Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Chapter 224 - 224: Taking Action Against the Enemy

Nightfall in the forest outside Demon Gate...

Liam and his group had used the afternoon to cultivate for the four hours straight that each of them needed to ensure their health against the malicious fungus that was behind the situation in City Five.

In the early evening, the last of them who needed to cultivate finished his period of special care, when the group finally got moving again.

Jane had already prepared the mixture she had talked about earlier and, as she estimated, the plant behind the parasitic fungus was indeed close to where the two corpses from earlier had fallen.

Those two hadn't moved to that area at random. They were heading towards the place where the plant was, in a last desperate attempt to get it before their deaths.

What made them act in such a way? It's hard to estimate what a mind in chaos, aware of its own mortality and imminent end, could understand about the world around it.

Perhaps those two had spotted a chance that no one else would? Perhaps they were simply hoping that something would change, since they were going to die and only a miracle would save them.

The group didn't bother looking for a reason for those people's behavior and soon they were approaching the person responsible for this mission that had already put all their lives at risk.

After almost an hour and a half of cautious

He smiled as he shook his head. "I can't create Fourth Class inscriptions, but I can make something superior to Third Class. I have something in mind that will, or rather can, end this plant's life without us having to fight it brutally. But I'd need a few seconds with it totally immobile."

The two First Officers understood that this would be up to them and nodded in agreement to Liam after giving it some thought.

They wanted to complete the mission and saw no other way than the alternative suggested by Liam.

"That's good," Jane said. "If we can preserve its body, the better our results will be in the event of victory."

The group's Healer ignored the Herbalist interested in studying that high-level body and asked Liam, "What exactly do you have in mind? This creature could break your runes if they're not deadly as soon as they touch its body."

Liam said, "Let's dehydrate it. I want to see how it will behave if it loses all the water in its body to my runes."

The Healer saw what he wanted and didn't doubt that it could work. She moved closer to him, interested in advising him at the time of the inscription.

Although Healers were focused on humans, they could treat all kinds of living creatures, even beasts and plants. Every living thing was made of water, which formed a large part of its cells, so dehydration could work.

"We're ready when you say so," said Toby as Thal'Korr and the Silver-Winged Leopard prepared to move as well.

Two Spirit Puppets were also already in position with their respective Spirits summoned, waiting for Liam's signal.

Liam finished his preparations and, while sweating under the strain of the decisive moment that could mean the end of his group, he took a deep breath and ordered. "Now!"

The Spirits moved forward, with the two First Officers advancing behind them, using their artifacts and techniques to suppress the creature.

Thal'Korr and the Silver-Winged Leopard used their abilities or the artifacts Liam had given them to pressure the plant without touching it, while their allies did similar things from different points around the plant.

The puppets' Spirits served as pawns to deal with the most dangerous moment of the assault, dealing first with the creature's movement.

The plant felt itself under attack at last, noticing that the malicious feeling around it had brought it to the situation where it was under attack from more than almost two dozen opponents.

Its leaves and more flexible branches moved, while its roots made the ground tremble subtly.

The three professionals next to Liam used their skills to cast a defensive sphere around him when he finally saw his allies stopping each of the Necrotic Parsnip plant's attempts.

It really was powerful for a plant. But still being a fourth realm creature, it found it quite difficult to ignore the two First Officers and their respective Spirits.

Thal'Korr and the leopard contributed less, but with Fourth Class weapons, they bought the seconds Liam needed while the Spirits of the puppets disappeared.

Liam moved, casting special characters against the plant's body, causing it to struggle as he charged the symbols he brushed onto it with a great dehydrating power.

The plant sweat almost immediately, as Liam showed what a Runemaster could do in combat.

As if he were writing the letters of that creature's fate, he finished the simplest formation he had ever created, one with only one purpose: pull all the water inside the plant and end the creature's nervous responses!

This wouldn't happen in an instant, and even after he had finished forming that inscription, the creature would still show its power, struggling furiously as it lost the water inside its body, facing a major threat to its life.