Once Hussein finished speaking, he lightly waved his sword through the air in self defense. While in the knight's hand, a muffled ringing sound could be heard even though the sword was broken. The sound carried a murderous chilling atmosphere and while standing next to Hussein, Du Wei can clearly feel a hair raising chill through his side.
Dadaneier was also nervously looking around. "What did you find? Could it be the golden eye Python?"
"No," Hussein spoke coldly. "Golden eye Pythons are solitary magical beasts, while there are a lot of these things around."
In the air, there was a faint voice like that of rustling leaves and branches. Then from a distance, a buckling sound was oscillating around the area, causing the snow on top of the trees and rocks to flutter down to the ground.
In addition, Du Wei also heard a strange voice like that of a conversation. The buzzes were not like that of a human's voice, nor a howl like that of magical beast. Among the shaking sounds of rustling leaves, the sounds of swarming bees could be heard….
Then all of a sudden, snipping sounds could be heard from numerous places, like those of wood breaking.
What happened after was a real eye opener for Du Wei.
About 20 paces from them, a cedar tree suddenly shook as it pulled its roots out from the snow! Shaking a few times to remove the soil and ice clinging to it, the huge roots split into two sections like a person's leg. Then in a clumsy way, it took two steps forward!
Du Wei suddenly breaks out of his shock!
That buzzing rustling sound was like some sort of wakeup signal. Soon, in the surrounding forest, countless number of trees started to shake as if awaking from slumber! Pulling out their roots from the snow, the trees started to walk awkwardly towards them.
Du Wei and Dadaneier were already frozen in place as they watched. As for Hussein, his face had a thoughtful look as he peered at the living trees.
The "Treants" increased in numbers as they gathered. With more than 10 to a couple of dozen of these huge bulking bodies packed towards them from the Canyon entrance, all the while keeping a certain distance from them. These trees didn't have eyes or mouths, but they did have a lot of arms! Curling their branches up, many of these "Treants" picked up something to be used as "weapons".
In the mix, there were huge stones, while some were frosted soil from the ground, and some simply grabbed chunks of ice with their vines.
"They are... Readying to attack us?!" Du Wei shouted, "We need to move back! Head into the Canyon!"
"Wait a minute, just wait a while!" Hussein spoke in a steady voice, "These are Treants, I know they are creatures... However, Treants are docile magical creatures. They never take the initiative to attack something, so don't move! If they are provoked, they can wake up more trees! Don't forget, we are in the frozen forest, there are trees everywhere!
Suddenly, several Treants standing in the front row lets out a strange ROAR as if stirred by the dialogue between the two. (Du Wei could not understand how these things without a mouth, could let out a roaring sound). While roaring, a few Treants used their "hands" to roll up rocks and ice to throw towards the three men!
With a cry, Du Wei quickly chanted a spell and shot forth two wind blades at the huge mass of ice in the air, shattering it.
Facing a dense barrage of rocks facing down upon them, Saddam Hussein suddenly grabbed Du Wei's the collar with one hand, then with his other hand holding a sword handle, he shoved it against Dadaneier's chest to push him out of the way. Afterwards, Hussein also jumped away with Du Wei in tow.
The collision of dense raining rocks echoed in the Canyon. The large open area where the three men stood before have been cratered with countless large holes. Gripped with horror from the scene, Du Wei stared at Hussein as he spoke. "Dude, what did you just say? Mild temper? Never take the initiative to attack? They clearly wanted and almost mashed us into mud!"
From a distance, a Treant came towards them in big strides and crushed one of the stone statues, then uttered a roar.
Behind it, hundreds of large Treants have subsequently issued a flurry of tsunami-like cries.
"Hey! They are not very friendly! It's like they are about to strike at us! Are we going to stand here?" Du Wei wore a bitter and wry smile.
"Your words are nonsense! There are trees everywhere in this place, unless you can immediately run out of the frozen forest! Otherwise, all the trees throughout the forest can be awakened to be their allies! So don't provoke them!
"Damn it, I didn't provoke them." Du Wei scolded with a smile.
One Treant suddenly bent down and swept at the three men with its huge branches. Also somewhat annoyed, a pale golden light flashed across Hussein's body. With one swing of his broken sword, a golden light flashed across the tree's "hand" and sliced it apart.
Once the Knight made his move, he didn't hold back and went all the way! After setting Du Wei down, the knight leaped towards the front of the enemy. In one move, he bypassed a Treant's large awl like feet, then with his backhand, he cut the leg in a cross motion. In a snap, the leg of the treant was severed, causing the unstable tree to fall down immediately.
The weakness of this huge creature is its slow movement. When a tree falls, it would definitely crush three to four companions with it. Like that of a domino, when one falls, the rest goes with it.
The Knight simply rushed into the crowd of trees. Physically small, he kept jumping and running to and fro between the trees. While the treants simply couldn't hit him, his sword has already cut down seven or eight trees. And many of the counter attacks by the Treants ended up hitting their mate's body, causing a rolling queue…. (Note I didn't really understand this meaning in Chinese, so I had no choice but to leave it be from the translator -一時間樹人的隊列里人仰馬翻...)
Just when Du Wei felt reassured, he could hear a distant whirring and buzzing sound picking up pace. It was as if the Treants were being commanded, suddenly, all the Treants sent out a roar. No longer acting clumsily as they try to land a hit on Hussein, instead, the Treants shed off their leaves and swept towards Hussein in a razor sharp sound!
This attack was much more horrifying than the previous, even comparable to countless magicians simultaneously shooting forth numerous wind blades! No matter how fast the knight is capable of, he is not immune to the attacks from all directions. After rolling around the ground to dodge, his Dou Qi dispersed and spread around his body. The entirety of the knight and the air around him became like that of a golden ball, blocking off the attacking leaves….. In mere moments, the masses of leaves bouncing off the light have piled up like a haystack and almost covered the knight's body.
It's not that Du Wei didn't want to help the knight, in fact, he wanted to help. But just when he peeked his head out from behind a the rock he was hiding behind, two leaves flew and nailed into the rock in front of them. The soft leaves were able to penetrate deeply into the rocks so they had no choice but be honest to themselves and hide.
At this point, the leaves have already covered Hussein entirely, even so, the Knight didn't give up. Spreading out his arms, the knight took in a deep breath. Suddenly, a vindictive surge of energy erupts from his body and blew the leaves away. Despite being protected by his Dou Qi, he did receive a barrage of attacks over a long period of time, so his body would still be strained. In appearance, Hussein's eyes now carried a golden glow and the sword he was carrying was shining with a golden light.
Hiding behind the rocks, Du Wei could only hear the sound of a loud explosion…
Boom!!
In one swing, the golden sword instantly cuts down a group of Treants in one area. Even the nearby Treants cracked and broke apart from the impact shock wave of the invincible golden sword Dou Qi (aura). The results were piles of crumbing woods littering the ground.
This one skill of Hussein's was alarmingly dangerous. After the golden light dims and dispersed, the surrounding 20 meters of land surrounding him was littered with broken pieces of wood. The Treants lucky enough to be further away still ended up lying on the ground. In one sword strike, half of the hundreds of Treants were killed by him!
But this one sword strike obviously consumed a lot of energy from the knight. He was already injured to begin with so his strength was far from recovered. After the use of this skill, his breathing became uneven and a whistling sound could be heard from his mouth. No longer able to withstand the strain on his body any longer, sweat could be seen on his forehead as he held his sword tip facing the ground.
Du Wei and Dadaneier gave each other one look before jumping out from behind the rocks, then quickly ran to Hussein's side. Immediately, Dadaneier quickly dragged Hussein with him as he ran back towards the rock they were hiding behind. As for Du Wei, ignoring the consumption of magical energy within himself, he shot forth as many fireballs as he could within one breath and lit the heaps of woods on fire. Turning around as fast as he could, Du Wei followed closely behind the other two.
"Run into the Canyon!" Du Wei cried.
"How are we supposed to run?! The entrance leading into the Canyon was blocked!" Dadaneier exclaimed.
The stone throw from the first attack earlier had already blocked off the narrow entrance in the Canyon.
"Then let's first hide behind the rocks!" Du Wei cried.
The group retreated back to where the two men hid themselves earlier. But behind them, the vibrating rustling and buzzing sound could be heard again from the forest. This time, the sound was traveling even further then before.
"They are summoning more companions." Hussain sighed, "Let me go, I merely over exhausted myself a bit from that one sword strike…. If it was the normal me, I would take them all down in one strike.
"If it was the normal you, still a Holy Knight, then you wouldn't have even been chased to this place." Du Wei showed a wry smile, "You are injured and your strength is only at thirty to forty percent, you can't cope with the endless amount of monsters. Maybe you can call the old fool out? I think against these things, physical force will be useless against them and the best solution is to use large scale proximity magic."
"Wait a moment, something seems wrong..." Dadaneier peaks his eyes out on top of the rock to see, then suddenly looked down, "They are not attacking, instead, they are retreating to the back as If waiting for something!"
"What?" Du Wei also sticks his head out.
Sure enough, the Treants did not attack. Instead, they slowly retreated backwards by taking heavy individual steps. Instead of relief, something much more terrifying was happening further behind them. The oscillating sound in the air was awakening even more trees, turning the gigantic bodies into living creatures….
Du-Wei could only shivers from looking at the large tracts of forest in front of him. Within his eyes could see, all the trees are pulling out their roots from the ground and shaking off any clinging snow and ice on them. Like puppets, the dull looking Treants were coming over to surround them...
"My God... How many do they have?" Dadaneier sighed.
"God knows... This is a forest, how big is the frozen forest? How many trees are there? 100,000 trees? 200,000? Hell..."Du-Wei cursed, "But why didn't they attack instead of standing there? What are they waiting for..."
Indeed, these Treants are waiting for something.
Soon, a heavy tremor like foot step sound was coming closer from further away. Du-Wei could even feel a heavy oscillation on the ground. Suddenly, the large group of Treants separated apart and formed an opening like a road. A gigantic being was walking in a low speed towards them within the crowd of trees.
Du-Wei's first impression was "This thing is so fucking BIG!"
If the other Treants were considered giants….. Then this guy is a giant among giants.
From Du-Wei's visual assessment, this thing is at least seven to eight-stories-high. The whole body torso was dark and hard, covered in dry and old bark, it was like rusty metal. As it walked, the branches produced a rustling sound due to the lush foliage on its body.
Du-Wei noticed, this biggest tree in appearance was very close to a "human" because its roots has been clearly divided into two branch forks like that of a person's leg. As for its body's trunk, it was clearly like that of the English letter "Y" shape and the side branches were forked out like a human's finger.
Du-Wei saw the Treants "hand", on the finger hung a large round vine shape thing... As if it was a horn?
The most surprising thing was actually on the trunk of the tree; there is a "face"!
There's a sharp bump like that of a nose, below it was an opening curving sideways. The bark around that area was very thick, like that of a lip….
All other Treants acted as if they are afraid of this big guy, putting themselves up behind it. "Seems like this guy is the leader of the Treants." Du-Wei thought.
"Y-o-u…." This chief of the Treants sent out a rich and deep voice, although very jerky, Du-Wei still managed to make out the words of the human language...
Heck, it could actually speak the common language of the Roland continent?
"What… Is… Your… Reason… To… Kill… My… Companions…" The sound of each word echoed in the forest while the deep and rich voice still carried the taste of anger.
Du-Wei steeled his nerve and ventured out of the rock cover. Watching the big guy, he shouted. "It was you who attacked us first!"
"You … … Did … … Not… … Follow … … The … … Agreement!" The Treant leader was very angry, even the tree Crown was shaking. Evil … … Eye … … Tyrant … … Promised … … … … Each … … Ten years … … Will … … Allow … … Us … … To … … Enter … … The … … Valley … … One time … … !"
It sounds as if they are interrogating him. "Today is … The … Ten years … … … … Agreement date, why … Do … You want to … … Massacre … … My … … Tribal men … …. At … The Canyon … … Entrance? Can it be … … Evil Eye Tyrant … … Again … Want… To … Stir up … … War … … With … … … … The … … Treants!"
Ten years? Agreement date? Evil Eye Tyrant? War?
Du-Wei immediately understood… … This is probably a misunderstanding.
Seeing the leader of the Treants about to start raging, Du-Wei immediately stood up straight and shouted. "Wait, can I ask a question?"
The Treant Leader looked at Du-Wei.
Du-Wei took a deep breath and then laughed in the mildest tone. "Excuse me, you said the Evil Eye Tyrant, what is it? I'm not familiar with such a thing."
Once said, the Treants and the three men were silent. Luckily the Treants had no eyes, or else it would have been a wonderful "wide eyes staring scene.
"You … Are … Not … Men's … Of … The … Evil Eye Tyrant?"
"No, I've never heard of this name." Du-Wei replied.
"That … … You … … Is … … I'm sorry?"
Du-Wei jumped out from behind the rock with open arms. Then, with a smile, he tidied his body before speaking. "You have to ask? We're humans; you've never seen a human?"
The Treant leader was silent for a while before taking a few steps forward with its sturdy and thick legs, then bending its body slightly down to carefully inspect Du-Wei. After a moment, the Treant leader once again stood up straight and spoke with a hint of joy in its voice. "Oh, you … … Are … … Human! I … … Remember … … Humans … … From a long time … … Ago … … A … … Human … … Friend … … Taught … … Me … … Speech..."
The Treant leader may be slow, but from the tone of its voice, Du-Wei could tell it was not stupid. In a quick turnaround, the Treant leader's voice changed from joy, back to anger as it spoke. "But … … You … … Hurt … … My … … Companion!"
"It was your companions who attacked us first." Du-Wei seemed to believe the Treants could be easily bullied, "We were just standing here. Then your allies appeared and started throwing stones at us."
"Hmmm … …" The Treant leader muttered some low sounding words, seemingly in thought. Afterwards, it cried out in a loud voice, "Very well … … It … … was … My … Companions … … First … …"
His slow speaking style caused Du-Wei to feel impatient and annoyed. "In that case, can we go now?"
"No … …" The Treant leader was inadequate in his word, but soon found the most suitable words to express his meaning. "Compensation!!"
Compensation? Du-Wei thought and thought… … Compensation for the seventy to eighty Treants that were blown into pieces by Hussein? How or what can he compensate with? With gold coins? But what would a Treant need gold for?
Do we have to pay life with life? Chop down a few trees and we get sentenced to death? Where in the world is there such logic?
Anyways, no matter how Du-Wei thought about it, he felt his side was in the right. After all, their group was just standing here before the Treants appeared. Without provocation, the Treants first started throwing huge stones capable of mashing a person to death. They only retaliated in self-defense….. How can they just stand here and let the group of Treants kill them?
However, it is clear, the slow and stubborn Treant leader was not speaking logical and fair. Du-Wei spent a moment in thought and recalled the topic from before. Immediately, Du-Wei had an idea. "Dear Treant Sir. Excuse me, did you say Evil Eye Tyrant, could you explain what is going on? I heard you mention war?"
...
The Treant is not an eligible and qualified speaker. Its slow and deep voice was like the old fashioned folks from Du-Wei's past life. These kinds of folks could cause a simple and short subject to take so long that the sun would go down before making things clear.
Du-Wei speculated.
From the Treant leader's word, this land and the whole frozen forest territory belonged to the Treant tribe. This knowledge made him think the Treant leader was only bragging because they have already been in the forest for a few days and he has never seen a tree able to survive in this place.
Oh, by the way, the heavy guy introduced himself and it had a name that is commensurate with its status, "Greenwood."
In Greenwood's words, it was born in this land, living in this land; it is a standard and pure Treant.
Du-Wei did not care whether there is any so-called "pedigree" in the Treants lineage, but what Greenwood (Treant Leader) said did intrigue him.
First of all, the large groups of Treants standing in front of them are not real Treants. The only real Treant is Greenwood and he claimed the only real Treant left on this land was him. As for the companions around him, they were all awakened by the horn wrapped around his tree vine hand.
Du-Wei speculated that the so-called companions actually mean subordinates.
The horn's name "natural horn", gave Du-Wei a magical sense of feeling. The heirloom of the Treants, passed on from generation to generation. Once blown, the horns sound will awaken all the surrounding trees and make them into "Companions" that will wait for commands.
And the Treants tribal heritage surprised Du-Wei. They had no gender distinctions, and their heritage was through the "natural horn."
The probable case is using the "natural Horn" to awaken the "Companions" at the beginning with no intelligence or self-awareness. At this stage, they would only act by the orders of the real Treant and perform only simple actions.
"But why did they attack us?" Du-Wei questioned.
Old Greenwood's answer to Du-Wei's question made him regret asking. The Evil Eye Tyrant has been destroying the forest, so the trees all hated this guy, and they all thought the three of you stationed at the valley entrance were subordinates of the Evil Eye Tyrant. They are not able to distinguish what is a human….. So forgive these non-consciousness Treants?
When first awakened, a Treant wouldn't have any self-consciousness. In a small chance, with years of growth, they will slowly develop self-consciousness. Such occurrences are very rare and only a small number of "Companions" would truly become a real "Treant".
According to what he said, there was originally a few real Treant in this forest. The numbers of this tribal race wasn't much, only around 3 to 5. The saying that Treants are a sparsely populated race, made Du-Wei feel helpless and annoyed. There are clearly trees everywhere, but the numbers that could truly become real Treants are simply too little. Most of these will forever remain in the stage of lacking self-awareness.
Originally out of the 3 to 5 Treants, Greenwood was the oldest. According to his words, they have been happily living in this forest because they had no natural enemies. Whether it was magical beasts, or simply something else entirely, they were no threat to them.
Until one day…..
A power and evil existence came to this "beautiful, harmonious" place. (Old Greenwood's words) That guy is called "evil eye tyrant", he robbed the most valuable asset belonging to the Treants and that is this Canyon!
Although this forest has an infinite expanse of land, this small Canyon is indispensable to the Treant race!
Because… … In this Canyon, there is an heirloom treasure related to the Treant family, passed on from one generation to the next. It is a pity that this treasure has been confiscated by the Evil Eye Tyrant.
What's more maddening is that when the angry Treants came with their "Companions" to find the evil guy and argue with him, the Evil Eye Tyrant used his strong magical powers to kill Old Greenwoods peers. Out of the original 3 to 5 real Treants, only one was left and the rest was killed by the Evil Eye tyrant. What's even worse was that this guy used the body remains to erect his own palace inside this very Canyon.
Angry Old Greenwood blew the "natural Horn" and gathered a large number of his "Companions" together in an attack on the Canyon, but the Treants weren't able to win against the powerful Evil Eye Tyrant. The strong presence of this evil used his magic to drive around the magical beasts in the Canyon! Even undead ghouls and spirits would crawl out from the ground! Faced with such monsters, Old Greenwood lost many of his "Companions".
Fortunately, this is the forest, and Old Greenwood can call forth an endless number of "Companions". No matter what, the Evil Eye Tyrant still had a doubt of hesitation. Finally, under a stalemate, the two sides managed to reach a truce agreement.
Old Greenwood requested the return of the Canyon, but the Evil Eye Tyrant refused. Finally, under the agreement by both sides, the Treants will be allowed to enter the Canyon once each ten years.
"What is there at the end of the Canyon?" Du-Wei was even more interested in this after listening to the story.
"The Fountain of…. Life" Old Greenwood replied, "Source….. of the Treant race's continuation!"
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