I tried to move through the thick brush quietly, as I made my way deeper into the forest. It was difficult though, as the forest was much thicker in this part. The trees were closer together, as were the bushes. That wasn’t even mentioning how much more hazardous the actual foliage was. Despite my fairly high-quality clothes, I had still gotten scratched up by all the thorns and burrs. It was like it had a mind of its own, deliberately seeking out any patch of bare skin it could find. I really hoped none of it was poisonous.

It’s not like I could cut the brush in front of me either, even if I wanted to. I’d tried to cut some of it with my spearhead, and it didn’t even scratch one of the thorns. I might be able to cut it with The Scintillant Blade, but I wasn’t willing to cast that much light around me. It would improve my vision, but it would also alert any monsters around me to my position. Luckily, I was able to gently brush the foliage away from me in order to get through.

I wasn’t able to creep through it the way that I wanted to. Preferably, I would be at the very least crouched down in order to minimize my profile, but that wasn’t viable. The scrub was densest closer to my legs but thinned out somewhat as it got higher. If I tried to crouch walk through this, I would probably lose an eye.

The oppressive atmosphere was keeping me on edge. The silence was stifling, frightening. The only noise that echoed around me was my own careful movements. I couldn’t help but wince every time I stepped on a branch, and a sharp snapping sound rang out beneath me. The reduced light made it hard for me to see my feet in order to avoid them.

How the hell was I supposed to creep up on something like this? I was more likely to get jumped by a monster instead. And considering how much stronger than me the monsters around here were, that was…probably not good. Even then, how was I going to lead a monster back to Magnus through all this harsh terrain? If the monster chasing me didn’t kill me, rushing blindly back through this brush would.

I stopped for a moment, telling myself that it was to catch my breath. In reality, I had to breathe in order to calm my doubts. It didn’t matter all the problems I had with my plan, goddamnit. I didn’t have any other choice. I was either going to make this work somehow, or I was going to die. Either to a monster or Magnus.

Not that much difference between them, honestly.

Strangely, after about five minutes of making my way through the forest, the foliage began to change somewhat. The leaves changed not only in shape but color too. They were broader now and an almost red color, made all the more ominous by the strange light. Instead of thorns, it seemed like the brush had cruelly shaped hooks instead.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement off to my right. Instinctually, I whipped my head around. Nothing. I held that pose for a few moments, my heart thundering in my ears from the adrenaline. Still, nothing jumped out at me. Slowly, I started moving again, head still swiveled in the direction I’d seen movement.

As I was making my way forward, I felt something…unusual under my foot. Looking down, I could see that I was standing on an oddly fleshy vine, covered in barbs and barely visible.

The vine undulated violently under my foot as if it was alive. In a sudden movement, it rose up violently and threw me off of my feet and onto my back. Before I could even catch my breath, the vine hovering above me lashed down on my prone position. Sinuously, it wrapped around the leg that had stepped on it, cutting through both my pants and the skin beneath it.

Before I could even scream, I started to get dragged along the forest floor at incredible speed, as if the vine was a tow line retracting. Instinctively, I covered my head with my arms in order to protect my head. Even now, I could feel the hooks of the brush slicing into my flesh as I was dragged. I couldn’t even think of trying to cut the vine, I was moving too fast.

Suddenly, the vine that had been dragging me came to a stop, but it didn’t let go. Cautiously, I moved my arms away from my face in order to see where I’d been taken. I felt my heart drop at what I saw.

I’d been dragged to a small clearing in the forest, with even less visible light in it than the rest due to the thicker canopy. Sitting in the center of the clearing was a large…bud of some kind. Dark red in color and made of thick leaves, it was about the size of a dumpster from back home and anchored to the forest floor. Its leaves were wrapped all around it in a spiral pattern, blocking anything from sight. Stretching out from the bud were dozens of vines similar to the one still holding onto me. They traced their way out from the plant far off into the distance out of the clearing, similar in appearance to a spider web.

Yeah, fuck this. I grasped for my spear blade near my belt, hoping I hadn’t lost it during the drag. Thankfully, it was still there. Lurching up, and doing my best to ignore the pain radiating off my leg from the hooks, I swung the knife at the vine at a point below my foot. My knife only managed to give the vine the equivalent of a paper cut, from which a deep red, sap-like liquid welled up.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

As soon as my knife connected with the vine, every other vine in the clearing shivered simultaneously. But that wasn’t as important as what was happening in the center of the clearing. Slowly, the leaves surrounding the bud began to unfurl.

There was another, smaller bud in the center. But this one wasn’t standing straight upright, rather it looked like it was lying on its side. I paused for a moment in my hacking, confused.

I wasn’t confused for long.

Gently, two slits on the top side of the bulb opened, revealing bright red slit eyes, with black sclera. They swiveled in my direction, before focusing on my position. Gradually, the smaller bulb began to rise up out of its nest of leaves, revealing a long thick neck similar to the vine that was still clamped to my leg, with crimson leaves growing along its length. Only it was much, much larger than the vines. As it rose to its full height, it almost looked like a fucked up snake made of foliage. As if to accentuate this, a hood similar to a cobra's opened up on the monster. Moments later, the bulbous head split nearly completely in half horizontally in order to reveal a mouth full of thorn-like fangs.

As I was gaping at the monster in horror, it caught sight of me. Our eyes met. Nothing. I saw nothing in its gaze. Flat and empty, it had no regard for me at all.

Instinctively, I tried to Observe the creature. I had the thinnest shred of hope that, somehow, this monstrous beast wouldn't be as obscenely, terrifyingly strong as it seemed.

Name Vermillion Viperthorn (Prime) Level ?? Age ?? Species ?? Abilities ??

Yeah, those hopes were dashed.

I was knocked out of my stupor by being bodily whipped into the air by the tentacle that was still dug into my leg. I screamed as I flew up into the air, suspended by the surprisingly strong plant-like limb. In a blur, I was able to see more tentacles sprouting from the base of the monster and racing to my position. Before I could react, another tentacle had grasped my other leg and was helping to hold me upside down in the air.

The tentacles started to reel me in towards the monster, as if I was a fish caught on a hook.

Through the blood rushing to my head and the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I felt a sudden calm come upon me. I had an idea, and I only had one chance at it. Otherwise, I was fertilizer.

The monster brought me to hover above it, suspended by its hooked appendages. Slowly, I could see the fibrous snake's head open its mouth in preparation of dropping me inside.

Now.

The Scintillant Blade.

At the same time that my dagger burst into wispy rainbow flames, I lurched upright and slashed at the tentacles holding me upright. My splintered spearhead knife sliced through them cleanly.

In the split-second before I began to fall towards the plant snake, the creature let out an eerie, high-pitched screech. I whipped my head around to watch as I fell.

The world slowed to a crawl.

In a freeze frame, I could see that the monster below me was undulating in surprise. Thankfully, in the time it took for me to reach the head, it had closed its mouth. I readied my blade.

With a thudding sound, I fell right onto the top of the monster's head, covering its eyes with my body. The monster let out another screech in response and began to whip its head about in an effort to dislodge me. I managed to hang on though, by wrapping my legs around the neck of the monster just below its head and digging my free hand into one of its fist-sized nostrils. That just made the monster struggle harder.

I held on desperately as the creature whipped about. Somehow managing to keep my bearing, I raised my still-shining dagger above my head. Before I could plunge it down into the snake's head, I felt several of the monsters barbed tentacles lash against my back. I cried out in pain at the tearing sensation, as they cut right through my shirt to lacerate me. For the next few seconds, the monster lashed me several more times, as if it was trying to grab me.

I grit my teeth. I had to do it now. If it managed to grab me, I was dead. In one swift movement, I rose up and drove my shimmering spearhead into the top of the monster's head. In fact, I drove it in so far that the blade disappeared from sight.

If I thought that the monster was panicked before, it was nothing compared to now. The snake creature began to flail about wildly. I tried to hang on desperately, while at the same time trying to drive the spear head into the monster by slamming my palm down on the exposed part. I didn’t care that the butt of my ‘knife’ was a splintered mess from when Magnus had broken it off. I didn’t care that I was just driving splinters into my hand.

I just wanted this thing to die.

So I told it that.

“Die!” I screamed hysterically, slamming my hand down on the knife over and over. “Die die die die die! Just! Fucking! Die!”

With a screech, the monster finally managed to grab hold of me. It wrapped a tentacle around my right arm as I was bringing it up to slam down again. With a lurch, the monster nearly wrenched my arm out of the socket as it whipped me off of it. As I flew through the air off to the side of the monster, I amended that. Judging by the popping noise my shoulder had given off, it had definitely dislocated my arm.

I hit one of the trees at the edge of the clearing with a slam, my head bouncing hard off of the bark. As darkness began to creep into my vision, I had just enough time for one last thought.

Sorry, Azarus. Sorry, Grey.