bashing and slashing all the roots which came at me, the world seemed to slow down a lot more than yesterday and my sword was blazing indigo, so my cuts actually burned the stem, where any cut was made it wouldn't be able to move as fast as before, making the perfect weapon against that thing, I cut above and below myself continuously burning this monstrosity.

After a whole minute of continuous slashes I finally reach a know face while going around, it was my Ti'oh fully clad on a burning aura dashing along the dragon.

"Gahahaha, it seems as if great minds think alike!" He shouted towards me after slashing with his indigo blue knives at the roots "Let's make a deep dive here, it seems as if the second volley of magic attacks will be stronger than the last" He shouted again while diving towards the spiky landscape of thorns growing ever so more hellish, and so did I, as I followed my Ti'oh towards the ever growing thorns almost making an impossible to go through wall, nevertheless we made our mind and started to trim down this aberration.

We slashed again and again and again against those roots, after two minutes worth of heavy slashing exercises and being battered by said roots, we hear an astounding blast.

We were almost throw off the dragon back, which actually worked on our favor, because it gave me and Ti'oh the boost needed to evade the falling tree.

It toppled to its side while the tree lost some part of its trunk, branches, but mostly its roots were torn asunder, it felt as if we were getting edge over this Tree.

While looking at it, there was a creeping chill crawling over my body, as if something wasn't right and, soon after, the other roots left the back of the dragon, while the tree pulled itself up, while it's trunk cracked and revealed the opening for three orange glowing eyes, a mouth and the roots started to wiggle like an octopus. The real battle starts now.