DISCOVERY PART 4F

Day 428; 0005 (Late Night)

Focus: 513

Silence.

That was all 513 heard as he shut-off the part of his brain which interpreted sound...or at least, that is what he had wished for. In reality, the best he could do was ignore the creature’s chiding, while firmly holding his ground.

The tree-creature had been relentless in its acts of provocation, repeatedly shouting the same three words over-and-over at 513’s direction.

???: “I FOUND YOU!!! I FOUND YOU!!! I FOUND YOU!!!”

The ordeal grated on 513’s patience, but his stubbornness allowed him to endure.

[Fucker.] He grumbled while staying completely still.

He understood little of the creature's motives, nor how it had gone unnoticed by True Sense. Speculating, the only rationale he could think of was that the creature had been in a state of suspended animation until very recently.

That said, his conjecture didn't account for how the creature was able to mimic his own voice.

[It's all too confusing.] He fretted while stopping the urge to scratch his head.

Although he did not want to admit it, his current state of affairs had shed light on potential flaws in his enhanced sensory ability; flaws that could prove costly down the line.

[Was I overconfident?] He questioned, reflecting on his past actions. [Damn, what a blunder…but is it to blame for the current situation?] He wondered. [In any case, if I’m right about this tree...this…Tree Mimic...then I can adjust accordingly. If not, I’ll have to supplement True Sense with another...uh...well, something to cover its inherent weakness.]

Moving his mind away from retrospection, 513 refocused his efforts back to his current predicament.

Pulsing his ability, he searched the Tree Mimic for physical weaknesses. He needed something, anything to exploit in order to break-away from the current deadlock. Unfortunately, not a single workable flaw could be found on the Tree Mimic’s body.

Taking a deep breath, he settled on the simplest solution.

[Brute-force it is.] He reasoned, ready for action.

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Day 428; 0006 (Late Night)

Focus: Tree Mimic

Tree Mimic: “I FOUND YOU!!! I FOUND YOU!!! I FOUND YOU!!!”

The Tree Mimic shouted, inundating its target with a surge of noise.

There were two reasons it had chosen to do this: [1] to annoy its target into making a mistake; and [2] to hide the fact that it was still evolving.

With a series of loud pops and creaks, the Tree Mimic’s stubby appendages wriggled up-and-down its moss-laden body, coalescing at two specific locations two-thirds the way up its trunk. As the appendages amassed, they cannibalized one another, growing larger as they fed. It took only a single breath of time, but when the feasting was over, the Tree Mimic had acquired two enormous arms. Each rivaled the girth of its own body.

Now, armed with weapons, the Tree Mimic made one last physical change to complete its ensemble.

◊◊◊◊◊◊

Day 428; 0007 (Late Night)

Focus: 513

[When did it grow arms?] 513 pondered, with his mouth agape in disbelief.

As he stood-up and pulsed his ability again, a small depression formed on the ceiling of his tent. The depression steadily grew in-size as it sank lower, stretching the leather of the tent to its limits.

[...it’s my face…] 513 reacted, shocked by what he saw. [It copied my fucking face!]

Tree Mimic: “EHEHEHE! I. FOUND. YOU!!!”

The Tree Mimic shouted, further deforming the ceiling of the tent with its mock face, as it was mouthing-along with each word it spoke.

Then, dragging itself across the thinning leather, it freely manipulated its facial features, twisting and sculpting its eyes, mouth, and nose into giant bulbous pustules that swelled under its own weight -- like water-filled balloons.

As it slowly inhaled through the leather of the tent, a small vacuum was created, outlining the creases and cracks on the creature’s tree-like body. Upon exhaling, its faux nostrils flared in excitement as it giddily moaned in delight.

Tree Mimic: “Ahhh.”

Then, it sniffed again, causing the moss camouflaging the tent to fall off from the sides.

Tree Mimic: “Ahhhhhh.”

Increasing the suction of its breathing, it sniffed yet again.

Tree Mimic: “AHHHHHHHHH!”

Like its verbal assault, the Tree Mimic had no intention of stopping. With every breath it took, it added a little more to its show of intimidation.

As it inhaled, it cracked open its chest, splitting its body down the middle like an uneven fracture. Looking inside, countless rows of jagged teeth made from filed-down tree branches and rocks lined the walls of its insides.

As it exhaled, it puffed-out a bright yellow miasma that stunk of fermented plant matter and rancid milk. The miasma quickly spread through the campsite like a dense fog, covering the entire area in a cloud of yellow.

[Shit, don’t tell me this is mustard gas…] 513 panicked, not expecting chemical warfare to be used in a one-on-one fight.

However, after noticing no determinable side-effects, his worries lessened.

On the other hand, the Tree Mimic continued its unrelenting performance, writhing its bloated eyebrows around like overstuffed worms drowning in water.

Feeling 513’s presence, it resculpted its mock face and sunk itself lower into the tent, causing the leather to wrap tightly around its features -- features that included a sloven smile filled with perversion and intent.

513: “...”

Unamused, 513 blankly stared at the giant face protruding through the ceiling, completely forgetting to blink.

Slowly taking a deep breath, he meditated. [So, that is the face I would make if I were a molester...which...I am most certainly not…and will never be. I promise.] He joked. [Okay, let us begin.]

Tree Mimic: “AHH-”

Jabbing the Tree Mimic’s contorted face from underneath the tent with a javelin, 513 put an end to its disconcerting moans.

Twisting the shaft, he jerked the javelin away, causing pitch-dark fluid to pour down the puncture hole created in the attack. Then, he followed through with another jab to the creature’s face. This time, burying the javelin deep into the Tree Mimic’s body.

Grabbing another javelin, he continued his attack as more of the pitch-dark fluid spilled into his tent.

Tree Mimic: “GAAAH!!!”

The creature cried out in pain.

[It is slow to react, but I’m not convinced it’s truly hurt.] He considered while piling more stab wounds into his opponent -- each puncture spilling more of the dark liquid.

Outside of the tent, the Tree Mimic lifted its two massive arms from off the ground and wound-up a heavy strike. It had purposefully let itself get injured in order to keep 513 distracted and rooted in-place.

As it swung its massive arms down at the campsite, pressure from the air displaced by its attack collided with the tent, further stretching the leather until it tore a gaping hole down its center.

Surprised by its own power, the Tree Mimic hesitated, but the momentum of its strike remained unaffected.

Seeing this, 513 quickly swapped weapons to the sword-spear and continued with the offensive, lacerating and carving chunks off of the Tree Mimic’s body with each sundering attack. His strikes had become so vicious, so destructive that a third of the Tree Mimics body had already been cut-away.

Still, the Tree Mimic's arms continued to hurtle down from the sky.

Changing tactics, 513 thrust his sword-spear into the Tree Mimic, burying the entire meter-long blade into the creature’s body. Then, using the shaft of the weapon as a lever, he tried to forcefully move the enormous creature using strength alone.

[Damn it…] He grumbled, realizing his opponent had not moved at all.

Gritting his teeth, he dialed every muscle in his body to 100% and anchored his feet to the ground soaked in black liquid. Treating his body as a fulcrum, he simultaneously drove the shaft of the sword-spear forward with his right arm, while pulling back with his left. As his feet sunk deeper into the ground, the sheer force he emitted lifted part of the creature into the air. Twisting his hips like he was throwing a punch, he explosively thrust his right arm and yanked with his left, partially rotating the top half of the Tree Mimic's body around him.

The combined motion of the attack threw the creature off-balance, causing it to ram into the tree the campsite was hidden inside.

As a result, the Tree Mimic’s heavy fists lost their alignment and missed their mark. Instead, the creature's arms crashed into the same tree its body had rammed into, hewing-off large sections of the tree's trunk on impact.

The booming sound produced in the failed attack vibrated through the air and into the ground, causing small fissures to form around the surface of the forest floor and large clumps of snow to fall from the canopy tops.

513's head buzzed and throbbed as a high-pitched noise rang inside his ears. Ignoring this, he continued his assault, hacking and tearing into the Tree Mimic with his bladed shield and bare hands.

Tree Mimic: “GAAAHHH!!! AAAHHH!!!”

The creature wailed in agony.

Tree Mimic: “FUUUCK!!!”

It screamed while attempting to lift itself up.

513, who had already carved-out its face, was now clawing his way into its core.

Tree Mimic: “WAAAHHH, GET OFF!!!”

It yelled as it slammed its arms into the ground, causing dirt to uplift and deform around the area of impact.

Determined, 513 continued to cleave and rend at its insides as he actively adjusted his weight to keep from falling off.

The Tree Mimic then slammed its arm into the massive tree it had been pinned against, causing the tree to splinter and crack at the base, where 513’s campsite was located.

As the tree teetered on the verge of collapse, parts of its root structure sprung-up from the ground like tensioned springs. One of the roots hit 513 directly in the back, dislodging him off of the creature.

513: "Gah, shit!"

He screamed, as he fell off the creature and collided with the ground covered knee-deep in pitch-black fluid.

513 attempted to claw his way back onto the Tree Mimic, but the dark liquid that now covered his body made it almost impossible to sustain a meaningful grip.

Unsheathing his knives, he relentlessly stabbed at the creature, aiming to use them as anchors to hold onto. Regrettably, like his previous tries, his attacks were unable to gain proper purchase on the oil-slick Tree Mimic.

513: “YOU LUCKY FUCK!”

513 yelled, in utter annoyance.

In his struggle to end things quickly, he had forgotten that the act of lifting the creature many times his own weight had sapped his own body of energy.

Seeing the weakening 513, the Tree Mimic used the opportunity to flee; unhindered, it was able to finally lift its towering figure off of the ground and escape from the site. As it sluggishly wobbled away, occasionally crashing into trees like an inebriated thug, more of the dark liquid spewed-out from its wounds, covering its escape route in a messy pool of greasy fluid.

Unable to give chase due to his body ceasing from exhaustion, 513 grew livid.

513: "GET BACK HERE! YOU BASTARD!"

He screamed in hopeless frustration.

---Chapter End