A fight for territory

After watching the parasites for hours from afar, Nazurak realized something.

'They haven't left the shades from under the mushrooms at all...does sunlight hurt them?' he thought.

After thinking for a while, he shared his speculation with the others. They listened and turned their heads back to the parasites and pondered.

Dylan stared at one of the parasites that walked to the edge of the shadow cast by the giant mushroom. It lingered for a moment then turned around, heading deeper into the shade.

"Well if that's true then we actually have a chance to kill them all, should we test it out?" He asked.

"Test it out how? Walk underneath the mushrooms and drag one into the sunlight? Don't forget there are multiple of them." Sora replied.

She thought for a bit and added.

"Hang on, I have an idea. How about we tie vines to the end of my spear? I could throw it and pierce the parasite then Dylan could pull it out into the light while you can finish it off." She said looking at Nazurak.

He looked at the spear and then looked around at the trees that had vines on them. Acknowledging the plan, he nodded.

"That's not a bad idea at all, we can definitely try that."

Standing up, Sora stretched.

"Great! I'll get some vines right now. All this sitting around isn't good for the blood flow."

Nazurak looked up at Sora with a questionable expression.

"Wait...are we going to attack them now?"

"Why of course, we potentially know a weakness that can kill them without us putting ourselves at much risk. Why?" She replied a bit confused by his question.

"Ah, it's nothing. I just thought it would be better to obverse them for longer."

With that, Sora went to go gather vines nearby. Dylan and Nazurak were still keeping their eyes on the parasites, waiting for Sora to finish customizing her spear. Well to be more specific, Nazurak was watching the parasites. Dylan was thrusting his spear in the air again, trying it with different stances. At first, Nazurak questioned this in his mind but quickly dismissed the thought. They weren't soldiers after all. They were explorers with no training, weapons, or proper guidance. What he was doing was getting familiar with his weapon, which wasn't a bad idea at all.

"Hey Nazurak, can I ask you something?" Dylan said while continuing his training.

Turning to him with a raised eyebrow, Nazurak nodded his head.

"Yeah, go for it."

Dylan propelled his spear once more then stopped it mid-air. He brought it down to his side and looked at the trees dancing in the wind.

"What would you do for freedom?"

Taken aback by his question a little, Nazurak stared at him for a bit then looked away towards the mushrooms in the meadow.

"Well...I guess that would depend on my chances of getting that freedom and the risks involved. What about you?"

"I've thought about it many times in my life, but didn't want to give it much thought. There wasn't much I could do in the farms anyways. But now that I've tasted freedom...I don't want to go back to how things were. Look at us Nazurak, every choice we made since coming to Loctus has been our own decision, and now we're about to take on a group of parasites! Isn't that amazing?"

He picked up his spear and jabbed it forward and continued.

"The more time we spend here, the stronger we'll get from absorbing life essence right? So what if we get strong enough to defend ourselves and leave the company?"

Nazurak thought about it for a while.

"What will you do about these?" He pointed to the life band on his neck.

Dylan's face turned serious, it was the first time Nazurak had seen him like this.

"We fight when they take it off back at the farm. If we work hard enough here then we shouldn't have a problem getting past their guards. That's where I need your help Nazurak, I understand if you don't want to fight. But please, help me with the gear that will decide my fate."

There were many holes in this plan that needed to be sorted out before even thinking of doing this, such as if they'd let them wrap back with weapons, or if they'll even take the life band off in the first place.

"That's something I can't give an answer to straight away, I'll think about it and give you an answer before we head back there."

Dylan was a bit disappointed but in the end, he nodded his head.

"Well you didn't reject the idea straight away so that's nice, thanks Nazurak."

***

Sora returned to the group with the vines required for her plan. She tightly tied it to the spear and gave it a hard tug. With a nod of approval, the group was now ready to test their theory.

They stood at the edge of the treelines and took a breath in, staring at the giant mushroom in the far distance.

With her foot entering the meadow, Sora walked forward taking the lead.

"Let's hope we're right..."

Dylan and Nazurak followed behind her, ready to spring into action.

Leaving the forest behind, the sounds of its inhabitants became soft and drowned out by the running river near them. The figures underneath the mushrooms became more detailed. There were two kinds of parasites, the first one was small and stood on four legs, its head was actually a mushroom itself, and underneath its cap laid two yellow eyes. The other parasite was larger, a bit bigger than a human. It stood on two legs and had two arms with claws on them going down to where its knees were. Just like with the smaller one, Its head was also a mushroom. Both of the parasites were colorful and vibrant, each different than the other.

"They're mushrooms?" Sora commented out loud.

"Living, breathing, walking mushrooms...that's so cool" Dylan said with his eyes glistening.

Nazurak felt uneasy though, he knew they'd be out of trouble if the plan worked. But if it didn't? He'd rather not think of that.

'We really should have spent longer studying them.' he sighed.

The group was now close enough to start their plan. Sora tugged on the vines one last time to test its strength then turned to her comrades.

"You guys ready?"

They both nodded and Sora took her stance. Aiming at the smaller parasite and activating her trait, she brought the spear as far back as she could and launched it forward.

The spear flew quickly and successfully wedged itself into the creature's body. As soon as this happened, all the parasites in the area turned to the group in unison, sending a shiver through each of their spines.

Dylan shook it off quickly and grabbed the vine, pulling it with all his might. The vine coiled for a bit then drew tension sending the parasite flying into the sunlight.

"Eeeeekkkkk!!!!"

The mushroom screeched as it curled up into a ball. Its skin burned quickly from the overwhelming sun until eventually it dried up and stopped moving.

"Yes!"

"It worked!"

The group was ecstatic that the speculated weakness of these parasites was correct.

Nazurak didn't get a chance to strike the creature as it burned quicker than he thought it would have, though after confirming his theory was correct he let out a sigh of relief and then smiled.

"Alright then, let's make this place home!" He yelled gripping the enhanced stick.

Wasting no time, Sora aimed with the spear once again and hurled it into another small parasite. As Dylan pulled it into the light, Nazurak struck it with the stick gaining its essence.

The parasites realized what was happening and back away from their reach. Because of this, the team had to move closer to the shade than they'd wanted to. But that didn't stop them from their hunt.

Throwing out the spear for the third time, she expected to hit another small mushroom but instead, the bigger type walked in its path, letting the spear sink into its shoulder.

Dylan yanked on the vine causing the creature to stumble, however, it did not fall. The large parasite grabbed the vine and heaved it with great force. Effortlessly, Dylan was sent flying into the shade tumbling near the parasite.

"Crap!"

He picked himself up as quickly as he could and started to run, but before he could far enough, multiple sharp pains were felt on his back causing him to fall and stiffen up like stone.