The new weed was slightly smaller than the original two, maybe five feet tall instead of six, but it was already fully functional and immediately joined the fight. Its vines shot out toward Regulus, who was still recovering from his strike and slightly out of position.
The cub tried to dodge, activating Flashstep to teleport away from the incoming attack. But three vines still caught him, wrapping around his tiny body before he could complete the displacement. The thorns dug into his fur, drawing small amounts of blood, and the vines squeezed with crushing force.
Through his bond with Regulus, Cid felt a spike of pain and intense indignation. The Lion Emperor was caught. Restrained. Held by inferior beings that dared to touch him with their pathetic plant appendages.
Lightning exploded outward from Regulus's body.
The Stormheart Pulse passive activated defensively, electricity discharging in all directions. The vines holding him spasmed and released, smoking from the electrical damage. Regulus dropped free and immediately Flashstepped again, this time successfully, reappearing thirty feet away and panting slightly.
'He is okay,' Cid confirmed through the bond. 'Wounded but not seriously. But the thorns definitely hurt him. These weeds can injure even an EX rank familiar if they land solid hits. We need to be more careful.'
Rimuru was still engaged with the second original weed, having successfully climbed close enough to begin Engulfing the plant's main stalk. The slime's body spread across the purple surface, acid eating away at the outer layers while the weed thrashed uselessly.
But the third weed turned its attention to the slime, apparently recognizing Rimuru as the more immediate threat to its companion. Vines lashed out and wrapped around the slime's mass, attempting to pull Rimuru away from the engulfment.
The slime's gelatinous body stretched but did not tear. Rimuru clung stubbornly to the weed it was engulfing, refusing to release despite being pulled from two directions simultaneously. The scene would have been comical if the stakes were not so serious.
Cid saw his opening.
The third weed was focused entirely on Rimuru, its main stalk fully exposed and undefended. Cid activated Vital Hit, feeling the skill engage as power flooded through his body. His perception sharpened. Time seemed to slow slightly as the skill guided his attention to exactly where he needed to strike.
There. A node point where the main stalk connected to the root system. A vital junction that supplied nutrients and coordinated movement. Hit that hard enough and the entire plant would fail.
Cid did not have a weapon, but he did not need one. He charged forward, closing the distance while the weed was distracted, and threw a front kick with every ounce of strength his ten point attributes could provide.
His foot connected with the node point precisely.
The Vital Hit skill amplified the strike beyond what his base strength should have allowed. The critical multiplier turned a normal kick into a devastating blow. Cid felt something crack under his foot, felt the satisfying give of critical structural damage.
The third weed's stalk split at the node point, the vital junction destroyed. The plant's vines went limp instantly, its coordination severed. The upper half of the weed toppled over, separating from the lower half, purple sap leaking from the wound like blood.
[KILLER WEED DEFEATED]
The system notification appeared briefly in Cid's vision before fading.
'One down,' he thought with fierce satisfaction. 'But my foot hurts like hell. These things are tough. That kick felt like striking a tree trunk.'
He limped back a few steps, giving his familiars room to work while his foot throbbed with pain that suggested he might have bruised something despite the successful strike.
Rimuru had finally overwhelmed the second weed. The slime's acid had eaten through enough of the stalk that the plant's structural integrity failed. The main body collapsed, no longer able to support its own weight, and Rimuru engulfed the remains completely, dissolving them methodically.
[KILLER WEED DEFEATED]
Two down. One to go.
Except the soil was rippling again. In multiple places.
'No,' Cid thought with growing dread. 'No, not more. How are they reproducing this fast?'
Two more weeds erupted from the ground simultaneously, one near the dying first weed, another closer to where Cid stood. Both were the smaller variety like the third had been, five feet tall instead of six, but they were fully formed and immediately hostile.
Then a third new weed burst from the soil near the field's edge. And a fourth appeared between Regulus and Rimuru.
Four new weeds. Combined with the one original weed still standing, that made five total enemies.
'The reproduction rate is accelerating,' Cid realized with alarm. 'Gerald's soil is too fertile. They are spawning faster than normal Killer Weeds should be able to. We need to end this now before we get completely overwhelmed.'
The first original weed, the one that Regulus had damaged earlier, was now fully healed. Its cracked stalk had regenerated completely. It stood at the back of the group, coordinating the newer weeds through the hivemind connection.
All five plants turned their attention to Cid's group simultaneously. Dozens of vines began to move in coordinated patterns.
Then they attacked as one.
It was like fighting a purple forest that wanted you dead.
Vines came from every direction, high and low, left and right, creating a web of thorny appendages that seemed impossible to avoid. The coordination was perfect, each weed covering the gaps in the others' attacks, creating a unified assault that treated all five plants as extensions of a single organism.
Regulus Flashstepped frantically, his small form blinking in and out of existence as he dodged strike after strike. Lightning trailed behind him with each teleportation, the afterimages left behind shocking any vines that touched them. But there were too many attacks. Even with his superior speed and the teleportation ability, the cub was being pushed back, forced onto the defensive.
Rimuru tried to engulf the nearest weed, surging forward with gelatinous determination. But three other weeds immediately focused on the slime, their vines wrapping around Rimuru's mass and pulling in different directions. The slime was strong but not strong enough to fight four opponents simultaneously. Rimuru's body stretched dangerously thin, spread across too much area.
Cid activated Flashstep himself, teleporting away from a cluster of vines that would have wrapped around his legs. He reappeared ten feet to the side, his energy reserves dropping noticeably from the use. Three uses left before he was completely depleted.
'We are losing control of this fight,' he admitted to himself. 'The numbers are against us. We can handle two or three, but five is too many. They are going to overwhelm us through pure coordination and volume of attacks.'
A vine caught Regulus across the side, thorns tearing through his golden white fur and drawing blood. The cub yowled in pain and anger, his lightning flaring intensely as the Stormheart Pulse passive shocked the offending vine. But more vines came immediately, trying to pin him down while he was recoiling from the hit.
The Lion Emperor activated Static Dominion Growl, the authority wave rippling outward. The weeds' attack strength diminished noticeably, their strikes becoming slightly slower, slightly weaker. But the coordination remained perfect despite the debuff.
'The original weed,' Cid realized, his eyes finding the largest plant still standing at the back. 'That's the hub. The central node coordinating all of them through the hivemind. As long as that one survives, the others will fight with perfect coordination. We need to take it out.'
But reaching it meant getting through four other weeds all working to protect it. The newer plants had positioned themselves as a defensive screen, their vines creating a living barrier.
Rimuru launched an Acid Shot at the original weed, trying to damage it from range. The glob of acidic slime flew true, but two weeds intercepted it with their vines, taking the damage themselves to protect the coordinator. The acid ate through the vines, destroying them completely, but the weeds simply grew new ones to replace them within seconds.
'Their regeneration is shared through the hivemind,' Cid realized. 'They can heal each other's damage. That's why the regeneration seems so fast. It's not just individual healing. They are pooling their regenerative capabilities across the entire group.'
This was rapidly becoming impossible. Five F rank enemies fighting with perfect coordination, shared regeneration, and constantly covering each other's weak points. It was effectively a single E rank enemy with five bodies, and Cid's team was not equipped for that.
Then the soil rippled again.