Spirit Taming

Chapter 599: Cool Ice Breeze

"This thing is  a mess." Ralph had been the first to find the source of the vicious fly trap heads. The smaller ball of roots that had been latched on to  larger vines were covered in sticky sap to protect it. Furthermore, there was a smell of rotten meat around it too because the vicious fly trap had been leaving its nutrients here to fuel the main beast it was serving.

"That's just the way it is. I bet that we will find more things like that." Clark was sure that this would be the case as he stored away the additional heads of the vicious fly traps. He knew that the group would be able to use the teeth later.

"Ha! Look at that!" Reese jumped out from behind a rotting tree. Its wood looked like it could barely hold up one leaf, let alone many. But Reese on the other hand, looked like he had just found a great victory.

"Do you know how many of those little crawling vine things I had to beat to find you two? If you were not so loud, I would have headed the wrong way." Reese was very proud that he had managed to track more of his group down. Now they were three instead of two. Which was an overall good thing.

"Wait, crawling vine things?" Ralph was about to mention that he would not need Reese' s help fighting here, but then he got caught on the beast that Reese was talking about. He hadn't met anything that sounded similar.

"These things. Look at them. They have six vine legs and a harder plant shell thing. It's like a bug." Reese pulled one smaller beast from his spatial ring. It landed on the ground with a clear cut through the back where it had been slashed with Reese's partner, the spirit steel sword.

'Vine bug-uncommon

The vine bug is a  unique plant type beast that mimics the bugs that usually feed on it. It does this to protect itself but also so that it can freely move further distances without needing an attachment to the soil. It can also swim.

Using the control over its six vines, it can easily use them in combat to dig through the ground and attack from underneath an opponent. However, they are more known for leaping and latching on to prey so that they can use the fines to dig in to it.

They lack a mouth and normally can not feed on prey the same as other beasts. Isnetad, they will constantly break up their prey in to mush and sit inside it to naturally absorb the nutrients within it. They also secrete a small digestive sap to assist this process.

The shell they make is very condensed plant material. It is considered a very good natural shield for the young tamers because it is tough and can handle basic training. It is not recommended to use it for real battles.

The shell is surprisingly useful for making molds though. The plant material can be burned up, therefore, allowing a mold to be made around it then burned to create a similar shape. Some beginning blacksmiths use this to teach themselves.'

Clark didn't hide the details from the others. He was sure that the vine bugs would be useful yo whatever Ralph wanted to work on. He was a blackmsith learning every day. Therefore, hw would be able to use just about anything that was even somewhat valuable to the profession.

"There were like thirty of them. They kept leaping out of water pools, broken trees, and one even tried to grab on to us." Reese shook his head as the spirit steel sword vibrated with clear annoyance. Clark wasn't sure how he could tell what emotion it was, but just went along with it since that was all he could do.

"We are following the vines to cut this thing to pieces. As we go, the more of us we meet. But I have a feeling that we will beat the beast before everyone is together. Then we should be forced out at the entrance again."  Clark told this to Ralph and Reese who doubled their efforts walking along the larger vines.

The thorns had begun to show a deeper purple color. They also dripped with small bits of sap that Clark had identified as poisons. This made it clear that the beast at the source of all this was much more dangerous. However, the odd part was that there were fewer other beast around. As if they had been drawn away.

"Ypou really think you can survive the winter! We are way better than you. We trained in the literal ice and snow!" Isa's shouts came with a burst of frosty wind. Something that Clark and the others picked up on as being more than just her. Ralph in particular would recognize Grace's attacks anywhere and any time.

When the three found the scene that they had not expected, they had to stop for a second before moving again. Every little pool of stinking muck filled water was solid as ice. There were sharp ice crystals all over the ground and bushes. Some of them seemed to be held up by the ice itself.

What Clark noticed were two root balls that had multiple vicious fly trap heads on them. Completely frozen solid with ice spike piercing them. Signs of wind slashes also covered the ground where more ice had formed after being cut deeply.

"I didn't think you would need our help when we heard you, but you two really did a number on this area." Reese's surprise was enough to say it all. He and the other two also thought this sight was amazing. Especially since the larger vines had taken significant damage from the very low temperatures that the two girls had created.

The pale look on Grace and Isa's face proved that it was not all without cost though. "Those things ambushed us and we had no choice. One of them even bit Grace's leg." Isa huffed and sat down now thaT she didn't have to worry about threats. She had her group and they could keep her safe. She had full trust in them.

While Isa sat down and pulled out a potion to drink that would heal her scrapes and bruises from the fight, Ralph had already made a move to get close to Grace who had been fighting while balancing on one leg.

The sharp cut marks from the vicious fly trap teeth were bleeding slowly, however, they were able to easily begin cleaning and healing the wound with potions and bandages. But that didn't mean that grace could easily walk. She had exhausted a lot of energy to cleanly cut off five heads from the vicious fly traps using just wind before a large attack with ice and wind.

The frost finch wasn't even able to fly since it was so tired.

"Let the poison vine cluster that Shy took control of carry Grace. Shy can make sure that the poison doesn't get on her and she can rest. Isa, you can walk with us, right? Reese will take on body guard duty while Devi and I take the attacking role." Clark was very quick to make sure that would be safe.

"Agreed!" the two girls responded with a tired voice. They were sure that they would have been fine sitting here and resting, but regrouping was better since the two of them had been lucky enough to only be a few feet from one another when they appeared within this dungeon.

The three boys didn't push the girls to move right away. They took a few minutes to grasp what they were doing and how they had battled. It seemed that Grace  and Isa had appeared in very poor locations. Yes they were nearby one another, but they had immediately become caught up in a fight between the two vicious fly traps. It was as if they had been dropped in to a trap.

But when they did start walking, the group began to notice that the thorny vines were removing more and more. Especially the closer that they got to the thicker thorny vines. It was evidence that all the activity and fighting was making an effect on them.

Furthermore, the larger thorny vines were unable to break away and shrivel up as the smaller ones did. That meant that devi was not eating from the small weak vines. He was using his chilling bite and stealing energies directly from the main body of the beast. It was also why Clark was able to use the analysis on the beast properly for the first time. Not that he liked what he was seeing.

"I have a bad feeling about the beast at the end of this vine. We should be ready for a very big fight. If you can't keep up, hold back. Like I said before, at the end of this, the dungeon will close and force us out of the entrance."