Chương 101: Adansonia

We all thought it would be two weeks and then the following day would be an attack. Turned out to not be the case at all. At exactly midnight, they started. The entire city was struck in several different areas at once, all coming from the trees that were mapped out in Master Sequoia's video. We ended up having to split entirely and divide our forces. Even Agent Richmond was getting involved, due to there being about five threats total and only four of us otherwise. Our goal was not to completely eliminate them.

All we had to do was keep them suppressed until the National Guard could arrive and hold them in place to prevent a spread. If we could fully apprehend, then we should, but we were discouraged from going for any hard wins, since if we could guarantee secured locations we could then unify forces quicker. We split up differently. Flowstate was getting deployed by the van. Spectroma got a helicopter ride. Teiú and I were on foot, using the tunnels as our exits.

Richmond had a motorcycle, which was a bit indulgent but I didn't really have time to judge. All of us were given our own locations to target. Mine was to the North, from the park. Leaping my way across town was easy enough from there. From my location, as I crossed from building to building, I could see the Rivanna River. Seemed to always linger near me. It was the river connected to the warehouse for that interview. It was the river that made the makeshift aquarium in my room. Getting too sentimental.

Had to focus. Of course, circumstance felt it was too funny a coincidence to ignore, as the path I took led me relatively close to the river. When I landed, I found myself up to my knees in just utter chaos. Still plenty of civilians running from a scant few armed members of the ADU, but the bigger issue I could see was it wasn't just them. It was two of those massive tree-men from the encounter at the park. The members of the Arboreal Senate. A larger priority was the tree they came from.

Its canopy was expanding and growing far faster than normal. Not rapidly, but it looked like it was trying to grow and span over the area. Sitting the tree, was this overly corpulent man with his leafy green cloak that barely fit him. His swollen, bloated body had multiple blotches of Wyrdwood practically tearing through his flesh, in his stomach, his arms, his legs. He said nothing, but raised a staff, while the tree-men turned to face me." We have been blessed!

An opportunity to avenge our fallen brothers by slaying Gleditsia's rival!" As they ranted, I focused on redirecting the few civilians to get completely behind me as they ran. I really didn't care about what they were saying, priority one was clearing the zone out. As it looked to be as clear of civilians as I could get while the tree-men began charging me, I yanked some of the abandoned vehicles into the road to act as temporary barriers. Not to keep them from running, but to keep anyone from stumbling in.

That also killed time, let them get closer to me until- THOOM I lunged away from them. The tree-men, the guys with guns, they were distractions. Fatso was the likely ring-leader here. So he was the destination for my pounce, fist reared back. Wyrdwood meant he could heal, but if he was like the last one, that meant his body might not be entirely Wyrdwood. Had to go for a debilitating blow that'd be a knockout. We needed to figure out what these guys were up to, since Mother Socratea wouldn't say a goddamn thing.

WHOM My fist slammed into his midsection, the force heavy and loud enough that one of the ADU soldiers near him actually stumbled over from the air-burst. But the obese man didn't even move from where he was sitting. I could see his almost peaceful face up close, his eyes closed and a smile sitting on his lips. As my fist met his body, it instead rippled back, extending behind him. He spoke in the seconds of incredulity I foolishly gave him.

"I, Father Adansonia, am the gentle tree that bends to last the storm. Begone." All at once, the rippled back corpulence recoiled towards me. It slammed into my body with enough force to send me flying all the way back to where I was, tearing a me-shaped gouge through the road. The back of my head slammed into the car. And I was right back under the tree-men." Our prey returns!" one jubilantly cried out as they both raised their wide, tree-trunk like feet to slam down.

"Wide!" I yelled as I held my hand out. Shivvy slipped out of my suit and expanded atop my palm, obstructing me from the impact, though most of the weight still shifted through as he was too firm. But that was fine. Shivvy fucking loved tree bark. I'd been putting him on an exclusive diet of it for the past couple of weeks, and he really got a taste for it. One of the few good suggestions Sam had for me.

The liquid metal's body left little stains on their feet that began to curdle and expand along the tree-men's legs, eating away at the bark, parting to my left and right. They shouted in horror at the sudden destruction of their bodies. I took the opportunityto touch at my ear with my other hand, coiled up in an almost fetal position to keep my body completely behind Shivvy as the remaining ADU were shooting at me from afar.

"Betsy!" I yelled out.

"Adansonia! His name's Adansonia! What's that mean!? He's fat as Hell!" Her voice echoed into my ear.

"Researching now, I'm going to need a minute because I'm not an arborist. Can you hold out?"

"Should be able to!" Silence from her after that. She was already on the move. Thank God. I pushed myself back up to my feet, my ears tuning out most of the gunfire sent my way at this point. Needed to consider my options in the little window I had. While Shivvy could eat away at Adansonia's body, a lot of it seemed under his skin, maybe took organs. If we killed him, that'd be one less potential information source. So I'd have to guarantee a knockout else wise. The tree-men talked.

The more monstrous ones, like the one with the person in it I... that I killed, didn't. There were likely not people in them based on that. Shivvy's taste for bark meant if there were, they would likely be fine anyway. That left the armed men. Giving up my shield would be high risk. In theory I could take whatever they hit me with so long as they didn't graze my neck again, but there were about four of them remaining from what I saw. And all of this was against the timing of that tree growing.

I could see it was starting to arc out instead of upwards, like it was trying to enclose the area. Were they trying to build bases? I couldn't think of why else they would try to cover up any sort of area. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Had to try and kill as many birds with as little stones as possible. The tree-men were working on tearing their legs off to regrow new ones, must've learned the idea from Gleditsia. Asshole.

But that was fine, that gave me an idea. They were going to be off-balance. I couldn't be in two places at once, but I could project enough force to practically look like it. Lunging towards the tree-man to my left, I thrust my arm into his shin, guaranteeing myself a firm grip as I whipped around to build momentum. After making a full turn, I hurled the walking tree into two of the armed men.

It wasn't hard enough to pulverize them, but they weren't getting up for a while after getting knocked out by the force I was throwing at them. That left a total of four threats left. Adansonia, a tree-man, and two more ADU members. The other tree-man would need time to get up and to dismember himself if he didn't want to get eaten by Shivvy's aftermath, so he was definitely out of the fight.

The one I didn't throw just finished ripping his own shin clean off, vines shooting out from the wounds to rebuild into a new leg. Gunfire continued piling at me from the two ADU members, my only protection being Shivvy eating every shot that flew at me. But at some point or another, he was going to end up full. And Betsy still hadn't gotten a fucking answer on what the fat guy was doing in order to just absorb a hit from me like that. Had to really thread the needle here. Okay.

Just had to do the same idea, but smaller. I waited until the gunfire slowed to a crawl, as they reloaded. That was my opening. Once I heard the first click, I whipped Shivvy at the shooters. I lucked out, he wasn't interested in people. But he did seem to have a ball eating their guns after flooring them. That left the standing tree-man, who was already rushing towards me. That, honestly, was my easiest problem. The ground broke under me as I launched myself at the tree-man, digging my hands into his good leg.

He'd heal from anything I did to him, slower than any other regenerating threat, but I didn't need to kill him. Technofiend showed me a great alternative when he fought my friends. I didn't imagine something he did would've been useful to me, but here we are. I whipped around and around, building up as much momentum as possible, before hurling the tree-man straight up into the air, a yell echoing off as he went into the sky. Whether or not he'd come falling back down later, I wasn't sure.

But that gave me a second to think, and it was the perfect time.

"Hercules, I've got info! Adansonia is the name of Baobab trees!" Betsy's voice was like music to my ears. Tapping a finger to my ear, I watched the other tree-man climb up to his feet, having torn a leg free. The eroding limb was hurled at me right as he stood up.

"And-!" KRRRAK One kick broke the loose limb into splinters. I was a little disappointed, since I was hoping I went light enough to just send it flying back at the tree-man. Unfortunately, it was moving faster than I had realized, and that just added a lot more force into my kick.

"-What does that mean!?" I finally finished asking, stancing up while I considered the best approach for this one. Could I just throw him up in the air too? The issue was having them both falling later could make them an unaccountable threat. Just one was probably something the National Guard could deal with. Two might complicate it. Especially if there were others at the other attack zones.

"Baobabs absorb a lot of water and swell up! They can hold up to thirty thousand gallons of water!"

"So what, he's full of water!?"

"You're the one fighting him!" That was, in fact, the case. So was he storing the water to use it like a spring when I hit him? The way it rippled in his body definitely seemed like almost a water balloon. That must've been why he wasn't moving, either. He might've had a Wyrdwood root or something to keep up a water supply. Since why else would they put him at a spot near the river? The root wouldn't have to go that far.

But it also meant over time, he'd still be filling up, hitting him harder would cause a worse and worse recoil. I'd have to somehow force all the water out of him at o- Wasted too much time thinking. The tree-man was swinging an arm down at- A streak of silver. Shivvy slammed onto the tree-man like a trap, covering him and eroding away at the bark." No! No! It burns! It BURNS! Nemea, save me!" the tree-man wailed out, flailing and stumbling around. I didn't even have to call him for that. What a good kitty.

"No meat!" I called out. Another command I taught him while feeding him bark. If there was someone inside, they'd be fine. That left Adansonia. Had to somehow get all the water out of him at once. One clean blow. A straight punch just resulted in me getting walloped back. Uppercut. Why not just try an uppercut? Pouncing back towards him, I brought my arm under me. Right as I got close, I hooked my arm and below where his ribs should be, thundering force into Adansonia.

His peaceful face remained unchanged as the rippling of my force piled up on his back. Of fucking course. Using the same force I usually used to leap long distances, I just forced myself to pivot around and slam my shin into the piling up force at the back. That did nothing, as the recoil just moved to his front instead. I was just pushing all the water in him around. It became this pointless game of ping-pong, just knocking around the water desperately, my body tiring out from the constant chasing of my own punch.

If I stopped at any point, the recoil would now be enough to probably kill me.

"Storm, storm away, boy. For at the end of the hurricane, the bending tree remains standing."

"Shut up!" I just needed to cover it all at once, Somehow put all that force around him. If I just clapped on either side of him, it would shoot out from his sides, slam into me. There was probably another two minutes of this assault before another punch to his stomach was the last one I could muster. Fatigue was setting in. The strength was there, but my muscles just were too sore to keep up the movement.

The water had built up enough force at this point that, then and there, I realized this was going to knock me out. I had held out for nowhere near enough time. This was going to be a lost foothold. But I wasn't going to take it lying down. There was one thing I'd never stop doing. I would never stop holding my ground. I don't know why, but that assurance in myself made the air feel so much lighter. So much more freeing. As the rippled-back recoil snapped towards the center of Adansonia's mass, it…

didn't hit my hand. It just seemed to squeeze against nothing, like it was hitting a wall. I thought the sides would bulge out from the change in force, but nothing. This didn't feel like durability. I didn't even notice contact with my fist. Instead, the peaceful look on Adansonia's face curdled into a nauseated one. And suddenly, with the force of a firehose, water blasted out of his mouth. It flew over my head, arcing across the air as he let out this awful groaning sound.

He kept releasing water, his body draining further and further until he was a shriveled husk. As he wheezed, I offered him the only recourse he deserved: No strength backhand. WHAM He went down like a sack of potatoes, flat on the concrete. I had no idea what let that all happen, but I didn't have time for bewilderment. Looking up at the tree, it kept expanding. Had to put a stop to it.

"Shivvy! Long!" The living metal shot towards me like a dart from where the tree man used to be, softly landing against me before piling into my hand, extending into his rod-like form. That same face from before pushed itself out of the bark.

"Your friends have already failed and are retreating. Do you think this one victory means anything?" I didn't even bother answering, as I stabbed Shivvy straight into the wooden face, prompting an agonized wail. Shivvy immediately began spreading across the bark, eating away at as much Wyrdwood as possible. Stumbling back, I watched a great tree turn to a massive silver spire, before collapsing in on itself. All that stood was me. The victor. The, very confused, victor.