Chapter 7: Razed

I was immediately on guard and ready for any attack that might come my way, crouched and ready to blast into the air through the use of my propulsion. I wouldn't be running away, though. At that moment there was only one alien lifeform to fight, so it might have been my only opportunity to easily eliminate someone without having to worry about fighting a large group where things could get messy.

The ground underneath me rumbled, and before I could react, a thick vine had wrapped itself around my right leg. I tried to jump anyway, firing hard with my manna propulsion, but all I managed to do was lift myself a few meters. The vine was still attached to my ankle, and as it flexed I could almost feel its grip tighten through my corona shield. It was just me luck to get stuck up against the only other person who had managed to do anything serious to the mannachoid in the final moments of the previous battle.

The vine whipped down, and I went with it. It tugged me into the ground, and then through the burrow that it had made to get over to me. Surrounded by rock, still being dragged through the ground by the vine, I did the only thing I could think of. Power built up in my hands, and I unleashed my energy beams. The vine retreated in an instant as the ground was blown away as if it had been hit by an underground charge. I stumbled to my feet, shook the dust out of my hair, and looked up at the lip of the crater I had formed with my blast. The alien was already there, its bulbous eyes trained directly on me in contempt. If it wanted a fight, it had one.

I activated my manna propulsion and leapt through the air at incredible speeds, but the alien had been waiting for me to make exactly that move. Vines swung out of the wall of the crater as I passed, forcing me to dodge and weave between them. I managed to make it out unscathed and flipped right over the alien. I landed with a thud but made sure to stay light on my feet. I wouldn't let myself get caught unawares by an underground attack by this guy again.

It was time to go on the offensive. With my boosted speed, enhanced even further by precision utilisation of my manna propulsion, I was able to close the gap between myself and the alien before I could even blink. Since the alien was adept at long-range combat I figured that getting in close and personal would be the best move. Unfortunately, I'd had no martial arts or fighting training back in my homeworld. I threw a punch with my right arm, while fast it was wide and sloppy, and all the alien needed to do was lean back to avoid it.

"For the Human who managed to take out a Mannachoid so simply, your skills are surprisingly… unrefined," The plant alien snarled, dodging strike after strike. "That is all that can be expected from a lowly human, I suppose."

"What the hell do you know about Humans?" I snarled back and lashed out with a kick.

The alien dodged again with one of its own vine attacks, the thick appendage wrapped around the creature's trunk and tugged it away.

"Your kind razed my world to the ground, countless forests burned," The disgust and anger were clear in its voice. "You shall be how I take my revenge!"

Four vines came at me at once, their tips sharp and jagged, this alien was playing to kill. I jumped over all four with my propulsion, but they changed their angle almost as quickly as I could move. Once again, my energy blasts were my only solution, so I launched a volley of energy directly below myself. The vines disintegrated as soon as the beams touched them, so they were strong but their durability was almost nonexistent compared to the amount of power I could output in a single blast of my beams. I could use that.

I concentrated the power from an energy beam in my right hand and allowed it to pool there until it wrapped around my fist. I was limited in the abilities I had, I could punch hard and throw out high-intensity energy beams, and that was basically it. Neither of those would be able to take this opponent out alone, it was too skilled, a trained warrior. That didn't mean I couldn't catch it off guard.

I blasted myself forward with a manna pulse out of my free hand, it sent me spinning, but that was exactly what I had hoped for. I careened toward my enemy like a torpedo, and while it wasn't exactly a very professional or well thought out looking move, I was going for the area of effect. I swung out as I got close and launched my energy beam at the same time. It lanced through the air in a wide arc, saturating everything in my path with energy. The ground was torn up around my alien opponent, and while I couldn't see it through all the dust that had been kicked up, I was sure I must have hit it.

I landed back on the ground just as badly as ever but managed to kick myself up to my feet before I'd even stopped skidding. I didn't know what the humans of this universe were like, I didn't know if they'd truly destroyed this creatures planet like it said they had, but one thing for sure was that I wasn't planning on being like them at all. I was doing this so I could live my best life, so I could help the people of the galaxy against whatever the hell Null Space invaders were. So I could, eventually, die a good death.

The dust began to clear and I couldn't believe my eyes. The alien was still standing, and not only that, it had crafted itself a battle armour of plants.