The tree-beast, Inga, is surrounded by root monsters who formed a protective circle around her. Inga kept her beast form hidden in her tree; she didn't consider Lucian and his team a worthy opponent to show herself to.

Lucian cursed; he wasn't getting anywhere with his attack. Using magic against Inga was a calculated risk; he could already feel her corrupt mana invading his mana stream, and with the amount of magic he was letting out, it was only a matter of time before the corrupt mana got to his core.

'This is like a game of endurance.' Lucian thought. All the spirit beast could do for him and his teammates was to block some of the root-monsters' attacks and stop them from landing any serious blows with their bodies that couldn't be hurt; even with all this, Lucian still felt that the spirit beast was useless. He was greatly outnumbered by the root monster, and how long the spirit beast would stop the root monster depends on how long Lucian and his team can keep fighting for the day. If Lucian and his teammates end up dead or get changed into monsters, the spirit beast won't have any reason to support them anymore. If only the spirit beasts were capable of harming their opponents, Lucian would have considered them useful.

"Do you want me to join in?" Reed asked when he saw that the battle was going nowhere. "My wind magic is not that great, but with the power boost in this place, I might be able to blow those root monsters away." His voice was full of doubt. Reed wasn't confident in his ability, and he didn't understand his offer to help either. Lucian was the enemy, not a friend.

"Let's retreat for today and try again tomorrow or another day." Marta suggested it when she saw that Soren and Luna were getting tired. No matter how many root monsters they killed, more kept coming out of the tree, while the ones that were supposed to remain dead came back to life.

"Killing a f*cking tree is supposed to be easy." Lucian frowned, "We are not retreating. This is ending today."

'Retreating is only going to give this beast enough time to ruin us with its mana.' Lucian jumped on his feet and ordered Reed to continue keeping an eye on Marta. 'I'm going in.' He ran fast at full speed and then jumped up towards the tree-beast.

Grove, in his monster form, jumped at his master's command; his whole root body was covered in his magic flames as he opened his hand and grabbed Lucian, pushing him to the side while setting Lucian's body ablaze.

Lucian screams in pain. Even though he tried not to, his teammates turned towards him in concern, but the root beast they were up against refused to let them go.

Grunting, Lucian pulled himself away from Grove, his regenerative ability already working fast to heal his burned skin. Lucian cut Grove down with his blade; without wasting time, angrily, he activated his flame and lightning magic and jumped towards the tree again. This time around, he hit his target and released his flames all over the tree beast.

The tree-beast let out an inhuman scream at Lucian's fire and lightning attack and then revealed herself.

Lucian didn't bat an eye at Inga's beast form and kept releasing more fire on her tree. He groaned in pain as he felt sharp roots on both his ankles; glancing down, Lucian released his lightning magic at the root monster who attacked him.

Inga raises her large hand to slap Lucian away from her tree but misses. She growls in frustration and pain because Lucian was still destroying her tree. "Get off my tree!" She screamed.

Lucian smirked at Inga and climbed higher, realizing that Inga's movement was restricted; the only true source of strength she had against him was her root-monsters. "Why?" Lucian asks, gathering another set of flames in his hand. His own body was hardened by his beast ability in order to protect himself from any more root-piercing attacks. "Don't you like being burned alive?" He asked in a sarcastic tone, "When you had ordered your little monster to burn me alive, I'm sure that you must have enjoyed it; now it's my turn to watch you suffer." Lucian increased the size and hotness of his flames through Inga's corrupt mana; he chuckled evilly as he thought to himself that he was bringing her down with her corrupted magic, because his fire and lightning ability were originally weak. Thanks to Inga, they were both powerful for now.

Inga screamed again in pain as her tree burned down; her huge beast form began to shrink.

The root monsters turned away from Soren and Luna.

"Don't turn away from me!" Luna moved her blade to strike down two root monsters. "They are getting weaker." She mumbled out as she noticed that the monster she attacked tried to use magic but failed. "Don't let them return to the tree!" she screamed to Soren.

The spirit beast continues to help Soren and Luna in blocking the root monsters, stopping some of them from returning to the tree.

Lucian increased the intensity of his flames when he noticed the root monsters that were sluggishly heading towards the tree.

Inga's beast form shrank away and disappeared as her burnt tree turned into ash; each root monster became immobile immediately. As Inga disappeared, they fell, and a sudden flame appeared over their abnormal root bodies and destroyed them in the same way Lucian had destroyed their master. The flames were the same flames Lucian had used against the tree beast, and since the root monsters were connected to the beast, they also got affected by Lucian's magic.

"I don't feel incredibly strong anymore." Soren stared at his hands.

"Me too." Luna activated her magic, testing her strength, and she was back to her average strength, which was neither strong nor weak. She sighed as she asked, "Does this mean that we won?"

Lucian jumps down from the burnt tree. He closed his eyes and let himself feel the mana flowing inside him; the beast's corrupt mana was gone. Before he could confirm to Luna that they had won, Marta let out an agonizing scream as she held onto her eye.

Reed was confused on what to do as Lucian got to his side. "I promise she didn't use any magic; I have been watching her." Reed said nervously.

Lucian's questioning expression moved over from Reed to Marta; the little tree branch in her eye was growing, ripping her eyeballs apart. "This isn't supposed to be happening." He tried to touch Marta, but she pushed him away as she rolled in pain, screaming on the ground. Lucian checked again if he could sense any corrupt mana flowing in the air; there was none. However, Marta's mana was depreciating.

'Could it be that the tree beast is trying to revive itself through Marta by eating her mana while forcing its way into her mana core?' Lucian let out a curse over his thoughts; there was no time to ponder if he was right. He summoned a dagger and called for Luna and Soren.

"Hold her." Lucian ordered.

Soren and Luna held Marta's arm, while Reed strongly held her legs to the ground.

"Is he going to…" Reed eyed the dagger.

"Marta, do you trust me?" Lucian asks with a strong, steady voice.

Tears flowed down Marta's eyes as she tried to control her body but couldn't; barely, she nodded at Lucian before she lost her mind to her pain and screamed again.

Lucian's hand shakes, but he steeled himself and then brought his dagger down on Marta's eye, removing her eyeball before the roots that had started growing in it could attach themselves to any other part of Marta's body. "Luna!" Lucian screamed and moved towards the eyeball that had grown little root legs and was running away.

Luna quickly moves to healing Marta's missing eye.

With a sharp movement from his leg, Lucian crushed the running eyeball under the heels of his leather boots. And then use his magic to burn it.

"Shit!" Reed said the image of Lucian putting a dagger into Marta's eye couldn't leave his mind; he felt like barfing as he thought of it.

"Now it's over." Lucian said in a cold tone as he returned back to his teammates.

Marta moaned out in slight pain; she was still being healed by Luna. "Thank you, Captain Lucian." She mumbled out with a cracked voice.

Lucian stares at her for a moment and then turns to the spirit beast. "So how do we get out of here?" He asked in an unkind tone.

All the spirit beasts were gathered together; without warning, they stretched out a hand that joined together as one towards Lucian and forced his consciousness into a dimension where they could speak to him.

"We brought you here to say, Thank you, human Lucian." The spirit beasts' voices echo together as one.

Lucian glared at them; he didn't care about their gratitude. The only thing he cared about was knowing how to leave the belly of Hlasked.

The spirit beasts lift their hands together; Lucian shuts his eyes as a bright light forms from each of the spirit beasts. When he opens his eyes again, he sees the light created by the beast's release into his body.

"What the hell did you beast do to me?" He frowns at them.

"We gave you a gift to show our appreciation. We decided on it after great thought. We don't want the same misfortune that happened to us to ever befall a kind human like you." The spirit beast voiced echoes, and then Lucian felt a vibration within the dimension.

"Did your gift do that?" Lucian asked in a rude tone; he didn't care about the gift given to him, but he was curious.

"No. The belly of Hlasked is falling apart now that its strongest pillar is dead; you and your teammate will have to climb the dead tree all the way to the surface; if not, you will be buried alive. Goodbye, human Lucian." Each spirit beast turned into a dot of light and then disappeared.

[Congrats] Lucian system glitches as his eyes snap open; a strong vibration hits the ground as the world around him falls apart. [Player Lucian has received the blessings of the spirits.]

[Soul blessings: an ability that keeps the player from being controlled by an external and internal force]

Lucian frowned as he listened to his broken system; for a weird reason, his system sounded kind for the first time.

[The player's new ability is abnormal, joined with the player's soul, and out of the system's control.] the system glitch [would player Lucian like to give the system authority over the spirits' blessings?]

"Fucking no." Lucian stood to his feet and dismissed his system from asking him any more irritating questions.

Lucian places Marta on his back and faces the rest of his team. "We have to climb that damned dead tree to get out of here. Stay close; I don't want anyone falling off."

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