N-No way! Daisuke exclaimed inwardly, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple. This thing has 4.8 million HP—that’s nearly double the Armored Arachnid’s, and they’re only 10 levels apart. It’s starting to make sense why Field Bosses are usually tackled by entire guilds; their stats are ridiculous. Can we even handle this on our own? B-minus quest, my ass!
Unfortunately for Daisuke, the Treant wasn’t about to allow him to ponder in peace. With what could only be described as a war cry, the perennial fiend eased into a deadly charge, the entire landscape quaking beneath its massive weight.
“I’ll draw its attention!” Daisuke yelled, jerking his arm. “Keep your distance and wait for an opening. This thing’s incredibly powerful, but it’s bound to be slow on its feet.”
“O-Okay!” Tiphanna called back, quickly retreating into the canopy.
Daisuke swiveled his head back around, his stance sinking low, the gleam in his eyes rivaling that of his daggers. His hair hovered slightly before he shot forward like a bullet to meet the barreling giant.
“[Intimidate]!”
His eyes snapped open with a flash as the skill activated, rippling outward like a wave, but his foe didn’t even flinch, not even for a moment.
“Tch!” Daisuke clicked his tongue, all fear gone, his expression robust, robotic.
The Treant bellowed as it hoisted its lance-like arm, ready to annihilate everything in its path.
CHENG!
Before the makeshift weapon could come crashing down, golden chains shot forth, latching onto its arm and tethering it to a neighboring tree. The beast grunted, its glowing eyes narrowing as it registered the restraints binding its movement.
In the next instant, its feeble prey had already closed the distance. Then—he vanished. Emerald eyes widened as a flurry of silvery arcs carved through the air, striking before it could even react. A heartbeat later, the Treant’s massive form was swallowed by the storm of blades.
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
DING!
[The Colossal Frost Treant has resisted the Poison Status]
[The Colossal Frost Treant has resisted the Paralysis Status]
Daisuke skidded to a halt behind the impenetrable wall of bark, the green lightning crackling along his blades dissipating. Dammit! This thing’s soft on the inside, but I can’t get past that armor-like wood. With a defense of 1551, I guess that’s no surprise.
With an effortless pull, the Frost Treant shattered the magic chains binding it, the remnants dissolving into fading embers.
Slowly, it turned, its towering frame creaking like an ancient war machine as its glowing emerald eye locked onto the lone warrior who had dared to disturbed its peaceful slumber.
Several feet away, Daisuke stood firm, a single dagger held in a reverse grip, flames curling hungrily along its edge. Shadows flickered across his face, his narrowed gaze fixed on the beast before him. Its physiology is clearly different from other monsters. Poison and paralysis were useless—but let’s see how it handles this weakness.
As if insulted by the threatening display, the Treant reared back and unleashed a thunderous roar. The force sent shockwaves through the air. Birds within a 300-meter radius scattered in terror. The ground trembled, then split apart as thick, gnarled roots surged upward, lunging at Daisuke like living spears.
FSHHH-FSHHH-FSHHH!
He sprang back, narrowly avoiding the first tendril as it speared the ground where he once stood, the impact sending shards of ice and soil skyward.
Another surged toward him—then another. He ducked, twisted, and flipped between the attacks, his feet skimming across the snow-dusted terrain.
But the Treant was relentless. The roots chased him even as he leapt into the air, extending like whips, their tips sharp as spears.
Daisuke swung his daggers in rapid arcs, severing the approaching appendages mid-air. Bark split, sap hissed, and the roots recoiled, but more surged in to replace them.
Using his magic chains, he latched onto a nearby tree branch, yanked hard, and redirected himself while airborne, using the momentum to vault toward the impenetrable fortress.
The mountain responded.
With a sharp jerk of its arm, jagged wooden stakes shot from its bark, tearing through the air like missiles. Daisuke twisted, parrying some, slashing others. Time stretched as one javelin narrowly grazed his nose, but he never lost momentum.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, he launched himself forward, flames roaring along his daggers as he slashed an X across the Treant’s chest.
[27 damage dealt.]
[27 damage dealt.]
The wounds barely cut through the dense bark, and within seconds, the shallow gashes sealed shut. The Treant hadn’t even flinched.
Daisuke clicked his tongue, irritation flashing across his face. Fire might be its weakness, but what good is it if I can’t even bypass that f-ing armor?
The Treant roared again, and the air, even the very battlefield, trembled beneath its wrath. In an instant, hundreds of smaller, needle-like splinters erupted from its body—a deadly hailstorm of wooden projectiles.
Daisuke countered with a volley of Magic Missiles, but the sheer volume overwhelmed him. His Impeccable Parry deflected most of the oncoming barrage, yet several tore through the edges of his barrier. Razor-sharp fragments grazed his shoulders, torso, and legs, drawing thin lines of crimson.
“Gah—”
The pain barely registered before the Treant struck again. A massive arm swung through the air like a battering ram, aiming to crush him where he stood.
Daisuke reacted on instinct, sprinting up the length of the wooden limb as it passed, boots barely touching the bark before he vaulted skyward.
Then came the roar.
A shockwave blasted from the creature’s maw, obliterating the forest below in a single instant. Trees, boulders, even the snow covering the ground—everything in its path was reduced to dust.
But Daisuke was already moving.
He lashed his chains around the Treant’s shoulder, yanking himself away from the blast’s trajectory.
The moment the shockwave passed, he adjusted his grip, swung forward, and drove his blade toward the fiend’s eye—aiming to puncture it as he did with the Exiled Hilitroll Chief.
At the last second, the walking fortress jerked its head away. His blade missed its target—but not completely.
With a cracking snap, one of the beast’s massive spiraled horns came clean off, tumbling through the air before crashing into the ruins of the battlefield.
Daisuke landed, boots skidding against the snow, breath heavy as he turned to face the towering colossus once more.
The Treant loomed over him, its eye burning with an ancient, unfathomable rage.
BUUONGG!
Before it could process what felt like a mere papercut, a thunderous force slammed into its face.
Propelled by wind magic, Tiphanna launched herself from a nearby tree, her large hammer crashing into the beast. The impact sent the creature staggering backward, its massive limbs ripping through the earth. It uprooted a tree in a frantic attempt to steady itself.
Landing beside Daisuke, the blacksmith smirked, her eyes flashing with determination. “I have a plan.”
The Treant let out an angry snarl, its clawed fingers sinking into the ground as it pushed itself upright. Rage poured from its body like a suffocating miasma. Without hesitation, it hurled a barrage of boulders at its tormentors.
Daisuke didn’t flinch.
His eyes burned with battle-honed focus as he effortlessly weaved through the flying stones, his movements so minimal they seemed almost taunting.
The Treant’s fury intensified.
With a roar, it wrenched the rest of the tree from the ground and hurled it at the elusive bug.
But no impact came. No satisfying crunch.
The fiend’s glowing eyes widened in confusion. There was no body, no splatter of crushed bones. Its prey had completely vanished.
Suddenly, a flicker of movement at the edge of its vision caught its attention—but it was too late.
“[Mana Flare]!”
A blinding explosion of light erupted from Daisuke’s chest, searing into the Treant’s vision. The beast recoiled with a deafening roar, thrashing violently as the radiance burned into its retinas.
Before it could recover, Tiphanna struck.
She descended like a comet, her hammer glowing molten orange as she drove it into the giant’s back with an earth-shaking crash.
A wave of fire erupted from the impact, scorching the creature’s cloak and superheating its bark-like armor. In the same beat, it lurched forward, collapsing onto all fours, smoke rising from its blistering form.
“Now!” she bellowed, retreating.
From above, Daisuke came plummeting like a spear loosed from the heavens.
His daggers struck true, burying deep into the weakened armor. Flames erupted from the blades, spreading like wildfire across the Treant’s smoldering body. The beast let out a hellish scream, its white-hot plating cracking under the strain.
Desperate, it sprouted jagged spikes from its back, aiming to impale its assailant.
But Daisuke was already gone.
Instead of struggling to free his wedged weapons, he cleverly dematerialized them. In their place, he planted a Frost Prism and vaulted into the canopy of the trees.
TSSHHHHHH!
A violent burst of steam erupted as the freezing detonation clashed with the superheated armor, sending shockwaves rippling through the battlefield.
“You’re up!” Daisuke called above the chaos.
“Already on it!” Tiphanna shot back.
From above the swirling mist, she descended, wielding a massive iron nail pulled from her magic bag. With a single swing, she sent it hurtling at blistering speed. The spike punched deep into the Treant’s back with a resounding crack. The force of impact slammed the beast into the ground, its limbs splayed and trembling.
And then she struck again.
She landed with monstrous force, her hammer meeting the embedded nail in a crushing blow that sent the mist scattering in all directions. The brittle, overheated armor finally gave way, shattering into fragments that scattered like shards of broken glass.
“Now’s your chance!” she cried, leaping back.
Daisuke was already moving.
“[Cosmic]…”
Lightning crackled around him as he tore through the air, a streak of raw destruction plummeting toward the earth.
“…[CUTTER]!”
His daggers struck the exposed nail with a deafening thunderclap.
Time slowed to a crawl.
A concussive shockwave detonated outward, ripping through the battlefield. Trees buckled, undergrowth flattened, and jagged fissures snaked across the earth as a massive crater yawned open beneath the Treant.
The creature unleashed a harrowing, guttural scream.
Its once-impenetrable armor shattered, fragments of bark flying in all directions like shrapnel.
[Critical!]
[11,623 damage dealt.]
[11,321 damage dealt.]
[Situational Damage!]
[69,739 damage dealt.]
[63,928 damage dealt.]
“Is it over?” Tiphanna asked as Daisuke landed beside her.
“Not even close.” He wiped his mouth, chugging an MP potion without taking his eyes off the shuddering fiend. “This is just the beginning.”
[Colossal Frost Treant | Lvl 47 | Field Boss | HP: 4717291/4892064]