Chapter 81: Welcome back, Verminus Plant

Normally, after a week or so, Kanan would have another Breeding Ceremony, but today, that wasn’t the case. Instead, he was called to the healers’ hut on the south side of the village, a new hut for the warriors to use instead of running all the way back to the medical side of the village.

When Kanan walked inside, he saw three people, two men and one woman, convulsing like crazy, green vein-like markings spreading through their bodies as blood dripped down their noses.

"Kanan! That plant is back! It’s got them!" Golin was in charge of this healing hut branch; the main one was Yala’s healing hut. He was already skilled enough to mend wounds, ease pain, and even reattach limbs as long as the severed limb was intact and available.

Though his skills weren’t on the level of Yala, he was more than capable of acting on his own, especially with the aid of a few herbalists.

"The Verminus Plant again, huh? How are their conditions? Are they critical?"

Golin shook his head, his hands cycling over each patient. Beads of sweat pooled on his forehead as he strained himself to keep each of them alive by not having the plant progress deeper into their bodies.

"No, but I can’t stop this plant from spreading through their bodies for long. It’s constantly absorbing my spirit energy."

’Think, Kanan, think! What would be the weed killer of this era? Dammit! Weed killer is a type of poison, right? Then could we poison a person’s body so that the nutrients absorbed by the plant are tainted?’

"Kanan, any solutions?" Nala was standing next to him, thinking of anything that could save these three warriors. Losing three warriors wouldn’t hurt the village in the long run, but that didn’t mean Nala didn’t care for their lives.

"Telah, do you have any idea how to stop them? I know you said that you didn’t before, but surely you can think of something?" Before proposing his idea, Kanan wanted to cover all of his bases in case.

Since Telah was familiar with the Verminus Plant, he hoped she had an answer. Unfortunately, she did not.

"As I told you before, we had to kill anyone and everyone who contracted this plague. Simply taking their lives wasn’t enough either, as the plant could still suck the nutrients from the dead body. So we burned them after putting them out of their misery."

"Telah speaks the truth. I carried out the burning of the bodies myself." Anuwat interjected. She too was here for the knowledge she possessed. Though wary of the Nemean tribe, she knew that if they couldn’t deal with this, then it would affect her people as well.

"Dammit. Okay, I have an idea. It’s crazy and might not work, but it’s better than nothing."

"Please speak, Kanan." Golin desperately wanted to find a way to help them since healing wasn’t an option.

Turning to the herbalists, he asked them a simple but insane question. "Do you know how to handle poison? Specifically, the Angler Poison?"

Everyone, even Telah and Anuwat, turned to him with shock in their eyes.

Nala didn’t understand. She didn’t know why Kanan would suggest such a thing. It was outrageous. "What?! You wish to kill them? Why? Shouldn’t we try to save them before resorting to drastic measures?!"

"Calm down, Elder Nala. I don’t want them to die, but if we operate in a specific way, we could save them. Listen. The Verminus Plant connects itself to a part of the body, specifically a part that is rich in nutrients, right?"

Golin answered. "Yes. The stomach, lungs, liver, and so on. Sometimes, even the heart and brain, but those are rare cases, and we’ve only seen them in animals long after they were dead."

"This method might not work for cases like that, but think about this. If we poison their body with the Angler poison, while it will hurt them, the plant will be absorbing a substance that would harm it."

"But angler poison doesn’t affect plant life." Telah reminded him.

The Nemean Tribesmen didn’t like that she was the one who said that since they had used that poison on the tribe twice.

Nala and Kanan kept things professional, but Golan and the Herbalists gave her a nasty look for a few breaths before fixing their faces.

"Yes, you’d be correct, Telah. But think about what the plant is absorbing. Blood, water, and bodily fluids. But that’s not all; even your spirit energy is being absorbed. Do you know what all of those things have in common?"

No one answered, so Kanan revealed the answer.

"They are all things that the body either needs or something that won’t harm the body. So what if we do harm the body? Wouldn’t that then harm the plant?"

"T-That could work, actually." Nala would have never thought of that. She was glad Kanan was the Shaman.

"But what about the patient? It would kill them as well." Golin argued

"You’d be right, Golin. This is why we’d instead use your healing ability to preserve the vital parts of the person’s body. If things don’t work out, we’ll give them the cure. There is nothing we can lose, since everything we can do will result in the patient’s death. I hate to say this, but we might have a few deaths before we learn how to deal with this threat."

Golin didn’t like this idea; neither did the herbalists, but even they knew that they were backed into a corner here. Therefore, it didn’t take them long to come to a conclusion.

"I’ll start preparing the poison." An herbalist spoke

"Good. Elder Nala, please inform Healer Yala about this. We’ll need as much help as we can get." Kanan turned around to leave the hut as an idea came to his head.

"Where are you going?" Telah wondered

"We’re dealing with a plant, right? Then maybe someone who can control plants could help."