Sixth Sin: The Blooming Beasts (Pt. 4): Escaping Traps And Setting Them

--- Mercer ---

Not expecting it to do much, he fired a quick concussive round at the door’s hinges just to see if whatever floral muscles the plant used there would give.

When it didn’t he instead fired a few more probing rounds at various structural weak points, be it the floorboard, ceiling, or walls. All of which shifted but did little else as he began reloading his rhapsody as he slowly began gathering the pieces of a plan to escape.

He glanced towards the floor as the sound of sizzling hit his ears, grimacing as he realized it was already covered in an inch of the plant’s digestive fluids. A fact that had him hopping onto the chemistry station to buy himself a bit more time.

Another look around the room revealed that everything was covered in the sap, something that made him wonder, (How flammable is this stuff?)

He grabbed a beaker before dabbing the glass against the plant’s wall and coating it in enough of the substance that he could test its flammability by igniting one of the station’s burners. Something that caused the beaker to quickly catch fire, before he dumped it.

“And you are the fun kind of sap!” He grinned, zipping his jacket shut before gripping the station and kicking against the wall to slide it closer to the door.

Ignoring the faint sizzling coming from his boots he stretched the burner’s cord taught as he put it to the door, setting the sap on fire in a semi-controlled blaze. One that he quickly realized wasn’t all that controlled given how the flames began to spread much faster than he’d been expecting.

(Shit. Really going to have to get this timing right.) He noted, as he hopped back onto the station, his eyes briefly darted towards the containers of chemicals behind him. Chemicals that were probably even more flammable than the sap. (Well hopefully those containers, that buys me a few seconds…)

Unfortunately, he needed each and every one of those seconds to let the fire eat away at the door, weakening it bit by bit as he charged his Rhapsody revolver so that when the moment came- (Now!)

His eyes narrowed as the door began to shift and shiver, the plant’s motor cells not taking well to the flames. Which is why when he unleashed all six rounds of his revolver in a single shot of concussive force the door shuddered open, letting in the briefest gap of light from the outside, and with that light fresh oxygen for the fire.

The flames leapt around the door doubling their blaze as they and the rest of the fire continued to eat the plant alive from the inside out. An event he’d rather not be inside the plant to witness.

(Shit that wasn’t enough…) He grimaced, as he began to quickly reload his revolver, only to have the expression tighten as he also realized. (And I’m starting to run low on rounds…)

His eyes briefly glanced over his shoulder, where he found the fire had begun to lick away at chemical containers. (Yeah, I need to get out of here. Now.)

Drawing his second revolver, he held the trigger on both down, ammo conservation pointless in the face of a pending explosion. One by one the chambers of each eldritch gun began to glow as he aimed them both at the ideal leverage point for the gun. (Really hoping this works this time…)

Releasing the triggers, he couldn’t help but stumble back from the force of the kickback greater than a shotgun in either arm. (Definitely cracked something there.)

More than used to the various aches and pains of the vigilante lifestyle, he ignored the pain and ran forward tackling the door that was barely hanging on. A feat that ripped it off of its hinges as both it and he were sent crashing to the ground outside.

A freedom that did nothing to keep his jacket from catching fire, as he promptly rolled off the burning door and across the ground to put the flames out.

Once the last of the flames -on him- were smothered, he let out a sigh of relief as he fell on his back. (Should’ve paid for the fireproofing…)

More on reflex than anything, he took a look around him as he caught his breath. Only to find himself surrounded by a number of Blooming Beasts, all of which were staring at him even if the fire kept any of them from getting too close. (Okay, there’s… more of them than I thought there’d be…)

Pushing himself onto his feet, he rolled his shoulders as he considered the small horde of feral flora trapping him between their fangs and the fire’s flames. (Alright, I’m surrounded, low on ammo, have some kind of fracture, and they’ve no weapons for me to steal… I’ve got this.)

While these weren’t the best odds he’d ever fought, they most certainly weren’t the worst either. (Especially since I’m just stalling for Triss and Kur’silo is on overwatch.)

He considered the small army of Blooming Beasts, before nodding to himself as he began to reload his revolvers with the last of his ammo. (Best to just make this look good. Not worth tiring myself out when I still need to get my hands on the one responsible for this mess.)

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

A quick glance behind the fire showed that the plants had fully encircled him, even as they kept their distance. A distance that was slowly shrinking as they grew less fearful of the fire in the center of the grove. Fear that was likely to disappear any moment as the sprinklers above began to rain, the smoke of the fire setting them off.

Putting one of his guns away and drawing his knife, he searched out arguably the weakest spot in the circle. A space between two of the carnivorous sunflowers where only one or two of the smaller plants could be found in front of a tree. (Right, let’s go ahead and get this ass kicking over with.)

He slowly turned away from his desired escape route and made like he was getting ready to rush for a trio of the smaller flora. Only to instead blindly fire his grappling line between the sunflowers and into a tree behind them.

Quickly reeling the line in he sprinted and skidded across the ground with several long hops before with a grapple boosted jump he leapt over the line of blooming beasts and dove into the foliage behind them. A terrain that he knew favored him less than the grove, but still offered enough space to make the horde thin itself out to chase him rather than just swarming and overwhelming him.

(Still wish I had some grenades or something to drop though.) He was sure he could talk Clockwork into giving him a few after this mess.

Needing to keep the pace going, but also needing to put up a token fight, he fired a grapple line into a tree branch above and ahead of him. Then just before his feet could leave the ground he spun so that he was facing the horde behind him as he was pulled into the air, even if the angle did awkwardly twist his shoulder to keep.

A price that was more than worth it as he was free to shoot and kill a couple of the smaller flora that had begun to near him. Though the worsening of whatever was in his wrists made it less so.

With a grimace hidden behind his helmet, he released his grapple line using the built up momentum to instead swing ahead before crashing to the ground in a controlled roll that ended on one of the garden’s paths. (This’ll do.)

Back on his feet before he could regret otherwise, he sprinted down the path making as if he was trying to escape the garden. An escape that could’ve been thwarted by a Blooming Beast lunging out of the foliage, if it wasn’t small enough to gut with a single stab and twist of his knife.

The larger one that followed it however, was a bit more of a problem as its larger weight tackled him to the ground and sent both his gun and knife flying.

“Come on, I thought you were an ambush predator not a pursuit.” He growled at the wannabe sunflower as he hands shot out to stop the flower’s trap from snapping around him.

The flower being a near-mindless plant of course did not deign to respond as it was far more concerned with trying to eat him.

Something he wouldn’t let happen, instead throwing his and the blooming beast’s weight so that he could roll on top of it. The sudden shift in position freeing him to punch the flower in its eye, stunning it just long enough for him to lunge for his knife.

Vines wrapped around his waist and dragged him back to the flora, where with blade in hand he stabbed the knife into the plants stamen before using his hand to rip them out and then shove them down the emasculated plant’s throat.

The last thing it’d eat as he killed the reeling flora with a blade through the eye. Whether it was the first stab or the fifth that did it neither he nor the plant particularly cared.

What he did care about however was the fact that at least dozen more blooming beasts had surrounded him during that little struggle. A struggle he still wasn’t free of as he began to hack away at the vines still clinging to him.

Vines that were soon replaced by more as they shot out from three different directions, one for each arm and a third around his throat. All of which left him completely pinned when combined with the way the dead sunflower clung to him with its cold dead vines.

With his head pulled back he was able to see Kur’silo gazing down with a concerned look on his face and a gun in hand.

He quickly flashed his double tap skull twice.

Kur’silo gave him a nod, trusting him to know what he was doing.

(And I really do hope I know what I’m doing…) He grimaced as several snarling plant maws began to grow ever closer.

Marginal spikes grew ever closer to him, and he began to faintly struggle against the plants holding him down. (Come on. We’re on the main path. Easy to get to…)

A maw wrapped around each of his arms, the teeth of the blooming beasts digging into his skin even through his jacket, before a third maw began to wrap around his head. (Hurry up already…)

“That’s enough!”

(Finally…) He forced himself not to sag in relief as a tall thin man in a black suit walked towards him, a mask like a flower covering his face.

“A Vigil…” The newcomer noted, unseen eyes going over him. “Mercer if I’m not mistaken. I suppose it makes sense that you’d become alert to our presence.”

“Unleashing feral flora all over the way would do that.” He nodded, hoping to keep his connection to Trisha and Kur’silo underwraps if he could. “Actually, thinking about it. Before we do the whole villainous monologue and you fail to kill me in some elaborate death trap, do you mind answering a question?”

He could feel the man staring at him even through the flower mask.

“Come on, you know that’s how this is going to go.” He told the man. “After all, that’s how this whole song and dance always goes with you fuckers. You capture a vigil, you try to figure out what we know, and then you either try to have us immediately killed or use our pending death to distract the other vigils. Which you know would work if the other Vigils weren’t a bunch of little cry baby bitches who can’t take a little criminal killing.”

“I mean it’s not like I kill all the criminals just the irredeemable ones… or the ones that are sad casualties because they either tried to kill me or were working for the irredeemable ones. And I feel like I balance it all out by using the money I steal from their cooling corpses to pay for the various welfare programs that they Way would not otherwise be able to afford with the criminal and wealthy elements of the city draining it dry.”

He could now feel the man staring at him through the mask. (And there is a difference.)

Coughing, he got back onto topic. “Anyway, about that question?”

“What?” He was fairly certain that it was more towards his previous rant, but…

“So there was this thing with a friend and well, I’ve got to know.” He looked the man in the eye, or what would be the eye if neither of them were wearing masks, and asked. “Are you a sex demon?”