Unmotivated Deity

Jien knew quite a bit about magical plants from his studies on alchemy and everything he knew, even at the lower levels of knowledge available pointed to this foe being far above their class. One may think that to stop this flower and fish combination one only had to cut the flower off its stem. Those that thought that simply hardly ever lived to tell the tale. The way the plant would infect its target was through energy not a physical seed. This in simple terms meant that a single scratch could be the end of the injured, it also represented how difficult it would be to truly irradicate the plant. It wasn't even guaranteed that destroying the entirety of the plant and fish at the same time would do the trick.

Jien's eyes were truly opened when their first encounter was with something with the potential for what some would call immortality. Not only that, but it was also the type of opponent that used other beings as puppets and likely didn't care too terribly much if that puppet took damage. Jien wanted to say many things but the words he actually spoke were as simple as could be. "Retreat and don't let it even scratch you!" His words were anything but calm and his voice had raised a few octaves out of both fear and a combination of fight and flight.

At his orders everyone backed off of the pool with the greatest speed they could muster without turning their back. As they took their first steps back Jien knew that he had to do something. It was unknown whether this plant would be docile or do something dangerous, but they at least had to be able to retreat. He drew vial from his pouch and of alchemical solutions and without hesitation threw it at the fish that seemed to be just floating on the surface calmly.

As the vial came within a few feet of the fish the rose on its fin seemed to waver as if blown by a slight breeze. What followed was something that nobody fully comprehended. The flower wavered, the sound of shattering glass echoed across the cavern walls and a wave of gray smoke covered the pool. Everyone but Jien thought that this was what their leader was aiming for, but Jien himself felt the blood drain from his face at the event, urging the others to retreat faster.

Jien had thrown a volatile concoction that was supposed to burn when it met open air. This was more or less meant to distract the plant by damaging its body and host all at once. Not even Jien had seen what had happened but the fact that all that occurred was a fine layer of smoke he realized that the flames of the concoction had been snuffed before they could do anything. He at least knew the vial had never actually reached the target in the first place.

The others upon seeing what they thought was meant to be a smokescreen all wore slight smiles, at least until they looked at Jien to understand what he had planned for them. The moment they saw his pale complexion they knew something was wrong and it sent a shiver down their spines. Jien now in a lower but much more nervous tone spoke words that increased their pace once more, nearly causing Rosalind to stumble due to the weight of her weapon.

"I'm not sure what the flower did but stopped my concoction from working properly. We aren't ready to face this, we need to get out of here and make sure that it can't cause any problems." None of them had quite the knowledge on magical plants that Jien had given his research, but they all knew enough to confirm that this was out of their leagues. Unfortunately, they were only able to get so far before their retreat was stopped prematurely.

It started as a slight stirring in the smoke that had yet to clear above the pool and then grew more intense. Before any of them could understand what was happening a jet of dark water the width of barrel shot through the cloud, luckily running above all their heads but flying with such force that it struck the cavern walls, shaking free large chunks of stone which tumbled to the ground with echoing thuds.

All of their hair stood on end when they felt the force of that jet of water and the biggest trouble was that they couldn't determine if it was magical of physical in nature. If magical then there was always the chance that the fish, plant or both would burn through their mana. If it was physical and the fish could fire those jets with its body alone, they were in deep trouble because the fish wasn't in control or so Jien seemed to think.

There was a moment pause after the first blast of water that they were all frozen in fear, but when they saw the smoke begin to stir again, they abandoned all decorum, turning to run toward the exit with everything they had. They all knew that they couldn't possibly block that attack, not with magic, not with armor, it would tear right through anything they had available here and now. Their only choice was an expeditious retreat and to abandon the thought of using this lower chamber for fear that they would die or worse become the puppet of the parasitic rose.