The stag would win.
It would be the sole creature that still held the forest deity's blessing.
It would be the sole guardian of the forest until the sun exploded and killed off the whole planet.
It would happen soon.
The ball of condensed energy had left the stag's mouth.
In only a split second, it would reach Ash.
And whether it was steelbark or titanbark, none can stop the condensed ball of light from swallowing Ash whole along with his titanbark skin.
That should've happened.
The Verdant Stag didn't see any other outcome from this exchange.
It had meticulously targeted the doppelgangers first.
But its main goal from the start had always been Ash.
As he was the only one carrying the forest deity's blessings, other than itself.
But Ash himself had never shifted his gaze from the Verdant Stag.
Ever since meeting it for the first time and fleeing for the second time, Ash had never underestimated the stag.
Even when he had a whole squad to use number advantage to deal with the stag, he had never stopped making sure he was ready for some other unexpected bullshit.
Like, for example, an energy ball that could swallow up matter.
Ash had been standing in place ever since the start of the fight.
Despite his desire to help the doppelganger brothers in gangbanging the stag, he held still.
His feet were still rooted to the ground.
When his doppelgangers were being attacked the first time, he kept his calm.
When Crimsy was deleted, Ash still held strong.
As much as he wanted to protect them as best as he could, like they would protect him, Ash held still.
It was all due to him being cautious of the damned cheat-like stag and its unknown abilities.
And now, his preparations and patience all this time finally paid off.
After defeating the Titanbark, its bark that was even harder than steelbark wasn't the only thing that Ash had added to his body.
It was the only thing he could get before when he only had the power to assimilate poison and venom into his body.
But with the banyan tree's blessing, the seed, Ash had done something that he never did before.
He picked a set of DNA from the titanbark.
One set of characteristics that essentially made the Titanbark an unbreachable castle.
All this time, Ash was standing on his feet, roots had spread out from the bottom of his feet.
They grew from the inside of his body, spreading far and wide all over the area he and the doppelgangers were fighting against the stag.
And of course, they were all covered by titanbark.
Not only the roots, but Ash's armor now had several holes all around places where he could easily defend.
Just like the original carnivorous tree, vines would come out of these holes.
And in Ash's case, he could choose any vines he had.
Whether it was ordinary vines, the thorny berserker vines, or the crimson vines.
And in this life or death situation, Ash was ready to unleash them all.
The second he saw the stag jerked its head towards him, and Ash commanded the roots.
Titanbark roots surged from the ground, jutting out and creating a wall a few steps in front of Ash.
The ball of light hit them, and the roots were easily devoured.
But Ash wasn't done.
All his preparations all this time weren't just for several roots.
Dozens of them came out of the ground.
Empty earth where no tree roots were supposed to exist trembled as Ash's roots made their presence known.
They danced and twirled. Following Ash's command as if they were his own limbs.
The stag saw what happened and tried to attack once more.
But the dozens of roots quickly made more walls, halting the ball of light from ever getting close to Ash.
Instead, the stag was the one left helpless as the roots stabbed themselves inside the stag's body.
And different from the Titanbark which only got a single type of venom, the titanbark ossification venom, Ash's body itself was a living storage of venoms and poisons.
Whether it was the ability that came from him overwhelming the diseases or even the original strands of venom and poisons, Ash could send them all towards his roots.
Which counted as his own body part due to him adopting the titanbark's DNA into his own.
And that's exactly what Ash did.
He chose the diseases that would not empower the stag in any way.
The basic ones were the phantom bloom, which had been suppressed by the silvery green aura earlier. And even more hallucinogenic poisons.
The silvery green aura had suppressed the existing venoms, but with even more poisons added, more and more of the silvery green aura was needed to deal with the hallucinogenic effects.
Which means the stag couldn't just spam the condensed energy ball in seconds.
It needed more time to gather the necessary energy to create it.
But Ash wasn't done, though.
He wasn't as kind to the creature who had killed his loyal doppelgangers.
Sporeblight venom, which causes the stag's body to grow spore sacs that drain its vitality.
Strangleweed parasite, which grew parasitic vines from beneath the skin and multiplied itself by eating more flesh.
Wolfsprout venom, the first venom that Ash had ever gotten in the Verdant Necropolis, which caused him to spasm.
And lastly, the Marrowbile venom. The venom that targeted the enemy's spine and slowly, but surely paralyzed the target, the more venom was injected.
He summoned the vines from the holes in his armor to choke the stag, forcing its head to continue looking upward.
Preventing the stag from pointing the condensed ball of light at him or any of his doppelgangers ever again.
Both the tips of the roots and the thorns of the vines they secreted the venoms inside the stag's body.
The silvery green aura fought back against the stacked effects of the poisons and venoms.
But with all the diseases that were enough to kill off an organism, with even one of them being stacked together, even the all-powerful silvery green aura had a hard time.
The aura was occupied in barely keeping the stag's body from ever being killed outright from the sheer number of diseases assaulting its body.
Ash sent out more roots, following after the vines in locking the stag in place.
In the end, the Verdant Stag was no longer covered in vines.
Instead, it was covered by titanbark roots.
All of their tips stabbed into the stag's body. Injecting the various diseases Ash had chosen for his beloved nemesis.
By now, the stag couldn't even release another energy ball if it wanted.
Heck, it couldn't even control the nearby flora anymore.
All the silvery green aura it had was used to keep itself alive.
The moment it ran out of the silvery green aura, the stag wouldn't even realize what had happened to it.
The hallucinogenic poisons would turn its mind blank.
While the other diseases would eat the stag from the inside.
Paralyzing its nerves, devouring its flesh, sapping away its vitality.
The only thing that could save the stag now was if the banyan tree's deity left the tree itself and saved the stag.
Something that didn't happen as Ash finally lifted his feet from the ground.
The supply of diseases would cease, but with the current state of the stag, it could do nothing.
The titanbark root had locked it in place.
It wouldn't stand a chance to break the titanbark without its disintegration beam.
Ash walked forward, closing in on the stag.
Now, without a shred of fear in his eyes.
No tricks up his sleeve.
There's no more need to flee.
He finally won.