Chapter 89: Feed

Chapter 89: Feed

Stone shattered and Vesper instantly slashed her blade. The golden light cut a blazing arc and severed the wooden root. Glossy clear sap with a faint scent of copper splattered from the gap.

The section of severed root then casually laid there for a moment before it writhed, a number of fibers unspooling like a myriad worms, and attached itself back to the cracks of the stones with a quiet rustle before it crawled back.

Sky stared in disbelief, "You’ve got to be kidding me."

It reattached itself back to the tree, fibers stitching back cleanly within a second as it formed a sturdy singular mass with no single mark on the pale bark. Chloe’s voice turned urgent as her tactical overlay flickered wildly in analyzing the fast cell cellular regeneration at hand.

"It regenerates."

Another one came snapping towards them, this one a fat twisting root.

Vesper met it head on.

CLANG!

The collision sent her heels skidding backward and the stone floor left black smudges on her boots as she fought to get a stable stance against the sheer force of the impact. The golden arcane light flared from her blade dangerously, feeding some of the energy but barely keeping up.

Sky was already attacking. His [Blood Blade] shot forward.

SLASH!

Another, and another, severed root after root but three more sprouted from the gaps of stones in its place. Blackish bloody streaks trailed along the stale cavern floor in the wake of his flurry of slashes.

"There’s too many!"

Chloe ducked as a root swung overhead, the air making her visor rattle, nipping off a couple strands of her hair. "I know," Sky grunted as he parried a stabbing root at his ribs which then forced Sky’s eyes to narrow. They simply could not continue like this, their stamina was not endless but the resources of the tree were seemingly endless.

The tree was toying with them, testing them. Hemming them in. Forcing them closer, closer, and closer to the tree, the source of the root that was constantly limiting their options of movement.

Sky’s eyes narrowed at the sight of his companion’s tactical analysis; what they were doing, where they were going was not by chance. The tree was herding them in just like bait fishing men, using the roots as the fishing line. The trees in the grove were working in tandem to shift themselves to block their retreat. A tightening cordon, of both roots and trees, that would finally converge into the massive trunk with them, the prey, at the center.

His expression changed, "Vesper!"

She blocked another one, a brilliant golden sparks dancing from her blade. "What?"

"It’s herding us."

Chloe stopped moving, her scanner tracking the huge movements of the whole cavern, "He’s right."

Sky turned his eyes to the large trunk at the other side of the cavern. The huge thick structure of white bark loomed over them like an ancient deity as if it was breathing in a sickening rhythm.

"It wants us close."

The tree pulsed,

THUM.

Such a massive push of the roots that it ruffled the air and sent black cracks spiderwebbing from the epicenter, the center of the huge trunk. A thick root shot out from under Sky’s feet but he jumped back, the air pushing against his spine just barley missing the jagged wood. But another shot at his back,

and another.

A thick ring of white bone-like roots surrounded him, keeping him boxed away from his companions.

Sky’s eyes went wide. "Sky!" Vesper shot forward, her Holy Scepter Blade raised to break the wall but the roots reacted faster thanks to their unnatural speed given the rigid structure they had.

A thick strand of them wrapped around his ankle, holding him down, crushing his leather boot while another arm of it coiled around his arm, twisting it up as if it wanted to dislocate his arm. The root snaked in another one, right at his chest.

Sky was forced to slash and scream, "Get off me!"

[Blade Blood] severed the first, then the next until finally the last one wrapped around him, the thick pale fiber squeezing against his ribs as if it was a giant serpent constricting its pray, stealing every lungful of air. The moment the wooden root touched his armor, a sudden jolt of pure spiritual coldness ran up his spine.

It wasn’t physical cold, nor was it burning heat. It had stabbed into his very soul, a needle full of the bitter cold of winter piercing into every sinew of his being until Sky’s eyes unfocused. The colors of the world bled away in the hazy blurriness of the cavern until everything turned grey. His lungs failed, a deep wheezing of fresh air becoming an unachievable distant dream as his chest convulsed in a failed effort.

For the first time since stepping foot into the Dungeon Realm...Sky was hearing something. Or more accurately, Sky was sensing the sensation of sound.

But the sensation was not through his inner ear. No, the sound did not echo within the air of the cavern through vibrating particles of the air like usual. No, it came from deep within his soul.

Feed. Sky’s eyes narrowed. The tree was speaking. The tree wasn’t saying anything with syllables of words but more like thoughts, concepts, ideas were being forced into his head. The sensation was akin to drowning as the dark pressure weighed more with every passing moment, thick with a strange dark need. It was telling him of the necessity to feed.

Feed. His pupils contracted as his veins throbbed. He could feel the mass of dark shadowy energy in his very soul, the power well of power that was the source of his unique magic. It was stirring, pulled at by the mysterious feeling of being trapped in the strange sensation of his heart being pulled out from him. The roots were trying to hook into that very depth of power, to drag it out.

Sky was being preyed on. No, it was trying to eat his soul, the source of power for him.