Chapter 15

"Remind me how got into this mess again?" Sina asked with a blank face as we looked at a hulking monster covered in vines, shrubbery and pieces of wood. All around us were the corpses of Purifier's forces. Their vehicles and machines they had been using were in ruins.

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30 minutes earlier,

The night started smoothly enough as both I and Sina managed to reach the vicinity of the purifier's base without being discovered. After that, we surveyed the area and thought of a good plan of attack.

We waited until a patrol consisting of two jeeps drove by before I sprung my trap. A pair of large tree stems emerged from the ground and punctured through the bottom of the Jeeps and lifted them off the ground. before flipping them over and letting them fall. Sina charged at the falling Jeeps and waited for the Jeeps to fall before attacking the passengers inside who were lucky enough to survive. After some well-placed kicks and punches to their pressure points, the passengers lay lifeless inside the overturned Jeeps.

Both of us then as then ran back into the wilderness in search of our next target. We took down 3 more patrols this way before we made our way to the main compound. The entire compound was on alert due to our previous ambushes. Most of the Purifiers we're hunkered down atop large metal platforms, probably to try and prevent my plants from attacking them from below. Some of them even had what looked like flame throwers. And above them were aerial drones that were patrolling their general vicinity.

As per our original plan, I began to spread out my plants, around the metal platforms. Not long after that, Mushrooms began sprouting off the ground. but they weren't just any mushrooms. The guards immediately noticed the mushrooms but it was too late. The mushrooms burst and a thick smoke emerged from it which immediately surrounded the guards. As the smoke got thicker, the guard's vision was hindered and they began inhaling the smoke causing my other surprise to take effect. The smoke was also laced with a fast acting, weak hallucinogen. Not enough to do permanent damage but considering the circumstances where the victims are visually impaired and agitated? It was more than enough.

The guards within the smoke suddenly began to fire wildly at all directions garnering the attention of the other guards who promptly ran towards them to assist only to be met with gun fire. Several stray shots managed to hit the new arrivals and even managed to take down a drone and it was at that moment that all hell broke loose. In a panic, the other guards began returning fire, loosing even more of their comrades to friendly fire.

And amidst this chaos, Sina made her move as she move across the treeline and bypassed the barricades from while the guards were preoccupied. She used the barricades sneak towards the barracks before reinforcements arrived. And once she was in place, I shifted my attention back at the guards. The fighting was slowly subsiding as the smoke began to lose its effectiveness and my original victims began to regain their mental faculties. And I chose that moment to strike.

I made a vine that coiled around the leg of the guard closest to me and yanked him up into the air. I then made the vine make a sweeping motion, using the guard as a flail to knock the other guards closest to it down before hurling the said guard at the group further away. My impromptu projectile managed to take out one of the guards while the other proceeded to take cover and started firing at my vine. And it seemed that they had learned from our prior forays as they were using higher caliber weaponry. The bullets tore through my vine which had previously withstood the assault of multiple smallarms fire. I became more cautious at this sight as these arms were a potential threat to me. Yet at the same time, I had to keep their attention away from Sina and buy her enough time to make sure there aren't any surprises waiting for us inside.

And so I stepped out of the treeline and began slowly walking towards them and all eyes were immediately on me. The guards watched me approach with caution in their eyes but made no effort to try and attack me. I could sense their fear as they clutched their weapons.

"That's close enough freak!!!" One of the guards yelled at me.

"Now, now. That's no way to talk to a lady." I said with a sultry tone I didn't even know I had. I was inwardly blushing at my sudden confidence but thankfully, the mask combined with the moonlight managed to mask my expression from my audience.

"Silence, you monster. You have been murdering the brothers and sisters of our glorious cause for too long. You will die tonight. Thus is the will of Father Stryker!!!" one of the soldiers shouted at the top of his voice and got out of cover with his weapons raised. But at the next moment, I made a cluster of vines imbued with my chi and directed it at the surviving guards. The guards immediately opened fire and the cluster came under an onslaught of bullets and flame. Unfortunately for them, these vines were more durable as they were inbued with my chi. And the guards soon found themselves bound by them.

And then one by one, I brought them towards me before giving them a burst of my pheromones. As these men were just ordinary humans, sheer proximity was enough for me to enthrall them. I smirked at a drone that was monitoring my actions before it was shot down by my new canon fodders before I told them to accompany me. I was halfway there when an explosion emerged from the base. And I spotted Sina being knocked back by the impact and I made a cluster of vines to break her fall before bringing it towards me. Part of her clothes brunt and her face covered in dust as she coughed heavily.

"What happened?" I asked Sina who kept cougghing before she replied.

"Did you make 'that' thing?" she asked.

"What thing?" I asked with a confused experssion.

Sina was about to answer when I felt movement from where the explosion came. I turned to find a large creature made of plants and shrubbery approach menacingly. And worst of all, I couldn't sense any of the plant on or around it.

I ordered the enthralled Purifiers to fire at it before summoning the surrouding plants to aid me. But to my shock, the creature seemed to mirror my actions as I saw the flora around it bending to its will. I even felt myself losing control over the ones i controlled and i had to exert myself to prevent myself from losing control over the plants. As my eyes met the creatures, i knew that this night has become even more complicated.