Reborn as a Demonic Tree-Novel

A dense mist blanketed the courtyard as over ten water clones of Diana emerged with sinister smiles.

Mike reacted instantly, creating an area around him that froze the mist—transforming it into snow that swirled around him, eventually forming a blizzard. White flames drifted from his hands and joined the torrent, creating a seemingly impenetrable wall around him of snow and flames. His eyes darted around, and he held his sword in a ready position across his chest.

Haunted laughter echoed through the mist as shadows encircled Mike. They waited patiently, just outside his strike range, as they laughed, mocking the man as if he were a goldfish trapped in a bowl.

From his viewpoint above, Ashlock could see everything—the mist was child's play before his A-grade skill. The shadow that Mike had attacked was just a shadow in the fog. The clones had dissolved into puddles and traveled along the floor in streams toward Mike.

Ashlock didn't plan to take a backseat to this. Even if Diana was strong, it was still a bad matchup. She relied on water-based techniques, whereas the Winterwrath family employed ice-based ones. A natural counter. Ashlock waited for the perfect time to strike as his roots remained patiently under the thin soil cover.

Conveniently, Mike didn't seem to want to move and was standing on a patch of grass rather than the runic formation, so Ashlock could cast {Devour} without issue.

Seeing the shadow die from his attack, Mike grinned and shot out ten more miniature icicles, each the length of an arm. They carved through the mist, and the shadows fell one by one.

"What a waste of Qi." Ashlock couldn't hold back his critique as, from his perspective, Mike looked irrational, wasting Qi on attacking shadows in the mist that would never harm him.

The ground trembled as he lit up like a lightbulb with white flames—that poured out of him like mercury in all directions, and the second the liquid flames touched the ground, the fire morphed into solid ice, coating the soil in a deep freeze that stopped Diana's attack in its tracks.

Mike sneered at the flash-frozen ground surrounding him for a few meters. The injury on the back of his leg had also healed—not even a scar remained.

Some might think Mike had the upper hand, but it was evident from above that Diana was whittling him down. The blizzard surrounding Mike dissipated as the mist retreated and the laughing shadows reappeared.

Diana was actually standing on the wall, directly behind Mike. A dagger lay lazily in her hand as she looked down at him with dull grey eyes. Diana didn't say a word to counter his taunting; only a thin smile emerged. Then, like an orchestra conductor, she channeled Qi into the surroundings, and the mist began to morph and move.

Ashlock was as surprised as Mike. Even he had thought the illusion was real.

A figure flickered through the fog, and Mike barely raised his shield in time to block a savage slash of blue flames from behind—the real Diana had gone for a killing blow, but Mike had just about survived by the skin of his teeth.

There was a brief flash of panic on Diana's calm face, and Ashlock decided it was time to make his explosive entrance.

Casting {Devour} with all his stored-up Qi, the ground cracked. His inner lake rippled as stored Qi was funneled into the skill.

Black vines as thick as one's forearm erupted from the ground with such force it was like a dormant Kraken had awakened and decided to swallow its foolish prey.

Mike's eyes bulged from shock as black vines came up all around him in a shower of cracked ice. He cast aside the shield with Diana's dagger frozen to it, summoned two blades from his spatial ring, and with a twirl, he cut all the vines in one go. They were severed easily and fell to the ground. But little did Mike know, the skill didn't end until the target was dead or Ashlock ran out of Qi.

More came.

He cut them with increased vigor while deflecting Diana's second attack from his blindspot—the angle was awkward, so he stumbled, and a luckily placed root coiled around his foot—causing him to faceplant into the frozen grass with a groan.

He tried to push himself up, but it was futile.

Vines sprung from below and coiled around his waist and limbs, dragging him down. He screamed, white flames burning the vines, but with his ice gone, Diana could move freely.

Diana bent down before him, and with a broad smile, she cleanly decapitated Mike in one swift strike.

Ashlock could only chuckle to himself as he watched the squatter struggle. If he could cancel the skill, he might have thought about it, but it was uncancelable once it started.

Only the sound of shifting vines and Diana's heavy breathing filled the empty courtyard.

[+10 SC]

Ashlock metaphorically frowned at the notification. Why was it only ten credits? He gained at least a hundred when he killed cultivators of a lower level than this guy. "Did the system break?"

[Requirements for the Soul Forge Realm have been met: 9th Qi Realm (100%)]

"Huh?"

[Suitable White Soul Core (Element Ice) Absorbed - Placed into storage as cultivation stage is at 100%]

"Hold on... White Soul Core? Was that from the body I just consumed? Is that why I gained no SC? Because I didn't absorb the cultivator's Soul Core?"

[Commencing upgrade to Soul Forge Realm: 0%]

[Use {Free} White Soul Core? Or random draw with {134} credits?]

Was that even a question? What kind of tree used ice abilities? Frost and fire were the natural enemies of all trees! Just the thought of the winter was enough to make Ashlock feel sleepy and want to hibernate. "Random draw!" Ashlock shouted to his system, and the screen flickered away.

[White Soul Core consumed: +200 SC]

[324 credits used, forming new Soul Core...]

[Amethyst(Spatial) Soul Core created]

"What?"

[Entering Sleep Mode]