Meanwhile, Albella and her followers were returning from a cavern with a dead end. As in a labyrinth, they had reached a part where the tunnel divided into three other paths. And they had mistakenly followed one that had led them nowhere.
They were walking with the frustration of wasting time when the 9, including Albella, felt the presence of more individuals. Albella raised her hand to signal everyone to stop. The other group was descending from the same path they had arrived from. Sensing the number of members, they quickly knew that it was another group of people.
Through the veins of floral creatures such as: the ubax, endur, lepiots and ents; there was a sap that was different from that found in ordinary plants. The most primitive sap in a nutshell is just a kind of fluid rich in nutrients. The sap of more advanced flower species transports cells, a function that represents the difference between heaven and earth between the two liquids. In simple and erroneous terms, this sap could be considered as green blood.
At the other side of the tunnel, where Albella’s party was returning, Enok’s group sensed their members. And unlike them, seeing the branching paths, they knew that the flower team had found a closed tunnel. The multrows prepared their weapons; Unfortunately for Enok, these tunnels were not suitable for using the three rifles he had purchased.
Enok cursed, resisting screaming with all his might.
Two of his men turned to see him and without having to listen to them, he understood what they were asking. Without thinking twice, he nodded with a smile that seemed unhinged. The two Multrows, who could easily be mistaken in the eyes of the ignorant as beastmen, the first as an octopus and the second as a snail, began to climb the walls as if walking.
Then the multrows continued to walk in silence.
Albella and the others who had swords infused with fire extinguished them. They couldn't afford to show their position so easily. Although their enemies had most likely detected them, giving any kind of advantage could prove fatal.
Unlike Enok's group, Albella and her men did not know who they were going to face, complicating the preparation a lot. As the necessary tactics against quinoids, multrows or voidmaws were very different.
This was why Albella decided that they should stay where they were and ambush them.
" Arum, Rafflesia, Bean, " Albella whispered, calling out the three Ubax in the group.
" Prepare to ambush them, " she said in the lowest voice she could.
The three Ubax immediately stepped forward, buried their roots, and guiding the energy from the earth performed a magical breathing technique that allowed them to camouflage themselves as ordinary, flowers of the cave system.
“Enokitake” Albella called another of her men.
This lepiota had quite a useful racial ability for these cases. Without needing to listen to his mistress's orders, he removed the safety locks from his shoulder pads. Unlike generic armor used by other Lepiots, Enokitake's armor was specially designed for members of his race.
“Pad!”
“Pad!”
The shoulder pads fell to the ground. And at the same time that the three ubax were beginning to hide their presences, three tumors began to emerge from Enokitake's shoulders. These mushrooms that were part of his body began to gather part of Enokitake's internal energy and soon his body radiated energy as if it were four beings.
The ambush was ready.
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Albella stepped back some meters. The cavern where they came from was a dead end and as they had explored it in all its length without finding sanc flowers or any other creatures, she could be sure that no one would attack them from behind.
Meanwhile, the group of multrows began to approach the segment were the paths joined.
From the main tunnel two paths branched. The furthest one was at the left and the closest one was at the right.
They could feel from the tunnel on the right the 9 presences they were sure where from Albella's group.
Enok's breathing began to get ragged, the excitement of the approaching battle got his body to excrete much more mucus than normal. Unlike his men, his body had lost the discipline that it had acquired in the training of his youth, since he had given himself to his carnal desires the moment he got to the position of power that he had.
They soon reached the closest tunnel. The lighting of the place was minimal, but the multrow had a mediocre night vision that gave them some advantage over the plants, as they could soon visualize the silhouettes of their enemies.
The mollusks lost all rationality the moment they saw their prey, and like angry beasts they throw themselves towards them. If they had attacked first, they would have had the advantage, but unknowingly they had passed by the camouflaged ubax.
The lotus ubax was the first one to pull out his weapon, covering it with flames and slicing through the back of the knee of the nearest obese man.
“Aaargh!” Enok shouted in pain falling to the ground.
The sudden illumination by Arum's sword started the battle. All of Albella's party members who had ceased to imbue their weapons with elemental power ignited their swords. Both groups collided, the metallic blows, the screams and the smell of blood transformed the tunnel in hell.
Albella was only able to analyze for a moment, the multrow's charge caused two of her men: Morel and Phallios, to lose their balance and get killed before they could regain their posture. So she joined the battle before gathering more information. The difference in numbers had gotten bigger.
Deathcap, the lepiota that used the element of wind, with a movement of her sword eliminated the quinoid with crab features that was in front of her. Using her energy, she sent air blades trying to save her companions, but she only managed to cut off one arm of a multrow and the leg of another, after the two lepiots were killed.
Amanita, another of the lepiots that used the element of fire, ended the life of the multrow in front of her. And with a well-practiced movement technique she suddenly was positioned in front of the multrow behind the one she had just killed and stabbed him, ending the life of the second.
From the ceiling, which was quite high for a tunnel, the two multrows who had climbed it, jumped thrusting their weapons towards the first lepiots they saw ending the lives of Deathcap and Amanita.
Enokitake, who finished off the two multrows whose limbs were severed by Deathcap, was enraged to see their companions die. Albella got ahead of him and with a technique that produced fire petals every time she brandished her sword, she eliminated the one that seemed most problematic, the one that looked like a quinoid octopus.
The three ubax had thrown themselves on Enok, stabbing him until he stopped doing noises. And when they were preparing to help their companions; large, delicate hands that looked like vines gripped them. Of the three, the only one who managed to react in time was Arum, the one that looked like a lotus, who cut the hand that had caught him by surprise. When he turned to see his companions they were already far away being dragged into the dark.
“Sanc plants!” Arum shouted alarmed, cutting and burning two other hands that tried to grab him.
Acid splattered from the wounds of these creatures.
Albella and Enokitake, the only surviving lepiots thus far turned pale upon hearing the ubax. The fight had been short and brutal, of the ten multrows only three remained; while the sanc plants had ensured that Albella's team was reduced to three as well. Both sides had lost 7 men. It was a tragedy. Albella quickly thought about how to get out of this predicament.
“We have to join forces!” Albella shouted, stopping her second attack and sparing the life of the multrow that looked like a snail quinoid.
Her desire to survive was greater than her hatred for these unpleasant beings. But the snail looking Multrow did not appreciate her good will, letting out a mocking smile he tried to stab Albella.
Fortunately for her and unfortunately for him, a hand grabbed his leg and with a forceful pull dragged him into the darkness of the tunnels.
“Aaahhh!” Shouted the multrow before disappearing.
“Truce, truce!” The last two multrows shouted in alarm when they saw their companion being dragged.
Albella nodded and looking around she noticed that there were no bodies on the floor. The cunning plants had been collecting from the dead without them realizing it. The snail quinoid been a mistake, as the sanc flowers assumed Albella would kill him.
These plants were smarter than she expected.
“Arum, let's back off!” ordered Albella seeing that more and more of these hands that looked like vines appeared from the darkness.
The little ubax, who was using his small size to fight the sanc flowers, flipped in the air and backed away.
Albella, Enokitake, Arum and the two surviving multrows started running towards the cave that Albella's group had explored few minutes ago. It was impossible to escape, as it was a close end, but they needed at least a little time to reorganize.