White Flower, Black Feather

Sinking

Miriam moved backwards while looking at the thing in front of her, preparing the only spell that she knew was going to help her, trying to not think about how the legs looked like those of a spider

‘Launch!’ she used her mobility spell-

Smash!

And landed badly again, but since her platform was destroyed by one of the chitinous legs of the monster, she didn’t care

Instead, Miriam tried to force a spell

‘Earth Grip!’ she tried to directly make her magic do what she wanted, without the guiding words she used as components for it, and while it worked and the leg sunk further into the ground ‘OW!!!’

Hiss!

It hurt her and consumed a lot more of her magic than normal

‘Ack! Ia! Imbue Arms!’ her next spell was made normally ‘Earth Blade!’ but…

GRAAAAH!!!

The monster just pulled harder and released its legs, screaming at the girl

‘Time to run!’ Miriam turned around and fled between the trees that were closer together, with the hope of buying time for a plan ‘Can’t fire my blades! Need to have it immobile or…! I don’t know!’

As she moved, the weapons attached to her arms made things annoying and slowed her down, but the bigger size of the monster, and her path between the trees, meant that she managed to stay away from it-

Smash!

‘Damn!’ barely ‘That thing is fast!’

She gained some distance moving away from the last stomp of the monster, as it needed to maneuver around few trees to be able to move towards her again, she saw a branch shake and moved in that direction. Just as the monster positioned between the trees in a way that made a straight line towards where she was moving

GRAAAAH!!!

And charged

Seeing this, Miriam kept moving, sliding above a rock-

‘No!’ and coming face to face to the healing flowers

She knew, she was past the area where the barrier had stop her before. She knew, the tree had let monsters pass the barrier before

She didn’t knew why. She didn’t knew if the tree was going to let this monster pass

And Miriam didn’t knew how strong the barrier was

‘Fuck!’ she turned around as the monster charged towards her, unsure of how she was going to protect the plants ‘Ia-!’

Crash!!!

‘Thanks you!’ but the blue barrier appeared, staggering the monster, as Miriam send her gratitude to the tree and aimed one of her blades towards the mouth of her enemy ‘Vessel! Ia, Aim, Motion, Speed, Pierce!’

The monster moved forwards again, using two of it legs to partially climb the barrier, and seemingly getting ready to bite into it, with its enormous jaws. Even if the barrier only appeared where the claws of its legs made contact with it

‘Blade Launcher!’ providing a tempting target for Miriam’s attack ‘Open wide-!’

Crash!

‘Eh…?’ but her projectile was stopped by the barrier too, making her feel devastated

GRAAAAH!!!

SLAM!

Yet, the monster was startled by the impact and tripped, falling backwards and hitting the ground hard. Which gave Miriam an idea

‘Need to trip it again! Just this time, I need to make a spike where it’s gonna fall!’ with the plan in her head, she moved slightly closer, but still inside the barrier, and waited for the monster to rise

GRAAAAH!!!

HISS!!!

As it roared at her once it was standing, she challenged its roar with her own, the fact that the monster moved one step back, pleased Miriam tremendously

‘Launch!’ making her try to trip it at that moment, but the monster just pushed back against her platform, breaking her spell ‘Ow!’ and causing some recoil damage to her ‘Heavy…’

A few tense moments passed in which, the monster was unable to reach the snake. And she was unwilling to leave the barrier… but the monster was the one that took action first

It moved north

‘Earth Grip! Ugh!’ Miriam tried to use its movement to trip it, but like the platform, it failed and just delayed it slightly ‘Get back here!’ she tried to threaten it again but she was ignored, even after she moved pass the barrier the monster didn’t moved back

It kept moving forwards at a leisurely pace

‘Earth Spear!’ Miriam tried to make two of them with that spell, but both of them, the one that struck the chitin directly and the one that hit a joint of the same leg failed to do any damage

And didn’t even slowed it down

‘Damn it!’ Miriam glanced up and saw that it was about to get late ‘Some humans were by the farms before, but I have no idea if they are still there!’ she placed her free hand on the ground, but stopped ‘It’s leaving… can the Spawner call it back…? Or should I just focus on the Spawner and hope that the humans are waiting for more…?’

She moved north, not letting it go away from her sight. The monster had beady eyes all around its suspended central part, where it had the mouth and brain, once it noticed Miriam chasing it, the monster stopped

It made one step towards her, without turning, but once Miriam started to move backwards, it stopped and moved north again. It was at this moment that Miriam noticed that the thing had no “front” or “back”

‘The only “back” it has… is in top of it…’ she still moved after it, thinking how to kill it

-What you are doing is extremely dangerous. Can’t you just let it go…?-

‘Unlike the Spawner under the city. I can reach this monster. I cannot let it go, I will kill it’ she placed her empty hand in the ground again ‘Earth Blade!’ and pulled a new weapon, the one in her other arm was still in good shape

She took a deep breath… and started praying

‘Huntress… watch over me and let my aim be true. Mordauntless, may this be just a stone in my path. Trickster… ah… prepare to laugh…?’ she moved her body and prepared to charge ‘Triad… give me strength… oh!’

And realized something critical

‘Ia! Imbue Fangs! Ia! So I can protect those that don’t know me!’ the terrified face of the girl came to her mind ‘And to do the same for those that know of me! Grant me the Strength and Speed I Need!’ she inhaled ‘Empower Self!’

HISS!!!

And her body glowed red

Making the monster give her its full attention, due to how tasty her power was. But it just prepared for her attack

Miriam charged towards the monster preparing another spell, perfectly aware of how stupid she was being. As she got closer the monster moved to attack her with the two legs on that side

‘Launch!’

Crash!

Her jump let her avoid one of the legs that crashed against the ground, right where she would have been. For the other one, as it was moving above and slightly behind the first, Miriam destroyed her left weapon hitting it, to make it miss her body

She didn’t noticed the small, yet deep, crack, her strike caused in the chitin of the leg

‘Magic Slash!’ Miriam still was moving towards the brain and used her remaining weapon-

SLAM!!!

Crack!

To cause the clear layer covering the monster’s brain to fill with deep cracks. Destroying her other weapon in the process…

GRAAAAH!!!

‘Empower Stop! Aaahhh!!!’ causing some pain, but without damaging the brain ‘OW! Damn!’ and causing Miriam to use her claws and body to try and grip to the cracks under her, to avoid being thrown off by the shaking monster, she could feel some of her bones, now broken, screaming in pain ‘That took all the magic in my organ!’

With the spell over, the glow vanished, leaving her left struggling against a wave of tiredness, that she couldn’t say were it came from, and with her lower scales trying to get purchase on the now sharp surface above the brain

Her waving tail kept hitting one of the eyes of the monster, that and the pain from the impact, were the reasons it keep trying to get her away from it

‘Aaahhh!!!’ she only could see two legs of the monster from her precarious position ‘What now?!’ she had no dirt on her arms that she could use. With both impacts, the whole structure of her blades shattered, and even with her Pain Resistance, she needed her full focus on not falling ‘I can’t attack like this!’

GRAAAAH!!!

‘Shut up!’ at that moment the trees shook their branches around Miriam ‘Busy-! Bunny?!’ as she looked around for the cause of the agitation, she saw the horned creature again ‘Go away! Ow!’

The bunny was shivering, not long ago it had heard the snake again, and now the atmosphere of the forest was telling telling it to attack monsters

In less than a day, the pressure that all creatures in the forest could feel, changed, to add that anti-monsters push, and the instinct of the bunny was telling it the source of the change was the white snake. The bunny had no way of understanding why such a terrifying being was so fixated in killing monsters…

But it ate meat, and meat eaters already were weird enough for the bunny

The biggest reason the bunny was so close to both meat eaters, was because it was close to its level cap and all the options it had, required the bunny to reach it

The pressure to evolve in that deathly place had not changed at all…

‘Away-! What?!’ so the bunny charged quickly towards them, completely confusing Miriam

The bunny jumped at a leg, spun in the air-

Slam!

And kicked it, moving away from the monster at the same time

‘WHA-?!’

Hiss!

GRAAAAH!!!

Making the monster stumble, and realize that the smaller creature was also a threat

‘Ok! We can work together!’ and also surprising Miriam with the strength of its kicks ‘But I can’t Empower you! Sorry!’

GRAAAAH!!!

The monster moved towards the fleeing bunny

‘Earth Grip!’ only to have one of its legs pulled down-

Slam!

‘Just like that!’ and another one kicked again ‘Launch! Ow!’ but Miriam was still unable of fully lifting one of the legs, always taking recoil as the monster pushed back against the ground ‘Ok…! We can do this!’

That cycle of kicking and sinking repeated three more times, and Miriam realized that it really wasn't working…

The bunny while avoiding the monster’s attacks had moved away from Miriam’s sight, making her unable to tell the right time to grip a leg, and only reacting when she heard a kicking sound from the bunny

And as the bunny was fleeing most of the time, it couldn’t understand why the snake was wasting time on top of the monster

GRAAAAH!!!

Until the monster got angry of being played with, and started to shake before charging to the bunny

Miriam noticed that something was different as she held, and moved to look at the direction of the charge

‘Launch!’ managing to push the bunny away as two legs crashed where it was ‘Gah!’ making Miriam lose her grip on top of it, but she managed to coil around one of the joints of a leg instead of falling ‘Crap!’

All the eyes on that side of the monster glaring at her

Crack!

GRAAAAH!!!

Letting the bunny kick the leg where Miriam had made the crack with one of her blades, breaking the chitin, releasing the pressurized liquid inside the leg and making the limb curl up

‘Earth Grip!’ letting Miriam finally pull the monster down ‘Earth Spike!’

Crack!

To its death by spike to the brain

‘AAAHHH!!!’

HISS!

Miriam couldn’t soften her fall, and even if not much weight of the leg hit her directly when they reached the ground, it still was enough to cause serious internal damage to her

Ding

Thunk

As she was about to lose consciousness due to the pain, she saw and ate a small purple berry that fell next to her head, starting to flail on the ground due to the spicy feeling she got on her whole body

‘OW! Ow! Ow!’ and even if it felt weaker than the other two fruits, she could tell the regeneration was focusing on the place where she was pinned ‘Earth Shape!’ and had to use magic to move the dirt from under her to get free ‘Ow… better… ow…’

The bunny in the other hand, was still twitching in the ground

‘What is wrong with the bunny?!’ making Miriam worry

-She must have reached her level cap…-

‘Oh… wait! She?! Is the same bunny as before?!’ she noticed the bald spot by the leg of the creature

-Small forest…-

‘That’s bullshit and you know it! Ia Stop…’ she kept watching the bunny without moving for a bit until the creature stopped and stood up looking terrified at the snake ‘Thanks…’ she nodded at the bunny

And it relaxed for a moment, but its instinct suddenly made it flee away from Miriam’s body

As her mindless body moved from under the leg, but instead of a chase, it choose to ate some of the soft tissues of the corpse next to it to compensate the effects of the ongoing regeneration. But before long-

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding

HISS!!!

A message that kept appearing and going away, together with the sound of the notification, enraged the body and led it towards the Spawner’s location

‘Ah?!’ Miriam woke up as the opening came to view ‘What…? Bunny?!’ becoming worried again

-She ran away…-

‘What…?’ she looked confused between both messages, before realizing she was close to the Spawner again ‘Oh… ok good… and sure, I can try… but I don’t… wait, my organ as some magic now…? Status?’

‘Ah…’ Miriam coiled in shame ‘I forgot… about The Lady of the Forest… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…’

DING!

-DAMN IT MIRIAM!!! CAN YOU HAVE A CRISIS OF FAITH LATER?!-

‘Sorry…’ but it didn’t lasted long, as a loud message made her move again towards the monster ‘Wait, how did I do that?’

-Do what?-

‘Earn her gratitude’ the grass as she moved looked worse that the one around the previous one

-Who’s…?-

‘Damn it…’ once at the opening she looked down, noticing the stretched orange skin around it, visible due to the displaced dirt ‘The inner side still looks like leather… I didn’t noticed the color of the previous one…? Was more worried about the tree honestly…’

-What are you stalling for?-

‘Sorry… Ia, Imbue Eyes’ she looked around and down again, the veins inside the monster becoming noticeable as she moved in ‘As a compensation, you can keep calling me idiot, when I upgrade you’ she made sure the right venom was loaded and bit the monster injecting it all

-I… thanks you…-

‘…?’ she would have made more questions ‘Ah…!’ but the monster started to shake ‘Right!’

Once she was out, Miriam saw how the flesh of the opening started to close, and eight tendrils started to move the dirt away while the monster started to raise

‘Ia! Ground! Mold! Form! Harden! Earth Shape!’ the first thing she did was used the dirt that remained around her, to form a circle with an X inside it, to maintain the “mouth” open ‘Earth Shape!’ then she started to make arcs above the places where the tentacles of the Spawner pushed outwards

Her idea was to make them curl around those, rather than waste magic, keeping a beast many times her size immobile

‘Ah!’ she still had to maintain her balance on top of the opening while doing that

Crack!

‘Earth Shape!’ and make sure the circle she had made didn’t broke

As the arcs keep breaking, her magic was getting lower and lower making more of them, while the tendrils got closer. Miriam started to feel claustrophobic, from her point of view, a prison was forming around her

It took the same time as before, for the monster to become stone

‘Aaahhh!’ but for her it felt far longer

Ding

‘Aaahhh!!!’

In the end, there was an opening above her while the base of the tentacles formed walls around her position. Miriam had used some of the dirt, that was moved towards her by the motion of the tendrils, to make support beams and give her some space between the walls

Once she stopped thrashing due to reaching her level cap, she looked down and saw how the area below her, was the last bit waiting to become stone

‘Ugh…’ she waited for a few moments for something to go wrong, but nothing happened ‘I… did it…? It’s open… I hope I can get out of here…’ She waited a few more moment, but since the Helper did nothing, she moved on ‘Status…’

‘Oh… those Synergies are hard to get…’ she relaxed for a moment ‘Good thing it doesn’t use the Killer one…’

-…-

‘If I complete the next Monster Hunter Deed what happens to this one…?’

-Oh… Oh no…-

‘What-?!’ a grinding sound started to come from under her, as the last bit of the Spawner turned to stone

-Fuck…-

‘W-what it’s going on?!’

The cavity under her, increased in size as the stone in the walls became dust that fused in the middle of it. Starting to glow purple

And after a few minutes a purple crystal bigger than a head was left under her, with the glow gone. Now it just reflect what little light reached it, coming from her eyes

‘That is too big. I can’t-’

-You will be able… I can’t explain it… but you will…-

‘At least can you tell me what is that thing?’ slowly, and unsure, she moved down

-Not even with upgrades… if you ever become humanoid… telling other people about this might be a bad idea actually…-

‘Fuck…’ Miriam stood there looking at the crystal for a while, fighting more of the tiredness on her body ‘Time to upgrade the Anomaly title again~! Ugh…’ she told herself with false cheer

And did her best attempt to swallow the smooth crystal…

…

But was unable to swallow it all

‘See?! It’s a prank?! Or Absorb is… supposed…?’

Her awareness was gone for a moment, the purple object glowed again, shrinking until her body swallowed it. Miriam’s body became the same shade of purple-

BOOM!!!

And a shockwave was produced by her body, destroying the stone around her and turning it, and the dry grass around it, to dust. The trees around the clearing hastily made a barrier that contained the explosion to not receive damage, but the sound-

HIIISSS!!!

Of it, and the sound made by her body, were heard far away…

After the explosion, the dirt and the inner side of the barrier was glowing purple. As Miriam’s body floated were the Spawner was, her eyes turned from purple to black, all the glow rushed towards her mouth and was swallowed

Her body stopped glowing and fell to the ground, unconscious. The black eyes turned green again making another smaller shockwave along the dirt, and healthy grass grew around her, but it didn’t reached the edges of the clearing

Ding

The trees dismissed the barrier…

‘Ow…’ and Miriam woke up ‘What…? Ow…’ she tried to move, but her body was too tired to do it ‘What…?’

It would be a long time for her to realize, that the tip of the scales right behind her head, were purple, and that the colored scales formed an arc, that didn’t touched her under-scales

-Oh… fuck…-

‘Status…?’ she feared the worst

‘What…? Did I ate that… crystal…?’ she tried to move again but couldn't ‘Where am I…? how far did I… moved this time…?’ she didn’t recognized the grass around her, nor she could understand about the ring of dirt around it

-Miriam you should evolve… you already got interrupted before buying stuff…-

‘Ugh… all right… but, now I don’t want to hurt bunnies either… can you help me with that…?’

-I’ll see what I can do… idiot…-

‘Thanks… what is that Eater thing?’

-You will eat your own magic for nourishment… it doesn’t seem efficient, and you can’t eat energy from others… but you should be able to last for a bit more, before absolutely NEEDING! To eat-

‘Bleh… that sounds stupid… great, now I need to hunt more often… ugh… no, this is actually bad… how I’m supposed to hunt if I loss magic by feeling peckish…’

-You are always starving… don’t pretend with me, that you don’t know that…-

‘Ugh…’ that message felt like a slap to her face ‘I just… don’t want to kill so much… I might actually need to buy the Magic Stone…?’

-Not looking forwards to that… but yes, you might need to do that…-

‘Neither do I… EP Shop…’ Miriam noticed that her magic was refiled again, but choose to not mention it

‘Buy the next Sleep Venom… Buy Stronger Fangs… Buy Stronger Scales’ she barely noticed getting the items since she was getting even more tired, and didn’t bother to see the prices for the next ones ‘Don't want to see the shop after evolving…’ she waited for a moment, ready for a specific thing to happen

‘You… were annoying to get… Uh…? Oh no, what did I did now? Species…? Eh?’

‘What do you mean by True…?’

‘What do you mean?! What is this?! That is my- OW!’ a sharp pain in her head made her whole body tremble and her vision to blur for a moment, another headache ‘Ow…’

-Try to calm down Miriam… what is your wife going to say if you always get like this?-

‘W-wife?!’ the absurdity of that message managed to shock Miriam enough, that she forgot about her anger, and her headache diminished on its intensity ‘Me as a w-wife too… Ah! N-never mind that…! What happened here?’ she stopped thinking about what kind of dress she wanted, and focused on the moment at hand

-You are the Last of Your Kind… idiot…-

‘Uh…? So… not a single one- ow… managed to reach this point…?’ the message closed, leaving her to stare at the windows that were already open ‘Oh…’

-You are going to pick it, I know…-

‘Hey! I mean… I already got the organ… wait… is there a Deed or Title I can get if I get the three of them in a row…?’

-You think I can answer that…?-

‘Not really… and that fourth option is still an unknown… wait, I can’t evolve anyways, I need food… eh? When did I ate…?’ she found herself digesting something, but couldn't remember what

-You need to evolve now. And while inefficient, with Energy Eater you should be all right… this evolution will last until sunrise, if you do it now-

‘Ugh…!’ Miriam pushed her tired body to stand and move, the day was ending and she was starting to feel the cold ‘Fine… I don’t see a hole… Ia, Imbue Eyes’

Once she reached the ring of dirt around the grass, she used her magic to make a dome where she could hide and got inside it, moving more earth to shrink the entrance without closing it entirely

‘Ugh… why did I never tried this…? Ow… Status, Species… anything else I should know…?’

-Nothing more from me… eyes…-

‘Ia Stop. Thanks… my Evolution is… True Xetnoxraqia’ the windows closed and she waited for the her to fall sleep ‘Good night…’

-Good night-

But nearby, the boar that she had placed to sleep, got closer. It had been trying to find her since a tree woke it up, before the humans got inside the forest. Fair was fair after all…

Snort

It heard the hiss, and after following it, now saw the dome on the edge of the clearing. The smell of the now sleeping snake, reached it and started charging toward her, ready to kill-

ROAR!!!

OINK!!!

But a skull of smoke appeared as it got close and paralyzed it with fear, the trees around them shaking violently before it started talking

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF HOW HARD IS FOR ME, TO GET A SINGLE PRAYER IN THIS DAY AND AGE?!”

The skull grew opening its jaw, and revealing thousands of burning hot gears, whirring at high speeds, getting closer as the boar moved backwards

“AND AS SHE SAID. YOU CAN KILL EACH OTHER, LATER!” the metal of the gears started to melt, taking a humanoid shape that glared at the creature “SO… BOO!!!”

Squeal!!!

De giggled as the boar fled and turned upside down, so he could see the shelter Miriam made

“Girl, you suck at this” she laughed “Why you didn’t go up a tree…?”

The old god shivered and went upright looking at the sky

“Oh… my punishment as arrived…” she looked at the dome again, being aware of how Miriam was changing inside it “Good luck to both of you… I don’t think we’ll be able to do much after this… except for killing you if you fuck it up… see ya!”

De vanished with a loud honking sound, the trees still trembled for a while, just to make sure no trace of the god remained

A mortal getting their hands on a fragment of a god, was the last thing that the world needed at the time

…

The night gave pass to a new day

‘Ow… hungry… ow…’ making Miriam wake up with the same headache ‘Ow… this place, ow… is cramped… hungry…’ she had coiled in a spiral as she changed, her three meter long body barely fitting inside the dome she had made ‘I suck at this… Status’

‘Ah…? A Title giving me… another Title…? Is that normal…?’ she obtained no answer

‘No~ ow… ugh… why do I need so many this time…?’ the Helper was silent ‘Hello…? Species…? Eh?’

‘What…? EP Shop’ she saw the same message pop again when she tried to access the shop ‘What is happening?!’ becoming unnerved

-Things are about to get difficult. This is the best solution that I could find, sorry Miriam-

‘What?! What do you-?! OW!!!’

HISS!!!

Another painful blow came from her headache, making her body twist in pain and a screen appeared

HISS!!!

‘What-?! AAAHHH!!!’ her body kept shaking in pain as she tried to understand what was happening

But some part of her, knew the screen was referring to the fourth unknown option in her evolution list. She couldn’t understand why she was in pain, and started to panic

-No letting your body kill humans and bunnies, is going to make things even more difficult… but I did say that I was going to try…-

Miriam was in too much pain to be able to answer, her mind felt disconnected from her body-

And as her mind started to sink, she saw the answer

-I really hope you can survive this…-

Her body destroyed the dome that she made, reaching quickly the middle of the clearing as it looked for food

HISS!!!

Moving violently and hissing loudly, only one thing was guiding it

Miriam saw one last thing before darkness took her

But after that, her body only moved due to one thing

Hunger

SCREEEEECH!!!

HISS!!!