For once the strength of my enchantment worked against me. If the pants had ripped, my leg wouldn't have been yanked out from under me.  I was still cursing my stupidity for trying to split my attention as I felt the branches starting to constrict around my lower body. It held me firm as stiff branches scraped their way up armor while I tried to catch the breath I lost when I hit the ground. I felt it make its way past my waist before I even thought of casting. It was so fast. I felt it climb further up and I was reduced to using my hands to keep it from wrapping my chest and suffocating me.

I grabbed the two biggest branches as I started casting. The thorns dug into my skin but didn't break though the spells I put up. But when it touched my bare skin, I could feel it's anguish. It felt... Wrong. Then a message appeared, as I heard my bones began to creak. My 'Armor of the Night' was enchanted to be tough and flexible. The flexibility allowed me to bend and shift in comfort but under the constant pressure it also allowed it to tighten it. Because of that, it offered little to no protection against this things constricting attack. So when the message *Purify Thorn of Misfortune (Yes/No)* popped up, I thought YES and took the risk.

“Purifying” it sounded like an instant death attack or at least I hoped so. There were several messages of *DP -1* and a soft glow began to flow out of my hands and into the branches I was holding. It lasted for a minute or two and the glow stopped, and I got *Thorn of Misfortune purified*.

A connection formed between the plant monster and me was established when it was purified. That didn’t stop it from still trying to kill me though. Unlike my normal summons, this one wasn't trying to fight against me. It was mindlessly following its last order. Its presence just sat there in my mind as if it was waiting for orders, which I quickly gave as I felt it tighten even more.

I had been struggling to keep it from wrapping me up completely but as the purification took hold the old, withered bark broke under my hands revealing the healthy wood lying beneath. It quickly loosened as I gave my instructions and rolled a little away from me. Green buds started to bloom as it waited there. Only Patches had ever felt as easy to control, but unlike Patches it didn't seem to have any emotions. It was like a blank slate.

Between all the messages and the connection, I was lost in thought when several more began appearing.

*Thorns of Misfortune killed; 16XP earned*

*Famished Rootlet killed, 8 XP*

*Thorns of Misfortune killed; 16XP earned*

Being in nature seemed to have a calming effect on me and put me in a more relaxed state. Those messages reminded me that there was still a battle going on and jogged me back into action. But as I tried to stand up, I found that I couldn't. I could move my head and arms, but my back acted as if it was glued to the ground. I couldn't see what was holding me but the tendrils from the rootlets that I saw holding onto Bret’s armor, causing him to struggle to move his foot, clued me into what was happening. I don't know how many Rootlets were left. There had been at least five in the first attack, and several died during it. With the notification of another one dying, I hadn’t expected there to be many more. But between the notification and seeing a dozen more, I had to assume that was what had latched onto me.

I thought of using ‘Angel of Sorrow’ but I knew that I was already running on adrenaline. Without using it though, my spells required me to see the target. Even my aura tendrils and connecting people with my display still required sight to link them before I could use them to cast through. I knew I couldn't kill this thing because it was hiding beneath me so began to target the ones I could see and hoped that the Rootlet didn't find any of the gaps in my defenses. The 'Armor of the Night' might be skintight, but it still had weak spots. They were areas where my skin was accessible namely in areas like the collar, armpits, wrists and ankles.

*Famished Rootlet killed, 8 XP* kept ringing as we killed the ones attacking the two boys. They kept coming and we kept killing them. But as time passed, I felt more and more pressure against my back. There had to be more than one under me but so far, they seemed content trying to burrow into my armor. But as we killed more of them, the ones under me started moving the tendrils around. They pressed into my spine and started to move lower. Their tiny fingers trailing down my skin, looking for an opening. They might not be able to break my armor, but they had enough strength to move the armor in the places they pushed against. My skin tingled as several hands moved over my ass before grabbing areas around my upper thighs. Several Hentai movies, that I now regretted watching in my last life, that involved tentacle monsters played in my head and I started freaking out.

As more hands began poking around my midsection, trying to find a way to my skin, I started worrying about the tendrils finding a gap and with a “OH, HELL NO!" I blindly reached down, with my still arms, until I felt a hand, with its root like tendrils, that was trying to worm their way inside my pants. It had taken me a second or two to find one but when I did, several more hands let go of my pants and grabbed onto my bare skin.

As soon as my hand touched the plant roots I received the same message like before *Purify Famished Rootlets (Yes/No)*. Once it appeared I desperately thought YES and I saw a soft glow coming from between my legs. I couldn’t see much more than that due to the angle. It had to be from my hand but from my prone position I was guessing. There were more messages. Some were from the deaths of the Rootlets, while others were the *DP -1* from purifying the things touching me. I didn't care. All I wanted was to get these evil things away from me.

Once I saw the message *Famished Rootlets purified* I ordered them to let me go and stand next to the 'Thorns of Misfortune' that was still standing idle. I hadn't given it an order because any movement might trigger the teens to attack it. Right now, they had other issues to deal with, so I didn't want to distract them by claiming that I had friendly versions of the monsters that were trying to kill them. Still, as I sat up, I saw Bret glancing at the Rootlets that had just crawled out from under me and track them with his eyes until their tiny childlike frames clustered around the tumbleweed monster. I wasn't sure what he was thinking and wasn't sure I wanted to, since they crawled out from around my hips. All I could think, as I continued to kill these monsters, was 'I should have just left with Amy.'

***

I was looking at the *CONGRATULATIONS FOR REACHING LEVEL NINE* notification. The battle had finally ended. The dungeon had kept sending more monsters and it didn't seem like it would ever finish. There had been a lot of various animals attacking from normal sized wolves that looked more like they had been zombified, to a leopard that was as tall a Nathan in his giant form. Between its claws that corroded the armor and flesh and its speed it had been a difficult addition to the already chaotic fight. Adding in the tons of small forest mammals that came in waves, we were nearly overrun. I had to cast the 'Invigorate' spell to keep everybody from collapsing from fatigue while still maintaining all the buffs I had on them. Multiple empty mana potion bottles laid at my feet while the monsters I had "tamed" had died under the onslaught. Their deaths hadn't triggered any backlash other than having less combatants, so I didn’t see any downside to “purifying” them.

We now sat inside a circle that glowed gold around the edge. I had cast a sanctuary spell as soon as the fight had ended and plopped like a dead fish onto the ground. I was feeling pretty good if I ignored my exhaustion. I had received forty-five more points I could assign to my attributes. That put me up to fifty-two with the seven I already had. I was trying to figure out what to spend it on while I half-listened to Bret and Nathan whispered to each other. They had moved away from me as soon as the fight ended but still stayed inside my spell after I told them what it did. Them staying inside showed they kind of trusted me; but them distancing themselves showed that they didn't so I didn't know what to think. No matter what, I knew we needed to rest so I pushed that worry away from my mind.  

I couldn't hear much. Bret's voice was the loudest and who I heard the most from. From what I could hear, they were wondering about the disappearance of the girl, named Grell. They soon changed the topic and began to discuss if they should trust me. Although I thought they were being ridiculous since I just risked my life to save them. Sadly, I was beginning to expect people's distrust in this world. What really bothered me was Bret's overly excited comment half way through their conversation of "I swear I saw her birth monsters. She can't be human!". Nathan quickly shushed him and they went back to whispering to each other.

I didn't hear much more after his outburst and went back to figuring out how to strengthen myself for the upcoming fights