The Human Giant



"Boom!" 

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Sounds of explosions rocked the burning forest as each bomb that the soldiers threw acted as a starter to start another forest fire wherever General Blazing Phoenix's blood-red flames had yet reached. With the forest set ablaze, countless plants from the Branch Forest that was near the Flamingo Plain region were set on fire and turned into ash.

With the Blood red fire tornado that General Blazing Phoenix created acting as a fuel source for all the fire, the multiple forest fires would reach each other and combine, allowing the forest fire to not only continue but to actively expand. For the first time, many soldiers were able to breathe a small sigh of relief and recuperate their bodies as they watched as the Branch Forest plant life was pushed back.

When the first piece of ground that had been charred black by the fire was revealed, numerous soldiers' faces turned grim as they returned to the battlefield and checked every inch to make sure nothing was alive inside the ground. Once their search for each inch of charred earth was complete, they looked at each other and smiled.

"Everything is dead. Meaning that the method is quite effective."

Even though the soldiers were happy that their general's plan was working as predicted, they still didn't allow their guards to loosen as they sent groups of soldiers every time a small bit of charred earth was revealed. Using this method, slowly but earthly, the territory that they could now start their battle expanded from 10 feet into the Branch Forest to 20 miles into the forest.

With miles and miles of forest that had been turned into black ash, the earth was scorched, and a still raging forest fire in front of them, General Blazing Phoenix's scouts scattered to send the news to the other generals so they could follow a similar but modified plan. 

One after another, the generals of New Swamp Town received the news that General Blazing Phoenix had run ahead of her plan to burn the entire Branch Forest to the ground, and each made a decision on how they would proceed forward.

"General Blood Stone, what should we do? Should we follow a similar idea as General Blazing Phoenix and request explosives from New Swamp Town?" A soldier in brown metal armor covered in wood chips asked General Blood Stone.

"We don't have much of a choice. After nearly 48 hours, we have barely pushed our piece of the Branch Forest back dozens of feet."

"Not only are our soldiers becoming exhausted, but I suspect that if we don't stop soon to recuperate, the side effects of this abnormal effect are going to do something predictable and take out our whole army."

"But we are not going to blindly follow General Blazing Phoenix's lead in this matter since we will never be able to replicate her excellent results. Instead, request flame bombs from the Town and make sure that they don't have a strong explosion when activated."

"We don't want to accidentally cave in some parts of the Gecko region unless we absolutely need to. This will also allow more air to fuel the raging forest fire and prevent it from extinguishing itself." General Blood Stone ordered one of his elite soldiers.

After fighting so long, he had been losing hope that they would be able to outlast the Branch Forest's abnormal growth and that the immortals would be able to take care of whatever was causing this strange event. They also weren't able to find anything significant from the searches inside the Branch Forest, meaning that whatever had caused this event was either no longer present or was inside the Endless Forest.

Which was simply a death sentence for them if they had to enter themselves, even if they had the assistance of an army, they wouldn't have been able to leave alive. Even after contacting Martial Grandmasters, New Swampscott City, and surrounding towns for help, General Blood Stone was still filled with anxiety that they would not be able to deal with this.

He was even beginning to regret bringing Floyd along to this mission as he could only imagine the amount of stress, exhaustion, and panic on his face. Luckily, General Blazing Phoenix's strategy was temporally effective at eradicating the forest life faster than they could grow, or else they would not have had to deal with an expanding forest but also a forest fire that was expanding as well.

"Hahaha! Die you pieces of plant." 

Floyd laughed as he fought against a three feet long and a several inches thick root that he suspected to have come from a Copper Maple Tree due to its red coloring and the apparent metallic defensive strength of its roots. He had been fighting this one root tentacle for ten minutes and had nearly died several times.

However, while he had nearly experienced death on several occasions, he couldn't help but laugh as he could feel that he was rapidly learning and integrating the martial arts that his grandfather had taught him in the past. With the strength of rock no longer being of use, he had to resort to using a longsword that a soldier had given him to deal with this root.

For him to not die immediately, he had to resort to trying the sword technique that he had tried to learn several years ago. He had thought that with his skills, he would have had his throat pierced a long time ago, but what he didn't know was he had unknowingly become more proficient in the technique.

"21 Sword Style: Repeated Hacking." 

As Floyd called out the name of the technique he was using in his head, he dodged the Copper Maple Tree's root from piercing through his heart and heavily slashed the place near the root's tip three times before he missed. Even though he missed and allowed the Copper Maple Tree's root to escape his attack, Floyd smiled as he could see that he was able to rip off an inch from the spot he had attacked.

Combined with his improved ability to use the 21 Sword Style and even complete the first level of the technique with no problem, Floyd noticed that all the martial art techniques that his grandfather had attempted to teach him in the past had experienced improvements.

"I get it now. The refreshing sensation is allowing us to improve our martial art techniques at an extremely rapid pace. It might not just be martial art techniques but also body cultivation methods meaning that as we continue to fight the evolving plants, we are also improving."

"The only problem is that we are not plants, and this rapid improvement comes with the effects of driving us mad or killing us much faster. So before any of us can use this effect to reach the pinnacle of the human body, we will have died, or the plants will have evolved enough to slaughter all of us."

With this massive discovery, Floyd wanted to put down everything he was doing and observe what was happening to the soldiers around him. He wanted to see how fast the soldiers he was fighting with were improving their martial arts.

Unfortunately, he had his hands full dealing with this Copper Maple Tree Root before he could begin his observation plan. As Floyd was staring at the root for any signs that it would launch another strike, he noticed it slightly move backward.

Knowing that this was a sign it was going to attack, Floyd increased his guard and widened his eyes to get a clearer picture of the root. Just then, the root struck at his throat and was an inch away before he was able to react and shift his body to the side, dodging the strike.

"It shifted its attack plan," 

Floyd's pupils contracted as he noticed that the root turned itself into a whip after missing its attack and went for his head. Knowing that he would lose his life if he let that whip attack land on his head, Floyd quickly lifted his sword and used it as a shield to gain additional time.

"Bang!"

Just as he expected, the moment the tree root made contact with his sword, he heard the loud sound of metal clashing against metal reverberating throughout his arms, making them turn numb. At the same time, the tree root twisted around his sword continuing its path toward his head.

"I got enough time,"

With the extra time he gained from blocking the whip attack, Floyd was able to duck his head below the root, making it miss and wrap around his sword. Having gone through multiple life-and-death moments, he was much better able to keep his cool under pressure which allowed him to make calm but swift actions.

With his weapon tied up by the Copper Maple Tree Root, Floyd slammed his sword against the cliffside wall near him. 

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Not allowing the Copper Maple Tree root to adapt to his action and try to escape, Floyd repeatedly slammed his sword against the sharp rocks on the cliffside wall as fast as he could. It was only after the twentieth slam against the wall that the Copper Maple Tree root was able to untie itself from Floyd's sword and escape the repeated smashes.

By the time it escaped, its body was so torn up and battered that it was on the brink of death. This allowed Floyd to only need to resort to using 21 Sword Style: Repeated Hacking once more to cut it into small enough pieces that it officially died.