Free Web NovelChapter 233: They’re Adapting
The vine that had wrapped itself around Meilan’s waist tightened and lifted her completely off the ground, forcing her to back away from me.
For a second, she just hung there, her mouth hanging opened in stunned shock. Then she started to screamed.
The sound echoed across the front yard as she twisted and clawed at the vine holding her. Her feet kicked uselessly through the air while the jungle just completely ignored her. The vine wasn’t crushing her, it wasn’t trying to kill her. It was simply preventing her from getting to me.
Which was honestly kind of funny.
A few seconds ago she had been charging toward me like she intended to solve all of her problems personally. Now she was dangling several feet above the ground like an angry decoration while I stayed comfortably in Yuche’s arms.
The only thing that would have made this better was a snack, but I wasn’t going to go there... or was I?
Unfortunately for everyone involved, her men were significantly more competent than she was.
Shen Kaiyang moved first.
One moment he was standing beside Guo Renwang, the next, he was underneath Meilan. His knife flashed upward and sliced through the vine wrapped around her waist.
The severed section dropped immediately, causing Meilan to hit the ground with a thud. But before she could even stand, three new vines erupted from the ash under her body.
One was wrapped around her ankle, another wrapped around her wrist, and a third snapped toward her throat like it was planning on ripping it out.
But before it could, water exploded outward, causing the vine to disintegrate.
Meilan rolled away from the remaining two restraints and climbed back to her feet, brushing her not so white linen pants free of dirt.
Huh. I didn’t see that coming, and it was probably the first intelligent thing she had done all day.
Lin Cheng slammed both hands into the ground and the earth beneath the nearest vines erupted upward in a wave of stone and dirt. Several vines were crushed instantly while others were buried beneath broken chunks of concrete and soil.
For a moment, his attack actually worked... right up until the the ground moved again, pushing fresh vines up through the rubble.
While the rest of the world went to pot, the original flower took another bite of Tao Jun, like it was just another Sunday. Or Monday.... wait... what day was it?
But it was at that moment, watching the Super Mario flower snacking away like it was... me... I noticed movement farther out in the yard. At first I thought the ash was shifting because of the wind, but then a small green shoot pushed through the blackened soil.
A second one appeared a few feet away, followed by a third. Within seconds, flowers were emerging everywhere I looked, their bright colors standing out against the burned remains of the jungle. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
That was the moment, I fucked up. Not because I had forgotten about Meilan completely, she wasn’t worth the brain cells needed to remember her.
No, the way that I fucked up was NOT realizing just how fast the flowers around us, the very jungle itself was growing.
The fire was big enough that it should have set them back more. Instead, they looked stronger, hungrier. And the worst part?
I FELT that hunger as if it was my own.
Holy fuck. I was... connected to the jungle in my front yard other than in the obvious ’it’s on my front lawn’ type way I had originally thought.
But no, I could feel it tentatively taking power from me, drawing on my body to grow and multiply.
And I was not having that. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"There are five people in front of you," I called out. I didn’t know who I was speaking to, and I felt like and idiot talking to the plants. But I also new that I didn’t have the reserves to heal myself, heal a burnt jungle, and whatever else was expected of me.
Like breathing. Did you know that breathing required calories? Calories that I desperately didn’t have? That is five percent of energy reserves that I really didn’t have at the moment.
The smile slowly disappeared from Lin Cheng’s face as he listened to me telling the vines to stop taking from me and start taking from the intruders. His head snapped around toward me and let out a sound that was more animal than human.
Guo Renwang charged toward me with a roar, but just like with Meilan, plants wrapped themselves around his body and brought him back to what really mattered.
Them.
He grabbed one of the thicker vines, his muscles bulged across his arms as he planted his feet and pulled. The first vine snapped like a dried twig, then the second one snapped too. And, for a brief moment, he looked relieved.
Then three more wrapped around his arm and I couldn’t help but laugh. I could feel the delight of the vine as it got the better of the human.
It was like a smug little kid doing well on a test because they had finally managed to learn the lesson.
Commander Li glanced toward me and nodded his head. "They’re adapting," he murmured, watching in real time as the plants around us regrouped and used new strategies to take out Meilan and her men.
"Of course they are," I replied, rolling my eyes. The answer was obvious to anyone with eyes.
If you don’t adapt, you die. That was the same for humans, for zombies, for plants, and for animals. It was one of the universal things that just was because the universe was a dick.
And apparently my jungle agreed... not about the universe being a dick, but about the need to adapt.
The original flower continued eating, but nobody was paying attention it anymore. It was being too peaceful, eating away at Tan Jun. Personally, I thought that was a mistake. It was cool to watch a flower eating.
"Look," I pointed out as the flower had finally managed to do enough small bites around the head that it fell off the body.
But nobody listened to me. Apparently I was the only one interested in a plant beheading an asshole.
