Chapter 8 - Desperate to live

The situation in the middle of the forest where Vargas was looking around alone.Vargas had a cloth wrapped around his nose to protect himself from Monetha's hypnotizing pollen.Something like a soft light was coming out of his body and it instantly froze all the fireflies like pollen and fell to the ground.Vargas was trying to restrain himself and he took all his steps very cautiously.The pollen were so unbearable that Vargas was trying to avoid them as much as possible.

If some living creature inhaled that pollen, that creature would start hallucinations and they used to start walking towards Monetha. When they came to Monetha, Monatha used to make them cocoons and hang them somewhere. Without letting their bodies be harmed in any way, the cocoon seemed to take them life energy. This was the survival techniques that Monetha used to live.

Zeus and Ryu just got to that place. Ryu looked depressed because he couldn't help him. Zeus sat down near the bonfire. Zeus looked sad and depressed because he felt useless. So he kept staring at the bonfire. Then an idea came to his head about how they could avoid inhaling that hypnotising gases etc. He picked the charcoal and started to crush it. At that time he remembered something and he asked Ryu to be ready to help Vargas.

"But how can we help him? We're not powerful enough", Ryu said. Ryu looked very upset and it seems he wanted to run right now to help Vargas.

Zeus showed him the charcoal and told his plan.

" It is charcoal that can absorb harmful chemicals", Zeus said with excitement.

Zeus crushed all the charcoal in small pieces and with his handkerchief, he made a gas mask for him. Ryu also does the same.

"We should take some more charcoal for Vargas", Ryu said. He took some of it and ran towards it. They put the mask on their face tightly.

On the other side, Vargas finally found the nest. The nest was bright like daytime. There were flowers all around. The petals of the flower were so big that it hung from top to bottom and touched the ground. A piece of vine was following Vargas's movement from the moment he entered the nest. All the pollen was flying around like fireflies. He noticed something odd, there was a large number of bloomed flowers but no sign of life. He couldn't find any living creatures. After watching the whole thing, he was surprised and also he was wide open. After looking around very cautiously he saw a human sized cocoon. It was hanging below a big flower petal. Sometimes that human sized cocoon was moving. Vargas noticed it and as he tried to cut it , a long vine hit Vargas from the back.

Vargas fell to the ground as he dropped his guard down. When the vine was going to attack Vargas again, he moved back and totally froze it instantly. Now he again tried to free that cocoon from the petals. His real purpose was to see what was inside the cocoon. Suddenly Vargas heard a female voice. So he was desperate to do his job as soon as possible and left that place safe and sound.

"It's been so long since I sensed some wild Mantra from a human. Who are you, human?", Monetha said.

Vargas understood that it was telepathy. Monetha communicates with her prey with telepathy. Vargas didn't care about what she saying and he threw a sharp icicle to that cocoon and it cut the rope, fell down to the ground. Vargas ran and caught the cocoon before hitting the ground.

"You ignorant fool, no one leaves this place alive. You both will die here. You are no threat to me, you human"Monetha said.

Suddenly huge amounts of pollen and yellow coloured hypnotic gas came out from all the flowers. Vargas's face mask could not hold long. As soon as he inhales it, he falls unconscious. Before falling unconscious Vargas uses ability for the last time. One of the abilities of Vargas was to create crystal-like shields. Normally the shield could hold and absorb so much energy coming from outside. But as he fell to the ground, his surroundings started to freeze and it created a kind of igloo. But it was as hard as crystal and also transparent. Monetha tried to break it with her vines but she couldn't.Monetha tried to break that shell as hard as she could.

The two of them finally reached the place from where they were separated. When they reached that place, they were alerted by a sound. It was like a fight was going on from a distance. Both of them followed the strange noise coming out from a direction where Vargas was. Finally they got to that place,the nest. But they didn't enter directly and tried to hide behind the flower petals. But they don't know Monetha has already felt their presence there.Suddenly a vine came out of nowhere and attacked them from behind. They got the hit from behind and fell to the ground. They got hurt. They looked around and saw Vargas cazed in a crystal shell. And Monetha tried to bind them with her vines, her vince all around the shell.

But her vines didn't stop to attack them. But they somehow dodged her attack. Zeus was unarmed and also he hasn't any power to fight back. He only could just dodge her attack and with her intelligence he could give advice to Ryu to defeat Monetha and save Vargas. Because Ryu was the only person there who could defeat her in power, he thought. There was a single vine that attacked them, there were more than ten of them. At that time Zeus only could think about escaping from that place , he didn't know what Ryu was doing.

As Zeus thought the whole plan, he heard a sound, a sound of screaming in pain. His whole body froze in fear as he knew that voice. It's Ryu's. Ryu screams in pain. Ryu tried to fight with Monetha without any plan, without any knowledge of it.

'Ryuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu', Zeus screams.

Ryu looked at Zeus and said ,"Run, run".

At that moment a vine from behind just hit Ryu's head and Ryu fell unconscious. Another vine from behind binds Zeus completely. Now both of them have been captured.

"Ow, ow, ow!! Why can I feel five life sources from here?", Monetha said.

Monetha sensed two life sources from Ryu's body.

"You brat! You have two souls within you! That's good for me. Now my hunger will end here!" Monetha said. Yes Monetha used her telepathy for this conversation. But not only Zeus heard that, someone else also heard that. And that was Red.

They both were hanging from a branch about 6 feet above from the ground. Ryu was unconscious and no movement can be seen, where Zeus tried to loosen up the vines. But all of a sudden Zeus stopped when he heard Ryu's voice.

"Yes, Your hunger will end today but not by consuming us, it will be your end here by your death." Red said (in Ryu's body'). Red just got control over Ryu's body. Zeus was shocked.