章 250: Roses are red, blood is red... Roses are blood?

Just as Anja had started firing Afton was struck by something, forcing him a couple steps back... Looking down at what'd hit him he sees four large thorns protruding from his shoulder that'd managed to slip past his recon armours metal plates.

Quickly, he steps to the side just as more projectiles are fired through the fog, thrones and large globules of a corrosive material flying by. Afton rips out the thorns stuck in his shoulder and scowls when he spots the green substance clinging to their tips.

[Grit is in effect]

"Of course, why wouldn't they be poisoned!?" he complains aloud to no one imparticular before getting back up, now isn't the time to laze around. He jabs himself with a stimpack to hold off whatever poison he'd been afflicted with and surveys the situation.

Anja's efforts in clearing the fog had proven rather effective, while the laser rifle wasn't as powerful as when Afton has used it, she'd still cleared the majority of the spores in the hallway. This revealed the various enemies within it.

Afton takes a peek and uses VATS to stop time, in the hallway were many Spore Carriers, Spore Plants, and some huge rose-like plants that had tentacle-like limbs covered in thorns... They seemed to be swinging the limbs to dislodge their thorns and fire them down the hallway at them.

One immediate problem he noticed was the fact that some of the Spore Carriers were wearing combat armour. More of Dowagers mercenaries Afton reckoned, shaking his head to void the pity he felt for them he reaches for the grenades... He had three left and needed to use them sparingly.

Deactivating VATS he unclips a grenade and tosses it inside, afterwards slamming his fist on the door control to shut it, just as the explosion occurs.

*BOOM!*

[John Wick Style is in effect]

The ground beneath them shudders and Afton sends a glance towards Anja, nodding before opening the door again. The place was scorched, and most of the Spore Carriers were dead after taking the brunt of the explosion.

That Spore Plants and Spore Roses were still alive, however, resuming firing projectiles once the door was open again. Afton avoids the first burst of fire and waits for a lull, afterwards peeking out and firing unloading his pistol at the Spore Plants. He knew that he could be hit by a couple thorns, but if he was hit by one of those globules of acid then he was truly fucked.

What he didn't notice was the fact that the Spore Rose wasn't stuck in place like the Spore Plants were. By the time he'd holstered That Gun and pulled out Lucky the Spore Rose was already upon him. It rapidly slithered towards him like a snake, snapping one of its thorny limbs at him.

Afton throws himself out of the way but loses Lucky in his panicked movement, the tentacle hits the door frame and his jaw almost hit the floor when the tentacle wrenches itself backwards, allowing the thorns to slice through the metal-frame like a chainsaw.

Anja fires the Laser rifle at it, but the Spore Rose was apparently much, much smarter than the other creatures as it flung one of the Combat armour wearing Spore Carriers into the line of fire, completely avoiding any damage.

Still, her actions had given Afton some room as it's attention was on Anja. One of its limbs shot towards her as the Spore Rose stuck its head through the door. Quickly, he slammed his fist on the door, allowing it to drop on top of the creature, locking it in place under the weight of the heavy door.

Afton grabs the axe he'd propped next to the door and is about to cut it's head off, but is stopped when its tentacle swipes past the axe, catching it by the head and throwing him across the room. "What the fuuuuu-ck!" he exclaims as he's slammed into the wall, knocking the air from his already in poor condition lungs.

He holds his ribs as he hits the floor but notices the creature's tentacle rearing back with the axe still in its grasp. His eyes widen as he quickly ducks his head, just as the axe is thrown at him.

*THUNK!*

Fortunately, he'd managed to barely avoid having his head split... Some stray strands of hair float down in front of his face, clearing showing just has close that had been. He looks back up at the creature in time to see Anja unloading the Laser rifle at it, the beams dealing heavy damage to its tentacles and large red petals on its head.

Afton stands and wrenches the axe out of the wall and runs at it, managing to catch the creature by surprise as he slams the axe down onto what he could only guess was its neck.

*Slice!*

The axe had been dulled to quite a large extent after being stuck into a metal wall, so he had to bring it down two, three, four more times to finally decapitate it. He wasn't at risk of a counter-attack as the monster was having a seizure from the first attack... He must've cut something vital to its functions.

With it finally dead, Afton drops to his knees and releasing a hacking cough, spitting out dark, unnatural-looking blood onto the floor. That knock he'd taken earlier wasn't hard enough to truly injure him, but the infection was definitely taking its toll.

He plunges his hand into his Deathclaw leather bag and searches around for something to help him out... Med X? He jabs it into his thigh and feels the pain dull, but he continues. Buffout? No. Anti-veno-What the fuck? He still had Anti-Venom in here?

Cursing his stupidity he gets it out and slowly injects it into his vein. He knew it wasn't advised to go all at once, so he slowly injects the substance over a minute or two. Once done he tosses the used needle away and props himself up against the wall. "Ah, please god don't let any more of those things exist." he mutters, not wishing to face anything like that again...