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Name: Vengeful Tulip
Description: A beautiful flower that mutated after being exposed to the erratic mana in the air.
Due to its mutation, it became very aggressive, attacking whatever comes within its sight.
It coughs out pollen from its mouths, to either get food or defend itself when cornered.
The scent of its pollen attracts all the insect-type creatures in the surrounding.
—
'Pollen… that attracts insect-type beasts.' Karl thought, sweat pooling around his forehead.
"Guys! We can't waste time on this flower monster! We better end it quick!" He exclaimed, quickly pulling out two daggers from his side to join the fight.
"You heard him! We better be fast with this." Edward said, not taking Karl's warning lightly. He knew about his brother's [Inspect] skill, and for him to give a warning like that, it meant a lot.
By now, most of the plant's stems and petals had already been cut out due to the combined attacks of Blake, Aria and Edward, and only a few more petals remained standing on the flower.
Its main weakness was fire, as it could easily burn it down to its stems and unfortunately for the plant, Edward had a sword with fire burning consistently on the blade.
There was also Blake, who could burn down its petals with the use of the lightning explosions from his skill.
Scree!!!
The plant screeched loudly in agony, its stems twisting around violently in the air.
Puff!
Suddenly, one of its mouth coughed up a weird yellow dust, which slowly spread around the air.
Contrary to their expectations, the strange yellow dust didn't have any scent; whether good or bad.
"What is that?" Aria mumbled, hurriedly covering her nose with her shirt.
The other three teenagers quickly did the same, not wanting to inhale the yellow dust.
'Could this be… why Karl was warning us?' Edward thought, with a deep frown on his face.
'Whatever that yellow dust is, I'm sure it's bad news.' Blake thought, his heart beating faster.
"That's its pollen! It attracts insect beasts! The dumb plant's trying to call for help!" Karl shouted. His voice was muffled due to him covering his nose and mouth, but the other three could still hear what he said clearly.
Without needing much explanations, they instantly understood what he meant.
Despite having mutated, the plant was still a flower. Similar to the way the pollen of normal flowers attract insects, the mutated plant's pollen would also be able to do the same. Except, with most of the animals out there having mutated into beasts, its would attract bug-type beasts!
As if it could hear his words, the plant started coughing up more pollen from the rest of its mouths, enveloping the air in a haze of yellow dust.
"Leave this to me." Edward said, tightly gripping the burning sword in his hand. The fire around his blade briefly burned even brighter, and he was about to charge straight at the plant, before Blake suddenly stopped him.
"Let me handle this." He said, lightly tapping the shorter boy's shoulder.
Edward nodded, stepping back as he trusted in Blake's words.
Blake stepped forward before swiftly stretching his hand towards the screeching plant.
'Lightning Ball.' He mumbled inwardly, with gritted teeth.
Blitz!!!
In an instant, blue sparks flickered around his outstretched palm, crackling violently as they rapidly merged into a medium-sized ball.
Blitz!!!!
The lightning ball started swelling in size, as Blake hurriedly poured more mana into the skill.
The ball only stopped increasing agter reaching the size of a large, over-inflated ballon, with lightning crackling violently around the sides.
Edward and Karl who stood by his side stared on in awe at the huge lightning ball, feeling like it could explode at any moment.
With a low grunt, Blake quickly released the attack towards the mutated plant in front of him, struggling to contain the volatile lightning ball.
Blitz!!!
The lightning ball shot through the air at rapid speed, leaving a crackling blue trail of electricity.
Blitzzzz!!!!
Boom!!!
Within a split second, the ball hit one of the plant's huge petals, detonating into a powerful explosion of lightning.
The flash from the explosion was so bright that the three behind him were forced to closed their eyes.
A gust of wind swept over them from the detonation, causing their clothes to flutter violently in its wake.
"Arrg." Edward let out a low dust, as he felt a little dust enter his eyes.
Even after the explosion, blue lightning kept sparking in midst of all the dust and smoke.
"Dude, maybe next time… don't cause such a powerful explosion when we're close to you." Karl mumbled, his eyes tearing up from the dust.
Aria and Edward nodded her head in agreement, as they kept coughing heavily.
"C-could have at… least warned us…" Edward muttered, before letting out another cough.
As for Blake, his lips curled into a slight smile as he read through the notifications that appeared in front of him.
[You have absorbed the records of Level 15 Vengeful Tulip! Mana +20, Health +10, Strength +5, Agility +10, Intelligence +4]
[Level up! You have reached level 16!]
[Level up Rewards: +5 Status points]
[Lightning ball Level up!]
[ Lightning Ball (B-tier skill) now level 2!]
Cough!
However, hearing a loud cough behind him, he remembered about the three others who stood behind him.
"I'm sorry…" Blake mumbled, scratching his head awkwardly. Seeing how they were all coughing from the dust, he felt quite bad for causing such an explosion without warning them beforehand.
They simply nodded their head in response, since they knew they couldn't really blame him.
Aria and Edward also saw a system notification about the plant's death and a smile appeared on their faces. Since they helped in weakening it with their attacks, they also got a small portion of its records.
However, despite being inconvenienced by the wave from the explosion, they still looked on at the smoke, trying to see what remained of the mutated plant.
Within a few seconds, the smoke finally died down, revealing what remained behind it.
Nothing remained of the plant at all, except from two small blue and yellow broke remains from the vase which lay on the ground.
The counter was also burnt, and the only things left were the bottom part and a burnt plank hanging from its edge.
The walls were also blackened from the explosion, from the bottom down to the ceiling, and small cracks could be seen all over it.
"Way to go Blake…" Karl mumbled, with a wry smile, meanwhile, Blake simply scratched his head awkwardly, feeling like he overdid it a little.
"But we still need to leave this place, Blake might have killed the plant, but those insect beast might still be on their way here." Aria said, with a slight frown on her face.
"Yeah, you—"
—Bam!!
—Bam!!
Karl was about to say something, but his words were abruptly cut off by a loud banging sound coming from the pharmacy entrance.