I would've thought it was just another tree if it weren't for those blue eyes.
They blinked once.
It was just standing there—watching.
"Everyone get around the campfire," one of the agents shouted, "It can't take us all on at once."
I looked at where the voice came from; agents were running to the fire, four surrounded it in a circle.
I looked back at the undergrowth where I had found those eyes.
They were gone.
"Wait!" I called, "Everyone, stop!"
Silence.
We all stood dead still, scattered in small groups: four agents circled the fire, Connie and Miko close, Kaoru a couple of steps away from Lefèvre and me, with the rest dotted around.
I darted my eyes between the scattered groups as well as the treeline, trying to catch those eyes.
But they were nowhere to be found.
Not even a peep to overpower the sound of my heart pumping out of my chest.
I carefully wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my katana.
But suddenly...
There was a deep groaning sound from above, like a tree falling from its base.
I looked up.
There was a giant shadow. The silhouette was long and narrow, but it was slowly getting thicker and thicker over time.
It was falling.
Right onto the fire.
"Get away from the fire!" I cried.
But it was too late.
Crash!
The fire exploded. It was a giant branch that fell, landing straight onto the fire. The flames enveloped the agents around it. The heat slapped me in the face, causing my eyes to slam shut, as my arms wrapped around my face out of instinct.
"AAAAGGHHHH!" The screams came from the fire.
A horrific sight befell my eyes once they opened.
Silhouettes danced along the ground; figures wrapped in gold. They flowed like ballerinas, but their mouths were gaping, and their eyes were glued open, muscles stretching so far that their eyes almost popped out from the sockets. They slowly crumbled to the floor and rolled—writhing along the floor. Their arms stretched and contorted as they tried to feel anything else. They clawed at the ground before eventually, after what felt like an agonising eternity, their bodies went limp.
The fire faded, leaving us in the mercy of the minute rays of twilight that poked through the trees.
But then something began to glow.
It was bright blue, like a lantern, but in the outline of a human.
"Sylvacapra!" the lantern shouted, "You've been toying with me for so long! Let's end this now!"
Thud.
It landed in front of him, towering above him.
Their blue eyes clashed, waiting for the other's move. We all stood, watching, guns pointed at the massive tree monster. It didn't make a sound, just flicked its glowing, narrow eyes between us, darting to each group methodically—making sure to scan the space around the groups as well.
The tree moved first.
A pale wooden tendril arced towards the farmer. Lefèvre waited, letting the organ edge closer to his flesh, as if he had some ace up his sleeve—waiting for the right moment. And an Ace he had.
Generating in an instant, a thin wall appeared. It had the appearance of fire, glowing blue and flowing gently, floating impossibly in the air next to him. It looked like liquid, but stood solid against the strike of Sylvacapra's tendril. It wasn't enough, however.
Using the glowing blue veil as a diversion, the great tree zoomed around Lefèvre, kicking him back into the trees, before he could let out even a light gasp of shock.
I wanted to call his name or reach out to a hand that was too far away to grab. But I couldn't. He would hear me. After all, he was standing right next to me, now, towering seven feet tall; a mass of thin, pale flesh tightly stretched around bone and ribs that had been moulded and transmutated to fit the white, cracked wood casing.
His cold, glowing eyes analysed me, blinking once.
"Captain Himiko!" Shouted two agents from across the clearing.
They raised their rifles and began opening fire.
"No!" I cried, "Get out of here!"
A few dozen intertwining roots clawed their way out of the ground, working in chaotic harmony to create a sturdy wall in front of the creature. Bullets carved into the wood, but their artillery was futile. Barely piercing the wall.
Those eyes. His head rotated as its pupils rolled, observing my cries of despair. His head tilted. What was going on in that head?
Whatever was going on, he had a plan. Keeping his eyes locked on mine, he waited; the futile orchestra continued, ploughing into the wood, doing very little damage. Then they stopped. Their guns clicked. I heard the pat on the ground from what I assumed were magazines. His turn.
Crash!
Wood chips scattered in the air as he drove straight through the wall of his creation. Time slowed. The agent's eyes widened. Their hands fumbled their way to fresh magazines. Pat. Another one hit the floor; they were running out of time.
"Shit, shit, shit!" The agent exclaimed, he was the one who dropped the mag.
Two large chunks of wood—stakes—drifted in the air. Two large pieces of what once was a wall. He grabbed one in each hand, wrapping his gangly fingers around the wooden spears.
Click.
One of the agents finally managed to clumsily slot the mag into the gun. But even with the new set of bullets, it was pointless. He couldn't keep his gun straight—shaking violently.
"What are you doing?!" the other one wailed, "Shoot him!"
"AAAAHHH!" He opened fire. Bullets flew in all directions.
Shluck.
The two agents' heads jerked back. Hands still tight on the gun, the loaded one continued to fire. The stakes were lodged into their brain, but their bodies hadn't realised it yet. The gun flailed, firing rounds everywhere.
"KAORU!" A voice called. Connie?
My head spun, trying to find Kaoru. Was he OK? Why was Connie calling his name? Please don't be...
He stood on two feet. Teeth were clamped tight; you could see the muscles of his jaw flexing. His eyes were stretched wide. Down his pupils flicked. He stumbled for a moment. Shaking ever so subtly, he raised his hand, placing it on the hole in his chest. His legs failed him, causing him to collapse on the floor.
My heart sank to my stomach. It felt like there was a boulder lodged in my throat.
"K-Kaoru," I mumbled.
Miko ran over to him, Connie following behind.
My hands reached down—impulse—down to where it felt the most comfortable, shakily.
Everything else became instinctive. Sparks in my brain caused a chain reaction down my nervous system to my muscles. No longer were thoughts leading my actions; instead, just as dad taught me, I moved without worry.
"The draw is everything, Himiko." Dad's voice, calm and steady, "One motion. No hesitation."
My fingers locked on my blade, whipping it out from the sheath in one movement. The air was sliced. My heart slowed, ba-dm... ba-dm... Inhale—slow, through the nose. Exhale—slow, through pursed lips.
The Sylvacapra rotated his heavy carcass. Bark creaked as its body turned—meticulous. He groaned in a low hum as he lifted up his foot, opening it out in a gate motion before slamming back down. The ground shook. My blade resonated.
Face to face.
I could smell the polished wood and the sweaty mat of the dojo, as well as feel the warm beams of sun poking through the lattice windows.
The Sylvacapra hunched over, baring its claws. It didn't waste time; it leapt straight in, running straight towards me.
He slashed, I raised my guard, but at the last second, he ducked to my left.
A feint?
"Your opponent will try to bait you into an opening," the low, gentle voice was back, "don't just react, read their intentions."
The giant was crouched low, claws just above the ground. They arced upwards. Dropping to one knee, I rolled to the right. Swish. The wind stroked my hazmat suit. Once my stance was back, I swiped swiftly.
Clang!
He met the full force of the blade with the solid bark of his forearm. We locked eyes for a moment. They were blank, completely relaxed; this was the one thing he knew best. It was the only thing he knew. There wasn't an ounce of anger, not even a tinge of fear. It was something as simple as breathing to him. It had to kill.
It was a deadlock. Steel against hardwood. We both knew that. Our two bodies leapt back in sync; we were a carefully choreographed dance routine. One foot after the other, I circled him—he followed. We continued this for two full rotations. In the meantime, his arm elongated; the organ eventually dragged along the floor behind him.
Was he switching tactics?
Follow his intentions.
He stopped, stepped wide. The back hoof planted firmly in the ground acted as its pivot as it spun. The tendril-arm spiralled around it, quickly building momentum. Whip! It lashed out at me with immense speed. It wasn't much, just the twist of my torso combined with an upwards swing of my arms. Parried.
The tendril whipped back the other way. He followed its momentum. My foot swept along the floor in a semi-circle around the other, rotating my body a full 180°. I raised my guard high. "Again," the word that became commonplace, failure after failure. But it didn't mean failure; it meant don't give up.
Last second, go for the parry.
But it didn't deflect. The tendril moved with my blade, wrapping around it up until the hilt. It was under his control now. In one quick movement, the tree-goat whipped the tendril back. Glistening in the air, my blade flew, planting in the ground behind it.
H-how? it... learnt?
The limb reeled in, slithering along the floor as the Sylvacapra's hooves slowly marched towards me.
"What are you?"
Silence.
I stumbled back, my flow state faded. The screams faded back in.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" The past victim, still broken, rolled into a ball, wailing.
"Himiko!" Squealed Miko halfway to the Gurkha, Kaoru on her back.
Where's BB?
The farmer?
The great tree's bark began to shine, causing the ground around it to shine an even whiter hue. Even the space behind was lit. But there was a large shadow being cast. Wait... where's the light source coming from?
"Behind you!" A voice yelled from behind me.
I heard the roar of an engine and the screeching of tyres against the floor.
I looked behind me.
"Himiko, get the fuck out the way!" Yelled a feminine voice. The headlights blinded me; the person was a mere silhouette.
But that didn't matter right now.
I leapt to my right.
Crash!
I rolled onto my back, looking at the Sylvacapra.
He was hunched over the hood of a vehicle, an armoured van, a Gurkha—metal twisted around the creature. The van ploughed straight into a giant tree, carcass first. The crash could've ripped the trunk from its roots. But the full impact was interrupted. The Sylvacapra built a vertical bed of roots, with just enough space between the layers, that they absorbed the impact.
The engine roared, not giving up; it continued to power into the tree monster. Wood cracked, roots snapped—it was being pushed back.
Fighting back, the Sylvacapra dug both of its claws into the grill. Muscles bulged under bark. He lifted. The Gurkha tilted—wheels now spinning pointlessly in the air. The tyres screamed, spinning even faster; the engine roared, but it was all futile.
In one final push, the Sylvacapra hurled the van sideways.
The body slammed against the ground, enveloping the air in smoke.
One enemy down, the tree switched target. It hurled its shoulders the other way, aiming at its next target. The target looked back. still. But that didn't work—not in real life. The tree marched, hustled this time—it wasn't taking any chances. The victim—a girl—could do nought but stare. She had another body on her back, a man who was weak from injury.
"Miko!" Connie called, but the voice fell on deaf ears. He sprinted.
An organ extended, the arm again, he whipped it back, rearing for another strike.
Paced footsteps came closer—getting louder and louder.
The Sylvacapra swung. The tendril whipped in an arc. Miko closed her eyes. She had accepted death.
But she felt a force in her arm. She clattered against the floor.
"No." I couldn't help but moan.
Flesh tore. The whip clattered against the floor. Blood spewed from a gash parting skin and muscle from shoulder to hip.
"Connie... NO!"
He collapsed, face-first. Miko leapt to his side, rolling him over on his back. Tears dropped on his face—Miko's. The tree stood over the scene of his creation, silently observing for a second. After a moment passed, he slowly raised his arm, ready for a second strike.
Zoom...
A giant metal object flew in from the treeline. The Sylvacapra turned, meeting it last second.
Clash!
A large metal blade slammed into the creature. But he was quick enough to ensure the blade failed to hit anything important, blocking the strike with his arm. The blade was lodged in his forearm. Those blue eyes analysed the origin of the strike. They traced the silhouette, from the dual-bladed tail, to the complex network of metal spheres that made up its long tail piece, to the solid section that could be its body, all the way up to the eyes that poked out from a round metal plate—staring back.
It was BB. He finally made it.
The bot tugged and tugged, but the blades wouldn't budge; the tree had begun to extend roots from its forearm, wrapping the blade in a way that it had done with mine earlier. Other roots began to rise from hell, slithering around the frame of the drone.
But something else caught my attention; I heard murmurs from the flipped fan.
"Focus, Aiko," Nozomi whispered in her ear, carefully annunciating every word.
It was pointless; her hands wouldn't stop trembling. Aiko was lying on top of the toppled van, sniper tight in her hands. Nozomi was lying next to her. His face was covered in blood, leaking from his forehead—an injury from ramming the giant monster. His mouth against her ear.
Steel groaned as BB's body began to bend. Roots began to burrow into its outer shell; he writhed frantically.
Noticing this, Nozomi ground his teeth. His eyes clenched shut. He was about to say something he didn't want to say. But he had no choice.
"Aiko — look at Connie, Kaoru. Look." His voice cracked. "That's what happens when you hesitate. That'll be us if you miss."
Her eyes flickered. Glossy, she didn't respond, only whimpered slightly.
"Then shoot, throw away your fears."
The roots burrowed deeper in BB. His head began swinging violently. Aiko bit her lip.
"You might feel powerless, you might feel as if you're facing beings far beyond you. But forget about that. You're a sniper, that's the only thing you need to think about. The only thought that should flow through your mind is hitting that target."
Nozomi threw his eyes open. He wrapped his hands around Aiko's; one on the grip, the other at the end of the gun. Her eyes relaxed, pupils focused. She expelled all the air from her lungs.
"So focus." He continued. "Miko's life. Himiko's life. My life hinges on you being able to fire your gun!"
She squeezed the trigger.
The round crackled—sharp, deafening.
Wood chips, bone and blue ichor sprayed as a horn floated through the air. The horn was severed right at the base with surgical precision. Sylvacapra screeched—low, furious—reared back. The severed branch fell, still twitching, roots curling like dying fingers.
The creature staggered as his hand rose. He placed it on the wound whilst glaring at Aiko and Nozomi with fire in his eyes.
The roots loosened around BB, burrowing back down into the ground. He left just enough to allow him to hurl the metal carcass at the van. The two leapt just before the bot slammed into the Gurkha. It carved the ground, friction fought with all its power to slow the force of the speeding bot, but it ended up taking the tree behind it to finally stop it.
Sylvacapra snarled before leaping into the branches above. Leaves rained from above, officially marking the creature's retreat.
Silence returned—only the billowing of smoke and the dripping of blood could be heard.
"Connie... hey... stay with me..."
Connie lay still—chest torn open, glassy eyes staring up at the canopy. Chest torn open.
"Mo—mm—my... I—w-want t-t..." his lips hardly moved as the last bit of gas left his lungs.
"No... Connie..."
His chest lowered... then stilled.
Aiko whimpered. She placed her forehead on his. Rivers flowed down her cheeks, showering onto the pale grass below.
I stared at the body. At the crimson soaking the grey soil. At the other bodies. Kaoru lay beside connie, breathing shallow. Nozomi came sprinting straight to him, carrying a bag of medical supplies
Sixteen of us started this operation... Nine remained.
Yet the Sylvacapra was still out there, roaming the woods once more.