Escape

"Don't come any closer!" #4 yelled, seeing Treevor running towards him. He fired several fireballs at once while moving as far away as possible.

Treevor swung the whip trying to crush him, but he rolled to the side and dodged. Even so, the shock wave still sent him flying, where Treevor's left fist slammed into his abdomen, sending him crashing back to the ground.

#4 vomited a lot of blood, but didn't lose focus and plunged both daggers into the side of Treevor's wrist. The daggers' enchantments activated, heating the blades until they turned red. The blades sank halfway into his wrist before #4 used the weapon break, causing them to explode inside his wrist.

"You damn human!" Treevor screamed not in pain but in rage, seeing half of his wrist go black from the blast. He jerked his arm back before hitting it again, crushing #4's outer bone and his organs exploding under the pressure.

"How troublesome." Treevor muttered, activating a healing enchantment around his wrist, the blackened wound healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. He looked at the enemies casting spells at his armor in a futile effort, when he noticed that two of them were gone.

"Where did they-" Treevor wondered, before cuts appeared where his ankles should have been, the wound quickly catching fire. Treevor looked back and saw two of the mage slayers behind him with their concealment effect active. His spiritual senses could detect them when he concentrated, but #4 distracted him with the explosion.

#6 and #8 tried to slash again to deepen the wound and take him down, but a pulse of amber energy shot out of the gem in his chest and flowed up to the spikes on his back, before shooting them off like a shotgun blast, destroying everything behind him.

#6 activated the steel body skill, an upper version of the bronze body, in addition to the suit's defensive enchantment, but the spikes were physical in nature and charged with energy, so the mana dispersion had almost no effect. #8 was smarter and jumped back from #6, using him as a human shield.

The quills pierced #6's entire body, making him look like a hedgehog for a moment, before blood seeped from all the wounds and he fell forward like a puppet with its strings cut.

"How much longer, Captain Emilia???" #8 asked desperately, seeing Treevor's gaze flick to him. He even forgot to speak quietly over the communicator he was so nervous, revealing his plan to the enemy as if he were a beginner.

He focused all of his attention on Treevor and successfully dodged the whip attack and the shock wave afterwards, but failed to react to the attack from behind. One of the spheres of light from the falling stars hit him in the right knee from behind, breaking his knee in a horrible state.

"AHHH!!" #9 screamed in pain as he fell to the ground clutching his knee, but Treevor paid him no attention, lashing out with the whip without even looking, focusing his attention on Emilia. He looked closely at her until he saw a purple crystal in her hand. He immediately recognized that crystal as a teleportation crystal and rushed to stop she before it was too late.

"How much time??" Gaius and Finn placed themselves in front of her, casting a spell together to try to delay Treevor as long as possible. They hadn't actively participated in the fight so far, wanting to stay close to Emilia to avoid being left behind when the crystal was ready.

The combined spell created a barrier of black rock 10 meters wide and 6 meters high. The earth element made him tough and the darkness dampened the damage of anything that hit him, but it wouldn't last longer than 3 seconds against Treevor. But 3 seconds was more than enough.

"Almost there!" Emilia yelled back, seeing the crystal almost full.

"No, you won't run away!!" Treevor yelled from the other side of the wall, his voice clearly shaken. The whip in his right hand reverted to spear form, a layer of whirling light forming around turning it into a drill, before hitting the stone wall.

The spear slammed against the wall with a thud and pierced it a second later, aiming precisely at Emilia's heart. It only took a second for the crystal to fill, but it looked like she would die before then. As a last desperate effort, she tried to pull the crystal away from her body, to ensure it wouldn't be damaged and what was left of her allies could survive, but it was an unnecessary effort.

"NO!!!" Gaius yelled, throwing himself in front of the spear. He activated the sword's enchantment, causing a layer of rock to grow around it, until it resembled a bastard sword, activated the suit's enchantment, used a defensive ability, and covered himself in stone armor with what little mana he had left, but nothing worked.

The sword was split in half, the stone armor was destroyed soon after. The mana scatter enchantment lessens the power of the light drill, but did nothing to counter the brute force behind the blow. His body was impaled by the wooden spear, but he planted his feet on the ground thanks to the immobile fortress skill, preventing the spear from going any further and reaching Emilia.

The skill increased the hardness of his entire body, but prevented him from moving. "Get us out of here, now!" Gaius screamed, blood leaking from the corners of his lips.

"OK!" Emilia screamed, seeing the purple crystal finally complete. A purple glow spread around him until it formed a perfect purple sphere around him before disappearing, leaving nothing behind. Even the ground was teleported away, forming a symmetrical hole in the ground.

"SHIT!" Now alone in the underground cavern, Treevor screamed in frustration, seeing his enemy manage to flee right under his nose. He kicked the ground in frustration, causing the cavern to shake until his anger passed. The tip of his spear had been cut off, but he could easily regenerate it, so it wasn't a problem.

"What should I do now? They're going to report my existence, so I need to get away from here. But where should I go?" Treevor wondered, before sudden tiredness hit him and he felt lethargic. He hurriedly glanced at the gem in his chest and saw that amber energy was leaking out, filling the room with world energy.

The mage slayers hadn't noticed, but the inside of the amber gem was cracked, and the measures Treevor had taken to seal the leak had broken from the struggle. It was as if a newly operated patient had tried to run a marathon, causing his stitches to reopen.

"No, no, no! Not now!" Treevor began to despair, quickly canceling his transformation. His body knelt on the ground and his eyes lost their luster, before his chest opened and a naked elf stepped out of it. Or rather, something like an elf came out of it.

The lower body, the left side of the upper body was that of an elf, the problem was the right side. The right side of his body had green skin, with brown tree bark covering his forearms, shoulders, and ribs. The right side of his face was green, his right eye had no iris, pupil or eyelid, it looked like an amber ball.

The left side of her hair was as white as snow, while the right side was vine leaves. This was Treevor's true body. The "titan" he used was just something he controlled when he needed to fight.

"Return to your normal form, quick!" Treevor spoke, causing the plant monster to change shape. Its leg-shaped roots elongated and sank into the ground, spreading throughout the underground. Its arms split into several branches and spread all over the trunk, while its head disappeared. The spines on the back, the flower bud and the amber bud were absorbed and the overall size of the tree increased, until a huge willow tree appeared in the middle of the hole.

As the roots connected with the roots of the other trees and the entire forest in general, the gem's energy stopped leaking, causing Treevor to heave a relieved sigh.

"That should fix it, but I'm back to square one. The crack has reopened, so I won't be able to get out anymore. I'm stuck here, while those bastards definitely came back with reinforcements." Treevor muttered before ducking his head, anger and frustration taking over his mind.