Chapter 447: Pushing Ahead

“Bloody hell,” Claire wheezed, doubled over with her hands braced against her knees as she fought for breath. She forced her head up just enough to squint at Alex through the grime covering her features. “What was that?”

Thick clumps of oozing plant matter were scattered all across the platform around them. Sap and blood alike soaked into the ground to create a thick, soupy mess. Huge patches of the earth smoldered and the smell of charred flesh and burnt grass filled the air.

Amelia laid in a sludgy pool on the ground, staring up into the crackling Mirrorlands sky and humming to herself. She and the plant monsters that had been waiting for them on the platform had torn each other to shreds. It looked like she’d had a pretty good time of it, though. Far better than the rest of them.

Glint had also gotten the fight he’d been waiting for. He sat beside Amelia, on top of a pile of shredded up plant corpses. The monster seemed pretty pleased with himself. Alex supposed it would have been hard to ask for a better enemy for Glint.

Plants weren’t exactly known to be good at standing up to sharp objects. But even still, the fight had been a surprisingly rough one. There had been quite a few plant creatures on the platform, and none of them had held any real regard for their lives. They’d just flung fireballs around haphazardly, flinging themselves into the fight with zero apparent plans of making it back out.

Fireballs. Seriously. If you’re made out of flammable material, why would you choose fire of all things as the magic you go with?

It was another second before Alex gathered enough breath to reply to Claire. The plants had all been in the mid to high Adept tier, and it was clear they’d actually earned their way there better than many others that he’d met. “I have no damn idea.”

“What do you mean, no idea?” Claire asked as she let out something between a laugh and a cough. She waved some of the smoke around her away. “What did you ask the System for that managed to get us placed against this?”

Alex hurriedly straightened up.

That’s right!

He brushed some of the soot that had gathered on his clothes off. It fell away easily, the enchantments in the magical suit easily shedding the debris. Then he glanced around the platform. All that remained of their enemies was a smoldering mess.

He grimaced.

“What?” Claire asked.

“Hold on,” Alex said. “I’m looking for it.”

“Looking for what?” Amelia asked, her three heads rising up from the pool of goop she’d sank into like curious sea snakes.

Come on. They were made of plants, sure, but you can’t tell me that literally every single—

“Aha!” Alex exclaimed, his eyes lighting up, as he spotted a rather soot-covered flower sprouting up from one of the bodies. The fight hadn’t been kind to it. Several of the petals were shriveled and wilted, and the rest of them were burnt to a crisp.

But it was still a flower.

Alex strode over to the monster and grabbed the flower. He gave it a tug.

It didn’t budge.

His eyes narrowed. Alex planted his foot on the charred corpse’s back and wrapped his hand tightly around the stem. Then, with a snarl, he tore the flower free from the body. Alex grinned. He held the flower out before him. A petal peeled off and fluttered down to the ground.

Hm.

Alex glanced around the platform. There were a lot of burnt plant monster bodies. There had been a lot of flowers. Unfortunately, the past tense was the operating element in that thought. The flower in Alex’s hand seemed to be the very last one that hadn’t been trampled into paste or burned and charred beyond recognition.

Clearing his throat, Alex turned to Claire.

Her gaze flicked from him to the flower. She stared in confusion for as second. Then her eyes widened in realization. A laugh bubbled up from her throat.

“No way,” Claire said, still laughing. “You spent a Cracked Coin and made us fight all these things for that?”

A source aside: NovelPhoenix has the author's chapter, while this page contains a copy made without approval.

“What is it?” Amelia asked. “A rare item?”

Alex coughed. “It’s a flower.”

“What kind of flower?” Amelia asked curiously. “Poisonous? Magical? What did you ask the Cracked Steps for?”

“A flower,” Alex said. He held it up. Another one of the blackened petals fell off and fluttered down to the ground. He cleared his throat again. “It’s a flower.”

“A burnt one,” Claire said, wiping the grime and sweat from her face with the back of a sleeve.

“Do you want it or not?” Alex asked as he narrowed his eyes. “I’ll admit that I was hoping for something a bit less… crispy. But I didn’t think we’d get put up against fucking fireball flinging flower-monsters. Why would you choose fire magic if you’re flammable?”

Claire burst out laughing again.

Alex’s shoulders slumped and he let out a defeated sigh. “I was really hoping to get something a bit more appropriate. I thought it would be a bit more romantic than it turned out. Maybe we should—”

“This is perfect,” Claire said, managing to contain her laughter for long enough to gingerly reach out and take the flower — or at least what remained of it — from Alex. “It’s lovely, Alex. Thank you. It might be a bit squished up and burnt, but we all put effort into getting it. And I appreciate that a lot more than some random flower you pulled up from the side of the road.”

“Especially since a flower easily gained is probably poisonous,” Glint provided. “Nothing easy is ever good. At least you know that one is probably just a flower.”

“I’m not planning to eat it,” Claire said through a snort. She shook her head, then glanced back at the flower. A small smile crossed her lips, of a different kind than the one brought on by her prior amusement. “It’s cute. And knowing that you took us into a whole fight just to try and get a flower out of it is pretty sweet of you… though making me work for my own flower definitely takes a few points off.”

Alex scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Does it count as a activity? We could always do drunk painting, but this seems a bit more your style.”

Claire cocked her head to the side as if in deep thought. Then she gave him a small nod of approval. “Overall, I’d give you a passing grade on this one. Not bad at all for your first attempt. It’s definitely the most memorable flower I’ve ever gotten.”

“Have you gotten a lot of flowers?” Alex asked.

Claire arched an eyebrow. She let the question hang in the air for a moment.

“Yes,” she said. “From dozens of people, I’d say. All suitors back on Ayrin. Most of them were very well put together. Beautiful bouquets made with hours of care. Many were preserved so they could last years.”

“Oh,” Alex said. He grimaced. “I see.”

“They’re all dead now,” Claire continued cheerfully. “I killed most of them. The rest got killed before I could get to it. Alliances were a temporary thing on Ayrin. The flowers outlasted pretty much every single one of them. I had a pile in my room. I used them to keep my fireplace lit.”

Alex and Claire both looked to the rather burnt flower in her hands.

“I don’t think that one’s gonna burn for much longer,” Alex said.

Claire smiled. “I think that’s quite okay. I’ve got no plans of burning it. Out of all the flowers I’ve gotten, this is the first one I want to keep.”

A shimmer of energy passed over her flower. Then it vanished, drawn into Claire’s Spatial Ring.

“That flower still might not last too long, no matter how much you like it,” Alex said sheepishly. “I’ll keep an eye out for a better one.”

“This one is perfectly fine,” Claire said firmly. Alex could have sworn her cheeks reddened for a moment. Then her earlier grin returned. “But if you want to get me more, I won’t say no.”

Alex glanced over to the Cracked Coin laying in the center of the platform. It had fallen when the last of the plant monsters had fallen. They’d gotten their investment back. They could always hunt down a few more flower monsters… but he got the feeling they’d all gotten their fill of that for the day.

Seriously. Fireball flowers. What the hell?

“Should we continue, then?” Alex asked, picking the coin up before heading around the platform to scoop up the Soul Flames of the dead monsters and pouring them into his Spatial Mirror. “I’ve still got a lot of my magical energy. I think we could definitely get quite a bit further if we want to.”

“I’m good to keep going,” Claire said with a nod. “I kind of want to see what happens when we get more coins. There has to be some reason that the Cracked Steps operate they way they do. Something has to happen eventually. The coins are too clearly meant for something beyond using one at a time.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Glint said. “And I have no desire to stop now. I would continue until Amelia and I have fallen. We have not yet pushed ourselves to the limits.”

“Yeah!” Amelia said, fully rising from her pool and shaking herself off, sending sludge splattering in every direction. “I need to do more defending!”

Defending is not the word I would ever use for what she does. Borderline psychopathic slaughter would definitely be more fitting.

“Great,” Alex said. He grinned, looking out into the storms surrounding them. “Then we wait. Let’s see how much farther we can get. Even if we don’t get much reward from the fight itself, I got a lot of magical energy from that last fight. This place is great at giving us a solid challenge. It’ll be more than worth our time.”

“Then we should continue,” Claire said. “But let’s put a limit on it. Let’s say… 3 hours more? After that, we should head back.”

“Works for me,” Alex agreed. “I think we’ll start to run low on energy by then anyway. The fights are getting harder. Either way, we’re going to be loaded up with magical energy and loot by the time we’re done here. I’m looking forward to meditating once we get back to Mirrorwane.”

“And I am looking forward to an upgrade,” Glint said. “This body is still too weak. Feed me those Soul Flames.”

“They’ll be distributed amongst you, Amelia, and Spark,” Alex said. “You don’t get all of them. But the more monsters we defeat, the more there will be to go around.”

“We won’t have to wait long, either,” Claire observed. She jerked her chin toward the storms in the distance. Another root pathway was weaving through the crackling Qi toward them. “Our next opponents are approaching.”

“Ready up,” Alex said, rolling his neck and shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Let’s see just how far we can get.”