Chapter 16 - Chapter 16 : Bloody Treant

Rai soon arrived near the Realm, it was his first time to see realm. It was like rift had formed a vortex in the space. He looked at the token and then at realm gate.

"Guess, time to go in" thought inwardly.
He passed through the gate without any obstacle, he noticed a weird reaction from token when he entered in as if token received the permission to enter.
"Weird indeed" Rai admired it.

He soon looked ahead of him there he saw a forest .The forest was primordial. Centuries-old trees with sprawling limbs guarded the darkness, blotting out any sunlight.

Their bark was mottled and splotched, as if bubbled soup had been frozen in time on its surface. Clumpy combs of wet moss dangled from their rotten boughs.

Underneath the moss, lethal larkspur peppered the mulchy floor. A pungent tang oozed from every sentient being in the forest. Bewailing sounds ghosted through the trees.

Whether it was from victim or victor, only the forest could tell. It was truly a place to make your veins freeze over.

Everything considered edible in another forest was nauseating here. It left you with the same, sickening taste of your own blood. It was a forest to be avoided.

"So dark!" Rai exclaimed at the situation of forest. He soon summoned Riolu, it came out but didn't directly cheer for being summoned.

It could sense an ominous aura lingering in this forest. It tensed up it's nerves to react quickly to any situation.

Rai also braced himself for any unexpected moment. He didn't want to let any mishap happen because of his carelessness. His every step created a creak sound of breaking branches that were on the route. The forest was too quite which was totally an anomaly compare to normal forests. Suddenly Rai felt something behind him, without having an ounce of hesitation he jumped upwards with full strength. Just the moment he jumped, the place where he stood had a small crater on ground made by the attack of something.
Rai looked at the creature and Called Riolu
"Riolu", it came next to Rai and looked warily at creature. It was a humanoid creature, two arms, two legs, a body and a head, all made out of wood. It all appeared being made out of wood, and had leaves and moss growths on it's body.
It looked towards Rai and Riolu and Screeched " Crechhhhhh" shrilled at them for missing it's prey.
It was a deviant species of Treant, Bloody Treant.
It lived in gloomy forests, their food was blood and flesh of living creature.
"Riolu get ready" Rai narrowed his eyes at Bloody Treant and commanded Riolu.
"Rioluuu" Riolu nodded.
Suddenly Treant dashed using it's all limbs opening a ferocious mouth to attack them.
It attacked with it's huge arm that was his main weapon to attack it's preys.
As the arm was near to Riolu, suddenly Riolu turned sideways and made treant missed it's attack. It made earsplitting voice in annoyance for missing the attack.
But as it decided to attack again it heard the command of Rai.
"Riolu mach punch" Rai ordered.
Riolu heeded the command. Riolu threw a punch at blinding speed. This move always goes first. Bloody Treant was unable to respond on time since mach speed has the characteristics of being hit first no matter how strong you are , you can't be faster than mach punch. Riolu hit on the face of Bloody Treant and sent it flying, which crashed to a tree breaking it into parts.
Blood Treant didn't feel pain since they are pain immune but surely the body had difficulty to channel it's spirit after being hit so hard. It stood again to kill the prey that had hurt him but unfortunately for it,
"Riolu finish it with quick attack " Rai didn't plan to give it any chance to retaliate.
Riolu dashed again at fastest speed possible which only left a afterimage where it stood at first. Before the bloody treant blinked it felt a strong impact on it's stomach and was sent flying again. It was thrown metres away, unfortunately for treant this time it's whole body's woods were broken into pieces. Bloody Treant was at initial elementary level of strength , but because Riolu hadn't grasped the usage of it's sudden burst of power it took him some efforts to kill it. Rai came near to Bloody Treant which was laying dead there.
"You either be a prey or predator, life will never give you any other option" Rai sighed inwardly.
He took a last look and went ahead , he could not forget his task for going there.
Slowly the time went by and soon it was evening, in the middle of the forest Riolu And Rai were breathing heavily. Rai sat on ground taking a deep breath. Around them were corpses of Treants everywhere.
"Riolu that was a excellent work we did" Rai talked taking deep breaths.
"Riolu" Riolu replied with low voice lacking the energy it had in morning.
Suddenly both of them heard a low voice coming from far apart.
Riolu and Rai looked at eachother and felt chills for no reason as if a big danger was coming towards them.
Suddenly the trees before them were torn apart showing a figure of Treant but unlike other Treants, this was twice the size of it.
Treant looked at the corpses of it's own species and then at Rai and Riolu.
"Cough* Hello Mr Treant nice to meet you, My name is Rai and this is my partner Riolu. We were just strolling here and we saw these corpses here. Pity who could have killed them." Rai gave a sympathy look towards them.
Riolu had his eyes twitching to see how his master acting so cheeky.
Treant looked at them and screeched making an earsplitting sound.
"Some situations require hard decisions" Rai looked at Treant with unfazed eyes.
Riolu looked at Treant and decided to fight with it to death, it knew Treant is at level of Intermediate but it didn't back down.
"Riolu" Riolu showed determination in his eyes and looked at Rai hoping to gain encourage, but it's eyes wide opened. Because he saw it's master running far away.
"Are ya an idiot , why aren't ya running. Hurry up" Rai looked at Riolu who stood there like idiot and cured.
Riolu look back at Treant and dashed towards Rai, Soon it reached to Rai. It gave Rai a grudge look.
"Don't look at me like that, for now run as fast as possible to save our asses" Rai cursed.
Behind them Treant was speeding up destroying all the trees that became it's obstacle. Soon they saw gate of Realm, Seeing that Rai got happy.
"Riolu speed up we gotta escape" Rai looked at Riolu and said.
As they were about to reach to gate , a Shadow was seen upon them . They looked above and saw that Treant made a big jump closing the gap between them and stopped near gate. It looked at Rai and Riolu fiercely.
Rai looked at it and had pensive look on him. Rai knew he needed to think something otherwise it would be hard for them to escape unscathed there.
Rai and Riolu looked at eachother, situation right now must be handled seriously.
Rai looked at the gate and standing ahead of them The treant.
Suddenly he thought of something and gave a command to Riolu through contract.
Rai and Riolu both tensed up and got ready.
Treant looked at them shrieking and dashed towards them.