My brows rose. I knew that monsters ate each other — it was common knowledge that they ate anything that was weaker than them, human and monster alike — but it never dawned on me that the stronger monsters might eat the crystals. Huh. What happened to the digesting energy crystals inside them?

The largest Velociorhea shuddered. Its long black feathers ruffled over its oval body. With one last large shake of its colorful head, it relaxed and looked back up into the treetops, its yellow gaze flicking from me to the rainbow brigade of Hunters fifty feet away. Then the red title bar above its head changed. The level increased from 45 to 46.

I let out a silent breath. So eating energy crystals made monsters stronger. That made sense, since they improved the levels of the Hunters that absorbed them as well.

“What do you think?” Yellow asked. “Do you think we should go check out the ghost?”

I frowned and shifted to a crouch. I cast Stealth and got ready to finally slip away, but paused once again.

Two Hunter auras neared from the tree tops. The two surviving Hunters — Beak Nose and the Mage — were fighting with each other.

“You shit, you’re just half-assing around, saying that she went this way when you don’t actually know!” The Mage threw his hands in the air. “It’s one measly E. What’s taking you so long?”

“Shut it!” Beak Nose snarled. “I know exactly where I’m going. I’m not the one who’s half-assing! You are! It’s your fault that Bern died!”

Bern? Ah. Red Beard.

“Says the man who used him like a ladder just to save his own skin.” The Mage grabbed Beak Nose’s collar and thrust his wooden staff into the man’s face. The edge of his staff started to glow. “I’ll show you half-assed. It’s not my fault he died, but I could be yours.”

I hoped they’d kill each other. Unfortunately, Beak Nose took a deep breath and lifted his hands in surrender. “Hey, why don’t we calm down a bit? Let’s just work together, get this mark done, and get outta this bleeding place.”

The light faded from the tip of the Mage’s staff. He released the man’s collar and stepped back. “Fine.” Then he gasped and looked down. “Damn flowers!” He kicked out and sent a flutter of red pedals into the air.

Could my venture into Josu Rainforest get any better? Enemies behind, on my right and monsters down below. Onward it was. I wanted to back track so I could keep scouring the ground from where I first spotted the Aero-Teuthida, but that wasn’t an option now… Or was it?

I lunged forward and Feather Stepped back from where I came, the mist following me. I expanded the radius of the white particles, spreading Mist out the full forty feet. It cascaded over tree branches like waterfalls and pooled in the air around me. The pale light from above gleamed green on the top of my cloud, giving it an eerie look.

“Gah!” Pink screamed from behind. “It’s moving! It really is a ghost!”

The mist swelled right over Beak Nose and the Mage, swallowing them in the thick whiteness. I jumped off my branch and ran on the fog right beneath them. I could hear them swearing and a blast of fire lit up the inside of my mist. But they couldn’t attack what they couldn’t see. Moments later, the mist cloud passed by and they looked around in shock.

I hopped back on a branch and let go of Mist. Still in Stealth mode, I ran back to my starting location before I saw the Aero-Teuthida earlier. The rainbow brigade had become a blockade, so I turned west to go in search of my mushroom.

*****

Two hours later, I flopped down on a branch after clearing it of every flower, vine and anything else that wasn’t bark. Even then, I had half a mind to strip that off too just so that I knew I could rest without being stabbed or bitten. I was obviously still alive, but my whole body hurt from my chin to my toes. My armor was still intact, but my body was riddled with punctures that were still bleeding because I hadn’t had time to rest and Regen.

My HP took a ding with each prick, so I’d lost about a third of my HP. But my exhaustion was more of a mental thing. It was like sitting on a doctor’s exam table, knowing that you were just about to get a painful shot, but you didn’t know when. Then after that one, another would come. Just on and on, for hours.

Even the bird monsters that I encountered that looked like small vultures, had tongues that shot out and wrapped around their prey like vines. And these tongues ended in pincers that sank easily into flesh. If I was any less nimble, I’d be dead five times over by now. Even though I was tired, I’d already more than filled my energy crystal quota for the day and I was getting close to leveling up. That was a pro, I guess.

The con was, I still hadn’t seen a single speck of bright blue … besides the blue on the Velociorheas’ crests.

I scowled at the group of monster stalkers below. When I’d run away from the two Hunter groups, I’d lost that foursome of Velociorheas. An hour ago, a new group, this one with a level 32, 37, and 44, noticed me and hadn’t left since.

Too tired to care about their obsessed staring, I took my lunch out of my Items Bag and ate it while I poured over my map and monster list. There were currently ten different kinds of monsters that had appeared in the Josu Rainforest and I’d killed four of them. One of them, I glanced down at the dino-birds, was beyond my skill level to kill. Maybe I could handle the weakest one in that group, but not with the other two so near. The other five I hadn’t found yet, including another Aero-Teuthida.

In the three hours I’d been in this rainforest, I’d covered about a quarter of it. That gave me eight hours to scour the rest of the region. I sighed and put away the wrapper and took a healthy drink of water. Feeling refreshed, I turned over and laid on the thick branch, looking up at the dripping canopy. Did it ever stop raining?

I felt movement to my left and instinctively flipped to my feet, kindjal out. An Assassin Vine that hadn’t been near my leg a minute ago paused, trying to act like a life-less plant. With a scowl, I lashed out and cut the vine. Clear liquid gushed from the cut and the vine shrank back to the other side of the tree.

I ran after it, ready to find the main body. I thought I’d gotten everything on this tree. If I wanted to actually rest, I needed to get rid of this monster too. Not to mention, this monster might give me enough EXP to level up.

I slipped around the tree trunk and paused, looking for the Assassin Vine’s body. The vines weren’t that long, so it had to be somewhere close. Shivers of awareness spread across my body and I jerked to the side. I wasn’t fast enough.

Vines slapped around my legs and arms. The thick tentacles strangled my limbs so tight that I could feel bruises forming under my armor. I twisted and the trashed, trying to loosen the hold. Another shock came to me and I jerked to the side as a cold, smooth vine touched the back of my neck. Desperation fueled a burst of speed and strength. My hand jerked up to my neck as the vine slid up. When it encountered my hand, it slid over it and wrapped around my neck, pinning my fist against my neck. This angle pulled at the muscles in my shoulder and upper arm, but it was a hell of a lot better than being strangled. The vine tightened painfully around my neck, but it couldn’t close my airway.

Panic set alarms off in my head as the vines lifted me right off the branch. I jerked and wiggled, but the vines didn’t let go as I was pulled to the right and lifted higher into the air.

What had me? This wasn’t an Assassin Vine. They didn’t grow big or strong enough to do this. Okay, okay, calm down girl and think. I took a breath and forced my mind to stop screaming then I thought about the list of monsters in this area.

Just then I caught sight of a skyward facing bell-shaped plant resting on a huge branch overhead with vines coming out of the base — the same vines that held me prisoner. Unlike the small Assassin Vines, this plant monster was over seven feet tall and about three feet wide. The outside of it was green, nearly the same color of green as the glowing canopy tree line. If it wasn’t for the fact that the darker green vines around me were attached to its base, I didn’t think I would have noticed it at all.

As soon as I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. It was a level 31 Hell’s Pitfall, one of the more dangerous monsters in the rainforest. Outside of the vines, it wasn’t much of a threat because the monster couldn’t move from the tree it was attached to. What made it so dangerous was the acidic, paralyzing juices inside the monster’s giant bell-like flower. I say flower, but it was all one petal. There were no cracks or seams, just a mouth ready for something to drop in.

The vines suspended me over the mouth of the flower. I looked down into the greenish-khaki colored inside of the bell. Inside was a clear juice that filled over half the flower. It wasn’t just fear that made my limbs tingle, the vines were so tight that no blood was circulating and my legs and arms were going numb.

The vines lowered me into the giant pitcher-shaped flower. I was surrounded by a thick, rotten, decaying smell. Unlike the rest of the rainforest, this was a putrid meat smell. It was enough to unsettle my stomach even more than it already was. Just before the soles of my boots touched the liquid, the vines let me go.

For a second, I was free … then gravity grabbed me and pulled me down in the open mouth of the Hell’s Pitfall.

I reached out and grabbed the edges of the flower with my numb hands, but there was a clear mucus that coated the flower. No matter how hard I gripped and tried to pull myself up, my fingers kept sliding in. I curved my body up and pulled my still tingling feet out of the thick liquid. I tried to prop my boots up against either side of the flower, but it was only three feet wide. Not only could I not get a good position in the space, but the inside of the flower walls was covered in the same super lubricant that was on the top of the flower.

“Ah!” I couldn’t help the scream as I felt myself continue to slide into the flower. I didn’t even dare move my hand from its precarious grip to summon my kindjal.

My fingertips slipped right off the edge and I dropped down into the expansive flower. Frigid cold liquid covered my body up to my chest. The bottom of the plant wasn’t flat, but was curved and bumpy. I stumbled on the unevenness and bumped onto the side of the flower, which nearly caused me to slip all the way into the thick liquid.

I instantly became aware of every single hole and cut on my armor that I picked up today. The acidic liquid seeped right in, stinging and burning my body in mind numbing pain. I yelled from the sudden sharp pain. It was like torture, as if my skin was being disolved right off my body.

In the corner of my eye, I could see my HP steadily dropping at an alarming rate. I could see that the flower’s energy crystal was somewhere below my feet, but to get there, I’d have to dive through all the acidic juice and hope that my kindjal was long enough to pierce the energy crystal. The problem was, I didn’t know how thick the main body of the monster was and I didn’t dare put my face in the liquid. It was so fast acting, I didn’t want to go blind before I could do anything. I needed to get out of here first, then I could do something about the monster.

Over my head, vines criss-crossed the opening of the flower, caging me in.

Panting in pain, I summoned my kindjal and lifted it awkwardly in the tight space. Through one of the holes on my arm bracer, I could see the skin under was pickled and red. Cracks were forming and slowly seeping blood. Just as I lifted my kindjal, the strength started to drain out of my body. The kindjal that has always felt like a feather in my palm suddenly felt like a hundred pound weight. I sagged against the side of the flower and gasped, nearly slipping into the liquid again. The paralyzing effect was that fast?

No! No, I am not going to die in a damn plant. I gritted my teeth and forced my arm to lift. My hand shook as I sliced my kindjal into the side of the flower.