Chapter 76: Ch 75 – Cutting

It was strange for us to be moving forward once more. Maybe because what I had instigated back there had left a lot of the men feeling strange, or awkward. I knew that each one of them was trying to make up their mind on how to treat me or think of me. No doubt most would think of what I did as the actions of a whore. Others probably just thought I was nuts. I didn't doubt that some were a bit unnerved by the things I'd said, or done.

I tried to push all that aside in my own mind. After all, what was done, was done. I needed to get back into gear, after all, I was the leader of this strange group. Sure Devin would probably help, or even pick up the reigns if I let them drop. But I wanted to fill those shoes, not let him carry me. Well, I wouldn’t mind if he carried me sometimes, but not now!

Our group made its way through the narrow passageway and regrouped on the other side. I couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous at seeing the massive thick vines on either side of us. The rest of the group were shooting sideways glances here or there as well. We’d seen what these things could do, and those were particularly terrifying. I think it was also that we couldn’t quite trust that they were dead. It was easy to trust that a man laying still on the ground not breathing was dead, but a green plant? They were still, to begin with…

I heard something and turned to find one of the soldiers poking the thick vine with a sword. I sort of wanted to yell out, but when it didn't respond I found myself relieved instead. Honestly, I was kind of glad he had done that in the end, since now it seemed more real.

“Everyone stay focused. We’ll resume our previous strategy.” I called out.

There was nodding and calmness that settled into them. A few moved to the front, accepting their post without anyone even telling them who should. It also seemed to help everyone actually focus as they all stopped thinking about me or whatever else, and started thinking about the potential fight ahead of us.

Was it wrong that I felt a touch of disappointment that a life or death struggle with plant monsters won in that contest? I knew it was stupid, but some part of me would have preferred that I be the one to win. But I didn’t want people to die after all, and certainly not because they were too focused on what we'd done to help it.

We pushed down one hall, around a corner, and found ourselves confronted with another hall full of thick and more dangerous vines. Everyone froze immediately.

I could see where we were headed. It wasn’t far off. Some distance tangential to our path I could see where the path Naan had been claiming ended ahead. Which of course meant that somewhere in that was where Dragon Smith and the others still were. Or at least.. that should be the case.

“Miss Anna.” Gerl said heading back towards me from the front line.

“I know. I’m thinking we might be close enough, but not quite sure.” I explained.

Everyone seemed to relax a touch, glad that this was almost over, or at least that we’d been regrouping with their leader soon. Everyone I was sure had their own thoughts and opinions. No doubt some of them just wanted to get away from the crazy blowjob lady. I tried not to let that thought bother me as much as it did.

Before I could even ask Naan spoke to me, “We’ll need to start digging. But if our previous experience is any judge we’ll encounter plants in the walls as well.”

“I can see that. Should I pull everyone back so you can work?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Everyone, we are retreating back into the hall for a moment while we try to dig a hole.”

Everyone nodded and started heading backward not bothered at all that I was the one running this shit show now.

I walked back the rest not wanting to be the lone target either.

I leaned against Devin while I let my attention turn to what Naan was doing. I found it comforting that Devin's first impulse was to hold me. He didn’t understand my powers or my abilities, yet when I leaned he wrapped me up with an arm. This man cared for me more each day. I felt a bit guilty to consider the position I’d put him in. I couldn’t help but feel like I was giving him a raw deal. But he accepted it didn’t he? Should I feel bad if he accepted my terms?

My mind quieted as I began to see the stone path begin to form within Naan’s strange sight. Deeper and deeper until the stone was nearly gone. Exposed rocks fell down and cracked on the floor as the majority was turned into nothing but dust. The dirt behind the walls had lost its support, and bit by bit it slipped, and the tiny landslide only stopped when it reached the stone floor. Moment by moment, our passageway carved forward.

Somewhere between three or two feet into the dirt, a green vine exposed suddenly, and realizing it was exposed, it writhed back and forth. In that instant, I could feel a metaphorical wall slamming into place between us and that claimed section of dirt and stone. We could still see, but the mana that had been gathering from the dungeon body around the dirt was repelled and some of it was likely lost entirely at the strange invisible violence.

“There's a problem, let's go see what we can do.” I said and pulled my attention back to my own sight before trying to start walking. Devin’s hands helped keep me upright as I staggered slightly. But I took a breath and forced myself forward. I knew that just forcing myself to walk when dizzy wasn’t going to fix my issue. But my frustration with the motion sickness that Naan’s sight caused was building faster than I was overcoming it.

“Careful.” Devin said to me.

I just nodded giving myself a few moments to rest in his arms before I felt like I wouldn’t fall over again. At least there was progress, that much was a small comfort.

We returned to where Naan had begun digging. Just as I’d watched there was now a sizable vine exposed in the wall. It sagged just a bit, but it was thick and had cleared some of the dirt around it even if it was still now.

I didn’t like this. But we had to press forward.

“Ideas?” I asked.

“We can’t… go around?” A soldier asked.

“Your captain is over there.” I pointed past the dirt, towards where I imagined Dragon Smith being. A slightly unusual sensation passed over me as I felt Naan gently nudge my hand to the side and found its sense was over Dragon Smith. My two visual senses stared back at one another, through the ground. It was strange for certain.

I quickly focused on myself before any shifting or movement might make me feel ill. I didn’t mind that much, but I’d be lying if I said that it felt natural.

“Unless we go through this vine we’ll be stuck here.” I continued.

“Then we should try to hack it free? It's behind the stone, maybe it won’t be able to escape.” Another offered.

“What about that one down there?” Gerl asked, pointing down the hall towards the area we weren't so interested in visiting.

Given some intel from Naan, I conveyed its findings, “It's the same vine. Unfortunately, that means we can’t drop the stones on that either.”

“How come?” Someone asked.

“It's just how it works unless we want to wait around for the vine to sleep, or whatever it does it's resisting our magic.”

“Our?” A skeptical man asked.

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“My, magic.” I adjusted with a touch of annoyance.

No one else seemed to have anything else to suggest. But I still glanced over to my goblins giving them the same consideration as the others.

They all didn’t know what to do, this wasn’t stabbing things or the forest after all. We didn’t even need to speak to convey that much. I could see it on their faces, this was my and Naan’s business. So I made a choice, “Let's try hacking it. But if any of the walls or ceilings move, we are immediately going to retreat.” I explained.

There was certainly some hesitation, but no one really had any other ideas.

At least until one raised his voice, “We should just wait then, right? Wait until you can use your magic? So what if it takes a few minutes.” He said his eyes focused on me. He clearly didn’t trust me.

“It might not be minutes, it might be hours or days. I have no idea.” I pointed out.

Everyone shifted at that.

“Unless you all have a bunch of food hidden under your armor we sort of need to move.” I pointed out.

Devin nodded behind me, “We’ll do this as fast as we can. Everyone that thinks they can be useful will position themselves around the vine, and everyone else will retreat just like before.”

So we did. Devin and three others stood by our infant passageway. Swords held and gestured around as they discussed their own plan. They all raised their swords up ready to stab the thing. I for one was glad that the vines didn’t see, or hear us. If they did they no doubt would already be trying to murder us.

I could see them start to count, then all at once they stabbed forward. Two blades sunk into green vine flesh, the other two were shoved to the side deflected as the vine suddenly buckled outwards towards them. My heart seized up at the motion as the vine pushed towards Devin and the others. My breath caught as I was certain they were all about to be smashed into the far wall. Instead, the stone wall around shifted just a touch inward as the vine failed to bend at the required angle to murder Devin.

“Run!” I shouted.

Everyone but Devin did so immediately. Devin instead pushed forward pushing his blade deeper before the vine pulled back into the wall. I could see the vine down the hall flex. No, it wasn’t flexing, it was pulling free!

“Devin get your ass over here! Everyone else retreat!” I shouted.

Devin glanced back at me and broke into a run.

The two swords stuck in the plant snapped together in the wall and green plant goo sprayed everywhere as the vine violently attempted to pull itself through its hole. It only lasted for a few instants before the blades themselves simply snapped at the weight and forces involved.

Down the hall, massive green thick bundles of fibers pulled free. The whole massive thing shifted around as it failed to coil or do much of anything besides freeing itself. Now the whole thing was just out in the open like some enormous green snake roiling on the ground.

We all pulled back to the corner pausing as far back as we could, while still watching the vine in question.

“Naan can you seal it back there?” I asked.

“Not yet.” Naan reported.

The vine squirmed this way or that way. Thrashing back and forth in various locations. Still, it wasn’t like I knew where we were, or who its attackers were. It was just acting out of pain and surprise, or whatever plant equivalent there was.

I started to see more dirt and dust drift out from the whole Naan was carving. I wished there was more of a way to separate us from the plant creature, but for the moment at least I’d take progress over nothing else.

The plant down the hall slowly stopped stirring after a time. But its continuous flexing and thrashing were instead replaced with smaller less pronounced movements. Its long body slowly tried to reach out to gather nutrients or magic, or whatever it did down here.

I for one was glad that it didn’t seem to be actively trying to go back through the hole or to reach down the hallway. Its various flower bulbs had opened all the way down the hall, but they were all still now.

“Another vine.” Naan reported.

I took a breath, “There is another vine we need to clear out.”

No one was surprised, but there was certainly no eagerness in them either.

Two of the soldiers went forward to investigate the issue. They gathered the two damaged blades from the layers of dust on the ground, opting to use them first. Much to their, and everyone else's relief they came back and asked for two more to join them since this vine was smaller.

So we set back into our previous methodical procedure. One vine at a time we carved through. They quickly retreated once they were hacked into. Once that was done we retreated back to our corner and Naan would continue digging. We ended up wasting more time with the constant back and forth than the actual vine killing.

A few vines in Scout suddenly growled behind us, “Vine!” and everyone turned to find a vine that had been slowly creeping down the hall toward us. Thankfully everyone made short work of it and we traced it back a bit and cut it free from the tiny hole in the stone it had come from. Everyone was glad to find that it at least didn’t go all the way back to the large room.

Still, I was more than relieved when I was able to finally tell everyone that we were moving forward. We all filed into, and through the hole. Everyone shooting nervous glances at the mostly still mass of green murder down the hallway. We left it behind and found the way ahead already cleared out smashed and crushed as was Dragon Smith’s way.

We found the bear of a human standing next to the massive chunk of stone that had dropped from the ceiling in the first place.

He looked over at us and gave me a narrowing stare.

“What!?” I asked feeling more than a touch unnerved by his intensity.

“Where is everyone else?” His low voice demanded.

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