Chapter 53

The corridor in front of them thinned out till it resembled the corridor before their last entanglement. They were surrounded by walls of green. Roots that raised him thirty centimetres off the floor and a covered roof that meant there would be no swinging weapons with overhead blows. Finally, a green barrier at the end of the tunnel separated them from whatever lay beyond.

“Ground hog day,” Alex joked. “But what ten metres closer?”

“Something like that.”

They approached the barrier that was only metres away from their target and Daniel pulsed animal sense to confirm what he already knew. The centre of the animal and plant was right behind the wall he had created.

“We should start further back this time.” Luke suggested and then set up almost five metres from the war. Dutifully, the tank line formed in front of him.

“No retreating.” Daniel reminded them. “We’re holding his position not luring it to over commit. If you’re getting pressed too hard, I will shut it out using my power and our plant. Are we all ready?”

There was a series of grunt of affirmation and the occasional articulated ‘Yes.’

“On three.” Daniel counted down and just before he hit one a glow of magic spread out over all the shields.

Then Daniel asked Derick to start the fight.

The plants rolled aside and then others flashed forward with the plant equivalent of axes. Purple flesh went flying as the sharpened brown blades slashed through the massed purple defences.

Every bit helps, he reminded himself, as the enemy countered, sending its attacks rushing forward almost unaffected by the axe attacks.

The surging vegetation was met by a concentrated grouping of spells. As they had organised, the magic users focused on the centre while the tendrils that Daniel was going to hijack for the direct mind to mind battle went wide. Derick and Daniel worked together. The plant made use of its multi-tasking to simultaneously open up tens of avenues of attacks and freed up Daniel to apply his primary strength of honed will power to assault the enemy consciousness directly. His consciousness flicked from spot to spot. He only lasted a moment in each area as his power was frustrated by the concentrated will of the enemy and it severing the connection between the spot where Daniel was connected to and the rest of its body. When it was too slow to respond, which was over half the time, he could burn away small areas of the animal parasite, compounding the damage that he was inflicting.

Despite its desperate attempts to stop him, the destruction Daniel was unleashing built up. If they could keep the coordinated strikes going, then it would only be a matter of time before it would succumb to their steadily mounting pressure.

Derick kept pressing. The size of the incursions were irrelevant, from large to tiny the monster needed to respond. They could all see the small areas of spreading green infecting the previously healthy purple. The green infection never more than a few centimetres but each one disrupted the monsters communication with other parts of it and each converted area had to be monitored, contested or cut from the network and usually the last or else Daniel directed by Derick would use it as a more dangerous staging area for a new assault.

They were only a metre away from the hotel room door when the battle between Daniel, his ally plant, and the enemy creature became a stalemate. No matter how hard he pushed the reduced surface area meant that everywhere they struck the enemy plant was able to rebuff his magic. Back and forth they struggled neither group winning. Mentally, it was stronger than Daniel, but was frustrated by Daniel’s ability to fight on multiple fronts. His head was throbbing, but he kept his eyes open to watch the entire battle. The combined magic of their team was tearing a hole through the central mass of the plant.

Killing it, Daniel realised. The others were killing it while he provided a distraction a little further and they would have carved an approach to the sensitive core.

There was a shift and for a fraction of a second Daniel was not directly opposed and the vine he was doing rapidly turned green.

Then his instincts kicked in and if it was not fighting him then what?

There was a massive surge of purple growth in the centre cavity that the ranged fights had been carving out. The enemy had recognised its mounting vulnerability and acted to seal it.

It was a minor setback. If they had done it once, they could do it again.

He shut his eyes in response and focused on doing more damage. Once more, it was a stalemate situation and Daniel tried to move faster in order to break it. He rushed behind his plant’s attacks, frying the animal part of the vines.

Daniel pressed relentlessly. He had promised to watch the others, but he didn’t have an opportunity. The best defence was offense, and that was what Daniel threw himself into.

“What the fuck!”

The yell made Daniel open his eyes. In front of them, like a horror movie, a massive vine over a metre wide formed and was coiled like the little vines did before lashing forward. Daniel could only imagine how much damage that could do and he was not convinced that the tank’s magic stop an attack on that level.

Derick felt his burst of emotion and almost instantly nine different connections were created to it. Daniel flexed his power and drove his mind forward as he allowed his full concentration to go into disrupting that attack. Green rippled on its surface, purple swelled and expelled the infected spots, the entire arm quivered as massive forces classes within. Dark missiles were launched forward, along with frost nova’s and then an arrow exploded on a lower tendril. Fault lines radiated out from where the attack had originated and squeezed between Daniel’s magic and the enemy’s weapon disintegrated shaken apart into fibres no larger than a finger.

Daniel gasped and then sagged slightly.

His head was pounding. That sort of fight was intense.

“That’s it,” Tamara yelled. “Ranged are out of magic.”

What? Daniel felt like the battle had been going for seconds but now that he looked everyone around him was sagging in exhaustion as if they were out of mana.

“Charge,” Luke screamed.

What? Daniel thought a second time within moments.

Charge?

That was not the plan, but without hesitation the entire line of tanks with Luke in its centre sprinted forward. There was no regard for personal safety. In seconds they were outside the defensive shield of green that had been holding off attacks from above, the sides, below and behind.

Daniel froze.

He did not know what to do. While mentally exhausted, he had been keeping his mana in reserve for an emergency. As a result, he was three quarters full.

In disbelief, he watched Luke and others had entered the hole they had created. Purple went flying as they used skills to carve their way towards the centre. Dave was amongst them his mace turned into a scythe by his ice magic unleashing immense magic.

What do I do?

Daniel knew the pointlessness of the question. There was not time for doubts or delays. If the enemy was a given a moment to think, he recognised exactly how this would end up.

That charging group of eight were in mortal danger and despite it not being part of the plan, Daniel had no choice. Luke’s charge committed him to a single path. If he wanted to save them, the only option was violence.

Roaring internally, Daniel pressed the attack against the monster. He unleashed everything in a wave of power to distract it.

His mind was intermingled with Derick’s and the enemy. He could feel the stupid, vindictive, and alien intelligence’s sudden surprise at the change in pattern that Daniel’s use of mana forced. Metres of its protection failed and then it rallied against him, fighting him to a standstill, just like it had been doing most of the battle.

Daniel knew the smart thing was probably to retreat to the area he controlled and leave the idiots who had charged forward to their chosen fate. But he wouldn’t abandon his friends. Logic did not matter anymore, so he pushed to distract it. It felt like a hundred percent of the monsters’ focus was on him… Instead of fighting smart, Daniel drove harder to keep its attention. His attempt got precisely nowhere.

The resources being thrown against him were immense. His mana dropped to zero, and he pulled his consciousness back unable to continue the remote fight.

He had failed.

With his eyes wide opened and helpless to do anything beyond physically fighting, he looked at what was happening.

Instinctively, his hand grabbed Tamara’s she too was mana less, and he stared at the group who had rushed ahead. They had made progress. They were in the hotel room that had contained the core… maybe.

Whoomph!

A wave of noise and air hit him as they vanished from sight as the purple vines that had covered the roof slammed downwards.

“No,” he screamed.

Chapter 54

Daniel staggered slightly as he attempted to compensate for what he imagined was a blast wave from the plant’s attack. An explosion of wind that had come from the force that the vegetation had been driven into the ground with. They all stared in disbelief at the wall mass of purple that filled the space that had been empty.

Someone gasped in shock next to him.

Eight people! They shouldn’t have…

Daniel instinctively reconnected with Derick and then through to the purple vegetation in front of him.

What else was there to do but to continue to oppose it?

Maybe retreat.

Create the ballista and escape the tower that way.

Flee like the cockroaches humans were in this new world.

If they had stuck to the plan…

Nothing opposed his mind as it pushed forward.

For a moment that stretched longer than it ever should have, Daniel waited for the shoe to drop. The counterattack to come roaring out from the mass in front of him or the back stab as it struck behind or maybe just the emptiness to be replaced with its steely will.

It didn’t happen.

He was amongst the corrupted flesh of the opponent and no conscious power opposed him. Derrick’s mind swept down through the enemy’s plant network. His ally was looking for an enemy to oppose, and Daniel could sense its mind dropping multiple floors unopposed.

It was not the right strategy. The enemy was in front of him, in the room just there. Mana-less or not, Daniel needed to know and despite his weakness he pushed forward. Damage it, distract it, buy time for the others to escape. There was no resistance. If he had fifty mana, he could purify the entire area. An area that was concentrated with power equivalent to the spear trap that had almost got them.

Shock filled him. “It’s dead.” Daniel said flatly, expressing what he was feeling out loud.

His body felt light, his stomach weak, the whole world felt distant.

Plant sense.

And… Luke’s group was not all dead.

Speed.

Two steps, and he was on the edge of the purple mass. To preserve stamina, and not leave himself exhausted too quickly, he dropped speed

Strength, Earth Armour.

Both abilities engaged, and he reached under and with a gasp of effort tore a chunk of plant material upwards. It resisted him and he pulled hard and then it gave abruptly and he fell on his bum.

They could hear the cries of pain from underneath the vegetation.

Speed,

It let him blur back into position to tear out another root. A touch of magic and a larger one to the side turned green, and he had it flex and then push up toward the sky. It burnt out his regenerated mana, but hopefully it would relieve some of the pressure on the people trapped beneath the evil plants’ final revenge act.

They were still alive. And in a world of miraculous healing, that was great news. It meant no matter the injuries there was hope providing they could be reached in time.

Everyone else was rushing forward to help, but Daniel took one look at the chunk he had removed with all of his strength and how much material there was to go and realised digging them out physically would be too slow.

Why weren’t things like mana potions? he screamed in his head. A single mana potion and with a wave of his hand he could lift the vegetation away and then let the healers work their miracles.

Me help.

Priscilla was next to him. There was no consideration about chips, just a quiet determination to save them. She pushed her consciousness into the plant.

Do what? Is best?

First step was to reprogram the plant or to at least explain what he needed. While Derick could not defeat the animal parasite efficiency, he could do the heavy lifting once it was burned away. But to communicate what was needed Daniel needed power that he didn’t possess.

Use mine.

Her decision was instant. Her will absolute.

He accepted the offered energy and cycled it through him.

Hurts.

He stopped. Her small body in his hand was trembling. What sort of friend would he be if he deliberately hurt her.

Keep going.

There was determination and resolve in her voice.

Daniel still didn’t want to do it. She was being incredibly brave, but someone else directly using your mana was clearly an agonising experience, and Priscilla deserved better.

Keep going!

She stamped her tiny feet as she gave the mental order. He still hesitated, but her will got stronger.

You do.

Okay.

Daniel restarted the process, extracting what was needed, drawing as little mana as he could from even as she involuntarily whimpered.

The process dragged on for ages, but in real time it occurred almost instantly because the mouse was slowing time. Daniel applied the mana Priscilla was gifting him to teaching Derick about the support he needed or more precisely used his Intelligence ability to supplement what he had already created. He gifted Derick the skills to move the plant matter away from humans and to do it in a way to minimise damage to the fragile bodies. It was best described as giving the plant ally a crash course in human physiology.

Now we have to burn out the parasite and make it our own. Daniel told Priscilla.

Me ready.

Mentally, she turned her head, biting her lip to prepare for the pain of Daniel borrowing her mana once more. It was unnecessary. He wasn’t required to do this next step and while there was another option he wasn’t going to put her through that again.

No. He told her. You can do this directly. You know how.

In his mind, he rehearsed his own skill while she followed the process. Then making use of the tiny amount of mana that had regenerated to show her the efficient method that used the energy in the surrounding plant to burn the parasite, as opposed to consuming his own mana directly.

Just the stuff close to us. He reminded her. He visualised the plant mass around and over the trapped humans. That was all they needed to do.

With a throbbing mana headache, he observed with his plant magic what was happening.

Priscilla’s magic danced through the intertwining leaves and behind her presence Derick moved and used his powers to lift the vegetation upwards.

Daniel opened his eyes to a beautiful sight. Green flowed out from where Priscilla was standing, turning the unnatural purple into a dark pure green and then, as one that mass of vegetation lifted.

The screams intensified and once the carpet of plant matter was lifted, broken bodies were revealed.

“Healers!” Tamara yelled.

Cindy was running past him. Daniel engaged his speed to catch up to her. “Use my health.”

She did not even look at him sprinting straight to her dad’s very mutilated looking body. Her hand grabbed his and then it felt like it was being pressed against a burning frypan. Pain radiated up his arms and then instead of scorching on the skin it was like something was trying to pull his stomach out via his arm pit.

He tried not to scream. It was not as bad as the electricity cores; he told himself. Maybe he lied, maybe he didn’t. The two situations were not relatable. In one, his insides had rebelled in the second he was being savagely fed on.

Weakness filled him and he slumped.

Cindy dropped his hand.

“Use me.” he heard Tamara say.

Daniel collapsed, unable to move. His body felt like it had run multiple marathons and then been tenderised immediately afterwards. The only sense that appeared to be working properly was his hearing

Tamara’s grunted in pain. The wailing from the side stopped. Not cut off by a death rattle, but more the process of sanity being restored courtesy of a flood of healing… or at least that’s what he imagined.

All around him there were whimpers and sobbing, what sounded like death rattles as people tried to breathe, as their lungs were filled with liquid.

Cindy moved.

Then another previously healthy man screamed in agony as she ripped out some of his health to save one of the frontline fighter’s life. There was a thump as that man hit the ground.

A primal grunt of agony from another volunteer. That desperately sucking breath through liquid ceased replaced by more even breathing.

“I need more.” Cindy demanded stress filling voice.

And a chorus of assents reached him as those still standing volunteered to help.

In his mind, Daniel remembered those crushed bodies, the blood puddles he had walked through. A hole ripped in the stomach, but still sprouting blood. Had they arrived in time? Or were some of them already dead?

There was a throat constricting scream.

“Anyone else.” Cindy’s voice was filled with despair. There were no offers of volunteering. Daniel had not been counted, but based purely on people falling she had gone through a lot of them.

“Do me.” Daniel ordered, forcing himself to stand to show his strength.

When he looked over their fighting group, they looked like the remnants of a thousand strong force that had been routed. The only people left were the survivors who had been left for dead. Cindy and he were the only ones still standing. He was barely on his feet and Cindy had not gone lightly on herself. She swayed and only remained upright because of her iron will. Logically, Daniel knew that more than half of the fallen had done so because of volunteering for healing. But the visuals of the scene was something else.

Cindy’s hand touched his. She smiled apologetically.

It felt like a monstrous bird had raked its claws from his stomach down to his foot. He keened involuntarily in pain. Then long pins were jabbed into his back. Hundreds of them.

He collapsed helplessly once more with all of his muscles failing him.

Hopefully, that had saved a life.

Why had they run forward? Daniel had warned them that he couldn’t protect them if they left the surrounds of the corridor that he controlled.

Yet Luke had ordered it and led half a dozen people forward and had been successful. The plant was dead, or at least the evil mind that had commanded it, but at what cost?

There were sounds of movement.

Then a gasp of horror and then crying that told its own story.

Daniel tried to move, to comfort, to help, but whatever Cindy had taken from him robbed him of that ability.

The crying was escalating.

Someone or multiple someones had died.

“No. Why?” a girl called out.

He did not want to open his eyes to see who it was, but ideas flowed around him. Names. The sort of people that would get this response.

He did not know who it was, but his eyes watered, because he sort of knew who had died.

One of them… Because everyone down here fighting this horror was family.