Amidst the chaos, an Amons Sentinel was hacking like a madman through a forest of vines.
He stood five and a half meters tall, his pale green skin covered in a dense network of scars.
The dark red brand on his chest, the mark of a Green Das Tribe priest, had turned charred black with the destruction of his tribe.
Every swing of his battle axe produced a whistling roar, shredding the surging vines into a million pieces.
But for every vine he severed, ten more rose to take its place.
They swarmed him from the ground, from the air, and from every conceivable direction. Some were as thick as a man's waist, others as thin as a thumb, spreading out in a dense mass that constantly compressed his breathing room.
The Sentinel's amber eyes were bloodshot, the color deepening into a dark red.
"This is the one," he roared, a horizontal sweep of his axe severing three lunging vines at the middle. "Mother! Leah! I've found him! I will avenge you right now!"
He was Andiyu.
The leader of the Green Das Tribe, Leah's father, and Zhuoya's son.
The city that Ethan had wiped off the map was his home.
His mother had died at the hands of that outsider. His daughter had died at the hands of that outsider.
His tribe, his city, everything he had protected for centuries had been ground into ruins by that outsider.
When he had received the news and rushed back, he found only a massive, bottomless crater.
The city was gone, the people were gone—everything was gone.
And now, he sensed that same fluctuation again.
It was coming from the very source of these vines.
Andiyu let out a raspy roar, the emerald light on his battle axe suddenly surging.
The radiance spread along the blade, leaving trails of distorted light in the air.
With a downward cleave, every vine within dozens of meters in front of him exploded. Debris flew in all directions, coating the ground in a thick layer of wood chips.
He charged forward across the remains of the plants.
With every step he took, the soil beneath his feet exploded, sending dirt flying.
"GET! OUT! OF! MY! WAY!"
Andiyu burst through the densest area of the vines, his axe sweeping out to shatter the final barrier of greenery.
Then, he saw him.
The outsider standing in the center of the forest of vines.
"Outsider, give me back Leah's life!"
Andiyu's voice squeezed out from the depths of his throat. The veins on the hand gripping his axe bulged, and the emerald light on the blade grew brighter and more blinding.
Ethan tilted his head, his gaze falling on Andiyu.
"You're Leah's father?" He cocked his head slightly. "Your daughter was quite resilient. It took two hours of questioning before she was willing to talk. Unfortunately, she died in the end anyway."
Andiyu's pupils constricted violently.
He didn't say another word.
Raising his battle axe over his head, the emerald light exploded from the blade, forming a light blade over ten meters long above him.
The moment the light blade descended, the air was sliced open with a sharp, explosive boom.
The ground began to crack beneath Andiyu's feet, the fissures extending in all directions with him at the center. Wherever they passed, soil churned, vines snapped, and rubble flew into the sky.
Hundreds of giant wood spikes constantly condensed around Ethan, surging upward to meet the light blade.
The moment the wooden pillars collided with the light blade, they exploded with a roar.
Wood chips and sparks of light sprayed in every direction, forming an explosion cloud over ten meters high in the sky.
The shockwave sent the surrounding vines flying and peeled back a thick layer of soil, revealing the charred earth beneath.
Andiyu burst through the explosion cloud, his battle axe already swinging toward Ethan's face.
Ethan shifted his footing, his body moving half a meter to the side at the critical moment.
The battle axe grazed his left shoulder, the emerald light on the blade carving a deep groove into the surface of his Wood Armor, sending wood chips flying.
The strike split the ground into a fissure over ten meters long.
Missing his target, Andiyu followed through with a horizontal sweep.
The axe blade drew an arc through the air, whistling with a tearing sound as it slashed toward Ethan's waist.
Vines exploded from beneath Ethan's feet, dozens of thick vines slamming into the flat of the axe simultaneously.
The force of the collision knocked the axe's trajectory slightly off course. The blade grazed the side of Ethan's waist, tearing a piece of his clothing.
Ethan used the momentum to retreat as wood stakes burst from the ground beneath Andiyu.
They stabbed out from the front, back, left, and right, sealing off all angles of escape.
Andiyu stomped his feet, and a circular emerald shockwave exploded from beneath him.
The wood stakes that had just broken through the soil were shattered into a million pieces by the shockwave before they could even touch his body.
The shockwave continued to spread outward, pulverizing every vine within dozens of meters.
Ethan had already retreated before the shockwave could reach him.
He moved with incredible speed, his toes tapping the ground three times as he put a hundred meters of distance between them.
The moment he landed, he pressed his right hand to the ground, and the soil beneath Andiyu's feet suddenly collapsed.
A deep pit over ten meters in diameter appeared out of thin air.
The bottom of the pit was filled with a dense forest of wooden spikes, their sharp tips pointing upward, waiting for the prey to fall.
Andiyu leaped into the air the moment the ground gave way.
He jumped dozens of meters high, his massive frame performing a mid-air roll as he swung his battle axe downward with all his might.
An emerald light blade detached from the axe, slashing diagonally into the bottom of the pit.
The wooden spikes were all pulverized, their fragments piling up in a thick layer at the bottom.
Andiyu landed at the edge of the pit, but as soon as his feet touched the ground, the sky above him went dark.
A massive tree trunk smashed down from the air.
The trunk was so thick it would take seven people to encircle it. The dozens-of-meters-long body of the tree fell with a terrifying whistle, its momentum staggering.
Andiyu swung his axe upward.
An emerald light blade shot from the axe, splitting the entire tree in half down the middle.
Before the halves could even hit the ground, Ethan's next attack arrived.
Countless leaves detached from the surrounding vines, spinning in the air and transforming into an emerald rain that poured toward Andiyu.
Andiyu swung his battle axe in a wide circle before him. An emerald light shield expanded from the blade, forming a spherical protective layer around his body.
The leaves struck the shield with a rapid-fire pitter-patter, creating countless tiny ripples on its surface.
As soon as the leaves stopped, the wood stakes arrived.
Then came vines, then roots, and then even more leaves.
The attacks came wave after wave, like an inexhaustible tide.
Each wave struck from different angles, directions, and heights simultaneously, sealing off every possible path for a counterattack.
Andiyu's defense was not without cost.
Every leaf that struck the shield drained a sliver of his stamina.
Every wood stake that slammed into it forced his arms to absorb more impact.
He could feel his strength fading rapidly, and the healing speed of his wounds was already beginning to slow.
But he didn't care.
He only needed to reach him.
If he could just get close and split this outsider's head open with his axe, it would all be over.
Andiyu continued to charge forward through the gaps between attacks.
His axe shattered the vines blocking his path as he stepped over mountains of debris, closing in on Ethan step by step.
Eighty meters.
Fifty meters.
Rate on N.U.
