CHAPTER 34
'Dammit.'
He cursed under his breath, desperately trying to get a hold of himself as he was dragged across the bottom of the stream. Submerged deep underwater, he could barely breathe and was barely managing to stay awake.
Channeling the flow of external energy around him, he activated his talisman's enchantment, which helped him bear through a great deal of pain, and then he struggled to reach his hand forward, a faint glimpse of crimson flames dancing on his palms.
He closed his eyes, his hands trembling as a deep rage began to burn within. He grabbed onto vines that were slowly crawling further up his body, and then he began to burn them with as many flames as he could muster.
Slowly, the crimson flames from his palms began to burn brighter and hotter.
"Argh."
Growling under the intense pain, he began to tear apart the vines, freeing his body as much as he could. He continued further down until his knees were finally free.
Then, his eyes shot open, and he turned around, looking at the bed of the stream with a contorted glance. He was finally able to see what he was looking for: a slightly larger rock sitting at the bottom of the stream.
As he quickly approached the rock and several more vines rushed to wrap around him, he suddenly twisted, groaning in pain as the tenacious vines tore into his skin. With all his might, he turned and kicked hard against the rock, infusing his legs with as much innate energy as possible.
A hushed thud resounded, causing a ripple in the water, and then his legs slightly bent downward, the force of the reaction instantly propelling him upward. He shot up from the bottom of the stream, his head barely managing to peek out from the body of water.
But that was more than enough.
A wave of relief shot through him as he took in quick, rasping breaths and looked around. The surroundings were still mostly the same but vastly different as well.
All around him, trees stood with swaying leaves, creating narrow paths, but now, wrapped around those trees were brown, wriggling vines. They looked gross, like overgrown worms, and a few of them had thorns sticking out of them.
His newfound relief was suddenly washed away by a volatile feeling of dread. He felt like a heavy weight had been placed on him as his shoulders hunched.
"How the hell is an Awakened beast this powerful?"
However, there wasn't anyone around to answer his question as he desperately began trying to free himself from the grip of the vines, but it was still rather futile. Once again, he was dragged into the depths of the stream, dragged down the path of the flowing waters.
He gritted his teeth as he closed his eyes, trying as much as he could to keep his mind calm. Knowing the nature of dark beasts, he already had a good guess of what the damned bastard that had grabbed him was planning to do.
Submerging them under water and then slowly strangling them with the thick, wriggling brown vines. But none of its plans to kill him had worked yet, and if he was still alive, then Yuki was most likely better than ever.
'I was actually scared for a second...'
He grabbed hold of a vine that was slowly crawling up his arm and tore it apart, remaining calm as he quickly tore away more of the intruding vines.
'… But awakened beast or not, let's see what happens when those crimson flames start burning through your very soul.'
As if his prayers had been miraculously answered, the vines wrapped around him suddenly shuddered, their grip around him slightly loosening. Using the moment to his advantage, he sprang into action, quickly ripping the vines off his body.
With a muffled groan, he ripped the last vine off his body and watched as his body began to float freely to the surface of the water. He wasn't the best at swimming, but he at least knew how to stay afloat.
Then, just as his head was about to peek through the surface of the stream, he felt someone grab him and gently drag him out. Slowly and gently, he was pulled along to the edge of the stream.
Submerged deep in water for over ten minutes with thick, tenacious vines trying to rip him apart, his body was almost at its limit, and he could feel it as he lay face up on the wet sand.
Beside him was Yuki, who was kneeling, but from the way she looked, it was clear that she could barely stand up as well. After a while, though, she gasped with relief and sprawled on the floor on her back.
No words were spoken between the two of them as they lay down panting, trying to regain as much of their strength as they could.
And after a few more seconds, they both slowly got up from the ground and dusted themselves off. Megumi turned around and looked over at the path of the stream to the west.
He had no idea where the vile creature had brought them, but he did have the simple knowledge that following the narrow path ahead would lead back to where they had come from.
But before that, though, they had bigger things to worry about…
Both their gazes were contorted as they stared at the edge of the stream, the vile vines slowly creeping out of the clear, blue stream. Behind them as well, several more vines were quickly approaching from deep within the winding woods.
They both glanced at each other, a somewhat cheeky smile curving up on their faces as their gazes turned east. And without saying anything to each other, they took to their heels and bolted off.
The vines sprang to action and chased after them with ridiculous speed. Megumi and Yuki were moving as fast as a car, but the vile vines were still keeping up, relentlessly chasing behind them.
And though it was slow and almost unnoticeable, the vines were catching up with them, and it would only be a matter of seconds before they wrapped around one of them.
However, just as the vines were about to further breach the gap they had created, Yuki suddenly jumped in the air and spun around, a rage of crimson flames exploding out of her body.
As she landed, crimson flames erupted all around her, burning the vines that dared come close, and then, with her palm neatly held forward, more of the flames erupted, moving further toward the other approaching vines.
She took a few hoarse breaths as Megumi quickly rushed to her aid, keeping her from falling to the ground. He had a grim expression on his face as he held his swaying friend.
Yuki was trying to regain her footing, her head pounding heavily. Her chest tightened and felt like it was about to explode, while her thigh and shoulder were slowly giving in to the extra strain. But all she needed was a few seconds to hold herself up once again.
They both looked ahead at the approaching vines farther away, a deathly grim expression on their faces.
There were a hundred more than the ones she had just eviscerated.