"Whoa..."
That was Rei's honest impression after watching the series of events unfold before him.
He never expected the creature to use such a method to increase its tentacles—no, its vines.
Normally, vines simply grew from a plant. But the tree before Rei's eyes lured monsters in with a sweet scent, fed them fruit, and once they finished eating, the monster heads growing from other vines devoured the fruit-eater's body. Then, a new vine sprouted from the remaining head and connected itself to the tree.
External vines, in a manner of speaking.
(Then again, normally when you eat fruit, it ends up in your stomach, right? So with everything except the head devoured, why does a vine grow from it? Is the vine growing from the fruit itself?)
He entertained such questions, but this was fundamentally the behavior of a creature that appeared to be an A-Rank Monster. Given that, thinking deeply about it wouldn't yield any answers. Accepting it as simply the way things were was undoubtedly the correct approach.
That said, whether he could tolerate it was another matter entirely.
(Anyway, given this presence, there's no doubt that thing is an A-Rank Monster. I'm curious whether it's a Treant or not, but I don't particularly need a name to defeat it. The real question is how to defeat it. Since it's a plant-type monster, should I use magic despite the risk?)
Using Flame Magic inside the Forest of Magic was, under normal circumstances, suicidal.
Even understanding that, it was still the most straightforward way to deal with a plant-type monster... or so he thought. The moment he turned his gaze back toward the tree, the vine bearing the head of the Orc Naga that had just been assimilated was right in front of his face.
Rei's eyes met the Orc Naga's.
"Whoa!"
A yelp slipped reflexively from his mouth. At the same time, the Orc Naga's jaws parted and it lunged to bite him.
The Orc Naga's primary method of attack was magic. The fact that it resorted to a biting attack instead was likely because the head, having become part of the vine, could no longer cast spells.
But while Rei was startled, evading the attack wasn't difficult. From what he had observed, the heads growing from the vine tips could only bite—so as long as he stayed calm, dodging them was straightforward.
...Granted, being told to stay calm while under attack from a vine with a monster head sprouting from it was far from easy. Anyone with only half-baked combat experience would undoubtedly panic. That was just how eerie the sight of heads growing from vines truly was.
"Grrrrl!"
As Rei dodged the Orc Naga's bite, Set was the next to act. Stepping forward swiftly, the gryphon's foreleg strike shattered the Orc Naga's head.
The blow itself wasn't particularly powerful, but it was more than enough to destroy the head.
(Brittle?)
Watching the exchange, Rei found himself wondering. Set's foreleg strike was undoubtedly strong—but the fact that the head shattered into meaty fragments from a single blow suggested not just raw power, but genuine fragility.
At the same time, he couldn't tell whether all the heads were this brittle, or whether this one was fragile simply because it had only recently been transformed into a vine. He didn't particularly want to know, either—but defeating this tree monster would require understanding such details. That much was certain.
As he mulled this over, the other heads began converging on Rei and Set—whether because they noticed their companion's destruction, or because the tree itself, sensing damage to its vines, was now responding to the threat.
Regardless, one thing was clear.
"So we've been spotted."
Muttering under his breath, Rei stepped out from the bushes where he had been hiding along the clearing's edge.
The clearing was quite spacious, with the tree growing at its center. The fact that they had been discovered despite hiding in the outer bushes meant the vines' reach was considerable. Given the size of the clearing, Rei had assumed the vines stretched no more than half its diameter at most. That assumption had been spectacularly disproven.
Still, Rei felt no alarm. The enemy was presumably an A-Rank Monster—this level of unpredictability was par for the course. If anything, he was simply relieved the Orc Naga's head hadn't circled behind him for a surprise attack. Though even if it had, Set would have reacted even if Rei hadn't noticed.
"Grrrrrrrl."
Set padded alongside Rei, purring in vigilance. Curiously, the tree showed no sign of attacking—even though the Orc Naga's vine had struck without hesitation.
(Could it be that the heads turned into vines still retain some kind of individuality? An ego, maybe?)
If so, the opponent possessed many thinking minds, which would make it somewhat more troublesome.
"Set, the opponent is probably—no, definitely an A-Rank Monster. And that's at minimum."
"Gruu."
Set agreed. Gryphon Seto could sense the opponent's power even better than Rei could—well enough to be certain that a single careless moment could be fatal.
Seeing Set's demeanor, Rei sharpened his focus as well. Since entering the Forest of Magic, this was the second... or third formidable enemy, counting the Queen Bee, which was likely close to A-Rank. The Black Snake was clearly a being of even higher rank than this tree, but since it had been friendly toward them, it didn't count.
This third enemy was, however, the first they would face head-on with both sides in perfect condition. With the Giant Wolf, they had unleashed a powerful attack while it was caught off guard, defeating it before it could demonstrate its true strength. The Queen Bee had been fought only after being smoked out for an extended period with poisonous fumes from burning wood tainted by Set's Poison Claw.
In that sense, this tree with its countless vines was the first true opponent Rei and Set would face purely on the strength of their abilities since coming to the Forest of Magic.
The tree seemed to recognize them as formidable foes as well. It extended nearly a hundred tentacles—each tipped with the head of a monster or animal—readying itself to attack at any moment while radiating wariness.
"Set, I don't know if it'll work, but hit it with King's Intimidation."
"Grrrrrrrl!"
Following Rei's command, Set activated King's Intimidation. The skill had reached Level 4, but Rei expected it to have little to no effect. The opponent was an A-Rank Monster, after all—this was only natural. Still, with the enemy not yet moving at this range, testing it out as a first measure wasn't a bad call.
He used it with that intention, but...
"You've got to be kidding."
Whether it affected the tree itself, he couldn't tell. But of the nearly hundred vines extending from the trunk, more than half—roughly seventy to eighty percent by Rei's estimate—had frozen in place. The remaining vines were visibly slower as well.
(Why? If I had to guess, maybe the vines are separate monsters from the tree... no, that's not right. The vines are definitely growing from the tree.)
After all, Rei had watched the vine sprouting from the Orc Naga's head make contact with the tree, its tip absorbed into the trunk. There was no question in his mind that the tree and vines were one and the same.
More importantly, there was something he needed to do before pondering such things.
"Set! First, take out as many vines as we can!"
"Grrrrrrrl!"
At Rei's word, Set activated the Ice Arrow skill. Rei couldn't tell whether the vines possessed clear intelligence, but seeing Set generate nearly fifty ice arrows, the gryphon had clearly judged them a threat worth its full attention.
The vines that had escaped King's Intimidation's immobilization turned toward Set. But even those that resisted the effect still suffered reduced movement speed—forty percent slower at Level 4. As a result, the vines closing in on Set were sluggish. And then...
"Flying Slash!"
Rei stepped forward to shield Set, unleashing a flying slash from Death Scythe. The blade of energy struck the first head and severed it clean through, its power undiminished as it continued into the vine behind it, and the one behind that, and the one beyond—cutting through and destroying a string of vines and heads in a single swing. Rei wasn't sure if counting them as "individuals" was even the right approach in this case.
(Definitely brittle. So the Orc Naga's head wasn't fragile just because it had newly become a vine.)
The vine portions were more brittle than Rei had expected. That said, no matter how fragile, such overwhelming numbers made for a troublesome opponent. Thanks to King's Intimidation, however, many were unable to move at all—which meant Rei didn't have to face the full swarm at once.
"Flying Slash! Flying Slash! Flying Slash!"
Three slashes erupted in rapid succession, cutting down one vine after another that had been threatening to intercept Set's ice arrows. Once he confirmed that Set's preparations were complete, Rei leapt clear.
A cry from Set accompanied the volley of ice arrows unleashed simultaneously. Normally, Set could fire them much faster—the delay was because the opponent was an A-Rank Monster, and the gryphon had taken care to aim carefully.
The arrows, loosed with deliberate precision, tore through the vines one after another. The primary targets were those immobilized by King's Intimidation, but the ice arrows' power, like Flying Slash, didn't diminish after piercing one or two of the already-fragile enemies. Not a single arrow missed, each one shattering another vine.
When the volley finally ended, fewer than ten tentacles remained—and the tree.
"Tough."
True to Rei's words, the trunk stood without a single scratch. Although the vines' destruction may have slightly weakened the barrage, more than half of Set's ice arrows had struck the trunk directly. Yet there was no visible damage. The impacts might have caused some internal harm, but from the outside, there was nothing to indicate it.
In other words, Rei had to proceed on the assumption that the tree had taken no damage at all.
"Gruu."
Set purred apologetically. The gryphon understood that defeating the enemy outright was unlikely, but never imagined it couldn't even leave a mark.
"Don't worry about it. It's an A-Rank Monster—there's nothing strange about whatever abilities it has. Besides, we've mostly cleared the vines. The problem is—whoa!"
Whether King's Intimidation had worn off or the tree—the source of the vines—had taken action, the remaining ten or so vines surged toward Rei and Set all at once.
Rei dodged the assault and slashed through a vine with Death Scythe—then witnessed the sight.
"You've got to be kidding!"
What drew the cry of disbelief from Rei was the sight of the destroyed vines regenerating in a swirl of green bubbles. Vines whose heads had been crushed grew new ones amid the bubbles; vines severed midway sprouted fresh heads from their cut ends. And it wasn't just one or two—every single vine destroyed by Rei's Flying Slash and Set's Ice Arrows was regenerating in the same manner.
The one small mercy was that regeneration only occurred where the vines remained connected to the tree. The severed distal portions did not regrow.
"Gruu!?"
Set, apparently seeing the same thing, let out a startled cry. And then—whether in response or not—nearly a hundred vines swarmed toward Rei and Set all at once.