So, as the ash settled, and we gazed forward, we made the unconscious, silent, and resolute decision to face whatever beast had decided to see us as their prey.

We were High-Humans after all, and we were going to live up to the pride of our newfound race. We will not back down without a fight.

---

As my gaze settled on the beast in front of us, I instantly cast my appraisal skill on it. and it was quite the long name. Its information along with an additional message appeared.

"Damnit!" I yelled out to Kevin. "It's a [Unique] class [Treant], and Level 13 at that! I can't even see its damn health points!" The difficulty was easily evidenced by the fact its name had taken on an orangish hue. Victory was possible, but the difficulty in achieving it would be insane.

"Shit," Kevin responded, just as the [Treant] blurred.

"MOVE!" I yelled out, as I quickly jumped to the side. Just a moment later a billowing cloud of ash provided the only evidence I needed to know that the [Treant] had just launched itself in the spot I had been in just a moment ago.

I took the brief respite to instantly activate [Leadership]. I knew it had passive effects, but the skill had its own active effects I could activate. The effects, as I discovered simply allowed a 1% increase in the attribute points of allies in combat, but had the limitation of being unable to grant an attribute increase more than the charisma of the one activating the skill. In this case, the limitation did not matter. The skill would last as long as I had stamina, but it would drain it ten stamina per minute used.

At its current level, it was rather useless, but I would take any advantage we could get. At the very least it should grant Kevin a one-point temporary attribute boost to all of his stats.

Refocusing on the battle, I was relieved to see Kevin had evaded in time and was in the middle of drawing back his bow. He had the hatchet we found earlier clipped to his side, so I was at least comforted in the knowledge he had some type of weapon to use in the case of close-quarters combat.

The [Treant] on the other hand, despite its massive strength, seemed to be limited in its general speed after moving that quickly. It must have activated a skill to move that fast, but I had no idea what the cooldown timer on something like that would be. It did seem to have unpleasant after-effects, that we could likely take advantage of.

I took the moment to take stock of our enemy. As the [Treant] stood to its full height, I noted that it must have been about eight feet tall, with massive, lumbering arms, completely made-up of a darkened brown wood. Looking closely I could see what appeared to be black veins coursing through the outside of its arms, as well as the rest of its body. It appeared to be some sort of moss, but I could feel the unpleasant mana circling through it.

It had various branches that stuck out from the rest of its body in random places, forming numerous spikes that I was sure could easily impale foe who wasn't careful. The rest almost looked like an Ent from The Lord of the Rings, but otherwise, much more menacing. It was obvious that the pressure we had been feeling was in part because of the creature in front of us.

We had no idea how strong the beast would ultimately be, but it became immediately clear this fight was going to be quite the pain.

Just then, Kevin released his arrow, and it slammed straight into the side of the head of the [Treant].

The damage was obviously negligible as even though the arrow succeeded in impaling the beast, it failed to do any clear damage. It was, after all, a plant-based monster, and a tree at that. They surely wouldn't be known to have thin skin.

Realizing that most physical attacks would likely be nullified, I began to prepare to cast magic. My sword, no matter how much I loved it, probably wouldn't be able to do much damage. We were going to need something a lot more blunt based, but even then I held out little hope for that solution as neither of us had anything of the sort. Maybe the hatchet? That would require one of us to get dead and center with the thing though, and I doubt either of us were too enthusiastic about that prospect.

The beast, seemingly annoyed by Kevin's attempt to damage it, once again blurred, and Kevin narrowly dodge the attack once more, this time, it was much closer though. Is the [Treant] acclimating to our dodges? I thought. That would be bad. If it adapted to the fight then the longer it went on, the greater our disadvantage would be.

I had been practicing my fire magic recently, only casting simple spells to light the fire inside Alex's house as well as whenever we needed to go out at night. I was becoming fairly used to the difference in the mana. Enough where I had actually begun to realize that casting magic did not require the skill itself, even if it made it much easier to do so.

With Kevin's distraction, I took the moment to focus on the flow of my mana. It was an interesting exercise, as I had discovered recently. The mana circled through the body, almost like a cardiovascular system. It had arching pathways throughout my body, reminiscent of veins and arteries. Some pathways were larger than others, where mana would course much quicker, almost like a superhighway. It was clear that in some way the mana had an effect on my body, perhaps enabling the strengthening of my other attributes. The methods of the system were still quite mysterious to me though.

All of these mana pathways centered around my core, forming almost a pseudo-heart, albeit, much smaller. It was almost like my own personal mana core had formed inside my body. Even though it was a characteristic uniquely held by monsters, I knew that some mana-based races within Holy Arc Online held similar systems. I wouldn't be surprised if a High-Human counted among them.

Focusing on my interior, I activated [Mana Manipulation], and subsequently pulled a large chunk of the mana I had through one of the various matrices surrounding the core. I had discovered, after a few tests that the matrices had some connection with the elemental affinities I held. The matric I was guiding the torrent of mana through gave off a reddish hue and seemed to blaze with an almost identifiable warmth. It was this characteristic that was the identifying feature of fire mana.

I had never attempted something like this, however, and it took a ridiculous amount of concentration to even begin to control this much mana at once.

"A little help over here!?" Kevin yelled out, just as he dodged another attack from the [Treant] and fired a subsequent arrow at the beast. At that point, I noticed there were already four arrows protruding from various sections of the monster. It seemed Kevin was attempting to pick out weak points in the [Treant]'s armor but was finding no success. Kevin's arrows were proving useless.

"Keep holding it off Kevin!" I yelled out, "I have a plan, but I need you to distract it. Try to guide it towards the middle if you can!" I called out quickly.

"Shit!" Kevin screamed, as he once again dodged another attack. I knew his agility wasn't that high, and he was likely using a lot of stamina just to keep it at bay. We should really get that man a shield. "You're a bastard, you know that Thomas!? Just hurry it up! I can't keep dodging like this!"

I paused for a second, and with a quick thought, I activated one of my title skills, [Paragon's Charge]. I could instantly see Kevin move a little quicker, and he seemed somewhat surprised at his newfound strength.

Turning back to my mana, I resumed my efforts.

Raising my hands, I guided what must have been at least a hundred and fifty mana points worth of magic through my pathways. I did my past to keep them coursing through the arterial mana networks, but it was obvious the strain was bad. My body began screaming out to me in pain. I couldn't stop though, I needed to see this through.

I felt a slight reprieve as the torrent of mana began reaching my hands. It was probably the most crude-looking spell in the world, but I hadn't practiced it like this before. I simply began to use my [Mana Manipulation] and piled increasing amounts of mana into a sphere I was maintaining between my outstretched arms.

It took about half a minute longer before the crude construct sucked out the last bit of mana that I had offered it. Unfortunately, I ended up providing nearly two-hundred points worth, and I could feel light-headed just as an after-effect of it. It definitely didn't help that maintaining the shape of the construct was getting harder by the second.

Just then, Kevin failed to evade another strike by the beast. The lumbering arms of the [Treant] connected with Kevin's side as he failed to evade, and he was launched across the clearing until he came to a bone-crunching stop against one of the stone walls that decorated the area. The wall gave way but succeeded in stopping Kevin from sliding even further. He was obviously in bad shape though, and it was now or never.

The last of the mana trickled into the ball of fire that had emerged in front of me.

The heat that was radiating off of it was already getting unbearable, I could only thank the heaven's that the chill of the Mana Zone was helping to at least somewhat contain the spell, and even then, my attempt to direct the heat away from my body only proved marginally successful. It was clear that maintaining the spell was costing me, as I saw my health begin to tick down, growing quicker by the second.

With one final push, I released the spell, just as the [Treant] poised itself over Kevin. Its arms were raised in preparation to smash down on my best friend. It must have sensed my pulsating mana as its head turned to face my direction, only to get a blast full of crude fire mana.

The explosion immediately caused a shockwave throughout the entire clearing. It was, after all, likely equivalent in power as twenty [Fire Bolts].

The left side of the [Treant]'s body was incinerated in the blast.

It was clear that by the damage, plant-based monsters were incredibly flammable. The other positive indicator was my skill level-ups. I had been trying for the past several days to increase my skills but had little success. It was also apparent that skill increases were much more efficient while in combat.

Which, was great and all, but the explosion of mana had knocked me onto the ground, and I found myself struggling to get back onto my feet. After a few moments of painful attempts, I finally rolled over and climbed onto my knees.

I surveyed the area, there were numerous small fires spread around the impact site, but they were struggling to spread as the surrounding ash began to smother them. Kevin had fortunately been mostly protected by the stone wall he had crashed through, but the [Treant] was more my focus. The blast had clearly lived up to its damage output, as the beast was missing a large half of its body, and small fires had lit up on the branches sprouting from its body. It certainly looked worse for wear as the entire left arm had been blown apart, and I could see into the innards and center of the [Treant]. The sight of the exposed large mana core inside the center torso gave me the energy I needed to get fully onto my feet.

The level up had helped slightly, but I could feel myself on the verge of passing out from my large discharge of mana, and the taxed mana network of my body. I knew Kevin was out cold though, and It would be up to me to finish the fight. It was also clear that the [Treant] was not utterly defeated. Gripping my sword in hand, I began to stumble forward.

There was no way I could cast another spell with my mana pathways practically decimated, so this was going to have to be resolved up close and personal.

The [Treant] recognizing me as the most imminent threat, left Kevin alone, and it began to drag itself towards me. Although it was missing an arm, and most of its leg, it still apparently had the strength to push forward.

Just then, I caught a blur from the corner of my vision and looked on as an object impaled itself into the side of the beast. Straining my focus, I realized in surprise that an arrow was now jutting from the [Treant]'s mana core.

"What..." I muttered in utter confusion. "How the hell..?"

Just then my thoughts were interrupted as another figure, clad in their own array of clothing made their presence known in the clearing. After a quick inspection, I couldn't help but be relieved at the words she subsequently said.

"You guys are the dumbest sons of bitches I've likely ever seen!" The young girl shrieked out. "But god awful lucky, that's for sure!"

The higher, feminine voice gave away the owner's gender at the very least, but her skill wasn't lacking in the slightest as she dispatched an additional arrow directly into the mana core.

Mana Core's, I've come to learn, were notoriously fragile, and as the arrow punctured into it, additional cracks appeared inside the bright bluish object.

In a sudden flash, the mana core destabilized and subsequently exploded. Flooding the clearing with a thin layer of mana.

"And here I was trying to avoid that thing, and you dumbasses come waltzing in trying to pick a fight with it." The girl yelled out, glancing at Kevin, before focusing on me. "But there's no way I could have ever taken that thing out if you hadn't done... Well, whatever the hell that was?" She said but finished with what appeared to be a questioning look.

She approached me and I said the only words I could muster up in the heat of the situation, "Uh... Hi?"

She laughed.

"The name's Priscilla." She said, and then quickly added, "Priscilla Hunter, and before you ask, yes, I do like to hunt." Her tone betrayed a smile, as she held out her hand.

Taking it, I simply replied, "Thomas Parker, and...." I said as I glanced towards the inanimate mess that once constituted the [Treant], "Thank you for the help Priscilla."