The swinging vines high above their heads kept coming, even though they'd already sliced a half-dozen of the vines away. A pair of spears were hanging in the air, being swung around by vines and nearly clipping the group. Luckily, the vine creature was blind to its own attacks and so any attacks were coming in with the blunt end of the spears, the creature not seeming to grasp the idea of using the pointy end against its opponents.
In fact, the spears were less dangerous than the actual vines themselves. The variant vine, more common now as they climbed higher and across the canyon to their resting spot, had sharpened steel vines and leaves. Catching a face full of vine no longer simply stung or left thin cuts from sharpened and roughened edges but could now lay open faces and necks.
Normally, the group would have avoided the creatures entirely, but chance and luck had brought them to this particular platform series. There was no way up except through and across the ledge they were trying to sneak past, bouncing ahead canyonward and then turning around to strike at the mutated vine. All well and good, but they had to get through the lashing vines first.
"Shoot it, will you?" Arthur growled, as he ducked another spear and stabbed upwards. He felt his spear head grate along the vine, then puncture through suddenly and tear into the vine. It stopped swinging around as much, at which point Yao Jing jumped and grabbed the spear shaft and yanked, hard. He managed to reacquire it at the cost of nearly bowling over Jan who had switched to a parang and was swinging the edged blade into vines that threatened Arthur from the back.
"Oy! Careful, lah," she cried.
"I'm. Trying!" Casey snarled. Back two platforms, she was forced to draw and fire her arrows, lobbing them up and across to land onto the vines. Not only did she have to fire blindly because she couldn't actually see where the main body was, with the angle of a swinging trap ahead; she had to time her attacks or else see her arrows get knocked off course.
Even so, she at least could hit it. Rick's bullets moved in a much straighter line, which meant that he was mostly useful for blowing up or tearing apart vines that hung over the edge. He had switched out his pistols for the shotgun in this case, the big slugs a better fit for the problem right now. Even so, the quiet boom of the weapon had slowed down as he reloaded and tried to conserve ammunition.
"One . . . moment!" Uswah grunted, her hand raised high as she yanked downwards with shadow tendrils formed right under the overhanging platform. They swept up and grabbed a bunch of the vines, holding them tight together and constraining their movements. She strained, all three of her shadow tendrils gripping the bunch of tentacles together, her face covered in sweat.
Luckily, she didn't need to hold it for long as Rick's shotgun boomed, tearing apart the vines. A moment later, Lam jumped high and swung his parang, forming an edge and extending the weapon and then using a Focused Strike to sever the rest of the tendrils. His attack was not without cost though, for one of the other swinging vines slammed into him, sending him away from his landing spot. Out into open air.
Luckily, Mel was watching for this. She jumped, straight out into the air, and then formed a cloud beneath her foot. Kicking sideways on the cloud, she reversed trajectory, slamming into Lam and sending the pair of them onto the platform again, only for their legs to clip the edge. They crashed to the ground, cursing, but the attacks had created the necessary opening.
Both Leia and Eric had been waiting for this opportunity. Together, the pair raced across the area. Eric went high and ahead, swinging his pair of parang, tearing into the few remaining vines that hung in the way. He was infusing his body with energy, similar to Arthur's own Heavenly Sage's Mischief but it was a short-lived technique. On the other hand, it had the advantage of having a much higher increase and minimum. One of the reasons he was going high, because each swing cut through the steel-like vines with ease, even hanging in air.
A couple of steps behind, Leia raced across the falling vines, free to make the leap across space to the platform above. She managed it with ease, spun, and then leaned backwards before lurching forward. She threw her spear like a javelin, arcing it high and down. As it flew, a light gathered around its tip, a light that exploded that when the spear touched down inside the vine.
Now the vine creature tossed and turned, twisting around. Moments later, following the smoke and the thrashing, an arrow from Casey's bow landed in the midst. Then, another. More thrashing. The creature pulled damaged vines backwards into its core to protect against the attacks, leaving only a couple behind to continue to attempt to grab at its attackers.
A spear was flung away, Mel crying out as she watched her weapon plunge into the depths of the canyon.
Taking the momentary break, Arthur and Jan jumped across to the other side, joining Eric, while Yao Jing kept an eye out for more lashing vines, ready to sweep it all aside with his weapon.
Arthur grunted, finally no longer directly beneath the creature. He could see parts of it, the spear stuck in its body, the energetic arrows that were fading and leaving behind wounds that leaked yellow sap like alien blood. He leapt straight upwards, formed a cloud beneath his feet as he reached the top of his range, and leapt again.
Now, he was looking down and could see they'd all been missing the center of the creature by a bit. The main cluster had been so protected by vines that all the attacks had been the equivalent of wounding its limbs. Not anymore. He released a Refined Exploding Energy Dart from his third eye. Right through the gaps, coming down at an angle the mutated vine had not expected.
It tore through a flailing vine, exploded moments later, and tore a giant hole in the main body, a hole that had begun to leak. Then, he could not see further as he landed. Raising his hand, he called out to the group.
"Hold! Don't waste energy, it's nearly dead." He knew it just needed to finish dying. Damn plants were the worst at that. You could land a fatal blow but it'd still keep thrashing for a bit till all the sap had leaked out and it could no longer move. Between all the severed vines, the open wounds, and his last blow, it was dead.
It just needed time to figure that out.
In the meantime, Arthur scanned the surroundings, grunted, and waved a hand around. "Mushrooms incoming. Also, pretty sure that's camograss coming up on you, Eric." He pointed behind Eric who jumped forward and away before spinning around, eyes wide. No one wanted to get grabbed by those. It hurt—a lot—since the camograss had razorblades for its grass and collapsed inwards, turning and grinding at the body. While not necessarily deadly immediately, it could wear a climber down.
Well, a team that wasn't made up of healers like them, at least.
"Rick. Casey. No playing around, get over here!" He watched as the pair stopped killing the mushrooms that were coming at them and made their way over gingerly. Yao Jing was still on the bottom platform along with Uswah.
They'd regather, finish killing the monsters, grab the big beast stone—and he was certain it was a big—
from the variant vine and then keep going. He could see their new base, not far away. And then, finally, he'd get to read the cultivation technique he'd purchased.
To say he was a little impatient was an understatement.