Sariel's face was a strange brown color, and her originally white and smooth skin suddenly had many lines. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest as if she was praying, and her long green hair moved without wind, as if there was some huge power in her body that was about to break out of the cocoon.
"Sariel! Don't!" Elena shouted behind her. As a rain priestess, she was particularly sensitive to the power of nature. She could feel the power in Sariel's body!
That is the "Guardian Seed"! The seed born on the World Tree is much rarer than the vine seed.
For an elven wizard or priest, the Seed of Guardian is the last resort when they are trapped in a desperate situation. However, the price to pay for using it is unbearable.
As a Rain and Dew Priestess who was out for training, Elena did not have such a rare treasure in her hands. She did not expect that the inspector actually brought one with him.
She saw that Sharyl's skin had changed color and knew that there was no way to stop her.
"You should give it to me." Elena murmured.
The other elves were of ordinary origins and had never seen anything like this before. They didn't understand what was going on and just trembled in fear.
Ralph saw that Sariel was in a strange state and heard another elf screaming, so he felt that something was wrong. He suspected that this was some kind of trick of Sariel. Whatever the enemy wanted to do, I would not let her do it. This was Ralph's usual principle. At this time, he no longer had the intention of capturing Sariel alive. He drew his sword and stabbed her heart with all his strength.
However, just as the tip of his sword was about to touch Sariel's body, Sariel's body suddenly grew in size, and her clothes shattered into pieces in an instant.
As she grew taller and bigger, her appearance changed dramatically. Her lower limbs turned into two clusters of tree roots, her body turned into a thick tree trunk, her hands turned into huge branches, her skin all over her body completely transformed into rough and hard bark, and her flying hair turned into vines. Her head merged into the trunk and turned into a wooden face with eyes and a mouth.
She turned into a tree man that was three stories tall.
Because it suddenly rose to more than five meters, Ralph stabbed the tree man's calf with his sword, breaking off several pieces of bark and leaving a two-inch deep puncture mark. But for the thick tree man, it was almost insignificant.
The tree man hit Ralph with his forked giant hands, and he was knocked flying. He was not until he was more than ten meters away that he flipped in the air and stood on the ground.
The force was too great, and he was injured after just one encounter. Ralph wiped the blood from his mouth and looked at the tree man with a serious face. He had only heard about tree men in legends. It was said that when the Elven Kingdom was fighting, tree men were their main siege force. These guys were strong and tough, with no internal organs. Except for being a little slow and a little afraid of fire, they had almost no weaknesses.
Sure enough, some of the masters among the slaves tried to cut the limbs of the tree man, but apart from cutting off a few pieces of bark and causing sawdust to fly, there was no effect. The other slaves had already been scared and hid aside. The tree man was too tall, and ordinary people would feel a huge psychological pressure just by looking at it, let alone doing it.
"Don't fight it head-on! Grab the other elf women first." Ralph shouted. He circled around and pounced on Elena from the side.
However, the tree man soon discovered their trick. It stretched out its giant hand and gently grabbed the five elves in its hand, lifted them into the air, and then used its remaining hand to fight the slaves.
Ralph fought for a while, but made no progress. Instead, several of his slaves were beaten to death by the tree man. A small leader came over and asked, "Boss Ralph, why don't we give up? We won't get any good if we continue to fight this thing. We might as well search a few more villages."
Ralph slapped the leader in the face. "Bullshit! These elves are the most valuable things in this village. Many of our men have died. How can we let them go?"
"But that thing is invulnerable to swords and guns." said the little leader with a sad face.
“You, you, and you, get some torches. And the rest of you, get some kerosene and liquor from that cellar,” Ralph ordered. “The rest of you, help me to entangle it and attack the elf in her hand. Keep it busy and don’t let it escape from the yard.”
The tree man wanted to kick down the house and the wall and escape from the inner courtyard, but when he went that way, the slaves attacked the elves in his hands from that side, some shot with bows and arrows, and some threw stones. It was too exhausted to deal with the attacks from all directions.
The kindling was soon ready. Ralph picked up a wine barrel and threw it hard. The barrel broke on the tree man and soaked one of its legs. Other slaves followed suit and threw barrels of oil and wine on the tree man.
The tree man was too big, and even though it blocked a few barrels, most of them still hit it.
Ralph lit a torch and waved it in his hand. "Listen, elf woman. I know your consciousness is still in this broken tree. Surrender quickly, or else there will be nothing left of you. Don't you want to protect these women? Are you going to let them burn to death here?"
The tree man rolled his eyes, looked down at Ralph, and then looked further away.
Elena, who was lifted high in the air, pleaded, "Sariel, stop. You have done enough for us. Leave us behind and go back to the Elven Forest."
The tree man did not answer. From its height, it saw many people walking towards it from a distance and staring at it in amazement outside the wall of the yard.
———————————
Xiao Chen led his men into the Oaks' village. Before entering the inner courtyard, they heard a lively fight inside. Then a large tree suddenly grew out of the wall. It was taller than the roof and the wall, and could be seen clearly from the outside. This made Xiao Chen a little overwhelmed. The scene in front of him was beyond his cognition.
"It looks like something terrible has happened in there." Xiao Chen stopped his team and asked Roger, "Have you ever seen anything like this?"
Roger shook his head and said, "No, but I think it should be a tree man. There are no such things in the human kingdom. Legend has it that only elven spellcasters can control them."
"You mean, there are elf spellcasters and slaves fighting?" Xiao Chen suddenly remembered the slave caravan he encountered here this morning. There was a powerful mage in it. Could it be her
At this moment, the tree man's eyes suddenly looked towards Xiao Chen. The eyes were two spots of light in the depression of the tree, looking like two small lights. Although it was still daytime, they were very clear.
Xiao Chen had never seen this tree man before, but the flickering light gave him a familiar feeling, like the narrow eyes under the cloak in the morning.
"Human magician, can I trust you?" A pleasant but anxious female voice sounded in Xiao Chen's mind. Xiao Chen felt that if this voice was paired with a face, it would definitely be a beautiful face.
"Who is talking to me?" He immediately understood that this was a magical spell that could directly communicate the hearts of two people.
"I am right in front of you and you are looking at me."
"Tree man?" Xiao Chen was quite surprised. The contrast between the voice and the image was too great.
"Yes. I would like to entrust five elves to your care. Please send them home. The Elf Kingdom will give you enough compensation."
“Why me?”
"It's not that I trust you, but these bandits who besieged me have left me with no other choice. The reputation of a mage... may be more worth looking forward to than that of a mercenary."
Xiao Chen had already noticed that the tree man had five elves in his hands, and they were being besieged by the people below. He thought about it and roughly guessed the situation here. He answered without hesitation: "I can promise not to let my people harm them, and send them back when it is convenient for me. Other than that, there is no more promise. You hold on, we will rush in soon..."
"It's too late... Protect them and you will be rewarded... If you break your promise, you will bear the wrath of the entire Elven Kingdom."
"You are so rude..."
The vines on the tree man suddenly twisted towards the five elves, entangled with each other and turned into a vine ball, wrapping the elves inside like a cage.
The tree man lifted up the rattan ball and suddenly threw it, throwing the rattan ball containing the five elves towards Xiao Chen.
"Catch them." Xiao Chen shouted, and Roger and the others hurriedly gathered their energy and fought for their lives. Six or seven people worked together to catch the rattan ball. The rattan ball withered as soon as it hit the ground, revealing several elves who were dizzy inside.
Roger and a few others carefully helped up the elves sitting on the ground, and exclamations came from all around.
It was really beautiful. Xiao Chen had to praise it. The elves were worthy of their reputation. Although they looked quite different from humans, this difference gave them an exotic look that had never been seen before. The elves in front of him were like spring orchids and autumn chrysanthemums, each with its own merits, especially the one who stood up first, who had a charm that instantly captured people's hearts.
The first thing the elf did after standing up was to pounce on Xiao Chen.
"Mr. Mage, please save Sharil! She is about to be burned to death."
"Are you injured? You're covered in blood!" Xiao Chen saw that half of her yellow robe was stained red.
"That's not my blood. Go save Sariel, it's too late." Elena grabbed Xiao Chen's arm.
"Who is Sariel? It's the tree man who spoke to my soul, asking me to protect you."
"Sariel is the tree person who was whispering to you. The thugs have poured oil on her. Please break down the door and stop them. Please!" Elena's tears were streaming down her cheeks. Xiao Chen couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.
Xiao Chen patted her hands that were holding his and said to Roger, "Quick, bring all the good guys, break open the door of the yard, and capture those guys who are besieging the tree man."
Roger, with five or six fighting warriors as the vanguard and thirty or forty strong men, picked up wooden pillars and stones that could be used to break down the door, and rushed to the inner courtyard.
But when he led the crowd to break open the inner door, he saw Ralph and his men throwing more than a dozen torches on the tree man. The oil and wine were ignited, and several fire snakes climbed up the tree man's body from bottom to top. In an instant, it was covered in flames.