THE LUSTING WORLD - Season 2 Episode 82

“Keep going guys. This dumb thing got no intelligence. It can’t do anything other than swinging its arms around. Hold it off and make wat for Nash to reach its trunk.” A man with a spear in his hands struck against the tentacle grabbing towards him. All its arms had wide-opening mouths at the end. That’s how this plant can devour the mana from its victims. The man’s attack had torn down its jaws but within a few seconds, the organism had recovered back.

There was no other way to kill it, it was recovering too fast. They had to destroy its base. Most of the ones who had been here from the starting with were at their limits and everyone knew that. “Do it. This is the last chance we got. Remember, we can’t retreat. Let’s do it. Ahhhhh…” The group responded with a loud shout as they rushed towards the entity, in a last-ditch effort to kill it off.

“Haaaahh!!” James shouted as he forced his way through the constant barrage of strikes. All of them rushing at once proved to be too much for the corrupted plant. Nash took the opportunity to rush in and leaped his way through its defenses.

Everyone explained but none of them relaxed. They had to keep its limbs busy, lest it attacks Nash. “Fire blast!!” The man had placed both his hands on the red veins-infested trunk and began casting his magic again and again. *Screech* Flames busted out from his hands as the vine began screaming in an inhuman voice.

Its horrible screams were a joyous sign for all the men. Sensing victory so close to them, their attacks grew heavier and heavier. Only James was the one frowning at the situation. The plant was surely screaming in pain but he was not able to discover any substantial damage on its body, behind the curtains of flames.

*Screech* “Ahhhhh!!…” His speculation was proven right, when to the absolute horror of everyone around, another appendage sprouted from its trunk and latched onto Nash’s neck. It attacked in a flash, not even giving the guy any chance to dodge, before it had already coiled itself around his neck, digging its sharp teeth in his soft flesh.

“Nashh!!” The man who screamed must be his party member, but there was little he can do as the tentacles once again spun into action and stopped everyone from helping the poor guy out. All of them can see visible mana getting drained by the appendage. If they can’t reach him with the next minute, he might die.

“Kill this bastard!!” Everyone was enraged. They can’t allow one of their comrades to die like this. “Dammit… Dammit…!”The man with the spear was the most powerful here but he too wasn’t allowed entry. Also, all of them can feel their mana draining rapidly now, after having fought the abomination for many minutes now.

“Help me get in..!!” James screamed his lungs out. He was the closest to the captured man. If anyone can rescue him then it would have to be him. The men responded by slowly inching close to him while keeping up with their attacks.

“Do it.. save him..” The man with the spear was bitten on his arm but despite that, he carried on attacking with all he had got. James gave a nod and just like Nash, rushed towards the guy.

Fortunately, he managed to get in. “Hold on!!” James tried to motivate the guy as he held onto the thick vine around his neck, trying to loosen the grip so that the guy cab struggle his way out. *Screech* The plant on the other hand was not willing to hand back its hostage. Despite his strengthening magic, James wasn’t able to free the guy. He was losing time rapidly.

*Strike* Shifting his focus to the base he began attacking the joint where the appendage was attached with its parent body. Once he can cut it off from the main body, it should die off, freeing Nash.

*Screech* James took a sigh of relief while continuing to strike at the limb with his hands. Just a bit more and he can free the guy. *Screech* Everyone around them was thinking the same thing. Now they didn’t want to kill this thing off. Rather their objective was to save their fellow friends and run away. They can’t deal with this.

Alas, the entity wasn’t as dumb as they had thought. It had realized its precarious condition and chose to run away. The arms pulled back at once. On their way, it wrapped around both James and Nash and pulled them along. Its body retracted into the ground within a few seconds, pulling the two men along with it.

To the despair of the men around they can only see a large hole where the vine had been. They saw the anguish on each other’s faces. They had been fooled. The corrupted plant had actually been stationary for a while now because it had been planning for its exit all along. While it was fighting the men above ground, it had dug its escape route underground.

The man with the spear fell back. His large body was riddled with wounds. “Fuck this..!! Go call master Lyod… there might still be hope.” Commanding others, he closed his eyes. He was grievously wounded in the battle and consequently wasn’t able to maintain his consciousness anymore.

**Half an hour later**

Ryu had been enjoying his lunch break with Kira when they were visited by Sophia. He thought she was there to accompany them for lunch but the girl had a rather serious face so he held off his invitation. “Is something wrong?” Sophia gave have a grim nod before responding. “Master had ordered the whole plantation to be evacuated at once, for the day. I want you two to locate the other apprentices and inform them of the same.”

Saying that she turned around and left without saying another word. Kira and Ryu were too shocked to process the information for a while. “Why would they do that, brother?” Ryu was reminded of Lyod words from earlier. There must be a vine attack. They must be trying to keep everyone safe by evacuating them out of the plantation ground.

“It should not be a big deal. They might have located some big vines and just to be cautious they want us out.” Kira nodded as his words made sense. But can it be that bad to call for an emergency evacuation? She had been fighting vines regularly now. Can those things present this much danger? She had many questions in her mind but Ryu cut her off.

“Let’s go, we need to search and inform others. Let’s go we will split to cover more groun…” Midway to his sentence he shook his head and grabbed her hand. “You are coming with me. We will search for them together.” He can’t be that foolish to let her wander off in these situations. At times like this, he wanted her as close to himself as possible.

Kira beamed back at him, allowing him to pull her along. She loved it when Ryu showed care for her. It made her feel cherished. As she followed behind him, her smile never faded despite the tumultuous situation.

Within an hour the whole farm had been emptied. At Lyod’s place, the old man stood to one side with a grim expression on his face. “Master Lyod, how is the situation?” The old guy turned around to look at the approaching man. He shook his head. “We lost two guys.”

Eric clenched his fist hard. How can this happen again? He had promised himself that he won’t allow any more people to die at the hands of this abomination, especially after the last attack that claimed the life of Paula, master Lyod’s wife. But this attack was too strange. It didn’t even give them any time to organize their forces.

“What about the vine? Is it exterminated?” Lyod gritted his teeth in frustration. “I can’t find it. It seems to have vanished. I tried to track it through the tunnel it had dug but it was barely a hundred meters in depth. It ends at that point with no sign of the vine.

Lyod was even stronger than himself, so if the man wasn’t able to track that thing down he would not have fared any better himself. “For now I have asked everyone to leave. Put your men to work. We need to search it and vanquish it before any operation can begin here.” Lyod pressed on Eric’s shoulders. “The attack was too bizarre, there is nothing we could have done. The only thing to do now is to train our men to be better prepared for this eventuality from now on.”

Eric sighed. He was right. It’s not like he can deploy his guards for every person working here. Most of his capable men were already deployed in the innermost circle. He can’t have them posted in the outer circle just because of a single attack. That will be counterproductive.

“What do we do with their families?” Lyod had walked off to a distance when he heard the question. He took some time to respond. “Let’s hold it off as long as we possibly could. We can’t have people panic.” Saying that he left Eric behind.

***

“Did something happen at the farms?” Amelia was surprised to find both Jeff and Ryu at the door. It was too early for their return. Jeff sidestepped the lady. “No idea. You already know, they don’t tell us much anyway. Something might have come up, so we were released from our duties.” Jeff replied from the bathroom.

“Mhhhh??” The man heard a few moans from outside but when he came out, there was only Amelia in the corridor, wiping her lips off. “Did something happen?” She made sure to clean the leftover saliva from her lips to answer back. “Nope. Let me prepare the lunch for you guys, then.” She happily skipped to the kitchen.

***

*Knock* Evening fell and Ruby heard a knock on her door. She was light on her feet, now that she had given birth to her child. Thinking that it must be her husband, she opened the door. There was a man but he wasn’t James. The man was in the attire of a town’s guard. “Hmm? How may I help you?”

This is the first time she had seen this guy so he must be on an official business. But why would a guard visit her? “Are you Mrs. Ruby?” “Yes, that will be me.” The guard kept a straight face as he mentioned the reason for his arrival. “I have been sent here to inform you that for a week your husband had been sent in an assignment outside of the town.”

It was strange news. “May I know anything about this assignment? James didn’t tell me anything about this.” The guard patiently explained it to her. “It was related to some important task so he had to leave on short notice. That’s why I was sent here. Now, please allow me to take my leave. Take care.”

The man obviously knew what had transpired so he didn’t want to give the woman too much hope. Chief Eric can’t hide the fact forever.

Ruby shut the door, only to sit back on her bed. *Wuuu* *Wuuu* She pulled the child into her lap and letting lose her blouse, she let the girl suckle on her nipple. She was still lost in thought about the statement from the guard. He didn’t even tell her where they had sent James. Now she can only wait for a week to pass and ask James about it directly.