Castus awoke from his contemplation and stared at the stinger. While Grant didn't realize it, if Castus could analyze this it would solve a genuine problem. This would help Castus figure out if he could remove the slave collar with his blessing. Reaching out Castus touched the stinger and willed his blessing to work. Grant watched with interest. For a second nothing happened, then the stinger vanished.
'Fuck. Now I'm sure that if I use this on the slave collar I could die.'
Like normal Castus now had a new material in his analyzing screen. He looked at the bare page and realized he hadn't been utilizing his blessing well at all. So far, he had some wood types, the stinger, crude iron, bread, water, and the cloth from before. He immediately grabbed a handful of dirt an also analyzed it. Grant looked away at this point and was looking around. Something seemed to have alerted him.
"Castus, stay here. It should be safe. I'll be back as soon as I can." No sooner had those words past, was Grant no longer with Castus. Castus followed to the direction the sudden breeze went and looked up, noticing a flickering red light above the trees far in the distance. Signal flare. One of the troops of soldiers must have run into something far more dangerous than they could handle.
Castus rested for a little bit before jumping up and deciding to use his blessing to the fullest. Castus walked over to the now limp body of the creature he had killed earlier and analyzed the fur, talons, teeth, and flesh of it. He then went on a spree, attempting to analyze anything he could put his grubby childlike hands on. He analyzed moss, swamp water, mud, new trees, rocks, and the occasional plant. Castus did learn something interesting. As long as something was still 'alive' he couldn't analyze it, but as soon as it died, he could. As the list of materials grew Castus started to have a hard time keeping track of everything in his panel. 'I wish I could sort of organize this.' His rhetorical thoughts were answered though.
"User may sort, organize, and search the list with their mental will." The screen spoke out to Castus. Castus jumped, spooked by the sudden answer to his mental question. Castus regained his cool and started to play around with the organization. He could make tabs of favorite materials, sort by type, densities, hardness, organics and so on. As he toyed around with the page a growl alerted him from behind.
Castus shoved the screen closed and reached for the spear next to him. He spun around in a defensive posture and immediately started taking steps backwards. His eyes widened at the source of the growl. Behind him was a creature he didn't recognize in any way. It had moss and vines covering its body. Its front legs were far longer than its hind legs. Its face only had two eyes and a mouth that split its face in two. Inside its mouth were hundreds of serrated teeth that moved and rattled with its growls. Castus continued to take slow measured steps backwards gripping onto the spear.
"Graaaant!" Castus yelled without taking his eyes off the thing approaching. It took another step forward as Castus' back hit the tree behind him. The creature lunged at Castus, its maw snapping shut inches from his face. Castus dropped low and dove past the creature. He popped up and started to run away. He heard the creature snarl in annoyance as it turned and started lumbering behind Castus.
Meanwhile
Grant was blitzing through the marshy land. Tree passed him like a blur. The occasional branch was promptly smashed into pieces when it made contact with Grant. Grant barely flinched, his eyes locked with the location he saw the flare. He made slight adjustments to his trajectory as he navigated the swamp at a speed that would make a motorcycle jealous. "Shit, what did those hooligans find now.' Grant broke into a clearing of smashed and dried trees. It looked like all life had been sapped out of the surroundings. In the dead center of the ring was a medium sized tree that Grant instantly recognized. His eyes darted to the group of soldiers that were protecting a wounded soldier and slowly backing away from the tree.
Grant breathed deeply and shouted. "Get the hell away from here now!" The soldier looked surprised to see Grant, before the one holding a shield nodded at the soldiers behind him. The group started to retreat much faster than before. The soldier holding the sheild protected the group from the branches of the tree that lashed out at them. Grant spent no time waiting for the group to move and took action. Lurching forward with a dash Grant raised up his left leg and coalesced mana into his right hand. He halted movements a few feet from the now wildly shaking tree and launched his attack. From his right hand a beam of brilliant white light formed a glowing blade and Grant slashed forward, finishing the movement by immediately jumping back.
From the ground of Grant's last position a spear made of root erupted from the ground, narrowly missing Grant. 'Crap, what the hell is a Sanguineous Treant doing here. This could be bad.' Finishing his thought and landing Grant looked to the tree as half of it fell to the ground. A loud sound erupted as it hit the ground, followed by an inhuman screech. It sounded like hundreds of wooden blocks being bashed together. Grant held his ear as the now stump rose from the ground, destroying the land beneath it.
Standing at nearly twenty feet tall, with thousands and thousands of roots and branches coming off of the barely humanoid body was the Sanguineous Treant. The previously dead looking wood began to glow red and green forming an intricate network of flowing lines into the center of the treants chest. The creature finished its escape from the muddy ground and eyes like red rubies locked onto Grant. Grant started to sweat. 'Shit, that's an elder treant. How far do its connecting roots run in this forest. Every living thing here could be in danger. If it starts siphoning off life from the surroundings all the training groups could die. Not to mention the subordinate roots are strong enough to kill a squad if they aren't careful. I need to end this quickly.'
Grant steadied his footing and reached to his waist unsheathing a rapier. He took a slow measured breath as the treant reared its arm back slowly, readying a devastating blow.