I became a legion lich

105 Assault mode

Humans depended on agriculture and livestock for sustenance and it was no exaggeration to say that their countries would crumble without them. What if Athos had the power to take that away from them? If the soil were incapable of supporting agriculture, wouldn’t entire countries fall without it having to take a single step forward?

Athos could easily imagine what would happen. Rising food prices, commoners starving, nobles accumulating resources, crime rate rising, public order deteriorating, the despair of the starving population, chaos spreading, a revolt starting, wars for increasingly scarce resources, countries crumbling from within...

“Haha...” A laugh escaped him without him noticing. Athos touched his surprised face and realized he was smiling. It seemed the mere thought of causing so much disgrace made him smile without realizing it. He quickly hid his smile and turned to Treevor, trying to look as impassive as possible.

“How do you feel, Treevor? How much energy did you manage to muster?” Athos asked.

“I feel amazing.” Treevor muttered, finally snapping out of his stupor. He had regained all the energy he had spent, returning to the same level as before facing Emilia and the other mage-killers. No, he was even stronger than before.

The energy leak forced him to expend 4 times more energy than necessary, in addition to the constant leak even if he didn’t do anything. Without it, he could fight much more smoothly and avoid making fools of mistakes out of impatience, as he did in the fight against Athos.

“Treevor, I want you to steal all the land around the city, as well as the villages. You should get even more powerful that way.” Athos suggested, but Treevor’s reaction wasn’t the best.

“And destroy the land of innocent people? I wouldn’t be able to live knowing that I destroyed the lives of hundreds of villagers.” Treevor spoke resolutely. Killing soldiers and mages was one thing, innocent villagers was a different story.

“If that’s the problem, don’t worry. I already killed all those people myself, the farmland is vacant now. Even if you don’t drain it until it turns into dead land, I would still destroy all the buildings and poison the land.” Athos lied through his teeth. He would never waste his time on something so useless, but Treevor didn’t know that.

.....

“You bony bastard...” Treevor swore angrily at him, but complied anyway. The willow changed shape, assuming its combat form and leaving Athos gaping. “What is the problem?”

“You should look at yourself in the mirror. Your assault mode has changed a lot.” Athos spoke in admiration.

Treevor conjured a mirror of ice in front of him, shocked by what he saw. His entire body was ebony in color just as expected, but now he was slender and tall, rather than robust as before.

It had grown to nearly 5 meters in height, with long limbs. His arms lengthened and thinned, small black spikes protruding from his forearms. Long, hollow claws protruded from his fingers, dripping sickly green liquid. There were several small black flower buds on both shoulders, instead of a gigantic one.

The corrupted amber gem was in the middle of his chest, spreading amber energy throughout his body. The enchantment that absorbs the energy of the amber gem was only responsible for powering the enchantments with a single thought from Treevor so that he could fully focus on fighting. That way, all he had to do was wish for an enchantment to activate, saving you the trouble of manually guiding mana.

Its legs were roots intertwined in a spiral, ending in four long claws, three in front and one where the heel should have been. From the back of its head, black vines and thin branches hung down to its waist like long hair, spikes growing at regular intervals until it ended in a hollow thorn dripping with poison.

His helmet was shaped like a skull, his jaw tightly closed. Two curved branches protruded from the sides of his head, running down the sides of his face to his jaw as if they were face protectors, covering the parts his helmet left exposed.

Treevor turned from side to side, noting all the changes the willow had undergone. The acacia tree he used in the past had minimal differences with the willow, so this big change came as a surprise to him.

‘How do you feel?’ Athos asked mentally, as Treevor was ignoring him as he checked his body.

“Let’s find out now.” Treevor spoke with a smile. A section of the vines on the back of his head came off and slipped down his arm like snakes, before curling around his hand and forming a long, thorny whip. It seemed that now, instead of turning his limbs into weapons, he would create weapons with parts of his body.

It was certainly less destructive than the ancient glowing willow whip, but it seemed to have a longer range. Treevor climbed out of the hole and looked around the vacant lot, before conjuring three clay dolls in a row.

As he was testing his power, he decided to go all in at once and swung his whip with all his might. The whip elongated and made a slashing sound, almost immediately hitting the first puppet.

The clay doll was ripped in half, the whip leaving a deep cut mark on the floor. In addition, black smoke began to rise, indicating that the attack was toxic on some level.

“Destructive power decreased, but slashing went deeper, so slashing power increased. Range and attack speed also improved.” Treevor spoke aloud so Athos could hear.

Treevor struck again, but this time he wrapped the whip around his wrist before he unleashed it with all his might, the same move he used to impale his spear. The vine moved in a straight line and hit the clay doll’s chest, impaling him without resistance and digging into the ground behind him.

“Looks like the spear and whip are a set now. Well, that makes it easier for me not to have to change it all the time. Now is the best part.” Treevor spoke with a smile on his face, before the black flower buds on his shoulders bloomed and absorbed the surrounding darkness, making Treevor shine like a second sun for a second or two.

He expected one or maybe both of his arms to turn into cannons, but the vines and branches behind his head formed small cannons each and pointed at the last clay doll, the one he was unconsciously aiming at. before shooting multiple beams of darkness.

The clay doll was pierced with dozens of beams and was immediately destroyed, along with everything behind it. Before the beam’s energy ran out, Treevor tried to hit different targets, but it was an almost impossible task.

The “mini-cannons” as he decided to call them, moved at will and didn’t have a convenient target lock, so he’d have to split his focus on controlling each of them.

“Having multiple cannons instead of a single cannon is more versatile, but it has greatly increased the difficulty of using them. I think I’m going to need an enchantment to solve this problem. I can’t imagine controlling dozens of beams at the same time and still fight.” Treevor sighed, but he was really happy inside.

He realized he could activate the flowers individually so he wouldn’t overwhelm himself, a huge improvement compared to the all-in before.

“Well, attack speed increased, range increased, destructive power decreased, versatility increased. Also, how did you do it? Darkness is intangible, but you managed to form reeds in the earth anyway.” Athos asked as he counted on his fingers, remembering with interest everything Treevor had said.

“I mixed some corruption to deal physical damage. Now, i need to test my defensive ability and movement speed. After that, I’m going to enchant the willow. I already have some ideas on what to do, as well as new weapons that I believe will match this body.” Treevor spoke happily.

“I see. But how are you going to test your defense? Physical attacks would just scratch you and our energy signature is similar, so we can’t harm each other.” Athos asked.

“Like this.” Treevor muttered before conjuring a seven-foot stone sphere. He removed all his mana from the stone and grabbed it by the sides, throwing it as high as he could.

He walked until he was right under the rock, before turning the vines and branches into a shield. It was a kite shield, but it was much thinner than the glowing willow shield. The stone hit the shield hard and broke, leaving a small dent that quickly healed.

“The glowing willow shield withstood that same test without suffering a single scratch. As expected, my defense dropped a little.” Treevor said. “Time for the last test.”

Treevor ran around the hole before stopping and bending his knees, jumping as high as he could. Surprisingly, the wood twisted into a spiral in his legs acted like a spring and propelled him whenever he ran or jumped.

“That’s amazing. I think out of all the changes, attack speed and movement speed have increased the most.” Treevor didn’t test his regeneration, because he already knew his answer.

Darkness healed the undead as well as light healed the living, after all.

“Made you more deadly, didn’t it?” Athos spoke as he approached him, realizing that the tests were over.

“That, exactly.” Treevor agreed with him. If glowing willow was a healing tank, corrupted willow was a fast attacker that also healed.