Now with a steel-like armor protecting him, Ash beelined towards the carnivorous tree.
More vines and thorns flew at him, but he didn't plan to voluntarily get hit this time.
He zigzagged forward, timing his steps correctly to avoid the thorns the best he could.
It was east the first 5 meters, which meant the first second, but as Ash got closer, the vines and thorns welcomed him even more fervently.
Ash got less and less time to dodge the flying thorns and the dancing thorns.
But the vines were the highest priority target for him to dodge.
Why? Of course because of his new, beautiful, semi-natural skin.
Even though Ash was athletic and had the toxic surge skill, he wasn't a superhuman.
No matter how fast he dodged, he couldn't just evade all the thorns flying at him.
Several thorns caught Ash before he could dodge away, hitting him directly on… his steel-like skin.
The thorns were just deflected away by his skin, not a single one of them managed to get past the bark and draw his blood.
Not that they would do anything fatal to him. He was already immune to the thorns' venom.
But still, the vines had now become a real problem for him once Ash was just a jump away from reaching the tree.
Fortunately, he had thought this out. His hours of recon were not spent in vain.
The vines that wriggled faster than a fish out of water twirled in the air, and one of them almost caught Ash's arms.
But at the last moment, vines, crimson in color, sprouted from Ash's arm, prancing as it wrapped itself around the carnivorous tree's vine.
The tree vine began drying and crumbling as the crimson vine injected its venom into it.
Ash's strangleweed sprouted from his body and used its necrotic properties to kill off the tree's vine, saving Ash's ass from being fucked.
Ash cut his own strangleweed, leaving it behind as he took one last huge step.
Ash landed on top of one of the huge tree roots. His feet barely stabilized on top with the help of his arms, hugging the tree trunk.
He made it to the tree safely.
But that didn't mean that it was over, though. The vines and thorns kept coming at him.
Now, what way did Ash come up with to deal with a tree that has a bark as hard as steel?
He didn't have any magical axe or chainsaw to cut the tree down.
But Ash had his own cursed necrotic vines that could rot any organic matter that it touched.
Including the huge ass tree that kept on lashing vines and shooting thorns.
And were Ash's vines strong enough to pierce the steel bark? Hell no.
But he didn't need to.
Ash commanded his crimson vines to grow way past his own height. Slithering and dodging the tree's vines.
Ash used some of the crimson vines to wrap around his whole body, acting as a very painful shield against the tree's vines.
The crimson vines grew longer and longer until they finally reached their target.
The base of one of the tree vines, the hollow part in the bark.
Ash saw the hole, and he thrust it.
The crimson vine made quick work of the original tree vine, killing them straight from the source.
If he could summon even more vines other than from his two arms, he would have filled all of the tree's holes.
Alas, a man can only dream about filling that many holes at once.
Fortunately, his plan didn't require him to do that. He only needed to make sure that one hole was overwhelmed by his vine.
Even after killing the whole vine, Ash kept pushing deeper and deeper into the hole.
Spreading the vine's venom all over the tree, filling it up from the inside out.
The process took some time, and Ash was almost buried with the multiple vines of the tree. But he held on strong.
His hands hugged the tree's bark tightly, and his defensive vines made sure no tree vines could hold on to him for long before dying from the necrotic venom.
And just like the vines, the tree itself began to die from all the necrotic venom his vine splurted.
The steel-like bark prevailed, but the insides of the tree? Not so much.
All the lively vines began dying one by one, the leaves that Ash wondered what the use of considering the tree was carnivorous also fell to the ground.
And soon, all attacks ceased.
Ash couldn't differentiate whether the tree had really died or not because the bark was still looking fresh and tough as hell, but,
'It's not attacking anymore, so it's as good as dead, right?'
He concluded as he summoned the codex into his hands.
The crimson vine retreated into its owner, pulling out from the tree after it finished shooting.
And it didn't come back empty handed.
From the core of the tree, the vine grabbed the source of all the vines that also contained the thorns that the tree shot out everywhere.
Ash took the vine core into his hands and opened up his plague codex.
With a thought, glowing green mana flowed out from the book and enveloped the vine core, pulling it in as the codex devoured it whole.
[Source 1 : Inputted. ]
[Source 2 : Inputted. ]
[Catalyst : Inputted. ]
New words formed under the tree requirements.
[All components inputted.]
[Beginning splice.]
[...]
[Complete.]
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Tier 2 Disease
Crimson Pulse Thorn
A brutal venom that hyperstimulates cardiovascular output while forcibly overriding muscular inhibitors. Pushes the body to peak physical output, at the cost of growing thorns on the skin layer.
+Symptoms:
-Hypertonia: Extreme muscle tension and strength surges due to neural overstimulation.
-Hypertensive Vasodilation: Abnormally widened blood vessels paired with high BP
-Explosive Reflex Syndrome: Involuntary muscle spasms
-Dermal Thornification : Epidermis layers gradually convert into semi-organic thorns, which would spread the venom.
+Ability Unlocked: Thorny Berserker (Active)
Grants the ability to summon vines that can shoot venomous thorns. Temporarily grants anyone injected by the venom superhuman strength and acceleration. Immune to stuns and slows while active.
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