And still it unraveled more coming up from the ground The squad leader faintly saw a strange tree with burning leaves at its core before his eyes were inevitably drawn upwards towards the center of the mass
There the squad leader saw a mass of black rot and ugly pink flesh the size of a minivan It seemed to peer down at him for a very long time Then it opened its mouth showed its hundreds of rows of teeth and exhaled foul air in the squad leaderÆs direction Although it seemed like an aggressive move it came out sounding more like a sigh And the squad leader instantly understood what it meant
You should not have shot first
Chapter 532
Nathan considered saying something perhaps saying some action to Thorn to save the lives of these foreign soldiers Yet he stayed still simply watching what transpired When Thorn went through the laborious effort of raising its core out of the ground Nathan was aware that their fates had already been sealed But there was still an impulse to act to protect them
If Tykes were here to hear NathanÆs thoughts Nathan knew the older man would tease him mercilessly Tykes always had a sharp comment for how soft he deemed Nathan For a while Nathan had tried to argue with him stating that he was a mage while Tykes was a physical fighter Logic didnÆt work with Tykes When Nathan had inquired to Karlito what his options for addressing the issue were the man had just winked and said machismo
Luckily Tykes was sent away on purpose to lure the lurking soldiers into their area of influence Originally they had planned to simply let Bruya toy with them They had even kept the people wandering through the illusions close to their actual position so they wouldnÆt hurt themselves It came as quite a surprise when they called down a freaking missile strike
If Thorn hadnÆt been here
But of course he was cradling the Arbor sprout and keeping high Level monsters from attacking those of the group that couldnÆt fight And Thorn had grown fat and strong on the blood of these powerful abominations over the last few months Even Nathan didnÆt know how far its roots spread underneath them all thirsty and watchful
ThornÆs core that messy sphere of rot and flesh inflated then deflated It inflated then deflated again It was considering thinking very hard about what it should do now Everyone knew that the Ghosthound would disapprove of pointless violence But they had clearly been attacked Without the GhosthoundÆs guidance it was hesitant to act decisively especially when there would be no way to take back its actions
But then the core contracted and stayed contracted With exaggerated slowness it moved gingerly forward towards its opponents The squad was on the ground and even now only two or three had moved And those moves were exceedingly feeble These were helpless targets
They are also full of blood Æ Nathan thought to himself considering Thorn
Was this what Tykes would do Standby and let the plant devour these people
ThornÆs hundreds of vines with razor sharp thorns moved up and down in the air as if they were buoyed by a soft wind They seemed to drift casually like a fog bank Always onwards always forwards so large you couldnÆt see the other side while staring at it soon to engulf them all
Within a minute Nathan couldnÆt see the soldiers any longer as they were obscured by ThornÆs amorphous body It sank lower condensing itself and Nathan saw how its appendages twined inwards For a loverÆs embrace Nathan decided It was descending to kiss the soldiers
Those seconds seemed to last forever
Then something changed Thorn quivered But unlike what Nathan was expecting its limbs did not plunge into feast on the soldiers On the contrary Thorn straightened somewhat and half rotated peering behind towards the horizon Nathan followed its gaze puzzled Thorn was looking back towards their Zone Zone 32 which he was now told was named Rawlands
A low rumble emanated out from Thorn making NathanÆs teeth buzz Then it blurred into motion becoming the deadly storm of thorns and violent momentum that it could become when angered Like a tiger it pounced back away from the soldiers As Nathan watched it sank right into the ground and disappeared from sight its powerful vines leading the way and digging it a path down into the ground
There was another rumble and then Thorn was gone Nathan frowned looking over towards the Arbor sapling which was twisting around nervously Thorn shouldnÆt have left like that It was supposed to remain here and defend them and ArborÆs sapling That was what the Ghosthound had said
did something happen If he could just leave too
The borderlands were honestly a pretty boring place Besides that one time that the cowboy guy needed his help Nathan had done very little that wasnÆt theoretical with his Class If he moved somewhere else
Karlito and Bruya began flirting as they calmly walked over towards the cooking fire as if nothing had happened Dinesh and Tykes wouldnÆt be back for a while and their final member of the squad was probably still hiding next to the Arbor sapling Without much anxiety Nathan walked towards the soldiers
Most were still unconscious Of those that seemed to be moving only the most official of them seemed to notice NathanÆs arrival The rest were blank eyed zombies from what they had seen
What was that The man gasped out his eyes fixed on Nathan
Nathan smiled and raised a finger to his lips You spoke all you were allowed to with that missile Now just wait for our answer
Following that Nathan fired an Arcane Orb directly into the manÆs face He hadnÆt Leveled it much but his Intelligence was still reasonably high The manÆs head was slammed back into the ground with a crack and he once more fell unconscious With a wince Nathan turned and walked quickly back towards the group
He truly wasnÆt so good with the physical things If he knew how to knock the man out more softly he would have
When he reached the group Nathan raised his voice Bruya can you put up an illusion
The woman didnÆt even look up from her plate of stew and the group was in a tropical rainforest A multicolored parrot cawed loudly right into NathanÆs ear causing him to jump a little but he didnÆt let that rob him of any enthusiasm
ItÆs time to move out Who’s up for joining the Ghosthound
Karlito and Bruya looked at each other Bruya mildly scratched her chin Karlito shrugged And so it was
Hank curiously regarded the strange rabbit being that had been his constant companion JJ as Hank had named him had been initially very unhelpful on account of being shot at But as the memory of that faded and JJ drew more energy from HankÆs body very quickly more details regarding his Skill were opened to him In addition the population of East End had been invaluable in assisting him to develop a mastery of the new Skill
The little bugger was rather trembly but the more Hank worked with him the more reliable he became He could produce stone spikes from the ground send seismic tremors to detect enemies and could raise small stone walls to provide cover for Hank
Unfortunately JJÆs Mana pool was based on HankÆs own and was therefore rather meager Very quickly he would burn through his Mana pool and leave Hank with just a trembly rabbit for assistance Still his body was incorporeal and couldnÆt really get hurt And it wouldnÆt take long to recover enough Mana to send some seismic tremors so it was a relatively nice arrangement
There were drawbacks to the elementals however Hank experienced a 15% decrease in Health Mana and Stamina regeneration which apparently was pretty high for such a low Level elemental Instead of regenerating his own attributes that regenerated JJÆs And that split would only grow as time went on Although Hank was assured that JJ would quickly grow in power that was still a hard pill to swallow especially in regards to the Stamina regeneration
Often he had Health and Mana to spare but that Stamina
especially with his new Skills
But Hank felt the natural connection with the damn bugger and it was hard to be mad at him for too long Plus he was told that he would gain a small amount more Health Mana and Stamina per Level now that they were connected