“Get the legs!” Typhen shouted at me from the air, trying to aim his bow at the boar once more.
I ran forward, bending down just a bit, and lowered my sword into the wild beast as it ran towards me. There wasn’t much need to adjust the sword. The boar was blind, so it ran straight into it. Its fairly thin legs were cleanly sliced by the blade. The boar came crashing down and skidded on the ground. A second later, an arrow found its way into its head. Typhen landed down on the ground and put his bow back in place.
“It is certainly close, if the utunbeasts are running away from their habitat.” Hess had bent down near the boar’s head and was removing the arrow. She picked its head up and looked at it for a second before throwing it back down.
She stood up and turned to Wellath, who was looking straight ahead, from where the beast had appeared.
“I’ve never seen one that’s so scared before. Flowerlings aren’t supposed to be that powerful, are they?” Wellath asked.
A flowerling was apparently the monster that we were supposed to hunt. Their name came from their appearance, since they were basically like large, sentient flowers. Of course, they had some dangerous mutations, but not enough to make them diverge from their original look.
“They can be. I’ve seen a strong one before. But that was very close to a battlefield, so it would make sense. For a fairly powerful one to be here would mean that the villagers who hired us are already in a lot of trouble, even without the flowerling.” Hess said and started moving.
Typhen took the arrow from her and cleaned it. It still looked sharp to me, so maybe it would be used again. He put it back in his quiver and started walking behind her. Wellath and I followed.
Flowerlings were attracted to conflict. Or rather, they hated conflict, and were thus found in places where there was a lot of it. They were known to kill people who took part in too many fights, because of its dislike of such things. This wasn’t just limited to people, but also animals like the utunbeast we had just encountered. If someone started fighting, and a flowerling sensed it, they were in a predicament. It was a very ironic creature, especially in this theatre. Based on what Hess had just said, the village it had been attacking probably had something pretty bad happening in it to warrant the attention of a flowerling.
But then…
“You said the beast only attacked the pets, though?” I asked Typhen.
Maybe this was another logical fallacy. If I could find more of them, then it would become easier to note when and how they happened. Knowing the kind of details that the writer often overlooked could help us manipulate them to our benefit if the situation allowed it. I had to discuss more about this with Kaisel in one of our training sessions.
“I lied.” Typhen said as he kept walking, “Otherwise you’d beat yourself up about not learning to fight earlier. The flowerling is a very slow creature, so its difficult to be killed by it. In a way, it basically does not kill humans. Well, it certainly hasn’t killed any of those villagers yet, so you can calm down about it.”
Was my inclusion in this hunt so necessary? Maybe it was some kind of procedure that all new recruits had to go through. I replied with a short nod and did not say anything. Judging by how Sylvia was, Typhen probably had his own reasons to hide such things. I didn’t want to tell him anything about it. As long as he was fine with it, it did not matter much to me. Especially since nobody had actually died yet.
I looked back at Wellath, who seemed quite serious. About fifteen minutes ago, I had given up on thinking about what I would do about him. The answer I had reached was that I needed to wait for the event itself to happen, and then see how it could be taken forward. Once or twice, I considered somehow telling him about it, so that he could save himself somehow, but then I realized that it could have been set up in a way that expected me to do that. In that case, I would become directly responsible for his death. In the end, I wasn’t as mentally strong as Sylvia, so I ended up doing nothing.
Hess suddenly asked us to stop and bent down near a tree trunk. She picked up a small green vine and threw it at Wellath, who caught it midair and started examining it too. She stood up and crossed her arms, before turning to Typhen.
“I won’t be taking part in the hunt. Handle it yourselves, and I’ll watch.” Then she turned to me, “I don’t know about Wellath, but I personally think he should back out and leave it to you too.”
Wellath threw the vine away and looked at me, “Yeah, she’s right. It isn’t as strong as we thought after all. Seems pretty weak.”
“You can tell from the vines?” Typhen asked.
Hess replied, “The vines can be used to judge its age. This one is fairly old, so it will be slower than a normal one. Of course, it was probably very dangerous when it was younger, but not anymore.”
Wellath continued, “And that’s why you two should be able to handle it yourselves. It’ll also give the two of us a chance to see how much better you have gotten. And Typhen, if I may, then allow me to request for you to hold back a bit too. I personally want to see how Ryworn will handle it.”
“You got it.” Typhen did not seem very pleased, “Although I don’t really know how to do that.”
Hess slapped him on the head and started walking again as she said, “Do it, you idiot.”
Typhen groaned and ran behind her, murmuring something. Wellath laughed and continued with me. He hadn’t spoken much to me, but was constantly looking in my direction. He probably expected good things today.
We kept walking for another ten minutes or so until we finally found the flowerling near a pond.
There was a forest clearing that looked almost too beautiful to be true. It was definitely a departure from the stuff that I had seen in this world till now. The pond in the middle was as clean as it could be, and had flower petals and leaves floating on it as a cool breeze blew. The trees in the immediate vicinity of the area had a strange, green lush to them. The pond itself was surrounded with differently-shaped and sized rocks that had vines growing all over them. Flowers of different colors surrounded the open area between the trees and the pond. And right in the middle of the water body, was a massive green stalk which grew thicker as it went up, and ended in an almost swelling-like structure.
As soon as we walked into the clearing, the stalk started shaking. Typhen put his hands on his bow, but did not remove it yet. Hess and Wellath moved closer together and took a step away from us.
The shaking of the stalk grew faster and faster until it suddenly burst open and a collection of vines spilt out of the open swelling. They were all different shades of green, with some having flowers growing on them. The vines kept flying out as they made their way towards the trees and wrapping around them. In a matter of seconds, it looked like the vines were chains that connected the flowerling to the trees. And then, the vines ended. They eventually stopped coming out, and all of the ones which had, stayed wrapped around the trees. The stalk closed once more.
The vines on the trees slowly started moving towards each other until they started to join and grow even more from those areas. They uncoiled themselves and started covering all the gaps between the trees. They also started coming towards us, and we were forced into moving closer to the monster. Once we did, the vines moved with an even faster speed and covered the opening we had entered the area from. Eventually, we were locked between a circle wall that the vines had created.
“Don’t touch them.” Hess said as she and Wellath moved away from the two of us and stood in a different spot as they waited.
“So, what do we do?” I asked Typhen, whose complete attention was focused on the now-closed stalk.
“Wait and see what it looks like.” He said, with his hand still on the bow.
The stalk started swaying to the left and right, slowly. A quiet rattling sound filled the air along with a pleasant flowery aroma. The sound grew louder by the second as the speed of the swaying stalk kept increasing too. It was very similar to how it had been shaking a while ago, which probably meant that it was going to open up again, but probably in a different way.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Then it did.
The stalk burst open once more and small petals started to crawl out of the opening. They slithered like snakes as they moved down the stalk before moving up towards the sun and looking like normal petals. The process kept going for a minute before all the petals, all yellow, came out of the stalk. The petals all took their individual positions until they had formed a normal-looking flower. Then, the petals started shaking all at once, for a second or two.
The petals which were towards the bottom of the flower started to move down the stalk, while the ones which were above started to roll into themselves. The ones moving down covered the entire stalk and started to push down on the ground, causing the entire monster to look like it was standing up on those petals. The ones above kept rolling until they looked like yellow vines. The petals in the middle stayed in their original positions, still shaking just a little.
“Oh, it’s old, alright.” Hess said, “Try to focus on the body. The hands and legs might attack, but they aren’t easily destructible.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know!” Typhen shouted and took out one of the daggers hanging on his waist, “You just watch!”
“So much for trying not to let it get to your head.” Hess sighed and sat down on the ground. Wellath kept standing up and looking at me.
I took out my sword and got ready. Typhen took out his second dagger and looked at me.
“Just attack however. We got this.”
And then he started running towards the monster. I followed behind him, in attacking position.
The flower vines started moving towards us, multiple each. They seemed to be on the same speed as the regular vines before, and their ends seemed to be sharp, based on how cleanly they shined in the sunlight. I needed to be careful of them, but other than that, the fight seemed to be simple enough in theory. We needed to attack the body of the monster, which was probably the middle part which hadn’t changed. Typhen seemed to be wrapping around the plant to make it there, so I decided to rush in straight, to try and land a hit.
As the flower vines kept trashing down on Typhen, he rolled and jumped around to dodge, sometimes using his daggers to cause them to change position. They were either sturdy enough to not be cut by the blades, or a dagger probably wasn’t that well-suited to cutting them. Whatever it was, made Typhen groan in anger as he continued to run across the open area to the other side of the plant.
I ran with my sword, doing the same. The flower vines kept coming straight at me, but I did not use my sword for now. I jumped left and right based on where they were coming from, and just steered clear of their path. It seemed like they couldn’t change their paths once they were going back, so all I needed to do was pay attention to that. I closed in really quick. Before I knew it, I was already on the edge of the pond. Two of the flower vines came crashing at my position at the same time, in a cross. I jumped forward and rolled, leaving them behind and moving forward.
Its legs were right in front of me. Four long petals, with two each overlapping on top of each other, creating two main legs. I needed to climb it to get to the middle part somehow. Judging by how the same petals had reacted to Typhen’s daggers, I wasn’t sure of what would happen, but trying to use the sword to climb could be a good idea. Ginzari had done the same with the demon in the hospital.
I raised my sword and kept running, ready to lodge it into the legs. But before I knew it, the legs moved, hit me in the stomach and threw me away. I went flying to the edge of the circular wall that the vines had created, and hit it.
The vines did not let me fall. Slowly, they started to cover me, moving up and down to bind me to the wall. I put my sword hand forward to make sure they didn’t reach it faster and started slashing at them to free myself.
Typhen, at that time, had put his daggers back in their place and was just dodging the flower vines, waiting. Then, eventually, he must have noticed something. Because he pulled out his bow and readied an arrow on it. He was on the right of the plant now, and stood there for a second. A vine came rushing for him, and he still stayed there. As soon as the flower vine was right next to his face, he sidestepped and shot an arrow at it. The arrow went straight through the vine and stuck it to the ground.
He laughed and put the bow back, pulling out the daggers. And then, he got on top of the vine, and started to run across it. The flower vines kept attacking him, but he was faster than they were, and the monster was probably worried about hurting itself in the process. Typhen kept running until he reached close to the top of the vine. Then he jumped down and held the attached vine for a second. He used it gain momentum, and jumped on the open middle half of the monster.
I cut through the last vine and fell to the ground, grabbing my sword and running towards the monster once more. Hess and Wellath were right in my path, but they did not move. Their lack of aggression probably made the flowerling think that they weren’t enemies. Smart. I gave them a quick look before jumping from between them and joining the battle again. The flower vines started repeating the same attack pattern, but I used my sword to parry them this time, moving towards Typhen.
He used one of his daggers to stab the body, and hold on to it, and the other to slash the petals. The ones in the body seemed to be softer than the vines. After landing two such hits, some of the flower vines came down towards his position, and instead of hitting him, started to wrap around the body. In a quick second, they came down and coiled around him and the plant at the same time, tying him to the plant's body. The dagger he was using to slash fell down in the pond. He groaned, trying to break free of the flower vines, but they did not let him move.
His other hand broke free of the vines for a second, and he twisted the dagger that was still stabbed into the plant, and drove it deeper with a smile on his face. The vines loosened, and one of them came down on his head, smashing him into the pond. He did not move for some time, and then slowly started to pull himself up.
I kept running, parrying the vines. But suddenly, four vines came towards me at once. I tried to judge their positions and got myself ready to dodge their paths with one jump. It was possible. They all came down, and I jumped. But I had misjudged one of them. It did not go for the ground. Instead, it hit my sword hand, and sliced through my palm, leaving a wound. The sword fell down on the ground. I hesitated for a second, and another vine came towards my neck, wrapping around it and holding me in the air.
“Ah, well. I’ll help.” Wellath stood up and picked up his sword.
“No.” I tried to croak, but the monster’s grip on my neck was too strong. This was not good.
Wellath ran towards me with his sword raised, and jumped. He sliced right through the vine, and I fell down on the ground, right next to my sword. I picked it up and coughed, looking at Wellath, who had turned his attention to Typhen.
The archer stood up and picked up both of his daggers. The legs tried to hit him too, but he jumped out of the way and used one of the daggers to stab the leg, attaching it the floor of the pond. Flower vines rained down, but he used the small area below the flower to dodge them and move to the other leg. As they kept coming, he slid and hit the other leg too, attaching it to the ground. Now, if it moved its legs, it risked slicing right through them.
Wellath ran straight to the right side of the plant, where the one vine was still attached to the ground. Instead of using it to run up, however, he stayed there for a second.
“Stop attacking it. Typhen, use your bow. Ryworn, get ready to attack.” Wellath shouted.
Without asking what he meant, Typhen took out his bow. I raised my sword and continued to gather my breath.
Wellath hit the attached vine with the flat side of his sword, which made it turn all attention towards him. The vines came down, one by one, and Wellath started to run towards the back of the plant, circling around its entirety. Typhen was below, in the pond, so he had a complete circular view of the action. He nocked an arrow and got ready to shoot. As soon as the first vine came down, he shot an arrow and made it hold the vine to the ground.
I understood what they were doing and ran to the very first vine that had been held to the ground, ready for instructions. Wellath kept running around the plant, causing vines to fall down behind him, as Typhen kept hitting arrows one by one, holding them to the ground. The two of them laughed as they fought, probably happy with their teamwork. Once they had wrapped around most of the monster, Wellath was running towards me.
He came closer, and shouted, “Cut them when I tell you!”
He jumped on the very first vine and started to run on it. Typhen shot an arrow and held the last vine in place. There were no more of them. I held my sword up, looking at the vines struggling to find a way to break through. Wellath reached the top of the vine and stood in the middle of the monster.
“Now!” He shouted with a smile.
I nodded and started to move around the plant in the same way he had done a few moments ago, slicing through all of the vines along the way, detaching their sharp edges. As they flew back towards Wellath, he cut them at their root, causing them to fall down on the ground and start writhing. I kept running, pleased with how well it had gone. I looked up at him with a smile. He kept slicing through the ones coming back at him and shouted,
“Great job!”
Typhen started walking out from the bottom of the plant, taking long breaths and moving his arm around for exercise.
And then, all at once.
The flowerling shook wildly, causing Wellath to stumble a little bit. He kept himself steady, however, and continued to slice through the vines. I hesitated a bit too, but kept going. But that was just a warning. Because then, all of the vines ripped through the arrows, cutting themselves and doing my job for me. All of them rushed back at Wellath at once. He got ready to cut all of them. But they did not attack.
They started unfurling, back into their original positions. The legs freed themselves too, causing large slices on both ends, and the plant to fall down. Typhen ran forward and turned back with his daggers drawn. But before me or him could do anything, the flower closed.
All the petals folded back at lightning speed, and in the blink of an eye, the stalk was back in its original position, with bright red blood oozing out of the small openings in the swelling.
“Wellath!” Hess shouted and jumped forward with her sword.
I could not see her move properly, much like the first time I had seen her fight. She sliced through the bottom of the stalk, and as it fell down, she cut it vertically until reaching the swelling, and then chopped that part off separately, in a whole.
The swelling fell down on the ground and as it began to quickly rot, it also slowly opened up. The yellow petals were completely stained with blood, which started to seep into the water and change its color too. In the middle of all the flowers, was an unrecognizable mass of decomposing flesh.