Evolution Island: Kill to Survive

The Crying Oak

Opening up the Pyromancer skill tree, Aaron scrolled to the bottom of the Offensive Skills section. He had unlocked all the basic skills, barring the ones at the bottom. At fledgling rank, he could only unlock the skills till the third row. To gain access to the higher rows of skills, he needed to reach a new rank. There was a brief moment of hesitation as Aaron reflected on whether he should invest all skill points in offense or bolster his defence a bit. Finally, he chose to unlock two offensive skills and one defensive skill.

“Unlock Offensive Skills: Scorching Heat and Flame Barrier. Unlock Defensive Skill: Lesser Solar Absorption.”

Skipping the notification message, Aaron turned to Zach and the others. “Kawasha, I want you to lead the group. When I give the signal, be ready to run. Don’t stop until you reach the stone totem.”

“And what exactly are you gonna do?” Zach questioned, despite knowing quite well what the reply would be.

Aaron’s hands glowed red hot as he channelled his powers to his fingertips and he replied, “I will make sure the Oak stays busy. Just keep running and don’t turn back.”

“You know you don’t have enough damage to take out a man-eating Oak.” Zach took a good look at the oversized tree and his voice fell. “This tree must be at least level 20. Are you sure about this?”

“Absolutely sure. It may be a man-eating oak, but it’s still a tree, which means it is vulnerable to fire damage. I got this.”

Aaron walked up to the tree, mindful of its attack range. As long as he remained outside its reach, the Oak would continue to remain dormant. In order to turn on its aggro settings, the player would need to step in close. Aaron carefully scanned the forest to see if there were any alternative routes, but found no way around the tree. His group had to walk past the Crying Oak to reach the hidden path.

Before launching his attack, Aaron looked at Zach and waited for his nod of approval. Having confirmed they were ready to move, Aaron hit the oak with his new skill.

“Scorching Heat!”

As soon as he used his skill, the ground beneath the Oak turned red and a circle of fire appeared around the tree. Then, at the very next second, red-hot flames erupted from the ground, setting the oak tree on fire.

“Now’s your chance! Run!”

Kawasha broke off into a sprint, with Zach and Nashoba following behind. Mawanko felt hesitant to just leave Aaron behind and he stopped to ask him to join them.

“I can’t!” Aaron yelled in reply. “If I move from this spot the skill will just cancel out. Don’t worry about me! Just run!”

“Mawanko! Hurry!” Nashoba called out from the other side.

“Yes, chief!”

Aaron held his ground and kept burning the tree while Zach and the others ran past it, in the direction of the stone totem. A low groaning sound resonated from within the hollow tree trunk. As the leaves caught fire, Aaron heard the cracking of branches and then an eerie wail shook him to the core. The oak tree suddenly seemed to come alive. It started shaking its burning branches vigorously, as the flames continued to ravage its woody stem. This was Aaron’s cue to make a run for it.

As soon as Aaron moved from his spot, his skill cancelled out. The ground turned back to normal, but the tree still kept burning. Aaron brushed past the enormous Oak, narrowly jumping over the flaming branch which tried to sweep him off his feet. He kept running without looking back.

“Come on, bro!” Zach shouted on top of his lungs. Then suddenly the expression on his face turned stone cold and the words stuck in his throat.

It didn’t take Aaron long to figure out what was happening. A creaking noise came from behind and he felt the ground tremble beneath his feet. He instinctively turned out to see the great oak uproot itself from the ground and stand on its two enormous legs formed of entangled roots caked with soil.

“God damn it!” Aaron cursed aloud and urged the others to start running. Zach had been wrong in his assessment. This Crying Oak was higher than level 20. It had to be at least level 25 to learn the Uproot skill. While the Scorching Heat skill was active, it prevented the tree from moving around too much, but now the fire damage wasn’t high enough to pose a threat. Aaron stood there with his jaws wide open as the Crying Oak used an ability to re-grow its leaves and put out the flames. It had almost skipped Aaron’s mind that the Oak could use regenerative abilities as long as it was inside a forest.

The oak grew out a couple of additional branches, each completely devoid of leaves, but overgrown with long spindly projections which looked like elongated fingernails. Aaron knew what was coming and swiftly turned around and broke off into a run. The forest echoed with the creaking groans of the lumbering tree as it opened its eyes and started chasing the group.

The ground shook and birds scattered from their perches as the enormous tree stomped across the forest. Zach and the others were far away by now, but Aaron was still lagging behind. He kept running without looking back, his heart pounding inside his chest and his legs shaking in fear. Due to its enormous size and lack of actual legs, the Oak was slower than most beasts. It wasn’t built to chase after prey, but relied on ambushing them. Aaron thought it would eventually give up after a while and kept sprinting ahead at full tilt.

In the distance, Aaron could see Zach and the others running across the clearing. The stone totem was located on the other side. He could hear Zach shouting at the top of his lungs, urging him to run faster. Aaron wanted to quicken his pace, but his legs started feeling heavy and his head started spinning. He slowed down and looked around, only to find himself standing in a cloud of yellow spores. The oak tree had sprayed out its numbing spores to slow him down. Aaron had already inhaled a lungful of the sleep-inducing spores and this made him feel drowsy by the minute.

[*Warning: Player has been afflicted with sleep*]

[Status Effect: Sleepy]

[Debuffs applied: 2

Debuff 1: 80% movement speed reduction.

Debuff 2: Sensory impairment.]

The Z-band’s notification spelt doom for Aaron. He had no potions in his inventory which could cure sleepiness and Zach was too far ahead. Trying to run away was useless now. With his severely reduced movement, he wouldn’t even be able to get to the clearing. As the terrifying stomping of the Oak grew louder, Aaron stopped in his tracks and turned around. Everything around him felt blurry in this drowsy state. He could barely make out the leaves on the trees and even the noises became indistinct. Aaron knew he was in no condition to fight. He could still make out the Oak’s enormous woody frame lumbering towards him, but he was too sleepy to aim properly.

Instead of using a skill which required manual aiming, Aaron switched to one which would automatically target the enemies.

“Summon Firelings.”

Aaron’s remaining EP was rapidly drained and a group of tiny mischievous Firelings appeared before him. These were beings composed entirely out of flames and inherited a portion of the user’s stats. At Aaron’s current level, they weren’t effective as an attacking option, but they were great for keeping the enemy occupied.

Once the Firelings identified the man-eating Oak as the enemy, all 5 of them rushed towards it. A couple of the miscreants jumped up and set fire to its branches while the others grabbed hold of the roots sprouting out of its legs. The oak, being highly vulnerable to fire, was once more in a spot of bother. The Firelings set fire to its leaves and started burning its roots.

While the Crying Oak was busy dealing with the mischief makers, Aaron coughed out the pollen in his mouth and tried to get away from the tree. Once he was outside the pollen cloud, his movement speed was gradually restored, though the sensory impairment still remained effective. Luckily for him, he had managed to reach the clearing and didn’t have to worry about bumping into trees or running into wild animals.

“Come on, Aaron. You’re almost there!”

Aaron heard Zach’s voice calling out to him and he quickened his pace. He could only make out a faint outline of the group standing near the totem pole.

“Hold on, I’m coming!” Despite Kawasha trying to dissuade him, Zach ignored all his words and sprinted towards Aaron.

The two friends finally caught up with each other midway. Aaron was so drowsy by then that he could barely keep himself from tumbling over.

“I got you, bro.” Zach caught hold of Aaron as his legs gave way. The spore’s effects were becoming more pronounced with the passage of time. Aaron’s blurry vision and impaired sense of hearing was just the beginning. He could now no longer maintain his balance or keep his eyes open. Though he didn’t want to, he found himself dozing off on Zach’s shoulder.

“Hey, wake up bro!” Zach shook Aaron gently, but nothing happened. He still had no idea what was wrong with Aaron and kept tapping him on his cheeks. “This isn’t the place to take a nap. Aaron! Get up!”

Unable to understand what had happened to his friend, Zach grabbed hold of his Z-band. He quickly swiped past the character screen and opened up the status section. And there it was—the reason why Aaron wouldn’t open his eyes.

Zach gently laid Aaron flat on the ground and used his Curia skill again. Slowly, the spore’s effects were nullified by Zach’s purifying power. It took Aaron a minute to fully regain consciousness and get a grip on the present situation.

When Aaron came back to his senses, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked up at Zach. “Thanks, bro. I didn’t even realise I had inhaled the spores.”

“What happened to the Oak?” Zach asked.

“It’s busy fighting off my Firelings, but we should hurry. I don’t think they can buy us much time.”

“Oh, Firelings huh. That was a clever move.”

“Yeah, I figured out I needed to get its attention away from me.” Aaron got back on his feet and consumed an EP potion, before accompanying Zach to the stone totem on the other side of the clearing.

“Thank the deities that you’re alive,” Nashoba exclaimed with a sigh of relief.

Aaron nodded and walked up to the stone totem, where Kawasha was already busy making preparations for his special ritual. The young Cayuga tracker was jamming twigs into the ground, all around the totem pole and sprinkling sacred ash at its feet. When he was done creating the setup, he stepped back and addressed Aaron.

“Once I finish chanting the incantation, a hidden path will open. It should lead us to the Orc Camp. But, I must warn you. The path will close behind us when we go under the ground. We won’t be able to turn back, even if we want.”

“We didn’t come all the way out here, just to turn back,” Zach snickered.

“He’s right,” Aaron said. “We came here to destroy the Orc camp and free your people. There’s no way we are gonna go back now.”

“Okay, then I will show you the way.” Kawasha shifted his gaze from Aaron to Nashoba and waited for the chief’s approval.

“Do it, my son. The deities will watch over us.”

Hearing his father’s reply, Kawasha stepped up to the stone totem and began chanting the special incantation.