## CHAPTER 35: Sacrifice
"Finally, a worthy opponent," Kerra murmured to herself. A devilish grin tugged at the corners of her lips, a stark contrast to the ethereal, cold beauty of her white hair. She reached back, her fingers brushing against the fletching of a fresh arrow in her quiver. With a sharp tug, she notched the shaft, the wood creaking under the tension of the bowstring.
Kelvin, still struggling to find his footing alongside their black-haired teammate, felt a cold knot of dread tighten in his stomach. He knew that look on his sister's face. It was the look of a noble who had forgotten that death didn't care about lineage.
"Be careful, Kerra!" he yelled, his voice cracking with urgency. "Don't do anything reckless!"
Kerra ignored him, her focus narrowing until the world consisted only of the monster's massive, lidless red eye. She drew the string back to her ear, her muscles coiling like a spring.
"Do it!" the black-haired girl urged, her hand gripping the hilt of her blade, ready to capitalize on the opening.
The monster sensed the shift in intent. The Monsters horizontal pupil pulsed with a sickening light. The ground didn't just rumble; it heaved as if the earth itself were vomiting. A dozen new tentacles, thick as tree trunks and slick with a corrosive slime, erupted from the soil. They didn't move like plants; they moved like bullets.
Kerra's eyes widened. She had anticipated a struggle, but not this—a synchronized, multi-directional barrage of thorns and wood. For a fraction of a second, her legendary confidence faltered. She saw her life flash before her eyes—a blur of white halls, archery ranges, and her father's stern face.
Then, a flash of gold blurred through her peripheral vision.
Louisa.
The elf, who only moments ago had been stumbling under the weight of two bags, moved with an explosive burst of speed that defied logic. With a desperate cry, Louisa lunged forward, her shoulder slamming into Kerra's side. The force of the impact sent Kerra sprawling into the ferns, safely out of the direct line of fire.
But there was no one to push Louisa.
*CRACK.*
The leading tentacles struck the elf with the force of a high-speed projectile. The impact sent Louisa sailing backward, her small frame snapping through branches before she slammed into the ironwood tree behind her.
*Thump.*
She hit the ground and didn't move. Her golden hair was draped over her face like a shroud, and the bags she had carried so faithfully lay scattered in the dirt.
---
Kerra sat in the dirt, her breath hitching in her throat. Her mind struggled to process the image: the Commoner who she had mocked and burdened was now a broken heap against a tree because of her.
The monster didn't care for the drama. Its vines snaked along the ground, closing in on the disarmed Kerra.
"**SHOOTING STAR!**"
A bolt of concentrated blue energy shrieked through the clearing. Kelvin stood with his palm extended, his face pale with fury. The projectile struck the center of the Bloom's petals, erupting in a brilliant explosion of mana.
*BOOM!*
*GROOOOOOAAAAAAWWWWLLLL!*
The beast shrieked, a sound of grinding metal and torn fiber. The blast was small but potent, scorching the purple petals and forcing the tentacles to retract in a reflexive spasm of pain. Steam, dark and foul-smelling, hissed from the blackened wound on the monster's hide.
Kerra didn't waste the opening. Adrenaline replaced her shock. She scrambled across the moss, her fingers closing around her fallen bow. She plucked an arrow from her quiver in one fluid motion, rolling onto her back and drawing the string with a snarl.
She released. The arrow shot like a railgun slug, aiming for the center of that hateful red eye. At the last second, the monster lurched to the side. The arrow missed the pupil by a hair's breadth, instead tearing a jagged hole through the thick purple petals, sending a spray of toxic sap into the air.
Kerra vaulted to her feet, jumping backward to put distance between her and the regenerating beast. Kelvin moved swiftly to her side, his hand already glowing with the embers of another spell.
"You okay?" Kelvin asked, his light blue eyes darting between his sister and the monster.
"Fine," Kerra spat, her voice cold as ice. She watched as the monster's tentacles began to knit themselves back together, the wood growing with supernatural speed.
"How's the ordinary?" she asked, her voice tight.
"She's being healed by our teammate as we speak," Kelvin replied, glancing toward the tree where the black-haired girl was kneeling over Louisa. "The damage was... strange. She took a direct hit, but strangely she didn't take any fatal hit. She'll be fine, but Kerra... we owe her. She saved your life."
Kerra's jaw tightened. The pride of her noble bloodline flared in her chest like a fever. "I had everything under control," she snapped, though her trembling hands betrayed her.
"I didn't need her help."
---
"You take left, I'll take right!" Kerra commanded, her eyes burning with a need to reclaim her dignity.
"You think we can do it?" Kelvin asked, his voice wavering as the Monster flower fully recovered, its red eye glowing with a newfound, murderous intent.
"Yes. I know we can." Kerra's voice was a jagged edge.
"Nothing dangerous?" Kelvin asked, a nervous attempt at a joke.
Kerra's lips curved into that devilish grin once more, though it was sharper now, more desperate. "Where's the fun in that?"
They dispersed like shadows. Kelvin veered left, weaving through the underbrush, while Kerra circled right. The monster, overwhelmed by the split in targets, focused its primary mass on Kerra, its tentacles lashing out like whips of obsidian wood.
Kerra was a master of the dance. She jumped over a sweeping vine, slid beneath a horizontal strike, and fired arrows in rapid succession. She was slowing down only for a heartbeat—just enough to aim—before moving again.
"**FANG!**"
A beam of black light shot from Kelvin's hand from the monster's blind spot. It struck the base of the stem with a resounding *BOOM*.
*GRRROOOOWWWWWLLLLL!*
The beast was pushed to its limit. In a final, desperate act of territorial defense, its tentacles separated, splitting into dozens of smaller, needle-like vines that lashed out in a 360-degree radius.
Kelvin saw the wave coming. "**SHIELD!**" he roared, thrusting his hand forward. A translucent blue dome erupted around him, the vines rattling against the magical barrier like hail on a tin roof.
But Kerra had no protection spells.
"**KERRRRRAAAA!**" Kelvin screamed, his voice echoing through the sector.
Kerra ran. She was a blur of white hair and desperation. She leaped over the first vine, twisted her body mid-air to avoid the second, and tried to notch an arrow to suppress the third. But she was too slow. A barbed vine caught her around the ankle, the thorns sinking into her boot and biting into the flesh.
She was jerked off her feet, the ground rushing up to meet her. She turned to fire another arrow , but the monster was already dragging her toward its gaping maw.
*SH-LING.*
A streak of black steel cut through the air. The black-haired teammate appeared from the shadows, her sword humming as she sliced through the vine holding Kerra's leg in one clean stroke. She didn't stop to check on Kerra. She kept running, her eyes fixed on the monster's eye, her blade held low.