Escalation (M)
The ground shook for a third time.
This, along with the clearly visible smile on Zecora’s face got Kirabo worried. The Everfree got it’s fair share of tremors, but three in such a rapid succession seemed odd, even for this forest.
“She has to be planning something, or else she wouldn’t be so happy.” His eyes were darted around.
And he was right. As soon as the tremor stopped many smaller ones appeared. They were too small to move the ground or be felt by the simian, but they were strong enough for the grass to move. It was like someone was throwing pebbles into a lake. He looked at the ripples that were forming trying to identify the source, or sources as he soon found out.
“Three sources. One between us, one behind her and one...” He jumped backwards and turned to his right.
“There.” He thought, mentally pointing towards an empty place some distance between himself and his trusted sword.
He continued to look at the three epicenters and at Zecora. He knew three things. He knew something was coming. He knew it would be coming soon. And he knew it would be bad for him if it, whatever it may be, caught him by surprise.
He had to be careful, or his predictions would prove all too true. While he waited for that what was to happen Zecora advanced slowly before stopping in front of the minor tremor source that stood between them. With a stomp of her hoof the tremors stopped.
“It’s coming.”
And it did. From the sources that caused the grass to move sprouted trees.
“Trees?” They grew.
“Trees?” And grew.
“TREES?” And grew, growing taller than both of them.
“No.” Bigger than an adult pony.
“No...” Their branches pointing downward.
“Not tree...” Their roots started growing outside the earth.
“TREANTS.” He darted towards his sword as they uprooted themselves, orange magical eyes and mouths formed from their barks.
Spike noticed that Zecora’s eyes now were glowing orange just like Imamu’s. A faint orange mist seemed to emanate from the trees as well, he could only compare it with the steam that evaporated from a sweaty pony on a cold day. A image of a sweaty Applejack pulling a large and heavy cart on a winter day popped into his mind, he chose to ignore it and the image was gone, hopefully not returning to soon.
The treants were about eight or nine feet tall, much larger than any pony, larger than even Celestia, and despite being made out of wood they move rapidly, using their roots as legs, and all of them were charging Kirabo.
There were many dangerous creatures native to the Everfree, and not all of them were flesh and bone. The timberwolves were the best known of the so called wood elementals but only because they were the less discreet and the ones that stood out the most given their wolf like body and manners. The treants however were more discreet. Blending seamlessly with the rest of the landscape they only waited. Their prey would come to them. They’d impale it with their sharp branches then bury it under their roots were it would serve as food for the creatures.
But they did not wait, they did not strike using the element of surprise, they charged him, this was something Kirabo expected a pack of timberwolves to do.
He rushed towards the one that stood between him and his sword.
When its prey was in striking range the treant struck. Bringing the sharpened tips of its branches down towards Kirabo he knew the little creature would have nowhere to go, the affected area was too large for such a small prey to move out of, he would be an easy kill. If it could have smiled it would have, if it would have had lips it would have licked it with its nonexistent tongue.
But it was wrong. The area was indeed large, he could not exit it if he ran forward, or to his right, or to his left, or if he turned back. So he did not head in any of those directions, instead he went up. Kirabo knew that it would attack as soon as he entered the elementals attack range, and he knew how it would attack. Having lived in the Everfree his whole life he also knew what to do about it. He jumped.
Kirabo's hand stretched for one of the creatures branches, as he flew through the air. The rough bark chafed against his palms as he swung around it, only for him to let go in the last second, propelling himself onto yet another branch. The living wood bend under his weight and like a stone from a slingshot he was catapulted behind the Treant. It took the creature some time to realize what just happened and where its prey had gone, and even more time for it to turn around. By that time Kirabo already reached his destination and obtained what he wanted, his sword.
The creature charged again, not waiting for the others to get close enough to attack Kirabo all at once. He was his prey, and he was going to get it. It did not take the elemental long to reach its prey and attack him again. But this time the prey reared it metalic ‘tooth’ and fought back.
With one swipe of the sword Kirabo cut the creatures branches mid descent, and with another the sword went straight through its trunk slicing it in half. both pieces falling to the ground.
“Really Zecora? Really?” He yelled as the two other treants came within striking range.
It was not an easy feat to cut all the branches with one swipe like he did with the first, but he managed to do that to one of them, the other requiring two swipes, since the first, being a rising undercut only managed to chop of the branches that were heading directly at him. And for the second strike he spun around and sliced all the remaining one, all of which had hit the ground. Before the treants could grow new ones he brought his sword down again, and sliced one in half, then bringing it up again he cut the other one.
One more treant remained standing next to Zecora. This one had grown around his discarded cape, parts of it still dangling from its trunk.
“Treants? You send saplings against me?” He shouted angrily.
“DO YOU THINK SO LITTLE OF ME?”
Before he even finished his question he got his answer. The pieces of wood and sap that made up the treants bodies started glowing a dim orange and put themselves back together, their branches grew back and now three fully formed wood elementals stood around Kirabo, ready to attack when their branches finished growing back.
“Much better...” He said with a smile on his face.