The Verdant Stag was now determined.
It needed to prove itself to the deity of the forest.
Showing that it was a much better guardian than the foreigner who suddenly came out of nowhere.
Strength returned to the stag's feet. Its eyes locked onto the three vine creatures that constantly held him down and attacked him.
The stag called for the silvery green aura, the gift of the benevolent deity from deep inside its being.
The aura answered.
The silvery green glow emanating from its body glowed even brighter, condensing in the middle of the stag's mouth.
Forming a ball of light that rivaled the barely visible moon in the late night sky.
The stag jerked its head, surprising Crimsy, who suddenly had a stag with a glowing silvery green ball in its mouth staring at him.
"Run, Crimsy! Whatever that was, it wasn't good!" Ash could sense the dense mana compacted inside the ball even from several meters away.
He couldn't exactly guess the strength of the condensed mana, but one thing was clear. He wouldn't want to get hit by it.
And let alone letting his viney doppelganger brothers taste the damn new ability that he had never seen before from the stag.
His guess was correct. The Verdant Stag seemed to love pulling out new abilities left and right from its ass.
Though caught off guard, Crimsy still moved. When Ash gave him a command, he would follow no matter what.
Abandoning his love for whipping the stag's hide, Crimsy turned away and used his vines to jump high.
However, both Ash and Crimsy underestimated the stag's new power.
As soon as its eyes were locked onto the target, the condensed ball of silvery green mana made its move.
Not wasting a split second, the silvery green ball shot forward.
Faster than anything Ash had seen before in this forest.
The speed was similar to when Ash used his twitchstep along with his berserk skill.
In just a blink, the condensed mana shot forward and arrived.
It hid Crimsy squarely on his chest.
The condensed mana exploded. Swallowing Crimsy whole in a giant ball of light.
When the light disappeared, so did Crimsy.
The ball of light seemed to eat everything that it touched.
Even the grasses and roots on the ground also disappeared.
'It fucking had an energy beam… How does this even make sense…' Ash cursed whoever gave the stag such power before warning his two remaining doppelgangers.
"Viney! Woody! Defend yourself!"
Right after his command ended, the stag had already created another ball of light in its mouth.
The two doppelganger brothers were barely able to defend themselves with Woody's quick action.
It made a wall of titanbark, protecting itself and its eldest brother from the cheat-like disintegration energy beam.
The ball of light flew forward once more, hitting the wall of titanbark Woody had formed from his vines.
The titanbark was the strongest material available in the forest.
Nothing in this forest other than Ash's acid bile could ever go past it.
Even the acid bile needed some time to break down the solid bark.
However, when the small ball of light touched the wall and exploded, the titanbark was devoured as well.
As easy as when the ball of light had eaten Crimsy.
It was as if the titanbark was just another random vine hanging on the random branch of a tree.
As a result, Woody lost a huge chunk of his body, exposing himself to another ball of light that the stag had called upon once more.
'Just a little more… Please hold on…' Ash prayed in his mind as his two remaining doppelgangers were about to be destroyed.
Seeing his little brother was on the edge of destruction, Viney stepped up.
It didn't have any necrotic vines like Crimsy, nor titanbark-covered vines like Woody, but Viney was the most flexible with his vines.
Instead of making a huge wall of ordinary vines, Viney created several walls of vines.
Using Ash's understanding that was transferred to him, Viney understood that the ball of light was unstoppable.
However, so far, it had always exploded on the first thing that it hit.
And Ash's understanding seemed to hold true.
When the ball of light left the Verdant Stag's mouth and hit Viney's first layer of wall, it exploded right then and there.
The first wall of vines was just devoured by another huge ball of light, disappearing into god knows where when the huge ball of light dimmed.
However, there were still the second and third walls.
Viney was able to protect Woody, who was still slowly regenerating the titanbark vines that it had lost.
"Good job! You're the best, Viney!"
Ash's shout seemed to have attracted the attention of not only his doppelganger but a certain annoyed stag that had its attack fail just a second ago.
Before Ash, Woody, or Viney even realized, the Verdant Stag flicked its head in another direction.
This time, it was none other than Ash who had the honour of receiving the stag's attack.
The stag seemed to have realized that it couldn't destroy the doppelgangers anymore and decided to deal straight with the source.
Not giving time for its three enemies to react, another ball of light had left its mouth.
Its destination was none other than Ash.
With the speed of the energy ball, not Woody's or Viney's vines could ever make it in time to save Ash.
Not even Ash's new titanbark armor could save him from it.
The moment the ball of light touched him and exploded, Ash would also be swallowed up by it.
Following Crimsy's disappearance into the nether realm.
The stag would win.
It would be the sole creature that still held the forest deity's blessing.
The annoying outsider would be gone.
No one would dare to set foot in the forest once more.
It would be the sole guardian of the forest until the sun exploded and killed off the whole planet.