Zack narrowly avoided the bird's swoop. Attempts to blind and injure the bird even more were unsuccessful. It had learned its lesson to not fully commit when diving down. Zack could only blind the bird to create an opportunity to dodge. The flower tree wasn't in sight, but Zack was getting into a rhythm. Run, wait, blind, dodge, and repeat. Then Zack saw it in the distance, the flower tree.
However, right as Zack dodged once more, as usual when the bird made a slight adjustment. A talon sliced off a nub from one of Zack's legs. It was adapting and swapping strategies to get past Zack's flashbang maneuver. Luckily, the flower tree was getting closer. He only needed to get to the fallen leaves and flowers on the ground. It was a death wish to try and climb the tree. The bird wouldn't pass up the easy kill if Zack tried to climb the tree. The large bird hadn't given up the desire to kill Zack even after eating a face-full of dirt. So, the only option was to hide among the old flowers the tree had shed.
Zack continued to get closer to the tree as he noticed the occasional dried-up flower. All kinds of colorful flowers peppered the field beneath the unique tree. The view was stunning until a talon tore a limb off Zack. The distraction would have almost been lethal if Zack hadn't mimicked one of the fallen flowers in time. The bird flew up once more trying to scan the ground for the pesky mantis, but the mantis was nowhere to be found. Zack scurried deeper into the collection of scattered flowers.
Watching from underneath a few of the colorful fallen flowers, Zack spied on the avian. The bird screeched unbridled rage and sadness as it tore through the air. It swooped the ground multiple times ripping up any flowers that caught its ire. Now that he was safe, Zack finally got a clean look at the bird. It looked like the same species as the bird he had hunted, but much larger.
It was stronger on every metric and that wasn't by a small margin. The unusual bird had flown faster than any avian since he had been reborn. It was many times faster than a regular small bird. The fact that Zack had even survived the first encounter was a miracle in itself. The unusually strong bird was almost like the peak of its own species.
If the bird had some uniqueness other than being the apex of its species, Zack would've sworn the system was cheating with other creatures behind his back. Zack held his breath as the bird crushed a flower a few centimeters away from him. The situation was still dire, Zack stopped complaining and tried to think of a way to escape.
However, Zack felt his mind growing heavy as his thoughts slowed. Mental tiredness was a precursor when he overused his abilities. But he hadn't felt the usual strain that piled up from repeated use. Instead, it was different. The feeling was sudden, yet subtle. Zack only noticed it as he was wary of ability overuse and the strain it caused. The weirdness continued when Zack saw the bird descend slowly from the skies. It moved a lot slower and sluggish, the bonfire of anger was nowhere to be seen. The bird stumbled like a sleepy drunkard.
'Why was the bird so tired?' Zack thought, confused. That initial confusion turned to shock and then fear. It was poison. Both Zack and the bird had been poisoned, but something didn't add up. The bird was stumbling around half-asleep while Zack was only a little drowsy. The bird was more than three times Zack's size, the poison should've taken Zack out long before the bird had shown any symptoms.
Unless the bird had somehow ingested more of the poison. Zack tried to think of what might've been the cause of the poison. Zack's thoughts stirred, both himself and the bird had been in contact with the poison. Another possibility was that it might've traveled through the air. Zack's time was running out and the mental fog became heavier with each passing minute. They hadn't shown any symptoms until reaching the tree.
'Had it been the tree?' Zack guessed as he looked up at the now ominous tree. But the flower tree showed no signs of movement. Another possibility was it might've been something within the tree's surroundings. The first time he saw this tree nothing unusual like this happened. So, it didn't make sense for this sudden change.
Even more minutes passed and Zack grew desperate. The bird was sound asleep and Zack was soon to follow. The sluggish feeling pervaded his entire body and movement was challenging. Zack had dragged himself closer to the boundary of the tree's territory within that time. But the seemingly endless amounts of fallen flowers were a constant reminder that he wasn't even close to an escape.
It was then a single sporadic and wild theory came to Zack. The flowers were the poison. The flowers had been the poison all along. It explained almost everything that had happened. Both the bird and Zack had lots of contact with the flowers. The bird also destroyed a bunch of them raging and came into contact with a lot more of the flowers. Zack didn't hesitate and immediately acted on this wild guess. He ate one of the flowers.
If his guess was wrong then death was soon to follow. If Zack was right, it was possible to survive this encounter and come out with benefits. A single ability that would determine his life or death, Flowery Aroma. It was a requirement for Zack to ingest the specific flower if he wanted to activate the ability. Zack's life depended on the hope that once he ingested the flower it might provide him some level of resistance to the poison. Else all that awaited him was death.
The only issue with his poisonous flower theory was that there was a lack of carcasses. Say in a hypothetical scenario, an animal walks under the tree's shade and onto the scattered fallen flowers. The animal would be poisoned and likely fall asleep permanently due to the poison. They would either starve or die of dehydration. But then there should be dead animals littered around the tree. Even just bones would support the poisonous flower theory. However, the shade beneath the flower tree remained spotless of corpses.
Seconds ticked within Zack's mind. With his body immobilized Zack could only cook up more ideas. If the poison was spread through the air by a hypothetical predator then that too would make sense. Especially, if the hypothetical predator was hunting that unique bird. Zack just hoped the hypothesized predator wouldn't find him tasty-looking if that theory turned out true.
Zack wiggled in discomfort at the thought of that theory. Zack paused, then wiggled once more. He could move! Zack clicked his mandibles and rubbed his claws together. Being able to move in his mantis body never felt so great. His poisonous flower theory was correct! To celebrate, Zack wanted to put down that stupid bird. Looking over to where the bird had been, Zack froze in shock.
The bird was wrapped up in what looked like roots. They circled and looped around the bird, further constricting its already immobilized body. The roots of the flower tree slithered and slowly dragged the oversized bird to the base of the tree. Maybe Zack's hypothetical predator theory wasn't wrong. Instead, it was no regular predator. The predator was the flower tree.