Capítulo 239: Chapter 239. Ruthlessness.
After the surroundings stopped trembling, Elowen looked around to check if anyone had fallen into the holes that opened. As she checked her surroundings, Liu Shu's roots took a few people and dragged them away, making Elowen's eyebrow twitch. 'She is really not stopping for a single second. How many have fallen dead to her already?'
"Don't stop protecting our people! We have a hostile forest around us!"
Elowen forgot her intention of entering the tunnels. Clearly, the World Tree was prepared to sink the entire place if they dared go underground to entomb them. However, Elowen shouted. "Each time someone gets dragged off, we'll stop and dig the place. Have those spells prepared and ready to go at all times!"
With that order, Elowen basically warned Liu Shu, saying, "Okay, I won't go underground. However, if you dare use the sinkholes, I'll excavate the entire place myself."
Liu Shu was clever, so she understood the implications of Elowen's orders. Still, there was something, or, well, two things that Liu Shu had not used with the previous army that invaded her not long ago.
They spotted a relatively clear area as the enemy army approached her city. Elowen's eyes lit up and said. "Quickly, advance toward this area and create a perimeter! We'll rest on the shore of the lake for ten minutes before we continue forward!"
Her orders spread around thanks to the pure energy she placed in her voice.
Liu Shu observed them with extremely tense roots. This place was where her biological mother was, around one-kilometer northwest of the city. At other times, no one really passed through that place due to the high amount of monster activity that gathered around the lake. Elowen had no problems with an army of 10,000… Well, around 9000 by now.
The surroundings of the lake were filled with soldiers in a very short time, making Liu Shu want to strike all of them for staining the grass around her mother.
Liu Shu suddenly received a message. The voice was soothing and gentle, a familiar voice easily recognizable to Liu Shu even among the thousands of voices she heard around her all the time. It was Tree, her mother.
'Attack?'
When she heard her, Liu Shu's core almost snapped in worry. She answered instantly. "No! Don't attack! If you show that you are intelligent, they might kill you just to make sure. Can't you see how many of them there are?"
'Okay~.'
Liu Shu sighed in relief, thinking to herself. 'She really is a bit too brave! What attack can she even do?'
Speaking of Tree, Liu Shu hadn't checked her level for a while. So, while observing the army, she decided to look. 'Huh? Level 22?'
The World Tree looked at the massive Willow Tree that was currently giving shade to a large part of the army with awe. She remembered that when the Golden Sap Forest was still not touched by her presence, the Willow Tree was a Level 14 powerhouse. So, while she was not stunned at her progress, she was definitely impressed.
She couldn't help but glare at the soldiers leaning on Tree. Her desire to kill all of them right then and there was almost too much to bear. However, she resisted. A little bit more, and Elowen's army was going to step right into her trap.
On the walls, Wert asked. "How much longer, Liu Shu?"
Liu Shu spoke in a cold and cutting voice. "500 meters. Once they cross that distance, I'll slaughter them all for placing their dirty feet around Tree."
Everyone listening had a chill going through them. Liu Shu had always been calm, even when explaining her plans. But now, there was an anger impossible to miss behind the World Tree's words.
Thalia looked at Wert and asked. "Um… is 'Tree' the name of someone or something?"
Wert nodded. "It is." He pondered and said. "However, you'll have to ask Liu Shu directly if you want to learn more. As you have heard, Tree is quite a sensitive root for our big lady."
Flor spoke. "Be careful with poking your nose too much into this, though. While 'Tree' sounds like a silly and cute name, coming from a World Tree, it changes a lot. You can imagine how much respect she has toward her to name her the literal essence of her existence."
Thalia, who found the name cute at first, couldn't help but widen her eyes in realization and stunned silence.
Meanwhile, in the lake area, Elowen approached the flower field surrounding the largest willow tree around the lake with a hum. "People in Golden Sap City have probably planted these flowers, right?"
Looking toward the gorgeous Willow Tree, Elowen rubbed her chin and decided to analyze her. 'I can only see its level… Level 22. That's impressive.'
"Lady Elowen! Everyone that remains alive has gathered. We can continue our march."
Elowen looked away from the Willow Tree and asked. "How many soldiers have we lost due to the World Tree's attacks?"
The man gave a bittersweet smile. "We have lost a total of 1134 people, Lady Elowen. Thanks to your threat, we managed to avoid losing a lot of people to the pitfalls, reducing our losses to a fraction of what they would've been."
Elowen nodded and looked at the flower field, asking. "What do you think these large flowers represent?"
The soldier blinked and looked at the tall flowers with drooping heads and thick stems. "I can't guess, Lady Elowen. Is this perhaps the graveyard of the Golden Sap City?"
Elowen answered with a hum. "That's not a bad guess."
"Should we destroy it?"
Elowen frowned and glared at the soldier. "We are in a war, soldier. While we are enemies, desecrating sacred places like this one is something we must not do. We gain nothing from it other than angering our enemies."
Seeing the soldier recoil, she sighed and looked around. Seeing that the people had rested somewhat, Elowen was thoughtful. 'The World Tree has not made a single move while we are here. This place must be important for her. If we desecrate this place, I can imagine that the entire forest will come to life and disregard everything as long as they can tear us apart. It is not an intelligent course of action.'
While Elowen's decision was admirable and would usually be the correct procedure in a similar situation, she would come to regret it very shortly after.
"Depart!"
The remaining 9000 people stood up and began walking toward the Golden Sap City. Their pace was incomparable to before. Liu Shu continued poking the army by trying to drag away soldiers, which pushed Elowen to shout another order. "Gather together! Advance as tightly as possible to avoid the World Tree's attempts!"
Liu Shu looked at everything, her soul and senses tightening and focusing on the area as she ignored everything else. Everything was basically going as she had planned; the only thing left was to give one order to Ignatia.
Liu Shu hesitated. The order she was about to give was too cruel. However, she knew that this was the best option to deal with this army without losing too many irreplaceable people.
With that in mind, Liu Shu took a deep breath while apologizing to Ignatia in her mind and swearing to pay back however she could in the future.
"Ignatia, send all your ants to the battlefield."
Ignatia had been prepared all this time. She was currently standing in the middle of the forest, and behind her, there was a sea of red ants. When Liu Shu's words arrived, Ignatia could hear the slight pain in her big baby's voice. The Ant Queen smiled gently. "Don't blame yourself, love."
Then, her aura wholly changed as a terrifying aura gathered around her body, reaching her throat.
Stomping forward, the Ant Queen howled to the heavens.
SCREEECH!!
Everyone in the forest was momentarily paralyzed by the abhorrent and piercing howl that penetrated everything around.
Simultaneously, Liu Shu's energy exploded and rushed along her roots toward both <Mother Of Thousand Flower Fields>. The ring of flowers around both Liu Shu and Tree came to life, a torrent of ternary essences nourishing and activating every single flower in that area.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The people on the City wall looked skyward, and their hearts tightened when they saw the sky partially darken with the barrage of projectiles crossing the sky. Wert shouted. "Move out!"
Meanwhile, when she heard the horrendous screech, Elowen felt her spine chill and hastily looked around. Her danger senses, honed after centuries of experience, were firing like never before. She felt a sense of approaching death like never before in her life. "STOP! GATHER TOGETHER AND WATCH OUR SURROUNDINGS!"
They looked around and became silent enough to hear the surroundings.
A soldier frowned as a sharp sound entered his ears. "What's that sound?"
The people around also heard a very sharp and increasingly louder sound of pierced air and prepared. One soldier looked skyward, squinting to see beyond the Tree's canopies. "Was the sky this dark before…Huh?'
Liu Shu's voice boomed with her <Mind Echo> to briefly disorient them. "PERISH FOR TOUCHING TREE!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"AHH!"
"GAAHHH!"
"MY ARM! MY ARM!"
"HEALERS! I NEED HEALERS!"
Due to Liu Shu's surprise mental attack, Elowen closed her eyes for a moment. Then, she heard the sound of countless explosions around her, and when she opened her eyes, her heart was shaken by how her surroundings looked. There was blood everywhere, while several hundreds of injured people crawled around with missing body parts. The broken branches and leaves fell around them like rain, as if the forest was weeping at the carnage that just occurred.
Elowen's eyes trembled as she looked at the slaughter that had occurred around her. 'W-What is this?'
Their formation had been tight due to Liu Shu's constant harassment, and the bombardment had been devastating. For starters, the number of deaths was already in the thousands. Not to mention, the injured people who avoided death were in the high hundreds.
This attack had basically crippled a quarter of the entire army.
"Lady Elowen!"
Elowen snapped out of looking at the large scale of Death around her with that shout, and she started screaming orders. "We are being bombarded! Use defensive <Aethermancy>! The Sky! Protect skyward!"
The wails around her didn't stop for a second since many soldiers had injuries that were just too much to bear. Elowen tried to ignore the agonizing screams ringing like a macabre melody while focusing on the now more visible sky. After all, Liu Shu's attack broke most of the branches above them.
Seeing the sky somewhat darken again, her heart dropped and she barked orders without stopping. "ANOTHER WAVE INCOMING! DEFEND! DEFEND! DEFEND!"
She herself took out her sword and slashed skyward, sending a powerful energy beam that blasted away many of the seeds.
This time around, the seeds didn't manage to cause too much damage and only affected the parts of the army that were utterly dysfunctional due to the first attack. Even then, the number of deaths was in the mid-hundreds.
"LADY ELOWEN! WE ARE BEING AMBUSHED!"
Elowen looked around them, and her face fell when she saw a literal red sea moving through the forest. "So many ants? Wasn't the information that there were just one or two thousand of them!? They are at least double our numbers!"
However, Elowen also saw an opportunity in their arrival. "Move toward the ants! The bombardment will stop as long as we are tangled with them!"
Elowen wouldn't have said this if she could feel the deep coldness in Liu Shu's soul as her energy flowed toward the two <Mother Of Thousand Flower Fields>, disregarding Elowen's words.
Ignatia looked from a relatively safe distance and smiled gently. "Goodbye, babies. Make mommy proud." Then, she spoke aloud. "Liu Shu… Shoot."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
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