Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 33: Chapter 33 — The Fast Break Flower

Chapter 33 — The Fast Break Flower

Victor sprung from the bushes like a released spring, his body launching forward with every ounce of strength he could muster. His hand stretched toward the Fast Break Flower, his fingers already preparing to close around its stem. For one brief instant, he was certain he had it.

Then the flower disappeared.

Victor landed several feet away and remained crouched for a moment, his hands still held out in front of him. There was nothing between them.

He blinked.

His mind needed a second to catch up with what had happened.

Victor slowly raised his hands and stared at them before looking toward the spot where the flower had been.

Nothing.

His expression twisted with annoyance.

He had planned everything perfectly. He had watched the flower’s movements for days, memorized where it traveled, and waited for the exact moment it would return. Yet somehow, it had moved so quickly that he hadn’t even seen it happen.

Victor looked around.

Then he spotted it.

Fifteen or twenty feet away, the Fast Break Flower stood perfectly still.

Its tiny stem-like legs were planted against the ground, its petals gently swaying.

Then it waved at him.

Victor stared.

The flower didn’t have a face. It didn’t have eyes. It didn’t even have anything resembling hands. Yet somehow, the little movement of its stem carried an unmistakable feeling.

If the flower had a face, Victor was certain it would be grinning.

A few seconds later, the flower bent slightly at its stem and began wiggling its entire body.

Victor stared at it.

He couldn’t explain how a plant without a butt could possibly look like it was shaking its butt at him.

But somehow, it did.

Victor slowly looked down.

I must be going crazy.

Two weeks alone in an underground cavern had apparently done something to his sanity.

He looked back up.

The flower was still there.

Victor sighed and rubbed his face before shaking his head. Whatever was happening to his mind, he wasn’t going to let a ridiculous flower get away from him.

He had spent days studying its pattern.

He wasn’t giving up now.

Victor lowered his body and prepared to move again. This time, however, he wasn’t going to wait at the edge of the forest.

He was going in.

The moment he dashed forward, the flower finally began moving. Its tiny legs carried it deeper between the trees, but something was different this time. It wasn’t moving at the impossible speed it had displayed earlier.

Victor could keep up.

Barely.

He chased after it, weaving between enormous roots and avoiding the patches of vegetation he had already marked as dangerous. Over the past two weeks, he had explored enough of the forest’s outer edge to learn which areas he could approach and which ones were effectively death zones.

He veered sharply around a patch of dark red flowers growing beside an enormous root. He had already learned that something lived beneath that section of ground.

Further ahead, he avoided an area covered in thick black vines.

And to his left was a territory he refused to enter entirely.

The panther.

Victor had only seen the creature once, and even then it had been from a great distance. Its presence alone had been enough to make the hairs on his body stand on end. The energy radiating from it had placed it far beyond what Victor could currently handle.

A peak tempered beast.

Possibly stronger.

Whatever the case, Victor had no intention of finding out.

He kept his distance from its territory while continuing after the flower.

The Fast Break Flower moved between the trees, occasionally slowing down just enough for Victor to think he was finally catching it. Every time he gained ground, however, it would suddenly accelerate and leave him scrambling to keep up.

It was almost as if it knew exactly what it was doing.

Eventually, the flower stopped.

Victor slowed.

His breathing was heavier now, but his eyes remained locked onto it.

The flower stood several dozen feet away.

Victor took another step.

The flower didn’t move.

Victor took another.

Still nothing.

Then it waved at him again.

Victor’s eyebrow twitched.

”You’ve got to be kidding me.”

The flower remained still.

Victor lowered his body.

He wasn’t falling for it again.

This time, he would wait until he was close enough that there was nowhere for it to run.

He sprinted.

The distance disappeared beneath his feet.

Victor threw himself forward.

His fingers stretched toward the flower.

He was almost there.

His fingertips were inches away.

Then something moved.

BOOM!

A tremendous impact slammed into Victor’s chest.

His body flew backward as though he had been struck by a charging beast. He felt the air leave his lungs, and a mouthful of blood escaped his mouth before he crashed onto the ground several feet away.

Victor rolled across the soil and came to a stop on one knee.

For several seconds, he couldn’t breathe.

His chest burned.

His vision blurred.

He slowly forced himself upright and wiped the blood from his mouth.

”What the hell...?”

Victor looked toward the flower.

A massive branch had descended over it.

Victor’s eyes widened.

He followed the branch backward.

There were no other trees nearby.

Only one.

One enormous tree stood in the distance, its trunk so massive that several houses could have been built around it. Its branches spread outward in every direction, stretching across the forest like enormous arms. Some reached almost to where Victor stood, despite the distance between them being at least the length of a football field.

Victor stared at the tree.

The branch slowly withdrew.

He felt the pressure emanating from it.

It was immense.

Far beyond anything he should have been provoking.

Victor’s expression became serious.

That branch hadn’t even looked like an attack.

It had simply moved.

And yet the impact had nearly knocked him unconscious.

Victor could feel the energy radiating from the tree even from this distance. It was dense enough to make his skin crawl.

Beast Soldier.

The thought immediately entered his mind.

He couldn’t be certain, but everything about the creature suggested it had already crossed into a realm Victor couldn’t possibly challenge.

If that branch had actually been trying to kill him, Victor doubted he would have survived the first strike.

He looked at the Fast Break Flower again.

It was sitting peacefully beneath the branch.

Victor stared at it for several seconds.

Then he sighed.

”One day, I’m going to chop that stupid tree down.”

His eyes narrowed.

”And I’m definitely turning you into a pill if it’s the last thing I do.”

The flower responded by waving at him.

Then it wiggled its stem again.

Victor stared at it.

For a moment, he wondered if the plant was actually mocking him.

He decided he didn’t want to know.

Victor turned around and began walking back toward the river.

He didn’t return empty-handed.

Along the way, he stopped whenever he recognized useful plants growing near the safer portions of the forest. Most were common herbs, nothing particularly valuable, but Victor had already accumulated a respectable collection over the past several days.

Whenever he gathered one, he would hold it in his hand and focus his Black Phoenix Flame.

The herb would disappear.

Victor had noticed something strange about the process.

Every time he absorbed one of the herbs, it didn’t simply vanish.

It appeared inside the library.

Victor still didn’t fully understand how the library worked, but he wasn’t going to complain about having an ever-growing collection of alchemy materials stored somewhere he couldn’t lose them.

As he continued along the riverbank, Victor’s thoughts returned to his plans.

The first thing he needed to do when he returned was enter the library.

He was close.

Seventy-three percent.

He had spent enough time gathering knowledge that he was confident he could finally push the Knowledge Trial to seventy-five percent.

And once he reached that point, he could finally begin working toward alchemy.

That would open another path for him.

The second thing he needed to do was break through.

Victor could feel his Rank Five Core approaching its limit.

The energy within it had reached the very edge of what it could contain. He had spent the last several days pushing against the barrier separating Rank Five from Rank Six, and tonight, he intended to break through.

He was ready.

At least, he thought he was.

A sudden rustling came from the vegetation beside the river.

Victor stopped.

His hand moved toward his dagger.

Something emerged from the brush.

It was a Cavalier.

The creature stood on four short, powerful legs and had a body resembling an enormous toad. Its skin was thick and rough, with patches of hardened growth covering its back. It was roughly the size of a pig, and its mouth opened wide as it prepared to attack.

Victor didn’t hesitate.

The fight was over quickly.

A few moments later, the Rank Five Cavalier lay dead on the ground.

Victor grabbed its body and threw it over his shoulder.

It would make a decent dinner.

With the dead Cavalier resting across his back, Victor continued down the river toward the waterfall cavern.

His pace was steady.

His mind was already focused on what came next.

Victor glanced back toward the forest one last time.