Chapter 49

Satisfied they were on the right track Daniel sat down and tested his power on the giant plant. At first he probed it while his mana recovered. Even with the animal plants gone it differed from the plants he was used to working with. Every fibre strand contained a small amount of magic, which was like what he was using to make himself faster or to become stronger. It was as if the plant had evolved in a magical world where magic was present and then had adapted to move. As if Daniel smirked internally, he was certain that was what had happened. It was not a continual movement like a treant of myth, but more of a steady gathering of energy which could be exerted a couple of times a day, and whenever it did so, the shifts would be explosive.

The question was what could he do with vegetation that possessed that type of inherent magical reactions. Tiny streams of mana acted like the single neuron firing in the brain and making his fist clench. Through the plant, he had a massive force multiplier. In fascination, he tested the various cell lines that the plant could natively utilise. After all, the cleansed tissue in front of him had the same capabilities as the monster they were about to challenge. Killing the parasite had done nothing to change its abilities, or at least not enough to be a concern. The movement magic was intrinsic to the plant not the parasite. Under his touch, it sprouted thorns, it hardened, it softened, it coiled like a snake, a vine lasted out. The fight they had just gone through had been jumbled but Daniel did not remember the attacks being sophisticated only numerous. That blunt force was unlikely to last. Daniel did not create a thorn instead he pushed a button and biology did the rest. The designs existed ready to be utilised. While the consciousness had not used them in the initial fight given time, Daniel knew it would learn to. After all, humans were squishy and eventually it would realise that and use the natural gifts of the lifeform it had enslaved.

Daniel tested everything which was available. A nasty thorn on the end of the whip that lashed forward. A vine that curled around and then tightened but had a razor-sharp edge on the inside. A chunk of heavy wood launched forward like a sledgehammer.

The surrounding fighters needed to be exposed to these techniques even if the enemy never thought to use them. The fact it might learn was sufficient to be cautious. He would not have people die because he assumed the creature would not adapt mid-fight. “Guys. If you get closer to the stairwell door, I can give you some experience about what to expect.”

A group formed up in front of the stairwell exit and Daniel kept practising this time it was against the wall of humans. Plants surged forward, vines behaved like whips abruptly lasting out with a single sharp thorn on the end to do damage. Luke screamed in pain as a vine looped around his leg and then tightened the sharp blades on the inner surface of it almost slicing to the bone.

“Don’t let it them encircle you.”

A brunette went down, clutching at her face. Daniel had no sympathy. Teaching her to defend herself now might save her life later. Plus, the healing spell hit her almost immediately, and the wound closed and then vanished without leaving the slightest scar.

“Watch when they coil like that.” Daniel told them clinically.

A root that had not been noticed curled around the bottom edge of a shield. The shield was now stuck in place. One of the super heavy vines swept forward toward the opening. The tank tried to move his shield to block, but it was caught like it had been wielded to the ground. The vine sailed through the gap unimpeded. It was as thick as Daniel’s thigh and then it crashed savagely through them from lower right and sweeping to upper left.

Six fighters were sent sprawling. The formation was broken, but Daniel did not bother sending a wave of vegetation through the gap. Everyone knew he could have and that if he had then most of the warriors would have been slaughtered. It was a slight mistake, but it would have killed them all. They all knew it.

“Reset.” Luke grumbled. “We’re all dead again. Don’t set your shields like that. It’s lazy. You’ve to keep them moving.” Then Luke rounded on the girl who had been next to the man’s whose lack of shield movement had doomed them. The only front row fighter who had not lost her feet in the subsequent attack. “What were you doing? You need to protect everyone from that. Our wipe just then was on you.”

“I…” She started to argue, waving at a bunch of coiled vines Daniel had been preparing to attack her.

“COILS!” Luke thundered. “That’s not an excuse. Take the hit. It can be healed. If our defensive line is compromised.” Luke shook his head. There was no need to say anymore. The results were self-obvious.

Daniel could see healing spells fixing up those who had been knocked over.

The tank at the front who had made the mistake of letting his shield get trapped was the last to stand. “How can we fight this?”

Daniel pondered the question. He wanted to forge them into something stronger, not shatter them. “You’re improving.”

“We’re not. It took even less time for you to get through that time.”

Daniel sighed tiredly. He was not looking forward to this battle. His unique abilities made the fight possible, but even with them it was definitely going to struggle. Earlier, when Rosica had thought she had been making progress, she hadn’t been. The plant had basically been fighting her to a standstill while ignoring her. Now that he had seen the innate energy within the creature it could have crushed her at any moment. That was ancient history. What he needed to address now was the coming battle and to facilitate that, he required them to feel confident not hopelessly subdued. “You’ve improved an incredible amount. There are two reasons it doesn’t seem that way. The first I’m getting better faster than you are improving. That one is not a problem. After all, we’re fighting a dumb plant and it’ll take months to match the improvement I’ve got over the last twenty minutes. Second, my mana is fully recovered now. Instead of using a tenth of my mana regeneration I’m spending all of it. Effectively, my attacks are ten times more powerful.” That was a white lie. While it was technically true, the reserves of the plant had deteriorated, so the net increase in power was only a factor of two to three, but it was better if they thought they were going up against the more extreme option. “You’re definitely progressing.”

“Let’s do it again.” the tank said, sounding a lot like one of the perky hype up guys that had existed in every footy team he had played for.

“No,” Luke interrupted. “I think we’re ready to go.”

“Daniel said we were getting better. We should wait till we plateau.” The tank argued.

“You have been improving. But Luke’s call is the right one. Your rate of improvement has been decreasing. I think you can all agree with that.”

Now that they were no longer in battle Tamara came and stood next to him. “Can we beat it?”

“Have to.” Daniel answered honestly. “It’s not the sort of thing you can pacify.”

“Which of my magic types will work best.”

“Ice obviously.”

“Obviously.” She poked him. “I have fire, you know. That’s the traditional counter for plants.”

“In what universe?”

“All of them.”

Daniel laughed. “Look how wet the plant is. You’re not going to get it to burn and if you did well, that’s a pyrrhic victory if I’ve ever seen one. You get a plant this size burning, then the whole tower’s going up and probably collapsing.”

Tamara looked around. “This place is mostly non-flammable.”

“It was the heat that made the towers collapse in nine-eleven.”

“What? We’re collating a green plant burning with jet fuel.”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have mentioned nine eleven. But Ice is still your best bet.”

“Missiles or mist.”

Daniel looked sideways at her. A little suspiciously. She smiled back at him with Priscilla on her shoulder, eating a chip.

Daniel’s shoulders sagged. “Thanks for trying to distract me.”

“My pleasure. It looks like you’re taking too much on yourself.”

She rested her head on his shoulder, bringing Priscilla closer and he could hear the mouse munching away very clearly.

“Lets move.” Luke declared suddenly. “Everyone knows their place and what to do. We need to trust each other or we’ll all die.”

Silence greeted that statement and Daniel half expected someone to ask again why they were fighting with those sorts of stakes.

No one said a thing.

The different options had been discussed exhaustively and publicly. Everyone knew the score. There were no other viable paths.

“In positions.” Luke yelled.

Then, organised into their assigned spots they marched down the stairs two abreast. Daniel was responsible for the tunnel through the stairwell with the plant matter shoved against the floor, roof, and walls. The taller amongst them having to slouch and dip their head in order to avoid hitting their heads on vegetation that was packed into the top half a meter of the stairwells. It was tight. Two abreast, their shoulders brushed the leaves that covered the walls. The plant, when it had attacked upstairs had sent up a significant amount of mass and to make sufficient room for them to get down Daniel had had to create this narrow arch they walked through.

Dave strode next to him with his sapient seed mace.

Luke had pulled out all stops and brought down everyone who could help him, which included Dave. To the best of Daniel’s knowledge this was only the second time Dave had left the unconscious Ivey.

They descended past eight and then onto seven.

The corridor that the stairwell opened out into was filled with his green vines in both direction through it switched to purple about halfway down the long side. With a solemn air, they lined up perfectly. Spreading into their assigned lines of four. There were thirty-six of them and they set up four across, which left them nine deep. The first third faced forward, the middle group to the sides, and the last faced backwards. They would walk backwards to fight off anything coming from the sides. No one expected this to be a one dimensional battle. There would be attacks from all three directions and from above and potentially below.

Everyone on the outskirts of the formation was melee with the magic users on the inside. Ingrid was the only bow user they had brought down. The rest of the archers lacked the broad level damage they needed.

“Once we start,” Luke reminded them. “There is no retreat. The lives of us and our friends above depend on our success over the next hour.”

There was literally no hope if they failed. Twenty of the best fighters, plus a scattering of specialised support classes were down here and if they failed… there was no coming back. The non-combatants could retreat upward in the tower, but that would only delay things. The plant would eventually grow up and consume them. It would probably take it weeks if not months, but it would be inevitable.

Without any more conversation, Luke who was at the front started the fight. They hoped to win, but deep down they knew the chances of all of them surviving were near zero.

“Step.” As one the entire group moved. “Step.”

They were still in an area surrounded by Daniel’s plants, but the fear was thick in the air.

“Step.”

Daniel’s mouth was dry, and he rehearsed what he had to do. His job was to challenge the monster directly. Move to where he was needed and then take over parts of the enemy plant while knowing full well that sometimes it would fight him and other times it would lob off the piece to stop him from comprising wider stretches of the plant. What Daniel had decided was vital was his mobility. Under no circumstances could he afford to get locked into any extended battle within the plant because it could multitask and strike from a different direction.

Everyone looked uneasy, but it was too early for the battle to begin. This bit of corridor was no man’s land. The surrounding plants were purple, but they were not a mass of power. They were remanent of spread, connecting nerves so to speak. The melee attacked them with prejudice, treating them like the potential threat they probably were. Every root, vine, or branch was diced up.

The corridor looked ahead. Framed by purple, when they rounded the corner they would be properly in the enemy’s territory.

Together they turned the corner, the first five ranks in any case. They were confronted with a wall of purple stained vegetation only four metres in. Luke grimaced at the tight confines, but his eyes were steely.

“Halt. Ranged prepare to fire.”

A volley of magic was launched. A section of vines exploded as something invisible hit it. Ten pencil sized streaks of darkness flew out from someone behind Daniel and slammed into the vines at the edge. The spot they hit shrunk, the purple intensified, and he got the feeling that the connection the plant had with itself beyond that point was gone.

One of Ingrid’s arrows went through the centre of the mass and there was a slight boom deep within the mass of vegetation. Tamara’s ice missiles hit and besides exploding they froze the surrounding plants, having Daniel suspected, a similar impact to the pencil thin dark missiles.

Over all, the volley from their eight strongest ranged casters had mulched almost a metre of the corridor.

“Step.” Then the front warriors when to work their swords slashing out and finishing the couple of damaged vines that had survived the initial strikes. They all fought smartly, their blades cutting where the magic had degraded the enemy targets.

“Step. Ranged fire.”

Another volley hit and more plants died. There was no retaliation. They could all feel the pressure mounting.

“Step, Step, Ranged Fire, Step.”

They were walking on plant matter. Their entire nine rows had entered the corridor. The remnants of the monstrosity plants were under their feet, pushing them half a metre off the ground and their combined effort had moved them over fire metres into the hallway that the plant had claimed.

“Step. Ranged.”

There was nothing for Daniel to do.

Everyone was glancing around in fear just waiting for the other shoe to drop. The plant was not that smart, Daniel reminded himself.

But…

They were now in its territory. He remembered the power it had unleashed with the attack that had chased him up two floors.

That had only been a fraction of its power.

“Step.”

There was a ripple under the dead plant matter in front of them.

A ripple right under Luke

Then under him.

It was moving fast.

Speed.

Daniel crouched, plunging his arm straight down. He went through the chunks of dead matter and hit something hard almost twenty centimetres above the floor and hidden under a similar amount of pulped vegetation.

His conscious blasted into what had to be some well-thought attack by the enemy.

The will of the monster opposed him immediately. Its magic filled the vine with power and intent. Even with his enhanced magical mind power, it took almost two seconds for Daniel’s mind to even penetrate a centimetre into the vine and during the time he knew it had already sped past him, growing continually. Getting under all of them.

The enemy had created this attack from scratch and was using a staggering amount of power.

What was it doing?

How did this growth destroy them?

He concentrated on absorbing the tiny bits of information that were available. The density of energy. A concentration of potential energy. It was…

A bomb.

That’s what it was, and the plant had created it fully formed under him.

He needed to stop it.

Panic flooded through him, but it did not slow his thoughts. He had to act immediately.