The choice had been easy for David after he’d wasted almost a third of his time looking around while he floated down into the stadium in a lazy spiral. The high walls of the structure, along with its partial roof, blocked much of the late afternoon sun from stinging his eyes and he was silently grateful for it. Not finding anywhere particularly appealing below him, David had looked above and quickly realized that the scaffolding which held up the ceiling made a perfect roost. Pulling out of his descent with frantic wingbeats, he rapidly reached the ceiling and vanished into the lightly rusted metal in moments. David took a few seconds to pulse the immediate area with Echolocations, not wanting a nasty surprise while he waited but found that he was alone as expected.

–Health: 90/90–

–Stamina: 200/215–

–N/A–

–1:35–

–1:34–

David left the readouts open, forcing them to display with a mental nudge that made him confirm his intentions a few times. He felt slightly foolish as he realized he could have had it up the entire time, but had failed to experiment like he’d sworn he would. His talons tapped against the metal beams he crouched on with irritation, and he realized that the System was as much of a tool as his Abilities or Mutagens were, but he’d been mostly using it like a sledgehammer. A low hiss slithered its way out of his throat almost involuntarily, though David had to admit he added a bit of oompf to it on the way out. He shook his head and put his ears on a swivel, eyes locked unblinkingly down through the shadows that consumed his hiding spot to look for anything happening on the weed-choked baseball diamond below.

–0:28–

–0:27–

–0:26–

David saw it before he heard it for once, and his sharp talons grated against the cold metal under his wings as he tightened his grip reflexively. What his sensitive ears did detect, however, was the loud cry of a circling bird of prey as Kai too saw the disturbance and issued a loud challenge in his excitement. The foliage and soil began to move in several spots under the abandoned field, dirt churning to the surface from below in wide circles as something began to emerge from below the earth. Strange sounds, hollow and drum like, rang out from below, muffled at first but rising in volume with each passing second as more soil pressed upward. It accumulated in large piles before the mounds began to spill debris down their sides and the Quest timer ticked out its final few seconds while David held his breath.

–0:04–

–0:03–

–0:02–

As the timer finally disappeared off of his readout the largest of the mounds quivered, the soil vibrating weirdly as a fleshy green blob pushed its way up through the ground. It was slightly opaque and it jiggled disturbingly as the final bits of dirt rolled free of its surface, which began to ripple as it pushed outwards and widened the hole before emerging fully. David blinked, then blinked again before he fought down a full-body shiver of revulsion as the creature began to drift into the air. It was Large at minimum, though the rest of the creatures that emerged ranged in size from slightly smaller than David to slightly larger than Kai. Still, none were as large as the first, and David cringed slightly as the thin vine-like tentacles dropped free of the mushroom-shaped main body with audibly wet pops.

David immediately fixed the largest specimen as his target mentally before firing off a Glare he knew wouldn’t connect, his eyes darting to the secondary readout he had set up.

–Chlorogyre is unaffected–

Ooookay, that’s fucking nasty. Jellyfish lookin’ plant thing; I bet those tendrils can move too, they look like they have hooks on the inside. Fi– No, six of them…Uh…wow they’re starting to float a lot faster…yep they’re speeding up, c’mon Kai!

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

David had begun to ready himself to fly before the loose group of Chlorogyres drifted entirely out of the stadium when Kai streaked into his field of view like a bolt of lightning, wings tucked tightly to his sides. He plowed into the largest of the creatures with no apparent regard for his safety, neglecting to slow himself even slightly before he impacted, huge talons striking before the weight of his body. David didn’t wait to see what happened next as Kai vanished entirely into the Chlorogyre’s body with a shocked screech, a huge gout of thick green liquid pouring from the hole in its upper body.

He dropped from the rafters and allowed himself to fall almost to the dilapidated seating below him as he slowly extended his wings, segueing into a rapid Glide as David leaned into into it, converting all his height into speed and darted closely along the ground. He heard Kai begin screeching angrily above him and dodged the falling clumps of… He tried not to think about it, pouring on some speed as he burned stamina with a few quick flaps of his leathery wings before leaning back hard. He clenched his jaws with the strain, blood pounding in his ears as he forced himself into an upwards arc, only beginning to flap when his nose was pointed directly at the sky and he felt gravity beginning to snatch greedily at his speed. David had a vague impression of a huge circular mouth ringed with thousands of needled teeth in the center of the Chlorogyre’s body before he blew past them, rapidly gaining altitude.

“NASTY FUCKIN’ GROSS-ASS DISGUSTING-” Kai’s furious shouting rose into focus briefly before it was snatched away by the wind. The group of hideous creatures began to draw level with the opening in the stadium's roof while the bird savaged the largest specimen and it extended its tentacles upward into its own body to snatch at him.

David evened out and shot a glance below him to reposition himself, noting that Dallas was busily engaged with two of the Medium Chlorogyres, leaving neat trails of nasty puncture wounds along the stem of their bodies as he snapped and tore at the grasping tendrils. Both beasts had become tangled together somehow, and David rapidly began to understand that they weren’t very smart, even if they were big and dangerous. He tipped himself forward, picking his target and allowing himself to gain momentum once again. David wasn’t sure that either his Gloom or Soporific Mutagen would be of much use here and resolved to simply tear into the things until he found an opportunity to use Screech.

He angled for the remaining Chlorogyre that wasn’t smaller than himself and waited for the last possible second to activate Nocturnal Strike, the Ability helping him power into the beast. He struck at the intersection of its main body and the stem that contained its mouth, catching it as it tilted wildly in the wind. To his horror, the body of the creature was soft and gelatinous, though far stickier than he had anticipated, and he found it hard to extricate his limbs or fangs from the beast's body.

“BLUUURGHHCH!” David wretched despairingly as an indescribably terrible taste filled his mouth. He heaved several more times, the actions violent and involuntary in response to the awful bitter flavor of the Chlorogyre’s bodily fluids.

He was still trying to unstick himself when David felt a hot band of pain suddenly snake around his torso, his skin tearing as hooks were driven through his fur and into his flesh. Two more quickly joined it, and another wrapped around his right wing before they all began to haul him downward forcefully in an attempt to maneuver him toward its maw. David’s eyes widened from the pain, his readout blinking frantically as the numbers began to drop and he felt hot blood begin to seep into his fur, trickling down his back and wing membrane.

–Health: 72/90–

–Stamina 171/215–

–Chlorogyre is unaffected–

Oh fuck it’s got me! I can’t get loose, my face is stuck to it! Think you idiot, wha– HEY WAIT A SECOND

David sucked in a huge bubbling breath and felt the hooks sink agonizingly deeper into the muscle of his back and chest as he inhaled as much as he possibly could. He began to flex his chest, compressing the air more and more as he watched his stamina begin to plummet with grim satisfaction while he Overcharged the Screech for the first time since he discovered it was possible. David pinned his ears back, clenched his eyes against the pain, wrenched his jaws apart as much as possible, and screamed.

–Health: 59/90–

–Stamina: 100/215–

–Chlorogyre is Stunned–

–You are afflicted by Grab–

Gelatinous flesh peeled away under the force of the attack, the vastly overcharged ability destroying its amorphous body as the creature shook apart, unable to effectively redistribute the vibrations that rocked through its flesh. David was blown free of its sticky embrace and he sucked in a gasp of air, his throat burning and raw from the creature’s flesh and the sheer power of the ability he’d used.

Hah! I can even do it again fucker! You gotta do better than that!

The creature suddenly went slack, all sense of resistance vanishing as it simply could not withstand the level of damage it had taken, huge chunks of its main stem blown away by the Screech. David felt very smug for a full second before the body began to fall, and the single tendril still digging into his flesh carried him down with a shocked squeak.