"Hey! Wake up!" Adela's voice cut through Kyle's ear, and at once he jerked up in panic.
Blinking rapidly, he realised they were outside the shipwreck. Orion and Na-Ri were already locked in combat with a colossal black lotus that had torn itself out from the dead tree, shattering what remained of the vessel. Adela stood in front of him, fending off the roots that snaked towards them.
'What do we have here…?'
The creature bore no likeness to any flower of nature. Its black, iron-hard petals groaned as they spread, traced with glowing violet veins.
At its centre gaped a hollow maw, oozing tar-thick sap, fringed with twitching tendrils. Roots thicker than tree trunks writhed and lashed out, barbed tips snapping at all four of them.
Kyle scowled, pushing himself off the ground and stepping out from Adela's protection. She was awake now and fully capable of defending herself.
Remaining pinned in place only to shield him would hold back her movement, and worse, risk getting her injured.
Naturally, Kyle knew there was something suspicious about the shipwreck.
How could such a thing end up stranded in a field of dead flowers, far from any sea?
The only explanation was that it had been dragged here, and the tree itself had served as a host for the mutated black lotus.
At least they had not been swallowed whole, which was likely thanks to Na-Ri being awake when it first stirred.
'We just need to kill that shitty plant,' Kyle thought, his gaze flicking over the fight. Orion wielded the rib weapon with surprising force, now aided by a rope tipped with a sharp blade, while Na-Ri and Adela each fought with swords.
His eyes tracked upward to the crown of the black lotus. There, glowing with a pulse like a beating heart, burned a red orb.
Instantly, he understood it was the weak point. Strike that, and the plant would fall.
Mutated plants were nothing like beasts.
Beasts fought to kill or to defend, driven by hunger, territory, or instinct. Plants, once corrupted, carried none of those restraints. They did not tire, they did not think, and they felt no pain.
They only grew, spread, and consumed with patient inevitability, their bodies adapting endlessly to harm.
Whatever failed to finish them outright only became fertiliser for the next strike.
Against such creatures, there was no reasoning, nor any rhythm to learn, only the certainty that they would keep advancing until everything else stopped moving.
This entity had no fixed type and carried no ranking. In every sense, it was the true embodiment of a monster, one that could cause widespread ruin if not destroyed. It held no essence core, so there was little to gain from slaying it beyond whatever reward the manual might choose to grant.
With that in mind, most people would never bother killing such a thing unless forced to fight it.
Kyle forced himself upright and set his gaze on the beating orb at the flower's crown.
Roots hammered at them again in unrelenting waves, but Adela was already shifting with their rhythm, deflecting what she could without locking herself to one spot.
Na-Ri's blade struck low with relentless speed, tearing the base open and forcing the plant to funnel its strength into constant regrowth, while Orion's rope dagger whistled through the air until its hooked blade caught across the orb and tightened around it.
The monster reacted with violence, roots lashing harder as its iron petals snapped outward in furious spasms.
Kyle measured the pattern, then broke forward with deadly precision. A strike hammered down, biting into the ground where he had been a step earlier.
Another swept across, but he dropped beneath it and rose again with a dark glare.
The rope strained in Orion's grip, dragging the orb lower, and Kyle drove straight for it. He seized the line and hauled himself upward, his legs sliding through the sap before finding firm hold.
"Take!"
Orion hurled the rib weapon towards him, and Kyle seized it without faltering.
He drove the jagged bone deep into the orb, twisting until black sap splattered hot across his arms. The lotus convulsed with violent spasms, its roots tearing the soil in blind fury.
Grinding his teeth, Kyle forced the weapon deeper, cutting through the core until the glow shivered, dimmed, and finally ruptured.
Light burst in a savage surge, and the creature collapsed.
The whole bulk folded inward before disintegrating into noxious sludge.
Kyle dropped clear of the wreck, striking the ground heavily yet retaining his hold on the rib weapon. He never yielded a measure of vigilance to weariness upon waking.
This was far from his first sudden battle, and instinct had carried him with enough swiftness to end the abomination.
***
[Alert!] You have slain Black Lotus Of The Dead
[Reward] Abyssal Orb
(Information: Eternal...)
Congratulations on your remarkable achievement, [Clueless]
[Your needs have been fulfilled]
***
Before he could examine the description of his newly earned reward, Orion's voice broke through in his ear with an exultant tone.
"Congratulations, Kyle! You helped us destroy that wretched mutated plant. It burst out of the tree while you were still asleep…"
Kyle glanced at him briefly, rising from the ground with an impassive expression before shifting his gaze towards Na-Ri and Adela.
Without warning, Adela's face darkened. She stretched her hands forward, and the sinister-looking teddy bear she had once carried in the Settlement materialised in her grasp.
'What? That thing was an item?'
Kyle's eyes widened as the toy dropped to the ground. The air around it thickened, white light spreading in a slow, menacing swell.
The distortion ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and the bear vanished. Adela's face had blanched, while Na-Ri and Orion instinctively stepped back, tightening their hold on their blades.
'What on earth is happening…?'
"We are… we are inside a valley — an actual valley," Adela stammered, biting her lip.
The three exchanged bewildered glances before hastily readying their weapons.