"Alright, I'm about to open the door now," Patrick informed, followed by the sound of a beep.
Everette held out his hand and materialised his sword, followed by a rattling of an exposed spine and a thump from a hard object hitting the metal floor.
Ada held the head of her flail in her left and the handle in her right before assuming a throwing stance.
The door slid open, and a flurry of arms passed through the doorway. An infected managed to enter before being inevitably stopped by a bone-breaking impact on their ribcage - Ada threw the head of her flail at the infected.
It flew back against the crowd. The infected humans it fell on caused a wave amongst the masses. Ada hopped out of the bus before slamming his flail into the crowd.
Everette, alongside Amelia, ran out of the bus towards the lawn. The two brandished their weapons and swung at the grass.
Ada cleared away the crowd that formed outside the bus. An infected, to her side, swung at her before having its head punctured by an arrow. She glimpsed at the arrow and turned her attention towards the second floor of the bus.
Jack stood in the bus and aimed out the window with a hole in it. The second floor gave him a significant advantage point as well as giving him the experience of using the bow for its intended purpose - attacking from either afar or on an elevated area.
"Firing from an elevated area is a lot better," Jack commented with a smile before nocking in another arrow.
***
Everette swung his sword towards a bundle of grass only to find that it bent its body just enough to dodge it. The grass counterattacked with a fast slap towards his face.
Everette leaned back and tilted his head to the side. He slashed upwards at the outstretched grass. Like a knife, his sword cleaved through the body of the grass before exiting out the other end.
He stepped and watched it. The cut grass then waved sporadically. He raised a brow.
'How do I kill grass? Do I just keep attacking it, or is there something controlling it?'
He gave a short glance towards Amelia.
Amelia swiftly swiped her knife towards the grass. The grass avoided it before feeling something pulling against it. It was now grouped up together due to a small white string.
Amelia detached the string from her index finger and sliced through the bundle of grass. She then repeated this process again.
Everette watched this and turned to look at his free hand.
'Let's try it again.'
He focused his mana into his index finger before waving it in the air beside him—a thin mana string formed from the tip before stretching and trailing behind his hand to the length of about 3-4 inches. The initially thin line then began to increase in width to about half a centimetre. It also increased to a metre in length.
'I-it worked! But it's very draining!'
Sensing that he couldn't hold the string together for much longer, Everette whipped it towards the grass. It surrounded a bunch of them before circling around and tying them together. Subsequently, Everette dashed forward and slashed through the grass.
Everette and Amelia hacked away at the grass before discovering a tall green stem about 2 metres tall coming from the ground. It was decorated with tiny green hairs.
Everette, deciding to analyse it later, slashed towards it. The little hairs on its stalk lengthened and shot towards Everette. He dived out of the way, which resulted in only a graze to his abdomen. Everette stared at the hairs once 3 metres in length and 2 centimetres in width, receding back to the plant.
'It's like some kind of spine retracting cactus but just grass.' He noticed the hairs wiggle a bit before lengthening and shooting towards him again.
He stepped out of the way and held out his free hand. A long metal shaft with a fuzzy yellow handle and an irregular-looking spike head appeared in his hand.
He quickly got into a throwing stance and chucked the spear towards it. The stem changed its target and attacked the incoming projectile. The hairs intercepted the side of the stinger and caused it to change course and only leave a slight graze on its body. It unexpectedly felt a cold and sharp object entering its body.
After throwing the spear, Everette ran behind it unnoticed and slashed towards it. His sword made contact and made it leak some sort of dark translucent liquid. Before he could slice it in half, the hairs from its stalk erupted towards him. It wrapped around his blade and pierced his arm.
Everette hissed in pain and unconsciously activated his sword's skill - ["Dog's Mourning"]. The dog, inside the core acting as the blade guard, then cried out. The others hairs that were about to skewer him suddenly stopped in their tracks before shaking.
Knowing he should take advantage of the opportunity in which the enemy is hesitant, Everette pulled out his sword and made a quick turn. After building enough momentum, his sword connected it again - inevitably slicing it in two.
The stem's top half slid off its lower half and lay on the floor.
["Ding! Level 10 Mutated Grass Hivemind killed!"]
Everette held his wounded arm and stared at the message with wide eyes before looking back at the stem.
"That was a mutated!?"
Around him, he saw the remaining grass he hadn't cut recede back into the ground and wilt.
He sighed in relief and looked towards the lawn Amelia was in. "I wonder how she is doing." He raised his leg before placing it back down.
He shook his head with a smile before walking back to the bus. 'Teammates got to trust one another, right, Jack?' Although he believes she could do it without his help, he wants to do something to get back at Jack for laughing at him - and that was by not helping her.