I touch the tree past the point where the Banshee had been floating. "Yay, my hand doesn't go through it." So it seems like it's actually a solid tree. Now let me see how many units a nice tree is actually worth. I mean if it isn't at least one this is going to end up being quite problematic.

I take a few small steps away from the tree and then line the axe up against it. "Lets get a nice deep cut with this first swing." I then bring it back whilst moving my left hand up the shaft of the axe to grasp just under the head of the axe. My right hand stays at the bottom of the axe. I then bring it around as if I was holding a baseball bat. The left hand at the top of the axe is just there to guide the axe a little and not actually there to create power after all the motions of the hips and everything are there to do that. I swing the axe at the tree and the blade goes ever so slightly into the tree. "Well that was nowhere near expectations. Well I'd better swing from the top and the bottom maybe it's just cause it's the first swing."

I get back into the position again and rotate the axe head to face a little down so that the wood gets cut from the top and the segment comes out of the tree after all that's supposed to make it faster to cut down trees. I bring the axe back down into the tree, the thing barely makes a dent. "Something is definitely going wrong with cutting down this tree. I mean yeah I haven't ever cut down an actual tree with an axe before. I mean who has but I'm positive that more of the tree should have been cut by the axe than this even if the axe is dull. Oh well not like there is much of anything I can do to try and progress other than cutting the tree down. I pull back for the third stroke of the axe.

"Ahh there you are Lord Rosen!" An exhausted high pitched voice comes from behind me it must be one of the pixies. I guess they have finished up with whatever they were doing to elect a leader finally. I swing the axe into the tree from slightly below the other two dents. "Lord Rosen, hello."

I turn to face the pixie. "Hello pixie are you the one who has been selected as leader or is there perhaps some other problem that you lot are facing right now that requires my assistance?"

"Ahh Milord, we have completed the election of a leader she'll be along any second now I'm sure. Are you having trouble cutting down the tree Milord?"

"Yes it's surprisingly tougher than I thought it would be I mean either this axe is extremely dull or this tree is far tougher than any I've ever heard of before."

"Or you are weaker than you thought." The pixie says in a very loud voice that is supposed to sound like she tried to say it under her breath.

"Yes or that. Now please tell me when the head of the pixies arrives or when some other creature arrives so I can focus on getting this tree down before the end of the day." I position the axe so that it is facing the middle again and swing. The axe does go a little bit deeper but cutting this down is definitely going to take all day and my body is going to be hating it for me all day tomorrow.

I continue on cutting at the tree making a few centimetres of progress. The pixie is spinning around the tree and looks really impatient maybe it wants to go do something itself. "You can go and bring your new boss over here if you want rather than continue waiting around." I sigh after that, and go back to trying to bring down the tree.

"Yay!" The pixie zips off into the dark forest. Why do I feel like this was a bad idea. Well can't do anything about it now back to striking down blasted tree. I have to keep on repeating this pattern of straight on, from the top and then from below over and over again if I want to actually bring this thing down. Guess I'll have to truly get into the rhythm for this.

After swinging the axe a few hundred times I get worried after all where has that pixie gone also it's getting a little dark I'm positive that it was like early morning when I got here and I haven't even cut through more than like 10cm's of this blasted thing. The entire tree is a little over 35cm's wide so it's not a very big tree just a nice medium tree but surely it doesn't take this long to cut one of the blasted things down.
A low growling noise comes from behind me. I turn around very slowly I don't want to get on the bad side of whatever this creature is if I can help it and I definitely want to be staring at it if I can be. Luckily I have an axe. Unluckily it's clearly not very sharp and I'm not very good with it. Luckily animals don't usually go after things that are attacking trees. Right... Maybe they do here. Maybe I'm even in it's territory... Oh bother.

I get a poor look at the thing that was growling at me it's pretty low to the ground so hopefully not a bear and the eyes seem to be glowing yellow in the dark. There also only seems to be one of them so that's definitely a bonus. I step backwards towards the tree so that I can place my back against it. The thing growl seems to raise in volume as I take the steps back towards the tree. I guess it doesn't want me here but I ain't going down without a fight.

"If you don't want me here then come at me beast!" The thing disappears from my view it's definitely still in the shadows over there guess it's not hungry enough to come after me. I take a step away from the tree and as I do I can see a flash of yellow from in front of me. I guess it's not gone then. Well it seems like I'm going to be waiting this blasted animal out. I take a step backwards towards the tree. The creature steps into the sunlight and then begins bolting towards me. I bring the axe up in front of me.

The creature leaps as it closes to a few seconds in front of me. I bring the head of the axe towards it to shove at the creature. It seems to be something akin to a wolf. As it leaves the floor the top of the axe slams into it. I then pull back and bring it over my head with right hand at the top of the axe and guiding it down towards the wolf. The creature springs backwards away from me and thus the axe blade ends up in the dirt. This thing is way faster than I thought it would be.

It begins to prowl off around the tree. It must be starving if it's willing to continue trying to fight me at this point in time. I mean I hit it full on with the axe head it shouldn't want to continue? I guess it makes sense that it's starving after all there isn't anything making noise in this area and it's not just because I'm here.

The creature comes at me again this time from more of an angle. I pivot away from the tree with the head of the axe extended towards the creature ready to shunt it away from me again but as it comes close it steps around dodging the push I made with the head. It's definitely smart if it's learning the dangers already. Maybe it just likes the taste of human? This creature really isn't something that I can understand. 

I turn to follow the wolf as it goes around to show that I can keep up with it's movements even if it doesn't look like it whilst keeping my body touching the tree. As the wolf goes into a charge again I bring the axe above my head. The wolf enters the air and I bring the blade down on it's head mid jump it seems the creature got a little overzealous. As I bring it down the wolf seems to flash and disappear into a black shadow.

"What the hell are you." I can't see the wolf at all. I bring the axe back up towards me. I don't want to stay here but I can't really do anything. A small light shines from the dark.

"Lord Rosen is over here boss." 

"Be careful subordinate, there is some kind of beast over here." The beast in question comes back into view foam around it's mouth. The lights in the distance begin to spread out from the point they were at I guess they are looking for me in this forest they should still be able to see me easily though it's not that dark? I notice the wolf is gone again. Damn I spent too much time in my own head where has it gone. I note a black flash out of the corner of my eye and throw myself forwards and twist in the air. The wolf sails right over me and turns around. I collapse into the dirt. Blast the tree isn't behind my back. The wolf wheels around. Whilst I try and stand up again. As I stand up the wolf runs at me again and leaps at me mid stance.

I let myself fall back down and drop the axe. The wolf sails over me once again. I grasp the axe ready for the follow up from the wolf. I roll over and get up onto my knees as it goes past. I'm so glad there aren't any large rocks or tree roots around here for me to hit my head on.

"Boss there was a loud noise over there how about we see what was going on over there."

"Alright lets go he's probably fighting the beast now so we don't need to hurry."

I'm on my knees the wolf in front of me turning around my hand on the axe on the floor. The wolf jumps into the air at me. I grasp the axe and shove it up into the air from under the wolfs cone of vision. The paws of the wolf lodge into my soldier whilst the axe smacks into the underside of the creature. "You were right boss he was fighting the creature! That we could sense."

"Yes I was." I pull the claws of the creature out of my chest it's a shame that I don't have anything to bandage the wound up but I've got other things I need to do first. "Deal with the creature as you would if you find one of the stones or whatever from it however just place it next to the large pedestal in the castle." I get up from the ground and walk over to the tree. For some reason I can feel energy running through me now. I feel I can just cut that tree down in a few blows.

"Milord are you sure you are fine and don't need anything for those wounds."

"Maybe in a bit but at this second I have something I wish to try out." I walk over to the side of the tree that I haven't cut into yet and get ready to swing at it. As the axe cuts into the tree it goes a good 5cm's into it. The next blow cutting out the angled bit to the same blow and the followup doing the same. 9 more blows and this tree will be down.