I drank from the river, but the water had some sort of salty aftertaste that was quite horrible. The filters had probably collapsed long ago. It was a miracle that the river itself still was still running.

After searching for a shallow part to cross without being too exposed, I found a fallen tree and used it as a bridge. Walking through it, I hesitated before putting a chitinous leg at the grass like it was going to bite at me. "Sigh... I'm too tense."

I then walked over and created a few collectors to gather food. The fighters that were walking with me gave me little assurance, though.

"Your heartbeat signs have spiked, the sensors do not sign any unusual readings, what’s wrong, host?"

“I don’t know, but there is something eerie about those flowers. They seem ominous to me.”

"Kai is scared of flowers now! What a Tyranid..."

I bit my own tongue, to the point of injuring myself, and had to stop when Darwin alerted about the damages I caused to myself.

Norn and Darwin did not understand what my problem was, but I had a gut feeling that this area hides a certain danger I would not like to awaken.

But, as I waited, nothing unusual happened. Not a sound nor a hidden attack.

So after a couple of minutes of hesitation, I decided to advance again and summon a fighter equipped with sensors to pick any strange readings and help me to survey the area. I should have done that before.

After 15 minutes, we didn’t get anything strange, near the river.

We then moved closer to the tree that was in the middle of the meadow. It was the only characteristic feature of this area, beside the flower wall near the waterfall.

It looked like a cedar tree, not matching the rest of the jungle-like forest on the other side of the river.

At the shadow of the tree, I could see some more rabbit-creatures resting and eating some grass. Lots of cute rabbits and bunnies. I only saw prey and food at this point. I was undoubtedly becoming desensitized.

I sent the fighters and caught a few of them silently, pulling them from the further sides of the pack.

Despite our silent killing, the air got a bloody metallic smell that put all the pack in tension. I walked and stepped on a branch, making a loud sound and sending the creatures into a panic. Some rabbits went hiding into their burrows, and others ran to a further region closer to the river.

Nearly all of them avoided the flower wall filled with vines. Only a few of the younger ones moved in that direction.

"That would be quite a distinct hiding spot, what’s wrong with it?"

I then proceed to fall back to the ground and wait, observing their behavior.

The area started to calm down after a few minutes. And after a full hour, the situation was more or less the same as before.

It seems like the bunnies were not a menace.

I then focused my attention on the tree. I sent the scouts to climb it and get a better view.

From there, I could get some interesting data.

The light from the ceiling was produced by some sort of glowing rocks. I thought it was electrical, but any components would have been broken apart after a certain time.

I decided to rest in this area for a few more hours while the healing and regrowth took place. I got some biomass that the collectors gathered near the riverside.

I wanted to be prepared for any unexpected occurrences before touching anything weird, like the tree or the flowers.

I asked Norn about the progress for the eleventh time. She was quite pissed off at this point. "Norn, how is the-"

"Not yet! Stop asking."

The rabbit pack started to make way to feed once they had rested enough, and they scattered through the field, giving me a few more chances to capture and kill some of them.

The air began to get filled with blood smell. I keep eating while observing the behavior of these animals.

To make time and speed the biomass gathering, I called the collectors and sent them to gather some leaves and parts of the tree.

"Darwin, show me the status."

Primal Adult- Ripper

Stats:

Level - 5 (80 biomass to level up)

Health - 18/21 - Regrowing Tail

Energy - 0/80

Biomass Reserves - 46 biomass

Str - 18

Res - 15

Vit - 14

Agi - 12

Int - 8

Damage report:

Poison sting level 0/2 - Damaged

Pincer level 0/1 - Damaged

"Okay, the damages are there, but in a few more hours, I will be able to regrow my biomorphs and fight like before."

As I was focused on my stats, a lonely bunny got near the flowers, driven by curiosity. It smelled and hopped here and there.

I stopped and focused my full attention on that outlier.

"It’s the first time I see any animal interact with those flowers. Darwin, move the scout closer!"

As the bunny was hesitating to munch on some of the leaves, one of the flowers started to rotate to face it; when the rabbit noticed the weird phenomenon, the flower jumped and caught the animal before it could react. “Oh shit!! I knew there was something wicked about this area.”

"The Host was right. I would recommend avoiding contact with them."

The still fighting animal was then pulled back, and the flower hid it onto the vine section, where more flowers turned to feed on it.

"Kai, can we get a sample?! It could be quite interesting to analyze them for later projects!"

"Sure, Norn! Do you also want a massage and... wait, are they looking at us?!!" The flowers started to turn towards our direction, one by one, and a few seconds later, there were nearly a hundred white, blue, yellow, and red flowers 'looking at us'.

I stood quiet for a second, then started walking back, just how I did with the spider back then. "This is bad. I knew it, damn it."

"You have some sharp senses yourself, those flowers were emitting no presence at all."

The flowers seemed to have caught blood scent or something because they dropped from the wall and start to creep in our direction, slowly at first, then faster. “Damn, fuck, fuckk!!”

"How is it possible for the flowers to creep like snakes with that speed!?"

I ran with my fighters and left the tree area quickly as the flower-snakes arrived; I turned to see a disturbing scene as half of the flowers had attached to the rabbits and were partially growing on the still-living animals. The bunnies jumped in panic and squicked, but then, they started to turn silent and stand up with their bodies bleeding and roots growing on their skin and flesh. "Holy fuck! Are those vines parasites?!"

The rabbits then began to hop, following us. After a few seconds, they started moving faster than we could run. I dropped a couple of bombs to distract them while I was running towards the bridge.

The flowers-zombie rabbits start to gather on the mites and-

* BOoomM, BOOM!!

The bombs were triggered. I turned and saw the bloody and terrible after effects of the explosions.

Nearly a fifth of the animals were broken bodies at this point. Many more had several burns on their bodies, but they didn't seem to pay attention to that. Their expressions were just blank and empty.

They all look at the injuries sustained by the tree. Somehow a bomb exploded next to it and had ruined quite a lot of the branches.

All of the flowers then turn and look at me…

"They are emitting a great amount of hostility. The creatures didn’t like you blasting their tree."

“Really? I hadn’t noticed, Sherlock! FUCK! Here they come again!!”

Despite the many injuries, their decaying flesh, or burned skin, they keep jumping and running in our direction. They have taken it very seriously now! Even personal, I would say.

I chomped at the wood a few times to destroy the bridge, just in time to break it to the river before the pack could use it to pass.

They stopped and stayed at their side of the river somehow.

“Uhh… That’s certainly a lucky fear they do have. Do we have any sample of-”

Just then, the first hare steps onto the river, and then the next one follows. “FUCK! Retreat!!”

I kept running near the riverside as I was not sure how long could I hide in the forest. I was not even sure how to fight this snake-things that have attached themselves to the rabbits.

While I was starting to feel quite pressured, I found what I was looking for, a burrow for some animals that lived on the river. I decided to hide there and jump to the cold waters.

I had a hard time trying to swim with a still-growing tail. I fell into the river’s bottom and walked from there to the hole. I saw some weird movement onto the waters nearby, but it was too fast to see it properly.

Was there something else following me? I sent a psychic order for the bombs defending the door to come and detonate themselves at the river to pollute the waters and scare any brave animals with their powerful acid and toxins.

The effect would probably get diluted, but it was going to spread to every inch of this side of the river for a few minutes.

I had to be quick, as I started to see some weird looking figures jumping at the water, the zombie rabbits again! "God, I seriously never thought that the combination of a flower and a rabbit would produce some scary fucking weird zombie creature."

I entered the burrow and moved through it, going under the forest for a few meters until I noticed a cenote.

"Well, time to explore the third option. The underwater caves."