Chapter 266: Woodland Terror

It wasn’t a tree.

It wasn’t even the bark on the tree.

It was roots.

Hundreds of roots that’d coiled around the tree’s trunk started to peel back. Bone white tips peeked from the writhing mass.

“Move!” Kat shouted. “Minnie with Keit! You’re our guide! Do not get lost!”

No one made a move to attack the creature. It hadn’t attacked yet, but Ann really didn’t want to get things started early.

Minnie wrapped Keit’s eyes with a strip of leather and began to lead her where they needed to go.

Rustling behind them.

Ann whirled to see a Warped, one of the murder rabbits, poke its pink nose out from the brush. She hated how cute they were before you saw the rest.

It didn’t move, though. It stayed there, staring at them with red eyes. She saw the bush moving as the tendrils on its back wriggled forth.

More started to shake around them. The forest, after its long night, was waking up.

“AAAAH!” Minnie screamed.

Ann risked a glance forward. A person! Wait, no, that was a body. A body that was… walking? Zombie? Its face was long, gaunt, and unnaturally stretched wide. Even in this dead state, its arms seemed muscular and firm, though. Drool was leaking from its rictus grin, and half its teeth were missing. The thing’s arm lifted, a hand missing two fingers, pointing at Minnie.

“Yooooou aaaaare miiiiine,” it croaked.

Kat ran up and bashed its head.

The skull squished like a rotten pumpkin. Then, with a disgusting noise of bone on bone, it reinflated. Something long and thin, but thicker than Alruna’s worms, writhed underneath its skin. Ann saw it then, the roots that were attaching it to the ground. The roots boring into its bare feet. It was a puppet. An awful puppet that this thing had way too much control over.

The murder bunny chattered angrily at her from behind and took a hop forward. It was the same thing! A walking corpse controlled by whatever the hell Warped could even do this kind of thing.

A dozen bodies erupted from the treeline. Half were Warped of the usual assortment. Twinwolves, but their bodies fully split in half, with their entrails dragging behind them, the two bodies connected by more roots. Even their brains were now lashed together with dark veins burrowing into the weird bubblegum pink that’s been chewed on for way too long brain matter. Two badger things came next, their backs and beautiful stripes stained black as their ribs were forced up and outward. Each bone moved on its own like insect legs, skittering the creature’s body along as limp arms and legs dangled.

People were next. Not all of them were as intact as the first one they’d run into. Bones were shattered and rearranged. Flesh was torn open to be put elsewhere. Sickening wings of skin stretched between some limbs, so thin that Ann could see the veins when they touched the light. Hands were forced backwards, their arms broken just before the wrist and pulled back so the radius and ulna made sharp stabbing weapons on the front. Legs were split into quadrapedal forms, spines were suggestions, and their faces were split, twisted, and punctured with roots at all places. Eyes played host to spires of wooden growth that always seemed to be pointed upwards before twisting together, then blooming into branches of a tree with no leaves.

“Becoooome paaaaart offffff myyyy c-c-c-c-olection,” the thing groaned through half a dozen mouths.

“Ain’t none o’ us gettin in bet wit ye!” Kat shouted back. She dug her blade’s teeth into the body before her and yanked downwards. Black blood poured over her arm as the weapon shredded the flesh.

Ann dodged a shockingly accurate swing from an arm-blade. A spray of black blood hit her facemask when she leaned out of the way. It was swinging up, trying to get at her face or neck, but the body wasn’t tall enough to reach. Her kick flashed purple as she tried to send the thing either reeling back or toppling. The impact was solid. Her paws squished against its flesh until they hit something solid.

The creature launched back. Even with the vines, its mass seemed to be about the same. The torso flew backwards, but its thighs didn’t take the force well. Bone snapped, then ground together as flesh tore from bone shards. As the body’s back hit the snow, wooden tendrils connected the shorn pieces. The knees bent backwards as the body lifted upwards.

Ann staggered back, fear gripping her heart as more of the body pulled apart. Every piece of this thing was connected by roots. Elbows popped free like chicken wings, the neck stretched inhumanly long before the skin shredded, revealing an intact oesophagus and spread spinal column. For some awful reason, the thick veins and tubes didn’t tear, but stretched with the rapid expansion. Guts spilt out from a stomach stretched too thin, like a gusher pulled apart. Ann had thought it’d be a gush of liquid, but it was instead black mucous, stretching and streaking between the intestines, lungs, and heart as they sloshed heavily to hang in front of its hips and legs to make the most disgusting loincloth ever.

Ann sliced through it out of pure revulsion, letting the awful mess flap away. Her next strike was a knife hand to the face that had risen to above even her height. A solid thock met her ears as her claws dug into solid wood.

“Oh fuck you!” Ann cried and started stabbing and scratching anything she could find.

Kat, to her left, wasn’t doing great, but her weapon was better at hacking. The woman was a blur of magical shield strikes and quick posture adjustments.

Lucia’s shots were similarly ineffective. Her new flame shots, though, did scorch through sections of the wooden tendrils. They shockingly didn’t try to regenerate. When they were cut, new tentacles shot into the gap. The dead parts were shucked and thumped into the quickly muddying dirt. Ann could tell that she wasn’t using her Big One for multiple reasons. Keit would spook and bolt, it would wreck two people’s ears, and it’d send her tumbling. Not worth it.

Out of all of them, Rosalyn and Bren were doing the best.

Nothing was getting thrown, so Bren trusted them to their own defences and set to using his new skill like a buzzsaw. He’d summon a shield between his hands, spinning at insane speeds, then fire it off where it dug into bodies and limbs. Sometimes they cut clean through. His only issue was that these only lasted one impact. Each time they cut, they shattered into brilliant shards.

Rosalyn, meanwhile, was a literal force of nature. She wasn’t using Thorns, but the winds whipped around her, forming deadly blades as she swung her staff. Roots were cut left and right. When a corpse got too close to her, it hit a wall of solid air. The moment after, Rosalyn’s finger would reach out, sending a blinding arc between them, which fried the vines. The flesh did help insulate it somewhat, but it was lightning.

Ann could only get this in flashes as she warded off the now two vine puppets trying to tear her insides out. They came at her from all angles. When she blocked a ridiculously extended forearm bone, a femur half would spear into her knee. She would dodge out of the way of one attack for another to be waiting for her in the exact path she’d taken. Her core burned as she repeatedly adjusted her body to narrowly avoid death over and over again.

Wind whipped past her as she twisted again and took off the limb about to skewer her. Ann immediately charged her claws and raked holy light across the wood. Scars and burns spread, then extinguished as the fire lost strength. The thing laughed in her face.

“Yooou are noooot what weeee neeeed. Sheeee is wrooooong. Be my suuuuustinance. Feeeed the eaaaaarth.”

Ann couldn’t stop to think about the words. She let a Fitful of Love rip right through the creature’s chest. It fell limp, stretched out limbs draping over her as she frantically tried to get it off.

“Whhhhrooooooong,” the thing rattled, before going limp.

Ann had no clue why breaking that part was the key. She hadn’t noticed anything, but the purple light always blinded her.

To her left, a roar that made her jump erupted. Kat’s lips were pulled back in a snarl, and the snow in front of her blasted away. The creatures she was engaged with stuttered and came to a stop.

“The chest! Where the heart should be!” Ann shouted, returning to her own enemy.

Lucia’s next shot burst through the heart of a murder bunny. The thing screeched like it was still alive. The blazing bullet instantly changed direction and killed a whip-limbed Thrundol corpse that had been threatening Bren.

“Good! Kill quick!”

Ann clocked four more corpses moving towards them through the trees. She needed to test something.

“Kat! Old sword!” she shouted.

A moment later, the steel blade glittered as it flew towards Ann. She caught it deftly, adjusted her grip, and cut low on the abomination she was fighting. Her arm ached with the impact. It’d been too long since she’d practised with a blade, and the cut was slightly out of line with the sword’s angle. Ann rolled backwards as bone spires hit the dirt.

This monster was some kind of bull-type Vulhardrin. The roots were using the horns as extra weapons.

A quick slash, better angled this time, sliced the roots free of the horns. The bits not cut off rustled and sucked back into the skull.

Ann tried to get closer, but the two arms were still in her way. They had all of the advantages that whips had. Mostly reach and speed. She was tempted to use Shot Through the Heart, but held off. This needed to be tested.

Ann’s hand stung as she grabbed a whirling forearm. She yanked it behind her, then lashed out at the other coming for her. With that, she was inside its guard, facing away from the monster. She dropped her weight onto a single paw and spun. The cut was not as strong as it could have been, but it got the job done.

The creature was freed from its tethers. Vines crunched the feet as they dragged them underground. A moment later, a dozen more shot up and latched onto the corps. Now they re-threaded with their severed brethren, restoring life to the monstrosity.

Cutting them at the roots wasn’t an option. Shit.

Ann pulled her pistol and blasted the thing’s chest. A Smite on top of her new skill made sure that the creature shattered and didn’t get up.

“Cutting it from the ground doesn’t work!” Ann yelled. She moved to help Kat, who’d been struggling as more of the puppets piled onto her.

Ann ducked behind a tree between them, breaking line of sight. She triggered Fade Away, and Shadowmeld took effect the second she was in darkness. Her next cut, right through two twisted expanses of roots, was easy.

Kat capitalised on the relief in an instant. Her shield knocked a murder bunny puppet away, crushing its head. Her sword caught the chest of one puppet and tore at flesh, bone, and wood alike.

It didn’t die.

Ann rammed the sword through the chest of the puppet she’d just disarmed.

Nothing.

“Feck, they moved it!”

Ann yanked her blade free before the creature could trap her with it. “It can fucking do that?”

“Apparently!” Rosalyn yelled back. “Some can modify or move weak points! If they have them. Something with this much going on is…” she cut another puppet in half, “definitely going to have weak points. Try the heads!”

Lucia blew a puppet’s head smooth off. The roots caught the remnants of the skull and put them back together, the best they could. “No!”

“I dunno! Keep trying! The Loporimorts are small enough you can just squish them!”

“The lopowhats?” Ann yelled back, parrying a whirling neck that was using its vertebrae like teeth on a saw.

“Loporimorts! You called them murder bunnies, which is way cuter, and I am totally using that, but that’s their actual name. Old words for rabbit and death! Death Rabbits! Rabbit Death? Doesn’t matter, squish! Also, you’ve gotta roll the r, or it doesn’t sound right, which isn’t something everyone can do, so it’s really limiting on who can say the word! I need to argue with some scholars about that one!” Thunder boomed as she fried another body.

They just kept coming. One after another. How many of these things were there?

Ann had lost track of how much ground they’d covered. They’d been walking and keeping up with Keit. Minnie was still guiding her, flinching any time an attack got close.

Bren was on it, though. He’d been specifically working to cut down or hinder anything that got close to the pair. Ann was amazed at how well he was using his new spell after just a couple of days. There had to be a constant stream of healing going out to Kat and Ann. She just noticed the absence of cuts and scratches she’d definitely taken.

“We’re almost to a clearing!” Minnie shouted. Her voice was shaken, but she’d kept up the pace with Keit.

“Good! Let’s feckin’ run fer it! Rosalyn, walls then get out!”

“Yup!”

Ann took her place in the rear guard with Kat. They were both physical enough to get themselves out fast, so they’d be holding off assaults.

Keit bleated, annoyed with Minnie as she urged the creature forward. As they got moving, she pulled the blindfold off Keit’s eyes and ran ahead of the goat. Keit seemed to know what to do, and her six hooves pounded against the frozen earth as she chased the miner.

Rosalyn waved her staff, draining a significant amount of Mind as walls appeared behind them. The next moment, snow rose, gusting around her, then she launched towards Keit and Minnie.

Ann couldn’t watch to make sure Bren was keeping up.

Her sword parried a quick jab from a murder bunny’s tentacle. The stench of rotting flesh was becoming unbearable, and it was made worse when she stomped on the little flesh-and-root bag. It popped all over her paw. Ann suppressed her whine at the mess and backpedalled a dozen more steps.

Kat backed up next to her. “Ye…” she slammed her shield into a Grrn puppet. The stone cracked, but held. “Ye think this is all one thing?”

“Did any of them talk to you?” Ann panted. She had a blessed moment where everything was focused on Kat as she slammed her sword into her shield.

“Talk? Nae. Not since the first one.” Thunk! Thunk! Kat caught two limbs in quick order.

Ann danced forward and cut at the roots as they retracted. She barely caught one, and it was shallow. Her sword tried to pull out of her hand, but she held tight. “One was calling me wrong. Saying that someone was wrong about me.”

“Think yer mystery Goddess has some detractors in ‘er ranks.” Kat laughed as she turned aside a bodyslam straight into Ann’s sword. “Good one!”

“Thanks,” Ann laughed back, shoving the still writhing body off of her. “It’s so much better with just our lives on the line, yeah?”

“Somehow, aye!” Kat said, still laughing as she raked her sword across another limb, shredding a section of tender roots. “Old days, ye know?”

“Old days, as in a couple weeks ago,” Ann pointed out. She caught some vines in her hand and pumped out a Smite. Apparently, she didn’t need to punch things for it to work since the roots burst into holy fire.

“Eh, still feels nice.”

“Could you imagine us with Alruna here?” Ann panted, a stupid grin on her face as she tasted the blood running down her cheek. “Once she gets used to how we fight, we’re going to be a blender!”

“The feck’s a blender?”

Ann disabled the leg of a puppet, but the roots quickly refilled. “A machine with little blades that cuts up food really small. How the fuck isn’t there a manual version of that here?”

“Oh! A blitzer! Aye, we’ve got ‘em. Spinnin’ shite’s easy fer enchantments.” Kat roared, making Ann wince, and six of the monsters stopped moving.

Ann took the disruption to get them space. “Wait, spinning’s easy, so what do you need steam engines for?”

“Power!” Kat huffed, backpedalling alongside Ann. “At least that’s what Bren says. Somethin’ about not enough space tae make things feasibly fast.”

“Ok, sure, and weight acting against the force, but what about something light?”

“What’re ye gettin’ at?”

“Stupid weapon idea. Take a circular saw and slap it on a stick. Kinda like what Bren’s got right now.”

Kat was quiet for a moment as she continued her backwards track. “Huh. Bet ye a good smith an’ Wendyl could get that tae work. It’d be awkward as hell, though. Just the…” Kat was interrupted by a murder bunny flying down from a tree, suspended by roots. She cut the thing free of its cords, but the ground erupted with more to take over. “Rotation would make it a bitch tae swing.”

“Fair. Would be fun, though.”

Suddenly, they were in the clearing. They kept moving backwards as fast as they could, but the puppets weren’t following them.

“Hey! Let’s keep moving! We need to get out of these woods quick!” Rosalyn called.

Ann turned to see the trees to their sides already rustling as the Warped controlling all of this expanded its influence.