Jason and Hakeem sat opposite to these three people who barged inside the bachelor’s apartment. Both Hakeem and Jason didn’t dare to look straight as a middle-aged woman was glaring at them. Yet Hakeem took the lead of breaking the awkward silence.

 

“It’s been a long time Mrs and Mr.Park. How have you been?” said Hakeem.

 

“Please be quiet Mr.Jaabar, I’m already frustrated by the fact that you didn’t pick my call,” Mrs.Park shut Hakeem in just an instant.

 

Jason lightly punched Hakeem by the shoulder. It seemed he realized the reason why his parent and Esther was here.

 

“I told you to cover me,” whispered Jason.

 

“Don’t whisper around Jason. I and your father are very disappointed by your reckless action,” said Mrs.Park as she gave a stern lecture at him.

 

“Don’t you see the news? Those UC are traveling down from the park and you’re here doing what? Drinking and messing around? Can’t you be more considerate about your mother’s feel-” Mrs.Park suddenly broke into tears.

 

Jason felt guilty about seeing this. This wasn’t the reason why he went hunting down those monsters. Not to see the tears of his mother but in a way it was necessary. Rather than seeing his mother lying in a coffin, the sight of his mother crying was enough.

 

“Don’t you know how hard both of us try to search for you? We went through a lot of people to find this address if it wasn’t for your father’s connection, we-” again she broke into tears.

 

Mr.Park handed out tissues to Mrs.Park while Esther was glaring at Jason and he didn’t miss that particular glare. A glare that told him, she was here wasting time because of him and he should be expecting a repercussion due to this.

 

“Son, just go back with us,” said Mr.Park.

 

“Fine,” said Jason.

 

“What?!” said Hakeem as he stood up in surprise. “But dude.”

 

Jason raised up his hand stopping him from saying anything.

 

“Later,” he said as he turned to his parents.

 

“Let’s go,” the parents stood up and Mrs.Park hugged her son tight. The father joined in as well and the daughter of the family just stood there with her arms crossed over her chest.

 

The family of four went out of the apartment one after another.

 

“Jason,” Hakeem called out to him.

 

“You can handle it,” said Jason as he patted Hakeem by the shoulder.

 

“What? But how?”

 

“Just throw and it would be fine. I guess,” said Jason.

 

Hakeem wasn't reassured by that half-ass answer.

 

“Dude, the monst-”

 

“Let’s go Park Jaedong,” said Mrs.Park as she cut Hakeem off. She only used his Korean name when things are urgent.

 

Hakeem was down as he watched the sight of Jason leaving. He thought they would be ambushing the warehouse yet the plan went down the drain by his slight mistake of ignoring the phone calls. He was too busy throughout the day that he didn't have the time to even see the screen of his phone.

 

He just stood there for the last fifteen minutes staring at the empty hallway. His mind was in a blank state. Right now, he didn't have a clue of what to do.

 

“Snap out of it Hakeem, you can do this,” said the tall man wearing a worn-out NBA jersey. A long time fan of the late Black Mamba.

 

“Let’s get it, let’s do this,” he suddenly tried to pump himself up.

 

He could have just let those monster be but for some reason, he held the notion of being responsible more so after obtaining these amazing abilities. If it was before he wouldn’t dare of doing such a stupid thing, yet remembering the scene of Jason reigning supreme over those kobolds made his dormant strong competitive spirit alighted.

 

Packing up those Molotov cocktails at the backseat of his car, he drove to the warehouse in Port Lands. He took a brief stop at a nearby convenience store and chugged down a couple of cans of Monster just for the sake of spiking up his blood sugar level.

 

“Let’s get it,” he said.

 

A car parked a few feet away from an abandoned warehouse. The car door closed behind Hakeem as he stared at the bleak-looking warehouse. There was no one around here as most of the areas are secluded. Gulping down a mouthful of saliva, he went to the backseat and carried out a bag of Molotov cocktails. He was careful about it as he didn’t want any of it to break. Since it was the only possible weapon he has to fight against those trees.

 

On his other hand was a can of a flame torch, newly bought from the supermarket. As he moved closer to the warehouse, the clanking between the bottles filled up the silence air. He tried to minimize the noise but there was nothing else here except for him and the Molotov cocktails that kept on alerting his presence.

 

Standing in front of the warehouse door, he hesitated as beads of sweat rained down his forehead. He didn’t even do anything yet but the anxiety was getting to him. This door was further away from the previous one he used. He wasn’t an idiot and he wasn’t going to go through that open door.

 

He left the torch on the floor and grabbed on to the handle of the door. He tugged it hard as the door slammed wide open, his hand snatched the torch on the floor as he rushed inside the dark warehouse.

 

The torch was turned on as the searing blue flame continuously burned at the muzzle end. He grabbed on to a Molotov from the makeshift sling-bag as he fired the cloth wick of the Molotov.

 

“Prepare to die mother-fu…” he fell short of finishing his words as the warehouse was empty.

 

The first time he came here, the moment he opened the door he saw those trees crawling on the ground with their roots moving like feet. Yet there was nothing on sight. It was probably due to the darkness as he couldn’t see very well in the darkness.

 

What was that? Thought Hakeem. He turned around as he heard rustling noises. He swore he heard it sounded like the rustling tree branches. Hakeem turned around multiple times as his eyes started to shake. Not being able to see the opponent was making him nervous.

 

“Come out!” he shouted. A bad move but in his situation, he was getting the jitters of just waiting around.

 

Then he heard something. He tilted upwards and saw something.

 

“Shit,” said Hakeem.

 

He leaped to the side as his whole body dropped on the floor. His athleticism made those Molotov cocktails still in a perfect state even after that sudden dynamic move. If Jason had seen that, he would have cursed out loud by the athleticism of his friend. Hakeem glanced over the spot where he once was. A looming shadow stood upright as Hakeem recognized the shape of this tall silhouette.

 

“Die,” he threw the molotov cocktail and as it made contact, the glass bottle broke.

 

A bright light emerged within the deep darkness of the warehouse, the liquid drenched over the body as the fire burned everything that made contact. He saw what it was and it was definitely a tree. A squirming tree being burned alive as the screeching sound it let out was a high pitch noise that could shatter one earbud. Then his sight saw something that he could never believe.

 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Hakeem. As the tree was being burned turning it into a bonfire, he saw what was inside of this warehouse. Now he knew where they went.

 

The ceiling, and the walls, everywhere he looked and all he saw was the bushy top of trees. These tree-monsters were rooting themselves on the surface of the ceiling and the wall. A great idea of taking unexpected victims by surprise.

 

Then more of those trees fell from the ceiling as Hakeem could hear the cracks on the concrete floor. He looked around and more of them were coming at him. His frantic hand grabbed on another Molotov as he lighted it on.

 

“Stay away,” he said as he threw the molotov cocktail and hit the incoming tree with deadly accuracy. Again the scene of a screeching tree being burned etched in his eyes.

 

His past experience as a basketball athlete aided his throwing capability to a high degree. The burned tree stop dead on their track as they squirmed like an animal being burned. The smell of charcoal wafted in the air as Hakeem prepared another lighted up cocktail.

 

“Haha, come and get it,” said Hakeem as the outcome turned out pretty good and in a way it bolstered his confidence in dealing with these trees alone by his own self.

 

He threw out those Molotov cocktails in quick succession as his accuracy burned these trees like it was the fourth of July. At this point in time, the whole warehouse was alighted and Hakeem saw the numerous trees which were still rooted on the walls and on the ceiling.

 

Gritting his teeth, he didn’t know whether he could do this with these amount of trees still remaining passive while their friends of the forest are being burned into cinders. Then something greeted him.

 

“I level up?” unknown to Hakeem, the first tree he burned finally died after much torture, it laid on the floor like burnt up wood, as black as charcoal.

 

This method was effective but it took to long to finish off even a single tree monster. Motivated by the new level, Hakeem grabbed another bottle and threw it at the tree. The continuous burn of the trees raised up smokes into the air and within the confinement of this huge warehouse, it started to affect Hakeem’s breathing.

 

I need to get out of here, thought Hakeem as he coughed up.

 

Yet no matter where he looked, burning trees surrounded him at every angle. He didn’t have anywhere else to run and even the entrance door was too far. Out of excitement, he ventured in too deep into the warehouse.

 

His lungs were being burned by the toxic carbon monoxide as Hakeem kept on coughing. More and more tree monsters fell on the floor making their way to the lone human. Their roots scratched over the concrete floor as the screech annoyed the ears of Hakeem.

 

Am I going to die? Thought Hakeem.

 

He was running out of options. His defensive skill was on cooldown and his offensive skill couldn’t be used without the iron mace which was kept back in his trunk and what left was only through charging the blazing field of trees. The burns he would get would definitely be painful but it wasn’t the only way out. It was either suffocated by the smokes or being burned by these freaking trees. Dying wasn’t an option.

 

The glint in his eyes showed that he hadn’t given up on living. He lowered his stance preparing to sprint over these burning trees. Tightening his fists, Hakeem burst into action. He ran and dodged the first burning tree yet the burning tree from behind rushed at him without a second to waste.

 

Hakeem felt the searing heat as he was drenched in sweat yet he didn’t stop on running. The incoming second tree came charging at him and the distance was already a few feet away. Hakeem ran and made a swift move.

 

He feinted the burning tree to the left and quickly made a swift turned to the right. The swinging burning branch missed him by a hairbreadth as he dodged it using that step. He passed the tree and ran towards the door.

 

A blue window emerged within this dire time as Hakeem was too tensed to even realize read through the text. His eyes were dead center on the door with a bunch of burning trees blocking his path. He got a long way to go, but if he read through the text he would have known that the skill he got back when he practiced basketball this morning had leveled up to level two.

 

A favorite move of his while dribbling a basketball called Euro Step. He made it into his own skill and used it effortlessly to dodged these monsters. If Jason knew about this, he would have freaked out even more out of jealousy.

 

A little bit more, thought Hakeem.

 

He ran as he dodged a few more of those burning trees with the aid of his new movement type skill, Euro Step. Yet, for this ex-star athlete, the usefulness of his Euro Step was put on halt as there was no gap as the trees blocked every possible narrow path.

 

For the man who never knew the word giving up, he ran with all his might and leaped through the tiny gap. His two feet left the floor as he tumbled towards that small gap, but out of sudden two branches whipped towards him like a slingshot. Those two sturdy branches hit him in mid-air as he was thrown back on the hard floor with a thud.

 

“Argh,” he yelled as the pain was intense. He managed to put up his arm to guard his face and the result was both of his arm beaten with purplish bruises.

 

A few more blue window emerged in front of his eyes as some of the earlier burning trees finally turned to dead charcoal. He rose up to level five but the future looked bleak.

 

Should I pour everything in agility and gamble for another run? Thought Hakeem.

 

Those levels came at a perfect time but he wasn’t sure whether it was enough for him to make a breakthrough. Gritting his teeth, Hakeem poured all of his points into agility as it was the last gamble. The surge of new energy flowed within his body as he broke into a run. He ran and dodged every branch that was coming at him. His Euro Step shined as he didn’t forget to make use of it, but again as these trees were stacking their line of defense over and over again, as they became an impenetrable wall of trees.

 

Out of the many branches that were trying to him, a random branch hit his ankle as Hakeem rolled on the floor. He stopped rolling as his head hit a hard surface of the bark. He angled his head above and saw the creepy face of a baby carved on the bark of a tree. It was smiling at him as those little screeches made the hair at the back of his neck raised up. The tree monster swung its thick branch hoping to end the life of this human.

 

Hakeem couldn’t get himself to stand up as he froze. As if he knew his life was about to end, he just lay there and watched.

 

Yet three white glowing arrows appeared out nowhere as it struck the tree continuously at the same spot drilling a huge hole. It went limped as the tree tumbled on the floor as it didn’t move like an ordinary tree.

 

Hakeem turned his head over the ruckus at the other side of the warehouse. His eyes saw the sight of a man standing on top of railing that was close to the window roof. A familiar silhouette as the man was shooting glowing arrows at the trees that surrounded him. They were rushing from the walls and the ceiling as it saw this human as a plague. Hakeem saw the broken window at the back of the man as it showed how this man entered the warehouse.

 

Then he saw the compound bow aimed at him. Three glowing arrows flew in the air as it struck something behind Hakeem. The cracking noise was loud and clear as Hakeem turned around and saw three trees being pierced by these unique glowing arrows. Then he heard the voice of that man whom he called a friend.

 

“Get up! It’s not over yet!”