Sweet Child of the Forest

The vines surrounded them from both sides. They all stood without moving, but somehow Ahli could feel how they were watching him and Sharon. There were no eyes on the vines, however, the top of their body was shaped like a blooming flower. On a closer look, one could say that the blooming flower shape was more like a wide-open mouth Venus fly trap. One part of the top was in the shape of the pointed end of a leaf, and that pointy part was the one that faced Ahli and Sharon.

"Ahli, what should we do?" Whispered Sharon who was facing the other direction.

Ahli looked at the ones in front of him and he then looked at Mr. Cial who was still lying unconscious on the ground. He slowly lowered his body and the pointy part followed his movement. Ahli's eyes kept his view on them, even though his left hand was trying to reach Mr. Cial. He placed his finger again on his nose hole and felt the air still moving in and out of his lung.

"We need to go out of this place, immediately." After being sure of Mr. Cial's condition, Ahli took one card from his hand and set it as a mana source.

For this situation, he really needed a mass sweeper like Shaking Fire or Dispute in the Pack. The problem was that he was missing to set the mana source by turn 2 and 4, even though he had the card to do so. This means that he needed to build up his mana source, until the moment one of those cards appear.

<TURN 6>

As if Carta understood him, the next card that came into his hand was Dispute in the Pack. Ahli felt great as he knew he had the key to winning the battle. All he needed then was more cards to be used as mana sources, which were currently not available in his hand.

Dispute in the Pack

4+Fire Mana+Fire Mana

[Magic]

Target enemy unit deals damage to each other enemy units equal to its power. At the same time, each other enemy units deal damage to that targeted enemy unit.

"I got our key to escaping alive from here." Said Ahli in a whisper to Sharon.

"Good. So, let's burn them." Ordered Sharon.

"That would be a bit problem. The mana is not enough. I don't have any more cards that can be used as a mana source."

"What? Damnit. In that case, we better stall the time."

TEK TEK TEK TEK TEK

A weird and creepy sound came from the end of the pathway in front of them. As it put out that sound, all the vines shifted their view from Ahli and Sharon to it. Ahli took that chance to take off the vines from Mr. Cial's body. He then put him on his back.

[Man, this guy is heavy…]

"Ahli…" With Sharon's call, Ahli looked at the end of the pathway as swarms of root tentacles came upon them. It carries something that seemed to have a shape of a human.

"This is the boss, from the look of it." Sharon put her sword in front of her, preparing for defending anything that will come at her.

As it moved to a brighter place, Ahli and Sharon were finally able to see the true form of their enemy. It has the shape of a female, yet its feet were roots that were moving alternatively by piercing the ground. From many parts of her body, in particular her head, came out many vines. By looking at it, Ahli came to the conclusion that all the vines surrounding them in some ways were connected to her.

He also quickly examined the stats of this female plant. He saw that it has a very weak power of only 1, yet the life stat was quite high with 5 written on it. This meant that multiple attacks would be needed to kill it. As he checked the stats, he saw a special box on top of the power life stats that was written with a tree symbol followed by a +1. This was something new as it was not something he ever encountered in the digital version of Card Master itself.

<TURN 7>

"Carta, change into full stats mode." Ordered Ahli as he touched the gem on the deck box.

<Changing into full stats mode.>

With it, more windows popped out in his view, regarding all the enemies that were surrounding them. It has types, weaknesses, abilities, etc; all could be viewed easily. Ahli dislike using this feature as it was too much for his eyes and very distracting.

He shifted again his view toward the female plant and saw how the special box has expanded and on it was written, <Other plants get +1 +0>

And Ahli quickly realized how she had been the one that made the other plants aggressive as she was a type of unit that has its own nickname in Card Master, a lord.

A lord was not officially named, but players would refer to it when there is a unit that gave stats boost to other units that share its type. Multiple summoning of a lord would make an army of units super powerful in combat, and therefore they usually were dealt first.

"She's a lord." Said Ahli to Sharon.

"What do you mean 'a lord'" Asked Sharon back as she did not understand what he said.

"She gave a boost to the plants surrounding us, that's why we need to kill her." Ahli saw the new card on his hand which was Spellblade, a combat trick. However, it couldn't be used as a mana source, as it did not have the symbol at the bottom.

SPELLBLADE

4+Fire Mana

[Quickening Spell]

Target unit gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in your hand.

The female plant moved closer and closer to both of them, and with her, the other plants moved as well, making a half-circle that was coming at Ahli and Sharon.

"We need to run." Said Sharon to him.

"Yeah, we should." With Ahli agreeing, both he and Sharon quickly turn 180 degrees and ran.

It was quite fortunate they did that as the female plant was giving a command by reaching out her right hand, and what followed was multiple vines quickly piercing toward the space they were used to be standing.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

It screamed and it sound like screeching glasses. With that, many of the vines started to move and chased Ahli and Sharon.

"THEY'RE COMING!" Ahli glanced a little to the back and saw many of the vines moving at quite high speed.

"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!" He tried to run faster, however, Mr. Cial's weight was hindering him as he was not used to carrying other people, not even Jena.

"SHARON! TAKE MY SWORD!" Sharon moved toward him quickly, reacting to the call. She took his short sword and held it in her left hand. They continued running when a notification came.

<TURN 8>

Another card came to his hand, however as he was not able to release his holding of Mr. Cial's body, he shouted, "FLOAT VIEW!"

With that, the cards transformed into their giant illusion card form. He saw that it was Jena's Pendant.

"Pay 1 fire mana. Cast Jena's Pendant." The giant illusion card that was Jena's Pendant disappeared as a shard pierced through it. Ahli then felt something appearing on his neck, it was a replica of Jena's Pendant. With that, he knew he only needed to wait for one more mana source.

Multiple vines were reaching him which were quickly slashed by Sharon using both of the swords. It made her busy and the vines clearly had it in their plan as they surrounded her. Ahli quickly stopped, but three vines were on his way back. He looked at the giant illusion cards in front of him and saw the perfect one for that situation.

"I use Jena's Pendant to produce 2 mana this turn. Combine it with the remaining two fire mana and cast Firebrand! Dealing 1 damage to each of the vines in front of me!"

As he finished with his command, 2 spheres of light came out of Jena's Pendant. It joined the 2 red spheres of light from the shards and entered Firebrand's giant illusion card, which then disappeared. A giant seal of flame appeared in front of him and released 3 swirling ribbons of fire. It moved toward the vines, which quickly caught on fire as it was their weakness.

LAAAAAAA!!!!!

Ahli heard the scream from the middle of the vines. It seemed the death of the vines could be felt as well by the female plant. Or, maybe the pain from the fire that she felt.

With the three vines that blocked his path dead, there was an opening in the group that surrounded Sharon. Ahli dropped Mr. Cial from his back and quickly ran toward Sharon. He saw some of the vines moving toward him, trying to block him on his way to save Sharon. Ahli jumped to avoid them. He landed by rolling and as he had his ground, he saw the vines were already closing the path he came from, trapping both him and Sharon.

"Seriously! Why did you come?" Said Sharon being upset while slashing through the vines that came at her.

"Had to. You want to sacrifice yourself?" Ahli as well quickly stepped back as the vines tried to reach him.

"Well, you eventually burn them anyway." Countered Sharon.

"If the next mana source comes on time though."

<TURN 9>

Another giant card illusion appeared in front of Ahli. He looked at it and it was Ill-Tempered. Ahli smiled as he had been waiting for it as it can be used as a mana source.

ILL-TEMPERED

2+Fire Mana+Fire Mana

[Magic]

Until your next turn, if damage is dealt to you or target unit, it deals that much damage to any target.

"I set Ill-Tempered as a mana source. Then, I use Jena's Pendant to produce 2 mana. Add with 4 fire mana, I cast Dispute in the Pack, targeting the female plant!"

<TARGET NOT IN VIEW>

<SPELL UNABLE TO EXECUTE>

[WHAT THE HELL!?]

"What's wrong?" Asked Sharon who saw the spell did not immediately work as well.

"It says I'm unable to target the female plant because of obstructed view!" Ahli looked in the direction that was supposedly where the female plant stood, but because of all the vines blocking him, it was not clear if she was in that direction.

"Ah, fuck it! All of you are a 1/1 anyway! Use all 6 mana to Dispute in the Pack, targeting the vine in front of me!" With Ahli pointed at one of the vines that he could see, the spheres of light entered Dispute in the Pack and it transformed into a beam of light that quickly entered the vine that Ahli had chosen.

Its body then started to glow white and it then emitted a wave of light that spread across everything in the area. What followed then was the other vines started to glow as well, but in contrast, they glowed red. The one with the white glow then released the white light toward the sky which then broke into many beams falling into each and every one of the other vines.

In return, all the other vines released their red glow light that hit the targeted vine. Ahli and Sharon ducked as the clashes of light filled the area. As it faded away, Ahli saw how the vines started to jerk uncontrollably, ended with them popping out one by one.

With no more popping sound, Ahli stood and saw how the female plant still stood. However, as he checked her, the life point was decreasing by one point, which meant that Dispute in the Pack affected it as well. It looked like it was in pain, yet also angry.

<TURN 10>

"So, one last boss. Won't be that hard right?" Said Sharon as she stood and was ready with her stance.

"Yeah, let's finish this."

RAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

It let out a loud scream of a sudden, and what happened next was something that Ahli did not put into consideration.

The dead vines slowly retracted toward the female plant. It enveloped her and joined with her. Her body was lifted high above by the vines as they continued to cover her. What appeared finally as they finished the process was a giant plant monster, which had the stats of 9/9.