We exited through the front door. The fighting between the cultists and the paladins had stopped. I am unsure if this was because of the cultists being disillusioned by their friend’s tale, or whether it was a survival instinct due to the hordes of creatures that had arrived behind them.

  The horde was attacking anybody… regardless of whether they were a cultist or not. As far as reasons to stop believing in the church or Laezel go… being massacred by the creatures that were supposed to be on your side is a fairly compelling one.

  This meant that there was still fighting in the courtyard. Fortunately, the paladins and remaining cultists had managed to form a pretty good defensive line to hold the horde back. This allowed us to reach the northern wall of the temple grounds with relative ease. Cathy was right about the dip. Mind you, it was still reasonably high. But given what Verity is used to climbing, I’m not surprised that she keeps escaping over it.

  It was rather unnerving travelling through the gardens. Inside the gardens looks relatively undamaged. But I can hear the wails and cries of people on the other side of the walls. People trying to get to safe zones, getting attacked… killed.

  The shrill sound of a child screaming was heard and Kiyui stopped. He looked as if he were about to hightail it over the wall towards the scream. The hammer guy grabbed his arm.

  Knight 3: “I know it is hard, but we have to prioritise ending this.”

  Kiyui: “That was a child!”

  Knight 3: “I know. But the more times we stop, the longer this goes on for, and the more children die. We stop to save one and we condemn a dozen more to the same fate.”

  Dwynfel: “He’s right, Kiyui. We need to end this as quickly as possible.”

  Kiyui looked as if he were going to cry, but he conceded and stormed off ahead. The hammer guy and I followed him north.

  Knight 3: “He okay?”

  Dwynfel: “He will be… he’s just sensitive when it comes to kids.”

  Knight 3: “As am I, but we cannot afford to have sensitivities here. At this point it is a numbers game.”

  Dwynfel: “I know… and he does too… but that doesn’t stop it being any less depressing.”

  As we progressed, it became increasingly obvious that some of the screams were coming from inside the gardens. Worse yet… they were coming from the path that we needed to take.

  Dwynfel: “Can we go round?”

  Knight 3: “We could go north-west and round that way. But that will add a lot of extra time.”

  Kiyui: “And who’s to say that that path won’t have any enemies on it?”

  Knight 3: “It is highly unlikely that…”

  Kiyui: “We stick to the path, we deal with what’s in front of us, we save who we can, and we move on.”

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui…”

  Kiyui rushed forwards towards the screams. Once again, we rushed off after him. As we got closer to the screams, we started to feel various tremors.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Dwynfel: “Kiyui, slow down! There’s something big over there!”

  Kiyui burst through the tree line and stopped suddenly. We caught up to him and were taken aback by what we saw.

  Poking out of a large hole in the ground was this… creepy… weird… plant… thing. It had this large green bulbus body. It had giant pink petals on top. Occasionally the plant would lean forwards and the centre of the flower could be seen. It was some kind of horrid mouth surrounded by massive tusklike teeth. Sprouting from its bulbus body were multiple large vines. These vines flailed everywhere. Swiping at anybody that got near to it.

  The plant was right next to the café. Multiple townsfolk were trapped inside as the creature’s vines wriggled through the doors and windows in an attempt to grab at them.

  Damecus and Dietrich were attacking the thing and trying to draw its attention away from the café, but they weren’t having much luck. Damecus was beating the vines away with his club and shield but was struggling to advance towards the body due to the sheer number of vines.

  Dietrich had clearly been unprepared for this encounter. She wasn’t wearing her armour or wielding her halberd. Instead, she was wearing a rather elegant black dress and wielding a rather small fruit knife. To be fair to her… she was doing a sound job at fighting the thing back. Slicing viscously at the vines in an attempt to move forwards. However, like Damecus, she was struggling to advance due to the number of vines.

  Knight 3: “Good. It seems distracted. We should be able to…

  Once again… the shrill cry of a child caught our attention. The plant had managed to grab someone inside the café. It ripped its vine back out of the building, revealing a small boy wrapped within it. Fuck… that’s… that’s that kid… you know… not Josh… the other one.

  It went to place Not Josh in its horrid jaws when Chlamydia emerged onto the balcony of the café and jumped down onto the vine. The vine began to flail wildly. She stabbed it with a steak knife several times before it let out a screech and dropped Not Josh.

  Knight 3: “We really need to get moving…”

  Kiyui: “Fuck that!”

  Kiyui rushed forward to attempt to help Not Josh get to safety. Feiffer was snarling and snapping at any vine that got near Kiyui. One of the other vines swiped at Chlamydia and she flew backwards… smashing her head off one of the wooden beams of the balcony. She wasn’t fully unconscious… but she was clearly concussed.

  The vines started heading for Not Josh again.

  Knight 3: “Fuck’s sake.”

  The Hammer guy rushed forwards and started batting the vines away with his hammer. Kiyui reached Not Josh. The boy had hurt his leg, but was otherwise fine. Kiyui started dragging him away from the plant and towards me.

  I notched an arrow and aimed at the plant. But where do I aim. I have no idea what this thing is. The vines can clearly take a lot of damage. The main body must be the vulnerable point. It’s just a plant… an arrow should be able to pierce it with ease. Fuck it… just aim for the centre of the body and hope for the best.

  I loosed my arrow and it flew straight into the plant, which gave a horrid, ear-piercing screech.

  Damecus: “Everybody… back away!”

  Dietrich and the Hammer Guy did as instructed. But Damecus didn’t follow his own advice. He threw his club and shield down on the ground and rushed towards Chlamydia.

  The plant emitted a thick yellow cloud around itself that engulfed not only it… but Damecus and Chlamydia as well.

  Knight 3: “What the fuck is that shit?”