Chapter 862: Internal conflict
Translator: Sean888888 Editor: TheAlliance
More and more Ents appeared to join in the discussion.
Currently, the war with the tree killers in the forest of Fangorn had lasted for nearly four to five years, but the deaths of Ents were rare. In most cases, the Ents that were killed were battle Ents on the frontline.
The Leaping Ents, who ranked first in speed among the Ents, had never suffered any casualty. Not to mention that, this time, even the Ent's soul was drawn and completely disappeared. The situation was very weird.
But very soon, a stout, Thorny Ent whipped the ground with his branches and shouted.
"Look at what I found! Footprints! The unique footprints of us Ents! This Ent was standing on the opposite side of Mudbeard. Look here, he started to build up force in this position, and then he rushed over to launch a surprise attack, fiercely throwing Mudbeard to the ground. They wrestled in this spot, while those damn tree slaughterers joined in the attack. Our worst fear has finally come true. The wild Ents and tree slaughterers have joined forces!"
The discovery of this Thorny Ent immediately attracted the other Ents to look, and they agreed with his conclusion - because it was the truth! Confirming this matter was one thing, deciding what they should do was another. The simple-minded Ents put forth a lot of proposals, but none of them were accepted. This matter may seem simple, but it was actually fairly complicated. If it was not handled properly, it might even shake the foundation of the entire Fangorn Forest.
There were quite a number of wild Ents in Fangorn Forest. With only one set of footprints, it was naturally difficult to find murderer.
The relationship between the wild Ents and the Ents of the Treebeard tribe were originally tense to begin with. It wouldn't be a problem normally, but now, if the wild Ents were forced too hard, most of them might join forces with the tree slaughterers. That would not be worth it at all!
"Can't we track them?" an Ent suddenly raised the question. "Grubb, didn't you manage to track the group before?"
Grubb shook his head slowly.
"That was because the other party was not prepared. This time, they used a very advanced natural spell to blend into the forest, and there is a very powerful Ent accompanying them. There's nothing I can do."
But what happened next totally caught the Ents unprepared.
In the afternoon, another Thorny Ent was killed. The Thorny Ent was murdered when he was attacking another logging camp. In the camp, there were Hobbits, Dwarves, humans, and the Spimi people from the north.
Most of the members of the camp were here under the temptation of money, but the Spimi was here purely for revenge!
His younger brother managed to bring back two trees from here before. His luck bagged him a lot of money. He then spent all his money on treating his elder brother's illness. After his money was used up, he could only take the risk of coming back here.
The younger brother was unfortunately not favoured by lady luck the second time. He was turned into fertilizer by the Ents half a year ago. After the elder brother heard about this, he stopped his treatment and came over. His crazy and suicidal attacks heavily wounded the Ent. Then...someone took advantage of the situation to finish the Ent.
Currently, the proportion of adventurers who flocked to the forest of Fangorn for the purpose of revenge had gradually reached almost 20%. This percentage would only increase with time. It was probably another reason why Saruman paid lucrative prices for the wood of the trees of Fangorn Forest - to let the greedy adventurers gradually weaken the strength of the Treebeard tribe.
There is no doubt that after killing the Thorny Ent, the people in the camp immediately withdrew. The angry Ents gave chase, but during the course of the chase, another Leaping Ent suffered an ambush. Although he was not dead, he was gravely wounded. It would take decades for him to heal.
He at least provided very clear information on his assaulters. Among those who attacked him, there was indeed a wild Ent. The wild Ent should be from the type of trees with large trunks, and his characteristics were described in details. The injured Ent also informed them that there was an archer and a mage among the group of assauters.
The following morning, the Ents of Fangorn Forest devoutly prayed to nature, hoping that the forest would protect them, and for yesterday's nightmare to pass. They would rather temporarily give up on the tree slaughterers and instead laid out an elaborate trap to lure out the wicked team who kept ambushing them from the shadows.
However, as if the team was aware of the Ents' intention, they completely disappeared from their radar.
The patience of the Ents was slowly being worn down, because they know that with every passing minute, there would be trees being chopped down by those greedy tree slaughterers.
The Ents persisted until noon, only to find some dark smoke suddenly rising in the distance. The smoke contained a faint, indescribable smell. For humans and humanoid races, it smelled no different from burning wood, but the Ents could clearly tell that it was the smell of the corpse of their kind when it was burned!
They rushed over and witnessed the tragic scene. Two Ents were killed. One of them was even ignited. No trace was left of the murderers. What made these Ents heave a sigh of relief was that the two who died were not their companions, but two wild Ents.
The Thorny Ent called Thickthorn who was the first to arrive at the scene began to examine the bodies of the dead wild Ents. For some reason, it was very hard to identify the cause of the death of the wild Ents. Thickthorn had laid in ambush for the whole morning, so he was understandably feeling impatient. To make his investigation more convenient, he rudely and violently pried open the chests of the dead Ents to check for arrows.
Because the Ents of the Treebeard tribe had always maintained a contemptuous attitude toward the wild Ents - more importantly, there was also a wild Ent in the mysterious group - so when Thickthorn examined the bodies, he was very casual and very rude.
Grubb, the direct descendant of Treebeard, was also on scene. Thickthorn's action didn't sit right with him. He was about to say something, but recalled that Thickthorn's friend was gravely hurt yesterday due to a wild Ent. He could understand Thickthorn's feelings so, in the end, he decided to keep quiet.
Grubb considered the feelings of his own tribe member, but forgot one very important thing: he did not consider the feelings of the rest of the wild Ents! Not all the wild Ents act by themselves. They all felt a connection with each other to begin with because they were all expelled by the Treebeard tribe due to differences in ideology.
Therefore, when the wild Ents who also detected the smell arrived at the scene, what they saw was the Treebeard Ents who always acted all "high and mighty" surrounding their own kind, while the dead Ents had their chests torn open into pieces!
One could imagine how the wild Ents felt! Their emotions surged and anger ignited within them. They began sending signals to inform their friends and loved ones.
Under such circumstances, Grubb stepped up and tried his best to explain the behaviour and motive of his tribesmate. He was about to succeed in quelling the anger of the wild Ents when a little shrub Ent suddenly stood out and roared angrily.
"Murderers!!"
As he yelled, he rushed towards Thickthorn who had the worst temper!
Thickthorn, being the one who inspected the corpse, received the most hatred. He was already frustrated to begin with, and now he even had his face repeatedly slammed by the vines of the little shrub Ent. He immediately broke out in fury and gave the little Ent a good spanking!
But after he was done with the spanking, he saw the shrub Ent lying awkwardly on the ground. He was actually dead!!!!
A fuse was lit. The spectating of wild Ents could bear it no longer. They rushed in raging and madly howling. A great conflict that had been brewing for a long time had finally erupted. Internal conflict between the Ents was no longer avoidable!
With conflict came casualties and hatred.
Blood and anger had begun to flow in the deep crack between the wild Ents and the Ents of the Treebeard tribe!
Usually, Treebeard could step out and rely on his high prestige to quell the bloody dispute. But right now, Treebeard was undergoing the critical stage of guarding his Golden Fruits. Therefore, the turmoil further deteriorated, and the conflict spread rapidly throughout the whole Fangorn Forest.
The forest, which was not peaceful to begin with, became a place where three different forces attacked each other. It was a complete mess!
Needless to say, this was a show directed by Sheyan.
The little shrub Ent who played the role of a fuse in the conflict was naturally Mr. Ferrell's masterpiece. If he did not care about fighting ability, he could choose a different tree every day to latch on to, thus turning it into an Ent.
The real cause of death for Ent that was killed, was due to Mr. Ferrell's spirit leaving the body and had nothing to do with the violent yet unfortunate Thickthorn.
On the morning of the fourth day, Sheyan stood in a camping ground and gazed into the Forest of Fangorn not far away. The sun shined on his face which showed a look of indifference. Reef walked over to his side, and said worryingly.
"Boss, the Forest of Fangorn is in a complete mess now, but.... I still think your plan is too risky."