Chapter 92: Titanic Corpse Flower
Titanic Corpse Flower
For miles in every direction, the ground shook violently as the trees wobbled, and avian creatures quickly fled into the sky.
As Theresa was the one facing backward, she was the one who was able to see what was happening properly, and what she saw made her already pale face go as white as a sheet of paper.
The ground churned and lifted like waves on the ocean, and large cracks started to appear in the vicinity as large swatches of land were overturned and lifted.
’’Holy–!" Her words were cut off as sounds like massive explosions rang out, and to her horror, dozens of vines similar to the one that had chased them shot out of the ground into the sky for kilometers, with many being even thicker than the one that chased them.
That wasn’t all, though.
In fact, it was just the beginning.
Because the ground started to rise.
Tones of rock and earth were pushed aside as something utterly massive started to breach from beneath, and Mike nearly lost his footing as a particularly powerful tremor went through the ground like a shockwave.
That’s when she saw it.
An explosion of massive rocks erupted and sent boulders the size of buildings raining down in the vicinity, and Theresa had to draw herbow to destroy the ones that got too close. But even then, she nearly dropped her bow as she saw what had emerged.
A green and purple stem hundreds of meters thick and over ten kilometers tall shot from the ground, and that’s only what she could see. Theresa didn’t know how many roots connected to the thing or how long they went on for.
Countless vines connected and swirled around it, and at the very top, a bulbous head stood like a spear reaching for the sky.
’What... is that?’ Theresa gasped as she stared at it, and her pupils shrink as it started to unfurl.
It was a flower.
And with its came the unbearable stench of corpses.
The unbelievably massive flower bloomed at the top of the stem. There were five petals, each a kilometer large with countless ’small’ teeth, when in reality, each one was probably ten or so meters long, and in the very center, a black hole sat, and when Theresa looked at it, she nearly lost control of her body as a splitting headache assaulted her, nearly making her fall, but Mike held her tight.
"Can you brace yourself?" He asked, and Theresa barely managed to nod as she tightened her hold on him, unsure of what he wanted to do.
That’s when she felt it.
A series of powerful thumps that went through his entire body. Each one was deep, like a war drum going a hundred miles per hour.
It took her a moment to realize what it was.
’Is...that his heart?’ The thought was startling. How can someone’s heart beat so fast? Wouldn’t that cause a heart attack?’
In hindsight, that was the least of her problems, especially as behind them, the ground was parting rapidly as something moved through it in their direction like the fin of a shark moving through water.
And it was getting closer.
"M-Mike!" Theresa yelled, and she heard him exhaled.
Then, his foot dug into the ground, and Theresa’s world turned into a blur.
Theresa vaguely heard a crack like thunder as Mike sped away, the wind whistling around them as it rubbed against their armor.
It was then she was glad she turned her hair into a braid, as if she left it loose, it might have entered her eyes more than a few times.
She also saw that they were moving faster than their pursuer.
SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
The flower atop the stem opened wider before unleashing and unholy screech that swept through the entirety of the zone where the students were to move and even beyond that.
All around, students and beasts alike looked towards the towering creature that looked over the surroundings.
***
"That way." Kris, who had been jumping from tree to tree, turned in the direction of the plant and made a beeline for it. However, it wasn’t his target. Instead, he felt a faint resonance of his chains in that direction, meaning Mike and Theresa were that way.
Without an ounce of fear, he ran that way.
***
All around, the reactions of the students varied.
Many saw the thing and felt a sense of despair. How were they meant to fight against such a creature? One vine alone could easily wrap around the ship waiting for them in orbit.
Some saw it and simply ignored it. As long as they didn’t get too close to it, they should be fine. As such, they simply hunted beasts and claimed flags.
As for the last group. Well, some overly ambitious saw it and thought...
’How many points could I earn if I managed to kill it?’
***
"Ma’am, we’ve detected the presence of a Calamity-Class monster on the surface in the designated area for the students. Should we handle it?" Within the bridge of the ship, a handler turned to Beatrice and reported as a hologram of the plant-like creature appeared in the center of the room.
Beatrice looked at the creature and frowned slightly.
’Titanic Corpse Flower, huh?’ Sehe thought as she recalled the information of that particular creature in her mind.
It was a powerful Plant-Type monster that was normally dormant. It acquired power by laying deep underground, and whenever something died and its blood seeped into the earth, it would absorb it as sustenance and grow.
It earned the title as calamity as, in the past, when humanity was still expanding rapidly through the galaxy, there were numerous cases of it causing countless deaths whenever it appeared, and high-level ability users at the time had to step in to subjugate each one.
The average power of ability users now was a lot higher compared to then. But even then, a single corpse flower was still an immense threat, and leaving a bunch of students to deal with it didn’t seem like a great idea.
’It must have been dormant for a long time. No wonder we didn’t detect it.’ She sighed and was about to give the order to initiate an orbital bombardment when another handler spoke.
"Transmission incoming, sent directly from Vice-Principal Joseph." Hearjng this, Beatrice froze, and her frown deepened.
Quite the convenient timing.
"Put him through." She said curtly, and a moment later, a hologram of the Vice-Principal appeared. However, he wasn’t wearing a suit this time and instead wore a casual Hawaiian shirt and brown shorts. His hair was messy, and there was a cheerful look on his face. However, despite it being a hologram, those piercing slitted pupils of his still sent a shiver down Beatrice’s spine.
"Beatrice! Funny seeing you here." He said cheerfully, and Beatrice just gave him a deadpan look.
"Oof, tough crowd," He scratched his cheek. "Anyway, I heard that a Titanic Corpse Flower happened to appear during the test. Isn’t that random?" He grinned, and Beatrice’s expression darkened.
There was simply no way for Joseph to know about the creature so quickly, considering they had only just detected it. Unless.
"Sir, did you purposely withhold information of the creature during the–"
"Anyway!" Joseph cut her off. "As unfortunate as it is, I think this will be a great opportunity for our students!" Hearing this, Beatrice gave him a dubious look.
"... Sir, a single Corpse Flower has enough power to decimate a moon in a month as long as it has a steady supply of nutrients. In what universe is this a good opportunity?" She asked dryly, but Joseph just waved his hand dismissively.
"Details, details. Anyway, the higher-ups, along with myself, decided that we should give the younger generation a bit more pressure. Besides, the whole point of this is to give them live experience. I’m sure they can figure it out." Beatrice’s expression went from dubious to incredulous.
"Hold on, you mean to say that the higher-ups agreed to this madness?!" She exclaimed, and Joseph put on a look of hurt.
"Gasp. Beatrice, are you implying that I am mad?"
"As a matter of fact, I a–"
"Moving on!" Joseph cut her off again. "The decision has been made. So you can’t refuse. So be a good girl and let things play out. Besides, if things really get dangerous, they can always just send out an SOS beacon to get brought back." He shrugged.
"Anyway, keep up the good work! And make sure at least half of them will survive. The families can get annoying when too many of their kids die. Bye~."
And just like that, the transmission ended, leaving a stunned Beatrice and even more perplexed handlers in the room.
Then, veins bulged across her neck as Beatrice smiled sharply.
’Be a good girl... huh?’ She took a deep breath and suppressed the urge to punch the nearest thing as hard as she could, not wanting to put a hole in the ship.
"Continue as intended. Do not interfere." She finally said, and the handlers all shared glances before nodding simply. No one wanted to say or do anything to piss Beatrice off more than she already was.
Meanwhile, Beatrice rubbed her temples as she muttered.
"What in God’s name are they thinking...?"