Chapter 50

Daniel’s will clashed with the alien’s and this time there was no question of distraction or a lack of attention.

Everything it had was focused on this attempt.

There was no time to understand the details all that mattered was thwarting it.

The enemy continued to pump power into this tendril, and it kept growing. This was not creating like Daniel often did, but was transfer of energy from one spot to another like he did with potential energy and traps. It had built the bomb elsewhere and was now transferring it to where it could kill them.

That realisation altered Daniel’s approach. He had doubted that he could match the monster one vs one, which meant there was no way he could do anything against prepared power. It would wash away any defences he enacted like they were not there.

He needed to disrupt the process.

How?

Ideas flared in his brain. The nature of the bomb was apparent. It was not like one of Daniel’s traps with carefully stored energy that used physics to express itself. Instead, what was being created was a magical equivalent that when triggered, would cause growth that would do the damage.

Dense.

The energy underneath was so concentrated that he knew instinctively that it would have glowed as an enemy in an animal sense. It was not a single piece instead it comprised hundreds of nodules. When they were set off, they expand rapidly in a straight line. It was basically a spear trap that grew once it had been triggered rather than being pushed up from their hidden positions in the wall or under the floor. Between one second and the next, in a mere instant, a two metre spike of wood would sprout, skewering everything in the way.

Daniel could see that with his standard plant awareness, which was only possible because of the energy concentrations. Usually, he would need to send his consciousness in order to get that level of detail. It felt like there were hundreds of finger sized clumps of energy piled next to each other along the entire expense of the construction. When the enemy’s mind triggered, each of them would grow a thorn on the end and then grow outwards till they hit something too strong to push through.

Connection, trigger… Those words and the consciousness already within the growth were stopping his mind from getting in.

Break the connection.

Practically, there was one choice.

Commands leapt from his conscious mind to his core.

Strength, speed. Overcook both of them. Earth armour.

Instructions spun out of his core, creating force energy along where all of his muscles were. Some of it was even in his brain, helping him speed up his thinking. Earth armour plated out on his fingers to turn them into a weapon. He needed them to be unbreakable.

Then he pushed his hand down with all of his strength. His fingers were not sharp, but the fibres of the plant’s outer shell still broke. Tearing more because of the speed that he was moving rather than an edge. The moment the tougher skin was pierced, and he was pushing into the soft centre his hand plunged deep within the structure of the improvised weapon the monster had created and out the other side.

If he couldn’t sever the connection magically, then he needed to do it the old-fashioned way.

There was a flash of surprise.

Daniel grinned at the conformation that he had shocked it. The simple fact was this was a last gasp effort. The cunning creature had prepared too well. Created the bomb elsewhere and then during the delivery it had layered defences over itself to protect itself and decided a mental assault. Daniel knew he could tear through those defences given time, but that was one thing he didn’t currently have.

The bomb was not ticking, but it might as well have been.

Welcome to fighting humans, he thought gleefully at the monster even as his hands ripped outwards, tearing apart plant fibre courtesy of his ridiculously boosted strengths.

Humans adapted and changed their strategies on the fly and the physical nature of his attack had surprised the consciousness opposing him. It recoiled for a moment as it attempted to understand what he had done. It was a mistake, and Daniel exploited that confusion mercilessly. His second hand plunged in and then he ripped sideways physically severing the link the plant had to the magic bomb it had placed under them. Massive sweep of his arms, tiny threads and fibres caught and broke.

It was like how it had rotted away vines to stymie him the first time, but this way was more violent and less disgusting.

Clean, simple, overwhelming power.

His job was not done.

While ninety percent of the trap had been yanked from the enemy’s control, that by definition was not a hundred percent. The remaining component was directly in front of him, primed and ready to blow.

Two ranks of defenders stood upon them.

It was trigger-happy.

They were standing on a bomb!

Daniel stood his legs slipping slightly on the mushy vegetation. He grabbed Luke and the juggernaut and yanked them backwards. The moment he started pulling them he released his enhanced strength. His breath was already catching in his throat and he knew he needed to preserve his power and part of his training plan was to get better at micro use of his abilities.

Speed still boosted him.

He lunged forward and grabbed two more people.

Strength

They went flying.

He went to move again, and he felt the change in the latent energies underneath him. Daniel reversed directions and flinched backwards.

Wisk!

The area in front of Daniel transformed as spears of wood exploded. They went straight up, sideways, and at every other angle in between. A destructive forest of spikes that filled the space.

The tank on the right who was closest to the tendril had seven of the shafts go through him. He had been armoured, not that it helped. The created spikes went through the leather like it was tissue paper and skin and bone with a similar amount of ease. The man on the left was luckier. Further away and potentially warned by Daniel’s action he got his shield mostly in place and it glowed red as magic activated to block the attack. Five of the nasty weapons were deflected a sixth pierced his foot.

The violence was as terrifying as a laughing super and the injured fell backwards, screaming in agony. Daniel tensed and looked down at the energy that still filled the space between his feet.

Nothing happened. There was no chilling sound of spears pissing through the air as the trap failed to react.

His ploy to remove it from the enemy’s network had been successful.

Luke was cursing as he picked himself up from the ground. Tempered fighters who had stood firm in the face of feral charges were screaming in fear. The web of spears was horrifying. Karolina was lunging forward to hack away the spear that was through the tank’s ankle so they could evacuate him.

This couldn’t be allowed to stand.

Anger and determination filled him.

Like he was in a trance Daniel’s hand swung and grabbed one of the many shafts that packed the space in front of him.

The area had been clear of anything apart from human bodies just seconds ago, and now it was worse than a bamboo forest. The spikes filled about a metre and a half of space, but there must have been almost a hundred of them sent out and they were solid wood.

The man who had been pin cushioned was beyond saving, the other man was being pulled to safety.

Fuelled with righteous anger, Daniel blazed his mind into the plant in front of him, directing the force of will down the spike. The opposing consciousness must have invested heavily into the ambush, because nothing opposed him. Daniel was ruthless in his mind, going in both directions. First, the dense, trapped log under his feet had the animalistic parasites burnt out of them.

Then he examined the trigger mechanism and his mind rippled through it once more. The simple trigger that had been put in place to allow the monster plant to attack remotely was torn away. Given the energy that it contained, it was important that Daniel secured it to prevent it from being used against him. The wall of spears in front of him was warning enough of the risk that the bomb represented. If the enemy plant snuck in and triggered it while they stood on top of it, they were all dead, so Daniel prioritised ensuring that couldn’t happen.

With his immediate safety shored up in about a second of furious patching, Daniel pushed further. The animal parts were fried as his mind zipped forward. It was ridiculously easy because the plant had apparently been using all the nearby plant mass to power the bomb. There was no resistance. Even while his main focus advanced, Daniel remained cautious. His mind drifted into the side rooms, burning away the enemy and converting the stored vegetation in each of them to his purpose.

In a wave of energy, purple receded to reveal green healthy plant matter.

He kept pushing and was internally stunned by his progress.

Nothing at all opposed him, and his power kept flooding out. He reached the end of the corridor, then around the corner, moving toward the core of the plant. Maybe it had overstepped and he could ride this wave to its death.

Twenty meters to go, fifteen… the wild hope came crashing down.

His easy progress was stopped dead. Not because he hit an immutable consciousness that denied easy advancement, but because there were no connections to push forward. Once more, it had amputated a limb to deny him the progress.

“Damn it.” He screamed, hitting the now innocent spikes in front of him.

The plant had quarantined off the section he had infected. Daniel did not blame it, he would have done the same if the situations had been reversed.

But still… he spit the spike again and it wobbled violently.

Only seconds had passed and he was panting, attempting to suck in as much breath as possible. Courtesy of the strength and speed he had used to both save Luke and severe the connection to the main part of the bomb he was suffering the effects of overexertion.

Despite having told himself he would not empty his mana, his head felt heavy from mana depletion. It had been worth it. The blow he had just struck to the plant was material and as they stood there in the corridor briefly they were safe because he commanded all vegetation in the nearby rooms and he could open up a pathway right to the enemy’s core when he was ready. We’re coming for you, he told himself internally.

The plant was going to die.

“Healing.”

“Tones.”

“No.”

There was a confusing hive of activity and Daniel realised they were still standing on the bomb.

That was not good enough. While he had little mana available, he had some, and he only needed a touch to influence the plant.

He communicated his desire for it to roll away from the centre and give them a path forward. There was a rumble and then, like the red sea parting the vegetation shifted and twisted and created a pathway forward when previously there had been none.

“Move forward.” Daniel snapped, breaking ranks to get to the safe area faster. “I’ve disabled it for now, but there’s a bomb underneath us.”

Everyone followed him once he said that. He was surprised that no one got trampled such was the rush. The green mass in front of him rolled to the sides, creating an alien corridor where the walls, floor and roof were made of vines, roots and the occasional luminous leaves. Daniel rushed forward with the sounds of people scrambling behind him. Once he was far enough to ensure everyone’s safety he collapsed.

The weakness from overextending mana, his mind and body was overwhelming.

“Form up. On guard.” Luke was shouting. “Protect Daniel.”

He lay there panting and strategizing.

It would die.

Chapter 51

In moments, he was surrounded.

“It’s okay,” he gasped. “Give me space.”

His consciousness remained in the plant volume he had stolen. It allowed himself to passively absorb all the information that was available. He was aware of of everything that touched it.

Encased as they were by a cage of leaves, roots, stems and vines, if a counterattack came, then he would know about it long before it became an actual threat. The defence provided by tonnes of plant matter was significant.

For now, he was safe.

Slowly, Daniel recovered and once he had a slither of energy, he sent it back to the spear bomb he had wrestled from the plant by severing its connection. There was so much energy within that construction that he couldn’t afford to let their opponent seize it.

The moment he touched it Daniel sighed in relief. There was no consciousness opposing him. The enemy had not snuck while he was distracted and snatched back control of the resource. Instead, it was as he had left it, ready for him to exploit.

Even with near zero mana it was a simple matter to send his power through the root and destroy the animal parasite from the plant. As the parasite died, Daniel relaxed further. He was not sure the ‘plant monster’ could control sections of opposing plant without the parasite to help it. If he was lucky, the bomb was now forever out of its reach.

Not that he would let himself make that assumption.

The potential stored was immense, but also incredibly unstable. Carefully he drained it away into the rest of the mass of the plant, which he controlled and by doing so created a reserve of energy that he could then use to enact other physical changes like if he needed to react to another all out attack.

Daniel opened his eyes satisfied that the immediate danger had passed.

“What happened?” Luke finally asked.

Everyone was deliberately not looking at the dead man behind them.

“It tried to sneak an attack under the dead vegetation. It got all the way under us, but I could stop most of it from triggering.”

“Is this becoming too dangerous?”

Daniel studied Luke and knew he asked that question pointedly. Then Daniel sighed. “It doesn’t matter if it is or not. We need to kill it now. It’s a plant, it’s growing. The longer we wait the harder our fight becomes.”

Luke did not look convinced. “Given time we could make a ballista. Shoot an arrow to a nearby building and then flying fox across. There’s an eight story tower less than a hundred metres away. We could hit that.”

Daniel imagined the effort that would go into that.

“I’ve seen what you can do. It’s possible.” Luke pressed. “And we shouldn’t assume there is no option out but through this thing.”

“How many others will die below if we do that?”

“Far fewer than if we’re all killed here.”

Daniel wanted to reject him outright, but he had a point. They could only save people if they were still alive.

“We kill the plant,” Rosica said darkly.

“How far does this go?” Alex interrupted, nodding up at the green that was over their head.

“Around the corner and to within ten metres of our target.”

Alex nodded like that explained everything.

“Really?” Luke asked, sounding surprised.

“Yes, you’ll be able to see for yourself. The monster put all of its focus and power into this surprise attack. When it failed, my counterstrike just blew it away.”

“And do you think you can stop it from using that technique again?”

Daniel glanced deliberately up at the mass of roots and vines that covered the roof and their floor. The material under his feet was solid. There was no way anything dangerous could be snuck under them. “If we stay within areas I explicitly control, then we’re safe.” Daniel was imagining slowly marching his plant domain forward and keeping them walking on his own vegetation, which would stop the monster from sneaking anything into them.

“Can we do that?”

“We’ll have to see once my mana recovered. But you destroy the plant and I will shift our defensive lines forward.”

“Are there any precautions available to make this safer?” Luke asked.

“Maybe if we click all of our fingers together we can magic the problem away.” Alex joked.

Luke rolled his eyes.

“Possibly,” Daniel conceded, addressing Luke as he considered the powers he had at his command.

Priscilla could help and even as the thought occurred, he got instant agreement from the mouse. She would be there aiding them.

What else was available? Daniel felt he was not using all the plant powers that he possessed. While thanks to the bomb the plant matter that he controlled had lots of potential to fight within it, there was a difference between raw undirected power and focused application. Daniel recalled the feeling when he had used the strange flavour of magic to create the sapient club. He had a need now for something similar.

If his ally could think for itself.

Excitement flared as he remembered the skills he was supposed to possess.

But how?

His mind sunk into the plant that he had already created. It welcomed him, and he felt the magical energy that he had drained from the spear trap. It was flush with it. There was power there to help them win, but not how it was currently structured. The simple fact was that his limited brain even supplemented by his core could not hope to control it sufficiently to fulfill its potential.

He needed an ally that could actively help him.

Two skills jumped out at him. He had not explored either fully. Intelligence and Algorithmic Instruction both of them represented a way to automate the potential that the plant he had converted.

“This might take a few minutes,” Daniel warned and then he let his mind sink to deep within the plant. He held an image of what he desired in his mind. A plant that would grow and grow and eventually help to kill terrible monsters. But more immediately, he needed something different. He wanted an intelligence designed to defeat the parasite that had corrupted the sister plant. It needed to protect itself from the contaminant that the animal parasite represented. Not only resist it had a duty to be part of a collective effort to purge it from the world. To stealthily reach out and infiltrate the corrupted tentacles and then to cleanse them. It would not be easy. It would need to drive its mind into the opponent. Relentlessly push the other consciousness back and then crush it.

Distantly, Daniel could feel his mana leaving him in a flood as it did something to the plant. It was imparting his will and his core churned away to develop what a framework that captured his desire. Part of him, his mind, was sliced, diced and then copied to provide the start of the framework. Not his soul or anything esoteric like that, but his thought patterns. The way he thought with an overlay of the mental image of purpose he had created. The wireframe that depicted the intricacies of his thought process mixed with the guide rails of the overriding purpose to eradicate the animal parasite and protect humans. They combined until there were no straight lines or rigid structures. Instead, they fused to create a nebulous mist of dream patterns that could mimic or potentially actually possess intelligence.

It was only the first step. Daniel knew that. He needed to get that new mind, as simple as it was within the plant. There had to be something to anchor it to, computational resources to hose what he had created.

Daniel released a pulse of energy.

Resonance greeted him as his signal was returned distorted, but the frequency changed slightly.

It was what he wanted, and the rush of feedback had come from everywhere.

Another pulse. This time he forced it to be localised.

Once more, there was a response, but it was like an echo. Where it originated was unknown and it seemed the feedback originated from a wide area.

Daniel focused, knowing he needed to do better. He marshalled his focus and released a sharp beat spread over a volume no larger than a dollar coin. This time, he witnessed the response. There were tiny crystals, microscopic in size throughout the plant, literally hundreds even in the small area he had targeted. He knew what they were. They had to be the same material that the zombie cores were made of and the interface grains in his head were the substance that made magic possible.

He probed a specific crystal and confirmed his hunch, and it also showed that it was empty. There were none of the complicated data routines that existed in his own version. These were a blank state ready to be infused with instruction and he knew was where the nebulous intelligence he had created needed to exist. Of course, it was too large to fit within those tiny specs of processing power. He needed much more than that to contain the consciousness cloud … The process… That his core had used to create intelligence had not been efficient.

Networking… communication. The program, so to speak that he had created needed to be fitted into those limited bits. There were core components and then supplementary stuff. Rules to link the different specs of processing were put in place. A framework was constructed where half the volume of each spec would be dedicated to the core rules and connection protocols. The rest of the extra bits that took the program from algorithms to be followed to adaptive intelligence would need to be spread out over tens and thousands of nodes. When that number acted in concert, the plant would be sapient, but if a small branch was chopped off, then the nodes would cease to function because it was an all-or-nothing situation. You needed everything connected for any of the mind to operate.

Daniel figured that was probably for the best. If it could function in an incomplete state, there was too much chance of something abnormal developing.

The design was complete, and now it was a matter of implementation. Daniel monitored everything. Energy kept building up within the plant supplied continuously by his core. He had initially been confused about its nature, but now he understood. The energy was acting like a Wi-Fi network transferring masses of information between each of the microscopic crystals.

His consciousness interacted with the tiny specs and linked them up. They were spread out and despite his first impressions they were not the residual processing from the animal parasite but a fundamental part of the plant. It had evolved to develop a rudimentary and potentially even a sophisticated intelligence. However, the plant had to be huge before the possibility presented itself. If you added up all the specs from a small tree worth of material, it might add up to a single one of those tiny lightning bug cores. Which lacked enough processing to contain a true intelligence.

While it was great, the plant had these crystals their density was frankly pathetic. An entire tree of volume not even being as significant as a core from a small bug? IT was ridiculous, and it was all he had to work with. But for once, it was not a limitation because of the volume of vegetation available. Over half a floor’s worth of material, potentially hundreds of trees were sitting there and his consciousness and his core imprinted the basic guided intelligence he had created into that network. His power linked all these specs and then they began to work together. It was a slow process, but he could feel the new consciousness forming. It responded to his desires, and it actively adjusted itself to match what he needed. Simple stuff from a strategy point of view, but unlike him, the plant could function along multiple paths at once. It had the potential to truly multitask. It might not be very smart, at least not yet, but it could have fifty semi intelligent parts of itself acting independently at once. That would allow it to assault the enemy at numerous points, which collectively would have to distract it and hopefully drive it mad, trying to plug all the mini invasions that would result from the attacks off multiple vectors. While the enemy had demonstrated some level of multi-tasking, it had also shown significant weakness, like with the bomb after attempting that it had been left exposed.

Then it was complete. His mana was no longer needed to act as a medium to transfer the vast quantities of data as the baby consciousness took over the task of sustaining its own structure.

Daniel had been expecting a mana headache but there was nothing. He checked its levels. For once, the effort had not cost him all of his reserves; he had almost sixty percent of the power left.

Had it worked.

His mind touched the plant, and a new consciousness greeted him. It was simple in the extreme, but it knew what it wanted to do. Human’s were its friends. It had a disease to eradicate and then a protector role to fulfil.

The ability had succeeded.

Had had created yet another form of sapient life.

They had an extra ally.

He opened his eyes a silly smile on his face.

Everyone was looking at him, but his eyes were only for Tamara.

She smiled tentatively and then nodded with determination. She was there to support him. “Dan, I take it you made another breakthrough.”

“Yes, the plant, let’s call him Derick.” He patted the green wall next to him. “Will be an active ally in this fight. We’re going to do this. Strike out from safety. Tenderise the enemy using the ranged attackers and then Derick will inch forward to seize the territory, allowing us to get closer. Together, we’ll crush the bastard.”

“And the tanks,” Luke asked.

“You hold the line and hold it off when it counter attacks. Because it will counter attack and when it does, we’ll stage a retreat. We want it to expend its energy uselessly. Then, when it weakens, I’ll retaliate. Well Priscilla, Derick and I will. We’ll beat it back and do it as many times as it takes to reach its central mass.” Personally, he hoped they could kill it by the purging method in that counterattack, but having felt how powerful it was he did not think that was possible.

“Lets do it.” Luke said.

With a smile Daniel stood up and in front of them the mass of vines parted, split up and creating a solid lined pathway for them to walk down.. They strode forward turned the corner and around halfway down the corridor another green wall greeted them.

“It’s behind that.” Daniel told them.

Rosica looked up and down clearly assessing the vegetation surrounding them. “That’s terrifying.”

“Yes.” Daniel answered. “This monster is.”

They walked in silence until they stood in front of the last wall. Their enemy almost certainly knew they were there but none of them said anything not wanting to provoke it.

“We’re almost there.” He whispered and pointed to his left. “It’s core is there. In a hotel room, two doors down. Back up.”

They obeyed till they had two metres space between them and the green wall. Daniel wouldn’t release it before being absolutely prepared. He expected there to be a mass of purple directly behind his green barrier, ready to attack. The enemy plant understood that the genuine threat was not the part of the plant that had been stolen, but the flesh and blood creatures that had done the pinching.

It was gunning for him more than the others. To the plant no one else would be as important as him, but in most ways that would make it easier. The more it ignored the other humans the better off they were. Forcing it to target someone in the back lines could only be a positive. If it targeted individual tanks Daniel knew they could be snatched away and killed before anyone else could react. Unlike the tanks, even if the plant grabbed him there would be people around to seize him back from its grasp and protect him.

“We can do this.” He promised everyone.

They had changed their set up. No longer were they positioned to protect from all sides. Instead, the tanks were at the front and they would rotate in and out if anyone got injured or was getting exhausted.

“Ready.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

The chorus of assent reached Daniel. With a thought, the wall fell away.