Large branches creaked like drawn bowstrings and barreled down all at once.
I shoved Mizuho aside and threw myself in the other direction. The limbs slammed into the ground between us, scattering moss and earth.
“Run! Distance yourself from those branches!” I shouted, bounding to my feet before dashing the opposite way as Mizuho. “Over here! Monster! Look at me!” I roared, trying to draw its attention.
The treant, however, simply glanced at me with one of its multiple eyeballs before immediately returning its attention to Mizuho. Over and over, it brought its limbs up and swung them back down at her.
“Eek! Ack! Ahhh!”
As Mizuho scrambled away at a half crawl, the branch tips gouged out chunks of the floor, sending them flying. If the treant had been just a little faster, Mizuho would have been torn to shreds.
Meanwhile, the bloodsucking kudzu vines weren’t just creeping along the walls. They had lowered to the floor and were steadily moving in. That put us in a pincer between the treant in the middle and the vines on the walls. One subordinate’s ankle touched a tendril, which quickly wrapped itself around his ankle and brought him to the ground. More vines coiled around his body from all directions as he cried out.
On the opposite side of the room, Troach, having been knocked away, was holding her head and trying to stand up. Several vines had already closed in on her from behind.
“Troach, behind you!”
“…Huh?”
She turned around, noticing it, but it was too late. The ivy wrapped itself around her limbs all at once, dragging her down as she struggled.
“Agh, dammit!”
She used the dagger in her hand to slice at the ivy. It would withdraw, as though flinching away, but then other vines would move in to entangle her a moment later.
Having recovered from the shock of our initial encounter, I tried to get the complete picture of the situation. All our subordinates were desperately trying to escape the bloodsucking kudzu vines. The treant was tenaciously whipping its branches down at Mizuho. Thankfully, she was keeping out of its range. She finally stood up, but she couldn’t retreat to the wall because of the ivy at her feet. Troach was battling the bloodthirsty tendrils herself, cursing all the while.
With Mizuho having fled, the treant turned its attention to me at last. Several large, unfurled branches struck from either side, and I dodged at the last moment.
Threat priority was the bloodsucking vines first, then the treant second. The treant wasn’t moving, so we could simply stay out of its reach. We needed to clear the walls of ivy.
Having settled on a course of action, I ran to our subordinates, who were steadily being entrapped. They naturally hoped that I, dashing over, would help them, but I didn’t have time to rescue all six. I picked up two hand axes they’d dropped, then tossed one to Mizuho, who was surrounded by tendrils.
“Cut the ivy! Don’t get close to the treant!” I instructed before sprinting across the room toward Troach. The monstrous tree wasn’t swift enough to keep up with my movements. Still, the sheer momentum of the branches slamming the floor behind me was enough to send chills down my spine.
When I reached Troach, I raised my ax and started hacking away at any floor-crawling plants I could see. The hatchet was crude, its rivets loose. It could barely be called a proper weapon. Still, it was well suited for this purpose. There was a lot of ivy, and it tried to twine around me, but I ignored them as long as they didn’t restrict my arm movements and worked on saving Troach instead.
Eventually, we’d cut through most of the vines holding Troach down, and she peeled off the rest on her own.
“Sorry—and thanks.”
“No worries. Can you move?”
“Hurts a little, but…yeah,” she replied, scrunching her face up. That initial hit had been a severe one, and bloodsucking kudzu vines did just that—they drained the blood of their victims. Several thorns protruding from the ivy had stuck me, too. Individual pieces couldn’t drain all that much, it seemed, but they would be a threat in numbers.
Troach, noticing my gaze, annoyedly added, “We can worry about me after we cut our way out of here. We have to save her now, right? I’m going ahead!”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than she was running toward the treant. It lashed out with its branches, but not a single one landed. I watched for the right timing and followed after her.
“Mizuho! Sorry for the wait!”
Troach ran to Mizuho’s side as the storyteller was fighting desperately against the bloodsucking vines.
“Troach! Are you okay?”
“Perfectly fine!”
I caught up as well, joining the work of rescuing our subordinates. With the three of us swinging axes and billhooks, even the numerous bloodsucking kudzu vines couldn’t keep up. Before long, the ivy gave up on its prey and withdrew to the walls, leaving behind a substantial quantity of dead tendrils.
That was one danger handled. We were safe as long as we were out of the treant’s attack range. What’s more, all this gathered ivy meant we had a fair supply of fuel and a good resource for making tools.
Unfortunately, our luck came to an end when I saw the treant, which was atop the hill, pull its own roots out of the ground and start slinking toward us.
Seeing a man-eating tree move closer was both surreal and terrifying. I’d wished I had a shotgun when we ran into those greatbats, but now I couldn’t help thinking how nice it would be if I had a flamethrower. Not that I’d ever touched one back in the Regiment, but still…
“Didn’t think it’d be able to walk.”
Mizuho’s eyes were wide, too. “I’ve never personally seen one do it, either…”
The thick tree roots moved across the earth like hoes as the treant approached. If it got any closer and swung its branches, we’d have casualties for sure. We’d have to disable it—
A hard outer skin guarded the enemy’s entire body. Probably best to assume just hacking at it wouldn’t have any effect. However, since it had eyes and a mouth, it was reasonable to trust that it possessed internal organs. In other words, the only way to take it down would be to deal a fatal wound to its exposed eyeballs or its vital parts through its oral cavity.
Despite my efforts to attract its attention earlier, it had ignored me. That suggested its vision was poor, and it couldn’t hear anything. What sense was it using to find prey, then?
…Smell! It was discerning creatures’ locations by scent. In a dark place like Million Dungeon, that seemed the best option.
I scooped up a piece of fresh meat on the ground—a greatbat corpse—and hurled it in the treant’s path. It reacted immediately. The movement was probably reflexive; all its branches moved in tandem, snatching the greatbat corpse as it was in the air.
“Aim for the eyes!” I shouted to Troach as I dashed up to the treant, lobbing my hand ax into its wide-open mouth as hard as I could. With a pop, its mouth closed. That must have been involuntary, too. Vivid-red fluid came flowing out from between its locked fangs, so I could tell I’d wounded it.