Chapter 62: Heart of Wood

  The Iron-Wood Treant entirely abandoned all pretense of slow, lumbering, intimidating movement. Fueled by the sheer, splintering pain of the massive log strike, it charged directly at Zeno with terrifying, unnatural speed, its massive, trunk-like legs violently tearing up massive chunks of earth with every single step. It moved exactly like a localized, highly aggressive landslide—completely unstoppable, overwhelmingly heavy, and utterly lethal.

  Zeno held his ground in the center of the ruined clearing. He didn't attempt to run or utilize the Flowing Step to evade. He dropped into his absolute widest, most deeply rooted, stable combat stance. He took a long, deep breath, pulling a massive, roaring ocean of Tena directly from his core. He pushed it all entirely into his right arm. His dark Mountain Bear wrap beneath the massive Rock Serpent gauntlet began to glow with a blinding, incredibly intense blue light. The humid air around his spiked fist literally distorted and warped from the sheer, radiating heat and immense kinetic pressure.

  "Come on," Zeno whispered, his amber eyes locked onto the charging monstrosity.

  The Treant reached him in seconds. It swung a massive, devastating haymaker punch with its right, club-like arm, an unblockable blow easily capable of entirely shattering a reinforced castle gate into splinters.

  Zeno stepped directly into the swing.

  He ducked smoothly under the massive, sweeping wooden fist by a hair's breadth, the violent wind of the passing blow fiercely ruffling his jet-black hair. He was now entirely inside the beast's wide guard, standing right against its massive, petrified trunk-like chest.

  "Heavy Punch!" Zeno screamed, pivoting his hips to generate maximum torque.

  He drove his glowing, spiked right fist directly into the absolute center of the Treant's chest, right below the glowing, toxic green eye-knots.

  CRACK-BOOM!

  The sound was absolutely deafening, echoing like a thunderclap across the northern perimeter. The impact was visually catastrophic.

  But the massive Treant did not fall backward.

  The centuries-old, petrified iron-wood chest entirely absorbed the devastating D-Rank blow. A massive, deep web of jagged cracks instantly appeared in the thick bark, glowing with residual blue energy, but the creature's sheer, impossible density and immense, towering mass completely prevented it from being launched into the air.

  Because the beast didn't move to absorb the force, the immense kinetic energy had absolutely nowhere else to go. It fiercely rebounded.

  Zeno felt a massive, highly violent kinetic shockwave travel instantly back up his own arm. His dense bones rattled painfully against the leather wraps. The sheer recoil of his own fully powered attack physically threw him backward. Zeno skidded heavily across the dirt, his boots digging deep trenches for ten feet before he finally regained his balance.

  The Treant roared triumphantly, completely ignoring the cracks in its chest, raising both of its massive fists high into the air to utterly crush the boy while he was off balance.

  "Zeno, move!" Lyra screamed, entirely realizing the terrifying danger of the Rank B defense.

  Zeno shook his head violently, quickly clearing the ringing dizziness from his ears. He looked at the glowing cracks in the beast's chest. He hadn't broken entirely through the outer armor. He needed vastly more sustained force. Not just one single, massive punch.

  He suddenly, instinctively realized the physics of his new weapons. He couldn't fight like a lightweight, rapid-fire brawler anymore. The thirty-pound Rock Serpent gauntlets carried far too much sheer momentum. If he tried to snap his arms back quickly for a flurry of jabs, the heavy weight would completely throw his balance off and tear his shoulder muscles.

  He needed a steady, unbreakable rhythm. He didn't need to be a flying arrow; he needed to be a lumberjack chopping down the thickest tree in the world.

  He stood up tall. He didn't wait for the Treant to bring its fists down. He charged forward again, his amber eyes burning with absolute, tactical focus.

  He smoothly dodged the first massive, downward smash, entirely trusting his Agility. He stepped deep into the monster's guard again.

  He planted his heavy boots into the dirt as if they were deep, unyielding roots. He didn't swing his arms wildly. He used his thick core and his incredibly broad back muscles to drive the heavy weight.

  He twisted his hips violently to the left, letting the sheer momentum carry his heavy right gauntlet in a devastating, sweeping arc. THUD. The obsidian spikes slammed into the cracked chest. The bark groaned.

  He didn't pull the arm back. He used the violent recoil of the strike to instantly twist his hips to the right, letting the momentum carry his heavy left gauntlet forward. THUD. The spikes hit the exact same spot. A massive chunk of petrified bark exploded outward.

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  Left. Right. Left. Right. Zeno became a terrifying, entirely rhythmic, unstoppable battering ram. He wasn't throwing single, flashy finishers anymore. He was unleashing a relentless, perfectly timed, heavy barrage of devastating strikes, hammering the exact same weakened spot on the Treant's chest over and over again with the relentless, unyielding rhythm of an executioner's axe.

  Strike. Crack. Strike. Shatter. Strike. Splinter.

  The massive Treant roared in absolute confusion and agonizing pain. It desperately tried to swat the boy away, to crush him, but Zeno was too incredibly close, his rhythm too perfectly maintained, and he was hitting vastly too hard. The constant, unrelenting vibration of the heavy impacts was actively destabilizing the creature's entire petrified cellular structure.

  "Lyra! The legs!" Zeno shouted between heavy breaths, completely maintaining his devastating rhythm.

  Lyra understood instantly. Zeno had completely captured the beast's absolute attention. The Treant was focused entirely on protecting its shattering chest cavity. Its lower, supporting body was entirely exposed.

  She engaged her pale green wind Tena, pouring all her energy into her legs. She sprinted toward the beast's massive, lumbering root-like legs. She couldn't cut through the thick iron-wood armor on the front, but she could cut the significantly softer, flexible green vines that held the massive root joints together in the back.

  She slid gracefully through the mud, slashing upward with surgical, lethal precision. Her wind-enhanced daggers seamlessly severed the thick, glowing green tendons directly behind both of the Treant's massive knees.

  The towering beast stumbled violently, its primary structural support completely compromised. It groaned loudly, leaning heavily forward, completely unable to catch its balance, falling right into Zeno’s optimal striking range.

  Zeno saw the perfect, final opening. The deep cracks in the chest were massive now, completely exposing a violently pulsing, brilliantly glowing green core of raw, untamed nature magic deep within the shattered wood.

  "Open the door!" Zeno yelled, planting his feet for the final time.

  He pulled every absolute last drop of blue Tena he had remaining. He didn't punch with a single fist this time. He clasped both of his massive, thirty-pound spiked gauntlets tightly together above his head, creating a single, sixty-pound hammer of pure, obsidian destruction.

  He jumped slightly to maximize his downward leverage.

  He brought both fists down in a completely devastating, flawless, double-handed overhead smash directly into the weakened, exposed, cracked chest cavity.

  KRA-KOOM!

  The centuries-old iron-wood finally, catastrophically gave way. The entire front chest plate shattered completely, exploding violently outward into a massive shower of lethal, petrified splinters.

  Zeno landed heavily on the dirt. The Treant let out one final, incredibly low, sorrowful groan that vibrated the earth. The brilliantly glowing toxic green light in its twisted eyes violently flickered and died entirely. The massive, twenty-foot monstrosity tipped completely forward and crashed incredibly heavily to the earth, the sheer impact violently shaking the entire clearing and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

  It was completely over.

  Zeno stood in the settling dust, panting heavily, his broad chest heaving for air. His beautiful new dark red Crimson Spider-Silk tunic was entirely covered in fine wood dust and sticky sap, but it was completely untorn. His arms felt exactly like solid lead weights. But he was standing.

  Lyra walked over slowly, sheathing her twin daggers, her breathing equally ragged. She looked at the fallen, shattered giant, and then at Zeno.

  "You literally turned a Rank B apex predator into firewood," Lyra said, a breathless, entirely disbelieving laugh escaping her. "You actually beat an armored tree to death with your bare hands."

  "My hands are not bare," Zeno corrected softly, proudly holding up his scratched, sap-covered, but entirely intact Rock Serpent gauntlets. "They are wearing very heavy rocks."

  He walked over to the massive, shattered chest cavity. Lying deep within the completely ruined wreckage of the wood was a large, violently pulsing heart made of pure, crystallized, glowing green wood. It was the Treant's Core, and it was radiating intense, wild magic.

  Zeno reached in and grabbed it.

  Instantly, the dying magic of the core reacted to his touch. With a sharp SNAP, four incredibly thick, thorny green vines shot rapidly out of the crystallized heart. They wrapped violently and tightly around Zeno’s right Rock Serpent gauntlet, completely bypassing the armor, attempting to aggressively burrow their sharp thorns directly into his exposed upper arm, acting like a desperate, parasitic snake trying to steal his life force.

  "Lyra!" Zeno grunted, pulling his arm back, his incredible strength struggling against the rapid, aggressive growth of the wild magic. "The wood is biting me!"

  Lyra didn't hesitate. She lunged forward, drawing a single dagger. Her eyes narrowed in absolute, surgical focus. "Hold your arm perfectly steady, Zeno!"

  She didn't hack wildly. She channeled a highly focused, razor-thin blade of pale green wind Tena entirely down the edge of her steel. With three rapid, flawless slashes, she surgically severed the thick, aggressive parasitic vines right at their base, disconnecting them from the pulsing core.

  Zeno immediately ripped the massive core entirely out of the chest cavity. Deprived of its host, the core pulsed one final, brilliant time, and then completely solidified into a cold, heavy, beautiful chunk of crystal-like green wood. The severed vines on Zeno's arm instantly withered into harmless, dry ash.

  Zeno let out a massive sigh of relief, tucking the heavy, incredibly valuable core safely into his leather pack next to his iron cauldron.

  "That was very sneaky for a dead tree," Zeno noted, rubbing his shoulder. "Is it safe now?"

  "It's completely dormant," Lyra confirmed, her eyes shining brilliantly as she looked at the crystallized magic. "That is an entirely intact Rank B core, Zeno. High-end alchemists will practically kill for that. And the sheer amount of pristine iron-wood lumber scattered around us... Zeno, we are incredibly rich. Again."

  Zeno nodded, entirely satisfied with the economics of the situation, but his priorities instantly realigned. "That is very good. Because punching massive trees makes me incredibly hungry. The travel bread is all gone. I want to buy an entire, massive mountain sheep, and I want to roast the whole thing over a very big fire."

  "A whole roasted mountain sheep," Lyra agreed warmly, a bright smile on her face. "You earned every single bite. Let's go home, sledgehammer."

  They turned their backs on the ruined lumber camp and began the long walk back toward the vibrant city, leaving the broken, silent forest behind them. The long, grueling road to a thousand chapters continued endlessly, and Zeno was entirely, cheerfully ready to punch his way through every single obstacle it threw in his path.