Reincarnated With The Van Helsing System - Chapter 697

Chapter 697: Challenges, Alfear Princess version (part 2)
Feeling the ground below her feet tremble, Tessa softly snorted, bright green energy gathered on her legs as she tapped her right foot on the ground a couple of times.

“Green Trail, Jungle Stride”, with a couple of words, the alfear princess flashed from her previous position, just in time to avoid a couple of branches from the pitch-black tree she had chose to confront, which emerged from the ground where she was standing earlier.

“Hsssss!”, sizzling sounds were produced as the eyes on the tentacle-like branch of the tree, opened to release black mana which corroded the surroundings, even the soil which is rich in a negative oriented type of energy such as death nether, was affected.

Also, the moment Tessa became visible once again, she had travelled quite the distance from her previous position, and not even a second alter she took a really small jump to the side, perfectly avoiding a black wood branch which shoot itself at high speed towards her.

“Crack!”, said branch loudly landed on the ground not too far from Tessa, creating a crater on the spot, to which the alfear princess softly snorted.

“Spare me the feigns and your poor excuses of an ambush, you are a “tree”, so no matter how deep into the ground your branches go, you won’t be able to take me by surprise”, she said to then add.

“To begin with, why is a being with such a “domineering” name as “Devil Parasite”, that has reached as high as the middle stage of the Arch rank, resorting to ambushes against a peak Lord rank”.

In response, some of the eyes on the pitch-black tree frowned while the branches whose eyes were angrily looking at Tessa since earlier, directly charged at her.

With a “swoosh” the alfear princess turned into a bright green flash that blinked through the area, avoiding the numerous branches that recklessly charged at her, leaving behind a trail of bright green foot marks on the vicinity, which then lit up when Tessa gave the signal, namely her fingers snapping to activate her technique.

“Blooming Ascending Spears”, the alfear princess’s foot marks lit up in green light, and then the energy gathered in them turned into vertical energy spears that soared upwards, piercing some of the tentacle-like branches that were dodged by Tessa earlier.

“Crack!”, surprisingly, that seemingly harmonious bright green energy, suddenly became incredibly fierce as wood shaped energy spears were formed to then easily pierce through the solid pitch-black branches, breaking their way through them, leaving behind large holes on the branches, out of which a red viscous liquid oozed out.

“Hshhhhh!”, the mouths on the branches which were attacked by Tessa, screamed in pain as that red viscous liquid kept pouring out of the wounds, it only ended when another branch which managed to avoid Tessa’s attack, broke off the wounded branches.

But the strange scene didn’t end there, since that branch alongside some others that had also managed to dodge the alfear princess’s technique, actually devoured the branches that were cut off, all this under Tessa’s watchful gaze.

‘As I thought, that thing doesn’t have a united “consciousness” perse, some branches act recklessly, while others don’t… what a pain’, she thought.

Thanks to the bits of information she obtained from nature’s memory, she saw Marcus throwing a bunch of different parts of different living beings, which left her with a doubt “Why was there a need for such variety?”.

It would have been different if Marcus simply tossed random stuff into the magic circle, but Tessa could see that there was an exact number of left and right, both arms and legs, also while they came from different races, they were all pairs without any exception, in other words, there was a proper order hidden in all the mess.

And now she could understand why, that black goo which possessed the tree had different “personalities” inside of it, in fact Tessa couldn’t help but mockingly laugh as she guessed where did the reckless branches came from, since Marcus also donated his blood for the ritual used for that thing.

“Crack!”, as if the tree could tell that the alfear princess was looking down on it, the branches which had eaten their damaged kind, suddenly tensed, cracking sounds came from them as their width increased and a thick layer of a crystalized dark red material, covered them acting as armor.

Apparently, the tree took Tessa’s words to heart, and reinforced its physical aspect, to attack her head on, instead of trying to catch her with her guard off, especially because those armored branches looked way heavier than their counterparts.

Also, not all the branches became like that, around a third took that aspect, while the others remained like before, out of which half were those whose eyes frowned earlier, while the remaining half hadn’t opened its eyes at all, yet, quite the bizarre situation.

“Booom!”, Tessa’s pupils slightly contracted as she flashed way, just in time to avoid the crystal armored branches, which heavily landed where she was standing, turning the vicinity into a deep crater.

However, just as she appeared, the crystal armored branches were about to reach her once again, despite their heavy appearance, their speed not only hadn’t diminished but they had actually become faster than before, to which Tessa slightly smiled.

Apparently, the tree had confused she avoiding its attacks, as a sign of a lacking close combat ability, which is actually not that far from the truth, Tessa is after all not an extreme combat focused mage unlike girls like Arianna or Aisha for example, but let’s not forget that the focus of the challenge in the Blood Prison realm is improving in the areas where one is lacking.

And as such, Tessa’s current powers while still having varied applications since that’s her style, they all are meant to contribute one way or another to increase her attack power.

“Forest Guardian, Crushing Acacia Warhammer”, Tessa extended her right hand and bright green energy gathered around her hand, to then take the form of a green wood warhammer, which the alfear princess then smacked at the incoming crystal armored branches.

“Clang!”, first, the sound of metals colliding as well as sparks were produced due to the initial clash, before cracks appeared all over both the dark red crystal armor covering the area where Tessa’s technique landed, as well as on the green energy hammer.

“Booom!”, the dark red crystal clad on the tree’s branch as well as Tessa’s technique crumbled apart the next second, releasing a strong energy explosion, which forced the other branches as well as Tessa back to their previous position.

‘Mmm, as expected I’m still not used to this kind of fighting style, luckily my techniques don’t rely on reinforcing my body unlike Femi’s, but put more focus in using my energy for attack means instead’, thought the alfear princess as she closed and opened her right hand a couple of times.

The hammer took the blunt of the previous clash, so that her arm didn’t receive any backslash, which is quite the advantage for a mage like Tessa, of course there has to be a condition in exchange for such a practical technique, in this case, it’s the fact that the hammer is a one-time thing, if she wants to use it again, then she has to cast the technique again.

The same applied to those energy spears she used earlier, in other words, her techniques were really powerful attack-wise, but they were single use in exchange, that’s also why this was so challenging for Tessa, because she isn’t used to fighting this way.

In Femi’s case, she at least is used to move around a lot while swinging that insanely heavy hammer of hers, so going from that to brawling with her own reinforced body, it’s while still a different concept, not that far from it.

But the alfear princess did a 180° turn in her fighting style, due to the challenge, and yet she wasn’t doing it so bad even without the support of the wood thorn knight, which would usually be the one blocking so that she could follow up with her own attacks.

Amidst the flying pieces of dark red crystal flying all over the area, accompanied by traces of her own energy, the result of both of them destroying each other, the alfear princess flashed towards another pair of the armored branches.

“Forest Guardian, Binding Vine Chain”, this time, energy gathered around both of Tessa’s hands, to then form a bright green energy chain made out of entangled vines, which she threw towards the branches she was aiming for.

At the slightest contact, the vine chain actually wrapped itself around the branches, successfully restraining them in a fraction of a second, it’s worth mentioning that the moment her technique landed, Tessa threw the other extreme of the chain to the ground, where the thing rooted itself into, quite the practical effect, since her hands were now free.

And that was perfect for what came next, Tessa’s right hand exploded in bright green energy, which then condensed to form a longsword with serrated edges on both sides with which she attacked the restrained armored branches.

“Forest Guardian, Serrated Ironwood Sword”, right after calling out her technique, the alfear princess slashed that dangerous-looking green energy sword at her target, and similar to how the vine chain activated a special function upon landing, the sword did the same.

As in, the serrated edges suddenly moved at high speed, instantly cutting through the thick crystal armor, to then completely slice both branches as the energy contained in the sword was released on the spot.

“Hsssss!”, of course the pitch-black tree didn’t take Tessa’s attacks lying down, in fact the thing was cunning enough to use the physical strong armored branches as distraction, so that some of the normal branches, whose eyes had that wary gaze in them, could sneak towards Tessa, in order to drown her in that corrosive black mana.

Unfortunately, the surprise attack failed, because that wasn’t the sound of the alfear’s princess skin melting, but it was caused because the streams of black mana coming from the mouths on those branches, clashed against a large diamond shaped green energy shield, which Tessa was wielding with her left hand.

“Forest Guardian, Radiant Cedar Shield”, this specific technique condensed the positive oriented aspect of her energy into a compact form, allowing Tessa to achieve a similar effect as Daimon’s silver light when dealing with negative oriented things.

In other words, the black mana which came in contact with the shield, was burned upon contact with the shield, but right now the tree was more angered by the fact that its attack was foreseen, rather than the technique used to block it.

Which might not make sense, since Tessa had already said that such tactics won’t work on her, and the opponent is possessing a tree, meaning that she can easily sense its movements, until you take into account the fact that the tentacle-like “branches” that tried to ambush Tessa, didn’t… have a physical body.

That’s right, those branches whose eyes had that wary gaze, instead of the angered one, were completely composed of that ominous mana, therefore they weren’t a part of the tree which was possessed, but were created by the devil parasite, directly.

Of course, Tessa had felt something weird was going on with those branches, so she played a little trick on the tree, basically she lied, because the alfear princess is extremely capable of detecting both positive and negative oriented beings, not because of her nature affinity, but because of her dormant darkness affinity, though she isn’t aware of that last part.

Her original role in Adam’s mind, was being his “radar”, since her senses actually surpassed even the hero’s range, when he didn’t rely in Ariel’s help of course.

Anyway, she purposedly laid down the trap, by saying that any try to ambush her was futile for a “tree”, and the thing fell for it, using the armored branches as bait, thinking it was the fisher, while in reality it had eaten the hook, line and sinker.

And now, the special property of those “wary branches” as Tessa decided to call them, has been properly confirmed, so she could now anticipate to any surprises those branches could try to pull.

‘Still, to think that guy could modify a tree so that it could cover both physical and energy aspects, I guess Daimon didn’t say that he and Adam were maybe not on the same league as him, but still annoying to deal with, for nothing’, thought the alfear princess.

It was obviously lacking in terms of intelligence, but it is true that Marcus made these trees capable of fighting like both mages and knights, which for other people might have been dangerous by itself, but if one properly participated in the challenge, be it a knight or a mage, they would be able to experience something similar.

Just look at Tessa, she a mage which doesn’t focus in combat, but control while being a secondary damage dealer if needed, was fighting head on like a knight as of current, and she didn’t lose complete access to her original fighting style, but was motivated by the challenge to try new things, with the promise of fixing what she lacked.

“Crack!”, having cancelled the corrosive mana attacks of the energy branches, the shield on Tessa’s left hand dissolved the next second, as it reached the end of its one-time effect.

“Hrhsshsh!”, angered due to being tricked, the tree’s branches revolted a couple of times, while the mouths which were hidden below the eyes, let out screeching sounds before they charged at Tessa from different directions, the tree had finally abandoned any thought of trying to ambush the alfear princess and wished nothing more than killing her in a direct confrontation.

“Forest Guardian, Solid Hickory Gauntlets”, seeing the incoming rain of lashes from the two types of branches, Tessa’s arms lit up in bright green energy, which then condensed into gauntlets that protected all the way to her elbows.

“Green Trail, Jungle Stride”, next that green energy gathered on her legs, allowing the alfear princes to move at high speed in order to dodge the initial attacks of the branches, to then punch at the armored branch while slapping the energy branch which tried to attack her from below.

“Booom!”, both attacks successfully landed on the branches, sending one flying into the distance, while the other was smacked against the ground, to then be stomped by Tessa, whose nimble feet left a bright green mark on it.

“Crack!”, having learned its lesson, after its branches were pierced by the energy spears created out of those foot marks, the tree directly cut off the part of the branch which had been marked by the alfear princess, to then continue its assault.

In a different way though, as in the armored branch instead of directly trying to crush Tessa, changed the shape of the dark red crystal covering it, into long needle like structures, which after being dodged by the alfear princess, turned into projectiles, flying at her.

“Booom!”, despite the thinness of the dark red crystal needles, those things packed quite the punch, because each one of them created a small crater on the ground once they landed.

What’s more, once the long-ranged attack had failed, the crystal surface changed once again, turning into sharp edges which aimed to cut Tessa into pieces and while the previous sounded bad, the course of action taken by the energy branches was what caught Tessa’s attention the most.

The mouths on the energy branches opened and those red vein-like things came out of them, accompanied by the ominous black mana which was used by the tree, both worked together to create three… humanoid shaped energy puppets, which had those red veins acting as the strings.

“Hssss!”, naturally, even if it took a different form, that ominous black mana not only conserved its corrosive properties, but with the help of those red veins, the effect was amplified, as the ground around those three energy puppets instantly turning into a foul puddle of liquid, suggested.

“That guy surely is quite an envious one, huh”, mumbled the alfear princess, Marcus really tried to replicate the accidental creation of the giant tree, through these pair of abominations in the shape of a tree.

As if it was a child anxious to play with his new toy, the energy branches moved the red veins acting as strings and those puppets spread in three different directions, wanting to surround Tessa, since by just simple proximity they could harm her, to which the alfear princess coldly snorted.

This time she didn’t try to dodge, instead bright green energy condensed on her still gauntlet cladded hands, apparently that one technique wasn’t a single usage one, unlike the others.

“Humph, Radiant Cedar Shield”, green energy shields appeared for Tessa to wield, she mounted one on her back and held onto the other with her right hand, to then stomp her right foot on the ground.

“Green Trail, Root Step”, as a result impossible to see for others, thin streams of green energy came out of Tessa’s soles to then dive into the ground, securing her in place.

And as if the combination of this footwork which didn’t focus in mobility but stability, as well as the dual shields she was using, triggered a special effect, the three energy puppets as well as the sharp armored branches which were about to reach the alfear princess, were intercepted midway by a twenty-meter-tall bright green energy tree which expanded with Tessa as its center.

“Booom!”, unable to react in time, both the armored branches as well as the energy puppets collided against the energy tree, to then bounce back due to the impact, one of the puppets clashed against a random tree in the distance, exploding as it melted it on the spot, while the smallest sharp armored branch ended up being cut by the biggest one.

“Immovable Centenary Tree”, only after the enemy’s branches had suffered a loss, did Tessa call out the name of this technique, which centered in heavy defense to intercept attacks and bounce them back at the enemy.