บท 8: Angels (1/2)
Zom 7 Angels (1/2)
Seeing the string of notifications overlapping each other, Jia Hyson frowns. Using his plant abilities, he calls the plants back to him. Currently, he has rooted himself, and it'll take a little bit of time to return to normal. It was best to have his plants around at this time to help defend him.
Following his summons, the plants all rush toward him. However, to his surprise, they were all dragging some pieces of the leftover carcass of Song Lingzhi as they rustled over, something he didn't order them to do.
While they didn't take all the body, it was too big. After all, the largest chunks carved out were at least the size of a baby cow, and the smallest looked roughly like it weighed twenty kilograms. Even though it was only a relatively small pieces of meat, Jia Hyson could easily sense the vitality in it. The energy of the instance boss was really astounding. Still, Jia Hyson forcibly refrained himself in the face of this temptation.
After all, even though nourishing himself will indirectly help nourish the vegetation he's kept under his skin, flesh and bones, it was still different from directly feeding them. They were all different individuals with their own appetites and high energy demands. And given they had all been on standby hibernation mode for so long… well… everyone was eager to eat.
If Jia Hyson was hungry, he would subconsciously digest some of the plants, and at the same time, the plants would also instinctively do the same, eating him from the inside out. Even if both parties were reluctant to do so, it was instinct to favour themselves over others in order to survive. Their relationship was one of both mutual support and mutual destruction.
In a way, plants can be crueller than beasts. After all, they had no hearts, and it was simply natural to strangle the competitors in a resource-limited environment. Only the higher IQ plants like his Psychotria elata, Cuscuta chinensis* and Mimosa pudica** could make more complex considerations like saving food for later or sharing food for him.
*Also known as Chinese dodder
**Also known as sensitive plant, sleepy plant, action plant, touch-me-not, or shameplant
Therefore, to see the other plants have brought Song Lingzhi's meat with them… could it be that after digesting the high energy inside the monster's flesh, their IQs had improved? As they got closer, Jia Hyson gave them a deep look for a moment before finally confirming that the plants that consumed the mermaid monster's flesh indeed had not only shown an improved vitality but had even upgraded a fair amount.
Despite himself, Jia Hyson licks his lips hungrily. It turns out eating the instance boss can be so beneficial.
However, he swallows his saliva heavily and gives the plants a gentle smile. But unlike his smile toward the humans, it was a touch softer and affectionate. Maybe it was because he could simply be human facing this sentient flora rather than feel monstrous surrounded by the people he once considered himself as. "You guys can eat it first. I'll take the next one, okay? We're in a… new place. It's going to be much better now."
All the plants who understood his words shook their leaves happily. The smaller plants who didn't understand simply sensed the movements and shook their leaves and stems to mimic them blindly, feeling the joy in the air. The energetic rustling echoed throughout the bloody cave, an almost childish sense of life in all the decay.
Then again, the life of plants thrived off the death of others; it was quite fitting, really.
Seeing their enthusiasm and visible improvement in IQ, Jia Hyson softly chuckles. "Well," The zombie says mildly, "I really should thank this system I suppose… Though it is taking a while."
Jia Hyson's eyes glance up from his plants, and his gaze pauses at a certain spot in front of him. The space in front of Jia Hyson was distorted in a strange way. If it wasn't for his inhuman eyesight, he may not have caught it and dismissed it as a trick of the light.
What made his hackles rise was that other than seeing it by chance, Jia Hyson really hadn't noticed the change in the environment at all, something he hadn't experienced for a long time.
Not only was he a level 10 zombie whose powers were unmatched in his world, but his almost plant-like body was incredibly sensitive to the changes around him. A plant that can't move can only take advantage of their environment. From the sunlight to the air content, the humidity, to the soil, it can only adapt to react once it can finally meet the best conditions and hide in the worst, all for the sake of survival. This aspect has saved Jia Hyson's life many times, and he has long been complacent with it.
Now though.. He eyes the distortion of space, which is now growing bigger at a rapid pace. It was as if the very air was glitching. However, the wind blew as usual; there was no smell or aura or even the smallest whisper of noise. It was as if this unnatural phenomenon was completely natural.
While Jia Hyson was on high alert, his plants didn't even notice, still waving about and slowly consuming the flesh they held onto. At most a few would touch him in concern, sensing his own high emotions, but that only made his nerves tighten further. As he said before, his sensitivity was good, but of course, for a mutated plant, theirs would be even better. Therefore, it must mean this distortion really only could be relied on visual information to notice it.
It was only when the glitching space twisted, forming and solidifying into a figure, that the plants stopped their movements and tense like small animals who had heard a nearby noise.
As the figure became more apparent, slowly as if layers were slowly added onto it, Jia Hyson could feel his other senses become aware of the being. From the faintly numbing smell of a cold breeze in winter, which made one's nose tingle from the temperature, the softest sound of feathers brushing together and even the taste of pure, raw and indescribable energy seemed to slowly fill Jia Hyson's mouth, making his saliva want to flow.
At first sight, the appearance of this newcomer was like an interpretation of those biblically accurate angels. With a beautifully flawless female face closing her eyes that was the size of a smiling child, the rest of her body, if one could even call it ,was all made from pure white wings sprouting from her head.
The reason why Jia Hyson hesitates to call it a body was it seemed the face itself was the main body, a floating head carried by many wings with the primary feathers on the three largest pairs of wings having bright blue open eyes that stared intensely at him.
If the gigantic mermaid monster was an eye-opener to Jia Hyson, then this strange angelic being was truly quite shocking. It can't be helped; in the apocalyptic world, there were mutated animals and mutated zombies, and while it was less so for the latter, gigantism was a fairly common mutation.
Not to mention, the River God generally had normal parts of her body, half normal-ish human and half normal albeit ugly fish.
In terms of the movie genre, the horror genre's effects, both in CGI and practical works, can be said to be, while not easier, but at the very least produce more convincing effects compared to the fantasy genre. That was because a lot of horrors were inspired and centred around reality or common nightmarish dreams. Other than a few scales and fins here and there that weren't supposed to be where they should be, the eyes were still eyes, and the nose was still a nose; it wasn't too hard to adjust to the River God's appearance. This new creature was inherently different. It had a holy, very pure fantasy feeling.
While it was a bit unnerving, you couldn't say it wasn't beautiful. It's felt strange and had a strong sense of surrealism looking at the holy face and the way the feathers of the multitude of wings flittered with every movement and brush of air. Jia Hyson was a little fascinated.
He wondered how everything connected.
He wanted to rip off each wing to see.
Oh… and with so many wings. It would be a waste not to taste as well.
Angelic being: '…'
As if sensing the increasingly malicious gaze, the blue eyes scattered across the many wings began to emit a faint golden glow.
"Sinners shall be punished, and the unrepentant must die." With an echoey feminine voice, the biblical-looking angel spoke without moving her mouth. Jia Hyson even wondered if the human face could move; it seems the wings were the main source of sentience, in his opinion. However, the raw energy he sensed was indeed strongest in the creature's 'face'.
It was that face that suddenly opened up in the most literal sense; the surface of the perfect skin broke apart like two doors slamming outwardly, revealing a disgusting mix of red flesh and eyeballs and a row of exposed human teeth. Jia Hyson startled slightly before a sense of danger overwhelmed him. Instinctively cutting off the roots that hadn't been retracted yet, he jumped to the side at a speed most normal people couldn't see.
However… Jia Hyson grimaces as he touches the side of his waist. Looking down, he saw that part of the body had been scraped smoothly off, as if his waist was like ice cream being carved out by a hot scooper. While he was regenerating the lost flesh at an amazingly quick pace, the greenish-black blood leaking out still stained his thin clothing, which was even more tattered than before.
He glances at where he was previously present. Because he was in the sand dune full of tiny eggs, a lot of the damage was hidden, but from how the small hill collapsed onto itself, it was clear that many eggs had been 'lost'. Other than the roots still wriggling in the dune like multiple detached lizard tails, there was no sign of any splattered meat from Jia Hyson's body nor any blood.
It was as if it completely disappeared.
Jia Hyson's mouth curls into a wry smile. This was a little difficult.
As a plant user, he didn't need to speak commands to his plants to tell them what to do. The fact they've lived in his body, fed on his flesh, and drank his blood only supplemented their connection. With just a thought, the large and powerful Monstera's vines rushed to sweep at the biblical being.
At the same time, Jia Hyson used his speed to escape, running toward where the fallen River God was.
There was still a large amount of uneaten flesh there, and he had seen first-hand how much it visibly improved the plant's constitution. As long as he ate a bit, he will definitely have enough energy to supplement some of the loss from prematurely cutting his roots.
A large and heavy impact was heard, and the sand sprayed at his back from the momentum. Jia Hyson almost stumbled; after all, he was still a person running on uneven and unstable surfaces. No matter how strong his physical abilities were, he hadn't had enough time to adapt to this relatively unfamiliar environment.
Turning around, he expected one of two things: either the Monstera was successful and knocked the creature away, or it failed, and the result was probably akin to a man slapping his hand on a stone wall. However, to Jia Hyson's shock and disbelief, it was none of those things.
It was true the Monstera vine had been stopped, but it was not by the head full of wings and eyes. Instead, there was a large and incredibly muscular white being with its arms out, holding the massive vine at bay.
The white being was headless, a smooth hill of muscle where the neck should be and paler than bones soaked in bleach. However, unlike the brittleness of bones, the creature was built with muscles that would make any champion bodybuilder fall to their knees in awe. With his keen eyesight, the zombie could see that despite being very white in colour, the thick veins around the bulging muscles were faintly pink, and the entire body had a slight golden shimmer. On the newcomer's back, there were three thin pairs of white wings with a multitude of eyes on the feathers,
Jia Hyson's eyes glance at the flying head that had turned around to stare at him, and his expression became quite ugly.
The two monsters were quite different, but they shared a very similar colour scheme and the trait of wings with eyes… Could it be the system was so generous and wanted him to play with the entire set?
His eyes caught another spatial distortion near the two monsters as if on cue. Once again, he couldn't sense it at all. But his sense of danger, which had long been dormant, was now wide awake, urging him to be incredibly cautious.
Unhesitatingly, he rushes to the River God's remaining corpse.
There was no zigzagging; after all, it would only delay time and energy. Instead,Instead, it was a straight beeline toward the fallen boss. Only when his intuition told him to dodge did he nimbly sidestep away, ignoring the falling rocks and holes appearing on the cavern, which was the only indication that something was being shot at him.
Fortunately, Jia Hyson was fast enough and reached where he wanted quickly.
While it was cold in the cavern, the meat of Song Lingzhi had been exposed to the air, and the blood had coagulated for a while now. Not to mention, she was floating in the water, making what was left of her large body bloat even more unattractively. The flesh of the river god was wet, sticky, cold and stiff, with a strong repugnant ammonia smell starting to come off it. Like a half-eaten fish left out overnight on the beach, it was the sort of thing even a hungry dog wouldn't eat unless there was no choice.
Yet without even blinking an eye, Jia Hyson uses his hands and scoops up the flesh of the creature, stuffing it into his mouth with only a flash of disgust on his face to indicate his reluctance.
Song Lingzhi was a massive boss, and though she was half-eaten, there was still enough room on her body to play a nightmarish game of tennis and a very squishy game of football side by side. The plants didn't have a strong sense of organization and ate where they ate randomly, causing a lot of large holes, uneven meat distribution and areas which haven't even been touched yet.
In short, it was not a bad place to use to temporarily run around in and replenish energy.
While initially he wanted to save it for his plants, there was no way around it now. Jumping from the slippery bones to the bloody viscera that squelched under his feet, the zombie emperor scraped out anything from his surroundings and swallowed it into his mouth.
Occasionally, holes would suddenly form through the flesh, indicating the angel head creature was firing at him once more. While he was rapidly adapting under both the survival pressure and the surge of energy being circulated into his body, the other thing seemed to be getting more accurate at guessing his movements, too. Because of this, it was inevitable he was grazed more than a few times by the attack.
Jia Hyson wanted to curse. This angel head was too bullshit, right? From his observation, what the thing shot out was something akin to laser beams, except they were invisible and caused complete disintegration or destruction to whatever was in its way. He didn't know how far the range was but it was far enough and would destroy anything in that path.
Still, as he consumed the energy of the River God's meat, his brain and body were slowly being restored back to its peak. Over time, he observed the thing wasn't as all-powerful as one thought, and there was a fairly consistent cooldown to its attacks. It wasn't very long, but it was still there. Not to mention, the 'laser' moved in a straight line and was only the size of the being's mouth.
In the distance, more loud sounds of heavy impacts and smashing were heard. It was the Monstera fighting the headless angel, and though it was exchanging blows, each hit sounded more like the booming of thunder, and the eggs in the dunes were constantly flying around from the force.
Of course, it wasn't just the giant Monstera fighting; the other plants were also around. Unfortunately, because of the sheer strength of both, it was difficult to enter without getting hit as a result. However, that didn't mean all of them were useless.
On the sand-like floor, there were now hundreds of bright green leaves, both toothy ones that had a dusting of pink in their open 'jaws' and soft, rubbery-looking ones. These two plants had slowly begun surrounding and encircling the headless angel, with new growths being produced at a rapid pace.
As if sensing the danger, the strong angel who had been fighting on equal terms with the gigantic Monstera had begun to fall into a disadvantage as it started to subconsciously avoid the plants, which in turn hindered his movements more and more. Before it realised what it did wrong, the angel found itself trapped in a very small space of sand, with the two plants effectively covering the rest of the sand floor around it.
These were the Dionaea muscipula and Pinguicula plants, also better known as the Venus Flytrap and the Butterwort*.
*Tbh names are hard because a lot of plant names, so I'll either refer to them as part of their scientific name (like Psychotria) or their common name (Venus Flytrap) depending on what I like the most :3
The Venus flytrap is well known for its ability to trap insects; triggered by the sensitive trigger hairs inside its mouth, it will close its leaves or 'jaws' and trap the victim inside, only digesting it once the trigger hairs are stimulated enough to believe that what was inside its mouth was indeed worthy of eating. The actual teeth-like structure of their 'jaws' doesn't actually serve much in terms of offensive power, only helping trap the prey in better.
However, this mutated Venus flytrap was inherently very different; with a stronger demand for larger creatures, it was not only far larger than the average plant, with the smallest ones roughly the size of a child's hands cupped together, and the largest was half a metre in length, their adaptations had also changed to better suit their needs. The needle-like teeth structure on the lobes of the plant and the thin trigger hairs in its 'mouth' were no longer so flimsy and could only serve as more of a supporting role. Now, in order to effectively pierce and trap flesh, they could be said to be sharper than metal needles despite looking as fragile as paper.
If anyone had the unfortunate luck to step into an open jaw of this plant without noticing, the Venus flytrap, with the bite strength of a crocodile, would snap shut on their foot, the teeth of the plant's leaves piercing into the victim's ankle will the fine trigger hairs would also poke through the fabric of the shoes and into their feet as well, very effectively locking the person in place. If you're lucky, the sharpness and swiftness of it would just cleanly cut your foot off, but… if it doesn't… well… you would have to endure the unique experience of feeling your foot be slowly digested off.
While this Venus flytrap had the capacity to produce stronger digestive acid for a quicker meal, because a lot of nutrition can be lost through this faster process, it still preferred a slower meal for itself if it could afford it. If too cowardly to chop off their own foot, an average human may experience being stuck there in agony for over three days*.
*Normal flytraps usually take up to ten days to digest their meal :D
Of course, this was a bit too optimistic of an example. After all, there were multiple 'traps' on one plant. As long as one wasn't decisive enough, it was more likely their entire body would be eaten bit by bit, dying without an intact corpse by the end.
The butterwort, in comparison, was actually much cuter, like a bright green fat succulent; each leaf was a little round, soft and smooth, making one want to pinch the plumpness. It was difficult to imagine it was also just as carnivorous as the Venus flytrap.
Unlike the flytrap, though, butterwort uses sticky adhesive mucus-like substances secreted by glands located on the leaf's surface. The first gland is the peduncular gland, which is in the form of a few secretory cells on the small stalk cells on the surface of the leaf. This gland produces a mucus similar to the sundew, used to attract and entrap insects.
The second type of gland is the sessile gland, which isn't on the stalk structures but lying flat on the top side of the leaf. Once insects are trapped by the peduncular glands after struggling and stimulating more mucus to cover it, the sessile glands also know it's time to do their job and release enzymes to break down the body of its prey; the resulting liquids then flow into the cuticular holes on the leaf surface for the plant to finally absorb.
This species of butterwort was even capable of bending their leaf edges slightly via thigmotropism*, allowing even more of the sticky glands into contact with their prey, reducing their chances of escape even further.
*directional growth movement usually in response to touch stimuli. Think how the vines of beans/peas will curl around netting; it's like that.
For a small insect, it is a very despairing plant to be trapped in, and when a human comes in contact with this mutated version, they will also experience a similar despair.
Because this butterwort not only enhanced its adhesive properties and sped up its ability to secrete high concentrations of enzymes that could break down any exposed flesh in minutes, but its leaves also developed the ability to not just bend the leaf edges but to stretch.
While it seemed quite simple of an adaptation in theory, when put into practice, it was terrifying.
The headless angel quickly showcased this, as in a moment of weakness against the increasingly strong blows of the Monstera, it finally had to step backwards, its foot accidentally stepping onto one of the butterwort's leaves. The moment the large weight was pressed down, the butterwort leaf that had been stepped began to elongate furiously.
Like a crouching snake that had been stepped on, it sprung forth and entangled the angel's muscular leg, constricting around it until the tip of the leaf finally stopped growing at the other's hip.
Sticky mucus secretes during this process, glueing itself onto the other's body while it begins to seep out its digestive enzymes that had already begun to attack the skin. It wasn't so severe as to eat flesh and drip blood in seconds, but even the initial feeling of the enzymes working was immensely uncomfortable, as if heated-up sandpaper was lightly scratching at the nerves of the skin, yet at the same time, the feeling of cold, slimy mucus was also undeniable. The contrast was both confusing and deeply unsettling to the senses.
Of course, the longer the enzymes aren't washed off, the less important the contrast of sensations is on your body as the plant starts to eat you away from the outside in.
A normal person would've screamed and panicked helplessly at this. However, the headless Angel decisively uses his massive strength to rip the butterwort off by powerfully kicking it at the source. The butterwort was not a strong plant, and it easily parted under the sheer force, becoming a pulpy mess in the process. However, even if the plant was gone, the leaf on the being's body was still stuck on, the enzymes pumping out and still doing its work.
The headless angel grabs the leaf and tries to rip it off; however, even though the butterwort in itself was weak and easy for someone like this muscular being to tear apart, it was incredibly hard to peel off.
It was like trying to take a shitty paper label off some packaging, where there was always a lot of the inner papery layer of the sticker still stuck on the surface, or you ripped it too fast, causing the packaging to tear or have the adhesive still present and giving an obvious gluey texture there. Even if you carefully peeled it, there would be headache-inducing marks, much less hurriedly tearing it off. And unfortunately for the victim, the butterwort may not be able to digest the resulting liquids once the main body was parted from their limbs, but the leaf still glued onto them will still continuously secrete all the enzymes they were capable of producing until it exhausted itself.
Such an insidious adaptation is why the butterwort, despite its low health and damage stats, was considered worthy enough for Jia Hyson to cultivate in his body.
In its moment of distraction, the gigantic Monstera vines were not idle either. Fiercely, it slapped the angel to the ground as its focus was entirely on trying to get the annoying butterwort leaf off its body. Sure enough, the blow was enough to make the headless being unable to withstand it without preparing to guard it, and the muscular body fell into the pile of butterworts and Venus flytraps on the ground.
Both plants could only trigger their attack through pressure stimulation, which was one of their biggest weaknesses. They can grow around the target, but if the target jumps over them, the flytrap and butterwort plants can only helplessly bite at their handkerchiefs*.
*A gesture of anger and unwillingness or envy.
The sharp teeth of the flytraps pierced through the pale flesh, golden liquid seeping out, while the butterwort leaves wrapped around the other's body rapidly, exuding the sticky liquid as it does so. The headless angel looked akin to a person who fell into a deep pit filled with spikes and snakes. However, those were probably less dangerous than the situation it was actually in now.
Struggling fiercely, the angel tried to spread its wings and fly away instinctively, but it only triggered more and more of the plants to attack the moving appendages, breaking and entrapping his wings, the pure white feathers stained with its own dazzling golden blood. The angelic headless being was stuck; with all its strength and muscles, it could only be pinned down like a fallen bird, enduring agonising pain as each struggle ripped its already pierced body apart further and excited the plants to produce more digestive enzymes faster.
Even if it could successfully rip some more apart, another would quickly bloom and take its place. Not to mention, the plants had discovered that the energy inside this being was multiple times higher than the River God! The butterwort and venus flytrap began to grow excessively and quickly, both in size and number, as they couldn't process all the energy being absorbed and could only vent it out in this manner.
Plants were more opportunistic and ruthless than animals; as long as they sensed benefits, regardless if they were fighting kin or enemy, their roots would instinctively stretch toward it. There was no emotion, only survival in their nonexistent hearts. Seeing the large headless angel trapped and bleeding and how frenzied the growth of the two plants consuming it were, many of the more 'agile' plants had already begun to make their way over to also take a slice of the cake.
The Monstera was no exception; it even felt a bit annoyed looking at all the eager little plants starting to take root and grow saplings onto the white meat of the violently twitching humanoid. After all, it clearly did the most work! It used up a lot of energy to attack this monster, much, much more than fighting twenty level ten power users! Therefore, it clearly deserved to eat the most!
Angrily, it uses its aerial roots, the roots that grow above ground and are used by the Monstera to help anchor it to the cavern surface and absorb moisture to supplement its growth*, and spears the torso of the headless angel. Before, it couldn't get a good shot due to the other's fierce strength and skills, but now there was no problem, especially since a lot of the natural defence of its skin had long been weakened by the digestive enzymes.
*There are other species of plants that have aerial roots for varying purposes, such as parasitism. :D
To make sure, the Monstera had pierced through one of the butterwort leaves, guaranteeing the root smoothly stabbed into the being, eagerly sucking the blood inside as it does so. Faced with this final bow, the muscular angel suddenly opened up, revealing a large mouth with teeth like a lamprey, wailing a distorted and fierce noise of reluctance and agony as its body was consumed bit by bit by the vegetation. Unwillingly, after its first and last cry, it finally stopped moving.
...
Extra:
Headless Angel: This is religious discrimination!
Plants: What is that? Can you eat it? Oh, you can! Hahaha, it's pretty tasty :D
Headless Angel: ...
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LittleBlueLake
LittleBlueLake Hahah not going to lie I felt like a shounen manga artist writing this - blue really loved the fighting manga when she was younger, where you see em fight but also learn a bit on random things like animals etc which is the characters moves are inspired from etc.
Of course its much harder to put into words without it being boring :D Ah well, you old fans probs know, blue loves to ramble kek so probs wont change anytime soon~
Love ya'll remember to support via kofi, comments, reviews and praise <3
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