12

A psychotic smile spread across my face as I was yanked into the fray. I'd been itching to beat something to death since the trees had beat me early on this floor. I wasn't strong enough to kill these trees at the moment so the only payback I was getting for that beating was the smaller beasts. Safe to say they weren't prepared for the beating I unleashed. My strength was more then enough for me to do a massive amount of damage in a very short amount of time. 

Impaling them was my quickest way of getting rid of them, but beating them to death was so much fun. The hilts of the soul fangs were still hard metal. They just didn't have actual blades when I lacked mana. I didn't know what kind of metal it was. I wanted more weapons like these. 

Maybe some that had some actual blades. Then I'd have some metal that could hold up to my new level of strength, and it would actually last long enough for me to keep it for a while. Unlike my other weapons that often broke. I didn't have anymore time to muse about it when another set of teeth clamped into the back of my neck. I gripped it's jaw with one hand. 

Preventing it from clamping down on the back of my neck. I yanked it off of my neck, and forced it into a chokehold. Strangling the life out of this creature with one hand as I beat another one half to death with the hilt of my blade. The other beasts were looking for footing as the tree roots beneath me thrashed angrily. I could feel the spikes digging into my back as I was tossed around. 

The branches couldn't reach quite low enough to get me. I smirked to myself as I continued to get slashed, and scratched. I had no intention of allowing them to kill me. My armor was working well enough that the scratches that did get through weren't deep. This armor wouldn't last too long. 

Maybe two or three floors if I was lucky. For now I would have to just deal with what I had. Lot's of trouble, and minimal ability to fight back. I got my foot planted on top of another beast's head as it rushed in to attack. I shoved hard against the beast's head. 

Sliding free of the roots, and finding my back on solid ground with roots above me. I shoved the one I was beating up into the underside of the angry root above me. The root snapped down on us both with a significant amount of force. Blood poured all over me as the beast in my grip was impaled. The one I'd been strangling was forgotten. 

I scanned what I could see as I strained against the weight of the root that was constricting on top of me. I grabbed a spike, and yanked myself out of trouble. The spike formed more smaller spikes on itself, and those were actually sharp enough to cut into me. The trees were changing what they were doing as well. Becoming more hostile. 

What I found odd was how far I'd moved. I hadn't interacted with most of the trees I was pissing off now. Did the forest as a whole adapt? That suggested that the whole forest was a single organism. Just like the fluffy monsters they learned. 

This forest was a huge problem in the making. The longer I messed with it the more trouble it would become. I wondered if the forest just learned to adapt to movements. If it developed immunities then I wouldn't be able to destroy this forest even if I wanted to. This entire forest was probably the boss monster, and all the floaty poodle assholes were the diversion. 

If all these floors followed the same pattern then I was going to run into more, and more problems. I needed to plan for big near impossible boss monster one after another. That meant upping my stats as much as possible was a must for the near future. I continued to used the branches, and roots as my own personal moving weapons. Bounding off of them as they writhed. 

Abandoning any thoughts of stabbing for the time being. Using the trees around me to kill all that was in my path. The trees were slowly getting faster. It was like a video game. One of those running ones where it slowly got faster, and faster as you played. 

I moved faster, and faster as the joy of the kill became more intense. I laughed crazily as I jumped around. Using this whole level as my own personal killing ground. The beasts stood no chance. They couldn't predict when I would choose to use my high jump skill instead of the branches. 

Thankfully my high jump skill took a small amount of mana. I could use it fairly regularly without a problem even with my mana struggling to regenerate. Faster, and faster I went. I didn't worry about the world around me. I was entirely focused on two things alone. 

Where my feet were going to land, and the monster I was grabbing to block the spikes. My footfalls triggered increasingly violent thrashing of roots, and branches. The whole forest was coming alive. Thrashing, and writhing as it struggled to find what was triggering it. I was moving too fast for the forest to keep up. 

The monsters were starting to figure out what I was doing. They were trying to figure out how to attacking me without dying at this point. I was waiting for them too though. I could see them thinking as I set the whole forest off. I hadn't been able to grab one for some time now. 

I was starting to get impatient, but I wasn't stupid enough to go after them while they were grouped up, and waiting for me. I needed to have my blades back before I got too excited. I was a long way away from having enough mana to materialize the mana blades of the soul fangs. I frowned to myself as my fun started to wane. I rushed further into the forest.