Chapter 12

"Watch out!"

"He's angry!"

"There come the branches!"

I was a fool. All this warning and I didn't dive in time to avoid the slapping leafy branches of the Evil Willow. No for real, that was the name of the boss. Due to them being thin, they didn't pack much heat but they hurt like hell when they slapped you and they cut you open in multiple places. This particular one, opened another leak of blood on my cheekbone. This wasn't the reason why I was humbled once again, however. I had mistakenly thought that being in a forest where the climate isn't that cold nor that warm and you can find food and resources basically everywhere was going to be easier than the glaciers or the volcano. In a sense, it had been. The mutant animals we had encountered and even the plant monsters had been much easier to kill, though that could be because I was a member of a party now. Temporarily. Maybe not for long after this. And not because we were probably all going to die. But because I was standing there like an easy target while they all worked their asses off to defeat our enemy.

An enemy I had released upon us by stumbling on the wrong root the wrong time. An enemy with a very finite amount of Health Points but whom we couldn't even dream of touching because of those forsaken willow curtains around him that didn't let anyone near! This was supposed to be my chance to prove my worth to them! I had seen this tree with the carved sleeping face from afar and I had mistakenly taken it for the Tree of Knowledge or something like that seeing as the game was called the Echoes of Eden. I had hoped to ask a few questions about how to easily or quickly get higher levels or upgrade equipment. In short, I wanted to cheat in order to impress them. And now we were all paying the price of my arrogance. 

The whip-like leafy curtains seemed to have a great reach of at least three to four meters. They stunned you for a bit after hitting you and they stole some of your health and stamina due to the bleeding but for now, it wasn't so bad and we could technically still walk away. After days of wondering these woods, the Verdant Shard as they had informed me it was called, and just surviving, they were looking restless for some action and I couldn't blame them.

Lancelot lacked no courage in approaching the willow and trying to get its attention and check its different attacking patterns. Cerf, he still refused to actually share his name so I used the nickname I had heard the others use the day we met so as to irk him, was our most valuable asset unfortunately. He had a good supply of arrows and a great aim even though he had to point and shoot from a safe distance and manage to go through the curtains in order to actually hit the trunk of the tree. He was our best chance in dealing any damage. Adriana kept giving them both advice but she looked uncertain on what to do as she kept weighing her spear in her hand. We had tried to upgrade it step by step with the different plants and rocks we encountered along the way. It wasn't anything special but at the same time it was. If she threw it once, she wouldn't be able to throw it again. So she had to make it count. Nax was off to who knows where once again. Probably hunting his frustration with me out of his system. He seemed to get more and more distant, the more I tried to fit in with the others. I didn't know if I could blame him.

What was I doing? Well apart from being a dead weight, I was frantically looking around for sharp objects so that I could make breakable but still efficient weapons. Did I have a plan? If you considered throwing sharp stuff at random towards the Evil Willow dude until he got tired with us and just gave up a plan, then yeah. And as now we are in it, let's say it was brilliant one at that. Go all the way. Don't half-ass the mockery. Even if you were just deluding yourself first. Isn't delusion supposed to be a poison that tastes like a drug?

"You will never go past me mortals!" Oh right, forgot about that. Our arboreal friend was quite the chatterbox as well. Though his phrases tended to be a bit repetitive and out of taste in my opinion. "Humans have already destroyed the world, I shall not let you get through me to the rest of the Shards!" Well, joke's on him. I had apparently come from other two Shards so he wasn't doing a very good job of stopping me. Even if I was still trying to figure out what the point of this game even was. I should have paid more attention to that voice. The others wouldn't share anything with me. They wouldn't even let me name our group!

"Are you with the Keepers or with the Seekers?" I am pretty sure we were supposed to take a hint from what he was saying but surprise surprise, I had no clue. The others seemed too preoccupied to care. So I shrugged and decided, what could I lose from going with my plan? I started ripping into the foliage and throwing everything I could find, being careful not to hit my allies. I wouldn't put it past me. But as the soil gave away beneath my hands and the impromptu hoe I always kept with me, har har it wasn't that kind of hoe and I had made it on my own so it looked like shit too, I had an idea. I started digging with much more haste and strength and kept seeing my thirst and stamina levels dropping just as my digging and strength got higher levels. Do you ever get these moments when you are so concentrated and everything seems to align perfectly and you fell badass while doing nerdy or ordinary stuff like cleaning or cooking but there is background music in your head? Just like when Tink starts rebuilding that music box with the ballerina in the first movie. So I had the thought and I made it action.

What if I reached the roots of the tree and tried to cut them? Or even better, Adriana could hit their soft core spot with her spear and then it wouldn't go to waste. 

"Art, whatever you are doing over there, stop! He doesn't seem to like it!" But I was so close! I could absolve myself! I could contribute something for once!

"Trust me, I have a plan!" No sooner had the words left my lips than when the Evil Willow bellowed creating a mini earthquake.

"YOU DARE TO HARM MOTHER NATURE EVEN FURTHER"

"Nice going, genius" I looked up to reply and stood there frozen as the roots of the tree came out on their own, breaking the ground we were standing on, and blinding us with a terrible light. When I blinked the stars out of my eyes, instead of a plain tree with the voice and the expression of a grumpy gramps, what stood in front of us were four Sprouts. Greener than broccoli and laden in naturally made armour they roared and locked onto each one of us as if choosing which one they wanted to take out. "Is it too late for me to say I told you so and that we never should have taken him in The Knights of the Holy Grail?"

"You guys actually had a name all this time and you never fucking told me?! What kind of name even is that?!"

"Hey! It's not my fault you all are uncultured swines! Do you know nothing of myth and legend?!" I hadn't heard Lance be so upset before. I almost felt bad but I was busy being panicked out of my mind.

"If you all don't shut the fuck up, we're all gonna be myth and legend!"

We didn't have much chance to do anything anyway. They did some earthbending shit while we bravely stood there with what was basically pitchforks. 

"We deserve this. We have angered and hurt Mother Nature. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!"

"If you quote Shakespeare one more time, I swear to God-"

They didn't even fight us truly. They just let out poisonous breaths.