In the same way, the tree also slammed its right palm on Lancer who was attacking at the same time, but she didn’t slow down and launched herself from a low position, ducking under the tree’s arm and using her weight and speed to unleash a slashing spear attack!

“Uu, wauan kuouru… Kuuh.” (Nngh, its defenses are strong… but…)

Lancer put all of her force into the spear strike, deeply piercing the trunk and immediately pouring holy attribute magic through the spear and into the Blood Trent’s body. 

“UuUUuUa AaAah”

“Waruo voau, kuaon.” (Destroy this evil existence, Holy Light!)

Lancer, the spear-wielding Kobold, used all of her magic to pour holy light into the blood-sucking tree and burn it from the inside. Squinting as he watched the dazzling light, the tall, skinny Kobold who had regained his bearings smirked and sneered at the enemy.

“Gau, guruuwaoann.” (Now then, I should get to work too.)

Blazer shook his tail with a slightly fiendish expression and used his Severing Tailblade, an attack that used spatial severance, to cut the thick trunk. The attack managed to wound but not cut through it, so he followed up with an attack with his claws which have been imbued with fire-type magic.

“Garuoaoo, guaruoah!” (Burn it down, Flaming Claws!)

“AaaAa AaAaaA”

The Blood Trent cried in agony as the Holy Light and the Punishing Flames combined inside its body and aggressively burned it. The combination of two skills resulted in a silvery flame that had an effect similar to the intermediate spell, “Holy Blaze”.

“oOO OOoOOO”

The burning tree monster groaned and thrashed about, and swung its arms left and right to mow down everything around it!

“Uwoah!?”

“Kyuuh!”

Blazer avoided it by a hair’s breadth as he pulled back his claws and lay on the ground, while Lancer similarly avoided the attack by letting go of her spear and jumping to the side, and carefully getting up to retreat to a safe distance while observing the situation, but…

The humans that were unable to move because they were trapped by the vines were in danger.

“Uhyaah”

“Uwoooooh!?”

The tree’s arms passed over Maril, the village girl, and Neil, the hunter, as it tried to mow down everything in its way. The two became pale and their teeth chattered as they trembled due to shock.

“We-we’re going to die, pl-please help us…”

The two were safe because they were restrained on the ground, but it was unusual for Maril, who was usually so strong-willed, to sound weak. But rather than them, Zeno, who was hanging from the tree, was in greater peril as he was about to be burned by the silver flames together with the tree.

“Cough cough why did they burn it, dammit…”

As he braced himself for the approaching flames while he was covered in smoke, Zeno relaxed his body, slowly closed his eyes, and waited for his end, but…

“Huh? It’s not hot?”

Just as Zeno’s words suggested, while Holy Blaze only consumes evil beings and has no effect on anyone but its target, it cannot be immediately extinguished with water or other substances.

In other words, the silver flame, which is a powerful combination of holy and fire attribute magic, destroys both the body and soul of vampire and immortal-type monsters.

The damage was immense, and the movement of the violently struggling Blood Trent gradually slowed down. Shortly after, the purple glow in its empty eye sockets disappeared and it completely stopped moving.

“Voaruau…” (It’s gone…)

“Huhu, you saved us?”

Blazer’s and Maril’s gazes met as they both whispered at the same time. When she realized that it was the tall, skinny Kobold who previously helped them, Maril feigned friendliness and tried to ask for help while wearing an adorable expression, when suddenly, an unpleasant cry echoed through the forest.

“Gi, gii, iiiii”

“Wh-what is it now!?”

“Oioi, you’ve got to be kidding me…”

While the vigilantes from Viel village looked fed up while they were still restrained by the vines, the Kobolds increased their vigilance as a giant ladybug promptly crawled out of the Blood Trent’s mouth and fell to the ground with a thud.

Although its wings and body have already been burned by the silver flames, the poisonous-looking mottled pattern on its back could still be glimpsed.

“Ua, kuofaua… Wau♪” (Uwah, that looks disgusting… Ei♪)

“Giiiii, gii, gia…a…”

Even if they knew it would die down if they left it alone, Lancer pushed the button on her mechanical blade and stabbed it to be sure.

This giant ladybug monster, which is the main body of the Blood Trent, parasitizes trees that are located in places with optimum conditions and use vines to catch animals and other creatures to suck their blood, but… 

Since it targets small groups of individuals and it takes a great deal of time and effort to defeat it, only a few people know of its existence because there are only a few records of people successfully subjugating it. 

But while most may think that it would be a good idea to burn them to death without fearing the loss brought on by forest fires, these parasitic monsters controlling the trees which are growing above shallow water veins can control the water underneath and immediately put out the fires. 

The only effective way to beat it was for a vanguard to squeeze the life out of the tree while defending against the vines and the branches and for a high to middle-ranking priest in the rearguard to deal a fatal blow using holy attribute magic. And so, it could be said that the Kobolds were pretty spot-on with how they handled the situation.

And so, immediately after killing the powerful monster which was classified as a threat level C+ to B-, Lancer’s consciousness faded into a white light and she found herself standing in the middle of the Silver Spiral Staircase that she had been to previously.

“Gau, waofuvorugu” (Oh, so I’m at the Ultimate Spiral Staircase again…)

She uttered as the memory of reaching the Tree of Life long ago and ascending the stairs while being given blessings and cheered on came back to her instantly…