If there was a luck factor, I was pretty sure that my luck would be in the negative figures, extrapolating from past experiences and present.
Because, how else can you explain the fact that of all the myriad types of beasts in existence that I could meet, I just had to meet a fire-aligned one?
It was a no-brainer, fire was the bane of plants.
Plants were weak against fire.
And now, I was cooked. Literally.
DING!
~----~
[System Notification!]
[Core Integrity: 84%]
[Retaliation Successful – Minor damage inflicted]
[Territory Alert: Outlying Plants Withering. Aura Bleed Critical.]
~----~
At least I made it bleed, which meant one thing. It could bleed.
It lunged again.
This time I was ready. My spite, my smoldering will to survive, it was back in its full glory, filling my stems, roots, my being with smoldering intensity and energy.
As it lunged, I reacted. I twisted my stalk, retracting to pull it past me, baiting it deeper. Vines curled, forming a wall behind it. The moment it landed…
SNAP!
The wall closed, stabbing into its flank.
It howled, but didn't flee.
It fought harder.
Flames erupted around it. My vines ignited. I was burning, but I didn't retreat. My thorns tore into flesh, and its teeth tore into bark. Every motion was a death pact. We were killing each other second by second, claw by thorn, flame by snap, sinking deeper into the demented frenzy of combat.
And in the middle of it, the demented frenzy, I realized something terrifying.
I liked it.
I shuddered. 'T-the heck!'
The pain. The challenge. The demented struggle of light and death. The madness of standing my ground against an apex predator, it filled me with dark glee. My instincts twisted, and WRATH pulsed within me again.
I would not be devoured.
I would survive. I would learn. And I would conquer.
I would dominate.
Even if I had to burn the world with him.
It lunged again. Fire bursting from its limbs, the Cinderrend Jackal tore into the core of my territory like a wolf through kindling. It seemed unstoppable.
And yet, I didn't move. I didn't retreat.
I waited.
The moment its fangs met my stalk, the next phase of my trap snapped shut. A pressurized sac of alkaline sap exploded beneath us in a powerful boom, releasing a chemical cloud that clung to flame and choked it.
Its heat dimmed.
The Jackal reeled back with a choking growl, confused for a brief moment; blinking through the mist, its inner furnace sputtering. The heat returned almost instantly, but it had dulled for a breath. That was enough.
I retaliated with even greater ferocity.
I launched a dozen thorns into its underbelly; then fired again, piercing flesh and lodging barbs deep.
Each spike carried a numbing agent, evolved overnight from the paralysis toxins I'd harvested from earlier prey. The beast shrieked and rolled.
Still not enough.
It tore out the spikes. Blood hissed against the dirt. Bark split open in my limbs, the damage to my territory forcing a brutal prioritization. I drew sap from my outer vines, letting them die; sacrifices to focus my regeneration and energy around the heart of my core.
I was shrinking, concentrating. Becoming sharper.
Let the edges burn. Let the periphery rot. The only thing that mattered was killing it, triumph, and survival.
My awareness narrowed like a blade.
And then I struck back.
This time I used everything, every evolution I'd earned in this miserable world. Thorn-laced vines slithered from the dirt like snakes. Camouflaged roots exploded upward like assassins to bind its feet.
My central stalk reared like a spear, tense and coiled with murderous intent.
The Jackal roared and sent a plume of flame through my vines, burning me alive, but I kept going.
Even while being burned alive, I kept going, fueled by spite.
I was in a world of pain, but it didn't matter.
'Try harder you insufferable bastard!'
'Burning me alive is not enough to kill me!'
I let it burn, used the pain to time its breathing, its lunges. I felt when its paw hesitated. I felt the pressure shift.
And in that second, I struck it in the eye.
BAM!
The thorn blade punched through soft tissue with a wet crack, and the Cinderrend Jackal screamed.
It stumbled, blinded on one side. Blood and ash poured from the wound, and it whipped around blindly, fire sputtering with every pulse.
Its fury flooded my territory like a plague. But its heat was wild now, uncontrolled. And wild fire dies faster.
I changed tactics.
I pulled moisture from the lower soil; vines twisted, leaves widened, roots tightened. I exhaled sap-mist, cooling the field, choking the fire.
Extinguishing it.
The Jackal howled, staggered, then lunged one final time. This wasn't hunger. It wasn't instinct either.
Rather, it was a familiar emotion to me.
It was spite.
Same as me.
It crashed through a final wall of thorns and met my core. Its fangs closed around my primary stalk, and bit down.
The pain blinded me.
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
~----~
[Core Integrity: 34%]
[WARNING – Core Trauma!]
[WARNING – Systemic Instability!]
[WARNING – Combat Lethality Threshold Approaching!]
~----~
But the Jackal had made a mistake.
It hadn't noticed the sac embedded deep beneath my base. My final defense. My seedheart's spitecore.
And I triggered it.
A lance of condensed sap-pressure and sharpened bone erupted from my lower body and impaled the Jackal through the throat.
It froze mid-lunge, fangs still buried in me. The scream never left its mouth. Its body convulsed once, then sagged, lifeless.
Steam hissed from its cooling corpse.
A single, long silence followed. Not even the leaves dared move.
And then…
DING!
~----~
[System Notification!]
[Cinderrend Jackal Defeated – Apex Predator Class]
[+4 NP]
[Territory Absorption: +7.9 square meters]
[Flame Resistance (1) Acquired]
[Mutation Catalyst (Fire Core) Absorbed]
[Territory Reaches 51.9 square meters]
[Major Evolution Triggered]
>Initiating…
>Processing biological integrity…
>Analyzing mental framework…
>Identifying social and neural pattern requirements…
>Complete.
…
[New Trait Unlocked: Aphid Network (Proto-Intelligence Node)]
[Communications Relay Active.]
~----~