As the system announced the death of the corrupted tree a moment of stillness enveloped the clearing. The various Bark Horrors frozen in place, the party too paused upon seeing this strange behaviour.

Yet that brief reprieve was not fated to last.

A cacophony of otherworldly screeches rang out from all around them. The sound burst forth with such intensity that the party was momentarily disoriented from the shear pressure the cry contained.

Then with a maddened ferocity the Horrors redoubled their maddened attacks, no longer caring to avoid retaliation, purely focused on destroying the being that dared to harm the tree.

The sounds of movement echoed through the nearby forest, more and more of the horrors emerging from the forest all around the group.

Seeing this violet began to worry. They were already fighting off 4 of the monsters, Luna and Rhyana having killed two of them so far, yet the two are already looking a touch ragged from the furious exchange. Double so in the moments after the screech that likely caused them to go momentarily deaf.

And now more and more Horrors are emerging to challenge them. It might not be an entirely unwinnable situation, but that would be if they were in top form, which they most definitely are not currently. Violet herself is sitting on around a quarter mana after her intensive fight with the tree, and judging how Susan's shoulders are slumped she must be running low too.

Making a quick decision after taking in all the facts Violet moved. First she blinked over to stand besides Luna, unleashing a barrage of attacks to give her some breathing room. Then she opened a mental bridge between her allies. "We need to retreat, we can not fight off all of the monsters right now. Rhyana get Susan, Luna your with me. We run!"

Her message only took a moment thanks to the joys of mental communication. So in only a few seconds after Violet arrived besides her companion the beastkin was already jumping up onto her back.

Rhyana too appeared next to Susan in a burst of electricity, as the dogkin too lept into the dragons back.

Then with a final surge of magic front all 4 of them they pushed back to furious monsters. Ice, void, electricity and water rained down on the assembled Horrors, the ferocity of the onslaught temporarily halted their enraged attacks just long enough for the dragons to turn tail and run.

They sprinted at first away from the Horrors, eager to get back into the forest around them. The Horrors however, were not eager to let their prey escape so easily.

A spatial fracture appeared right in front of Violet, one of the Horrors faux limbs bursting forth from the wound in reality forcing Violet to have to dive to the side to avoid it. The fracture trembled and splinter erupted from the limb in all directions. Luna reacting just as quickly summoned forth a sheet of ice to block the incoming projectiles, Violet joining her with a void shield of her own.

Sadly neither construct was able to block all of the splinters, after only a few strikes they both crumbled. Both girls were struck by the icor coated splinters, opening fresh wounds over both of them.

Then the fracture trembled once more, before it snapped shut with a violent pulse of space mana. The limb that was protruding from said fracture exploded in a rain of viscera. Thankfully Violet was able to avoid that particular 'attack'.

That happened in but a matter of seconds, but it succeeded in slowing the girls down. The nearest Horrors burst forth with worrying speed, their limbs extended as they tried to grab onto the fleeing prey.

That was when Susan made her move.

With a surge of mana she called back all of her remaining frozen bubbles. The icy constructs surged forth with blinding speed, interposing themselves between the retreating party and the pursuing Horrors. The incoming limbs crashed into these bubbles causing them to burst, the explosion of ice shredded the offending limb, forcing it back.

Then a moment later 3 of the Horrors crashed head first into the wall of frozen bubbles.

The sound of shattering ice rang out like a bell. Swiftly followed by the howls of pain and the thud of bodies. Two of the Horrors suffering too much damage to survive.

The timely move from Susan did nearly completely drain her mana, causing her to slip over on Rhyana's back.

Still the move provided the opportunity for the group to make it to the tree line. From there they did not slow.

Dashing through the tightly packed thicket, narrowly avoiding the splinters that chased them down.

They had to avert their course several times as new Horrors would appear in their way from time to time. Yet thanks to the honed senses of both dragons, they could avoid any direct confrontations for the time being.

And so they ran.

They had to avoid a couple of limbs that appeared from spatial fractures, and the accompanying barrage of splinters, yet other than suffering a few fresh cuts the group carried on.

Eventually their was no more Horrors pursuing them. Yet still they ran. They tried to cover any tracks that may have been left behind with short bursts of flight and magic. Not eager to lead the monsters back to their temporary home.

Like this the group made their way back out of the thicket.

Only when they left the dense trees did the group allow themselves to slow down, still they did not stop. Angling back towards the hill and their cave.

Only when they arrived back in the cave did the group allow themselves to relax.

Violet collapsed into a heap by the fire pit. Luma soon sliding off her back to lay besides her as they caught their breath.

They lay like that for some time, letting their wounds slowly heal as they caught their breath. Eventually though Violet looked at her flashing notifications, eager to see exactly what gains she made from that battle.

[Your group has defeated Bark Horror x15 lvl 47-53 reduced exp rewarded]

[Your group has defeated Bark Horror x4 lvl 75-78 exp rewarded]

[You have leveled up]

Lvl 74->76

Violet smiled at gaining two levels, she guessed that she must have already been quite close to leveling up to gain so much, that or killing creatures in the 4th evolution truly gave such a massive amount of experience! Either way it was a great boon for Violet, and got her that much closer to reaching that threshold herself.

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