“Great it was not this overgrown when I was here the first time,” Kyrie said staring
“When was that exactly?” Michael asked, sizing up their adversary. Before them was a two story building that was fully encompassed by ivy like vines. White bulbs were interspaced throughout the tangle of vines, but the vines did not stop at the base of the building. They were now creeping along the ground in every direction for a good 30 feet.
[Creeping Ivy, Tier 0 x62, Tier 1.]
“Day 4… But it was already a tier 1 at that point too. Although there were only a couple of vines visible along the exterior wall,” Kyrie said, studying the new growth..
“Let me guess those vines try to snag you and wrap you up?”
“Pretty much, believe it or not. I think all those vines are one creature. All of those white bulbs are like local nodes of control. You kill one and the creature loses some function in the area. They are the tier 0’s that you are seeing. The building was a library, you can kind of make out the ornate columns peaking out,” Kyrie pointed with her finger.
“I assume that all that ivy has some sort of center or heart that we can take out to kill the whole thing?” Michael hypothesized.
“Probably, unless the bulbs are some sort of collective mind, and we have to take them all out to kill the entire thing. But if it isn’t there was a stairwell leading to a lower level. You know your theory about dark places and final bosses. Not to mention plants take root in the ground,” Kyrie stated.
“Hahaha, You know I bet the battle creators are getting frustrated if we keep going straight to the heart of the problem like this,” Michael laughed.
“Well I think it might be prudent of us to actually take out as much as possible. Perhaps it would weaken the core creature. At the very least, I don’t want things closing in behind us,” Kyrie suggested.
“Yeah, let's go with that,” Michael said with a straight face. “Might as well farm while we can.”
Michael started things with a white pulse dart. The dart struck one of the white bulbs hanging halfway up the wall white onion-like pieces exploded in all directions. Nothing happened. There was no movement, nothing hinting at a reaction from Michael’s attack. “Hmmmm,” Michael checked his log. “It says I killed a tier 0 creeping ivy.” Michael shrugged.
“Well we only have two hours of sunlight left. I don’t think we have time for you to keep firing and recharging your pulse blasts,” Kyrie stated.
“You’re right. Let's move together and kill as many as we can before even going inside,” Michael suggested.
The two of them circled around the building crushing as many white bulbs as they could reach. The ivy vines reacted now that they were in range, but their movements were slow and cumbersome. Kyrie was easily slicing her way through with her machete. Michael was tearing pieces off with his hands. When one part of his body was grabbed he was able to yank whole sections of the ivy off of the building wall. He occasionally sent another white dart into one of the bulbs closer to the roof, whenever his pulse was almost fully charged. Unlike SP, the regeneration rate did not seem to change, so might as well keep his pulse regeneration working for them.
It took a half an hour, but together they killed well over a hundred white bulbs, netting each of them a white drop. Michael sent it to endurance to increase his stamina. If they wanted to make it through the building, he might need it.
“That was pretty easy. I feel like I just did some gardening. Maybe it was just difficult last time since you were weaker,” Michael said as they allowed their SP to fill back up before entering.
“Weren’t you the one telling me to not underestimate a drop boss,” Kyrie glared at him.
“I know. Just wanted to put good feelings out in the universe,” Michael said, lifting his pipe wrench. As long as he swung it hard enough it would cut through the vines as easily as Kyrie’s machete. Problem was that his SP would drop with every couple swings.
The two mounted the steps and looked in through the double door wide space. The room was completely open and green. The vines and white bulbs lay scattered around the floors, the walls, the ceiling and the shelves of books forming green hedge like walls with their spade shaped leaves.
“This place is basically a sea of green. There were only half as much two days ago. What do you say we light it up, clear out the place a bit,” Kyrie said, summoning out a line of liquor bottles with cloth hanging from the rim. Michael did the same, summoning the majority of his alcohol stash. They took out their blow torches and lit the cloth of each of them.
“You throw to the right. I will start to the left. You ready?” Michael asked, hefting the first of a dozen lined up in front of them.
They both threw their first at the same time, each quickly picking up another sending the second bottle right after the first. The first bottles exploded forming puddles of flame that instantly claimed their area. The whole room exploded in frantically whipping vines. By their third bottle, the thrown bottles were being intercepted in the air by a tangle of vines sending them to explode randomly throughout the room. The closest vines surged toward them after only a few seconds.
Kyrie was quicker than Michael. She brandished her machete and kept the vines away, While Michael lobbed the rest over her shoulder. It did not take him long to throw the last of the bottles. He picked up his pipe wrench and exploded into the room alongside Kyrie. Fighting the vines on the outside had been a joke, perhaps something done on purpose to lure contenders into a false sense of security. The vines inside moved with purpose, speed, and strength not even hinted at by the vines on the exterior wall.
Without the gaps of flame, they would have likely been overwhelmed quite quickly. Several times Michael found himself securely entangled and felt the vines strain to pull him down to the ground as even more vines started to wrap around him. It was Kyrie who quickly came to the rescue. Both her movement and reaction attributes were 5 or more greater than his own, and it was showing here.
Michael rampaged, smashing everything else that came near. His left foot throbbed due to both the sprain and the missing toe, but Michael did not let it slow him down. Occasionally, he did get hung up for a second. Either he was able to rip the offending vines apart or if he was securely held by too many he started shooting pulse darts at the white bulbs to cause the vines to lose coordination. After 10 minutes of hacking, the attacks from the vines became few and sporadic.
“I think that should be good. The stairwell is over in the far left,” Kyrie said pointing her machete to the stairwell.”
“You know I don’t think we could have done it without lighting the place up first,” Michael stated observing the room. Thousands of books had caught on fire leaving mounds of smoldering vines throughout the room. The water in the vines and leaves kept the fire from really taking off. The only thing that kept smoke from filling up the room was that they were on the first story. Not to mention that every single exterior window had been shattered already..
“Lets move on so that we can take this place out and find somewhere before nightfall.
“Hold on,” Michael said, finally noticing them. Bodies were strewn about the floor or secured against the walls. Bodies that looked like they had been juiced, and now wore the offending vines like a mummy wore cloth wraps. Although underneath the cloth Michael could make out dull lifeless eyes and gray skin. He analyzed three secured in a sitting position against the wall nearest the entrance.
[Contender corpse, tier 1x3]
Then Michael studied the other bodies scattered throughout the floor, some even on fire. Not all of them were contenders either. There were hound corpses and others that were analyzed as deceased zombies. Not too odd that the creeping ivy attacked everything that moved. The wasps had also kept zombies out of their area. Certain species were either territorial or just considered other battle monsters as more food like the creeping vines did. If they did not wipe out the creeping vines now, who could say how much of the city the vines would take over.
“There we are!” Michael exclaimed, locating what he had been looking for. The creeping vines had killed at least 3 contenders, meaning their weapons had to be somewhere in the area. Michael finally found what he had been looking for. A slightly used wooden bat, just like the one he had broken earlier that day. Michael also picked up a knife that he had seen first due to the light flickering against the metal.
“Are you ready now?” Kyrie asked impatiently. Michael nodded and the two started for the stairwell. After hitting the first landing they noticed the way forward was suspiciously clear of vines. Just a wooden door at the end of a basement antechamber. Kyrie looked back at him. He shrugged. If they did not find the creeping ivy’s main body here they would have to check out the second floor.
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Kyrie cautiously pushed open the wooden door. They were greeted with a fairly dark room with one exception. At the far end of the room stood a tree-like monster that resembled a stock of broccoli with a blazing emerald drop stuck on its forehead. Michael thought of it being the creature’s forehead because it was in the middle and above of two black stone eyes. A dozen or so wrist sized cords of wood wrapped around each other to form the body before some stretched off to form arms. The top of the monster was a tangle of vines, many stretching up and into the ceiling
Between the two and the creature’s main body were work desks, and waist high shelves. “Lets just torch this thing,” Kyrie suggested, whipping out the last of her bottles. Michael did the same. They had five left. They lit them and advanced. As soon as they advanced into the room there was a creak of wood as the vines became taunt and cracks started forming across the ceiling.
“Go,” Kyrie shouted. Moments later they both rushed forward slightly closer to launch their payloads. The bottles exploded in flames across the trunk of the creeping ivy, but Michael and Kyrie did not have time to enjoy their handiwork.
The ceiling exploded seconds later as whip-like tendrils ripped themselves down at the two contenders. They both dived to either side as plaster flakes rained down. More of the ceiling and some of the walls did the same as several more of the creature’s arms whipped forward bringing their own vines slashing across the room. More showers of dust and debris were sent into the room. As the vines thrashed against the furniture or open air.
Michael and Kyrie both recovered to their feet to find vines slashing down at them from all directions. It was far worse than the library lobby had been. Michael was forced to retreat away from the creature. After a few protective strikes with his bat, he could tell it would not be as effective. Vines wrapped around seizing the weapon, almost ripping it from his grasp, before the vines slid off the smooth surface. He did not have enough strength to contest this creature in a battle of strength. Kyrie however with quicker reactions and a more suitable weapon was able to hold her ground. Her machete whirred back and forth sending pieces of vine in every direction..
Michael was just about to take out the knife he had just picked up and join her, when he caught sight of them pouring down the stairs and toward the door leading into the back of the room. Michael did not need to analyze them to know what they were. He had already seen them laying out in the lobby, but he did anyway.
[Reanimated Corpse: zombie tier 1 x 14, dark hound tier 1x 5]
Any zombies who had been caught or any beasts or contenders that had been killed had been reconfigured or reanimated to serve as the creeping ivy’s guardians. If Michael and Kyrie had faced the reanimated corpses on the first floor they probably would not have had an overly difficult time, however the creeping ivy monster had waited till Michael and Kyrie were fighting its main body before bringing them in to pincer them from behind.
Michael rushed forward to stem the tide at the door. The closest reanimated corpses focused on him. He sent a couple of bolts into the first one's head, dropping it. Apparently the creeping ivy monster had tapped into and used the subject's brain to control the reanimated corpses because the headshot dropped it.
Michael slammed into the next reanimated corpse. The bat knocked it away, but the vines around the head cushioned the blow not allowing Michael to kill with one strike. Michael threw his shoulder into the next one sending it back through the doorway. His feet pushed against the floor as Michael struggled against the tide of the reanimated corpses' combined weight as they tried to make their way into the room. He finally reached the point where his forward momentum had stalled. The vines from the closest reanimated corpse started to wrap around him. Instead of waiting until he got trapped or for the tide to start pushing him back, Michael pushed off them snapping the vines, back toward the door.
Michael grabbed for the door intending to slam it shut, sealing the rambling mass out of the room. It almost worked. Several reanimated corpses got a limb in between the door and the frame. The door slammed against them, and they immediately worked to pry the door fully. Michael found himself stuck holding the door to keep it from being wrenched open. Several reanimated corpses that had already gotten into the room reversed course on him, and the last continued forward after Kyrie.
Michael formed a yellow dart and took out the one after Kyrie first. She was weaving in and out between the creeping ivy’s attacks. She could not afford something else to target her. For the ones attacking himself, Michael brought around his left hand sending bolts till they both dropped. A white ball appeared, but Michael could hardly worry about it. During the seconds that he had shifted focus to taking out those 3 reanimated corpses another reanimated corpse had gotten its arm around the door.
Now Michael found himself contesting several reanimated corpses' strength, but he had no choice. He had some more bolts and pulse with which to use, but there were more than a dozen reanimated corpses on the other side of the door. If they got inside the room, he would only be able to take out half before he would be forced to try and kill the others with brute force. Based on what he had seen they would not go down easily.
Michael’s SP had fallen halfway and was falling every couple of seconds. In another minute he would likely not have enough SP to fight through the reanimated corpses.
“Kyrie, can you finish that thing off. We have company! Over a dozen tier 1’s.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Kyrie said as she struggled to keep the vines from catching her. She had severed a bunch, but there was always more. The creeping ivy’s body still smoldered where the flames had licked at its trunk.
Michael hit the spot with an amber dart of pulse. A small section of the creature's twisted cord trunk was blown away. Michael targeted the other side of the trunk that was similarly damaged and hit it again, and then again. The damaged section expanded, but at most only half of the wrist wide vines woven together to form the trunk had been severed. There were still a good five or six left. Michael only had a few points of pulse, and based on his falling SP they would not have time to allow any more to charge.
“I don’t think I am strong enough to cut through the rest,” Kyrie shouted. She could guess at Michael’s intentions.
“Then I will have to do it,” Michael responded as he strained to keep the door from sliding any further open. “I will need your machete, though,” Michael added.
“Will you be able to close in on this thing by yourself,” Kyrie grunted, cutting through another bundle of tendrils.
Michael watched for a second. “Not sure,” he finally groaned honestly. The door was being wrenched open.
“Okay, then I throw you a machete, you throw me the knife and bat, and we charge in together. We will have one run at it. If the zombies don’t die when the tree controlling them does, we will just have to fight them afterwards,” Kyrie shouted.
“Okay, you ready,” Michael groaned between clenched teeth.
“Yes, let's do it,” Kyrie shouted.
Michael let go of the door, shooting off back into the room and through the white drop. He summoned the knife and lobbed both weapons forward. The bat and knife tumbled end over end, and Kyrie sent her machete his way, before catching them both by their handles. Without missing a beat she turned back and continued forward slashing as vines targeted her. She ambled off to the right drawing the creature’s attention.
Michael caught the machete and streaked forward. He was near halfway across the room before the first reanimated corpses started pouring into the room. It had taken those at the forefront a moment to switch from pulling against the door to surging forward. Michael sprinted forward in the creature’s blind spot as Kyrie pulled its attention further and further to their right. In step, Michael willed for the extra stat point to go to strength. It might only be a 4% increase, but he likely would not get a second chop.
The creature finally noticed Michael when he was only paces feet away. Seconds later a whole arm worth of tentacles swatted at him, but Michael was already inside its guard, his body twisting to put all 26 points of strength in his chop to the damaged section of the trunk. Three cords of thick wood were severed immediately, but the remaining three held. The machete had cut into them, but its forward momentum had stalled.
The tree faltered, its top half leaning listlessly to the side, the bottom no longer able to hold up the top. Whatever attack it had been preparing for him missed by a wide margin. Michael had already withdrawn the blade and started a second swing. The second swing easily passed through the last three cords, allowing the tree to fall the rest of the way to the right of the room.
Michael took a couple seconds to reassess the situation. The tree lay where it fell, There did not seem to be any further movement from the tentacles except for some vines spasming. Unfortunately, the tide of reanimated corpses continued on unabated. Kyrie was in danger of being swarmed. The closest to the doorway all of the reanimated corpses would be on her in seconds. She had gotten tangled up in some vine tendrils and was struggling to get back to her feet. ‘Damn, he had hoped that after the creeping ivy had died, those under its control would just drop, losing whatever influence that kept them going, but there was no such luck.
Michael rushed to her aid right up and over the creeping ivy’s main body. A green drop and a white drop sprung conveniently up in front of him. He took them both.
A pair of corpse dogs were the first to reach Kyrie. She had just regained her feet, but went right back down under the two corpse hounds. One hound almost immediately received a knife in the head, dropping it on top of her. The second savaged her arm. Kyrie lost the knife, and Michael could see that she would have difficulty contributing anything further to the fight.
Most of the rest of the reanimated corpses directed their attention on him.
Michael was only worried for a second. His first strike with the machete hit the reanimated corpse at eye level. It continued all of the way through, lopping off the top of its head. Michael’s left hand stiff armed the body aside as his right arm brought the machete back around cutting straight through another’s arm and half way into its face. Michael wrenched it free and continued forward. It was amazing what he could do with the right weapon.