14

I knew my mind was playing tricks on me because of the silent stillness of this whole place. The dark wasn't helping either. I could see one of the silent specters that used to haunt my childhood. The tall woman. Her white face, and eyes stared at me from an impossible height in the darkness. 

I knew it was just something my mind was making up. I stared up at my own imagined monster for a long while. Patiently waiting for something to change. My muscles tensed up slowly. Then relaxed just as slowly. 

It was time to free up another one of those mana veins. I didn't know how much of this feverish sludge removing my body could handle before I would need to eat something, but lucky for me food would come to me as long as I made enough noise. I started forcing a thin thread of mana through my clogged mana veins. It hurt, but it was well within what I could handle. I felt it more clearly this time. 

The fresh mana rushing into the barely opened pathway. Knocking the sludge in my mana veins free, and causing my body to heat up like a sidewalk on a hot summer day. That was followed by spots in my vision, and then the vomiting. Once that was done I could think clearly again. My mouth tasted like the shit, and vomit mixed together. 

I wiped off what was left on the corners of my mouth. Now I was definitely thirsty. I jumped out of the hole now that my mana was full. Both arms allowed a quicker mana flow now that more of the veins were open. I wanted to test out the expanded flow. 

There was a significant difference. I wouldn't know what that difference was until I tested it out. I readied the soul fangs in my grip. Jumping into the air, and slashing at the nearest branch with all the force I could muster. Activating the blade a few split seconds before the attack landed. 

I felt the difference in mana draw right away. The blade took what it needed to cut through the branch. Which was nearly half of my mana. The tree screeched as the limb was severed. Uprooting itself in anger. 

It's roots looked more like tentacles in the darkness of this floor. The branches arched, and changed form to look more like skeletal hands. A single glowing green eye stared down at me through the branches. What the fuck? This fucking tree has an eye? 

A psychotic smile spread across my face. That eye wasn't covered in the same hard bark the rest of the tree was covered in. I finally had a weak point to work off of now. The problem I had to worry about now was all the branches in my way. I still had a large number of branches to get through, but now that I had a goal to go for I was determined. 

I danced back as the surrounding trees moved away from the one I'd angered. They seemed to decide all at once that this wasn't their problem. The only tree that was concerned with me was the one I'd cut a limb off of. I was glad. Just cutting off one limb had taken half my mana. 

I needed to get to that eye without wasting anymore mana. High jump was my best chance. I just needed to figure out how to dodge all those limbs on the way. The tree didn't give me much time to think of how to counter it before slamming it's limbs down on where I used to be standing. It was way faster now that it was looking at me. 

Before I could keep up with them fairly easily, but now I was barely fast enough to survive. I sprinted through the clearing. Using every inch of the space to survive. These fucking trees were a strength build for sure. Each strike was far more powerful then I expected. 

Cutting through large swaths of ground as if it were made of butter. I felt weak for the millionth time since entering the dungeon. Faced with monster after monster that I couldn't kill without some serious strategy. Chills of pure joy ran through my body as I rushed into battle. I sidestepped, and bolted through attack after attack as I looked for an opening. 

Any opening big enough for me to cut my way through. I didn't see any opening I could use. I tried to rush around behind the tree only to find that the tree had a second eye on the back of it. That meant it had a full three hundred, and sixty degree view of the world around it. The only places it couldn't see were directly above or directly below. 

Neither were good places to attack. The roots ripped up the ground from below, and the branches protected it from above. Getting through such an ironclad defense was near impossible. If I was willing to take a hit or two then I should be able to get through. Aim for the eyes was my current plan. 

I chained high jumps together suddenly. Changing the pattern I'd maintained until now. The tree wasn't prepared for the sudden change or the fact that I was headed straight for it's eye. The soul fang in my right hand ignited as I pushed flaming mana through into the blade. Several branches clipped my as I flew through the air. 

The soul fangs slammed into the trees bark. Mana started rushing through my arms quickly as the blades tried to bite into the bark. The one in it's eye was coated in powerful flames. The tree screeched again. The bark protected it from the flames, but apparently they were incredibly flammable on this inside. 

The liquid in the eye exploded when it met the flames of my blade. Throwing me back, and clear of the next attack. The whole tree was quickly being doused in flames. Almost as if it's eye was made of gasoline. I heard it when the other eye popped.