[eeee...Up.] the voice chimed.
'What does it mean by up?' I thought as I stared forward.
Mad with rage, the ancient snail charged forward towards the hare-like creature and then stopped just short of running it over.
Another blue marker appeared above the snail similar to the hare through my eyes.
"LV.???***"
...
"So it's over." The snail said in an elderly and feminine voice.
The snail slowed down and approached the hare.
"As the rules that govern the state, you need to hand over one of your seeds." It snail said toughly as she slid up next to the rabbit.
Begrudgingly the rabbit seemed to understand what the snail meant, but instead of complying, it hopped backward.
[Arrange... eeee... some..th...eee... else?] the rabbit seemed to suggest as it raised its paw as if it had something that was worth more than the "Seed" the snail wanted. [eee... be... eee... this?]
Cautiously, the snail approached the hare and stared into its palm.
It was bait.
The hare clenched its fist. With its quick initiative, it launched a punch at the snails head.
But the snail was prepared.
The tentacles from the violet flower spread out once more and latched onto the hare's body.
The snail was even quicker than the hare.
Before its fist had made contact with the snail's face, the hare was thrown.
The sounds of trees and stones crumbling filled the air as the hare tumbled backward closer and closer to our tree before finally sliding to a halt.
The snail slowly slid after the hare as if it didn't care about the danger it could pose any longer to it.
"I'm sure you don't want it torn from you." the snail said as it approached the downed hare.
Once again, strings of tentacles shot out from the violet flower on its back. With no regard for the state of the hare, they wrapped around the hare's ears.
The tentacles soon proved their strength as the hare as raised up into the air. Its single good foot seemed to kick out in an attempt to injure the snail but it did no good. Instead, it seemed to open up the wound in its left foot as blackened blood dripped down its visible femur ultimately staining the earth beneath it.
"Last chance to hand it over." The snail continued. "Or I might just kill you and take both of them." The snail smiled menacingly as it revealed its lines of jagged and uneven teeth.
[Reconsider... anything... want?] The hare seemed to ask.
It seemed that the "Seeds" were very important to the hare.
The snail paused to think.
"5% of your territory and ... Ah yes, the lakeside breeding grounds." the snail answered as she smiled.
[Ha... you...eee...] the hare replied in discontent.
"It seems fair to me," the snail said as it smirked once more.
Although it said this jokingly, the snail seemed serious about its demands as more tentacles emerged from the violet flower on its shell.
"You know I'm running out of patience." the snail added as the tentacles that suspended the hair in the air tightened.
The hare cried out in pain as its ears were visibly crushed. Nerves and blood vessels in them burst as they became limp and flopped downward.
"Just a warning..." The snail said as she smiled. "Now, are you going to give in to my demands or should I just tear out my reward by force?" it asked sadistically as it stared intently at the hare's ears.
Slowly a single tentacle seemed to raise out from the centre of the violet flower. It seemed to casually whip around in the air before it reached about the base of the beige flower that protruded out of the side of the hare's right ear.
Instead of fear, hare seemed to smile instead. It opened its mouth and laughed. Seconds later, the laughter picked up until it seemed like it had turned insane from the fear of either dying or losing a "Seed".
[eee...late.] it said as it stared directly into the snail's yellow glowing eyes.
The hare seemed to smirk as one of its beige flowers suddenly shifted deep red. It continued to laugh as the hare seemed to slowly deform.
Surprised, the snail clenched the pile of mush that was flowing through its tentacles to no avail. It could only watch as the hare melted into a pool of red fluid as it dripped through its grasp and fused with the soil beneath it.
With a look of amazement, the snail retracted her tentacles back into the violet flower on its back.
The ancient snail and I seemed to share the same thought. 'There hare had escaped!'
But I was wrong. No. We were wrong.
Soon, I heard the ground rumble once more.
The forest floor beneath the snail broke once more and once again, two ears blasted upwards causing the soil beneath the snail to shower into the air.
The sound of pounding filled the air as the hare pelted the underside of the snail's shell once more with everything it had left.
Dots of red and blue rained all over the forest as the blood of both the snail and the hare splattered the forest.
A hit. A crack in the shell. Another hit. A chunk of shell shattered and fell off the snail's body. Another hit. A hole appeared as the hare punctured the snail's body.
A massive hit.
The snail was launched into the air once more.
The hare moved instantly after the shell immediately as it became a brown blur. Opting for speed, it dodged to the side and jumped. Instantly, it matched the height of the snail who was launched into the air. Like a well-trained martial artist, it rotated its body and launched a powerful kick.
Bang.
A devastating blow.
I ducked back into my shell as another shockwave hit against me and the tree. But I kept my eyes glued to the hare's actions.
The snail was knocked down from the air, shattering even more as it colliding with trees and bushes that blocked its way as it rolled across the surface of the forest.
Nothing seemed to be able to stop its tumble as it broke a tree into two, flatted bushes and plants and crumbled the rocks beneath it.
Chips and pieces of shell fell off with every impact it made.
Finally, it rolled to a stop...
...Beneath our tree.
The snail didn't get up. No, it seemed to have lost consciousness.
Noticeably, shards of its shattered shell had punctured its body and it was now oozing blue blood into the soil below it. Its underside was even worse. Chunks of its innards flowed out and dripped onto the soil.
It was in critical condition if not dead.
In the distance, I saw movement.
Hopping slowly, the hare followed the trial of devastation that the snail had left when it tumbled towards our tree.
I could feel the air move as a slight wind hit our tree with each hop. Yet, it seemed quite slow in comparison to how it had moved when it was attacking.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Quiet thumps filled the air as the hare moved slowly towards us.
It looked miserable.
Its once brown fur was stained in red and its body still seemed to dripped with blood - a consequence of liquefying I had guessed.
Soon it raised its eyebrows as it saw the snail.
It didn't hop over quickly though, it took its time.
Minutes later, it reached our tree.
The snail below hadn't moved an inch or reacted as the hare approached.
Tufts of its bloody fur filled our view as its shadow darkened our world and our tree.
We could feel the air around us being dragged towards it as it took in a breathe. The air heated up moistened when it let out a breath.
It stood upright for a few seconds as it scanned over the snail and looked at our tree.
We seemed to make eye contact as I stared into its bloody eyes and it stared back at me.
I took in a deep breath.
Like our minuscule lives didn't even matter, it looked back down at the body of the ancient snail below its feet.
Reaching down, it swiftly sunk it smashed the ancient snail's shell.
I looked down to see what it was doing.
The hare pummeled the snail's shell. It seemed focused on the regions around the violet flower. Piece by piece it pulled off shard after shard until it finally stopped.
It had done enough to get what it wanted.
It pulled its fist back.
'There's no way it'll mutilate a body right?' I thought, but it did.
The hare launched its fist forward once more.
The flower shattered, its petals fell to the soil below.
Swiftly, the hare pulled its blood-stained paw out from the ancient snail's body.
It smiled.
The hare looked towards the sky and screeched out with excitement.
[YES!]
It quickly rubbed the blue blood off the object onto its fur and looked at it.
In the centre of its palm, it held a violet crystal like shard. It had an unnatural glow to it like it was emitting light.
With another paw, it seemed to pick up the shard from its palm. Gently, it shoved the shard straight into its injured leg.
Seemingly, like magic, its entire leg glowed for a brief moment, before the light vanished.
The leg stopped bleeding and a thin film seemed to form over what was once the exposed bone.
Smiling, the hare made quick work of the second flower that had jutted out from the snail's shell and pulled another shard.
It was pink.
With a swifter movement this time, it shoved the shard swiftly into its back as closed its eyes and took a deep breath.
Its back glowed yellow before the light disappeared seconds later.
After another deep breath, the hare opened its eyes once more.
It stared straight at us.
[I feel good today. I'll let you all live.]
I watched as the characters above its head shifted from [LV.???**] to [LV.???****] as it turned around and hopped off.
...