Chapter 60: Monster

It had only been a few seconds, but Nero went over all the information he gathered about the vine-controlled students in his mind as the second one approached him. They were slow, which is why their fastest attack was to lunge forward at their target and use their body weight to press them down.

The vines wrapped around them could also thrust forward to attack, which was faster but had limited range as a result of being wrapped around their bodies.

Blunt force attacks did minimal damage, and stabbing had not brought about any significant results either. There was, however, a seconds delay after the vine pierced forward and before it could pull back. Cryoflame was extremely effective against them, but Nero would be drained of all his aether if he had to rely on his flame to kill the vines.

But at the same time, he couldn't afford to extinguish his flames completely, either. If nothing else, then just the light from the blue flame helped him fight better in the darkness. By now, the emergency lights were so dim he would not be surprised if they turned off completely any second.

He dodged a vine attack from behind him, and with a quick swing of his dagger, cut it off. Now that he had surmised their behaviour, he considered how he would deal with them. While they displayed regrettable resistance to simple attacks such as kicks and pushes, their poor control over their bodies often caused them to lose their balance as a result. If nothing else, this was a good delaying tactic.

He had not been able to find or identify some sort of central core which he could take out to kill them, but cutting off the vines with which they attacked seemed to be the most suitable method for now.

Not only did it cause the vines pain, which slowed them down further and bought him more time to react, he could tell they were leaking some kind of liquid or blood through the vines.

If nothing else worked, he had no problem killing them with a 1000 cuts!

With his plan of attack decided, he dismissed all irrelevant thoughts, as he could afford no distractions at this time.

The two creatures showed remarkable coordination, striking with their vines at the same time while aiming for different body parts. Against a slightly less trained foe, this single attempt would prove lethal, but against Nero it hardly made a difference. He dodged and swiped, cutting off a single vine and not getting greedy in pursuit of cutting down two.

There was a subtle shift in the flow of combat. The creature which had its vine cut slowed down while the other kept attacking, yet that only produced an opportunity for Nero to cut its vine as well.

Just as Nero gained somewhat of an advantage, the third creature arrived, and hurled itself at Nero. Without missing a beat, the other two creatures struck with vines as well.

Nero jumped towards a wall, used the dent in it as leverage to get somewhat of a foothold, and then jumped off it again.

The change was sudden. The creatures had run out of vines that they could thrust forward, leaving only the ones wrapped around their bodies for defence. Nero cut one of the vines on the student's neck, managing to keep the student's neck uncut at the same time, when the creature collapsed.

As if it had lost all strength, its feet buckled, dropping the student right there in the corridor. But Nero did not assume victory, as a part of his mind was conscious of the fact that this could just be a trap. He showed it his back anyway as he turned to the others to cut them as well.

But there was no trap. The creature did not move anymore, and soon, the other two buckled as well, dropping to the floor as if they were completely dead, leaving Nero standing in the middle, surrounded by bodies.

He stopped moving as he took this opportunity to catch his breath, breathing heavily, finally revealing his figure under the light of his flame. He was covered in some kind of liquid, though whether it was sweat, blood, or the liquid bled from the vines was unknown. The only thing that was certain was that Nero felt something change in himself.

He felt that maybe he finally understood his mothers sayings a little better. He thought the Kolari would die on the battlefield because they were brave warriors who were not afraid of death. But maybe, just maybe, the Kolari were only truly alive in the heat of battle.

Despite the fact that he was surrounded by a piercing chill, and his every breath released a thick mist, he could feel his blood boil, his body burning with anticipation. It wasn't that he was immune to the fatigue of battle, far from it, but that he had trained for so long knowing he would have to endure it, that he could ignore it for much longer.

With eyes filled with more life than ever before, Nero turned and spotted the dark figure of a stunned Isa.

"Are they dead? Can you feel their emotions?" he asked, as if he had no doubt that Isa had managed to read their emotions successfully.

"They- they're dead," he affirmed, for the first time in a steady voice. Isa emerged from the door and stood opposite to Nero, observing him in a new light. Who was he? How could he do this? These questions and more clouded Isa's mind. But more than anything, Isa felt an unusual yearning he had never felt before.

For the first time in years, since he had become a Neophyte, he was not a victim to the emotions of everyone around him. No, instead, he was strengthened by the emotions of Nero in front of him, and so he yearned.

He yearned to learn more about this enigmatic student, and follow him, even if that meant walking deeper into the terror that had gripped their hostel.

"To be more specific, the more you cut them, the stronger their hunger became. Eventually, their hunger became overwhelming, right before all their emotions disappeared. I believe the vines died, or are at least in an unconscious state, probably due to aether deprivation."

"Good. Now, do you think you can focus on specific targets?"