I Received System to Become Dragonborn

The trees began to move. The enormous ancient trees and the smaller ones surrounding them all started dragging themselves toward the two beasts.

Their movements were unnatural and disturbing. Their roots tore themselves free from the soil and pulled against the earth as they crawled forward, dragging thick roots and tangled branches across the ground.

Some of the roots remained buried deep beneath the soil and stretched through the earth as though the trees were forcing their entire bodies to move despite the land that had kept them rooted in place for a long time.

The sound was almost as unsettling as the sight itself. Wood groaned and cracked as trunks bent in unnatural ways, roots scraped against stone and soil with a deep grinding and tearing noises.

There was something desperate about their movements. The trees did not move like living things that just decided to walk. They moved like creatures struggling against a natural limitation that should have kept them still.

Their roots clawed through the ground as they desperately reached for the two wounded beasts. Some of the smaller trees leaned so far forward that their trunks nearly touched the earth while their roots dragged behind them.

The larger trees moved more slowly, but their sheer size made every movement shake the surrounding ground.

Branches scraped against one another, leaves rustled violently despite the absence of wind.

Sylven’s body immediately became tense. He narrowed his eyes and watched the approaching trees carefully.

His instincts told him that something was about to happen. He had spent most of the Trial observing and trying to understand what the forest wanted from him, but now he finally felt that the next step was within reach.

He shifted his stance and prepared himself to act the moment the situation became clear.

The trees continued advancing.

Their roots dragged across the ground as they surrounded the clearing.

The combined movement of so many trees produced a low rumbling that grew louder with every passing second.

It sounded almost like distant thunder rolling beneath the earth.

Sylven could feel the vibration through his feet as the forest closed in around the two beasts.

Then he heard them... The voices of the trees.

They were no longer the faint whispers he had heard earlier. They were louder now and filled with something that made Sylven’s expression slowly change.

The voices overlapped with one another until they became difficult to distinguish, but their words were clear enough.

They were hungry. They spoke about consuming the beasts.

They wanted the flesh. They wanted the blood. They wanted what remained of the creatures after the battle had drained them of their strength.

Their voices carried a desperation that reminded Sylven of starving beasts surrounding wounded prey. There was no concern for the creatures and no hesitation about what they intended to do.

The forest had been waiting for this moment.

Sylven’s eyes widened slightly. "So that’s what you’ve been doing..."

Everything suddenly made sense.

The forest had not just wanted the two beasts to fight. It had been manipulating them from the beginning.

The trees had whispered into their minds and pushed them to continue fighting even after both creatures had become exhausted and badly wounded.

They were encouraging the beasts to keep attacking until two of them died or were too weak to resist.

The forest had been preparing its meal.

Sylven looked toward the dying black-scaled creature and then at the corpse of the massive quadrupedal beast. The answer had been in front of him the entire time.

The battle had never truly been about the beasts. The forest had created the conditions for them to destroy each other so it could consume them afterward.

He had never seen plants behave like this before.

He had encountered dangerous creatures, monsters, and beings driven by bloodlust, but the trees around him were different.

They were not just defending themselves or hunting for survival in the way an ordinary predator would. They had manipulated their prey, prolonged the battle, and waited patiently for the creatures to become too weak to escape.

Sylven slowly turned his gaze toward the surrounding forest.

The trees continued crawling toward the clearing. Their roots dug through the earth. Their branches stretched toward the wounded beasts. Their voices grew louder.

Sylven understood just how terrifying this forest really was. It had looked peaceful when he first arrived, but beneath that peaceful appearance existed far more vicious things.

The forest had been watching the entire battle from the beginning, waiting for the moment when its prey could no longer fight back.

Sylven tightened his fists.

Yet despite everything the forest had planned, the trees had spoken to Sylven as though they were the benevolent ones from the very beginning.

They had told him that the beasts around these forests were rampaging through the forest and destroying everything around them.

They had made themselves sound like victims that were simply trying to protect their home from violent creatures.

But now that Sylven had seen the truth, he realized that the forest was the one filled with bloodlust. The beasts had fought each other, but the trees had encouraged them to keep fighting until they could no longer defend themselves. He was certain that they had manipulated the entire battle all this time while pretending to be innocent.

Sylven slowly looked around.

The trees surrounding the clearing had begun moving as well. Even the ones behind him were tearing their roots from the earth and dragging themselves toward the two beasts. Their massive trunks groaned with every movement while their roots scraped across the soil. None of them showed any interest in Sylven.

They did not try to attack him or even acknowledge his presence. Their attention remained completely focused on the wounded creatures in the clearing as though Sylven did not exist.

That realization filled Sylven’s heart with disappointment.

The plants had always been his friends. He was the Plant Dragon after all, he had felt a connection with them that went beyond simple communication.

He could feel their presence, understand their voices, and sense the life flowing through the forests around him. He had always believed that the plants would never betray him.

But now, standing in the middle of this forest while its trees dragged themselves toward two dying creatures, Sylven could not shake the feeling that something precious had been betrayed.

For the first time, the plants did not feel like his allies. They felt like monsters he could not understand.

That hurt more than Sylven expected.

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