Supreme Magus novel Chapter 104

The wounded vines spurted a purple liquid. Lith kept his distance, dodging the unknown substance with minimal movements, to not lose his advantage.

- "There was no sizzle when it hit the ground, so it’s not an acid. Could be venomous, thought." –

Lith extended his arms, releasing two jets of fire from the palms. The appendages reacted quickly, enveloping the creature’s towering mass, and turning to a grey colour. The flames had no effect, leaving only a black mark, like they had hit stone.

Lith had never met a plant monster before, so he was particularly cautious. He kept several spells ready to use, weaving a new one as soon another was consumed.

- "Whatever this is, it doesn’t seem to be able to move from that spot, running away shouldn’t be an issue. The problem is deciding if it’s worth my time or not. With my luck, if I kill, it the flower will wither instantly. –

Sending and invisible tendril of pure mana, Lith used spirit magic to tug hard at the red lotus, aiming to grab it and run. He had no desire to fight useless battles. The flower’s stem bent diagonally under the strain, but refused to move.

The plant monster screeched again, this time with fury.

- "Look out!" Solus yelled. "It’s coming from below!" –

Lith scoffed at the creature’s naivety, activating again his flight spell. But when he tried to lift from the ground, he discovered that the grass was tightly binding his feet, preventing him from moving.

Observing it with Life Vision once more, he discovered that the patch of grass below him had become blue coloured too. Somehow it was part of the monster’s body.

Before he could recover, several vines erupted from the ground, with their greyed stone-like extremities trying to stab Lith’s vital organs. Knowing an attack was incoming, Lith used earth fusion to the extreme, hardening his body and using the arms to take off the brunt of the impact.

Despite his iron bracers and magical protections, the vines managed to pierce his skin, digging right into his flesh. Lith screamed in pain, while the tendrils kept digging in his own flesh, without missing a single drop of blood.

Without allowing himself to panic, Lith used his Frozen Hearth spell, turning everything around him into ice. Be them grey or green, fire hadn’t done much damage to the tendrils, so he had changed element.

Having become brittle from the sudden cold, Lith managed to break free from both the vines and the grass, flying backwards trying to understand what was happening.

His wounds were covered in a purple sticky goo, he could feel his arms going numb, a tingling sensation was invading his body. After what had happened with the Clackers, he always kept a detoxifying spell ready, using it together with a healing spell to close the wounds.

- "What the heck is happening? How does it control the grass? It makes no sense." –

Lith’s and Solus’ minds were spinning at top gear, trying to make head or tails of the creature. While he was still in a daze, both the grass and the tendrils thawed in the blink of an eye. Like fire, water magic seemed to have little effect.

Without stopping, Lith activated Life Vision again, seeing a blue streak moving like a flash through the ground vegetation, following him closely.

- "Solus, what colour is its core? I don’t like this at all!"

"That thing has no core at all. It’s just a random mass of energy, I have never seen anything like that. I don’t remember reading about something that even resembles this thing. It’s too monstrous to forget." –

A cold shiver ran down Lith’s spine. His first plant monster didn’t seem to follow any of the magic rules he had learned so far. No core, resistant to ice and fire and capable of controlling the vegetation. The only words that could describe his feelings were: fear of the unknown.

He had spent years learning magic, looking out for stronger cores, but now everything he knew had just went down the gutter.

Even flying backwards in a zig-zag pattern was useless, the blue streak kept tailing him. Lith couldn’t risk running into a tree, so he moved up and away from the ground.

From a higher ground, he could see that there was actually more than one streak moving, while the mass of vines the red lotus was attached to had turned grey. According to Life Vision, only the flower remained coloured. _{free𝑤ebnovel.com}

Lith’s head was spinning in shock.

- "So now the ’main body’ is dead and the ground seems a disco ball? But that would mean that more than its mana, somehow Life Vision actually perceives its consciousness. That thing must be capable of switching bodies at will.

That would explain how it could control even the grass, and why there is no wildlife at all..."

"F*ck us sideways!" Solus cut him short. "The trees! Look out for the trees!" –

Despite their mind link was instantaneous, when Solus warned him the attack was already inbound.

The bark of the nearest beech had peeled off, revealing to be a mass of vines wrapped around the real tree trunk, and now were darting toward the unsuspecting Lith. Before he could turn around, they wrapped around his arms and legs, slamming him against the trunk before starting to eat him alive.

Excruciating pain assaulted Lith from all sides, yet he managed to remain conscious with sheer willpower. His hands grabbed the nearest vines while he activated one of the spells he had created after learning tier four magic.

Vampiric Touch, a twisted version of the healing spells Vastor had taught him.