[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 20: The Lorax Speaks for the Trees

Sam wasn’t sure just how long they searched. Long enough for the sky to just begin to lighten, at the very least. But there was no trace of Matt.

Eventually, they had to face facts that regardless of whether or not Darren was telling the truth about Matt, they weren’t likely to find him. And with every hour that passed, the chances of finding him alive shrank.

So they pressed on in as best a direction as they could manage, away from where they thought the center of the island was. Eventually, they would have to reach the edge.

Everybody was cold and tired, but at least with the meal of lizard meat earlier in the night, nobody was hungry.

Nobody but Sam, who kept his grumbling stomach between himself and Komachi. For some reason, he seemed to get hungrier than the others, despite having the same meal at the same time.

Is it something to do with the stats? Sam thought.

As the clear dawn light began to filter in through the canopy overhead, Sam took a moment to enquire about everybody’s stats.

He wasn’t all that surprised to learn that he had the highest level so far. His Fighter was level 4, and since they hadn’t run into any monsters yet, it remained there.

After Komachi’s level 3 Cleric, the third highest were Kale and Kylie at level 2 each, while the rest were level 1. Everybody fought against the spiders, but few actually managed to kill them, it seemed.

Poor Lisa was still level 1. Clearly, being carried off by a spider had done her no favors.

And that meant that by a wide margin, Sam had the highest stats. Consequently, his Vigor was nearly double that of the next person’s.

Unsurprisingly, Kai the level 1 Cleric, had 12 Vigor compared to Sam’s 20. Kale, presumably because of his ailment on Earth, had the second-lowest Vigor of them all at 6 points. And that was after 2 Fighter levels.

Aside from a bit of an inflated ego at his own progress so far, he wondered if having higher Vigor meant that he needed to eat more. Kind of like a bodybuilder needing to eat thousands upon thousands of calories to maintain their mass.

He hoped he wouldn’t have to eat like a ridiculous anime character, having 10-pound roasts, whole plates of potatoes and what not. Without a penny to his name—or whatever they used as money here—there was no way he would ever get enough food to sustain himself.

And he didn’t fancy living as a farmer just to support his stats. Sam could only hope he was wrong about the whole affair.

Then again, he thought, opening up a restaurant would be like printing money if all the higher-level people needed to eat six times a day or more.

Kylie paused the group and, now that there was some light to see by, shouldered her bow and shinned up the nearest tree. She was surprisingly flexible, no doubt thanks to her having the highest Dexterity in the group.

After a little bit, she disappeared from view. Sam gripped the hilt of his claymore strapped to his back, ready to unsheathe it at a moment’s notice, expecting to hear a scream from some horrible creature up in the canopy.

But there was nothing except unsettling silence.

And then came a thump he felt in the soles of his boots.

Sam wasn’t the only one to look around curiously.

All around Sam, the trees swayed, leaves rustling with the intensity of storm winds.

But there was no wind, not even a breeze. The torches didn’t flicker in the slightest.

Something definitely wasn’t right.

“Kylie, what do you see?” Sam called up to her.

“What the hell is that?” Kale whispered beside him.

If it wasn’t wind moving the trees, was it more spiders? He felt uneasy at the thought that those giant spiders were hiding out of sight, preparing to ambush them.

Komachi poked her head out of his armor, frantically looked about, then spotted something and yowled out a warning. At the same time, Kylie called down something lost to the muffling crack and splinter of trees being split in half.

Trusting his cat, Sam turned a complete 180, bringing his [Dull Claymore] around with the full strength and speed of two hands clenching the hilt. Its weight worked against him, slowing him down just slightly.

He was considerably faster and stronger than he ever was on Earth, and even compared to being just a level 1 Fighter. But that still wasn’t fast enough.

A bark covered limb, the size of a surfboard, came crashing down on him. There was no dodging that in time. Calling upon his ability [Rally], he could feel the exhilarating boost from his Strength and Vigor while his HP temporarily went up.

He braced his blade for the blow, desperately hoping the greatsword would weather the attack. He didn’t know how much Primitive-rarity metal could withstand.

A tree itself loomed over him, with a swirling pattern set into a circle for a face.

No, not a tree. A monster that resembled a cross between a rhinoceros and a tree. It had thick broken branches on its head like horns, and thick bark-like skin.

As Sam was batted away like a bothersome fly, he saw it rear up on two legs and batter the ground with its huge fists. People scattered every which way as arrows peppered down from the canopy where Kylie was hopefully safe.

Using [Rally] had likely saved Sam’s life, if not avoided getting maimed. Unable to stop himself, he crashed into a nearby pillar of a tree and collapsed to the ground out of breath.

The blue bar of HP that covered his own drained in an instant and took over a quarter of his once-full HP bar. He had no idea how much his [Rally] gave him, but he had lost 17 HP on top of everything the ability gave him.

A little over a quarter of his health after the buffer from [Rally].

Fighting for breath, Komachi poked her head out from the now-dented armor and took out her tiny wand with its bell-like flower.

Komachi (Level 3 Cleric) casts [Regen] on you.

You gain the effect of Regen:

+Healing Over Time I

Sam felt his hurts diminish ever so slightly as he picked himself up off the ground and retrieved his claymore.

The scene before him was utter chaos. Nobody was able to stand against that thing. Sam focused his attention on it, causing its nameplate to pop up.

[Dire Hoary Wood Golem (Level 9)]

Sam had a bad feeling about the inclusion of “Dire” in there. It felt like a category, not part of its name. As if the Shard itself was trying to warn him.

Moss dangling from its elbows, the golem swiped at Kale and Kai, as they were attempting to form a defensive line. The two large men were swept aside with the same ease as Sam had been.

“Run!” Darren called over his shoulder, already heeding his own advice.

Cursing, Sam realized that Darren was right. They couldn’t fight this thing. Sam was surprised at how far beyond their own level it was.

This was boss territory levels of strong.

As the highest level in the group, it was more than twice Sam’s level, and he felt confident the “Dire” part meant that it was even stronger than its level suggested.

Pounding its fists into the earth caused the ground to ripple and buckle. Trees pulled out from their roots and toppled nearby. Screams and cries of terror filled the forest.

Kylie, of all people, leapt down onto the thing’s massive horn-like branches atop its head. She pointed in the direction of Darren’s retreating form. “The edge of the island isn’t far in that direction. Go!”

As the majority of their group fled in the direction of safety and hope, Sam found himself standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Kai, Kale, and Chris.

Leilani had tried to stay, but her older brother had turned her away. She gave one look back before fleeing through the trees after Darren and the rest.

The golem had gone berserk trying to throw Kylie off, but she managed to stay atop it, dancing from one curved branch to the next as it swatted at her.

But Sam could see she was already tiring. If that thing hit her even once….

“You sure you want in on this?” Sam said to Chris.

“She’s my sister.”

“Fair enough,” Sam said, lunging forward. “On me. Flank it. We’ll try to distract it long enough for Kylie to get down!”

Komachi (Level 3 Cleric) casts [Warding] on your Party.

You gain the effect of Warding:

+Physical Defense I

A faint, shimmering skein of energy washed over the remaining combatants. Sam felt a tingle across his skin as the spell layered itself upon him.

He ducked under a lumbering strike while Kale circled around to the side, then Kai cast some strange black dart of magic at its chest. The magic fizzled and seemed to do nothing, but it did split the monster’s attention.

Sam wound up an overhand slash, surprising himself and the monster alike as he scored a minor wound in the tree bark skin of the creature. Greenish sappy blood trickled from the wound.

It let loose a billowing roar of rage, shrouding itself in an ominous red aura. Kylie used the distraction to get down and start running toward her brother, who was already hard at work casting one [Ice Spike] after the other at the thing.

Like Kai’s magic, the ice only shattered against its bark skin. Kale’s axes fared a little better, biting into the thinner bark on the creature’s side.

Just before the monster was about to squash Kale, Kai let loose another black dart of magic. It struck Chris’ [Ice Spike] in mid-air and something strange happened.

The two magic bolts collided and transformed. A black spike of ice sank into the golem’s chest at least half a foot and then burst into shimmering black motes.

The golem staggered and fell onto its back. Kale was entirely forgotten.

Grabbing his friend by the arm, Sam pointed back toward Kai and the twins, Chris and Kylie. “We’re getting out of here. Go!”

Kale didn’t need to be told twice. He took off running with the rest of them, and as Sam turned to join them, something snared his foot and he fell face-first into the ground.

Turning to find the source of the attack, he saw the golem on one knee, both of its arms thrust into the dirt, green vines encircling all the way up to its shoulders.

Shit.

The greatest problem with a large two-handed sword was that, in close-range, it was problematic to use. At this moment, it was nearly useless. More vines began to crop up out of the ground and he could hardly bring the blade to bear.

Komachi, however, slithered out of his armor and chewed through the vines with ease. What Komachi couldn’t bite through, she used her claws to cut free.

By the time Sam was on his feet, the golem was already making its way toward him. It had a lumbering gait, but it was so large it ate up the distance between them, even as Sam ran with everything he had.

From the relative safety of Sam’s armor, Komachi cast one dark bolt of mana after another, but it hardly fazed the monster. It just kept coming, like the Juggernaut.

Trees were mild annoyances that it merely shoulder-checked out of the way.

Covered in sweat and breathing hard, Sam finally found a glimmer of hope when he broke through the edge of the forest and started to run up a gradually sloped hill.

At the top, he could just see his friends. Kale turned to urge him on, then continued on his way.

It wasn’t until Sam reached halfway up the hill that he felt that glimmer of hope expand into something more. The golem was slowing down now that it was out of the forest. Perhaps the area had affected it somehow, gave it more strength than it otherwise would have had.

There was no time to think about it further because, although it was slowing down, so was Sam. Thankfully, he had spent many years as a kid running up steeper slopes than this back in Hawai’i and for once, he felt like he had a home field advantage.

Wheezing, Sam crested the rise and could have wept at the sight of the practically new rope bridge swaying slightly as the last of his friends ran across to the other side of the steep ravine.

A fine white mist obscured the bottom, but Sam didn’t care if there were spikes down there. Getting across that bridge before the golem got to him was his only priority.

Across the way, he saw Darren making strange motions. A shimmering light erupted from him as he took a dagger from one of the Scout’s.

Sam stared in horror as his old assistant manager cut the ropes to the bridge with two easy swipes of the blade.

Komachi hissed and spat angrily, but there was nothing they could do as the bridge was cut free. It swung back toward Sam’s side of the ravine. He couldn’t give Darren any more of his attention, as the quaking ground alerted Sam to the arrival of the golem.

Backing away until his heels practically hovered over the rocky ledge, Sam raised his [Dull Claymore], ready to fight to the end.