Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 35

The Treant-Golem

The powerful pinpoint strike caused Eleanora to lose consciousness and she was unceremoniously let go, falling to the hard floor like a pile of wet blanket.

“Eleanora!”

“She’s not dead. I controlled myself enough to only use a fist. If I used a spear hand, it would have gone straight through her. Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation?”

The bald monk swept forward with great force, but Connie swayed and ducked under it. She released a series of sweeping kicks that forced him to retreat. He leapt up and brought down the quarterstaff in an attempt to crush her skull, yet the girl did not evade it. Instead she pushed on the floor with both hands and released a donkey kick with her heel which slammed against the man’s fingers, causing him to lose strength from the numbing pain.

From that position, she evaded Hannah’s rush and stepped on the spear, burying the head into a gap on the floor. She then kicked down with the other leg, pushing the whole spear onto the ground.

“Dammit! Let go of Durandyne!”

“As you wish. Before that, clench your jaw.”

She clasped both hands behind her back and feinted a kick to the right and left with her left leg before releasing a follow up with the same leg in a show of skill.

“AAAGH!” the girl was thrown back, her cheek dirty and marked with Connie’s boot.

Seeing that they were losing badly, Akira decided to bank it all on one move. His ‘cheat’. With that he should be able to choose all the choices that would allow them to overcome this monstrous enemy.

He drank two mana potions, groaned at the feeling of his man being replenished and shouted. “True Clairvoyance: Active Mode!!”

At that moment everything around him stopped. From the activation until the depletion of his MP, he would be able to see every possibilities and choices that he could take to defeat Connie.

“I’ll show you my power!!”

He saw his body moved forward, but his point of view was the same.

1st try. Step forward. Connie twisted his arm apart. Failed.

2nd try. Parry with the shield. Connie kicked his kneecap so hard it broke. Failed.

3rd try. Take the preemptive attack. Connie slipped past his sword and hit his neck with her knuckle. Failed.

.

..

…

89th try. Use combination of Focus and Triple Slash to cut her apart. Connie stepped behind Hannah and pushed her towards the attack. Failed.

In frustration at having lacked enough Mana, he returned to his senses forcefully, ending his Active Mode. All those failed attacks happened in his mind. To him it felt as if hours had gone by but in reality barely a second had passed.

All everyone else saw that after announcing his skill, his eyes had turned red and blood dribbled from his nose as he fell on the ground.

“Gah! Impossible!” he cursed in disbelief, one hand unsuccessfully covering the blood from his nose from overexertion. “I chose all the right decisions! How is nothing working?”

“True Clairvoyance allows you to see and control the future. However, it should only be used for one big decision,” Sidonai commented from where she was sitting. “Using it in a battle against a true master is like trying to kill a sea with a legendary sword.”

“How is this possible?! She is even stronger without a weapon!” Akira said out loud in disbelief.

“True Clairvoyance? An intriguing skill. So that’s how you managed to follow my movements before. However. Like the minstrel said, it was a bad choice.”

She moved forward with bizarre footwork that made her look as if she disappeared and appeared every few steps like a ghost, evading Kaihaku’s attacks.

Connie drew her leg back and kicked his stomach with the side of her foot. He keeled over, though it hit his armor, the impact was enough to injure his insides.

Just as Connie was about to finish him, Akira’s True Clairvoyance in its passive mode gave him a glimpse of the future and he pushed himself back. At that moment, a huge stone arm came swinging in, slapping Connie away like a person would a mosquito.

“GARGH!!”

The powerful swing smacked her onto a nearby wall, cracking it. Her body then slid slowly onto the floor in a comical fashion. Blood trailing from her head onto the wall as she fell down.

“Connie!” Seeing Connie being ragdolled, the dark elf quickly moved towards Connie.

“The Ancient Stone Golem! Didn’t you defeat it?!” Nick cried out at the old monk, his scalp feeling numb from the calamitous encounter.

Kaihaku’s face was that of bewilderment. “I don’t know!”

“We need to check on Mistress!” Martell yelled.

“Shit!”

The giant hand made of stone smashed down on the stone floor, cracking the bricks and sending dust everywhere. It squeezed through the hidden passage, wrenching the door open with its arms. The scratches on the front of its body meant that it had dragged itself through the passage.

The Golem did not waste any time to grab the nearest enemy even while struggling to stand up. Hannah screamed as she was lifted up bodily. With her head still concussed from having been kicked on the jaw by Connie, she could not escape fast enough.

“No! Hannah!”

Nick made his way over to Connie with Martell trailing behind after making sure that the golem had changed its target to the Hero’s party.

The Golem stood fully erect, exposing its broken core. On its right hand, Hannah cried out in fear. She saw Jack’s miserable death and the image haunted her. Honorable death and death by being crushed into paste was very different.

It was only because of her friends that she managed to keep her calm. Now, seeing death closing in, she broke down crying.

“No! I don’t wanna die!!”

Eleanora who was awakened by the commotion saw the figure and was startled awake. “A…golem?!”

Sidonai grimaced, looking at the uncanny thing with wonder. Her normally closed eyes opened extremely slightly. Blue light peeked out from between her eyelids. She mouthed a word that sounded like the hissing of a snake.

“That’s because it isn’t the golem moving. It’s the tree that’s making it move. That tree growing on that golem is a Treant!”

“A Treant?!” Akira glared at the tree and saw the silhouette of a human face upon the tree bark looking at them as if they were prey.

“I see. I see now!” The minstrel raised her head in a vigorous manner. “So that is why the golem was so weak. At its worst, an Ancient Stone Golem shouldn’t be so easily defeated by a Hero in his infancy. It was used for defending a kingdom, after all. I would hazard a guess that its power has been sapped by the Treant. Judging by the size and thickness of the tree, it would have been more than a hundred years since it started parasitizing on it!”

Its leg that was heavily damaged by their attacks on the Boss Room at the 5th Floor had been reconnected by roots growing from inside its body and was now more powerful than ever. Every step caused small tremors that shook the dungeon.

“And after the core was destroyed, it lost its food and is now looking for the next food source. The Sword of the First King!”

The Golem’s hand began to squeeze. The sound of bones slowly cracking made anyone who heard it feel nauseous.

While the Hero’s Party was dealing with the golem, Connie’s group was gathered around her. Illumca noted the blood flowing down from the back of her head, dirtying and matting the mix of red and blonde hair.

“Aha. Ahahahah!” Connie’s disheveled hair and the crazed laugh made her look crazy.

“Did you hurt your head, Connie?”

“She must have hit her head bad. She’ laughing for no reason at all!” Nick exclaimed.

“Ahaha!! I’m fine. I’m just…fine! I’m ecstatic even!” Connie stood up and licked the blood coursing down her head with a smile.

Connie felt her heart palpitating. This was the first time that she ever met something so strong in this world after she embarked once more into the world of cultivation. That one sneaky slap had taken her by surprise. It rattled her bones and damaged her innards. She spat out a gob of blood from her mouth and wiped it with her sleeves.

Such strength. Such speed! That golem is equal to a cultivator of the Treading Earth Early Stage!

People who does not understand the difference between the realms would ask, how can a simple jump over a realm be so different?

It is the difference between a tiger and a dragon soaring in the sky. Between a proud lion and a volcano. Though all are strong, they were vastly different.

“We have to run,” Martell said. “We cannot defeat that thing. Let’s go while that thing is busy with the Hero! We can use the hidden passage.”

“The boy makes sense. Let’s get Grunford and skedaddle!”

“That’s right. Your opinions are common sense. However…”

Connie had succeeded in realizing Cornelia’s dream. So now she owed her nothing. The body was now truly hers.

And now that it was truly hers, how could she accept being ambushed like that?

“…I want to kill it,” Connie said.

“That’s crazy! You’re crazy!” Martell shouted with widened eyes.

“Indeed I am, boy. Haven’t you heard? I’m Cornelia Asterium Steelheart!”

Nick sighed resignedly. “Fine, I’ll stand with you today. Blame me for placing my hopes on one crazy girl.”

“Well, what do you say, Martell? Are you going to escape the dungeon alone?” Illumca said with a mocking grin.

His furry ears bounced up and strained themselves. “Fuck this! Even if I manage to go up alone, I’ll die even faster! I’ll stay!” he said grumpily.

“Well, you can just hide somewhere while we take care of business. Come on.”

The Treant-Golem had been trying to squeeze the girl into paste, however all the pests around it was distracting it, making it angrier and angrier until finally it let out a roar and punched Kaihaku, smashing him into the floor. It raised its hand to make sure it finished the job, but suddenly, a fiery butterfly flew into the Treant-Golem’s face. It did almost no damage due to the difference in level, but it still managed to make it mad.

“Illumca! Keep it up!” Nick shouted. His battered shield at ready.

“Fireball!!” Illumca conjured 5 fiery butterflies and launched it at the Treant-Golem. The Treant-Golem roared in pain, flinging Hannah away. Akira had used his skill to step faster, catching her as she fell. However, her the jolt the moment she was received into Akira’s arms caused her to cry out in pain.

“Well shit. That’s a fucking siege weapon on legs. How are we supposed to kill it?” Nick commented derisively.

“You – why?”

Connie walked past without even a glance towards them.

“Don’t get me wrong, Hero. Our fight is not yet over. I just want to kill this thing that tried to ambush me,” she then bellowed. “Minstrel! Can you support me?!”

“With pleasure!”

Sidonai played some notes and buffed Connie up. It was the first time a first time for her. It was a strange sensation. But not unpleasant.

She took a stance with both legs apart shoulder width and spread her arms together. The trigger for the change was emotional imbalance. Basically, anger. Therefore, she placed herself in that state of mind through self-hypnotism.

Sensing the danger that this new pest was exuding, The Treant-Golem reached out towards her.

“Yin Gu Body! Half-Incarnation!”