Hacking the Game Didn't Go as Intended [Part Two]

CHAPTER 212: Roots of the Unseen - A Fight Against Time

[Colossal Frost Treant | Lvl 47 | Field Boss | HP: 4717291/4892064]

Daisuke twirled his daggers, flames licking their edges. "If its armor doesn't regenerate, I can finally deal some real damage. Same plan as before." He shot forward. "Hang back and wait for your moment!"

His golden eyes left streaks of light as he soared toward the Treant. The beast pushed to its feet, its boisterous roar splitting the heavens.

Trees trembled.

The sky quivered.

But Daisuke didn't stop.

He twisted midair, slipping over a massive branch swipe. His daggers flashed, carving into the fiend's exposed bark. Damage numbers depicting five-digit values flared in the air. The monster bellowed in agony, its colossal form trembling under the onslaught.

Tiphanna seized the opening, unleashing a razor-sharp wind blade. It carved into the creature's torso, sending splinters flying. Every attack she landed kept it distracted, letting Daisuke strike harder and faster.

Bit by bit, its HP drained until 50% remained.

Then, everything changed.

The Treant stilled.

Its emerald eyes darkened, turning a murderous crimson. The ground rumbled as its legs twisted into slithering vines—writhing, undulating like the tentacles of a deep-sea monster. Its arms contorted—morphing into twin battle-axes.

It swung.

A single slash.

A luminous arc burst from the axe's blade, cleaving through the forest. Trees snapped like brittle twigs, the earth itself splitting under the force. The battlefield expanded, the landscaping changing.

Tiphanna barely managed to leap to safety on a nearby branch before the impact obliterated the spot she had just stood. Heart hammering, she turned to survey the devastation—only for something even worse to steal her breath.

The broken shards of the Treant's armor had sunken into the earth. From them, grotesque flowers sprouted—towering three feet tall, their crimson petals curled inward like a predator's jaws. The stigmata at their center bristled with needle-sharp seeds.

Daisuke's pupils shrank. This is bad.

The plants swayed, eerily reminiscent of the ones that had dwarfed him and Lumielle in Mammothgrove Forest. And now, an unsettling amount of them surrounded him.

A suffocating silence swallowed the battlefield. Every other monster had fled. The forest held its breath.

Tiphanna hesitated, glancing at Daisuke, searching for reassurance in his expression. But before she could get a good look—

A storm of vines lashed toward her.

The elf twisted, her body spinning through the air as she dodged the first strike. Another tendril shot for her throat—she severed it with a razor-thin arc of wind. More came. She leaped, barely clearing a swipe that shattered the tree she had perched on. Bark-like shrapnel raked across her shoulder, another grazing her cheek.

"AHHHH!"

Pain exploded through her.

"Tiphanna!" Daisuke shouted.

But before he could even consider trying to help her, a metallic ding rang in his ears.

[Seedreaper | Lvl 24 | Spawn | HP: 1,347/1,347]

The dozens of monstrous flowers screeched.