Entangled In Vines

The flower let out a loud screech and threw the katana to the side. Damien raised his pistol and aimed it at the middle of a vine.

As the flower moved up, Damien pulled the trigger.

An ear-piercing bang came from the pistol as a bright light came from the muzzle.

A bullet shot out and pierced through the middle of a vine, but because of how thick it was, the vine was still attached. Thankfully, it seemed that the end part of the vine could no longer move.

Though the shot was successful, Damien knew he only had 13 bullets left in his pistol, while the flower still had nearly twenty vines. Even with enough bullets, he would need time to properly aim, which he didn't have.

Damien dodged a vine that shot towards him and aimed at the flower's yellow bulb.

Another gunshot rang out, as a flame sprouted out from the end of the muzzle, as though licking it.

Unfortunately, when the bullet hit the yellow bulb, it only ricocheted off and hit the side of the wall.

Damien twisted his body to just barely dodge two vines that were intertwined together. Shortly after, another vine shot out.

Damien raised his free hand, using his palm to block it.

A disturbing smash rang out along with concerning fleshy sounds.

The mechanical suit covering his hand had already been broken, letting the vine directly pierce through Damien's hand. Blood and mechanical bits scattered from the point of impact.

Damien was sweating hard. While the adrenaline was pumping hard, he was unable to cover up the pain from this wound.

The vine lodged into his hand began to rise and was about to lift Damien with it. Damien's eyes narrowed. He put the barrel of his pistol against the vine and fired.

The vine split off from where it was shot, releasing some green goop while the remaining part of the vine inside of Damien's hand fell limp. The part still attached to the flower violently flailed around and retracted.

Damien did not hurry to remove the vine in his hand, though it did bring him pain. After all, this was the only thing preventing him from bleeding out right now.

A shotgun blast echoed from behind Damien. The battle behind him was probably ending soon.

Damien's eyes locked onto the biggest flower above. Since shooting everywhere else wouldn't kill, that was the only option he had left. He raised his pistol.

A clear bang reverberated.

The bullet pierced straight through the flower, causing a yellow goop to splash about. Screeching sounds continued to emanate from the flower.

This time, the flower put everything on the table. Ten vines shot out and surrounded Damien.

He immediately felt a strong sense of danger weigh down on his mind. But at the same time, there was practically nothing Damien could do about it. The vines wrapped around his body, restricting him completely.

Damien tensed his muscles and resisted the force from the vines that wanted to crush him to a pulp. He could tell he was being dragged closer and closer to the flower and that more vines began pressing down on him.

His eyes were bloodshot. More than blood, adrenaline was running through Damien's veins.

He pushed against the vines around him as hard as he could, but was still being compressed further.

Damien grit his teeth as hard as he could. Right when his sanity was about to snap, a powerful bang resounded.

A shrill scream filled the room.

The vines around Damien became limp and parted. The state of the flower was revealed to him.

The flowers were limp, hanging from the vines lifelessly. The yellow bulb had a huge hole in the middle. From that hole, orange goo and yellow spheres were pouring out.

As for what happened, Zenos was actually paying attention to Damien's struggle the entire time. After all, with only one bullet in a sniper and one shell with his shotgun, there was not much else he could do.

Zenos noticed that Damien's situation rapidly spiraled out of control. In just a few moments, nobody would be fending off the flower, so he decided to pull out his sniper and fire.

After that was dealt with, Adonis and Killian took their katanas out, attacking two bloody reachers.

The reachers moved without coordination, charging forward with unsteady steps.

Killian threw his katana at a reacher's head. The katana pierced through its skull, forcing its head tilted back. After the reacher stumbled backwards, it fell over and stopped moving.

On Adonis' side, he charged toward the reacher. Seeing this, Damien's eyes narrowed.

He steadied the grip on his pistol and aimed at the reacher.

Before Adonis was in range, the reacher's arm extended and was about to pierce Adonis' stomach.

A gunshot rang out.

The reacher's head was bloody with a gunshot wound, but was still alive.

Then, A bullet soared over Adonis' shoulder. It went through the reacher's head and pierced through the other end with an uncomfortable squelch.

The reacher's head snapped backward as black blood spewed from behind it. As for its red arm, it pierced Adonis' mechanical suit, but not his skin.

All the creatures were dead.

Adonis' eye twitched.

"Thanks."

Damien spoke through grit teeth.

"No problem."

Killian fell to one knee with both hands covering his stomach.

"...Dammit."

Damien was panting. He put his pistol away and took out his medkit.

"Disengage suit."

The suit unraveled around him.

After opening it up, he picked up an antiseptic wipe by its corner with his teeth. He brought his hand close and wiped it against his hand without a vine lodged inside. The skin had been ripped off of it after all.

When the antiseptic wipe touched his open wounds, Damien grimaced. Yet, he did not slow and continued wiping. He picked up a plaster with his teeth and placed it on his palm.

Again with his teeth, he wrapped the bandage around his hand. He used the hand wrapped in bandages to hold the scissors and cut the bandage.

Zenos tilted his head to the side.

"Do you need help?"

Damien showed Zenos his bandaged hand.

"I'm fine, see?"

Zenos' eyelid twitched.

"Alright."

Damien then used the antiseptic wipe to clean the edges off his other hand, which still had a vine pierced through it.

His brows furrowed as he brushed aside the blood from the wound. His free hand picked up a dressing from the medkit, much larger than the plaster. Even the light sensation of that dressing was painful on his palm, but he forcibly ignored it.

Damien's eyes narrowed as he took in a deep breath. He bit down on the vine and pulled it out.

Blood immediately began pouring out. A strong sense of vertigo assaulted him, prompting Damien to hastily wrap the dressing around his hand before he lost consciousness. Without wasting a second, his hand took some bandages and wrapped them around the dressing, holding it in place.

After cutting and tying the bandage he let out a deep breath. Part of the bandage was already dyed red.

The adrenaline abruptly left, leaving Damien to fully experience the pain and fatigue that was building up. Damien lowered his head and laid down on the floor.

Adonis' legs were shaking as he took a seat. As for Killian, he was laying on his back with his suit off like Damien.

Zenos casually took a seat after putting away his sniper rifle.

Damien's breathing was heavy.

"What happened anyway?"

Adonis shrugged his shoulders.

"When I was confident to hit their heads I shot. One bullet from my Deagle was enough to kill them."

Damien turned his head over.

"How many bullets are left?"

Adonis released the magazine and counted the bullets.

"Four."

Killian chuckled through heavy breaths.

"When the damn things got close I blasted them with my shotgun. It was so powerful that two of their heads directly exploded and some reachers got hit with a few stray pellets."

He took a few breaths and spoke a tad bit more seriously.

"Shot twice, there should be five shells left."

Damien raised an eyebrow.

"How did the flower die?"

Zenos raised his head.

"That was me. The sniper has high penetrating power and went right through its core."

Damien raised an eyebrow.

"...How did you know to aim at that specific location?"

A small smirk appeared on Zenos' face.

"With only one bullet in each of my guns, there was little reason to hastily shoot. My time was spent observing the overall situation. Watching you shoot the flower, I determined its weakness."

Damien chuckled painfully.

"When my pistol's bullet couldn't even penetrate that yellow bulb you determined it to be the weakness?"

Zenos laughed.

"We have a skull around our brain and a ribcage around our heart. Weaknesses are what will always be most heavily protected."

Damien smirked.

"Haha, guess you're right about that. Thanks for saving me."

Zenos shrugged his shoulders.

"No problem."

Damien sighed.

"Anyways, I'm going to need some time to rest."

Emmett's cheery voice popped up.

"Don't forget to collect the test results! They come in the form of a black box."

Adonis scratched the side of his head.

"Should I look for that?"

Damien shook his head.

"Just in case anything happens, it's best that all four of us are together."

Adonis nodded.

Two of them spent the time on the ground while the other two sat down. The smell of blood lingered in the air, making each breath they took uncomfortable.

Killian laughed.

"So this is what it feels like to get stabbed in the stomach. Hurts more than I thought it would."

Zenos sighed.

"Is it not obvious getting stabbed in the stomach is painful?"

Killian smirked.

"Ha, guess I never thought that far..."

Silence fell down upon the group.

After a few moments, Damien furrowed his brows. His head was muddled and he had the urge to sleep, but he forced himself up anyway.

"We should go, waiting for too long is too wasteful."

Killian also sat up, though his face cringed as he did so.

Damien and Killian got into their suits and recovered their katanas. Zenos and Adonis stood up after.

Zenos looked toward the dead plant.

"Since this room is nearby we might as well explore it first. Though we will have to walk over its dead vines to do so."

Damien nodded.

"Sounds good."