"UGHH!!!" My head snapped in the direction of the sudden shout of pain, only to notice one of the kids close to the center turned his arm into a crude bark weapon before thrusting it into the hest kid behind him. I froze at the sight of him pulling his golden(?) blood-covered arm out of her chest and inspecting some sort of orb he pulled out of it.
Surprised, the rest of us look at him in shock, before more groans and shouts start spreading through the area, leading to a fight-or-flight reaction from the majority of us.
"Haaaa!!!" Shaking myself out of mu stupor resulting from the sudden bout of violence, I easily dodged the sloppy punch coming from my neighbor.
My mind focuses in on his features. A cute looking 10-year-old with delicate white skin, and long white hair draped over big fear-filled dough eyes. Oh, and the shifting mass of eyes that decorate his canvas-like hair.
'What the fu-' Before I can even think of anything my body moves on instinct, taking their outstretched hand, shifting my positions to a rough Aikido throw, before launching them over my shoulder into the ground. "Ugh-!" Knocking the wind out of them.
One thing to take note of was the fact that all his eyes were following my movements intently, but the boy's eyes only conveyed a sense of horror as his body couldn't react according to the information his eyes seemed to provide.
Not knowing what to do next, I let my body continue what it was doing.
Somehow my fingers turn into rose-like thorns, and before I can fully process what my instincts are telling me to do, my hand plunges down and pierces their chest, grabbing an orb-like object before ripping it back out.
[Ding!! Petty Eye divine essence extracted]
'Wa- did I just-!?' Shocked, I froze for half a second before being forced to doge the attack of another kid who whipped something fast at me.
Quickly standing back up, I notice one of the more confident-looking kids with some kind of whip made out of vines staring at me with ambition-filled eyes.
This one looked a bit older with a greenish tint to his skin, maybe closer to 13 years old, though he still very much looked like a kid.
'Brother!! we're like 5 minutes old!? Why the hell are you so bloodthirsty!?' Internally screaming I duck under the crack of his whip before sprinting over to him. 'And how am I doing this!? I was never this good!!'
His eyes widened in panic as I managed to successfully dodge his whip twice, resulting in him fumbling his next few attacks.
'They're not actually kids-Their not actually kids-Their not actually kids-Their not actually kids-...' I reassure myself, sidestepping his last attack, ducking below his guard, and delivering a powerful uppercut right on his chin, snapping his head back.
Staggering back, his brain probably rattled, I extend my thorn claws and plunge them into his chest, ripping out a slightly larger orb than the last one.
[Ding!! Lesser Vine divine essence extracted]
By this point, my thoughts are mostly along the lines of 'run now, think later'. My thoughts are specially reinforced by the sight of one of the kids turning into a fucking bear and biting the head off of one of the running kids.
'Holy shit! Holy shitholyshitholyshitholyshit!!!??' Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I bolted in the direction where Despoina pointed, noticing that I was not the only one running this this direction.
Obviously, our run doesn't go uninterrupted, seeing as the more aggressive kids assumed that the easier prey must be running, so they decided to obstruct our escape.
'How did it go from 0 to 100 so fast!?' Hearing the blood pumping through my ear, I jumped mid-sprint, extended both my legs, and planted it in the face of what I'll be calling the predator group.
Making sure to keep them close while falling, I ripped the orb out of her chest before continuing my sprint.
[Ding!! Petty Rabbit divine essence extracted]
The next predator in front of me seemingly didn't expect such a fast takedown and wasn't prepared broke past his guard and gave him the same treatment I gave his sister.
[Ding!! Petty Brugmansia divine essence extracted]
Too busy running for my life from the aggressive ones, I didn't notice the orbs getting absorbed into my hand, but I did notice the not-so-minor increase in speed.
And so, I kept bulldozing through the predator group that was blocking my way. I'm not proud of it, but in the heat of the moment I even took out a few of my fellow runners that were blocking the way.
Ripping the orb from a runner's back, I used her body as a makeshift ram and smashed through a wall of opponents, breaking past them without slowing down too much.
[Ding!! Petty Lily divine essence extracted]
....
One kid turned his arm into a group of writhing rats, catching me off guard, allowing minor cuts and bite marks to accumulate before I took it as inspiration and somehow turned one of my arms into an oversized rose, using it as a cover to sneak into his guard to extract his orb.
[Ding!! Petty Rat divine essence extracted]
...
One girl managed to trip me by turning into a massive snake and wrapping herself around my leg, tightening it at the wrong angle, threatening to break it. With adrenaline running high, I don't even think as my leg explodes into a mass of thorns, making the snake hiss in pain and transforming back into a girl to get away from me... which didn't work out too well for her.
[Ding!! Petty Snake divine essence extracted]
..
One of the predators threw one of the younger-looking kids at me as a form of distraction... The horror-filled look in the 8-year-old's eyes as his orb was ripped out made me want to stop and empty my stomach.
[Ding!! Petty Seed divine essence extracted]
.
Right before I could make it out of the clearing, a cloud of green smoke exploded out of my right, followed closely by the falling figure of a 13-year-old-looking girl. She seemed pretty banged up and was struggling to stand.
But none of that mattered, what mattered was that she was in my way... so before she or her opponent could react, I swooped in, pierced her through the chest collected the orb from her weakened form, and continued my dash out of the clearing.
[Ding!! Lesser Poison divine essence extracted]
"Hey!!! That was mine!!! Asshole!!!" Her opponent yelled in anger as I made it into the greater forest.
By the time I made it through the tree line must have absorbed close to 20 orbs, how I was able to take down more than 15 people while sprinting was beyond me, all that mattered was that I left the clearing behind... Though all the cuts and bruises marking my form were sure to hurt when the adrenaline stopped doing its job
The fact that my Petty Rose divinity evolved into a Petty Flower divinity didn't really matter at the moment, the most important fact was that I survived and that I had to find a way out of this forest as soon as possible.
[Ding!! Congratulations on successfully surviving!]
[Ding!! New titles received!]
Desponia POV
Looking at the trail of Petty Weedlings and a Lesser Weedling corpses, I can't help but smirk at the retreating back of the smallest, but surprisingly strong Petty Weedling.
'Heh, it seems I underestimated what a cowardly Petty is capable of to facilitate their cowardice.' I mused, followed almost immediately after by, 'But it matters not, he's retreating out of Mother Demeters' territory, and from my 'knowledge', there should not be many resources in that general direction.'
Looking back at my battling siblings, I dismissed the Coward from my mind, after all, without resources, faith, patronage, or recognition, a Petty Weedling is all but destined to wilt.