*Creeeeeeeaaaak*

…

*SNAP*

The sound of the wood snapping echoed throughout the forest and entered the ears of almost everything within a certain distance, and as if the snap was some kind of sign, everything stayed silent.

It was as if my instincts were screaming at me to stay quiet. To zip it until something happened. However, another side of me just wanted to know what would happen to the woman and what her fate would be.

Will she survive, or will she die? Will the tree even fall on her? She can dodge pretty easily right? But then why is standing still just like everything else in my eye-line.

I did not have to wait very long to get the answer to my question which had come in a loud-

*BOOM*

A dust cloud covered the area where the tree had fallen.

Even though the tree was dead, or at least half-dead, it still weighed a lot compared to the tree that had fallen onto the wolf before.

I had thought that all the trees in that area had died due to some sort of disease that was in the soil, but when you get further away from the epicenter of the plain area with barely any trees, you start to question if all the trees were dead.

In reality, they didn’t look dead, or at least not enough for me to notice it at first glance._-.

It was only after I heard the hair spikes and tentacles hit the trees that I recognized them as being dead or mostly dead.

The trees furthest from the epicenter looked and felt the most alive especially after they were hit, yet on the other hand, the trees in the middle were the opposite even though it might not have been that obvious to someone like me.

Anyway, I had already seen the tree fall on the frozen woman, her eyes opened extremely wide while her body continued to shudder now and then as if she was trying to move but failed continuously. It was almost like she was bolted to the ground unable to move nor blink at the incoming death penalty.

After the dust cloud settled, my body instinctively relaxed and looked towards where she once stood, my face now holding the same grin it held when I had seen it attack the tree.

However, no matter how confident I was that nothing could have survived being crushed by a tree of that size, I was still very wary of her still being alive, especially since I didn’t get the notification yet.

Another reason I was wary was that I could see the thing within the shadows moving around while making sure to keep an eye on me at all times without failure, no matter which way it seemed to have turned.

It was like new eyes were popping out on the back of its head, allowing it to look at me while simultaneously accomplishing whatever it wanted to do in the process.

When its gaze finally faltered off me for a second, I began to run with all my speed, eventually reaching the crushed woman within a split second, taking out my ax and slamming it into her face over and over again without an ounce of mercy or remorse.

[You have killed a Skinwalker]

[You have gained 200 EXP]

[You you leveled up!]

[You have gained 2 stat points]

[Level 3]

[Progress: 7/400]

In the same instant, I felt an overpowering feeling of doom closing the space between it and me at a speed invisible to the eyes, yet since I seemed to feel it long before it had come, I already had enough time to dodge out of the way.

‘Speed!’ I inwardly roared

[+2 Agility]

The root shot right past my face, this time grazing my eyes in the process but not enough to automatically blind me, yet just enough to cause a gash across my eyelid.

I swing my ax down at the root with enough power to cut it into two, yet just barely. However, even though I had barely accomplished something that seemed so easy to a normal person, this root was twice as big as one of the other roots I tried destroying yet at that time I had failed to do so.

Cutting the root in half did not seem to be the right choice since it had only taken the creature a millisecond to direct the part that was still intact towards my head, yet once again I dodged quite easily.

I could feel that my footwork was getting better after every fight, but at what cost? Every time I fought it felt as if I was on the brink of death and almost every time I seemed to have lost something.

My arm, then my ear, and now maybe even my eyes if I do not take care of it quickly.

I was not a fighter… I was a coward and I always have been. From the day I had been born until this day, I have always been a coward. A scared little boy with limited power. A little boy who just wanted to be liked.

I was not the warrior that I was putting the act on of. I just wanted to run, hide, cry, scream… Yet even now I find myself forced to survive with the once word my girlfriend had mouthed to me still ringing, bouncing, and echoing throughout my mindscape.

“Survive.”

I side-stepped once again, allowing the root to barely graze my arm this time, however, it had not stopped me from carrying out my action.

My ax descended towards the head of the woman, this time shining in an almost golden light that I, in the moment, could not differentiate between it and the lunar rays of the moon.

*PSHCHH*

With that last swing, I watched as its brain matter exploded out of its head, now causing its entire body to shrivel up like an apple devoid of its moisture.

On instinct, the moment I felt the dread once again I had already spun and attacked the root aimed at my head, cutting it into pieces while moving forward.

I continued to spin, this time feeling some muscle memory kick in.

‘Muscle memory? I’ve never used an ax before… But then why does it feel so familiar.’ I thought with a sense of familiarity awakening from deep inside me as if it had always been in a slumber, waiting for me to one day pick up an ax and wield it to cut down an enemy.

I didn’t know why but I closed my eyes.

Anyone would have called me stupid for doing so, hell, I was shouting at myself for closing my eyes yet it was like my body was no longer mine, but at the same time was?

I didn’t feel like I was in control but simultaneously, I was the one moving, choosing to move.

I felt the dread come and go while my arm flailed around, creating what sounded like fleshy cuts, slashes, and slices. Yet, the first thing I felt when flailing my arm around with the ax was the feeling of a soft yet sturdy thud before a vibration would travel through my hand as the fleshy sound rang out again and again until I had finally become semi-numb to it.

When I had finally opened my eyes, I watched my right arm move frantically while the rest of my body did so too. It sliced and cut like a master, and all of this was happening while I wasn’t even looking?

After staring into space for a moment, I only realized where i was when I did not recognize where I was, but then it dawned on me.

*Creak*

*Creak*

*Creak*

Several trees were beginning to fall already, and since it seemed like we had not moved far from the epicenter, it meant that the trees would be lighter and more easily broken.

With a burst of energy, I rolled to the right dodging the root that came towards me, and allowed it to hit a tree around 20 meters away from me. At the same time just like I had done before, I moved out of the way and watched the tree fall in the direction of the attacker.

I could see that it was going to dodge no matter how fast the tree fell, and so I needed to stop it…

I needed to put an end to this.

My body was bruised and battered probably beyond comprehension, while phantom pain shot through my every receptor as if my arm was still there, constantly being hit by some invisible force.

Honestly, the pain from my phantom arm was a lot more paralyzing than any of the pain I felt from having to deal with the attacks coming my way yet I still did not give up.

Gritting my teeth and pushing past the pain, I made a split-second decision of making sure that I would not allow the creature, which I could now see was something close to a tree-golem, would not escape the falling tree.

Of course, later on, I would learn that it was a newly-birthed treant, but the naive me still had a lot to learn.

I used every ounce of power I could muster, throwing my arm forward and flinging the ax towards the treant.

I didn’t know how much power would be behind the throw, yet to my surprise, the throw did not go the way I had expected it to.

As if thousands of years of experience and knowledge flowed through me, I adjusted my body to become more efficient while executing the throw of a lifetime.

With one last push, the ax tore through the air and spun like a boomerang, now curving and-

*Sshhhhhhhhing*

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