Collapse!

About a minute later, the tree creature seemed to sense something amiss and started wildly lashing the ground with its vines.

These red vines were not the kind that could be cut with a knife. Their color alone was menacing, and the vines were incredibly tough and flexible.

Maxwell looked over and saw that each of two vines was entwining a single person.

On the ground, Floyd was swinging a knife, battling the vines. Behind him stood three students from Supreme Hall, each armed and fighting the vines while staying alert.

"Wow, caught just like that, huh!" Maxwell sneered for a moment before shifting his focus back to the screen before him.

...

"This tree creature is powerful! How can it react so quickly! Don't stray too far from me, you three!" Floyd shouted as he fought the vines.

Above, the fighter jet began another round of machine gun fire, trying to add pressure on the tree creature. Missiles were also fired intermittently, forcing the tree to deploy more vines for defense.

Despite this, the tree's vines seemed inexhaustible, continuously surging forward and forcing Floyd to retreat step by step.

"Help! Floyd!" Suddenly, one of the students screamed desperately.

But his voice faded away, becoming inaudible in the end.

Clearly, he had been carried away by the vines.

After a while, another student was swept away from Floyd's side by the vines.

"Aubrey, I'll break us out!" Floyd suddenly said.

Aubrey was shocked, "Father, you're leaving them?"

"What else can I do? I'm doing well to get you out! This Red Fortress has deep connections with Lady Aileen, and nobody wants to deal with this. If it weren't for you being in this squad, I definitely wouldn't have come back! No more talk, we don't have much time! Aubrey, stay behind me!"

Aubrey fell silent, stumbling as he followed Floyd, struggling to make his way outward.

Suddenly, several more vines shot out. Floyd, overwhelmed, could only watch helplessly as Aubrey was swept away by the vines.

...

Meanwhile, Maxwell, who was intently focused on the screen, exclaimed, "That's it!"

A fiery red "heart" appeared on the screen.

Indeed, the heart of the tree creature was hidden where the vines were thickest.

At that moment, the Tier 1 female zombie also arrived.

While the vines were busy fighting with the fighter jet and Floyd's group, and capturing the students from Supreme Hall, they completely ignored the zombie right in front of them.

"Even so, if the zombie attacks the heart, the tree creature will surely retaliate, right?" Maxwell mused. He carefully directed the Tier 1 zombie to search around, and it circled the inner chamber, finally finding a small crevice.

Maxwell called over the Level 8 zombie, instructing them to work together to pry the crevice wider.

Just then, a vine suddenly lashed out, flinging the Level 8 zombie away.

It seemed that Aileen's restrictions set for the tree creature were ineffective when its own safety was threatened.

"This guy seems to still be of some use!" Maxwell noted, seeing Floyd on the ground.

After seeing Aubrey carried away by the vines, Floyd erupted into a dark, frenzied state.

On the fighter jet, the remaining three missiles were ready to be launched.

Floyd summoned all his energy, swinging his long sword and stirring up a whirlwind on the ground, which coalesced into a massive black tornado.

"Wow, what a grand display! His abilities must be related to wind," Maxwell observed.

The tornado grew larger and wider, and then, with a loud shout, Floyd pointed his long sword at the tree creature.

The black tornado surged toward the tree creature.

"The spectacle is certainly impressive, but I wonder about its actual power."

"No, his goal might just be to paralyze the tree creature. The real force could be those missiles," Maxwell analyzed.

Beside him, Eva and Carline stood to his left and right, both intently watching the battlefield.

As expected, as the tornado approached, the vines were put under significant pressure.

At that moment, the three missiles from the fighter jet came roaring in, targeting the great tree—this was Floyd's best opportunity!

It was also Maxwell's best opportunity!

"Begin!" Maxwell commanded.

The tree creature swung all its vines to meet the three incoming missiles.

Sensing the threat to its life drawing near, this moment of life and death, the tree creature naturally fought back fiercely.

Following Maxwell's order, the Tier 1 female zombie on the tree quickly drew her long knife, viciously stabbed it into the crevice among the vines, widened it, and then curled up and squeezed inside.

The tree creature sensed this too, and a vine followed into the gap.

Inside the spherical space, the Tier 1 female zombie saw a thing tightly wrapped in blood-red thin vines hanging in the center.

"That's it!" Maxwell issued the command to attack.

Although the vine had caught up, it was too late.

The Tier 1 female zombie raised her knife and slashed directly at the red object.

The tree creature visibly trembled.

The red vines moved frantically, blocking the three incoming missiles in the air.

The missiles exploded consecutively in the air, and Floyd was struck by a vine and sent flying, crashing to the ground, violently spewing blood.

"How could this be!" The tree creature suddenly went berserk, something Floyd had not anticipated.

But what happened next was even more baffling to Floyd.

The trunk of the tree creature violently trembled, and then countless roots burst from the ground. These roots, acting like the feet of the tree creature, tore through the foundation of the Red Fortress in an instant as they emerged.

The vines swung even more wildly, striking Floyd a few more times by chance, causing him to spew several mouthfuls of blood.

"Has it gone mad?" Floyd, already severely injured, was thrown to the ground again, struggling to rise.

With all his strength, he rolled over and looked forward.

The giant tree creature, which had just been in a frenzy, seemed as if its life force had been instantly drained. The once firm and agile vines wilted and drooped, and the massive tree seemed to lose its support and crashed to the ground with a thunderous fall.

Floyd stared dumbfounded at everything happening.

...

"Let's go! We're going to collect the spoils!" Maxwell stepped towards the fallen tree creature.

Eva and Carline followed behind him, while the Tier 5 mutated male zombie had already been taken back into Maxwell's space.

The forest had been almost entirely burned, with flying ash everywhere.

As Maxwell entered the forest, he couldn't help but frown and, reluctantly, took Eva and Carline back into the space.

He wasn't bothered by the ash, but he didn't want Eva and Carline to get dirty.