The root of disasters.

How did I manage to get back to this tree? Damn it! This place here is more dangerous than any in the freaking planet. But wait, maybe the dragon would be somewhere else? After all, this is a different level.

I just have to get away from here, right? That's all that I need to do. No need to kick the hornet's nest.

Unfortunately for me, something did want to kick the hornet's nest.

A black and red lizard looking monster had come running from the ground, looking towards the tree root as it ran. It looks kind of like a salamander actually. Two hornets started flying towards it to come meet it.

I guess it's time to see if this salamander was about to bite the dust, or come out triumphant.

[Salamander] Lv. 19

Species: Fire Savrander

Status: Mind controlled (moderate)

Stats:

Hp: 188/233

Ep: 74/74

Sp: 89/122 (Max: 173)

Strength: 110

Defense: 153

Energy strength: 71

Energy defense: 82

Speed: 96

Wow, that thing is pretty powerful. In fact, it's the most powerful thing I've ever seen besides... yeah, I don't wanna talk about him. Well, it may or may not win, but what is important here is that I need to get away. Ugh, I'm having trouble getting my body to listen to me. This root is a serious pain.

As I kept trying to escape from the brainwashing effect of the root. I was seeing the two hornets battling with the salamander, the salamander was totally superior to the two hornets in stats. But the hornets could fly. Which was a massive help to them, they would fly around the salamander and then land on it to deliver an attack to it. But the salamander wasn't completely defenseless. Since each time the hornets attacked it, their stingers would start sizzling and burning. With each single sting.

The salamander did something unexpected next, it had started spitting lava from its mouth. The lava was thin and reached really far away. Sort of like a hose.

What am I still doing here?! I need to go, now! The subtleness of the brainwashing is what really makes it a pain! It makes me feel like I want to get closer or stay here.

I kept on trying to move myself, as I kept trying, the thing that I feared most finally happened.

The salamander shot a piece of lava in the direction of one of the hornets, the hornet had dodged it, but the lava had hit its nest instead. Setting it on fire.

[Proficiency of skill "Mind control resistance" has reached the required amount. Increasing "mind control resistance" to lv. 3]

I finally manage to start moving away, but it didn't matter much, since what happened next, was a blur of many actions.

Hundreds of hornets come gushing out of the nest, the sounds of their wings vibrated throughout the entire cave and was enough to deafen me, then, the biggest hornet I've ever seen, had busted through the walls of the burning nest.

That hornet was like 2 or 3 times bigger than the other hornets, who were already a bit bigger than me. A few parts of it were on fire, but most importantly, it looked furious.

Eeep, was it so angry that it didn't pay attention to its injuries?! Nope, not dealing with this! I knew that this root is bad news!

Unfortunately, I couldn't hide from all of these hornets, and so, the hornets had split up to kill anything that was around here.

A dozen hornets come up to kill me, guess we're doing this now!

[Hornet] lv. 13

Species: Dolonifika.

Status: Mind controlled (Major)

Stats:

Hp: 93/93

Ep: 32/32

Sp: 54/54 (Max: 99)

Strength: 45

Defense: 33

Energy strength: 24

Energy defense: 30

Speed: 58

All of them were around that strength, give or take a few levels, but that was good-ish. Since with those numbers, I'm not sure if I can win.

Well, whatever, it's time to swat you like the pests you are!

I start running across the roof as they start trying to sting me, each time they missed, their stinger would dig into the roof. Yikes, if I was stabbed by that, it would certainly not be good. Each time I try to attack one of them after it misses, another comes in to push me back. Guess physical attacks isn't gonna cut it. Then how about this?!

I breathe fire towards the floor, I had also mixed it with paralysis breath, which increased the required amount of SP by quite a bit. The hornets were avoiding the fire and turned away from it, which gave me a perfect opportunity to use a new skill.

I used eye of force to pull a close hornet towards the fire. The pull was weak and only pulled it slightly as it tried to break out of it. But it was enough for it to get touched by the fire.

Unfortunately though, the fire breath had actually got more attention for me. And so, 10 more hornets had come here. No no no! This was a massive mistake!

Alright, so if fire will bring them here. Then no more fire.

The attack of the hornets became more intense, even though I was faster than them, my body could still not move at 100% efficiency, which made dodging them an even bigger nightmare.

The hornets came at a huge number, until eventually, one of them landed on my back, and before I could blast it away with my eye, it had managed to stab me in the back.

I felt the stinger going deeper into my back, but I had luckily thrown it off before it could go deeper. But I felt something released into me.

[Proficiency of skill "Poison resistance" reached the required amount. Increasing "Poison resistance" to lv. 4]

Don't tell me I was poisoned again? This is the last thing I need today! With a quick look at my status, I see that I was poisoned mildly.

It's only mild, it's only mild, it's okay... it's definitely not okay! I'm still poisoned for God's sake! And I still don't have a solution for that except leveling up.

Well, looks like I'll have to use a technique I was thinking about. It'll take a long time to charge, but it certainly will be good.

I run around the place as hornets still continue trying to attack me. The hornets were now circling me to try and more effectively kill me. But I still dodge their attacks, but unfortunately, a few of them caught me in the back again, I flapped them off with my wings and I pushed them away, ugh, now I'm feeling more sick.

[Proficiency of skill "Poison resistance" reached the required amount. Increasing "Poison resistance" to lv. 5]

Looking at my status again, I see that the poison changed from mild to moderate. I guess the need to do this is now ramping up!

And after a while of dodging, I finally completed it. Out of the roof, I bring down thin earth spikes on three of them, piercing through their carapace and skewering them. But they were still not dead.

As I was about to finish them off. The most unbelievable thing had happened next. The fire from the hornets nest, had finally spread onto the root and was beginning to burn it up.

But when it started burning. The wood somewhere around that area looked like it had opened up. And out from it, came a roar that resounded in my nightmares.

No... it can't be.

And what had come out was something I was dreading very much. It was that dragon again.

It felt like the entire room was frozen. And I felt my heart beat quicker and quicker. How? Why? Why again?!

The dragon had moved towards the fire and had put it out simply by blowing, the great big fire that was rampaging in this cave was blown out like a candle.

The queen and the hornets change all their targets and start fighting the dragon. But it was all pointless. Because no matter how strong these hornets were, the status that I saw in them was simply not enough to over come the great big wall that was Megalos.

Megalos, as though finally noticing that we were here, had roared with might that was enough to rumble the entire cave, dropping me from the roof.

I had opened up my wings to start hovering down. And before I could even start to run away, the next attack had come.

The hornets were mercilessly slaughtered by him, swatting them just like if they were simply just hornets, and not monsters.

Then, deciding to finish all of them in one attack, he had charged up a breath attack, and fired it towards the floor.

The resulting expanding explosion that had come from that attack, had decimated all of the monsters in that area, and it was coming closer to me.

I can't run away from it, it simply is just expanding too quickly. The only way to survive, is to time the recovery level up at the exact time that this attack reaches me or hits me.

I look over at the three hornets remaining on the roof. They were also going to get killed by him, which will give me no exp.

I pull all of them with my eye of force the push them away from the explosion, hoping that the fall or the bleed would kill them by the time the explosion reaches me.

And that was the final action I could do before I was engulfed by the explosion. I felt myself being nearly evaporated. Everything was about to go dark. The few moments were I was engulfed felt like an eternity.

I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared!

[Required exp amount reached. Lisa leveled up to lv. 13]

And suddenly everything went rushing back to me. Only to feel more pain as the explosion went on. But then, as suddenly as it appeared. The explosion stopped.

I could no longer stay gliding in place, and I had finall started falling down. And I kept falling down. When I looked up, I saw that i had already fallen through the ground, and that a crater several meters wide was created. But that crater was closing over somehow.

Looking down, I see that I was falling far. And underneath me, was another pit like the one that had carried me to the jungle. This cave I was in right now looked really similar to the above one. Except that there was a massive hole here.

There was no escape from this hole, I was gonna fall down, and my wings were still messed up.

I fall down the hall, looking for an opportunity to escape, and I had thought of a plan, but that plan unfortunately meant that I had to land at the very bottom of this hole.

I keep falling at terminal velocity past dozens of different types of monsters, all of them were terrifying looking though, but I didn't get an opportunity to appraise them.

And then, the bottom got in my sight. I use my eye of force to pull the air with massive force towards me, which slowed me down, I then open up my wings even if they were screwed up.

Push, push, push, push!

I keep on pushing on the air and eventually looking at my wings to push them up. It hurt to do that, but I still did it.

And finally, I had landed roughly on the ground.