Hikari swings her flaming sword.
It sinks into the thick bark.
She feels it touch the soft insides of the dire Ent.
A surge of mana.
She releases her flames.
The dire Ent screeched as its insides were set ablaze.
Hikari backed off and watched it burn.
She pulls off the barbed vines wrapped around her arms.
They sink into her wyvern skin but their toxins could not pierce it.
Hikari burns away the stickier stubborn patches.
She looks around.
"That tree"
She senses the red mist about the otherwise unassuming tree.
Her throwing daggers hovered around her.
Burning with her wyvern flames.
Without warning, barbed vines sprouted from the ground and from its thick leaves.
They wrap around her arms and legs.
Her array of burning daggers slices through the vines.
A streaking flame descending upon the Dire Ent.
A dual strike from the half wyvern's flaming claws burning through its insides.
Vines sprouted from the ground, attempting to smother her.
A burst of flames from her body reduced them to ashes.
Hikari keeps her daggers.
Ella crawls around the tree.
She shakes her tail as she watches it burn.
"Ella."
The half wyvern flinches.
"(Yes Hikari.)"
She crawls back to Hikari.
Hikari takes out her hearthstone pendant.
She channeled its energy.
The ground around her hardened as the moisture was squeezed out.
She walks.
The hardened ground gave her a better footing.
Ella follows behind her carefully.
"I sense it."
"(Yes, Ella senses it too. More trees in that direction.)"
They approached cautiously.
A Dire Ent in its dormant state is indistinguishable from a normal tree.
But absorbing the mist, while making them more dangerous in battle, also makes them easier to detect.
They reached a conspicuous clearing.
The strength of the mist was strong.
A giant tree, three times the size of the already huge mangroves found in the swamp stood above the tree line.
"Strange, I don't recall this one being here."
She signals for Ella to stop.
The half wyvern stayed close to the ground in a prowling position.
Hikari draws both swords.
One front. one back.
Her hearthstone pendant pulsed.
The ground in front of her hardens.
As she got closer, she noticed a horrific sight.
Dead knights strapped to the side of the trunk.
The symbol of the Purevain House on their shields.
"They needed fire."
Thud. She stopped.
Movements.
A mass of vines erupted from the ground.
The trees come alive.
Hikari's blades flared with wyvern flame.
She bent her knees.
The vines closed in.
She charged into the thick of it.
A spinning blade dance.
Concentric rings of flames slicing through the vines.
"Skin of wyvern."
Mana courses through her wyvern skin suit.
The embedded wyvern scales ringed.
The barbed vines could not scratch the reinforced surface.
They burn to ash around her as she charges through the mass.
A Dire Ent was in her path.
She twirls around it, grazing her flaming blades through its bark.
It burns behind her.
Another mass of vines barrels towards her. She dashed towards a tree and drove one of her swords into its bark.
A screech.
She grabs her backpack full of bombs with her free hand and tosses it about.
The bombs explode, covering the surroundings in a blanket of RazenHeir flames.
The thinner vines shrivel out as they sprout from the ground.
Hikari turns to the giant tree.
She had carved a hole in its perimeter.
She has a moment to recover.
A deafening shriek.
Her barrier blocks it.
The ground rumbles.
She could sense something huge under the ground.
She jumps back.
The hardened soil collapses.
Humongous roots emerged from the ground, more massive than even her.
Another shriek.
The vines began bloating.
A sudden burst of spines.
Hikari ducks.
Her sword covers her face.
The spines bounce off her armour.
She feels the tiny stings.
The ground rumbles as the giant roots thrashed around.
Hikari leaps back.
Vines sprouted from the roots and dove her.
A cone of flames incinerates them.
Hikari landed.
She feels a surge of wyvern flame being channeled behind her.
"(Hikari cover Ella)"
"Got it."
With a telekinetic pull, her other sword returns to her.
They blazed with fire.
Her wyvern scale glimmered.
She charged into the thick of the roots.
The root slammed.
She side-stepped it.
Her mass stayed the shockwave.
Countering with a swing.
A sweep.
She blocks it with both swords.
The ground below her crumbles from the force.
Her flames slashed through the bark.
The giant root was cut into three.
The remainder slithers into the ground.
A moment of respite.
She watches as the roots heal themself from her flames.
Emitting an eerie mist as they regenerated.
"So that's the mist?"
The roots bloat.
Hikari guards.
The burst of spines hits her.
Slam.
Slam.
She dodges the roots.
Again and again, she cuts them down.
The mist regenerates them again.
She could sense no dwindling in its strength.
"(Hikari.)"
Ella voices in her head.
She took a low stance.
A beam of wyvern flame over her head, drilling into the heart of the tree.
The tree shrieked.
Hikari watches as it burns.The roots thrashed around a bit more.
She could sense their power fade as the heart was being incinerated.
The stream of fire died down.
She stood up.
"(Ella needs rest now)"
Behind her, the half wyvern takes to the sky, heading back to camp.
Hikari looks around.
The bark did not crackle as it burned.
It scatters as the energies holding it together dissipates.
The large structure that was visible over the tree line vanished.
A pulsating blood red crystal remains.
She approached, putting her harvest sack on the ground.
She knelt down, preparing to keep her loot.
Her senses tingled.
A volley of aether fire bombarded her.
Small sparks that drains a bit of her barrier.
"Cult of Eon?"
Cloaked assassins materialized around her.
Their weapons were familiar to her.
The device that allows them to phase out of space to dodge her daggers.
She recognizes it.
But their flesh was not real.
Her daggers flew.
She felt nothing.
The cloaked assassins were scattered.
Not a trace.
A volley of aether fire.
It was real.
The fire stings as they hit her barrier.
Her hearthstone pendant rings.
She hardens the ground around her.
She stabilizes her footing.
An assassin materialized in front of her.
Incinerate.
The hollow shell burnt to ash.
More assassins materialized.
Her telekinetically blast pushes them back.
But she could still sense them.
It did little damage.
Thud.
She stabilized her stance.
She channeled her flames.
RazenHeir embers on the ground around her.
Her aura ignites the ground itself.
The assassins materialized.
They were immediately engulfed in flames.
Wave after wave.
They were incinerated in Hikari's flame aura.
The waves subsided.
Hikari withdrew her flames.
She looks around.
Not a trace of the assassin's remains.
"Time to head back?"
She senses a sudden torrent of energy.
A monstrosity materializes in front of her.
Its swirling form matches her size.
It resembled a cloaked assassin.
Yet parts of its form were constantly in flux.
The mists gather into a sword.
It flares with aether flame.
Hikari draws hers and takes a stance.
The monstrosity thrusts at her.
She parries.
A deafening clank.
Her sword met something solid.
Incinerate.
The hollow shell was quick to burn.
It rematerialized.
Clank!
Hikari parries at the last second.
Clank!
Clank!
Incinerate.
The monstrosity kept attacking despite being burnt over and over again.
It was hard to track its sword through the flame and its swirling mist.
Incinerate.
The attacks paused.
The monstrosity was burning and regenerating its body at the same time.
Enshrouded in the eerie mist.
"How do I kill this?"
Her flames dissipated.
It was not clear she did any damage.
It materializes its sword again.
"I should just retreat."
Thud. Thud. The booming sound of footsteps behind her.
The monstrosity charges.
Clank! She parries.
Incinerate.
She backs off and turns.
She feels a powerful presence appear behind her.
A giantess knight charges.
Golden hair. Full plated armour. Her sword in a thrusting position.
She threw herself at the monstrosity.
The runes on her armour glowed bright with power.
The monstrosity shrieked. It responded to its mana.
"Dispel!"
A burst of light.
It briefly blinded Hikari.
Clank!
When she came to, she saw the armoured knight locked swords with the monstrosity.
Her energy had forced it to materialize and engage her in a sword fight.
It's grey frail flesh. Its discombobulated body.
Clank! Clank!
The monstrosity attacked her relentlessly.
She held her ground.
Hikari watches from the side.
She clearly didn't have the skill level to be able to parry and counter like her.
Clank! Screech.
Her armour was grazed.
Her guard did not drop.
The monstrosity shrieked and thrashed, hitting her with everything she got.
Leaving her no opening to counter attack.
But she just blocks.
Her presence alone appears to be draining its strength.
The monstrosity paused.
It takes a step back.
Then it charged with all of its weight.
The knight held her ground in a rigid guard.
She braces.
A mass of black wyvern skin appeared in her view.
Hikari knocks the monstrosity aside with her counter charge.
Her sword runs cleaves through its fragile flesh.
Stomp. Stomp.
She crushes its body with her boot.
Incinerate.
She turns to see the golden hair knight looking at her.