Our wagons traveled down the road as the plains gradually transitioned into a forest. What were once lone trees became more, until we were eventually surrounded on all sides by vegetation. This transition did not stop, the forestation grew ever denser, and before long we had found ourselves in a place that eclipsed any part of the forest that we’d ever been to before. It was fortunate that the land had been tamed, if barely, for without the road, our wagons would not be able to go anywhere here at all.

  We had officially left the plains and entered the rainforest.

  These were in the lands south of our home.

  “You guys wanna take a stop?” Therick asked from the front. A small clearing had come into view from the side of the road, which should barely be big enough to take our two heavy-duty wagons.

  “Yeah. Of course,” I answered. “I wanna explore.”

  That was part of the adventure. It was why I was here to begin with, instead of some other place where I would not be in danger for who I was.

  “Alright!” Angerly called from the other wagon, and drove it to the cleared area, followed by our own.

  I disembarked before they were done, and took a massive breath of the air. Thick, humid, and fucking BUG!

  Hellfire formed in my throat, and it spilled out of my mouth, in a display of firbreathing that broke my mask. Some sort of beetle thought it was a good idea to enter my bloody facehole, and this place was making a terrible first impression already. Can I just go back to the plains? Orcs are so much nicer than this!

  I heard my friends laughing and I flipped them off. I sat by the side of the road, and noticed how the vines and roots and even the bushes were beginning to eat away at it, and it was already the narrowest major pathway I’d seen yet. A low hum buzzed in the background, formed from the cries of many different animals, but mostly from more bugs. It was a constant struggle against nature everywhere, for nature was more powerful in this planet, and in a place like this even more so.

  My friends finished their preparations, and we gathered in front of the treeline, checking our packs one last time before we dove in. Moonwash still had her notebook open, on a page that listed all the things she wanted to encounter here the most.

  “The diversity here is really good. It’s almost a wonderzone of its own, and it could be argued that everywhere is a wonderzone of differing degrees. The average level of creatures doesn’t seem to be anything ridiculous at least, but there’s just so much more of them, and the lethality of the environment in between the trees has been expressed to be almost as dangerous as that of wonderzones.”

  “There are fewer stops we can take here.” Granuel had a map that was too big for him open as he looked towards the road and the destinations beyond. “There used to be a lot more settlements because this is where the bulk of the belfegors lived, but…”

  “They were slaughtered and driven out.” I finished for him. They were not allowed to form their own enclaves, especially not without a proper shepherd leader. Otherwise, they would be no better than bandits.

  And on that wonderful note, we dove into the treeline in search of new experiences.

  ~~~

  “Bugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugsbugs,” I repeated like a mantra, to my friends’ amusement, but they were beginning to agree. We stepped around roots entwined on the ground, and navigated around the thick vegetation all around. Berry was having the most trouble with how wide-heavy she was, and sometimes she just had to trample through some plants. All the while, small annoying little fucking bugs kept on flying and crawling around us.

  I fucking lost it.

  Mana leaked out of my skin and through the armor to become a whirling dervish of burning death to keep all the bugs away. My senses sharpened, I felt my surroundings more keenly, and the moment I spotted a beetle that strayed too close to the sun that was me, I fucking destroyed it.

  …I was genuinely getting better at this. Fine control had always been a little bit of a weakness of mine, but this place was really forcing me to adapt. I was almost grateful, but all I could feel was a burning desire to burn the entire forest down.

  What even was the point of having bugs? Never had I ever met creatures so hateful and pathetic. They could hardly ever improve their already weak Mutations, and they would never evolve a single one, so what the fuck was the point of their fucking existence? They should just fucking die!

  Magic popped around me like fireworks as more bugs came close. Most were actually just minding their own business and just happened to enter into my range, but I killed them anyway. A bushpider pounced at me, and I was actually happy to see the giant bug. At least it had some potential and a reason to ever be fucking born.

  I kicked it.

  The monster’s skull caved in and it rolled, but miraculously, it survived.

  I congratulated the beast by stomping on its bleeding and dying body until it was but a smear on the ground.

  “Uh, Haell?” Berry prodded me gently with her big claw. “You okay? You seem… off today. More than usual, I mean.”

  I stared at her for moment, and then laughed. My aura flared, and I thought of all the bugs I could perceive as an enemy. Almost instantly, the rainforest grew quieter, and I had a beautiful moment of peace.

  “Never better.”

  ~~~

  We continued to encounter more bugs of the big kind during our journey. Like how a bungeepider suddenly dropped right on top of Angerly, and she blocked its grasping limbs with her arm. The bungeepider latched onto her, and then tried to pull her up as the very elastic web attached to its butt strained, but the creature found no success. Angerly then pulled back, and her adversary let go of her arm in a panic. The bungeepider bounced back into the canopy, and I wondered what the fuck it expected to happen when it grabbed my giant ogre friend.

  I tried to shoot it down with my friends, but the monster left its bungee web and ran. Moonwash wanted the web, so we tried to retrieve it from the canopy. I jumped and flew up, only to find flight way too difficult with all the obstacles in the way. Therick tried climbing next, which he was decently good at, but he had to quickly retreat from the many other creatures that called the thick and intertwined canopies home. From the few that I noticed, there were tiny birds, tarsiers that could use nature magic, rabbits with long dextrous limbs, snakes that could hardly be spotted, and many more.

  Moonwash wanted a sample of all of them.

  I shrugged, and decided to just go for the easiest tactic of the all. I drew my greatsword, and sliced through the entire trunk of a tree in one go. It was a little bit tougher than the trees I was used to, but it fell all the same. That shook a lot of creatures loose, including the web my girlfriend wanted, and my friends caught as many as they could.

  ~~~

  Granuel had finally reached level 20 a while back, and his improvements were truly felt in this place. He spotted a mantis-spider that was stalking us, and we were able to prepare for the saradonis because of his early warning.

  The monster finally attacked after we had gotten a few seconds to prepare, and it still managed to nick Therick in the shoulder despite all of us being aware of the enemy. The monster was only around… level 30, but it was still able to so swiftly move and jump through the trees of this place. A few more attacks followed, and it was able to land some more hits, but thankfully our readiness and its incredibly lacking offensive capabilities left little wounds on our flesh. The monster was finally caught when I managed to nick it with the field of magic that surrounded me, and Granuel ensured that it could not run away with his accurate projectiles.

  The whole motherload of our ranged attacks followed.

  ~~~

  “Let’s go home,” I suggested after we had driven off a swarm of barkbarks. A level 10 darthawk had zoomed through the air to bury itself into Berry’s carapace during the confusion, and she was currently being healed. The particular monster was a long and thin dart-shaped bird, with wings that allowed it to fly straight as an arrow. And it was dead. Berry was the one being healed.

  “You mean like, to Latarus?” Therick asked.

  “No… I was just being dramatic. But now that you mention it, that wouldn’t be so bad. It’s been almost a decade.”

  “Yeah… You’re right. I do miss everyone.”

  “Me too.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Yes.”

  “They’ve been nice to me too.”

  We fell into a companionable silence for a while, until Berry was fully healed.

  “Well… Let us go, please. This place does kinda suck.”

  I knew, that out of all of us, Berry definitely enjoyed hard combat the least.

  It began to rain.

  Our packs were very waterproof, and I just enjoyed the water cascading down my body as we made our back to the wagons.

  The wildlife became just a little more docile along the way, and I liked to imagine that they were similarly enjoying the ambiance.

  ~~~

  “Are you sure we’re in the right place?” I said once our destination came into view. The skies were clear today, and soft sunlight shone along the road. “That looks way too small. Maybe we’ve been turned around and ended up in some random village somewhere?”

  “It’s the correct one,” Granuel said across from me. We were currently playing a board game, and we were about tied. “That is Warmingale Town.”

  “Eeehhhh. A town? But it looks way too small.”

  “Size doesn’t matter!” Angerly suddenly shouted from the other wagon.

  “Says you!” I retorted to the ogre.

  “It makes sense,” Granuel steered the conversation back on track. “I’ve heard that things are just built smaller here in general. The constant march of nature is harder to ignore.”

  “That’s technically true,” Moonwash agreed from the other vehicle as well. “It’s also how the belfegors that used to own this land have lived, and some of the places we’ll visit are just expansions of their former settlements. I’m excited to see some of their authentic building processes.”

  “Would it not be the same as what we’ve seen in the tree wall, or just the countless belfegor houses we’ve met along the way? They’re still built atop trees and shit.”

  “There’ll be a lot of similarities, but the ones we’ve seen are either new or isolated. I believe I’ll find something close to the genuine article here, if modified and surrounded by a lot of other buildings.”

  “Huh. Well, good luck. We shall see.”

  We came in range of the gate, and a human and belfegor guard welcomed us inside. I stuck my head out the window to see the trees that coexisted with the buildings, and the taller structures to accompany them. The town was still overall smaller than normal, but they did build just a little bit higher than other settlements.

  Our first order of business was to find a parking area and tie off our wagons and horreks. The next thing we did was sample the street food, and I experienced stronger flavors here as they marinated and preserved their food a lot more for that was the main draw of belfegorian cuisine.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I accompanied Moonwash as I ate, and she seemed to be having a lot of fun just examining the architecture even if none of it showed in her expressions. I happily continued to buy food as we walked around town, and my girlfriend pointed out to me how the carvings present in the houses differed just a little, emphasizing nature more, alongside the usual angelic imagery. The belief was that this would strengthen the structure, which was allegedly how magic truly worked sometimes, but even Moonwash’s artistic capabilities were not at a level to produce such an effect to a noticeable degree. That might be changing soon, once she starts reaching level 40.

  ~~~

  “Those houses seem to be particularly undecorated.” Moonwash looked up at the treehouses of a nearly entirely belfegor district. “I’ve heard that their original architecture was very minimalist in design.”

  My girlfriend walked to the rough and widely spaced stairs along the trunk of one tree, and I followed. We saw some shops from below, and had seen fit to visit. Most of the people up here were belfegors, and they almost looked at us suspiciously, but not quite. The first shop we visited was run by a belfegor whose skin was a shade of brown that was almost yellow. Moonwash bought some wooden trinkets from him, and then we went to another shop run by a belfegor with near-red brown skin. Most of them still preferred an inoffensive brown that blended in with the trees, but the shopkeeps did prefer their brighter-colored skin.

  We ended up buying all manner of things, from more food, to really good liquor, and even a crown of weaved flowers that would wilt in a few days. I put it over my girlfriend’s head with a smile, and then we visited a shop of pottery and baskets hand in hand. Moonwash was impressed with the quality of each one, meanwhile I was more impressed by how they were all arranged.

  This was a message. The sizes of the things on sale corresponded to a code in morsian. I approached the belfegor shopkeeper and showed her a necklace that Luine had given me so long ago.

  I didn’t mean to contact them here, but it had been a while since I had checked on what New Grandera spies were up to. It was as good an opportunity as any.

  Our receptionist's eyes that were almost asleep widened, for as far as they were aware, I was some sort of VIP bigshot.

  She did not react further.

  Good.

  “Moonwash.” I called, and she encased us in a privacy bubble.

  “The place is secured.”

  “Ah, yes yes.” She straightened herself from the normal slouch of the belfegors. “I’ve heard of you… Haell Zharignan, yes.”

  This time, I was the one who withheld from answering, or reacting at all.

  “Everyone knows who you are…” she chuckled. “But good effort on pretending anyway.”

  “Fair enough.” I shrugged.

  “No offense meant,” she shrugged back. “So, is there anything I can do for you?”

  I thought about it. “Nothing specific. We just got here. Like, as in from the plain to the rainforest. I was just wondering what’s up, if anything.”

  “Oh, there is something… Lots of somethings…”

  Of that, I had no doubt, The war against New Grandera was a lot more active here, than in the north, and it was only speeding up.

  ~~~

  We had a good night’s rest in a room that was smaller than normal, but I didn’t intend to complain about it too much. The inn had a pretty good breakfast at least, and my entire party partook before we went off and checked out what the adventurer’s guild had to offer. As usual, we skipped the ones asking for bandit subjugation or some criminal bounty, and took the quests for killing monsters or gathering herbs. There were two quests in particular that we had to discuss, because there was not one, but two Level 40 monsters currently just squatting around in the area.

  “I want the lizekto,” Moonwash said once we were in the privacy of our own soundproof bubble. “Do you think I can tame one?”

  “Oh, a pet?” I mused. “I never really had the… stability for one of those, but I always wanted one.”

  “You… probably shouldn’t,” Angerly retorted, and we both looked at our ogre friend.

  “What? You don’t think I can do it? I’ll have you know that I’m very responsible!”

  “That’s right,” Moonwash agreed. Whether about my general agreement for getting a pet, or about how responsible I was, I would never know.

  “Setting aside how responsible you are–”

  “Why though! Don’t set that aside!”

  Angerly giggled, but ignored me. “This is a poisonous monster with poison magic.”

  “I know,” Moonwash agreed again. “That’s why I want it.”

  My friends blinked. I nodded as if everything made sense.

  “That’s why you…” Angerly paused, then laughed harder. “I’ll admit. That sounds very cool. I want to take the job too, if we can actually do it. But do you actually have a plan?”

  That was a good question. I recalled what I knew of the lizekto, which was a sort of insectile lizard. Grandpa had talked about them, and they were creatures that could move quickly through the trees. The thing they were most known for, was their ability to spit some sort of poisonous acid that could eat through even mythril if given enough time. The poison would then be lethal once it seeps into someone’s skin, as it was the result of both biological process and magic enhancement.

  The more I thought about it, the more difficult it seemed. We would be fighting in the rainforest so my flight would be limited, when it was already dubious if I could catch up to the creature while it was in its element. It wouldn’t want to get close to us, so it would actively keep its distance and attack from afar. Climbing after it would be even more of a losing proposition, as it would just switch trees. If I tried to take flight above the trees and bombard the creature from far above… then it could probably just dodge, like what I experienced from the level 40 goblins before. And then, since its main weapon was ranged, it could probably just fucking shoot me down. I briefly considered using wrath or hellfire as a shield, but neither would destroy the liquid projectile fast enough, and in the case of hellfire, melting the acid into gas might actually just make it worse.

  I… couldn’t think of a proper plan of attack against this monster at all.

  “Fuck,” I finally said. The expression on my face was like I currently had bleeding constipation, and they could only see half of it through my helmet. “I don’t think we can take it…”

  I explained to them my reasoning, and my friends went silent.

  “That’s it?” Therick asked. He scratched the scar that used to be his left ear. “No other scheme?”

  “You’re really giving up?” Granuel added.

  “I didn’t think it would ever happen…” Berry trailed off. “But that’s great! That does sound like a nightmare to fight, and I’m glad you were able to see reason.”

  “Uh, excuse me? I can be reasonable.” I huffed. “Ugh. I thought about it. I really did. But I can’t actually find a world where I win against that fucker in this environment. Unless if I change the environment… no it would also just leap to another tree. But if I just burn everything to the fucking ground…”

  “Haell, come on,” Angerly deliberately spoke slowly. “You were doing so well.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. The lizard would still be able to run away. It could probably survive some time in hellfire, at least, and I don’t know if I can properly surround it.”

  “I don’t think that’s the main issue…” Therick mumbled.

  I ignored him and continued. “But uh, sorry Moonwash. I don’t I can get you that pet.”

  “It’s okay.” She held my hand. “We’ll get it next time.”

  “Oh, yes! Of course! If we can’t beat it, then I doubt any random team would ever stand a chance. So it’d still be here years from now!”

  ~~~

  “Are we sure we should take this treant quest?” I asked just before Granuel went to the reception to have our quests registered.

  “Yes?” he answered, confused by the question. “Why not?”

  “Well, I was just thinking, but why do they even want the treant gone? They just stay in one place, and the other animals there love them because the treants give them food. It’s beautiful.”

  “Whoa,” Angerly said, amazed. “Who are you and what have you done with Haell? That’s the second time today!”

  I rolled my eyes. “Ugh. Come on. It’s just a question! I’d still be down to burn it all down to the ground anyway.”

  “Ah. Carry on then.” She chucked and I laughed with her.

  Granuel actually explained, “The treants aren’t completely immobile. It’s already this close to the town. If it ever decides to attack, then it can just smash through the gates, and the monsters that ‘love’ it would follow and kill everyone…”

  “Justification acquired, then.” Not that I needed it. “Let’s go kill this thing!

  ~~~

  It rained, it shined, and through it all we hunted down our enemies and the herbs and fungi we’d agreed to pilfer along the way. The skies were weeping once again when we reached the hardest challenge of all, and we used that time to kill all of the treant’s friends along the outskirts of its territory. It was a monster that lived symbiotically with other monsters, thus I knew that the creatures of the forest would come to its aid if we didn’t kill them first. Blades slashed, magic roared, and I found my hellfire just a little bit hampered by the rain, but not nearly enough to immediately put it out. The big boss that was the treant finally stirred by the time the rain was over, and sunshine was beginning to peak through once more.

  We walked over to where we could see our enemy, and there I found a tree thicker than most others, nearly bald of leaves, and possessing two branches that were way too big. The latter soon revealed themselves to be arms, and four bumps along the trunk opened to reveal pitch-black eyes hiding within, thereby giving the monster a 360° view of its surroundings. The transformation was not over, as the treant pushed its two stumpy arms along the ground to pull out its roots that were soon revealed to actually be four large and thick legs that were only covered by a short skirt of roots.

  There was nothing to be found underneath those skirts.

  I threw a black fireball.

  My enemy had only begun to heave itself out of the ground when the curseflame rapidly spread throughout its wooden body. The treant did not scream for it had no mouth, and I didn’t know if it ever felt the pain. The wood of its body charred and flaked off, but then the bark regrew as my opponent began to use nature magic directly on itself. It redoubled its efforts and pushed harder against the ground until a leg finally came out, for its body could be enhanced by that very same element.

  This was the terror of the treant. A plant that could use nature magic. It could heal itself and enhance its body, just like how every root and every grasping vine of a nature mage was tougher and stronger than their mundane counterparts.

  It was a terrifying combination, but one that I was confident I had the means to overcome.

  Another black fireball followed, and my enemy burned harder. Its regeneration began to lag behind the damage it was taking. The treant wasn’t nearly as flammable as most trees I’d encountered, but it was still in the end a tree!

  Fire was always the answer.

  A massive boulder was made to fly by the power of Moonwash’s ritual, and Granuel and Angerly loosed projectiles of the same element.

  My other friends kept watch, and they intercepted some monsters that we’d missed who had now come to our hated enemy’s aid.

  The treant finally finished heaving itself out of the ground, and it began to run. The ground shook, and trees fell along the walking tree’s path. Our enemy charged with a speed that should not be possible with its weight and size.

  Not that a tree should be moving in the first place!

  I ushered my friends away, and faced this monstrosity myself. I finished forming another cursed fireball, and I shoved it towards my foe. I focused inwardly as the treant rapidly approached, and I did not let the collapsing trees it had left in its wake intimidate me, for I could do that too! My hooves dug into the ground, and I allowed them to carry me forward towards my hated foe. I raised my sword, I reached for the confluence of my wrath, and the treant could not react fast enough. Even with all its enhancements, the creature of wood still moved slowly and so incredibly stiffly, for a being that was supposed to be over the level of 40.

  I swung my greatsword down, and took its entire arm as my toll.

  The tree did not scream for it had no mouth.

  I kept on running. The treant stopped. And that was when I noticed how the arm was already beginning to regrow.

  It made sense. Nature magic was not subject to the same limitations as healing magic as it was able to make plants grow rapidly without limit, although the process did create a lot of weaknesses in the plant’s structure which might cause its death later on. I also saw the treant’s root-like legs digging into the ground to presumably pull out more nutrients to fuel its regeneration. So it wasn’t completely costless after all.

  I did not waste this time given to me either, and threw another set of curseflame bombs. My enemy burned, until it began to give chase again without ever having to turn itself around. It had eyes on all sides of its body after all, and its limbs were not subject to the same joints as my own. Not that they couldn’t be cut off, like any other.

  I met the treant’s charge head-on like before, and I used my anatomic mastery again, this time to attack the very center of its trunk. My blade buried somewhat deeply, but it could not go all the way and the metal got stuck. I let it go and jumped back, lest I be caught and killed by my enemy. Vines grew out of its wooden body as it tried to hug me with its bigger arms, and I unleashed my magic to cut those off and escape. The treant did not even have a focus to affect magic outside of itself, but it seemed like that wasn’t a problem at all if it could just alter its body to grow more vines and roots, and control everything through the use of magic.

  I shrugged and bombarded it with more projectiles of curseflame. That previous maneuver had really damaged and torn some of my ligaments, but I did not let it affect me. I could still keep myself ahead of the creature despite all my self-inflicted injuries.

  My friends continued to hunt down any creature trying to intervene on behalf of my adversary, and Moonwash tossed heals of light down my way. Layers of bark and wood were stripped away from my enemy, until it finally began to slow down. The treant was suffering, it could not heal as fast as it used to, nor could it move with the same agility. This was a point that even most gold-rank adventurers could not reach, but I had accomplished it. My destructive capabilities were without compare, for they could outstrip even the power of people an evolution above my own.

  I had to deplete over half of all my stores, but the tough and defensive treant ran out of mana before I did.

  I retrieved my greatsword that had gotten stuck earlier and checked the wound left behind. I cocked my head when the destruction had only marginally spread, and then realized that this was because my opponent was all wood. The main strength of my anatomic mastery was how much it could mess up the squishy insides, but the treant was stiff and hard to the core. Even its ‘eyes’ were like marbles of steel.

  I chuckled and cut off all its limbs. The monster would die soon, but I hacked away at it anyway to hasten the process. There was no central lethal organ to aim for, though I did avoid the large nature magic repository it surely had. It even possessed a different sort of mana fount of its own that was made of a harder sort of material.

  The dead carcass of our enemy was the treasure we wanted all along.

  [Wrath Heart has reached Level 35!]

  This chapter was needlessly phallic. But a connoisseur of crude humor I remain.

  Don’t wanna spoil anything, but expect things to finally pick up speed once more in this arc!

  Oh btw! I love tree fics. That’s where the spontaneous shouting of TREE came from. I don’t have a good tree fic idea yet.

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