Apple covered her nose.

"Eeek!" It screeched. Its stench was akin to a rotting flesh, to an excrement, to vomit. All of them all at once, and more.

"A great afternoon, are you tired?" The professor greeted, carrying a strange creature inside a cage barrier made of pure holy power.

"Eek!"

"Ooh, this cursed beast is excited to meet you as well. This is a cursed tumbleweed that had absorbed a blood from a demon's corpse. It isn't so dangerous on its own."

A cursed grass. Its leafed tentacles seemed to throb and rustle with some non-existent breeze. It was held in place by an iron stake instead of holy energy.

The young lords and ladies gawked in awe.

"The others suggested to simply use artifacts to gauge your latent powers. But that is a bore. I already know how powerful you all are...," he said, his gaze falling on the likes of Diana and others of similar calibre. It lingered on Apple as well but only for a split-second. "...or how weak." He eyed the golden-haired lad beside her.

"Evade it or defeat it. Remember not to step out of the marble henge circle. If it looks like you're about to lose a limb, I'll step in."

He jumped down from his pedestal, released the barrier on the cursed weed and set it down so casually on the ground, burying the iron stake. Some people backed up a step but those confident in their holy power appeared ready to pounce.

"May god favor you all," the professor said before retreating.

There was a moment of quiet where each one of them calculated each other's thoughts. Seeing the black tumbleweed laid in front of them helpless, everyone realized it was a race to exterminate it.

FWOOSH! A fire erupted from a boy's palm engulfing the weed in bright red flame. When the smoke cleared, the weed emerged unscathed, its leaves and thorns intact.

"You see, a tumbleweed waits patiently for the rain. The taste of water raises it back from the dead. But this particular cursed being is not looking to be drenched in water."

"Holy energy," Diana said.

The professor clapped. "Right on the mark!"

As if on cue, the grass gave a thunderous growl. Its branches twisted and pulsed before bursting with long spindly tentacles of leaves and thorns that lunged for the group of students nearest it. Some of its limbs were making straight for Diana.

"In particular it's looking for the tastiest meal," the professor chuckled evilly.

Diana jumped back as she produced her weapon. It was a holy relic in the form of a twelve-faceted die. She shone like the sun as she released holy power all over her body, from every pore. She concentrated it all to the die in her palm which soaked it all in. "Give me something good! DIE OF FATE!" The die flickered and vibrated with a drumming sound of anticipation. As the thorny demonic vine was about to close in on her, Diana had managed to produce a spear burning with holy light. Swish. Swish. She deflected them all. Every time a vine came for her, she slashed at it effortlessly.

It was amazing how skilfully she could wield a weapon that she obtained through a gamble.

While she was holding out on her own, all around her was pure pandemonium.

A girl got caught by her shins and nearly got dragged but a lad wielding a sword managed to save her by severing the tumbleweed's tentacle.

"Are you hurt?" He asked, helping her up.

"Thank you."

"Name's Yuri, remember it." He gave her a flirty wink as he slung the sword over his shoulder, leaving her with flushed cheeks. He was a lad of brown hair and dark blue eyes — a noble's features, with a noble's haughty bearing; although Apple could not say who he belonged to. Because he carelessly looked away from his adversary, a vine succeeded to rope onto his wrist and yanked him as he screamed, "OH SHIT!"

The girl ran after him, but suddenly more demonic vines attacked her.

There, another man was on the floor choking. The professor had to save him. A clever commoner stood next to the stones to fend off the devil plant. Each aspiring scholar was left to themselves to survive.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Those who could hacked at the cursed being, and those who couldn't prioritized evasion. Meanwhile the tumbleweed kept on growing bigger, its vines more and more numerous. It was feeding on all the holy energy from the inexperienced talents of Araya.

Its infinitely stretching fingers tried to reach beyond the marble stones. The enchantment then activated as the runes glowed. An electric barrier materialized to stop the tumbleweed's vines from crossing the circle, imprisoning it in the Henge Field together with them.

A stray tentacle went to Apple's direction who had her nose covered the whole time. Time to show off. She thought.

She picked a pretty flower from memory, recalled its faint sugary fragrance and materialized it in her hand. SONG OF CREATION! She sang. A pink flower bloomed out of thin air in her hand. Begonia. When twirled by its stamen, its petals shot out individually, floating around her. With a flick of her finger, the pink petals shot like arrows onto the encroaching vine, obliterating it into cinders.

As if having found a new mark, most of the tumbleweed's innumerable tentacles directed its attention to her.

Watch me. She glanced over her shoulder just to see if Lucas was not too distraught to watch her next gorgeous display. Interestingly, the golden-haired commoner was as still as the marble slabs, calmly looking on at the chaos unfolding before him.

She belted, "SONG OF CREATION!" At her feet, begonias bloomed into existence in bright pink clusters, their brilliant hue contrasting perfectly with the green of the grass. Like an orchestra, the flowers' petals danced to the rhythm of Apple's hands. They rose beautifully like fluttering butterflies as she rose her hand. They twirled into a tornado of pink sharp petals that met the black cursed vines head on, drilling a tunnel of light into the leafy and thorny mass until they buried the dark core of the tumbleweed in pink and white. A moment of peaceful quiet fell on the Henge Field at last. She did all that without moving her feet.

Apple felt like doing a curtsy or a simpler bow. You are welcome, she thought. She kept her giddiness to herself as the rest of the fighters looked on, their jaws agape. Sighing in relief, Yuri picked up his sword and smiled proudly at her. Diana clutched her flaming spear, disappointed yet accepting of the result. The professor was nodding his head in recognition. Surely, this spectacle was enough to make up for her unanswered tests.

"Wow." Lucas gawked behind her.

Eeek! The smell of something demonic attacked her nose. Petals fell off as the cursed weed jerked beneath the pink mound of flowers. It was still alive. SONG OF CREATION! Flowers bloomed around her again. She could do this for three more times before she would run out of holy energy.

"I think you've realized it by now that the tumbleweed is not something you can defeat so easily. I never expected you to do so, to begin with," the professor declared over the crowd of holy children who were dreading another battle.

Surely there was a way to defeat it, Apple pondered. After severing all its vines, its reek only grew stronger, more revolting. It absorbed the petals into its body, very gradually. Not even done with its food, it grew one singular thorny vein that snaked into the sky. Then it shot towards Apple's direction once more!

I can do it. I can do it. Apple raised her swarm of begonias, contemplating whether to intercept or defend. If her counterattack failed, the vine would burst through and pierce her. But it was also her best defense. The tumbleweed was brainless. It would not change its aim. Thus, she gathered the begonias in a swirling spire but it was too late. The spire could not form fast enough. The smell of the cursed vine made her head painful as it blasted past the petal column.

"No!" The professor screamed, leaping to his feet.

Seeing the rain of petals, Apple understood a second too late that the right choice was to evade. I am going to lose more than a limb.

PUPLUCK! Apple felt a touch to her shoulder but it wasn't the tumbleweed. She found herself on the ground, having been pushed aside. She looked up at the calm yet intent face of Lucas of Vermil. He had used one hand to shove her and used the other to receive the brunt of the impact of the cursed vine in order to protect his face. But the plant's thorny finger had penetrated through both flesh and bone and nearly punctured a hole through his head as well, had he not tipped his head aside to avoid it. Still the thorns had grazed a wound on his neck.

The professor appeared beside them at once, face aghast at Lucas's injury. Meanwhile, the rain of petals concealed the scene from the spectators. Even as they gasped and cried and ran to help, they couldn't have known what had happened. Whether Apple was safe. Whether she was dead.

But Apple was witness to it all. As was the professor beside them.

She saw how the blood trickled down Lucas's arm and drenched the petals on the ground. How Lucas strained as he held the vine in place even as it tried to coil back to itself. And how suddenly the tumbleweed lost strength and started to lose its pitch-black hue, eventually crumbling to ash amid the rain of flowers.

Lucas grunted as he wrapped the bleeding hand with his shirt under his loose-fitting doublet. He mustered a pained smile when he faced her, saying, "Sorry I can't stay for longer. It was beautiful." Then he dashed off to the periphery of the marble henge, clutching his bleeding hand.

They rushed to her. "Where did you get hurt?"

"She survived it!" They cheered.

Apple could not hear them. The world became mute. All her thoughts had ground to a halt. All she could think of was Lucas's smell. And how it made her want to retch.