Armipotent

The Demonic Tree was around ten meters tall, not the tallest tree here, but the seemingly unlimited branches made it look ominous. Two groups approached the tree from a different directions. Eril led his team, and Kaiser led its family.

Even though both decided to work together to fight the boss monster, they decided to move separately. Not because they did not want to work together but because they had no way to communicate. The skeleton could only speak to their master, so it would be hard for Eril to work together with the skeletons. The plan was simple, they attacked the boss monster from the opposite direction, giving a pincer to the boss monster from two sides to split Demonic Tree's attention.

Eril led the group carefully, but Kaiser was fearless as always. It marched toward the Demonic Tree in steady steps, making noises along with the other skeletons. The skeleton team was the first one to reach the ten meters range of the boss monster.

As if the Demonic Tree had just noticed the incoming danger, its branches shook violently. It seemed to give a warning for them to stay away, but the skeleton paid no attention to the warning. As Kaiser took the next step, the hundreds of black branches infused with the Dark Energy shot toward the skeleton group.

Skelly5, The Grandmaster Protector Skeleton, jumped to the front of Kaiser, putting its two giant black-bone shields forward. The other skeletons also got ready for the next move as the Abyssal Archmage started to chant its spell.

Right before hundreds of branches could hit Skelly5, Keeper pulled the trigger. The Infernal Gunslinger changed its sniper into a Gatling Gun, shooting all the bullets toward the incoming branches. The black branch could not hold against the black bullet as the branches were cut short before they could reach Skelly5.

The sound of the shoot rang in the forest, raising Eril's heartbeat. While they could not see what had happened on the other side, the sound was enough to raise their tension. They looked at each other, wondering what had happened on the other side. Of course, they were aware that the skeleton might start the fight already, as they could see the Demonic Tree shaking violently.

"Should I start too?" Lulu glanced at Eril as she was ready to launch her first spell. She felt like she did not want to lose against the skeletons, not in front of the Golden Dragon.

"Alright. You stay here in the range and wait for my signal. Launch your spell on my cue." Eril was the vanguard, holding a round shield in her left hand and a sword in her right hand. Roman was a dual-wielding swordsman, and Damian was holding a spear. The latter was so nervous, as it was apparent from his expression.

As Eril reached the ten meters distance, the Demonic Tree noticed her presence. Ten black branches rose to the air, moving toward Eril. At the same time, Eril raised her sword and motioned the sword toward the Demonic Tree.

Lulu recognized the cue and activated her spell. Eleven fireballs with five meters diameter formed five meters above her. She chose fire because her enemy was a tree. Before the branches could reach Eril, the eleven fireballs accelerated toward the Demonic Tree. She did not aim at the branches but the main body directly.

As the eleven fireballs reached the ten meters range, the Demonic Tree realized the incoming danger. The remaining branches in the main trunk gather together and form a shield to block the incoming fire. The branches lined together, forming a wooden wall.

Boom!

The eleven fireballs hit the wooden wall and exploded as the fire engulfed the tree. At the same time, Eril managed to block the ten branches that came at him. "Right now!" At her voice, Roman and Damian rushed past her toward the Demonic Tree.

Before two could reach the Demonic Tree, a strong gust blew up from the tree. Blowing all the fire around it revealed that the eleven fireballs did not do anything to the wooden wall made of the Demonic Tree's branches. The wooden wall dispersed as the black branches now moved toward Damian and Roman.

Damian and Roman stopped their advance as they fought against the branches while retreating back to Eril.

*** ***

"It seems they need my help, Master." Wrath watched the whole fight from Tang Shaoyang's shoulder. Eril's group surely had a hard time facing the hundreds of branches coming at them, but the skeleton fought it well.

The skeletons brute force the Demonic Tree. Skelly5, the Grandmaster Protector, blocked as many branches as possible while Kaiser and Skelly2, the Magic Swordsmaster, cut all the branches that tried to reach Skelly3, the Abyssal Archmage, and the Archmaster Bonemancer. Even crazier, Skelly4, the Master Golden Destroyer, smashed all the branches with the hammer as the Skelly Family slowly advanced to the Demonic Tree's main body.

Keeper also changed its weapon to sniper. It tried to snipe the Demonic Tree's main body while the branches were busy fighting the other skeletons. While Lulu's spell failed to break the wooden wall, the sniper easily left a hole in the wooden wall. Skelly3, Abyssal Archmage, did its job by bombarding the Demonic Tree with its black fire. Skelly, Archmaster Bonemancer, commanded its mage summon to bombard the Demonic Tree with its spell.

The Demonic Tree seemed to realize that it was in danger because the skeleton kept coming closer. The ground shook as the tree released a black aura from the trunk and all the branches. In the following second, the Demonic Tree pulled off all the branches and formed a cocoon with the branches. The black aura got thicker, surrounding the Demonic Tree.

Eril sensed the danger from the tree and signaled her team to retreat to a safe distance without a second thought. However, the Skelly Family had a different plan. They took a few steps back, and it seemed Kaiser spoke something to Keeper, who was far away from the battlefield.

Tang Shaoyang turned toward Keeper. The latter changed its sniper into a rail gun? The Infernal Gunslinger gathered the black energy at the center of the gun. It glowed in dark violet. The skeleton waited for another five seconds to release the energy in the weapon. It shot like a laser beam, but the beam was dark-violet in color, shooting through the air with no sound.

At the same time, the Demonic Tree broke out from the cocoon. The tree doubled in size, and its thousand branches fused into twelve moving branches but much bigger in size. Each of the branches was three times bigger than a human body.

The evolving Demonic Tree sensed the incoming danger, and it swung one of its big branches to swat the laser beam. However, it miscalculated the laser beam power. Its giant branch disintegrated as the black fire spread out to the main body. Realizing its mistake, the Demonic Tree formed a shield with its remaining eleven branches, forming a layered defense.

The laser beam shot through five big branches before the beam was stopped. However, a massive explosion happened when the beam was stopped. The giant branches crumbled under the explosion as the black fire spread out to the main body, burning the leaves.

The ground shook once more, and even though the Demonic Tree did not have a voice, Eril and the others could tell the tree was in pain based on the tremor. The Demonic Tree tried to use the same method when it blew Lulu's fire, but it failed to blow the black fire. The black fire remained on the tree despite how desperate the tree tried to blow the black fire away.

One single laser beam destroyed the twelve giant branches. Kaiser signaled its family to make a move right now. Leading the other skeletons, Kaiser turned its arm into a blade and landed the first slash on the Demonic Tree's trunk. All the skeletons bombarded the Demonic Tree with everything they got, but they quickly realized that the Demonic Tree was regenerating despite their continuous assault.

A minute later, the Demonic Tree recovered the five big branches, and Kaiser signaled the other skeletons to retreat. It was not because they gave up on the attack but because Keeper was ready to shoot the second laser beam. By the time they reached a safe distance, the dark-violet beam shot toward the Demonic Tree once more.

The Demonic Tree realized it had to give up on attacking the skeletons near him and focused on the incoming attack. It put all the branches for defense. It seemed to learn from the mistake as it used more Dark Energy to block the incoming laser beam. However, its effort was futile as the laser beam easily pierced through the five big branches.

The laser beam reached the Demonic Tree's main body and stopped right there. It was the same sequence of events. Once the beam was stopped, it was followed by a massive explosion. The explosion disintegrated The Demonic Tree's main body. There was nothing that could escape from the explosion; there were no parts of the Demonic Tree that were not under fire.

Even though the Demonic Tree's main body was a destroyer, it still regenerated. A black layer started to form the main body once more. Kaiser was confused at first, but it quickly figured out why the tree did not die. The Abyssal Skeleton pointed toward the part where the Demonic Tree had just recovered. It saw a black core the size of a human's fist.

The other skeletons moved together with him, assaulting the one spot that had just regenerated. The destroyed tree was helpless as it had lost everything on the second laser beam. Kaiser, Skelly1, Skelly2, and Skelly4 opened the part that had just regenerated. The floating core was in everyone's sight, but none of them attacked the core. Even Skelly3, The Abyssal Archmage, did not use its spell to destroy the core. Once the part was about to regenerate a new layer, Kaiser got rid of that layer, and five seconds later, a sniper bullet pierced the core.

The Skelly Family gave the kill for Keeper. The Infernal Gunslinger contributed the most in killing the boss monster, so they gave the kill to Keeper. As the core disintegrated, the remaining part that was still under fire fell off.

[You have killed the Demonic Tree!]

[Congratulations! You have killed the Boss of the Epic Rank Garden!]

[Congratulations! The Tang Empire gets the exclusive right to enter The Epic Garden!]