A Sinner’s Chance

Neyla began to scuttle away with Arya and Steria, Renae keeping them balanced on her back as I charged the near black violet lightning while waiting for the Lesser Alraune to enter my range. Despite having the figure of a little girl the vines that protruded from the back and legs of the Lesser Alraune made it seem more like some kind of deranged alien parasite as it swung through the trees towards me and its escaping prey.

Holding the naginata I was using out like it was a magic staff, the blade pointing towards the Alraune, I discharged the lightning I'd been building in a single torrent of flashing violet light as it arced forwards. The Alraune was far more dexterous than I'd initially thought given its seemingly berserk state, allowing it to easily evade any major damage, only losing a few vines to the lightning.

The Alraune closed the distance and a multitude of vines shot from it, while tree branches began to animate all coming together and wrapped my body. I didn't hesitate to immolate myself with Yinfire, causing the vegetation to wither and crumble into dust. The fight continued in a frustrating stalemate, I was unable to leave actual harm on the Alraune as its reflexes and agility made it difficult to hit, while it couldn't defeat or flee from me as I used Yinfire to block its escape. Had it not seen my earlier display of what the Yinfire could do, I thought it was likely the Alraune would have killed itself by charging through the Yinfire, but since it knew the danger it was unable to make it past me.

My only hope was to slowly but surely whittle it down, something that was likely to take quite some time. Unfortunately it didn't seem that fate was favoring me as soon after the Alraune released another horrid and loud screech, the nearby vegetation began to shake and rustle before revealing five people who I assumed were Adventurers, only to soon realize that each of them had a strange flower that appeared to sprout from their heads.  The Alraune was parasitical and had likely captured many different members of the Races, keeping only the strongest to be its protectors.

I could only silently curse to myself as the odds shifted in the favor of the Alraune. I hadn't expected there to be the option for reinforcements for a monster, and now I was going to pay for it. While they weren't at their full strength since they were nothing but mindless shells of what they had once been, it still required me to split my attention six ways if I wanted to prevent any of them from making it anywhere near Neyla and her passengers.

It was extremely difficult to keep track of all six members that were attacking me as they were in perfect sync but had still yet to land a meaningful blow to me. While I was fairing a little better, it wasn't by much,  but I used everything I could think of to try and kill those that were assaulting me. It felt like the Alraune had some kind of foresight Skill that allowed it to peek in the future as it would always evade me moments before my strikes could connect, but I knew it was only a good reflexes as I'd caught it off-guard a few times.

The biggest issue in this back and forth was my inability to use my webs effectively as all the vegetation, and therefore anything I could connect it to, was controlled by the Alraune, making it impossible to set up any kind of trap or utilize my webs for anything. This was likely the first time I'd had a straight up fight against a creature that could fight on equal footing, however, it only made me realize that the gap between me and whatever was deeper in the forest must be that much greater, I was sure that Neyla was also much more powerful than I was.

I soon realized that I was being pushed farther and farther back, a part of withered trees and other greenery ruined by the intense fight. While I wasn't anywhere near exhausted, however I still wasn't making any progress with defeating any of the six figures that were endlessly attacking me. Despite the fact that I was the one losing the fight, I knew the gap was slowly closing between me and the other six. I'd gotten much better at using the naginata and even had some ideas on how to improve it, something that needed to wait until I had access to a proper workshop again.

I was also unsure if it was the enemies that were slowing down, or that I had simply gotten used to their somewhat monotonous attack pattern, the Alraune being the only one that was able to land blows on me now, not that I had been worrying about that before anyway.  It took me  a bit more time until I was finally able to defeat one of the Adventurers, the naginata piercing them completely as Yinfire traveled across it and disintegrated the flesh, leaving only a clean skeleton behind.

Once one of their numbers had been reduced I was able to swiftly deal with the other four as their synchronization was now off since their fifth member had fallen. Even after dealing with the other four, I was still unable to deal with the Alraune, it was too slippery for me to manage to damage, yet it wasn't strong enough to resist the strength of my flames or lighting. A single solid hit would let me deal with it but I was simply unable to do so.

If anything I felt the gap between me and the Lesser Alraune was getting larger and that it was hitting me more often while I was connecting almost never. Eventually the Alraune was able to restrain me again, while also somehow preventing me from gathering any sort of mana, making it impossible to use my flames or lightning to break free. My own strength was enough to let me snap some of the vines and wood keeping me in place, only for more to take its place. Soon the only part of my body not restrained was my head and face, allowing me to glare at the little plant girl who now seemed very amused and pleased with herself.

There was no speech or any sort of conversation, the Alraune simply came over to and placed a hand on my head, drowsiness suddenly taking a hold despite my best efforts to avoid succumbing to it. However I soon began to fall into a slumber, the haunting echo of the monster before I lost sight of everything and fell asleep.