Botan had just received his new armor from Will. This wasn't armor good enough to improve long-term, but he knew it was the best he could manage at the moment. The dram undergarment made the lighter silver-like metal of the armor sections seem all the brighter in contrast. The armor looked basic, and had many unprotected areas, but it was necessary to continue to allow maximum range of movement for the young dancer.
Alder and the knights waited in the front of the shop to see the reveal. Seeing Botan in his armor and his weapon form already shifted to the [Grass Reaper's Scytheflower] made Alder realize. "Despite the lack of resources and assistance offered… You really grew quite rapidly, didn't you?"
"Mysk!~" Myskel appreciated any praise leveled at Botan.
Botan went to smile but formed a comedic frown instead. "If I am so reliable, why don't you believe me?"
Cole didn't expect that reaction and grew curious. "What's he talking about?"
"Not this thing again." Alder said with a heavy sigh and a facepalm
"No! Listen to me! That tree is a monster over level 50 and can mess with my menus! That thing is a big deal!" Botan was begging them to listen but sounded like a madman.
"Oh… So he's just talking about normal Botan nonsense then?" Selene commented, dismissing him entirely.
"Why won't anyone believe me!?" Botan screamed to the heavens.
Flashback
Botan knocked on Tia's front door before entering.
Tia went to greet him, "I heard you face difficulty on your last trip. Do you need any-?" but she stopped when she saw his face, paled and eyes panicking. "What happened?" She asked.
"The giant tree is a monster!" Botan managed between breaths.
"...What?" Was all she could manage in response.
"It's a monster and a strong one too. It messed with my menus and was scaring the crap out of me!" Botan caught more of his breath and explained further.
Alder did not take his claims seriously. "Uh-huh… Listen, I know you took your first life and-"
"No, listen! You know how I needed materials from a level 50 or higher monster?" Botan asked.
"...Yes?" Alder answered, not seeing how this connected to that.
"I got it!" Botan exclaimed.
"Okay… from what?" Alder inquired.
"The tree! The fucking tree! That's proof right there. How else would I have been able to bloom this." Botan switched to the [Grass Reaper's Scytheflower] to prove his point.
Alder stared at it a moment. "...Well the easy answer is that you are lying." He finally said.
"What!?" Botan was floored. "Why would I lie about this!?"
"I'm glad you found the last materials you needed, but we've been dealing with that lie for years." Tia interrupted, setting the table.
"Wait—" Botan threw a surprised look at them. "They knew?"
"Drop it," Adler said with a sigh, "It's not a monster. Just a tree quite larger than the average."
"It made my weapon copy and weapon unlock systems shut down! What do you mean!?" Botan wasn't going to drop this.
"The Ygg tree is said to ward the castle. That's why the castle was built there. Maybe its warding powers just didn't work well with the holy flower? Botan, The castle is over 400 years old. You think a monster would sit there for over 400 years and let people build a castle around it?" Tia explained and tried to get Botan to see how crazy his claim was.
Botan slowed down. "...Listen, I know that this sounds crazy-"
"Because it is." Alder added.
"But I swear. That tree is a monster and a damned strong one too." Botan repeated.
"If I say I believe you, will you quiet down and eat dinner?" Tia asked.
"So you believe me?" Botan asked hopefully.
"No, I just wanted to know if lying to you was an option." Tia said with a slight grin.
"Aaaaarrrrrhhhhhhhh!" Botan began screaming while violently shaking Alder's shoulders.
Tia came over and knocked Botan out with a small flick of the wrist. She then wordlessly sat him in his chair and set a plate for him.
"Five minutes?" Alder asked how long he'd be out.
"I'd say closer to three." Tia corrected.
The moment Botan was awake Tia turned to him. "Keep that nonsense talk out of my house. Understood?"
"...But…uh…understood." Botan said in defeat.
Flashback ends
"This is bullshit. This is exactly what that demon tree wants. It wants to divide us. Otherwise, why reveal anything to me?" Botan warned.
Alder continued to brief the others on the plans for the wave today as the others listened. Botan was completely ignored.
"At least I got some useful information last night." Botan thought.
Flashback
"On another note, Botan. If you want to talk about what you had to do the other day, I'll be more than happy to listen." Tia offered, halfway through her meal.
Botan frowned. He was dealing with it by not thinking about it. He knew that was the opposite of actually dealing with it, but it was still too fresh. He ended another person's life. And not by some accident. He used magic to nearly tear the man in half. He died out in the middle of nowhere and his loved ones would never recover the body. This was something that'd take time.
He kept telling himself that there was no other choice. That the man was going to kill the others. "Hell, his spell would have killed me if I didn't…" Botan remembered something.
"I do have something I want to talk about and it's related to that, but not that specifically." Botan answered.
"Oh?" Tia seemed interested.
"When I was fighting their captain, he used a spell that caused two large rocks to collide into one another to pin their target."
"Ah, [Stone Trap]. What of it?" Tia was familiar with that spell. She was probably familiar with all spells.
"I dodged it and I want to know how and why." Botan said directly.
Tia's face brightened dramatically. "To dodge that, you'd have to had-"
"Sensed the magic in the ground… How? I thought you could only sense the magic in your own body." Botan was searching for clues.
Alder was now also sporting an approving grin. They both knew something he didn't.
"I never said you could only sense magic in your own body. I'm careful about my word choice when it comes to magic, Botan. As for an answer… I'd say you'll have an answer when you can manage to pass the next test." Tia refused to give him much. She already knew he was too sharp to be loose-lipped around.
Botan hung his head in frustration. "Of course. These damned dancing lessons." He complained.
Flashback ends
Botan was brought out of his thoughts by the arrival of Navarre, which from everyone's reactions was not expected. Alder stopped mid-setence. Botan wondered if this would be another problem.
Before anyone could say anything, Navarre dropped to one knee. "I'm aware I may be disrupting something by coming here without being called upon, but I wish to fight in the wave."
No one said anything for a moment, then Botan spoke up. "If you joined, we'd lose EXP." He pointed out.
"I'm aware. You can kick me from the party the moment we arrive." Navarre was being a lot more sensible and goodwill than he did before.
"..." Botan paused. "He'd still take EXP from us in the form of taking out the monsters himself. That said, beating the wave is more important. I'd feel terrible if I turned down free help and the wave was too much."
Just as Botan went to speak, Alder beat him to it. "I think the Evergreen would welcome the help, yes?" He prompted Botan.
Botan followed up. "Yeah. In fact, you can stay in the party. Let's focus on the task and try to get along."
"I appreciate it." Navarre said still kneeling.
The others spared him a glance. They assumed he was coming to kiss Botan's ass after showing his own last time. Still, they knew he wasn't bad help.
"Glad to have you. We need more front-line fighters." Freona offered.
Alder began from the beginning to get Navarre up to speed. "We have no idea where we will be transported to. Just that it'll be in Mosden. We could transport to the bottom of a valley, or the top of a mountain, maybe even the center of one of our many lakes. Getting our bearings is the most important thing when this starts. We'll also have to consider what domestic monsters we'll face as well. We also need to make sure to leave as soon as we can if we are close to a border."
Alder shared a look with the others. "I'm not sure if you've been told, but we were attacked by the champions on our last outing." He informed Navarre.
Navarre actually reacted to that. He opened his mouth and closed it immediately as if stopping himself from saying something. His face filled with concern, a lot of concern. He looked at Alder as if asking something.
"Yeah, it could be the case…, but one crisis at a time. Anyways-" Alder kept briefing them, but Botan stopped paying attention.
"He just told Navarre something without telling him. Why can't you let me know what it is?" Botan stared at Alder. "I know you aren't hiding it from me to screw me over. You're hiding it to either protect me or keep me from worrying when I need to focus… I just wish you'd have enough faith in me to not coddle me." Botan lamented.
Once he was done, Botan walked up and they dispensed items. Botan tried giving his only potion to someone else, but they insisted he kept it for himself. By the top of the hour, they were done preparing.
Ten minutes left.
It was unnerving. The minutes were stretching long. Long enough that both of them could feel their own heartbeats from the ear. The two of them shared the perpetual want of this moment being over. Better to crash like a pinball instead of this test... of patience.
Waiting for time was proving to be a harder battle than the battlefield itself. (edited)
00:00:00:59
00:00:00:58
Botan was the one to break the silence. "Listen, um… I know you all have more combat experience than me and I'll be relying on that… But I'm pretty strong now, so don't forget you can rely on me as well." Botan managed to say.
A smile crept onto Freona and Selene lips as the two snickered, the other three relaxed a bit.
"Geez. It's really hard to be seriously worried when you are acting that dorky." Selene said in a much lighter tone.
"I'm trying to be, like, serious too!" Botan said, now blushing with embarrassment.
"Mysk~!" Myskel backed up her master, pouting seriously.
The two broke out into laughter. "We know, we know. Hehe." Selene dismissed.
"It just doesn't seem so serious all of a sudden." Freona said more genuinely, which hurt more.
"You're both being mean." Cole piped up with a rare comment.
"They are!" Botan agreed loudly.
"Mysk~!" Myskel was clawing at the air between them and Botan, wanting to defend her master, but not leave his side. She stretched out as far as she could and attempted to attack, but she was still several feet too far.
"Ahh~. Don't be upset little cutie. Even you must see how cute he was being." Selene said.
"My-Mysk, ysk." Myskel became expressive as she puffed up, then deflated, then pointed at Botan while hissing. It was like she wasn't disagreeing but was still upset on his behave.
Botan stared at her with defeat in his eyes. "..."
00:00:00:01
00:00:00:00
Their party began to glow, each taking notice.
"It's taking effect" Botan announced
"Just like the old book say." Alder seemed pleased.
The next moment they were spirited away, their vision stolen by the light that surrounded them. After about a second, the light faded. They opened their eyes and the first sight they were greeted with was not a valley, nor a mountain, not even a lake. What lay before them was something much rarer in Mosden.
It was a town. It was Lokkansted! It was the village they had visited just over a week ago.
"Shit!" Selene screamed.
"The people!" Freona panicked.
"Calm down, Mr. Lokkan's monsters will give some resistance." Cole argued.
"We need to save people before we slay the wave's boss." Alder told them.
"We need to slay the boss. We do that and we save everyone." Navarre disagreed.
Neither was wrong.
"Both." Botan told them, running forward.
Everyone did their best to follow him, though he was faster than any of them now. Alder called out. "Botan, we shou-"
"No. We do both! We need to save people while searching for the boss." Botan was not budging on this.
"..." No one argued against him. Alder spoke after a moment. "Cole, make contact with Mr. Lokkan, we'll need to coordinate with his forces. His farm has more total firepower than we do. Everyone else, locate and save everyone you can, and send them to Lokkan's farm. His large walls will serve to protect them. If anyone locates the boss, use magic to draw our attention." Alder issued orders.
Botan then broke away, outspeeding them further. It seemed he slowed himself down to have that short conversation. Alder felt strange. He was trained to lead, but he just gave orders. Botan didn't know what he was doing, but he was doing a better job than him.
"Just goes to show that I'm right. Blood or not, some people are meant to lead, and some are not…" Alder thought to himself.
In under a minute Botan's boot landed at the entrance to the town. He saw hundreds of monsters flying and falling from the sky. He tilted his head upward, facing the sky, the wave. The sky was foreign, more than it was normally. Dreary purple muddied with black, swirls of a bright neon green. The monsters came from those swirls. Botan couldn't count them, but had to assume around 500 monsters were already here. It sounded like a lot, but they were a party of 7 and Lokkan had Knob. "That'd only be like 60-something enemies each. We could manage that… But not double that. Where is that boss?"
Botan was pulled from his thoughts by a scream of a woman. She was carrying a little boy and had just barely managed to escape her home through a window. Falling from the second floor and damaging her leg. She still didn't stop.
Behind her were some of the monsters
[Interdimensional Heavy Hive Hornet]
A thin but large wasp-like creature, about 4' long. The stinger was a full 1' of its body length and was a metallic blade of some kind. It seemed fast, at least faster than the other kind.
[Interdimensional Heavy Hive Bumblebee]
A puffy bulbous bumblebee that'd almost be mistakenly called cute…, but a vapor or something was shimmering around it that looked dangerous.
This pair of monsters was chasing the woman but didn't get far.
[Sickle Throw (Medium)]! Botan used the power of the weapon form he had put much effort into completing. He swung the scythe in the air toward the monsters, and a swirling circle of wind shot off like a disc, slicing the slender hornet monster easily and then burying itself deeply into the larger monster on the other side of it. Both fell in an instant.
"Go to Mr. Lokkan's farm! I'll deal with this!" Botan called.
The woman looked over her shoulder and saw him. She felt reassured. She hadn't spoken to him but was told he was the Evergreen himself. He saved their village just over a week ago and he was back to save them again. She did not hesitate. She carried her son towards the farm as fast as her legs could carry.
Botan approached the monsters and looked at their bodies. First, he looked at the slender one. "Blade isn't coated or wet. No holes that I can see. Likely not poisonous." Botan went to touch the other one but pulled his hand back. "It's dead but… it's so hot, dangerously so. Was that what I saw before? Heat?" He stood again. "If so, I need only keep my distance and I'll be fine." Botan finished his thought and got back to work.
He caught sight of a few more monsters close by. They were bunched together traveling on the same direction. Botan couldn't see below them with a building in his line of sight. That said, he had a good idea as to what they were doing. He leapt onto the roof of the building and made it to the other side. He looked down to confirm. his suspicions.
Two men ran through the small gaps between houses, trying to escape. If they were being chased by normal enemies there'd be merit in their tactic. However, these enemies all flew. Any distance they thought they gained was just a momentary perspective. The monsters simply flew over the homes and returned to chasing them.
[Spring: Seed Strike]!
Botan tried lining up a shot to take three of the four monsters down. Only the first hornet died. The second had time to dodge and while the bumblebee took the hit, it was still up.
"The fat ones have more HP than I thought. I'm going to need to hit them with attacks dedicated to them specifically. Otherwise, they just keep going. I should Wha-!" Botan was pulled from his thoughts as the three remaining monsters all ignored the two men they were chasing and approached Botan as well. Before he did anything, he noticed nine other monsters coming for him. Any monster that so much as caught a glance at Botan seemed to race toward him.
Botan tried blasting them away, but his number of ranged skills still wasn't high enough and while he was finally able to use magic, it took several moments to cast a spell. He only managed to shoot down five of them before some reached him. In that time another fifteen also began rushing to his location.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Botan had no choice but to turn tail and run. He made it to the ground in one leap and then jumped through a house's window. He needed to do what those two men failed to do, bottleneck them. He ran down the hall of the small abandoned home and went towards a window in the backside. He looked over his shoulder and pointed his weapon.
[Sunray]!
The burning orange light traveled at a blinding speed, piercing nearly a dozen enemies that were following him through the path he made. He then jumped out of the opposing window, returning to the open streets.
He had no time to stand as a hornet came crashing down on him. He felt it coming and managed to twist his waist and throw his weight to the side to throw himself out of the way. This saved him from a fatal wound, but it still drew blood. The blade-like stinger cut just above his left brow into a downward slope over the bridge of his nose.
"Urgh." Botan swung his scythe with his closer arm and cleaved the enemy in two. He got to his feet and wiped the blood from his face. He placed his hand carefully on his face, running his fingers along the groove of the cut. It was shallow and he bleeding was light. He sighed in relief.
Someone rounded the corner of a nearby home and ran to Botan. "There you are. Ah! Are you okay!?" It was Freona panicking.
The cut was so shallow that Myskel's small healing spell healed it right in front of her. "I'm fine. Did anyone talk to Mr. Lok-"
"WWAAAAAAHHNN!" A loud strange noise alerted them both. They saw dozens of monsters being drug out of the sky. Lokkan was on the scene with Knob drawing the wave monsters through its gate and falling behind it in a crushed pile.
"Nice! Now we can cull their numbers." Botan did his best to catch his breath and threw himself back into the fight. Freona did her best to stick to his side this time. The took to another high roof so they could scan the surroundings for the wave boss.
"Is that it?" Freona pointed at a new monster.
[Interdimensional Heavy Hive Golem]
A golem made of a strange hive, with honeycombs for flesh and honey dripping freely from it. It appeared to be about 10' tall. It had a few balls of glowing yellow energy surrounding it and following it. It certainly looked more powerful than the bugs. However-
"No, look." Botan pointed to another two of them they could see. "They're probably stronger, but they're not the boss."
"Mysk~." Her tone was determined and strong.
"Yeah, we still need to take them out." Botan agreed. He looked toward Freona. "Where are the others?"
Freona pointed to a distant point. "Alder and Navarre are over there. Cole already reached Mr. Lokkan. He and Selene probably met up as well."
"So everyone is in groups of two." Botan said, not asking.
"Yeah, Alder's orders were to not stay alone for too long." She said with a little annoyance.
Botan understood why. "Well me running ahead didn't break any rules. I have Myskel, after all." He said with a smile.
"Mysk~!" Myskel chirped with a claw placed on her head.
Freona crossed her arms and huffed with a pout. "Alder has it rough dealing with you."
Without another word shared between them, they both jumped from roof to roof, making their way toward the closest golem. Botan occasionally fired a skill toward a street on either side to kill a stray monster, but the majority of them seemed to be chasing him. Freona looked back at the growing cloud of monsters flying after them.
"Why are they chasing you like that?" She said with some panic in her voice.
"You mean 'us'." Botan reminded her that she too was now their target.
"No. I mean you." She looked back in concern. "The monsters didn't chase us with such fervor. As soon as we were out of sight or proved to take too long to catch they regrouped and stopped chasing us. It's probably because they know you're the holy hero."
"Seriously!?" Botan exclaimed.
[Heatray]! Botan fired off the beam skill again. It pierced the growing cloud of monsters and struck several targets. Despite this, the remaining number meant he'd need to use this skill again dozens of times to wipe such a great number of enemies out.
"I thought this was supposed to be a directionless horde that I'd fight in isolated pockets throughout the battlefield, not a single mindless wave chasing me exclusively!" Botan thought.
"Follow me." Botan said after a moment. Wordlessly he left the roof and broke into a house through the window. Freona followed. He waited until monsters began swarming the entrance to break the opposing side's window and continue their path to the target.
Freona looked back. The monsters swarmed the house and few seemed to have caught sight of him. They had only a handful of monsters chasing them for the moment. Freona found it impressive, but he was simply repeating a tactic that worked before. They were now approaching the golem and firmly held their weapons. They needed to take it out quickly.
The golem seemed to somehow know they were approaching, turning to meet them. Small marble-sized yellow balls of energy surrounded the creature, roughly 10 of them dancing about.
"..." Botan hesitated. [Spring: Seed Strike]!
Botan fired at the golem, wanting to maintain distance. The golem didn't even raise an arm in protest. The small skill was intercepted at the last moment by one of the surrounding energy balls. It moved rapidly at the last second and seemed to explode on impact. The ball's detonation was much weaker than Botan's skill, but it served to keep the monster safe.
"Let me see something." Freona slid, dragging her hand along the dirt road until she managed to sink her fingers around a good-sized rock. She threw it with all her strength at the monster. Again, one of the yellow balls of energy moved at the last moment. The rock exploded into dust on contact as the energy expanded violently before fading away.
Botan came to a halt. "If I attempt to swing my weapon, it'll probably use those explosives again. Wait… 1, 2, 3,... There were more. So it can't replace them when used?" Botan concluded.
"We need to finish it quickly, the monsters chasing us have arrived."
"Hold them off, I got this guy." Botan told her.
He switched to his much weaker weapon form, [Blue Spinning Flower]. Then used [Spin]. He then turned it around and held it to the ground. The weapon was cutting the dirt but as he moved it around it caught small rocks and launched them toward the golem. Each of the yellow balls moved to intercept the attacks, but they were used up very quickly.
"Now." Botan switched back to his [Grass Reaper's Scytheflower]. Without any small bombs to worry about he rushed into melee with the odd monster.
Its movements weren't stiff like what Botan expected from a golem, it also wasn't particularly slow. Its only noticeable issue was that it had limited joint movement. The monster was made out of hive and honeycomb, honey dripping from it. The creature would not move in a manner to crush the sections that served a purpose and that was a major exploitable limitation. Botan easily weaved out of the way and sank the scythe's blade into the chest area of the monster and out the other side.
"Nice. Now I just-"
The golem went to grab Botan, but it wasn't dead. Botan went to dodge, but the scythe was too slow in being pulled out of the monster with all that honey there. The golem grabbed Botan's shoulders and attempted to ift him into the air.
"You really need to stop needing my help." a familiar voice spoke.
It was Mr. Lokkan. He was moving oddly, holding his hands to the left with flat palms like he was presenting something to a crowd. After a moment continuing an illusion of a red curtain appeared.
"What the hell? What kind of spell is this?"
"[Crimson Presentation]! Betty!" Mr. Lokkan shouted.
"UURRAAHH!" His own personal yoklan, named Betty, rushed through the curtain somehow gaining speed from the moment it hit the illusory curtain and slammed into the hive golem with its entire body. It dropped Botan who managed to slip away as the monster was half implanted into a nearby house's wall.
Betty backed up a few steps and looked at Botan, the curtain still visibly coating her body. Myskel gave a chirp of acknowledgment as if thanking her. Botan saw the golem wasn't dead, but it was a sitting duck. The honey that made it hard for him to escape was turned against it. It had dozens of bricks stuck to it and could not free itself from the wall easily.
While this was happening, Freona was keeping the enemies at bay. Placing her staff suspended in the air with a spinning axis to allow it to function as a propeller. She purposefully made it slightly off-center to allow an uneven spin, casting a very specific spell.
[Gale Jail]!
The wind swirled around the monsters, pushing together all the monsters that managed to stay on their tail. The winds were strong, but couldn't manage to do more than bring them together. They remained unharmed.
"I could use that, but I'd damage too many buildings…" Freona thought aloud.
"Boi-ing~!" Suddenly a small pond's worth of water fell onto her spell from above. The water was swept up in the force and added much weight to the attack. The monsters began to take damage.
Freona looked up to see another of Mr. Lokkan's monsters. His Orf named Swella. She was swimming in the air and gathering water from the atmosphere as ammo.
"Thanks, Swella!" Freona called cheerfully. "I'll just drown these things then." She decided.
Botan used a [Sickle Throw] to deal more damage to the downed golem. The attack landed and looked like it did great damage, but Botan was not familiar enough to judge accurately.
"This thing is a construct-type monster. That means it doesn't succumb to wounds. It'll only die to HP loss or completely being torn apart. So pile on the damage until you receive EXP." Mr. Lokkan lectured.
"Understood." Botan replied.
A loud burst of steam was heard. Freona's spell may have become stronger, but with that came other complications. The larger bees generated heat defensively in great numbers hoping to break free. And they did, but it was ultimately fruitless. The steam was too much for the hornets, killing them on the spot. The bumblebees took the heat well, but their wings became damaged and left them vulnerable on the ground.
Freona and Swella carefully approached each of the survivors, taking them out. As that happened, Botan saw his EXP rising as he caught his breath, having just finished the golem with a dozen more swings of his scythe. "The division of EXP isn't even an issue. We are getting so much EXP… No, the EXP is at a normal rate, it's just there seems to be no end to these things."
"We need to take out these golems. Mr. Lokkan, can we ask for the help of you and your monsters?"
"No need to ask. The protection of Lokkansted is my duty, it's in the name." He turned away. "I'll go fetch Knob. You might want to find that boss thing quickly." He said before hopping onto Betty and riding off. Swella made a cute gesture towards those who remained and then swam through the air chasing after her master.
Botan finished the last bumblebee before pointing toward the next closest golem. "We need to shave their numbers down more, and avoid actually touching them." Botan said.
Freona wordlessly followed. She traveled to the same target but made an effort to travel apart from Botan.
She looked back. It seemed like any monster that caught sight of him couldn't help but follow him.
She paused.
"None are following me. The golems also see us, but do not act… Why? What would explain this kind of behavior? It can't be that he's simply the Evergreen, otherwise the golems would also act." Freona was watching the enemy while pondering.
She whirled her staff around herself, forming and then firing green balls of magic from both ends of her staff. She was aiming for the hornets, leaving the bumblebees because they would survive these minor magical attacks. She picked off as many as she could before they had to stop, then she'd need to engage them collectively without retreating.
Botan let Freona worry about that. He was in a rare state of concentration. His foot left the last roof as he jumped a bit higher, coming down on his prey. Just as before, the golem seemed to somehow learn of Botan's location the moment he got close. It reached out to grab Botan from the air. Botan began to spin, until his right leg was glowing with hints of blue and purple. "Eat this!" Botan brought down his leg violently, as he did, the magic surrounding his leg formed a now trusted shape of long axe head.
[Executioner's Axe]!
The spell carved through all of the weak yellow balls of magic that moved to protect it and cleaved the golem's arm clean off. It seemed unbothered, not feeling pain or fear. It simply tried grabbing Botan with its other arm, missing as Botan followed through with his motion and stayed to the golem's left side. This kept the golem from attacking for several moments. While he danced around his opponent to buy time, the remaining bugs were being fended off unsuccessfully.
Freona could see a funnel of monsters being pulled from the sky on the other side of town. Knob was pulling as many into its dimension as possible. By comparison, Freona had to only handle a fraction of that number, yet she was being pushed back by the sheer number of them.
Botan saw this and changed tactics. He used [Boom Bloom], giving himself a 30-second wind-up. "Freona, behind me!" He motioned for her.
She didn't hesitate. Without Alder to give her direct orders, the Evegreen's words were next in line. She used her pole to create an axis in the air to swing her pole over the golem, as if grabbing several vines.
She landed behind him as he kept retreating from the golem. "Now what?"
"Retreat as slowly as we can for 12 more seconds." Botan responded.
Freona nodded. She wordlessly complied and waited to see the plan.
"BOOOOMM!"
After the 30-second charge time ended, so did the golem. The skill tore the golem into molten chunks that scattered away from Botan, striking and killing many of the hornets and bees. Those not hit with debris were still struck from the local area by the shockwave alone.
The resulting explosion that was produced surprised even Botan. The last time he used this it was with the [Grass Blade], which was bloomed, but also low-level and not magic-oriented. Now with a bloomed weapon that was both on his level and magic-oriented, the damage must have been at least three times as strong, maybe even four times.
Some of the honey from the golem landed on the both of them. Freona looked at it annoyingly, but Botan just ignored it as Myskel began licking a spot on his check it landed at. She instantly fell in love with the taste and started focusing on eating.
The explosion was loud enough to grab everyone's attention across the village. Everyone. Something large came towards Botan out of the sky and everyone saw it.
"Shit! It's the boss. It can fly. We need to back Botan up." Alder instructed.
While this was given a quick nod from Cole and Selene, Navarre took the news differently. "Now is the time to act." That was all Navarre said as he swiftly pulled out his rapier and threw himself at Alder. Before Alder realized what was happening Navarre was pressed against Alder, his rapier finding little resistance, Alder's eyes wide in surprise.
Botan heard a noise that he never thought he'd hear in this fantasy world. The sound of a jet or missile was heard followed by a crashing noise at the site of the latest golem.
"Holy-"
Before him was a monster just as large as the golems. It was a flying metal bug with a crown on its head. The armor seemed far too thick and heavy, almost like it was completely metal to its core. Its arms featured two claws each as long as his legs. It possessed large red compound eyes that were each larger than Botan's head, with each eye section being as large as his own eyes. Instead of legs, its body ended with a series of pipe-like holes with heavy heat exiting them. Lastly, it was surrounded by several dozen of the same yellow magical balls that the golems seemed to only have a few of.
[Interdimensional Heavy Hive Queen]
With a single exhausting breath accompanied by extreme heat from its jets, the grass and nearby houses were set ablaze. With the fire casting light and shadow around the area, it stared down Botan with more thought in its eyes than all the others have.
"-Shit!"
.
[Otherworld Index]
Today we will be talking about one of the true wonders of the world, the Ygg Tree, the mighty and imposing tree that lies at the heart of Mosden. It is said to be one of the 4 largest living things on the planet, and oddly enough, was said to be much larger a millennia ago. Many ancient books credit the Ygg Tree's roots for creating the massive cave systems that formed Mosden's underground ocean. If this fairytale is to be believed, the Ygg Tree was once the size of Mosden itself.
Of course, that would have to be a myth, right? For something to be that large is absurd and that it somehow grew smaller over time with explanation or reason is even more absurd.
This isn't the only lie told about the tree. Many of the guards and staff in the castle claim to have been messed with by the tree. Saying its branches and roots changed to trip them or otherwise be childishly cruel to them if they so much a pick a single leaf from the giant plant.
As for the truth, the Ygg Tree is magical and powerful. It possesses a type of warding magic that reactively creates a barrier to protect the tree and its surroundings if it detects an incoming attack. This makes large-scale magic performed by many people at once useless at sieging the capital. Further, the royal family is said to have either made this ward or otherwise know enough about it to use it personally. Within the area of its protection, members of the royal family will gain a barrier to ward off lethal attacks. This is a well-known fact, however, attacks that both can't and aren't attempting to kill members of royalty will occur without any protective interference.
This would seem to indicate that the tree is always watching and choosing when and why to invoke its powers. The Holy Flower cannot be wrong. The Ygg Tree is a monster. One of the largest and oldest creatures to have lived under these stars.
But even that doesn't cover what this thing can and will do…
.
[Author's notes]
Welp. The village is falling to pieces. Alder is being backstabbed, and Botan is now facing a giant robot fighter jet queen bee mage…
I hope I am portraying this correctly. Botan is supposed to be far above the peons. The golems only put up a challenge because they are constructs. If they could bleed, he'd have dealt with them easily enough. Hell, as soon as he realized how to fight them he 2-shot the next one.
Now we get to see Botan face a strong opponent that doesn't fall to a simple spell. How much of the village will remain when it is all said and done?