'Let's see whether this titanbark is really the strongest material in here!'
Ash was only a movement away from enacting his plan, but he suddenly froze.
The holes on the Titanbark's trunks, the place where the vines shot out, suddenly came alive.
The dozen vines shot out of the holes, twisting and turning in the air frantically as if they were searching for something.
'Did they notice me? How!? My feet were several meters above the ground!'
Then an understanding dawned on him.
'The air… There must be vibrations in the air… It was weak enough not to be noticeable from afar, but from this up close…'
A couple of vines began inching closer to him, still looking a bit unsure at first.
But when it was only 2 meters away from him, the vines seemed to have found what they were looking for.
Starting from the two vines that neared him, all the vines that frantically danced in the air all rushed in Ash's direction.
Each of the thorns was ready to turn Ash's skin into an immovable titanbark.
The roots also came into the fray. Their tips started to emerge from the ground. Wanting nothing other than skewering Ash.
"GO AWAY NOW!"
The doppelganger's vines retreated, albeit reluctantly, not wanting to leave its master alone.
For Keen, though. Ash didn't even finish his sentence when the bird released him and flew away using the cardinal's bird ability.
Going as far away as possible, the fastest he could from the tree and its creepy vines.
As for Ash himself, he was already in too deep. He wouldn't delay the fight any longer.
Besides, he was already close enough. Enough to do what he wanted.
"Take this!"
Ash activated plague bile, the ability that enabled him to spit out acid from his mouth.
His target was none other than the root of the Titanbark.
Why the roots?
It was simply because Ash needed to eliminate the cheat-like number of appendages the Titanbark could control.
The vines themselves were already twice the number of the usual carnivorous tree.
Added with the stabbing roots covered in Titanbark, there was no way Ash could do anything against one of the rulers of the forest.
One more significant factor for Ash to choose to remove the roots first was the fact that the roots weren't as many as the vines.
With a single look, it was very wrong to assume the roots were less than the vines.
In fact, the roots seemed to be much more abundant.
However, the root system of plants, especially one that could stand more than 10 meters tall didn't work like that.
There were several main roots that kept the tree standing tall.
And the many roots were its smaller branches that grew from the main roots.
They were connected to the main roots, not a separate part.
Ash just needed to kill off the main roots, then the Titanbark would lose its armies of titanbark-covered roots.
But of course, the tree was covered in titanbark.
Something that was even stronger than the steelbark that could easily fend off a bear's claws.
There was a chance the acid wouldn't be enough to deal with the Titanbark since it was possibly the strongest material here in the forest.
Hence why Ash wasn't confident before when he saw the Titanbark for the first time.
But the acid bile wasn't any ordinary acid bile.
When he took a look at the slug's DNA, he noticed the slug had a certain enzyme.
One that enabled the slug to be able to eat anything, literally anything that needed to be broken down.
It was the ultimate ability of the detritivore of the forest.
One that was called one of the rulers of the forest, along with the Verdant Stag and the Titanbark.
He had put the DNA to produce that enzyme into his body, making it work in tandem with the acid.
Producing a liquid that was able to devour anything in its way.
The slug's enzyme-filled acid arrived at the base of one of the main roots.
The supposedly strongest bark in the forest began melting at a visible pace.
The bonds keeping the titanbark together broke down from the enzyme.
The remnants of the strongest bark were eaten up by the acid that could even melt bones.
But they didn't stop there. The acid consumed the insides, melting the wood much faster than it dealt with bark.
The whole tree shook.
The roots froze in place. Seemingly in disbelief that they had just lost a part of themselves.
The trunk vibrated. The branches flailing as a part of itself had been melted away by the acid.
The vines went into a rampage.
Its controlled grace disappeared. The tree didn't care for control anymore as it raged.
The vines violently snapped forward. Discarding any sense of accuracy as they threw themselves as fast as they could to the place where Ash's feet touched the ground.
But Ash didn't have any plans to be tree food.
His berserk skill filled his body, and his berserk thorn pricked him.
His muscles swelled.
His blood raced. Numbing his thoughts.
Only one goal now existed in his mind.
Defeat the Titanbark.
Without even using twitchstep, Ash's body disappeared from the spot he was standing on.
The vines hit nothing but the roots that stayed frozen.
The tree felt the movement when Ash landed on the other side. The vines jerked themselves in his direction.
Even the frozen roots now regained their senses as they followed after him.
But Ash didn't stay still.
The moment he arrived, he spewed more of the improved acid bile.
Melting more roots before moving away once more with his inhuman speed.
If a regular human saw him right now, they would only be able to see blurs of a man constantly appearing and disappearing around the tree.
Circling it as yellow corrosive liquid spewed from the man's mouth and melted away the huge roots of the tree.
After several cycles, all the roots of the tree had stopped moving.
Not because they were frozen in shock once more.
None of them still had any connection with the tree.
All the main roots had been enshrouded by the acid. None of the branches even realized they were already dead.
They just suddenly stopped moving.
The main branch melted.
Devoured.