Chapter 216 Vine Slave

For a moment, Jay was distracted as he thought it quite odd: He had hunted the lizards, the lizards hunted the bear, and the bear hunted him.

“Almost like a circle of life. Or death.” he shrugged.

Jay planned to run as soon as he reached the other side – he didn’t expected the bear to follow him across the mushroom path. Furthermore, he also didn’t expect the lizards to try and kill him either.

For this reason, he waited for a moment, curious to see what would happen.

The underground lizards was all swimming towards the unsuspecting blood beast, but he couldn’t help but wonder one thing.

“Why didn’t they attack the skeletons…?”

Of course, the lizards relied on their sense of smell, but the skeletons Jay had were ancient, pulled from a mass grave of Helvetians.

The only smell coming from them was death and decay. A putrid rot.

Suddenly, the skeletons holding off the bear were given some respite as the bear stopped attacking for a single moment.

It felt some fruit on its flesh – it knew it had to cut it off or a tendril would pull it apart.

It lifted its paw and gazed as a growth of red fungus that became as hard as stone.

To the bears surprise, there was no tendril attached to the fruit.

Suddenly, another one attached to one of its other feet, and below its body more red fruit appeared in the jaws of lizards, all poking up to try and attach one to it.

The beast didn’t even roar, there was no time to be angry. It knew it had to move.

It charged forward again, the last spear crumbled and snapped as it pierced the bears skin, though it ignored the remaining skeletons which were nearly dead anyway.

Jay remained and watched on, and soon his hopelessness disappeared as it was replaced with an excited joy.

“I guess it’s not a circle of death. It ends with me.” he smiled.

This was his chance at survival and he was going to make the most of it.

Seeing that the bear was now alarmed, Jay made the remaining skeletons jump and hold onto it, to try and slow it even more.

Jay quickly created another bone pile and summoned two skeletons which had just died. The last of his mana left his body, and his mind was now feeling slow and numb.

Thankfully, he had two more spears left which he had previously crafted.

If only for a moment they would slow it down, but that would be all the time that the underground lizards would need.

The mushrooms attached to the bears paws already slowed it down enough so that every now and then a few lizards could attach another fruit, which only slowed it down more.

The process would be a snowball effect.

Jay’s skeletons rushed back into the field. The beast had crossed the half-way point but was slowing down.

In a few moments it already had more fruit attached to its legs; some unfortunate lizards also joined the mass of fruit attached to its legs – though they were quickly pulverized into bloody messes.

Jay could tell the beasts energy was dwindling; it had been fighting skeletons and pursuing him all this way. Plus, it had already lost a deer after a long chase too.

Now that the vines were on its back he could see every one of its muscles straining and being pushed to their limits, almost snapping with each step the beast would take. It was like it was walking through thick mud, or even a tar pit. It wouldn’t last long.

Nevertheless, it maintained a reasonable speed. Even with a skeleton clinging to its body and the large growing balls of hardened red fruit on each of its legs.

It was slower than before but was still quite fast, all things considered.

At least until it made it to the fresh spear-wielding skeletons.

It was stopped again, not even having the strength to push past two spears now.

The lizards were still working diligently, and even more quickly, as they sensed it slowing down.

Jay smiled for a moment, thinking he had won, but his smile was shortly wiped away.

Suddenly, the vines moved again, seeming to get smaller as they moved around the bears body.

“What the fuck?” Jay couldn’t believe his eyes.

The vines suddenly pierced the bears skin and coiled around its legs; they quickly gave it a boost of strength to get through the small roadblock.

“Dammit…”

If it got past the skeletons, there would be nothing he could do. His mana dwindled so low that it may as well be zero, and the beast would slay him without restraint.

Both of them had low energy too, so Jay wouldn’t be able to run far – though the beast would still be able to travel further than he could without his skeleton cohort carrying him along.

“I didn’t want to have to use these…” Jay thought, pulling out an acid-filled crystal from his inventory, “But it seems I have no choice.”

The crystal looked as harmless as a jewel resting in his hand, but inside was acid which could melt through giant stone statues and pyramids floors alike.

The vines re-enforced the beasts muscles and allowed it to push past the spears and crack them in half. Again, it ignored the two skeletons, Red and Sweeper, and it went to dash past quickly.

Meanwhile Jay looked at the skeleton clinging to its flesh, and suddenly he had a better idea.

Jay directly send a bunch of thought commands to Red, the stress in each thought making the skeleton respond instantly.

Red grabbed a snapped piece of bone spear. Standing near a mushroom tendril, it found one with a fruit still attached.

A simple flick was all it took.

“Can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner…” Jay shook his head.

Red used the broken spear to push the red fruit towards the bear, and it exploded onto the vines.

It wouldn’t have worked it the bear was still as fast as it’s original speed, but now each of its paws was covered in a bulky mass of the red fruits, sand, and some dead lizards scattered throughout.

The bear only noticed after it pulled against the tendril. To Jay’s surprise, the tendrils were stronger than they looked, and refused to give way.

The bear turned its head. With a pained roar it shook its body, and the vines moved again.

Some of the vines were ripped off; a necessary sacrifice to keep its life.

However, this pause allowed even more fruit to attach to its paws and legs, while the dastardly skeleton flung another tendril-attached fruit towards it.

This time, it stuck right onto its fur, exploding and growing into a large red plaster and seeping deep into its skin.

Jay smiled like a fiend as he watched. His plans were coming to fruition; literally.

The beast still clung to hope as it tried to pull away, straining its fur against the fruit and attempted to rip itself away, enduring the pain.

Then, another fruit came flying, attaching to the vines again.

Then another, to its fur.

Then another, and another, and another. Red just wouldn’t fucking stop, no matter how much the bear roared.

Jay was almost beginning to feel sorry for it – with all these attached mushrooms it was about to be ripped apart in many different directions. Unless it could get free.

Bombarded by fruit from above and below, the beast could do nothing now but collapse from exhaustion and hunger.

Still, its eyes were fixated on Jay.

Anger, hate, hunger, bitterness, revenge… then after a few moments, gratitude, rest, congratulation.

Its eyes seemed to say everything that a roar couldn’t.

A feeling of sorrow mixed in with Jay’s excitement to kill it – he was unknowingly about to snuff out another immortal life; a mind much older than a humans would ever be.

While it was only level twenty-seven, it had reached these heights hunting in the outside world. Its prey was nothing but the low level forest fauna and the odd monster which it slayed mercilessly, neither of which would give abundant experience.

The vines also sapped its strength until it was used to feed again. In one sense, it was like a slave to the vines.

The mushrooms responded to the pulling on their tendrils, and they began to retract.

Red was continuing its orders with blind diligence, adding more and more mushrooms to the monsters flesh.

The mushroom field seemed to be stronger than the beast; each of its caps pulled the beast without even bending.

Jay had tried to analyse them, but to no avail.

The beast continued to gaze at Jay was it was soon dragged across the sand…