NOVEL FROG 34. Slashing Vines
There was someone here. My heart raced. Sweet Selene. What have I done?
I dismissed my bubble and ran to the cavern. The green being radiated nature energy. It felt raw and rough like the earth, yet it had a lively essence. The being wasn't human. It stood on roots like it had feet. Its branches stretched out like hands beckoning me to come to its aid. The center of the being burned bright. My fire caught the beast. I prepared my mana, readying it to douse the flame and then heal the force of nature. I could fix this. I could make it right.
I ran through the cavern opening, approaching the standing tree of energy. I tried to find the fire, searching all over the body of roots. Energy pulsed from the tree figure. I stepped back in response. I didn't see when the vine pierced my ice armor. I didn't notice when my mana faded, nor did I feel pain as the vine crawled through my chest and ripped out my heart. A mouth formed out of the being's trunk. It was all lips and no teeth. That didn't stop it from swallowing my departed heart whole.
My hand stretched out. Blue refreshing mana accumulated on my fingers. Tenty laid on the ground next to my impaled body. His body and face sprawled from when he died.
I averted gaze from Sasha's impaled corpse. Flint's shattered pieces were more challenging to ignore as I scoured the ground for equipment. I needed weapons and protection. I could only get so far on my ice summons. My heart ached inside my chest. My left hand reached for the beating organ, attempting to provide comfort. I left my hand to linger on my chest until the rapid beats calmed. I pulled my other arm back and wiped my eyes.
Why was I so weak? My anger wasn't directed at my failure. Failure and I were familiar friends. We knew each other by name and spoke often. My anger targeted me and my weakness. I was disgusted with myself for feeling like I deserved that death.
I needed to be stronger, and my hands would get dirty. There was no way around it. To believe differently was foolish, ignorant, and selfish. It wasn't for my sake I fought. It was theirs, and the longer I toiled with made-up guilt, the longer they rotted in the soil where warmth faded to cold. I couldn't lose. I didn't have the luxury of being weak. My resolve needed to become iron. My beating heart softened as my will hardened.
"Live for them," I said in a solemn voice. I gave the remains of my friends one last look. The next time I looked at them, it would be in person. I grabbed my frozen body and walked to the dungeon.
I kept my distance from Vines, firing arrows and fleeing. Vines had limited control over the jungle. The tree could control branches, vines, and parts of the earth. If I didn't stay on the move, I would be threatened by all types of attacks. Getting swallowed by dirt killed me more than once already. The leaf blades couldn't pierce my armor, nor could distant vine attacks. At close distances, though, the vines were deadly. Not only did Vines have an arsenal of earth attacks, it seemed connected to the beasts in the jungle. The rat king was its ace summons. I learned to hunt that bastard before the battle started.
Fire spread through the cavern, acting as a deterrent for the crawlers. The fourth fight convinced me I needed a better way to deal with the bugs; after the fifth I used burning logs and coals from the fire. It was also after the fifth attempt that I brought regular arrows with me to the fight. The prep work took five days alone. It was worth it. I was no longer fighting on my heels. I lit an arrow, fired, and ran. Vine's never made a sound or reacted to the burning arrows piercing its bark. The only hint I had I was doing damage was that its aggression simmered.
Comfortable in my timing, I fired three shots, one after the other. Two were of ice, and one burned with fire. Fire was the most effective attack; half of Vine's body burned. My fire arrow hit the base of the monster. Vines hadn't proved to be sentient; its only function was to survive. However, it had not tried to extinguish the fire with the nearby puddles or smother the flames with the earth it controlled. So I shot my fire arrows low, giving the fire plenty of fuel to consume as it climbed.
My ice arrows were modified to cut at the tree. Cutting trees with arrows was something only the boredest hunters or rangers boasted about. No one actually did that as practice. It was a waste of time and impractical. This fight proved me wrong. My second arrow sliced through an outstretched limb. The third cut at the edge of the Vines.
The following rotation, I skipped the fire arrow completely, focusing on widening the gashes on the side. One significant advantage I had over the tree was my mobility. I moved around while Vines remained firmly rooted, lining up shots and firing. A snake slithered at the edge of the forest. I retreated to a new spot, aimed and fired three arrows at the snake. I didn't watch them land as I was already on the move. I blasted Vines with a combo of two fire shots, retreated, and shot again.
The battle lasted nearly thirty minutes. Ashes smoldered, and my pillars were about to crumble. Vines stopped fighting about two minutes ago. It stood still as I delivered the last shot. The ice arrow raced through the air to the intended target. Five inches of roots held Vines together. My arrow hit the center of the root, and as it passed through, it severed the top half of Vines from its rooted base.
There was no celebration as I walked over to the defeated foe. I didn't trust Vines to be dead, so I kept a shield and ax up and mana ready. The crawlers, no longer under the trees' control, scattered as I moved. I was glad to be done with them.
Vines didn't move. The slightest amount of nature aura radiated from the chest, or maybe its mouth, was a more accurate description. I stood behind my shield and reached out to the tree with the head of my ax. I gave Vines a nudge, stepped back, and waited. It was dead. I was confident about that.
I dismissed the shield and readied my ax. My swings cut into the tree near the glowing energy. Five hacks later, I exposed the meaty core. The purple core wasn't like the beast's core, which was more of a rocky substance. The epic core of Vines had a soft exterior like a fruit. It even smelled sweet. There was no going back. I knew how this would end when I first died at the hands of Vines. I raised the sweet fruit to my mouth and took a massive bite. It tasted bitter and sweet. Next time I would remove the peel first.
That was for next time. I needed to cycle the powerful energy running through me.