Moon released [Ignite], already imagining the druid burning till it beca nothing but ashes.
The druid reacted with shocking speed, its wood manipulation activating instantly. Tree Clones threw themselves into the fireball's path, sacrificing their bodies to shield their master. The druid itself conjured a massive wooden barrier at the last possible mont, layer upon layer of compressed bark forming a shield.
BOOM!
The explosion was bigger than anything Moon had created before.
The shockwave alone flattened trees in a twenty-ter radius. The heat was so intense that Moon's own robes began to smolder and burn despite their enchantnts. Even his heat-resistant body—augnted by skills and attributes—felt pain from the radiation.
Moon's pulled out another mana-replenishing potion. He downed it while the explosion was still expanding, not even waiting for the flas to clear.
Because he wasn't done. His left hand began forming another [Ignite]. And his staff—held in his right hand—started channeling a second one simultaneously.
Dual-casting. The first ti he'd ever attempted to conjure two [Ignite] spells at once. It was brutally inefficient, the mana consumption astronomical. The potion he'd just drunk couldn't keep pace with the expenditure. His reserves were dropping at an alarming rate but Moon didn't care.
BOOM!
The first fireball detonated, followed half a second later by the second.
BOOM!
Fire erupted into the air like a miniature sun had been born in the Rotten Pine Forest. Wood exploded outward in sharp, burning fragnts whilst smoke filled the air so thickly that visibility dropped to nothing.
The entire area transford into an apocalyptic hell-scape. And through it all, the druid's screams filled the air, no longer the mocking sounds from before, but pure agony and pain. But still, the notification Moon was looking for never arrived.
It wasn't dead yet.
Despite the exhaustion weighing down his limbs, despite his mana reserves being at an all ti low, Moon ran forward into the crater his attacks had created. Although he was filled with anger, his mind was surprisingly clear. He wasn't acting out of irrational anger, rather he used it to fuel his power. The heat was still intense enough to make breathing painful, but he pushed through, his eyes searching through the smoke, leaving the druid alive now would be a disgrace.
In the center of the crater, barely visible through the haze was the druid, charred black, half its body destroyed, trying desperately to bury itself in the ground. Trying to escape even now, even while dying.
Zap!
Lightning erupted from Moon's hand, the electrical discharge struck the weakened druid, causing its body to convulse, disrupting its attempt to burrow away.
Moon was never going to allow it a chance to recover and escape.
He lunged into the crater, his dagger in hand. His mana was too low for powerful spells.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Like a mad man, Moon drove the blade into the druid's body over and over. Stabbing, cutting, destroying. The creature tried to defend itself with wooden vines, with branch-like limbs, but they were too damaged, too weak. Moon tore through them all, his strikes precise and rciless.
He didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Not until—
[You have killed the level 25, S-Rank Rotten Pine Druid Spirit]
[You have gained 1900 Lives]
The notification appeared in his vision like a benediction.
Moon's arm stopped mid-strike, the dagger still buried in what remained of the druid's chest. His breathing was ragged, his body trembling from mana exhaustion and adrenaline crash.
The druid's body began to dissolve beneath him, breaking apart into particles of light just like the Magma King had. Within seconds, all that remained was a single core—green and throbbing with energy—lying in the scorched earth.
Moon stared at it for a long mont, his hand still gripping the dagger, his mind struggling to process what had just happened.
They'd won. He'd killed it.
But Selene...
The thought struck him awake, dragging his attention away from the core to the reality at hand. His head snapped up, his eyes searching through the smoke and ash for where she'd fallen.
Moon walked out of the crater, his legs unsteady, moving on autopilot toward where he'd last seen her body. The Rotten Pine trees had all scattered after the death of the druid, freed from their shackles, and afraid of Moon's power.
Selene had been operating on one life. She'd said it herself, shown her fear of it. And that attack...Those branch-spikes had pierced through her torso, straight through her vital organs.
Moon knew that no amount of healing potions could fix that, not without lives to resurrect from.
Moon reached the spot where she'd fallen.
Yara and Gratis were no longer there.
Neither was Selene's body.
His heart began to hamr in his chest, a different kind of panic setting in. His eyes swept across the bloodstained ground where she'd fallen, then outward, searching desperately for any sign of them.
There—in the distance, between the furthest trees. A ray of actual sunlight, pure and untainted by the forest's corruption. Real light. Real trees where no clones existed beyond the boundary.
The exit.
Moon's pace increased despite his exhaustion, his legs carrying him forward through sheer force of will. Of course. Yara and Gratis would have taken Selene's body out of the forest. Away from the danger. That's where they'd be.
Before he could make it to the tree line, movent caught his attention.
Yara and Gratis were running back inside the forest, clearly trying to reach him, to help him. But when they saw Moon already limping toward the exit under his own power, they stopped, redirecting their course to et him halfway.
"Moon! Are you okay?!" Yara imdiately closed the distance, her hands reaching out to grab his arm. She placed it across her shoulders for support, taking so of his weight without asking permission.
Gratis moved to Moon's other side, offering similar support. Together, they guided him through the final stretch of twisted trees, past the boundary marker where diseased Rotten Pines gave way to normal forest.
When they finally erged into clear daylight, Moon's eyes landed on a body that he recognized instantly.
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