A Strange Flower

Zenos sighed.

"There have already been multiple surprises in the short amount of time we've spent doing this. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more coming our way."

Damien shrugged his shoulders.

"You have a point. At least we can hope that the situation doesn't get worse."

Killian laughed sadly.

"Hoping even though we know our hopes don't matter."

Damien sat down, away from the monster corpses.

"It's what most of my life has been anyways. Can't imagine it's all that different for any of you."

A small frown formed on Killian's face as he looked down.

There was a heavy silence.

The room itself was different from the previous ones. The walls were white like the last ones, and the space was larger. The first three corpses were all reachers and the other five were pale-skins.

There were test tubes big enough to easily contain a human lined up against the walls. However, most of the glass that they were made of shattered. A few shards of glass littered the ground. Thankfully none of them stepped on them earlier.

Killian walked over with one hand against the wall. He stepped on some pieces of glass, filling the room with cracking sounds. Since he had his mechanical suit on, his feet were fine.

Killian took a seat a few meters away from the others. He sighed.

"My injury hasn't gotten much better, but I've gotten used to the pain. I should be able to contribute."

Zenos nodded.

"That's good. Since there was another gate we did not go through in the first room, this means this gate leads to the final room of this branch. Do not let your guard down."

Damien looked over at the gate.

"Are we ready?"

Adonis furrowed his brows.

"We aren't going to get much more ready than this."

The four walked up to the panel, after which Zenos turned off his flashlight.

Adonis laid his hand on the panel and a faint green light lit up in the darkness.

The gate began to open.

Damien frowned.

"Damn, get your guns out."

A light poured out from the gate. The four put away their flashlights and pulled out a gun.

The room opened to reveal a normal-sized room with a large glass tube in the middle. Within that tube was a strange looking five-meter tall flower that was emitting light.

The flower had many long vines at its base which coalesced into a strange yellow bulb in the middle. The bulb consisted of yellow spheres that emitted a warm orange light. These yellow spheres were wrapped in a nearly transparent outer shell.

Above that were more vines that split off into a variety of yellow flowers. Most of the flowers were small, roughly twenty centimeters. However, in the middle was a large flower that was a meter wide.

The four all had dumbfounded expressions on their face, but a frown formed on each of their faces.

Once the gate was halfway open, the flower let out a strange shriek that caused the entire lab to vibrate. In the distance, were faint thumping sounds. Damien took his flashlight back out and turned it up to its brightest.

Damien was able to make out that the gate from the first room was dented, like something was trying to get out.

"The monsters are breaking out from the last room, be prepared!"

Zenos clicked his tongue.

"The mutated plant is breaking out!"

Damien turned around to see the glass had cracked and the flower was pressing its vines against the glass.

After a few seconds the cracks spread across the entire tube, and the glass shattered.

As if on cue, the gate holding the monsters back was broken through.

Damien narrowed his eyes.

"Make your way towards the other creatures and kill them, I will try to hold the flower back. I doubt this thing is going to die anytime soon."

The flower had impeccable mobility for a plant. It glided across the floor with its many vines.

Damien took a step forward and drew his katana, praying in his heart that the flower wasn't too strong.

Adonis turned around, without looking back.

"Alright."

He and Zenos made their way closer to the monsters, not shooting just yet.

Killian had one look over his shoulder at Damien, then followed the others with one hand holding his shotgun and the other on his stomach.

A vine shot out towards Damien. He grit his teeth and attempted to block it with the katana. Damien made sure his knees were bent and his body was hunched over in a position to resist a pushing force from his front.

A loud clang rang out.

One of the plant's many vines shot forth and smashed against Damien's katana. Beads of sweat formed on Damien's forehead. The ache in his wrist was telling him that the situation was already going bad.

The reason he offered to hold off the flower was that he believed one person was needed to hold off the greater threat while the other was being dealt with. This way, they could get rid of the distractions before focusing on the main problem.

The only problem that came with that was the person holding off the flower was obviously at the most risk and there was no time to play the 'you do it' game.

That being said, the katana in Damien's hand almost flew out of his hands. On top of that, his wrists felt like they were going to snap

He wasn't sure how long he could hold off the flower from advancing.

Another vine shot out towards Damien, he was confident he could dodge it, so he side-stepped out of the way.

The vine continued on for a few meters, almost reaching Killian. However, he had already moved up with the three, unknowingly evading another injury.

While Damien was still trying to land on his feet, another vine shot out. With a frown, Damien held the hilt of his katana with one hand and placed his hand on the flat side of the blade.

A sharp bang rang out.

The vine bashed into the flat side of the katana, making Damien slide backward. The method he used to block put less stress on his wrists, but they still felt as though they were lit aflame.

Damien's eyes and pupils widened as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He knew this was only the start. The other three were still not firing as they were not in an effective range.

Damien took a step backward and as he did so, the flower made its way forward. This time two vines shot out towards Damien.

He had gotten back into the same position. In the short moment that the two vines shot out, his eyes narrowed.

Two blaring crashes resounded.

Damien luckily blocked both vines with his blade. However, his vision also became white for a second. Once his vision returned to normal, he quickly regained his bearings and took a step backward.

The hit hurt Damien pretty bad this time. Not only did the condition of his wrists worsen, but the skin on the palms of his hands also tore open. The hand that was placed flat on the katana even got cut by the edges of the very katana he was holding during the process of blocking.

Damien wondered if he bit off more than he could chew. He sighed and took another step backward, letting the flower advance a little further.

Once the flower felt it was close enough, three vines shot out together towards Damien.

The thought to block it had not even appeared in his mind. He dodged as best he could, but to his dismay, the vines were faster than before and smashed into the side of his suit.

Emmett's voice rang out in Damien's head.

"Suit health is now two out of three!"

If nothing else, the suit was able to divert the impact enough so that his side wasn't injured too badly. Damien's lip twitched, but he did not wait to raise his katana to block another sneaky vine plummeting towards him.

With another clang, Damien was pushed back. He grit his teeth as a small smile emerged on his face. An uncomfortable warmth emanated from his wrists.

Damien could feel the adrenaline pump even harder, making the pain he felt lessen.

At this point, Damien heard gunfire from behind him. It did not sound overbearingly loud like the shotgun or the sniper, so he assumed it was Adonis firing his desert eagle.

The flower was still unrelenting as ever, shooting out two vines towards Damien. He got in a position to block, but there was no collision like he was expecting.

The two vines wrapped themselves around the blade of the katana and pulled.

Damien furrowed his brows. He put his other hand on the hilt and pulled back. Unfortunately, Damien was no match for the flower's strength. His feet began scraping against the floor as he was dragged along.

The sharp ends of the katana had cut into the vines somewhat, but not enough to cut them off.

Soon Damien felt his feet lift off the floor and decisively let go of his katana. While the flower was still invested in pulling the katana back, Damien ran back while the hand that was not cut up reached for his pistol.

The flower wrapped its many vines around the katana and squeezed it. A scream rang out from the flower.

A few of its vines were cut off, while the katana held its own.

The flower's vines started to whip around violently.

It was pissed.

And Damien no longer had his katana to block it.