The Black Hawk pulled away from the creature, not in full retreat, but with enough urgency that everyone inside understood the situation had changed.

The pilot eased the controls and brought the helicopter into a wide orbit around the clearing. The aircraft leaned into the turn, rotors chopping through the air while the forest rolled beneath them in a thick blanket of green and broken shadows. They kept their altitude high enough to stay out of reach, but no one inside the cabin felt safe.

Marcus kept one hand braced against the frame while his eyes stayed locked on the thing below.

"Keep us moving," he said. "Don’t give it a fixed target."

"Copy that," the pilot answered.

The Black Hawk continued circling. Its movement was steady, but the tension inside the aircraft remained heavy. The M134s on both sides were quiet now, their barrels still warm after emptying everything they had into the monster. The smell of gun oil, hot metal, and spent casings lingered inside the cabin.

Below, the tree monster stood in the middle of the destroyed section of forest.

It did not rush after them.

It turned.

Slowly.

Its massive upper body twisted with a grinding sound that could still be heard through the open side of the helicopter. Bark scraped against bark. Thick roots shifted under its weight. The hollow face carved into its trunk followed them with a patience that made Marcus more uneasy than any wild attack could have.

The thing was watching them.

The co-pilot glanced down and swallowed.

"It’s still locked on us."

Marcus nodded without looking away.

"Yeah. It knows we’re here."

One of the long branches lifted from its side. It did not strike this time. It rose slowly and remained there, hanging in the air like a spear waiting to be thrown.

The sight made the gunner grip the empty weapon harder.

"Wish we still had ammo," he muttered.

Marcus heard him but did not respond. There was nothing useful to say. They had already thrown thousands of rounds into the creature, and it was still standing. The miniguns had carved into its bark, shattered sections of its body, and exposed parts of whatever passed for its inner core, but the damage had not been enough.

Minutes passed, each one feeling longer than it should.

The Black Hawk kept circling. The pilot made small adjustments, never letting the helicopter fall into a predictable path. The forest below remained quiet, but it was not peaceful. The area around the monster looked like something had torn through the land from underneath. The canopy had collapsed into a wide broken clearing. Trees leaned at strange angles. Roots sprawled across the ground like exposed veins. Soil had been ripped open in long lines where the creature had forced itself upward.

Everything around it looked wrong.

Like the forest itself wanted to reject it.

"Fuel status?" Marcus asked.

"Still good," the pilot replied. "We can loiter."

"Good. Hold this pattern."

Marcus shifted his gaze toward the horizon.

He waited.

The others waited with him.

For a while, there was only the sound of their own rotors. Then another sound reached them.

It was faint at first, almost buried under the Black Hawk’s engine noise. Low. Distant. Steady. It did not have the same chopping rhythm as a helicopter. This was something faster, heavier, and coming in from far away.

The co-pilot heard it next.

"You hear that?"

Marcus did not answer right away.

He already knew what it was.

A few seconds later, the pilot gave a slight grin, though his eyes stayed forward.

"That’s our ride."

A dark shape appeared on the horizon.

At first, it looked small against the pale sky, just a speck moving low and fast over the endless forest. As it closed in, its shape became clear.

Straight wings.

Twin engines mounted high at the rear.

A thick forward fuselage.

A nose built around a cannon.

The A-10 Warthog came in like a flying weapon platform, plain and ugly in the way only something made for war could be. It was not sleek. It was not elegant. It looked heavy, stubborn, and difficult to kill.

The co-pilot let out a breath.

"There it is."

Marcus keyed his radio.

"Hog One, this is Atlas One. Target is marked by visual. Large arboreal entity in the center of the collapsed canopy. You should see the clearing."

A calm voice answered through the radio.

"Atlas One, this is Hog One. Visual acquired."

Marcus watched the A-10 dip slightly as it lined up from a distance.

"Recommend you maintain separation," Hog One added.

Marcus looked down at the waiting monster and gave a faint smirk.

"Already doing that."

The Warthog did not rush into its attack. It widened its path first, banking into a controlled arc as it set up a proper run. Marcus could see the aircraft clearly now. The large cannon sat beneath the nose, slightly off-center but aimed along the aircraft’s line of fire. Under the wings, ordnance hung from the pylons.

Rockets.

Bombs.

Hardpoints loaded with the kind of firepower the Black Hawk did not have.

"Here we go," Marcus said.

The A-10 rolled into its attack run.

Its nose dropped.

Its speed increased.

The engines gave off a rough mechanical growl as it lined up directly with the tree monster.

Below, the creature reacted. Its branches rose again, higher this time, no longer waiting. Several limbs stretched upward, trying to meet the aircraft before it reached firing range.

But it was too slow.

Too rooted.

Too heavy.

"Engaging," Hog One said.

Then the cannon opened fire.

The sound hit them like a tearing growl across the sky.

BRRRRRRRRT.

The GAU-8 Avenger did not sound like the miniguns. It was deeper, heavier, and far more violent. The burst lasted only a moment, but the effect on the creature was immediate.

The 30mm rounds slammed into the upper trunk and ripped through it with brutal force. The monster did not just splinter this time. It exploded in sections. Chunks of wood the size of furniture tore away from its body and spun into the air. The rounds punched far deeper than the miniguns had, boring into the dense layers beneath the bark.

For the first time since it appeared, the creature recoiled.

Its upper body jerked backward. Branches snapped outward. Several limbs lost their shape and collapsed against the trunk.

"Direct hits!" the co-pilot shouted.

Marcus leaned forward, watching the damage spread across the creature’s body.

"Keep it coming."

The A-10 pulled up from the first pass and climbed over the forest before banking hard to come around again.

This time, Marcus could see the wound clearly. The cannon had opened up the monster’s central body, exposing something darker beneath the bark. It was not ordinary wood. It had a thick, almost black inner layer that pulsed faintly as pieces of bark tried to close around it.

The pilot stared at it for a second.

"Did you see that?"

"Yeah," Marcus said. "That’s its core."

The creature released a sound that rolled across the forest like grinding stone. It was not a normal roar. It sounded like trees being crushed, roots being torn apart, and something ancient trying to breathe through a body that was never meant to move.

Its branches lashed out wildly now. The earlier control was gone. It swung in wide arcs, smashing through the remaining trees around it. Trunks snapped. Leaves and branches burst into the air. The ground split under the force of its roots.

Marcus watched closely.

It was panicking.

"Good," he muttered. "That means it hurts."

"Hog One, second pass," the radio crackled.

The A-10 came back lower this time.

The aircraft lined up with the exposed section of the trunk, its nose steady as it closed the distance. The tree monster tried to raise its limbs again, but the movements were slower now. Damaged. Unstable.

"Firing."

BRRRRRRRRT.

The second burst was longer.

The rounds hammered into the same exposed section. Every impact drove deeper into the core, tearing through layers that had survived the helicopter’s fire. The creature’s upper body twisted under the punishment, trying to pull away, but it had nowhere to go.

This time, it did not just recoil.

It broke.

A massive part of its central trunk collapsed inward. The structure folded under the sustained fire, and several thick sections tore free before falling back into the forest. The hollow eyes in the creature’s face flickered for a moment. Its branches lost their timing, some rising while others fell limp.

The co-pilot slapped a hand against the side of his seat.

"That hurt it."

Marcus kept his voice calm.

"Not enough yet."

The A-10 climbed again.

"Hog One switching to rockets," the pilot announced.

The aircraft gained altitude, then curved into another attack angle. Marcus tracked it as it rolled in from the west side of the clearing. The creature’s base was still connected to the ground by thick roots, and even though its upper body was badly damaged, those roots kept trying to pull the mass upright.

A ripple of smoke flashed beneath the A-10’s wings.

Then the rockets launched.

A salvo of Hydra rockets streaked toward the forest, leaving thin trails behind them. They slammed into the base of the monster a second later.

Impact after impact tore through the ground.

Explosions erupted around the roots, throwing soil, bark, and shattered wood in every direction. The lower half of the creature took the full force of the strike. Several roots snapped apart, while others burst out of the ground in twisted pieces. The shockwave rolled through the clearing and pushed leaves outward in a wide circle.

The entire monster tilted.

The co-pilot stared at it.

"It’s going down."

Marcus narrowed his eyes.

"Not yet."

He was right.

The creature was still moving. Its upper body leaned to one side, but several roots dug back into the ground and tried to hold it upright. Branches twitched and reached upward, weak but still alive. The exposed core pulsed again, dimmer now, but not gone.

It was refusing to fall.

"Hog One, final run," the A-10 pilot said.

The Warthog came around one more time.

Straight approach.

Clean line.

No hesitation.

Marcus watched the aircraft line up with the exposed core. The pilot did not waste ammunition this time. He waited until the angle was perfect.

"Guns."

BRRRRRRRRT.

The final burst was shorter, but it was precise.

The 30mm rounds struck the exposed core directly. The dark inner mass tore apart under the impact. For one brief second, the creature seemed to freeze in place, as if its entire body had lost command at once.

Then the structure failed.

The upper trunk collapsed inward. The hollow face split down the middle. The long branches dropped, some snapping as they hit the ground. The massive body leaned further, then broke under its own weight.

The creature crashed back into the forest with a deep, violent impact.

The ground shook hard enough that Marcus felt the vibration through the helicopter’s frame. A wave of dust, leaves, and splinters burst upward from the clearing.

Then everything went still.

The Black Hawk continued circling.

No one spoke right away.

Marcus kept watching the wreckage. The remains of the creature lay across the clearing, broken into massive sections. The exposed core no longer pulsed. The branches no longer moved. The roots that had crawled across the ground now lay limp and scattered like dead cables.

The co-pilot finally spoke, his voice low.

"Target neutralized."

Marcus did not answer at once. He waited several more seconds, watching for any sign of movement.

Nothing came.

No shifting wood.

No rising limbs.

No hollow eyes turning back toward them.

Only smoke, broken trees, and the scar left behind in the forest.

Marcus keyed the radio.

"Hog One, good hits."

The A-10 pilot replied with the same calm tone as before.

"Anytime, Atlas One. You guys picked one hell of a target."

Marcus let out a slow breath and leaned back in his seat.

"You have no idea."

The A-10 banked away from the clearing and began climbing back into open sky, its work finished. The rough sound of its engines faded as it moved off, leaving the Black Hawk alone above the damaged forest.

Below, the clearing settled.

Leaves drifted down.

Dust thinned.

The broken body of the monster remained where it had fallen, no longer part of the forest, but something removed from it.

Marcus noticed the change before anyone said it.

The strange pressure in the air was gone.

That heavy feeling that had followed them since entering the Forest of No Return had lifted. The helicopter felt lighter. The instruments seemed calmer. Even the air coming through the open side felt cleaner.

"Feels different now," Marcus said.

The pilot nodded.

"Yeah. Whatever that thing was, it was messing with the whole area."

Marcus looked down one last time.

The forest was still dangerous. He knew that. One dead monster did not mean the place was safe. But at least this thing would not be following them back to base.

He turned his gaze forward.

"Alright," Marcus said. "Let’s get out of this forest."

The Black Hawk banked away from the clearing and headed back toward open ground.