FOREST FIGHTS

“Don’t try to run away! Keep punching it from inside!” Theo laughed as he stomped and dodged the vines trying to grapple him.

Hamon was struggling inside a plant right now. It had a vase-like shape with a wide opening that sucked up its prey inside and slowly digested them. While Hamon was distracting the plant from the inside, Theo was fighting its vines and cutting up the roots.

After some time and a few cuts, the devouring plant was uprooted, and Theo pried the entrance open. Hamon was spat out in a pool of goo and started complaining, “that was disgusting.” He stood up, “I’m not doing that again,” and started flinging the goo away.

Theo started laughing again. “Come here, let’s scrub this off you.”

“I preferred the popping mushrooms. At least the hallucinations felt good,” Hamon grumbled.

“Oh don’t be such a whiny kid. If I could trust you to finish them off, I would set myself as bait.” Theo started scraping Hamon’s skin with the pickaxe.

This plant’s goo was paralytic if it spent long enough on the skin. They scrapped what they could and stored most of it back into the plant sac. The popping mushroom powder was hallucinogenic. By themselves, they would, at most, lower the orc’s reaction speed and dull its senses. Together the powder hardened the goo, and they amplified each other’s effects.

Hunting orcs by themselves was no easy matter. Theo spent some time the night before scanning his memories, looking for something that could help in this forest. Plants he could use, strategies, and weaknesses.

The last element they got late into the morning. “That’s it. Ten goblin corpses.” Theo wheezed. They went back to the goblin encampment to find them. The brutal scene was hard to bear, there was no one left alive there. However, going by the number of corpses, a huge part had managed to flee into the woods. Theo estimated that at least fifty of them were still alive.

They found a spot full of razor plants and started setting up their trap. It was a circle of dense high vegetation on the ground with an opening path on one of the sides. “Isn’t it dangerous up there?” Hamon asked Theo as he tied another goblin corpse with the vine. Theo climbed the tree and was pulling them up. Further on was a nest of razor murderers, the plants that threw needles and razors Theo had warned him so much to stay away from.

“Don’t worry,” Theo shouted. “Above a nest of razors is probably the safest place in the whole forest. I just have to take care to not fall over.”

He kept pulling the corpses and throwing them in the middle of the nest. The plants started attacking them fiercely, but seeing as the corpses didn’t move, they latched on them with thick tendrils and started sucking the blood away. After a while, there were ten dry goblin corpses down there, and Theo set out with Hamon to wash themselves.

Stolen story; please report.

“Theo, I’ve been meaning to ask.” Hamon hesitated a bit. “You fight so well and know this tricky stuff. Everything about plants and monsters… How-”

Theo silenced him with a finger to his mouth. “Don’t say it. Rule number one. That’s a forbidden question.” His face got serious. “You will have to trust me on that one. I always help you when I can.”

Hamon nodded a bit afraid and puzzled, but he could read the mood. He still didn’t know how Theo seemed so knowledgeable, but he was a good person. Above all, he would help find his mother. Hamon tightened his knuckles around the big sac he was carrying and focused on the task.

Theo couldn’t risk telling things in a straightforward manner to Hamon, not that he didn’t trust him. There were certain topics that attracted unwanted attention in the abyss if approached. Time travel and coming from the future would certainly be one of them. The abyss was always hearing, and he liked to not be hunted down.

For now, he just had to limit the number of people surrounding him. Later, when he got strong enough, most people would just chalk it up as something normal, or expected of him. After all, he had always been like that, others would think.

In the end, they spent around an hour on the treetops waiting for their prey. An angry orc appeared huffing. It didn’t even consider a glance to its surroundings, the top predator of the forest didn’t need to care about anything. It went straight into the razor murderers’ nest, and after not finding what it came for, the orc proceeded to rip apart a goblin body while it screamed in anger.

The razor plants didn’t wait long. They didn’t care what kind of creature invaded their nest and started puncturing it with thrown needles and slashing it with blades. Their thick vines latched to the orc’s body and started to suck blood.

Theo signaled for Hamon, and they both emptied the contents of their sacs at the same time onto the orc. It kept thrashing and ripping vines away, but more would cut and lash onto it. It had never had a problem with those pesky plants, but today its body seemed heavier and slower. The orc kept stomping and ripping everything it could touch.

Never had it needed to flee, but the idea had passed through its mind a third time already. From the treetops, Hamon observed how such a herculean beast was getting torn apart but refused to just get out of the situation. He was awed by its resilience but equally impressed by how thick-headed it was.

The orc moved out of the nest after a few minutes, and Hamon pondered if it did so consciously or just by random chance because of its thrashing around. To the poor creature’s fate, Theo was waiting for it right out of the nest with a pickaxe in hand.

The orc gave its last scream and charged. Its vision was blurry, and its body was heavy, but the puny creature it had been looking for was right in front of him. The bland flesher wouldn’t stand a chance against it, it would be smashed just like the other in the past.

Theo just sidestepped the charge with ease and impaled the orc on the neck. As he removed the pickaxe, it started bleeding profusely from the new open hole. Theo absorbed its life force in a hurry as the plant tendrils extended themselves, searching for the blood. The corpse has been dragged away to the nest to serve as future bait.

“That’s how you do it.” Theo gave a thumbs up to Hamon, who was watching.

Hamon dropped down from the tree with an excited face. “So…?”

“So what?” Theo asked.

“Experience, man… The sweet exp, how much did you get?” Hamon rubbed his hands like a sleazy merchant.

“Ten.” Theo gave a big smile and a peace sign.

“Woah! We will get strong so fast that way. I can’t wait.” Hamon started jumping in place. “A single orc is worth a hundred goblins, a hundred!”

Theo laughed and gave an evil smile. “You know you will fight the next one by my side, right? Later I want to see you fending them off by yourself.” Hamon gulped in fear.