For a moment, nothing happened.
The vine continued its slow constriction, thorns digging into Kade's clothes and skin. Kade's breathing quickened, panic rising.
Then, the vine's thorns slowly retracted. The leaves loosened. The entire plant structure simply... let go.
As if it had lost all interest. As if the prey it had been strangling suddenly ceased to exist.
It dropped to the ground in loose coils, inert and harmless.
"How...?" Kade rubbed his arms, looking alternately at Ren and the now-inert vine on the ground. Disbelief and confusion in his expression.
"I told you the pattern must be perfect," Ren explained, plucking several glowing spheres and segments from the plant, putting them in his backpack. The quality was exceptional, perfect for cultivating earth element beasts in gold rank. "But you didn't want to practice anymore… Even if you have an earth element beast, if you don't know how to communicate with them..."
He trailed off...
