Chapter 73: Teamwork

"Watch out!" The incoming branches that bent inside the trunk began to emerge, trying to kill them.

But because of the bulging trunk, they managed to locate them and avoid them easily while making their way to the top. With their efforts, they somehow managed to reach 10 meters mark. They only needed to find a way to cover the remaining ten meters.

And the Ancient Demon Tree had learned its mistake. With the addition of the danger that would come when impaling his body at this height, the tree decided to approach in a different way.

Instead of impaling them again and hurting itself in the end, the tree tried to pierce them from the side or simply wipe them off its body.

"Incoming!" Noel shouted. Since he was the one leading now, he said, "Normal way is too much for us, so we'll risk our lives right now."

"What are you pl—" Anna was about to ask, but she saw Noel jumping into the air as the branch almost pierced him. To her surprise, Noel landed on the branch that almost impaled him.

Instead of climbing the normal way, he ran on top of the branch. Since the tree was going to impale them from the sides, the branches needed to have the right slope for them to climb due to the branches coming from above. It needed a part of the branches to be twisted in one part, so the rest would just be a smooth slope.

"Let's go!" Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, due to the tree's big branch and root, they could easily run on top of them without fearing to fall. Of course, Noel was scared when running on top of the branches due to him being above ten meters high. Even so, he needed to do it because the tree would take an even more extreme measure to knock them off.

Hence, the only solution to reach the top of the tree was to utilize any unorthodox way.

"He is insane." Anna complained but still followed him. She realized that even without her, Noel could still climb the tree. He could easily find a way to do it even if he needed to improvise due to an additional person.

The Ancient Demon Tree also started retracting its branches, knowing that Noel planned to take advantage of it. So, Anna hurriedly followed him, making sure that she wasn't left behind.

Lightning even sparked around her boots, increasing her speed by causing a small spark in every step she made.

However, they also needed to worry about another threat other than the tree.

*Roar!*

A huge roar erupted from the ground, startling both Anna and Theo.

"!!!" Anna glanced to the bottom and saw a humanoid figure with a red skin. The humanoid figure didn't have a single hair on its body and it didn't even have gender. However, it still had a mouth and nose like a human.

But the one that took her attention the most was a pair of horns on its head.

"Noel! It's the Advance Level Demon from earlier! It's going to help the Ancient Demon Tree!" Anna shouted.

"Seriously?" Noel gulped down and asked, "What should we—"

When Noel glanced at the bottom, he saw the demon opening its mouth, forming a red-colored light ball in front of it.

"I'm going to take care of that beam!" Anna raised two fingers and drew a cross in the air with her Spiritual Energy. "Lightning Fall!"

The cross shaped lightning soon fell down to stop the Advance Level Demon.

On the ground, the light ball had grown to the size of the demon's head as the demon soon shot it like a beam.

"Can you even stop t—" Noel doubted Anna's Spirit Ability could stop it, but he soon saw something that shocked him.

A symbol appeared below her attack before forming a circle surrounding it.

With his current knowledge, he could recognize this symbol and its form.

Both of them said the same thing.

"Amplification!"

As soon as the cross-shaped lightning passed through the circle, the lightning sparked and expanded its size. The power behind it was also amplified like the name implied.

This was one of the basic runes, Amplification. However, he hadn't been able to draw that rune due to Ardagan requesting him to either master the Increase Agility or Strength Blessing Rune first.

The beam soon struck the Lightning Fall, causing it to explode. However, the explosion was so fierce that it bent the beam, shifting its path a little bit, barely avoiding them. The beam even struck one of the tree branches at the top and destroyed it.

As if getting angry because Anna and Noel were like a pest that couldn't be exterminated, the tree shot a branch to the ground, creating a slope that could allow the Advance Level Demon to climb.

"The Advance Level Demon is going to reach us by using that branch. What should we do? One of us might need to fight it to buy time..." Anna gritted her teeth.

Noel wanted to talk about her knowledge about Rune, but he knew this wasn't the time. Even Anna also didn't want to explain everything in this situation, since this was a secret that she wouldn't reveal if not for the sudden threat.

'For real. How did Noel even climb to the top and kill the tree in my past life? Has my regression actually weakened Noel? No, I'm sure that Noel has become stronger from his past life due to his hate to him. So...' Suddenly, Anna's thought was disrupted by the sudden power surge in her body.

She felt more powerful and her body was lighter.

"This is..." Anna widened her eyes and saw Noel using two runes.

"It will only last five minutes. Normal way won't work anymore. So, we're going to skip all this and immediately go to the top. Make sure you don't fall!" Noel shouted as he jumped into the trunk again. "Swing me to the top, Anna!"

Anna widened her eyes because she saw Noel planning to drop himself after reaching the trunk. Since they were on a branch, Anna could make a full swing that could throw him straight to the top with her ability. And that rune was the amplification she needed to accomplish the mission.

In other words, Noel planned to use the force from the throw to reach the tree's head in one go. This way, they could outrun the Advance Level Demon.

Anna smirked as she realized how insane his brain could work. She became excited because she could see some hope in killing this demon tree.

As soon as Noel dropped himself, Anna stomped the branch so that her feet were slightly buried. She glanced to the side and saw the branch continued to retract itself, so she only had one shot. If she missed, both of them were going to fall.

The moment she felt Noel's weight, she gritted her teeth as her body slightly tilted to the front. "Kh. It's too heavy!"

Even so, she endured all the pain and weight and hung on while glancing at Noel's momentum.

The moment he returned to the trunk, she utilized and amplified the centrifugal force to toss him to the top. "GOOOO!!!"

Noel flew into the top at fast speed. And now, he prepared himself for Anna's weight since they were going to climb together.

But to his surprise, he never felt Anna's weight. He glanced back and saw Anna falling down after cutting the rope.

Anna was smiling at him while saying, "You go to the top and defeat the Demon Tree. I'm going to stop this Advance Level Demon from stopping you."