Page 165 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
An explosion rang out on the far edge of the forest from where I was sitting. While I wouldn’t be fighting any treants myself, I did have one important task.
“That’s the signal,” John told me, and I concentrated as hard as I could on the forest below.
Perception forty-five was no joke; I could make out every movement below, every ruffling branch, every swaying tree. Though it was difficult to divide my attention over the entire forest.
“Twelve … twenty … thirty-three … thirty-seven treants, but I can’t be sure that’s all of them,” I said, adding it to the chat log.
[37 so far. I’m counting 154 trees and 37 treants.]
Julian wrote back.
[Alright, everyone, prepare to back up Tully and Pram.]
After the explosion had gone off, the treants had rushed toward the sound, their branches snapping back and forth like whips. It would take them a while to reach the hidden party, which gave me plenty of time to observe them and inform the group.
[The treants are averaging four feet per second. With a ten-foot reach if you include the vines.]
When the monsters arrived at the location of the explosion, they found nothing but some blackened rocks. With nothing to attack, they searched the area for ten minutes then settled down.
I sent another message.
[Two treants fifteen feet from Visha. The next closest is thirty feet back.]
Jeffry came in.
[Perfect. Visha, you’ll have seven seconds to deal damage before John ports you out and Tully arrives. Ready?]
[Ready.]
While Tully traveled toward her, Visha waited for the treants to come directly below her location before jumping from the top of the ledge. As she fell, she sent two aerial attacks at one treant. She wasn’t level sixty yet, and so couldn’t manipulate her aura, but she made up for it with perks and sheer brute force.
Both attacks landed right before she alighted on a tree branch nearby, strategically placing herself between the two monsters. For seven seconds, she used a swirling blade attack and trimmed the attacking vines. Her goal wasn’t to actuallydefeatthe treants, but to control their reach by reducing their longer branches.
At exactly seven and a half seconds, Tully jumped off the same ledge.
He didnotarrive delicately, plowing his hammer straight into the treant on Visha’s left. Its slightly reduced health plummeted further, and it stumbled back into the other treant, tangling it up and preventing it from getting closer.
“Ready,” Visha said aloud. The time it took to write and read the messages didn’t make up for a simple spoken word. The elf was swallowed in a shadow and vanished.
“Alright, come at me!” Tully yelled, in part to enrage the treants further but also to get the attention of others nearby.
[Two more on your left. Incoming twenty seconds.]
Jeffry sent the message, though I wondered if the paladin saw it. He was taunting the two treants in front of him even as he defeated the weakened of the two. Suddenly, a blast of icy leaves smashed against the [Barrier] Julian had on Tully, almost breaking the defensive shield.
The first of the treant’s reinforcements had arrived.
“Again!” Tully yelled, swinging his war hammer. The excitement of battle riled him up, it would seem, because he was grinning like a fool and laughing wildly.
[Should John pull him out? The next wave is almost there.]
Jeffry asked, but Julian replied,
[No. Let him have his fun. I’ll just reinforce the barrier.]
Later, we had to revive Sir Tully, but not before he took down nine treants by himself.
CHAPTER 90
