Ultimate Level 1 - 198 - Fairies, Sprites and Ents (Patreon)

“Does this remind you of home?” Fowl asked as he glanced at the two elves, giving him a dirty look.

“Why would a forest remind us of home?” Tanila replied. “Do rocks remind you of your home?”

Nodding, Fowl grinned, pulling a stone from his storage and holding it out.

“This is why I carry them. To remind me of where I’m from.”

Groaning, Batrire shook her head, rolling her eyes.

“Ignore him.  He’s an idiot.”

“But I’m your idiot,” he shot back, winking at her.

Max came toward the group, having gone and scouted a bit ahead.

“So the bad news is I’m going to have to use a bow,” he told them. “The good news is I think Cordellia will be our hero on this floor.”

“What is it?” their ranger asked, grinning at the chance to do more.

“It appears some of the trees are alive, and hanging out in the top of them are… faeries? Sprites? I’m not sure, but they have wings and are in different colors.”

Both elves shared a secret glance, and each groaned slightly.

“That means they are casters, and the tree is their defense,” Tanila said as she summoned a fire familiar.  “We probably won't want to burn the forest down, but that kind of magic is the best here, especially against the Tree Ents.”

“That means I don’t get to play with my new toy,” Max said as he pulled his bow out.  A quiver of arrows came next, and he attached it to his hip, smiling at Cordellia, who was frowning.

“I swear, if you somehow show me up with that, I’ll probably just do what Batrire does and stand around all day.”

Fowl snorted, sending a spray of water out his nose from the drink he had been taking before they started.

“Sorry, only one of us can slack,” their healer replied. It's a perk of the profession.”

Snapping his fingers and ignoring the dirty looks he got, Max pointed at the trees and frowned.

“We need to focus.  The trees are tightly packed, and we’ll need to go slow.  I’m not sure how many are in there or how far we will travel.  You all know I like to joke and play, but today… let’s be a little smarter.”

Everyone nodded, knowing he was acting this way after what almost happened in the last dungeon.

Before them were trees of various heights. Some were only fifty feet tall, while others ran three hundred feet tall. Massive trunks, skinny trunks, bark that could easily be pulled off, and bark that looked almost like scale armor.

Shrubs and plants decorated the ground, making Max wonder if some were worth gathering and seeing if they could be used for alchemy or something else.

Moss grew on some trees and not on others, and the sound of birds high in the trees made everything feel alive. Even the air smelled better than that of the city.

“Warrior first,” Max teased as he stood near the other three, holding out a bow.

“Shouldn’t the one with your ability be leading? You can scout better than I can,” grumbled Fowl.

“At some point, you need to be good enough at this.  Who knows what a later tower floor will bring.”

Not saying another word, the plate armor appeared on Fowl, and he began moving toward the trees, glancing upward as he walked and trying to scan the area.

“We taking bets on how he does?” Batrire whispered.

“Only if I can bet how bad it goes,” Cordellia replied.

-----

“Three are flying around on top of that ent over there,” Fowl said as he pointed at the tree, which was about fifty feet tall. “What do we want to do?”

Every image Max had ever had of fairies was before him: barely dressed creatures, long hair, shimmering wings—well, except for the eyes that seemed to burn with fire and the small pair of horns jutting out of their hair.

“Those aren’t fairies,” Tanila said. “Those are fae creatures and a version of a dryad, though they shouldn’t have wings.”

“Which means the tower has corrupted whatever they are,” Cordellia added.

Pointing at the two fae creatures filtering around the branches, Tanila continued her lesson.

“The red one should use fire, and that blue one should use ice, but since we don’t know how corrupt they are, it’s anyone's guess.  I'm guessing that the dryad should be able to heal and cast root spells, plus other things.  In the end, this is going to suck.”

“Can we run past them?”

“Sorry dear, I’m not fast like Seth, so no, I’m not going to run around the forest, trying not to die while trees and those things try to stomp on me or hit me with spells.”

A snicker came from their healer, and she winked.

“Talina, focus on the blue one. I’ll take the fire one, and Cordellia can attack the dryad.”

The other two nodded at Max and got ready, motioning to Fowl that they were about to start.

Arrows began to fly, Cordellia giving Max a sideways glance as he kept up with her output, putting arrow after arrow into his target.

A weird roar or scream came from the ent that started to move toward them. A black crooked mouth with teeth made out of wood continued sending sound in their direction, causing a slight pain in their heads.

“My noggin is killing me,” Fowl complained as he moved toward the slow, lumbering creature.

Flames erupted in the branches of the tree after impacting the blue fae creature.

Max couldn’t help but smile, imagining what one might think when they saw the sight before him.

A tree moving through the forest, flames racing up its branches, winged creatures screaming in agony and pain before falling from that height and crashing into the ground.

Once the one he had been aiming at hit the dirt, a small wave of cold ran through him.

[ Consume has Successfully Consumed Bonus Stats ]

[ 10 Intelligence Consumed ]

[ 10 Wisdom Consumed ]

[ Consume has Consumed a Lower Rank Skill ]

[ Power stored for future use ]

Seeing that Cordellia’s target was down and that the one Tanila was fighting was falling, Max released an arrow, hitting the falling creature in the neck a few feet before it crashed against the forest's dirt floor.

Another cold wave washed through him, and he grinned.

[ 8 Intelligence Consumed ]

[ 8 Wisdom Consumed ]

[ Consume has Consumed a Lower Rank Skill ]

[ Power stored for future use ]

When all three of the fae were dead on the ground, the ent that hadn’t reached Fowl yet began to roar and shudder.  Still about twenty yards from the dwarf, it began shaking, and branches still burning broke off and fell to the ground near its roots.

“Uh guys?” Fowl said as he started backing up.

Cracks formed along its trunk, and Max and Tanila both cast a wall of air around everyone.

Seven seconds later, an explosion rang out through the forest as the tree burst apart from the inside, sending wooden chunks flying, impaling all over the ground, into trees, and bouncing off the walls of air and Fowl’s shield he was hiding behind.

A weird stench filled the air, and Fowl peeked out over the edge, seeing that the only thing left from the massive ent was the remains around the forest, dripping with a green sap.

“Yeah… I’m not touching that,” Fowl muttered. “Worse is those bodies are basically gone, smashed and burnt to bits.”

Max couldn’t help but snort and nod.

“Ok, tell me what the hell is going on,” Cordellia belted out, moving to get right up against Max. “I don’t mind watching you destroy things with every kind of melee weapon and taking hits that will kill all of us but that tiny dwarf, but how can you shoot a bow almost as good as I can?”

Max sighed and tried to decide what to tell her.  

Cordellia seemed trustworthy so far.  Everett and Tom appeared not to have any idea about the loot or the other nature of their party.  That elixir had made her see this group's value, yet this was obviously a sensitive subject.

“Do you want the truth, or do you want me to tell you, it’s not time for that secret yet?”

She opened and closed her mouth, her cheeks moving like a chipmunk stuffed with nuts as they ballooned and shrunk over and over. Finally, after letting out a loud groan, she pointed a finger at him.

“So you’re saying that there is a day you will tell me!”

Max nodded, slowly reaching upward with his hand and putting it on her shoulder.

“I promise. There will be a day when you will know my secret. That day will come when I know for certain that I can protect you.”

Her eyebrow raised, and she frowned.

“Why would you need to protect me?”

“Because there are people trying to kill me,” Max replied, “and not just the fanatics.”

Cordellia glanced at the others and saw each of them nodding.  

“You’re serious.  Just how dangerous is it?”

Shaking his head side to side, Max considered that question and shrugged.

“You could leave our group, and most likely, you should be safe. I can’t promise someone won’t approach you or even kidnap you trying to get information about me.  The problem is if you’re not with us, I can’t try to protect you.  The real perk is being with us makes it harder for someone to hurt you.  As we progress, you get stronger, and I know you have gained more power in the time you have been with us than you did for months, maybe even half a year.”

Nodding slowly, Cordellia sighed and fidgeted.

“It just sucks that I thought I was going to show off and you could do the same things.”

Shaking his head, Max smiled and squeezed the shoulder before taking his hand off.

“I didn’t use a bow skill, did I? That’s your stuff.  Right now, you have taken out a third of what we faced.  Soon enough, you’ll see just how important you are.”

“Fine,” she replied. “Just try not to make me look too bad.”

“I promise. Now, let's let our scout find us something else to fight and hopefully the end of this tower floor.”

Fowl banged his weapon against his shield and turned, not waiting for everyone else as he pretended to stalk quietly through the forest in full plate armor.

-----

Over fifty ents had blown up, and almost two hundred fae were dead. The occasional ent had four or five at the top of their protector.  In those moments, Cordellia showed off her talent, using skills and killing some outright.

Max hadn’t mentioned to Tanila yet that he continued to get notifications about storing power, and each of these fae he killed had a weaker spell he imagined, which had to be the elemental affinity he killed.

I wonder what she’ll do when I tell her my intelligence and wisdom are now one hundred and forty three?

Fowl was leading them through the forest, and no creatures had been spotted for the last five or six minutes.

A loud roar and explosion erupted from deeper in the woods, and everyone quickly looked at each other.

“Another team!” Cordellia said quickly.

“What do we do?”

She glanced at Fowl and shrugged.

“Honestly, it’s best to go and show yourself to them. No one wants to be thought of as sneaky or hiding from the other without cause. Doing so can sometimes lead to people being on edge, and that is how fights break out.”

Tanila nodded and so they followed Fowl through the forest in the direction of the noise they had heard.

-----

“Hello!” Fowl shouted when the group of five elves appeared between the trees. “We heard you and came to check if you are okay!”

Everyone had their weapon put away, and Tanila had let her familiar go. They were doing what they could to appear friendly and not ready for a fight.

The elves jumped up, weapons out, watching Max and the others come through the trees.

Two male and three female elves gave glances that didn’t look very nice as they studied the team.

“Two mages, a ranger, one tank, and a healer,” Tanila whispered.  “The healer is the leader.”

Max didn’t ask, wondering how she could tell but as he studied the group, he saw the woman’s lips moving, no one else was speaking just her.

“We do not need help, but thank you for letting us know you are here,” said the female elf, who wore robes and carried a staff similar to that of a healer. Can I assume you wish to talk, or are you seeking to journey with another group?”

Fowl glanced at Cordellia, unsure of how to reply.

“I guess we didn’t discuss that.”