Chapter 87 (1/2)

Decklan danced forward, his eyes bright as the wounded Wyvern, the Tier II Raid Boss, backpedaled as fast as its stubby legs could carry it.

The only trouble that Decklan’s team had ever had was getting close enough to the Raid Boss to launch their attacks. Once it was alerted, the Raid Boss’s minions would swarm, making the kill almost impossible.

Generously, Dozer and his squad had smashed the minions into monster goop, clearing a very wide path to the boss. The two squads had rushed forward, overwhelming the Raid Boss’s monstrous health, hacking its body to pieces.

Now, on its last legs, Dozer reluctantly allowed Decklan to go forward alone, seeking to gain the stat gains of this Raid Boss. Ivan and Terra hurried after him. Terra to provide support, Ivan who watched them both with calculating eyes, hoping to swipe the stat gains for himself. In a way, it was amusing to Decklan, for his subordinates to be so greedy.

But something about Ivan’s attitude resurrected a vicious streak that Decklan had slowly let fall asleep in his stay in Donnyton.

If this fucker tried anything funny, he would regret it.

The Raid Boss spun around, its tail smashing towards them. Decklan gracefully leapt over it, earning himself another skill level in Jump, leaving long, jagged scratches across the skin of the Raid Boss as he sliced downwards in a practiced motion, barely missing a beat. Decklan had to hold back a grin. There was something about this life, with the system. It was just so much… fun.

Wisely noticing that he didn’t need her help, Terra retreated, avoiding the blow. Gritting his teeth, Ivan imitated Decklan, his much lower control making itself known as he smashed into the tail and rolled over it in a ball of limbs.

Decklan smiled slightly, but sprinted off after the Raid Boss, which had erupted into motion, dashing into a nearby thicket of trees.

Right when he was about to pursue, Decklan saw a thorny vine rising out of the ground in front of him, wiggling back and forth.

Frowning, Decklan crossed his arms. “But we did all the work.”

The vine pointed at Decklan, shook itself, then spun in a lazy circle, as if to say, “You are the one that brought it here, to me. I can’t be everywhere, now can I?”

Then it flicked the thorny vine, clearly telling him to wait. Decklan just sighed, exasperated.

He had been aware that The Ghosthound’s strange plant pet, Thorn, had been following his squad and mopping up a lot of the weaker minions of the raid boss, draining their bodies of blood and delivering them to Sam.

Sam was delighted at the intact bone structure of enemies killed this way, and had impressed upon Decklan that this was a pet of the Ghosthound, and he should allow it free reign, assisting it whenever possible.

The way Sam said Ghosthound annoyed Decklan, because it was not in a reverent way of speaking. It was more a distasteful pronunciation, as if Sam would prefer not to say it like that, but was only using it thus as a tool against him.

But still, Sam was technically correct. So Decklan just sat on his haunches, slowly recovering. Ivan ran up to him, eyes bulging.

“What are you doing! It’s getting away!”

Decklan made a helpless gesture. “...This is no longer just our quarry. We wait here.”

Ivan snorted and stomped forward. Thorn’s little vine turned to Ivan, then back at Decklan. Decklan just shrugged.

Ivan made it three steps before several thorny vines burst from the ground, wrapping his body up in a split second, binding his arms to his sides. One vine, covered with particularly jagged thorns, wound its way around Ivan’s neck, almost lazy in its motions.

The communication vine turned back to Decklan, almost in askance. Ivan struggled helplessly, his strength nothing in comparison to the powerful, constricting vines of Thorn. Very quickly his face turned red, and then purple, blood dripping out from 100 small cuts on his body.

“I would prefer you not kill him. He is a… capable subordinate.” Decklan said, simultaneously amused and intimidated. He had known it was powerful, but this…

Even if Decklan was prepared… could he dodge all of those vines…?

Thorn’s main vine slid over to Ivan’s suspended  body, patting him in several places, seeming to consider.

Then it unceremoniously dumped Ivan on the ground. He immediately began gasping for breath, scrambling away from the treeline, his eyes wide with fear.

Meanwhile, Thorn was now beckoning Decklan. Nervously, he followed it deeper into the trees.

The path of the Raid Boss was abundantly clear. The thing had crashed forward with as much delicacy as a tank. About a mile beyond the trees, they came upon the remnants of the Tier 2 Raid Boss, held bound by dozens of thorny vines. As he approached, Decklan saw the vines constrict, digging deeper into the monster’s flesh, several long scratches ripping open even more widely as the thorns dragged across it.

But what drew Decklan’s gaze was below the body.

As the vines tightened, several drips of blood were squeezed out, as if the Raid Bosses body was being rung like a wash cloth, and fell into the strange, toothy maw of Thorn.

This was the first, and only, Decklan hoped, time he would see Thorn’s core. It was a mass of soft flesh, a weird mixture of brown and pink and green, a red, slimy tentacle slithering up through its rot covered teeth to catch the drops of blood.

When he looked at it, all Decklan could think of was a strange, twisted turnip that had dozens of saggy, cancerous growths covering it. And from those growths stretched thorny vines, sinking into the ground beneath it.