Upon the planet of Cosgolonia, the abundance has run rampant throughout. Once small shrubs have become great walls miles long, trees grow to gargantuan pillars of bark and leaves, that are constantly in bloom, propagating rapidly throughout the planet.
According to the divination department, after making first contact, it took the abundance merely a week to subsume the planet. Due to this, we have decided to rename it from it's original name of Cosgolonia to A-3-18972, with 3 denotating that there have been no changes pointing towards any higher beings of the abundance being present, and 18972 being the number of planets with this designation before it.
The cause of the bloom of abundance is still undetermined, and shall be investigated further by a squadron of cloud knights from the Xianzhou Loufu, who shall also provide further insights into what subtypes of abundance beasts have be spawned from this planet.
For the glory of the Reignbow Arbiter.
-Zhu Zhi, Cloud Knight Commander
[]
I give all my gear once over before me and my squad arrive at A-3-18972. I count each individual arrow, making sure all 82 are present. I make sure my armour is strapped on securely and my bowstring is neither too taut or tight. I grasp my glaive and secure it to my back. I make my bed, and ensure that my quarters are in order. Only then do I move onto my squad.
I enter the meeting room of the starskiff, the sharp clicks of my greaves striking the ground making them all cease their chatter between themselves and stand at attention. I quickly count heads and find all 7 of them here. The cream of the crop stand before me, chosen specifically for their experience in information gathering in unsecured enviroments.
"Before we debrief, ensure that your weapons are in order before the presentation. We have an estimated time of 25 minutes until we get close enough to deploy our recon herons, so ensure everything is in order." I see 2 of the 7 quickly give themselves a once over before turning back towards me, listening with rapt attention.
I silently take a deep breath, as I mentally go over our information and begin to simplify it into 3 objectives to ensure brevity on their part. "With this mission, we have 3 primary objectives to complete. The first and highest priority is determining the origin of where the abundance first bloomed, and finding the cause. Our secondary objective is to find any survivors, however unlikely. Our third is to gather information on what beasts of the abundance lie on the surface, seas, and underground." I take a moment to wet my throat before I continue, preparing to summarize the second part of our mission." If any anomalies are discovered, or survivors are found, then we shall move in, and attempt to eliminate any potential threats while securing our targets. Is this clear?"
"Yes Sergeant!" 7 voices cry out in unison, before they quickly move to prepare themselves for their oncoming mission. I walk back to my room, sitting down on a chair as I steel myself for the oncoming mission, and the sights present. The abundance is truly a scourge to this world, creating soulless life while ravaging everything else. May Lan strike them into ashes, leaving nothing of their putrid filth to taint the air further.
[]
Hot tears threaten to leave my eyes as I witness a snake the width of my torso with scales oh-so golden and eyes as green as grass constrict around my father's neck, as his head bulges and bleeds out of every orfice before it can withstand no more, letting out a stomach turning squelch before turning into a red mush that once used to house my father's mind.
Why was I such a coward?! Was i so useless and cowardly as to choose to hide like a wretch instead of attempting to help the man who raised me? Even if I died, I wouldn't have to live in this beautiful hellscape any longer. I cup a hand over my mouth, attempting to smother my sobs and my cries before they leave my throat and surrender me to the same fate as my father. My arms tremble as if I've been dipped in ice cold water, my knees threaten to fail me as I witness the snake slither away slowly, my father's corpse in tow.
I wait, and wait. Fearful that once I leave from behind this shrubbery I'll be caught and consigned to that same fate. But I silently know that after I leave, I'll have to face the reality that there is nobody else for me to hide behind, as they've all been taken, slipping through my grasp as I desperately try to keep them close. Oh, how many times I wished to be able to turn back time, or for some unknown protector to swoop down and save me, but I know in my bones, that I'm fated to die here like the rest.
The sun continues to restlessly beat down upon me, as I gather the courage to move. I lift my left foot, and slowly move it forward, planting it on the ground before raising my right foot, and doing the same. Each step I take makes the next easier, and as I move from walking, I begin to sprint.
Away from the place where the mind of my father lies scattered upon the ground, away from the brush that housed massive mosquitoes that exsanguinated my brother, away from the trees that housed apes that turned my mother into a mush on the ground.
I run, and I run. My lungs burn, but I keep running. My legs turn to iron as I move, but I keep running. My eyes are blinded, clogged with pollen, but I keep running. All I can do is run, in the end. I'm too weak to fight, to cowardly to die.
So I keep running. And if my legs fail me, I'll crawl. If my arms fail me, I'll squirm, until I die like the wretch that I am.
I crash into something, and feel my consciousness leave me. 'ah, this it it.' As the words cross my mind, surprisingly, the last thing I feel is relief from being freed from this hell and hopefully being able to see those i left behind once more.
[IN PROGRESS]
The feeling of the wind flowing across his skin, and the grass beneath his feet come all at once, as if everything that took place before was a mere mirage, a hallucination.
Even though I wanted to believe that, I knew that it wasn't true. How else would my going from being asleep in a bed to being taken to this place be explained?
Of course, the possibility that I've fallen into a coma and am simply dreaming everything could also be a factor, but I'll think about that later.
Now the important question to ask is where am I?
I look around to try to look for a semblance of familiarity within my surroundings but to no avail. Have I just been dropped randomly in the woods somewhere, away from civilization?
A feeling of distress begins to fill my being. What if I encounter a bear or similarly dangerous animal? I would have no chance of survival. Even now, something could be stalking me without me even knowing.
I stand up from my previously sitting position, stuffing down my previous worries and resolving myself to attempt to gain a vantage point to see if there are any signs of civilization that I can move towards.
All the trees surrounding me seem to be abnormally tall, with them coming together to blot out the sky with their sheer height and width.
I begin by attempting to climb a decently tall tree, anything taller might pose a significant risk if I were to fall.
I'd assume that this tree is around 80 to 120 feet tall, given a rough approximation of calculated guesses. Not too tall, but not short enough to not benefit me at all.
Jumping to grasp a low-hanging branch that looked sturdy enough to support my weight, I pulled myself up.
As I continue to climb, reaching about 65% of the height of the tree, I look towards the sky that was previously covered by the dense forestry of the area and see a sight that nearly makes me lose my grip and fall off.
Within the sky lies what looks to be a massive boat-like ship.
"A ship in the sky? How is that even possible!"
A more worrying sight is that as far as the eye can see are trees surrounding me, leaving me essentially stranded.
I attempt to calm my nerves, waiting until I am on solid ground to begin to freak out.
As I look down, preparing to ready myself to descend, at the base of a tree, I see what looks to be a blue ape with gold ornaments adorning it, staring directly at me.
We lock eyes for what seems to be an eternity, until the ape makes the first move, bursting into action and climbing up the tree with an unprecedented speed.
Seeing this sight, I realize that if I keep climbing, we'll both reach the top, and I'll have nowhere to go. My only option is to either climb down or jump.
Seeing the ape already half the way up the tree, I begin to descend as fast as I possibly can, dropping 20 feet in 4 seconds, and another 30 in the next 3.
Already at the same height as me, the ape lets out a piercing roar, and leaps toward me, fists raised to flatten me.
With a height of around 60 feet in the air, I decide to jump. A small chance of survival is 100 times better than a destined death.
As I leap off the tree, I close my eyes and scream, awaiting the inevitable impact.
With the feeling of a sledgehammer to my chest, I hit an overgrown bush, filled with an overwhelming amount of fruits and thorns. It's broken my fall enough for me to survive, but the thorns left a deep gash along my arm, drawing blood.
A root begins to wrap itself around my foot, as if alive and searching for prey. I tear my foot away and check myself quickly to make sure I didn't break anything major from the fall.
I rush to pick myself up, and look up only to see the ape has also jumped down, and hit the ground with a large impact, throwing up dust.
As I pull myself off the ground, I see the leg of the ape, mangled and spurting blood from the impact, begin to stop bleeding.
The blood of the beast is quickly absorbed into the ground as if the earth itself is alive and thirsty. The same occurs with the blood flowing from my arm.
Not eager to wait any longer for the beast to recover, I burst into a sprint, hoping to make the distance between the creature and me.
After what feels to be a good distance, I turn back while running, and see the ape in close pursuit, its leg completely restored.
Dread fills me, as I realize that there's no chance of me escaping the ape, nothing for me to use, and nobody around to save me.
As I continue to run, feeling the burning of my lungs, my head feeling light as air due to the blood I've lost, and my legs beginning to give out, I slowly resign myself to my fate.
Taken from my bed into the wilderness with a massive ape that can regenerate and living plants. How bad is my luck?
As my legs buckle beneath me, leaving me unable to run any further, I realize that this is the end.
Repeating the same action as before, roaring and leaping, the ape descends towards me with a blinding speed.
Suddenly, a flash of white appears before me, and the sound of metal cutting into flesh and the roars of the ape fill my ears.
Observing the figure who stepped in to save me, I attempt to observe their appearance, hoping to find some semblance of anything familiar.
What looks to be a soldier wearing silver armor, wielding a Glaive strikes the ape once again, leaving a deep wound across its chest.
From behind me, arrows fly into the eyes of the beast, blinding it and giving the knight another opportunity to strike.
With a shout, he takes his Glaive and releases a piercing chop that beheads the ape.
The ape disintegrates into dust, leaving no proof that it ever existed aside from the crimson blood that coats his weapon.
As the soldier turns around, he begins to speak to me with a tone of concern and confusion.
"你还好吗? 你怎么到这里来了"
"What?"