Ultimate Level 1 - Chapter 143: Battle In the Trees

“Can you dodge or protect yourselves if I set you down?” Max yelled as he moved back toward the middle of the clearing.

“I can make some air walls. They should hold!” Tanila replied, her voice going up and down as his shoulder rammed into her stomach as he ran.

“Be ready! Fowl, protect them!”

After Max quickly deposited the women at his feet while another limb crashed into one of the last three openings, he grabbed the log in the center of the clearing and heaved.

It lifted easier than he had thought. Ignoring the smaller branches that brushed against his face, Max took a step and tossed it as best as he could toward the side of the clearing. It flew, spinning twice before slamming into a tree and the limb the boss had already deposited.

“SHIELD!”

Max turned to see a limb aimed toward the three behind him. It bounced off the air wall Tanila had created, sending it into the trees and limbs to their left.

“It held!”

Just how much stronger are her spells now?

Max pulled an axe from his storage and ran to one of the limbs the boss had blocked them in, swinging downward with everything he had. The axe cleaved through the log, cutting it in half with ease. Putting the axe away, he pushed the two pieces apart, creating a gap between them.

A roar, followed by some chest-beating, came from above. Max spun and looked.

The foliage thinned out towards the inner part of the clearing, and Max could see the boss moving through the treetops, breaking off tiny branches as it jumped from tree to tree, trying to find larger branches that would work for its plan.

The trees were about twenty feet apart, and the boss would have to come down lower to find a branch worth using.

“Can you hit the boss with a spell when it comes down?” Max yelled as he ran back to where the others stood.

“Maybe. Right now, the distance is too great, and none of my spells have that kind of range yet. It’s close, but not there,” Tanila replied. “How long do you think it will stay up there?”

Another branch flew toward one of the last two openings, leaving just one more where Max had cut through.

Green leaves and small branches continued to rain down as the boss moved around above them.

“Max, go cut down that tree!” Tanila exclaimed as she pointed to one.

“I can’t! It may fall on us!”

“I’ll deal with that. Just cut it down. Trust me!”

Max moved without hesitation, taking the axe he had looted from the ogres back out.

He swung once, removing a three-foot section and causing the tree to groan. A massive log from above made it hard for Max to get into position. Cracks and groans came from the tree as Max repeatedly chopped at an impossible speed.

What a [ Lumberjack ] wouldn’t give for this strength and axe…

There was a snap and crack, and Max jumped toward the clearing. A stone wall rose and pushed against the tree, pushing it toward the outer circle.

The tree began to fall, then crashed into the second ring of trees behind it.

“It’s pissed!” Fowl shouted as he kept his head turned upward.

Looking up, Max saw the boss standing on a branch about two hundred and fifty yards and pounding its chest with one hand while holding onto the tree’s trunk.

“Again!” Tanila shouted. “The one next to it!”

Max smiled and moved, his axe felling the tree in less than five chops and Tanila’s stone wall pushing it to join the first one outside of the ring.

A crashing sound from above him made Max look up, to see another massive branch bouncing off an air shield and tumbling into the forest.

“Again!”

Five more trees went down, opening up a section of the treeline and cutting off the boss’s ability to navigate around them easily. The falling trees had damaged many of the others, and it appeared the boss was now having to move lower, only two hundred feet above them, and struggling to break off the limbs it used to move around.

“It will be coming soon!” Tanila shouted. “Be ready!”

“What’s the plan?” Fowl asked. “Besides not dying?”

“That’s all I got for now,” Tanila replied.

Max could see she wasn’t as tired as earlier. With less death coming from above, she didn’t have to cast an air wall as often.

“Over there, those three!” Tanila pointed to their right. “We’ll box it in and force it to come down or back off to another ring of trees.”

Running across the clearing, Max smiled as he looked at Batrire, who rolled her eyes.

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“You two are breaking this, and I can only imagine what the dungeon must think about it.”

We are breaking this… first the spider and now the boss floors. Could that be why we faced this so soon?

Trying to stay focused, Max had two more trees down and was working on the third when Fowl shouted.

“It’s coming down!”

Racing back to the clearing, Max glanced up at the boss, who would have been blocked in if the third tree had been taken down. It would only have eleven trees to move around, and Max would take them down until it was stuck.

Now, it was almost within a hundred feet of them. As Max got closer to his team, he saw what it was going to do.

“Spread out! It’s jumping!”

Batrire and Fowl took off in one direction while Max raced in the same direction as Tanila.

Unlike the rest, Tanila slowly moved backward with a grin.

A horrible sound came from above, and Max looked up to see that the boss’s face had been impacted by an air wall about fifty feet from the ground, sending it falling backward.

It slammed into the ground on its back, bouncing once and shaking the ground from the impact.

Max was only a few yards from one of the boss’s feet, so he planted his feet quickly and changed directions, swinging the axe he still held.

A one-foot-long gash appeared on the bottom of the creature’s foot, cutting into but not through the heavily calloused appendage.

The boss roared, and its foot lashed out toward Max, who tried to parry the attack with the axe and was sent tumbling in the process.

[ Regeneration ]

His broken arm began to shift back into place as he got up, wincing from the pain as the bones adjusted. The boss started to stand when a boulder appeared from nowhere and slammed into its face, sending its head crashing into the ground.

Max dropped the axe, pulled out his halberd, and held it in his left hand, waiting for his right arm to heal.

A green glow covered him and everything popped back into place as Batrire tossed him a heal.

Racing across the ten yards between him and the boss, Max saw a massive spear of ice fly from Tanila and impale the boss through its left armpit.

The ape roared, its left arm covered in ice while a massive hole thicker than Fowl began to crack as the boss moved its arm.

“Four more spells!” Tanila shouted. Max began casting his Fire Nova, knowing it wouldn’t do much damage, but any was better than none. Once Max arrived at the boss, he set his hips and slashed at the foot again, aiming for the same cut he had made before. His weapon skill placed the strike at the exact angle it needed to be, and he filleted the boss’s foot like a fisherman gutting a fish.

A huge gash, over a foot deep, opened up from the slash, and blood gushed as the boss cried out in pain.

Max rolled and stood up, dodging the kick he was expecting this time. His Fire Nova went off as he slashed his weapon into the boss’s ankle.

It cut deep, another gash, hitting the bones and shattering them as fire licked at the boss’s skin and hair.

“TWO MORE!”

Max had thought the smell of burnt flesh and hair was from his Fire Nova going off. He had missed seeing a fireball five times bigger than any he had witnessed before striking the boss’s face.

Lightning surged through the boss as Tanila’s spell impacted with its chest. The metal armor did nothing to stop the damage as it arced through it, causing the boss to tremble and shake.

Max could tell the boss was weakening because it was barely moving as Tanila unleashed power greater than he had ever imagined upon it.

He ran beside the boss, holding his halberd out and jabbing the blade into its side. As he ran, he sliced the side open, hearing the sound of its lungs struggling to breathe.

Suddenly, the boss’s left hand fell from its arm as it reached towards him.

Max had sensed the spell, but there had been no visual effects he had just witnessed.

A goddamn invisible air spell?!

The boss’s arm pulled back up, and as it did, an ice bolt as big as the last hit the same spot on its armpit, this time going deeper and causing the entire body on the left side to freeze.

“I’m out!” Tanila shouted.

Max could hear the exhaustion in her voice and knew the rest was up to him.

Jumping from the ground onto the boss’s chest, Max almost winced at the sight before him. The ape’s face was burnt beyond recognition, and two of its massive canines were gone, most likely shattered from either the wall of air or the boulder that had crushed it.

Blood was coming from its nose and mouth as it struggled to breathe.

Its right arm was raised but barely moving as it slowly approached him.

Running across its chest, Max prepared to end it.

[ Power Strike ]

His weapon glowed as he leaped at the boss’s face, driving the spiked tip through the closed eyelid and into the boss’s brain.

It shuddered for a moment before going still.

Cold power rushed through him, and Max held onto the weapon buried inside the boss as he jerked from the force that overwhelmed him.

[ Bonus Consumed Stat ]

[ 6 Strength Consumed ]

[ 6 Constitution Consumed ]

[ 6 Dexterity Consumed ]

[ Consume has successfully Consumed a skill]

[ Skill does not match beings body type ]

[ Consume is adjusting skill ]

[ Would you like to learn [Rampage]?]

[ Yes / No]

His eyes watered as his whole body felt the changes take place inside him. He blinked, trying to clear his vision as the cold effect faded, and realized that, for the first time ever, he had consumed three different stats at the same time.

Then, the skill seemed to beckon him to accept, but he needed a moment to recover first.

Panting, Max glanced at the creature beneath him, unsure of what he should do or try to harvest.

Tanila almost killed this thing on her own…

“Seth! Quickly, cut something off!”

Yanking his weapon free, Max saw the eyeball he had stabbed was worthless and glanced over to the other eye, storing his weapon as he did.

Pushing up the eyelid and holding it in place with his foot, Max thrust his hands into the socket and wrapped his arms around the eyeball. It came out, the long nerve attached to it dangling beneath.

He tossed it to the side and pulled out his knife to quickly sever the cord, then stored it all before turning to the rest of the body.

It was already starting to dissolve, and the only thing he saw close by was a fang jutting out from its upper lip.

Grabbing it in both hands and planting his feet on the boss’s jaw, he yanked, falling backward as the two-foot-long tooth came free. The boss’s head started to dissolve into the same glowing lights as always, causing Max to fall onto the ground on his back, holding his trophy.

“What did you get?” Fowl shouted.

Sitting up, Max saw the dwarf holding the hand that Tanila had cut off.

“Seems like yours is bigger than mine after all,” Max replied.

“Was there any doubt?” Fowl asked.