"VANE, GO FASTER!!" shouted Darian as Vane sped up as much as he could. Many seedlings passed nearby him; some of them actually jumped on the body of the buffalo, but he was going too fast, no one even reached him.
Darian had Liro in his arms; he couldn't shoot behind, but in a few seconds, they would arrive at the Veilguard's building. Once they closed the door, they were going to be safe. Behind them were around 30 seedlings, who were slowly gaining terrain.
As Vane turned right, they immediately arrived at the building, and out of it they saw Lara and Alerya, who immediately noticed the three guys. "Help us!!!" shouted Darian as Lara immediately hid behind Alerya after noticing the seedlings behind them.
As they arrived, Vane stopped. In front of the group, the seedlings were a few inches away, and they were about to jump. "DARIAN, LEAVE LIRO TO LARA AND SHOOT ONE OF THE ENEMIES!!!" shouted Alerya as she immediately ran. As the shard thrown by Darian was faster, she used one of her magics on one of the seedlings.
"Crimson blood…" said Alerya towards the seedling who was about to get killed by Darian's shard. A small path of blood connected them, but as the enemy was killed, it completely disappeared. Alerya felt the same pain of getting hit by a shard from Darian, but now she could move like one of them.
Extremely fast, she jumped on top of them and pressed two buttons on her armor. Blood dripped on the enemies, who were confused to see Alerya on top of them. "PROTECT YOURSELF NOWW!!" shouted her as the blood magically became roses, which, as soon as they were created, exploded, killing all the seedlings.
Darian created a wall in front of him and the others. Alerya used some other blood to create a small wall to protect her from the plants that exploded after she killed them. Everyone watching that felt extremely surprised, and this made everyone think how strong Alerya really was. She had done all of this in under 3 seconds.
"Lara, how is Liro doing?" asked her as some blood still dripped from her body. She then retrieved the spike so that it wouldn't hurt her body anymore and walked closer slowly after all the plants stopped moving.
"We're lucky that you found me there… if me and Alerya were already at the hospital, Liro could have died," said Lara as she started to heal Liro's wounds. Both Darian and Vane returned to normal.
"Vane, help me get him to the hospital… I got more stuff to heal him there. Now he isn't risking his life anymore," said her as Vane turned again into a buffalo and Lara charged Liro on his body. They both headed towards the hospital, now far away from there.
"Now I've got Vane helping me in case someone arrives. I will let you know how Liro is doing after I finish," said Lara. Alerya nodded, and Darian felt more relieved knowing that his friend was now in good hands and was no longer risking his life.
"So? How did he end up like that?" asked Alerya as she started to head inside the building. Before Darian could answer, they heard some human footsteps. As they turned around, they felt really scared. In fact, they saw Kael and Allocen, both gravely injured. Kael was on Allocen's shoulder unconscious; he could barely walk.
"Guys!!" shouted Alerya as she moved faster than Darian, not giving him time to react. She immediately helped them; Allocen could barely stand on his feet. "How did you two end up like this… even you, Allocen…" whispered Darian as he felt scared. Who was this strong to beat both of them? Especially Allocen, who was able to take Garwhole basically by himself, thought Darian.
"I'll explain… let's just head inside, please…" said him as behind them some weird creature appeared. It was one of the statues made of plants, but it was moving. It was like a zombie, and it was heading towards them.
"It followed us…" whispered Allocen as he glanced behind towards the zombie. "Darian, take care of him!" shouted Alerya as she immediately headed inside with Allocen and Kael on her shoulder now.
"Alright! C'mon, Snowy!" shouted Darian as the creature fused once again with his arm. Darian rushed towards the plant zombie as he created an armor on his body, in case it got too close.
'He isn't going fast… I can take him from there,' thought him as he cast an ice shard towards it, really powerful. The zombie was going really slowly, and as it got hit, it got completely destroyed.
"Easier than I thought…" whispered Darian as he realized that the zombie died too fast. But suddenly, he realized something, the plants were still moving. Even if the zombie had a hole in his stomach, it could still move freely around. In fact, after a few seconds, it simply healed itself and headed towards Darian again.
"ARE THEY IMMORTAL?!" shouted Darian as the zombie fully healed the hole and walked again towards him. Darian chose to create an ice wall all around him so that he would be able to block it. As the zombie found itself inside the wall, it was confused. Suddenly, as it looked up, it found Darian on one of the walls, about to shoot multiple shards towards it.
"ARGHHH!" the zombie emitted a strong sound before getting brutally destroyed by multiple shards, but it could still move. In fact, the plants didn't stop moving. Soon enough, the zombie completely healed itself again and started to dig with its hands into the ice.
'Maybe it has got some sort of battery like the others? But where should it even be…' thought Darian as he decided to land down from the wall of ice. As he landed, the zombie had just finished piercing into the ice and its whole body came out, really close to Darian, who had just landed on the ground.
'He's this fast?!' thought Darian as the zombie slammed its hand towards him. As the zombie's hand touched the shards of the armor, they all exploded and went towards the zombie, whose whole body was completely destroyed by the multiple shards.
"Is it over?" thought Darian as he looked down, but all the plants were still moving! As soon as Darian could notice, the zombie's body was still alive, and it was about to hit Darian. "IT CAN'T BE POSSIBLEEEE!" shouted him as the zombie slammed its fist on Darian's face, throwing him away. On Darian's face, some plants were about to enter into his skin.
'No… if they enter, it will be over!' thought him. But the plants on his body, as soon as they entered into his skin, completely froze to death and became ash. 'Wait, if they are plants and they can get destroyed by fire… LOW TEMPERATURE CAN WORK TOO!' thought him. "I'm a damn biologist… how wasn't I able to come up with this idea before…" whispered Darian as he decided it was time to make the air around him a lot colder, so that the plants would be killed.
"Let's do this!" shouted him as he created a really powerful ice armor around his body. He then remained still and began to charge up a powerful shard. Darian remembered that when he charged a really powerful shard during the last battle, all the plants around him died because of the cold. 'It has to work!!' thought him as he charged a really powerful shard. He loaded it as much as he could.
As the zombie got closer, most plants were already dying; its movements were becoming even slower. Now the temperature was around -20°C; the plants would soon die, it was just a matter of time.
And after a few seconds, the zombie couldn't move anymore. Many of the plants in its body cracked, and it was slowly disappearing. "AAAAHHHH!" shouted Darian as he shot a really powerful shard towards it. This shard was big enough to pass through two cruise ships, creating a literal hole. Luckily, the shard didn't hit anything; it simply crashed against the wall of the cave, creating a huge hole. Darian watched the hole, feeling happy, he was never able to create such a powerful ice shard before. It meant that he was really becoming stronger.
"Let's go…" said him, breathing heavily. The zombie got completely crushed and died instantly after it got hit by the powerful shard.
As Darian entered the building and closed the door, Snowy came out of his body. 'Oh, I guess the air out there could have frozen me to death if Snowy wasn't inside my body,' thought him. The air was too cold; no human would ever be able to survive that. But thanks to the heat of that day, the air would slowly return to normal.
As Darian entered the meeting room, he saw Kael lying unconscious on the sofa, and Allocen in the front one, sitting. Both their bodies were bleeding; it looked like they had fought for a long time.
"Allocen… did you two fight against that zombie? He was so damn strong…" said Darian as he sat down next to him. "Yeah… we were waiting for you to talk about them… and what happened to us in our expedition," said Allocen as he turned serious. Both Alerya and Darian listened to him carefully.