(9) Sinless Days (Pt. 2): A Famished Flora

--- Mercer ---

Long viney tendrils lashed out at the air as they creeped and crawled across the ground, gripping everything as the core of the floral creature looked his way, a flower-esque shape that could’ve been mistaken as a massive daisy if not for a large slitted eye and a mouth full of trichomes long, pointed, and marking this plant as predator.

The blooming beast watched him, possibly aware of the fact that he was something dangerous. Or possibly the instincts of an ambush predator waiting for the idle moment to act as the plants body slowly quit moving, waiting for the idle moment to strike.

A bright light flashed through the room as his phone decided it was dark enough to justify something the flora took offense too.

He went ahead and sent the picture to Julie, before sliding the phone into his pocket and ducking to the side to avoid several tendrils attempting to impale or capture him. With his free hand he fired his gun at them, more to test its effect on the plant than any expectation of hurting it.

The tendrils recoiled upon being struck, but didn’t take much visible damage from the Renegade’s Rhapsody.

Drawing the other gun with his now free hand he started firing both at the main body hoping that that would prove more effective, and while the plant did move to protect its body with a wall of vines it did little in the way of deterring it from firing more vines at him.

(Note to self, get Clockwork to get me some incendiary rounds.) Concussion was nice for non-lethality, but they weren’t as versatile or damaging as his favorites.

When both rhapsodies clicked empty, he in turn clicked his tongue before holstering one and reloading the other as he dashed behind the library’s checkout counter.

(Additional note to self, get new auto-loaders.) Dual wielding guns -even custom made eldritch horror guns- was just impractical otherwise.

By the time he pocketed and replaced the ammo cartridges, he could see vines beginning to curl around the side of the counter as they searched for him.

(Probably didn’t see me get behind her while covering its face/) Part of him was tempted to simply stab a knife into them to spite the blooming beast, but given how no self-respecting infiltrator would give up their stealth without a clear shot he instead stayed low and creeped around the opposite side of the counter.

Once no longer in danger of being seen, he stood and silently ducked into another wing of the library before sprinting as swiftly as he could to another door closer to the plant in the hopes of flanking it from the side.

Peeking through the door, he watched as the flora began to slowly creep its way forward, the creature clearly having trouble doing so between the harder library floor, and the less stable bookshelves that it kept knocking over. (Triss is going to hate that. Luckily, that’s a her problem.)

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Some of the creatures vines began to creep his way, even as the plant moved away from him, its head snapping every time it knocked over a bookshelf before looking forward once more. (Odd…)

Deciding to test a theory, he grabbed a book off a nearby shelf and tossed it at some of the vines on the opposite side of the lobby from him, before watching as the plant’s head snapped to the vines that quickly ensnared the book.

With a swiftness far greater than its previous creeping crawl, the blooming beast appeared above the book before eventually the vines tossed it to the side and it returned to slowly creeping towards the exit.

(So likely a blind hunting instinct.) He figured after that little observation. (Feel out everything it can’t see and depending on how much it moves when caught it’ll either eat it or toss it, while being twice as proactive with what it can see.)

Just to double check, he tried the book trick a second time just to test the flora’s intelligence, only to get pretty much the same reaction. The plant seemingly forgetting about the books the moment it quit seeing them. (So not very smart… Good~)

He grabbed another book before carefully maneuvering around the vines without disturbing them. Once in a decent enough position, he fired a grappling line into the air and pulled himself up until he was a higher elevation than the massive plant’s head at which point he dropped the book directly below him.

Like both times before the flora rushed over to examine what it had caught.

Unlike before however, he was in the perfect position to drop down on its head with a knife in hand.

The beast didn’t scream as he drove the knife into its face, but it did thrash and struggle as he used his weight to try and decapitate the thing.

Feeling his grip starting to slip he fired his grappling line point blank into the flora’s flesh to try and keep himself anchored as he was forced to let his knife go so that he could draw his gun and fire at some of the vines reaching for him.

With dozens of the tendrils reaching for him, he loosened his grapple line without actually dislodging it, thus giving himself enough room to swing and shimmy around the plant.

As he moved, he was forced to pull and tug his limbs free of the vines that managed to break through and latch onto him. At least until he’d gone full circle around the blooming beast twice over, at which point he once more grabbed onto his knife and started retracting his grapple line.

In feat of both strength and dexterity, he pulled his limbs together and threw his weight onto the knife as his line pulled him around the blooming beast, dragging his blade through the plant’s floral flesh as he encircled it twice in an even quicker fashion than before.

By the time he was done the plant’s stem was pouring out a sap like blood as its vines twitched and spasmed, doing nothing to stop him as he climbed atop the blooming beast before stomping down and snapping what little remained of its stem.

The flora’s flower fluttered to the ground as he slid down its stem, keeping a careful eye on all of the vines around him just in case the plant’s ‘head’ wasn’t as mandatory for it as it was for humans.

After a ten count without anything else happening he let out a breath before resheathing his knife and fully retracting his grapple line.

“Glad to see you had an easier time of that than I did.” A feminine voice told him, drawing his attention to the library staircase where a tall man with horns and a tail helped a Filipino woman down the steps as she gripped her bleeding shoulder. “Then again you only had the one that got away.”

“True.” He nodded, before telling her that, “The next time you want to enact a tentacle hentai, can you please make sure your sex demon doesn’t escape?”

Arguably the Way’s best Demon Hunter let out a pained sigh, even as her familiar let out a bark of laughter.