Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day
Chapter Summary
I flipped once in the air, summoned another flaming arrow mid-fall, and fired it straight down at a cluster of tree-crabs gathering beneath me. Dirt and ash flew up around me as I came up on one knee, another arrow already crackling into hand. Dozens of massive roots — thicker than spears and tips sharpened like jagged lances — came whistling toward me from above, conjured by the Tree King.
Chapter 243: Main Characters...
Assemble [VI]Wind howled past me as I descended into free fall and felt that familiar, almost addictive, rush of adrenaline in my veins.
I flipped once in the air, summoned another flaming arrow mid-fall, and fired it straight down at a cluster of tree-crabs gathering beneath me.
—FWOOM!!
The arrow exploded with the force of a grenade, reducing those beasts to nothing but burning splinters and blackened charcoal in an instant.
I landed in the middle of the blast zone, dropping into a roll to soften the impact.
Dirt and ash flew up around me as I came up on one knee, another arrow already crackling into hand.
The surviving tree-crabs shrieked in fury.
One of them — twice the size of the others — lunged at me from the side while snapping its pincer like oversized pruning shears.
I twisted my body and fired.
—THWACK!
The fire arrow buried itself in its eye-socket-equivalent and detonated from within, spraying bark shrapnel in every direction.
"You all are in my domain now, you bitches!
" I roared.
Which made no sense, considering this was definitely the Tree King’s domain, but hey — I was on a roll and no one was here to argue with me.
Many more tree-crabs scuttled toward me, desperate and furious enough to tear me limb from limb.
My grin turned almost feral as I slammed both my palms to the ground.
In response, a rippling wave rolled across the canyon floor like a stone dropped into still water.
The ripple flipped over the incoming tree-crabs like when you flick a tablecloth and end up tossing everything on it.
The tree-crabs lost their balance and fell one after another like knocked over dominoes.
And before they could so much as twitch upright, I raised both hands.
A heartbeat later, dozens of wide stone pillars erupted from the earth beneath the toppled tree-crabs — launching them skyward like popcorn kernels in a microwave.
A few crashed into each other mid-air.
Another was yeeted clean out of the canyon with a noise that sounded suspiciously like a confused honk.
One may even have been accidentally flung toward Lily.
It wasn’t intentional.
I promise!
Then, I kicked off the ground and dashed forward, heading left across that thin streak of river in the middle of the canyon — where Juliana and Alexia were still trapped, bound in place by massive roots.
Willing Essence into my legs, I ran as fast as I could.
...
But I barely reached the river’s edge when dozens more tree-crabs came charging at me, hissing and screeching, their pincers snapping like oversized scissors.
"Tch.
" I skidded to a stop, gritted my teeth, and slammed both hands down again.
From the ground behind me, two massive stone hands rose — each one easily the size of a small house.
And in their grasp, a colossal battleaxe began to take shape from hardened earth and tough rock.
By the time it was done being formed, the battleaxe was absurdly oversized — sharp enough to split boulders and wide enough to block the sky.
The stone hands tightly gripped its handle.
And swung it in a sweeping arc!
—BOOOOOM!!
The axe cleaved clean through the front half of the swarm.
Dozens of tree-crabs were split apart, carved mid-screech.
The rest were sent flying back like scraps of paper caught in a storm, their limbs flailing wildly before they crashed into the dirt.
But I didn’t stop to admire the carnage.
My eyes flicked toward the Tree King.
That crowned creature of the canyon was already preparing to strike — thick new roots burst from the ground before it, ready to lash toward me like a nest of angry serpents.
But I didn’t let it finish its preparation.
The giant stone hands I had conjured pulled the colossal axe back in one clean motion...
...
And then hurled it forward.
The battleaxe spun through the air like a massive, deadly wheel.
Dirt and wind kicked up in its wake.
The Tree King twitched.
For the first time since I had seen it...
it hesitated.
It pulled its attacking roots back, now coiling them upward instead.
In a blink, the roots knotted together into a massive, twisted trunk — easily twice as thick as the axe itself.
The Tree King had formed a wall of living wood to shield itself.
—CRRAAAACK!!!
The colossal stone axe slammed into the wall of roots with a shattering boom.
The impact rocked the canyon.
Bark exploded.
Splinters flew like shrapnel.
The trunk didn’t break...
but it came close.
A deep crack ran through it — not clean, but still deep enough to bleed sap.
The colossal axe was buried halfway inside the massive truck.
The Tree King roared.
Or maybe that was just the wood groaning.
Either way, I didn’t care.
I turned to resume running toward Juliana and Alexia...
but before I could take even a single step, something slammed into my side from the left.
—CRUNCH!
A tree-crab’s massive pincer clamped around my torso like a steel trap, lifting me clean off the ground and nearly chopping me in half.
"Gahhh—!!
" I groaned, eyes snapping wide from the pain.
My ribs flared and my back screamed.
I immediately forced Essence into my midsection, hardening the muscle and bone there in a desperate attempt of reinforcement.
The pincer still squeezed hard and crushed my flesh — but it didn’t break me.
I manifested a flaming arrow in my right hand and rammed it straight into the tree-crab’s upper arm — the same one holding me.
—FWOOM!!
The explosion lit the monster’s shoulder like a firework.
Its whole arm blew apart in a burst of embers and shattered bark.
It let out a high-pitched cry and stumbled backward as the rest of its body caught fire.
The severed limb, still gripping me, dropped with a heavy thud.
I crashed down with it, still pinned inside the pincer, groaning in agony as I hit the ground.
"Damn—" I hissed, tearing myself free from the cracked claw.
I staggered back, lost my footing, and landed hard on one knee.
Pain stabbed through my side.
One of my ribs — the one I’d fractured during the fight with Jake — still wasn’t fully healed.
I gasped for breath with teeth clenched.
And that’s when I saw them...
Dozens of massive roots — thicker than spears and tips sharpened like jagged lances — came whistling toward me from above, conjured by the Tree King.
They fell fast, their sharp ends meant to impale me like shredded cheese.
My hands snapped up, ready to summon a wall of stone or something— But I didn’t get the chance.
Because just in time, something — or someone — slammed into me, tackling me clean out of the way.
We hit the ground hard and rolled a few times.
The spiky roots crashed into the earth behind us with a thunderous CRACK, spearing into the ground like nails through paper.
I gritted my teeth and pushed off the ground, coming up to one knee.
And froze.
Because standing beside me was a young man — his breath steady and his stance calm despite the chaos around us.
Black hair, blacker than the feathers of a raven.
Fair skin and eyes like the bottom of an abyss — deep and endless.
Lean frame and sharp features.
And that same aura of a cliché protagonist.
Yup.
I recognized this guy, alright.
It was none other than Michael Godswill.