Large and thorny vines flailed around in front of her carving deep lines in the bricks and sending stone dust flying. She eyed their trajectories with chilling calmness as she tensed and threw her partner up into the air all the while ducking and sliding up under them.
'3 2 1'
Her partner's unconscious body flew limply through the air barely avoiding the erratic twitching of the vines and landing on her shoulder again. This was quite the impressive feat of skill considering he was nearly a foot taller than her and quite awkward to carry.
All around her the hall quaked and rumbled. Outside unseen by her the roiling mass of rotting plants rolled over the body of the panther as well as the ruined building. In a few moments they were reduced to rubble and a splattering of blood along the ground.
The hallway flew past as she finally emerged into the central hall of their shelter. She did not slow down for a moment as she ran towards the nearest pillar as giant vines pierced the wall behind her searching blindly and hungrily for any more hidden morsels to devour. She evaded one of them before running up and kicking off one of the pillars before using her aspect to carry them both upwards towards the rafters. The strain of using her aspect was made heavier by her companion yet she guided the both of them upwards on the wind nonetheless. They passed the first set of rafters and kept going.
'I need to get higher!'
Below her dozens of tangled vines began pouring in through cracks in the walls and spreading out like a slimy web. They climbed up the walls with startling speed as a few had already reached the first set of rafters and began spreading along their length with no signs of slowing down.
'Curses!'
She avoided a rogue tendril and spiraled upwards around the kingpost. She landed carefully on the highest set of rafters and quickly took in her situation. The vines were still spreading however some had already reached their limit and stopped. Over half were still moving and creeping upwards.
In the tense moments that followed she watched with bated breath as they grew closer and closer to her position. She was surrounded on all sides by rotting and slimy tendrils. The smell was truly something else as she nearly gagged on the putrid scent before catching herself. Any small noise at this moment would likely alert the abomination.
"Mmm…"
Her eyes shot to her partner who was now groaning in his sleep.
'Is this bastard trying to kill us?!'
She dropped him from her shoulder and laid him on his back where she covered his mouth and nose with her hands in an effort to silence him. She had a memory to stop sound from leaving an area however she could not be certain that summoning it wouldn't alert the abomination so this was her best option, a pseudo-suffocation
Luckily she had stopped him before he could make any more noise. The vines were creeping onto the same rafter she was on and below her they slithered up the king post towards them.
'For the love of the dead gods stop growing.'
She eyed the opening in the roof ready to escape there should she need to however the strain of carrying her heavy companion would put her in a bad spot.
'Should I leave him? Sure he is useful but I can't afford to look after him every time he gets injured…'
Every time her companion had engaged an enemy on his own he had been gravely wounded and would have died without her looking after him. First in the obelisk and now here.
'He should have listened when I told him to learn hand-to-hand combat. He wouldn't have been injured so badly.'
She decided against leaving him since it would be a huge waste. She had already seen how versatile his aspect could be and if he really was telling the truth about his aspect his potential was huge, maybe even greater than hers. After all her aspect was only of the dormant rank and was limited to creating small gusts of wind. If she hadn't had her two attributes [Elastic] and [Lightweight] she would not be able to utilize it in the way she did. She struggled even to carry one more person with her and yet he had been able to use his aspect to fly just a day ago. His growth from when they were at the academy was startling. She could only imagine what he would look like in a year or two, that is if they survived that long.
'He will be a valuable asset to clan Song if I can win him over. If not then…'
No, she had to bring him over. An asset like him would surely please her mother greatly. Maybe even enough for her mother to grant her the lineage of beast god like her other daughters…
A slimy green tendril slithered forward slowly stopping just in front of her. Gazing around the sight she saw was eerie and unsettling. The entirety of the inside of the hall was covered in rotten vines, some as thick as a grown man that pulsed faintly with profane life while others were small and wiry that spread out across everything like a nervous system. It was as if she had crawled into the stomach of an awful abomination and lived. Only the narrow bits of rafter and the ceiling had been spared from the noxious growths.
The hall had not been spared from their wrath though as several walls had collapsed during their entry and the wooden table at the center had been crushed under their weight. Elena gazed at the ruined meeting hall and yet she did not feel sad, in fact she was ecstatic. Not only had they not been forced to escape into the city but she had also finally realized how great of an asset her partner was. She was now resolute to keep him alive and get back to Ravenheart.
'Ah what a wonderful day.'
She thought to herself while gazing at the nauseating sight of thick pulsing vines and their thinner counterparts with a content smile.