The ground moved.
Not in one place.
Everywhere.
Thick roots tore through the dark soil surrounding the Verdant Maneater, throwing dirt and shattered stone into the air as the plant finally revealed the defenses it had kept buried beneath the clearing.
David remained behind the fallen log.
He watched.
Counted.
Waited.
The others were already moving.
June raced along the outer edge of the clearing with several vines pursuing him.
Nyra's Cyclone Domain tore leaves and debris from the ground as compressed wind rotated around her body, knocking smaller vines away whenever they attempted to close around her.
Lucian and Mira continued advancing from the opposite side.
The plan was working.
But the Maneater hadn't shown them everything yet.
David knew it.
"Wait," he whispered.
Castiel remained beside him.
His Shadow Blade was already in his hand.
"I am."
Another root erupted beneath June.
"Ground!" Mira shouted.
June changed direction.
The root tore through the exact spot where he would have landed.
"Thanks!"
"Keep moving!"
"Wasn't planning on stopping!"
Three vines swept toward him from different directions.
June accelerated.
His boots struck the ground faster.
Energy continued building through his legs with every step.
One vine passed behind him.
Another struck the ground ahead.
June planted one foot against it and vaulted over the third.
The Maneater's trunk twisted.
One enormous crimson blossom followed him.
Its petals were fully open now.
The beautiful flower that had looked almost peaceful yesterday had disappeared.
In its place was a mouth.
Rows of ivory thorns curved inward from the edges of the petals, each one slick with clear fluid.
The flower lunged.
"June!" Nyra shouted.
June looked up.
"Oh, come on!"
The flexible trunk bent like a striking serpent.
The enormous mouth descended.
June threw himself sideways.
The blossom slammed into the earth.
Soil erupted around him.
June rolled twice before coming back onto his feet.
"That was close," Lucian shouted.
"Really?"
June started running again.
"I hadn't noticed!"
The flower lifted.
Its crimson petals spread wide.
Then it turned toward him again.
David's eyes narrowed.
Fast.
Much faster than yesterday.
The Maneater hadn't needed speed against helpless prey.
Now it did.
And it had plenty.
A violent tremor passed through the clearing.
Mira's head snapped toward the center.
"Something's changing!"
David saw it.
The exposed roots around the Maneater's base began twisting together.
Not randomly.
They were forming a wall.
The plant was protecting itself.
"There."
David stood.
Castiel rose beside him.
"The base?"
David nodded.
"It's closing."
"Then we move."
David stepped over the fallen log.
Castiel followed.
They entered the clearing.
Immediately—
A vine shifted toward them.
Then another.
David's vision flickered.
The System appeared.
System:
Verdant Maneater
Classification — Epic Beast
Threat Level — Severe
Level — 15
System:
Warning — Hostile Organism Has Detected User
The blue windows vanished.
David kept moving.
The nearest vine snapped toward his legs.
"Shadow Step."
System:
Skill Activated — Shadow Step
David disappeared.
The vine struck empty ground.
A heartbeat later, David emerged several yards ahead.
The Maneater reacted immediately.
One of the crimson flowers twisted toward him.
Castiel vanished into darkness behind him.
"Shadow Veil."
Blackness climbed across Castiel's body.
His outline dissolved.
Then he was gone.
The Maneater's flower hesitated.
David saw it.
It had lost Castiel.
Good.
That was exactly what they needed.
"David!" Nyra shouted.
He turned.
Too late.
A thick vine slammed into his side.
The impact ripped him from his feet.
David crashed into the ground and rolled across the clearing.
Pain shot through his ribs.
The vine came back.
He raised both gauntlets.
The thick green limb crashed against the metal claws.
David's arms buckled.
The vine pressed harder.
Strong.
Far stronger than the smaller ones.
David dug his boots into the earth.
The vine began pushing him backward.
"Predator Step."
System:
Skill Activated — Predator Step
Power surged through David's legs.
He moved.
The first step carried him sideways.
The second brought him around the vine.
The third—
His claws struck.
Four deep cuts opened across the thick green flesh.
The vine recoiled.
David followed.
Another step.
Another slash.
The Maneater tried pulling the vine away.
David didn't let it.
Predator Step carried him forward.
His movements chained together.
Faster.
Smoother.
More aggressive with every strike.
He carved through the same section again.
Green fluid sprayed across his gauntlets.
The vine snapped.
Its severed end crashed into the dirt.
The Maneater convulsed.
Every crimson flower opened at once.
A deep sound rolled through the clearing.
Not a roar.
Not exactly.
It sounded like wood twisting beneath impossible pressure.
June slowed for half a second.
"Did the plant just scream?"
"Apparently!" Lucian shouted.
The entire clearing erupted.
Vines rose from the ground everywhere.
Dozens.
Some no thicker than rope.
Others wider than David's body.
"Mira!" Lucian yelled.
"I see them!"
Her eyes moved rapidly.
Prediction Field mapped the attack before it happened.
"Right!"
Lucian moved right.
"Down!"
He ducked.
"Behind!"
Lucian spun.
His Bloodcrest Blade intercepted a vine coming from behind him.
Another swept toward Mira.
She stepped around it before it even reached her.
"Echo Strike."
Her Twin Blades flashed.
The first cut opened the vine.
The second struck precisely through the same wound.
The vine split apart.
Lucian grinned.
"Show-off."
Mira didn't look at him.
"Focus."
Another vine came.
Lucian raised his blade.
"Crimson Threads."
Blood-red lines spread from the Bloodcrest Blade.
They shot outward.
One vine became three pieces.
Another split down its center.
A third recoiled as several crimson threads carved through its surface.
For several seconds, the space around Lucian and Mira cleared.
"Push!" Lucian shouted.
They advanced.
On the opposite side—
Nyra was doing the same.
Cyclone Domain rotated violently around her.
The smaller vines couldn't penetrate it.
Every time one entered the spinning current, compressed wind threw it aside.
But the larger vines were beginning to force their way through.
One pushed against the cyclone.
Nyra's boots slid backward.
Another joined it.
Then a third.
"Little help!" she shouted.
June changed direction.
He sprinted toward her.
Every stride fed more kinetic energy into his body.
A thick vine rose between them.
June didn't slow.
"Momentum Break."
He swung the Kinetic Baton.
The stored force released.
The strike crushed through the vine.
Its outer flesh split open before the entire limb folded violently around the baton.
June burst through the opening.
Nyra glanced at him.
"Nice."
"I know."
"You stole that from me."
June grinned.
"I improved it."
Nyra almost laughed.
Then the ground beneath them bulged.
Her expression changed.
"Move!"
They separated.
A massive root erupted between them.
It rose nearly ten feet into the air.
Then another.
And another.
The roots weren't attacking.
They were dividing the battlefield.
David realized it immediately.
"It's separating us!"
The Maneater had adapted.
Walls of roots began rising across the clearing.
Nyra and June disappeared behind one.
Lucian and Mira vanished behind another.
David could no longer see half his squad.
"Cass!"
No answer.
David turned.
Castiel was gone.
Still under Shadow Veil.
Exactly as planned.
David looked toward the center.
The Maneater's roots had pulled away from one section of its base to create the barriers.
A narrow opening had appeared.
There.
That was their path.
David sprinted toward it.
The Maneater noticed.
Two flowers turned toward him.
Their trunks bent.
David kept running.
One blossom struck from the left.
He changed direction.
Its mouth snapped shut inches behind him.
The second descended from above.
David dove beneath it.
The flower struck the ground hard enough to shake the clearing.
David rolled.
Came up.
Kept moving.
The opening was twenty yards away.
Fifteen.
Ten.
A massive vine rose directly in front of him.
David prepared to cut through it.
Darkness moved beside the Maneater.
Castiel emerged.
"Rend."
The Shadow Blade flashed.
The first strike carved deep into the exposed base of the Verdant Maneater.
Green fluid poured from the wound.
The plant convulsed.
Castiel twisted his wrists.
Then struck the exact same wound again.
The second impact was nothing like the first.
The damaged flesh tore apart.
The wound tripled in size as Rend ripped through the weakened section of the Maneater's trunk.
A violent shudder traveled through the entire plant.
Every vine in the clearing froze.
For one heartbeat.
That was all David needed.
"Gamma!"
His voice carried across the clearing.
"Push the center!"
The root walls began cracking.
Nyra's voice came from the other side.
"Tempest Dance."
A violent burst of wind tore through the barrier.
Roots split apart.
Nyra emerged through the opening, both Wind Crest Swords surrounded by spiraling currents of compressed air.
June came through behind her.
On the opposite side—
Crimson lines flashed.
Lucian's threads cut through the tangled roots.
Mira slipped through the opening before it closed.
All six members of Gamma could see one another again.
And in the center of them...
The Verdant Maneater was bleeding.
Green fluid poured down its trunk.
One side of its base had been ripped open.
David's eyes locked onto the wound.
The first real damage.
They had hurt it.
The Maneater knew it too.
Its trunk slowly straightened.
The crimson flowers rose high above Gamma Squad.
One by one...
Every blossom turned toward them.
The vines stopped retreating.
The roots stopped building walls.
For a moment...
The entire clearing became completely still.
June tightened his grip on the Kinetic Baton.
"I don't think it liked that."
Castiel pulled the Shadow Blade free from the wounded trunk.
"No."
David stared at the enormous plant.
The ground beneath his boots began trembling.
The Maneater's crimson blossoms opened wider than they had before.
And from deep beneath the clearing...
Hundreds of roots began to move.
David raised his Claw Gauntlets.
"Get ready."
The real fight was just beginning.
The ground erupted.
Roots burst upward across the clearing in every direction, ripping through soil and stone as the Verdant Maneater abandoned any attempt to separate Gamma Squad.
Now it was trying to overwhelm them.
"Spread out!" David shouted.
Gamma moved.
A massive root tore through the ground where Lucian had been standing.
He threw himself sideways, rolled across one shoulder, and came back to his feet with the Bloodcrest Blade already raised.
Another root followed.
"Blood Weave."
Crimson energy flowed through the blade.
Lucian swung.
The energized edge carved into the root, opening a deep wound across its surface, but the massive limb didn't stop.
It twisted.
Lucian's eyes widened.
The root swept sideways.
He ducked beneath it.
"Mira!"
"I see it."
Mira's eyes tracked the movement before the attack had fully begun.
"Prediction Field."
Her focus sharpened.
The chaos surrounding her seemed to organize itself.
Roots.
Vines.
Flowers.
Every movement became part of a pattern.
A vine snapped toward Lucian's exposed back.
"Behind you!"
Lucian turned.
Too slow.
Mira intercepted it.
Her first blade redirected the vine.
Her second opened a cut across its surface.
"Echo Strike."
She moved again.
Both blades struck the same wound almost simultaneously.
The damaged section split apart.
Green fluid sprayed across the ground.
Lucian glanced toward her.
"Thanks."
"Pay attention."
"I was."
"You weren't."
Lucian smiled despite himself.
Across the clearing, June was having problems of his own.
Three vines pursued him.
Every time he changed direction, another rose from the vegetation ahead.
"Kinetic Step."
Energy built through his legs.
June accelerated.
One vine snapped toward his waist.
He ducked.
Another came low.
He jumped.
The third struck from above.
June twisted in midair.
The vine passed close enough to brush his uniform.
He landed awkwardly but kept moving.
"Okay."
He glanced over his shoulder.
"You're starting to annoy me."
The vines didn't seem particularly concerned.
They came again.
June sprinted directly toward a large exposed root.
"June!" Nyra shouted.
"I see it!"
He didn't change direction.
The root rose.
June kept running.
Ten feet.
Five.
At the last second, he planted one foot against the root and pushed upward.
His momentum carried him high into the air.
The pursuing vines followed.
June twisted.
The three vines collided with the root beneath him.
He landed on the opposite side.
"Still got it."
The root moved.
June's smile vanished.
"...Never mind."
It surged upward beneath him.
June was thrown into the air.
"June!"
Nyra moved.
"Cyclone Domain."
Compressed wind exploded around her body.
She drove both Wind Crest Swords downward.
The cyclone expanded.
A powerful current caught June before he struck the ground, slowing his fall enough for him to twist and land on his feet.
He stumbled several steps.
Nyra reached him.
"You all right?"
June looked at her.
"I had that."
"You were upside down."
"I was adjusting."
Nyra stared at him.
"Move."
A vine slammed into the ground between them.
They separated.
David barely noticed.
His attention remained on the Maneater.
The wound Castiel had opened across its base was still visible.
Green fluid continued running from the torn flesh.
But something was happening.
The edges of the wound were moving.
Slowly pulling together.
David's eyes narrowed.
"No."
Castiel appeared beside him.
"You see it?"
"It's healing."
Castiel looked toward the wound.
The torn plant tissue was already beginning to close.
Not quickly.
But fast enough.
"If we give it time..." Castiel said.
"We lose everything we've done."
David looked toward the rest of Gamma.
They were holding.
For now.
But every vine they severed seemed to be replaced by another.
Every root they avoided forced them farther from the center.
The Maneater didn't need to kill them quickly.
It only needed to exhaust them.
David understood.
"We change the plan."
Castiel looked at him.
"How?"
"We stop fighting its reach."
David pointed toward the center.
"We go through it."
Castiel's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Straight to the trunk?"
"Straight to the trunk."
"That sounds dangerous."
David looked at him.
"You have a better idea?"
Castiel considered it.
"No."
"Good."
David activated his communicator.
"Gamma, listen."
The others continued fighting.
"We're pushing the center."
Lucian severed another vine.
"Thought we were already doing that."
"Not like this."
David watched the roots surrounding the Maneater.
"We stop trying to clear everything."
"We make one path."
Nyra understood first.
"Concentrate our attacks."
"Exactly."
David looked toward the wounded section of the Maneater.
"Everything through the same opening."
Mira ducked beneath another vine.
"And once we're through?"
"We hit the base with everything we have."
June spun his baton.
"Now you're speaking my language."
David looked toward Castiel.
"Ready?"
Castiel raised the Shadow Blade.
"Always."
David stepped forward.
A vine immediately snapped toward him.
"Shadow Step."
System:
Skill Activated — Shadow Step
David vanished.
He reappeared beyond the vine.
Another attacked.
David shifted left.
His claws tore across its surface.
He didn't stop to finish it.
That was the difference.
Before, they had been fighting every attack.
Now they only needed to survive long enough to get through.
"Gamma!"
David accelerated.
"On me!"
Nyra moved first.
"Cyclone Domain."
The rotating wall of compressed wind tightened around her.
She sprinted toward David.
June followed.
"Kinetic Step."
Energy gathered through every stride as his speed increased.
Lucian and Mira came from the opposite side.
"Blood Weave."
Crimson energy spread along Lucian's blade.
Mira moved beside him.
"Prediction Field."
Her eyes swept across the battlefield.
"Root in three!"
David trusted her.
"Two!"
The ground ahead bulged.
"One!"
"Left!"
Gamma shifted together.
A massive root erupted where they would have been.
They passed beside it.
Another vine descended.
"Right!"
Everyone moved.
The vine missed.
For the first time since the battle began, all six members of Gamma Squad were moving as one.
Not six separate fighters.
One formation.
David at the front.
Castiel beside him.
Nyra and Lucian behind.
Mira calling the attacks.
June protecting the rear.
The Maneater reacted.
Its crimson blossoms twisted toward them.
All of them.
June looked up.
"That's not good."
The flexible trunk bent.
Five enormous flower mouths descended.
Rows of ivory thorns glistened inside their crimson petals.
David didn't slow.
"Keep moving!"
The first flower struck.
Nyra stepped forward.
"Tempest Dance."
Her Twin Wind Crest Swords moved.
Compressed wind exploded from both blades.
One slash.
Then another.
Then another.
Razor-sharp currents hammered the descending flower from the side.
Several crimson petals were torn free.
The blossom recoiled.
A second came from the right.
Lucian raised the Bloodcrest Blade.
"Crimson Threads."
Dozens of nearly invisible crimson lines spread through the air.
They wrapped around the flower's narrow stem.
Lucian pulled.
The blossom jerked sideways.
Its jaws snapped shut on empty air.
"Keep going!"
Gamma pushed forward.
Thirty yards.
Twenty-five.
Twenty.
The vines grew thicker.
David's claws carved through one.
Castiel severed another.
Nyra's wind forced two more away.
June's baton smashed a third aside.
Mira suddenly stopped.
"David!"
He turned.
Her face had changed.
"Below us."
The ground trembled.
Not ahead.
Directly beneath Gamma.
"Scatter!"
They jumped apart.
The earth exploded.
A cluster of roots erupted from beneath them.
David was thrown sideways.
Nyra disappeared behind a wall of dirt.
Lucian hit the ground hard.
June rolled across the clearing.
Mira landed near one of the exposed roots.
Castiel vanished beneath a cloud of soil.
The formation was gone.
The Maneater attacked immediately.
A massive vine wrapped around Lucian's ankle.
"Lucian!"
It yanked.
Lucian slammed onto his back.
The vine dragged him toward the center.
He drove the Bloodcrest Blade into the ground.
The weapon carved a long trench through the soil.
It didn't stop him.
"Little help!"
Mira sprinted toward him.
A root rose between them.
She changed direction before it fully surfaced.
Another vine came toward her.
She ducked.
Lucian was dragged faster.
One of the Maneater's flowers lowered.
Its mouth opened.
"Not happening," June said.
He sprinted.
"Kinetic Step."
Energy built through every stride.
He crossed the distance.
"Momentum Break."
June swung the Kinetic Baton into the vine holding Lucian.
Stored kinetic force exploded through the strike.
The vine split.
Lucian stopped sliding.
June grabbed his arm and pulled him upright.
Lucian stared at him.
"You couldn't have done that sooner?"
"I wanted to make an entrance."
The flower descended.
Both men looked up.
"Move!"
They dove in opposite directions.
The blossom struck the ground between them.
Its mouth snapped shut around dirt and shattered roots.
David pushed himself upright.
His ears rang.
His ribs hurt.
But everyone was alive.
For now.
The Maneater's wound was almost closed.
They were running out of time.
David stared at it.
Then something occurred to him.
The flowers.
Every time the Maneater attacked with them...
The trunk bent.
And every time the trunk bent...
The base stretched.
The wound opened wider.
David's eyes widened.
"Cass!"
Castiel emerged from the settling dirt several yards away.
"I'm here."
David pointed toward the blossoms.
"We've been trying to avoid them."
Castiel looked at him.
"Generally recommended."
"We shouldn't."
Castiel's expression changed.
David continued.
"When the trunk bends, the base stretches."
Castiel looked toward the healing wound.
One of the flowers lowered toward June.
The central trunk bent.
The damaged section pulled apart.
Green fluid immediately began flowing again.
Castiel saw it.
"The wound opens."
David nodded.
"We make it reach as far as possible."
Castiel looked toward the outer clearing.
Then back toward David.
"And when it does..."
"You hit the same place again."
Castiel's grip tightened around the Shadow Blade.
"Rend."
David smiled.
"Exactly."
He activated the communicator.
"Gamma."
Everyone responded.
"New plan."
June climbed back to his feet.
"Please tell me this one involves fewer roots."
"It involves the flowers."
June looked toward the enormous crimson mouth lifting from the ground beside him.
"Of course it does."
David backed away from the center.
"We make it stretch."
Nyra understood.
"Draw the flowers outward."
"All of them."
Lucian looked toward the central trunk.
"That'll expose the base."
David nodded.
"Cass hits the wound."
Mira looked at the moving roots.
"And the rest of us?"
David flexed his claws.
"We make sure he gets there."
The Maneater's flowers rose.
Five enormous mouths turned toward Gamma Squad.
David stared back.
"Let's make it hungry."