Treants

The presence of these trees, though beautiful, was impractical for a fortress meant for defence.

If the elves weren't the ones manning this stronghold, it would have been an absurd sight—a forest growing inside a fortified keep.

But for the elves, this greenery was not for decoration, but something far more dangerous.

One of the mage elves standing near the centre reacted upon the sight of the demons suddenly appearing in this part of the fortress.

His cloak billowed as he raised a hand, muttering an incantation under his breath. Magic power filled the air, and the trees around them began to stir.

Suddenly, the once-still trees groaned as their bark split open, revealing glowing eyes and mouths formed from twisted branches. These were no ordinary trees, but Treants—sentient tree guardians, fiercely protective of their elven masters.

The Treants shifted their massive limbs, twisting their branches into thick gnarled fists.

As the trees came to life, the elves scattered in panic. Many of them were simple attendants, supply personnel or scouts, ill-prepared for direct combat.

Their shouts of alarm echoed through the courtyard as they sprinted toward cover. The few elven combatants present were quick to act, drawing their ornate crossbows and unsheathing their curved swords.

Without hesitation, they charged at the demons, losing arrows infused with magic as they closed the distance.

Ilya was the first among the demons to move. She was also the fastest.

Wind pooled at her feet and launched her body forward, allowing her to close the distance and swing her Runeblade, beheading two elves in an instant.

"?!"

'I didn't even see her sword move!'

Xaren couldn't help but be amazed by her speed, but this was only momentary as his focus soon turned to the Treants before him.

The elven mage cast another spell and sensing it, both Xaren and Ilya reacted with recognition, though their expressions were starkly different.

Xaren was calm, but Ilya's stoic expression turned into a frown.

The spell the mage had used was called 'Pack Unity'; one that grouped the Treants into packs and increased the strength and coordination of each pack. Their power, speed and durability were also enhanced as well.

Having seen this spell used by elves before, Xaren recognized it, along with the glaring weakness: the spell functioned by linking the Treants to a single leader, a linchpin among them.

The leader was the source of the buffs that enhanced the entire pack. Take down the leader, and the rest would crumble.

And it seemed that Ilya knew about this weakness as well.

"They are using Pack Unity. Try to get rid of the Leaders!"

But finding the leader was no easy task.

The first problem was that the leaders looked exactly the same as the normal ones. Because of that, not even Ilya who had given the order expected much.

It was very difficult to differentiate the leader at a glance.

What's more, the battlefield was a chaotic mess of movement and sound, with Treants, elves and demons fighting everywhere.

Xaren narrowed his dark red eyes, filtering through the chaos of clashing demons and elves, observing the towering Treants for the subtle clues he'd learned to watch for.

Years of fighting in a brutal five-way war had given Xaren a lot of experience with the techniques and spells commonly used by the races involved—at least in their lower ranks.

From what he knew, the leaders in the Pack Unity spell were never the largest or the most aggressive—those were usually distractions.

Instead, the true leader moved with caution. It didn't charge ahead recklessly, nor did it stay at the front lines for long. While the other Treants fought fiercely, the leader always fell back after a brief exchange, repositioning itself near the middle of the group.

This ensured that the buff it provided could spread evenly across the pack, maintaining the coordination and strength of its allies.

Xaren's gaze flicked to a Treant that stood in the thick of battle but never committed fully to any one fight. While the others swung their massive limbs with abandon, this one seemed to retreat to a more central location whenever it had the chance, its movements measured as it watched over the others.

'That one!'

He charged forward, weaving through the combatants and using the chaos to his advantage.

The moment the Treant stepped into the attack, Xaren was there, striking with his sword. The blade barely pierced the thick wooden hide, a shallow wound opening on its trunk-like body. But that was enough—his demonic energy seeped into the wound, marking it.

The Treant recoiled, retreating once more to its central position within the pack, but Xaren didn't give chase.

Instead, he spun, running up the back of another Treant, and launched himself into the air, lightening his body with gravity manipulation. With his agility enhanced, he darted through the trees like a shadow, leaping between branches with ease.

In mid-air, he spotted another leader among its pack and he used the falling body of an elf as a springboard to launch himself at it, striking again and marking it with a shallow wound.

Like before, the creature pulled back, but Xaren was already gone, leaping toward the next.

He moved like a blur, marking leader after leader. His strikes didn't deal much damage, containing just enough energy to tag them but not enough to be drawn into a prolonged battle.

One particular target, however, threw him off.

As Xaren slashed through the bark of a Treant he believed to be the leader, he leapt away, only for the creature to be felled moments later by another demon's attack.

Xaren paused in mid-air, watching as the other Treants moved—unchanged, unweakened.

"It wasn't the leader?"

Clearly, Xaren's observations hadn't been flawless. With the battlefield in constant flux and his movements never stopping, he couldn't afford the time to confirm every leader. Still, he carried on, marking five more, four of which he got right.

After marking all those he observed as leaders, it was now time to begin attacking.

Turning his attention back to the nearest marked Treant leader, kicked off the ground and dashed forward, using his gravity attraction to pull away the branches of the Treant in front of his target and taking advantage of his small body to jump in through the gap.

Sensing his approach, the Treant leader moved, its vines lashing out but Xaren sliced them into pieces with the sharp edge of his Runeblade.

'Fire Magic: Weapon Infusion.'

Black flames burned on his blade and he swung it, unleashing a wave directed not at the leader but at the ones closest to it.

The flames, born of darkness and fire, consumed the surrounding Treants, making them elicit screams of pain as they fell on one another. This caged the Treant in with its burning comrades on all sides, and Xaren quickly followed up, using his power to manipulate gravity around the leader, pulling it upward with tremendous force, and tearing it from the ground.

The creature let out a shrill cry, its vines flailing as it was lifted into the air, away from the earth that gave it strength.

Xaren hurled it onto a burning Treant and the flames spread onto the leader, then he jumped and doubled gravity on his sword before swinging it down, splitting through the leader's bark in one full-powered strike.

The moment the leader fell, the change was instantaneous—the remaining Treants in that pack faltered, their movements slowing and their coordination breaking down.

Xaren didn't waste time after making this kill, he jumped off the Treant's corpse and landed on the floor, rolling right next to a Fire Demon using magic to burn the tree monsters.

However, the ones he targeted still had a leader, so their durability was enhanced to the level where they could tank his flames.

Grabbing the demon's arm, he spoke.

"I can distinguish the leaders! Shoot the ones I tell you to."

"I also can't distinguish... what?!"

The demon was about to answer reflexively when Xaren's words echoed in his head. He turned towards Xaren in surprise but Xaren didn't waste time and pointed at the Treant leader of the pack.

"That one! The third one from the right!"

This demon's firepower was higher than Xaren's, owing to his higher level and greater flame affinity and that firepower showed itself as the demon's fireball blasted into the roaring mouth of the Treant and exploded, killing it immediately.

Luckily for him, the Treant just happened to roar then so he got a hit on the insides and dealt enough internal damage to kill it.

Immediately, the movements of the Treants that were near the one that had just died became noticeably duller.

"It was true!"

Clearly, the demon had doubts and only listened because Xaren was a comrade, but now his doubts had evaporated.

Just then, someone who saw this little interaction blitzed through the courtyard, sending elven heads flying as they moved.

Xaren felt a gust of wind and he turned to see Ilya cutting off an elf's arms and taking the crossbow they held.

She landed on the floor right in front of him and grabbed him as she spoke.

"Point them out for me!"

She didn't care how or why he could fish out the leaders. What mattered was that he could.

The demoness pulled on his arm, making him face another group of Treants, before putting herself in front of him. She leaned her back on Xaren's chest and head, loading the crossbow she just stole and pointed it forward.

Xaren instantly understood why she did that and extended his arms beyond her shoulders, pointing at the leaders he had marked with his energy earlier.

"That one! That one! That one!"

Check Author's Note.