105 Inheritance (1/2)

Li sat cross legged upon the grassy floor of the Winterwoods, the cold blades of green leeching their chill to his being. It was an unpleasant chill, even to him, and it was not because of their physical temperature, but rather the nature of it. It felt off, unnatural, as if it was not meant to truly be.

”Don't stop moving or else they'll overwhelm you in an instant,” called out Li.

Around him lay a clearing.

One made within a short period of time, it seemed, based on the environmental evidence. Shattered remnants of rotted tree trunks lay scattered about. Patches of withered grass, some so thin that only barren ground remained, dotted the clearing with striking frequency. No flowers, herbs, or mushrooms grew – only the most basic, barest, and hardiest grass managed to even somewhat survive.

”Got it!” shouted Azhar as he leaped upwards, swerving midair to let a thorned vine sail past his body, slamming into the ground behind him and gouging out clods of dirt.

”That wasn't meant for you. You've been through five years of monster hunting school. It was meant for her,” said Li as he kept his eyes on the wyrm that fought side by side with Azhar. A few long lacerations made their marks at her sides, welling up faintly with dark red blood.

Li had expected this fight would be a bit of a struggle for her. He had taken her and Azhar to fight the trio of Rootbeasts that he had scouted out the night before. The Rootbeasts were a fair bit more formidable than giant spiders, which was partly a reason why Li had decided to end Azhar's training to acquire [Scattershot] early the night before.

Li watched as the Rootbeasts wriggled in the air, their many spiked leaves stiff as they sensed for vibrations to track movements.

They were shaped like massive vines that burst from the ground, thicker than a man at their base and twice as tall. The spiked leaves formed a kind of armor, the poisoned purple spines forming an effective deterrent for melee attacks.

As a result, Azhar was dancing around the battlefield, picking up rocks, chunks of tree branches, and whatever he could get his hands on, to toss with [Snipe] to deal damage.

The wyrm, however, struggled a little more as she simply could not get close to the Rootbeasts not only due to their spines, but also due to their prehensile roots which burst forth from the ground, acting like powerful whips that could strike from any angle at staggering speeds.

The wyrm heard Li's words and kept moving, her pupils narrowing into fine slits as she focused on gauging her distance. The rootbeasts were stationary creatures, flowering in areas to absorb nutrients in the soil before taking a lengthy process to retract into the ground and burrow out into another nutrient rich area.

As a result, their main offense came from their complex network of whipping roots which spanned the entirety of this clearing. They burst from the ground, slapping away at the wyrm and Azhar with relentless ferocity.

The wyrm caught a few blows here and there, but her bark-scales had hardened enough to make any wounds she sustained shallow. She would have to get right in front of the rootbeasts where their control of their roots were strongest to suffer a significant injury.

Azhar, on the other hand, did fine for himself, using his exceptional agility to dart about at a range where the rootbeasts were unable to control their roots with maximum speed and strength.

As he tossed yet another rock with concussive force, he said, ”These roots should be lyin' right under ya, but they ain't even touchin' you.”

”Call it diplomatic immunity,” said Li with a shrug. The reason for this was simple: the rootbeasts were basically mindless, functioning through a very basic sense of combat instinct that put self-survival above all else, and they had innately determined that striking Li would minimize their survival chances to zero.

”Should teach me that skill, cause' it's lookin' mighty useful,” said Azhar as he ducked backwards, another root whipping past him.

”Maybe I should add a clause to my doctrine that only the patient are rewarded,” said Li. He bantered with Azhar because he did not worry for the ranger. The ranger was a silver-ranked adventurer after all, and even if he fell short of his sisters in raw talent, he still ranked within the top end of all of humanity in terms of power.

Of course, humanity as a whole as almost pitifully weak, but Azhar was strong and experienced enough in fighting monsters that at the least, his life was not in danger. Especially because he did not have to cover for the wyrm as she simply could not even get into range.

Li had not intended for her to be truly useful in this fight. He just wanted to put her in a new situation where her usual abilities – her raw physical stats and venom – would be useless.

This way, he hoped, she would get a better sense of her limitations because he worried that her current eagerness for fighting might land her in an unfavorable situation in the future.

”Gotcha!” exclaimed Azhar, his good arm extended forwards.

Li watched as one of the rootbeasts fell, spurting gooey red sap from a hole at its base created from a particularly sharp rock.

Azhar had thrown multiple projectiles beforehand in that very same area with deadly precision, shearing spines, protective leaves, and the hardened epidermis, leaving only a soft spot barely covered with a tattered and thinned defensive layer to protect the precious life sap within.

”Just two more of these runts to put down,” said Azhar as he stepped nearer with more confidence noting that with one rootbeast dead, he had effectively neutered one third of the offensive root network underneath him.

Still, two rootbeasts were enough that Azhar still stood almost ten meters away, constantly dodging roots that burst from his sides to strike him and beneath him to grasp his feet.

Li did not see any noticeable difference in Azhar's combat ability. Nothing that could be attributed to any divine power from Li, at the least.

”Don't push yourself,” said Li as he noticed the wyrm standing further back from Azhar, perhaps a little nervous to get back into striking range of the roots. ”There are things you can and cannot do. Enemies you can and cannot face. The human there can fight at range, and you cannot, that's all there is to it.”