The day had finally come.
Harvest Day.
Kairon, Elira, Varn, and... Mr. Jester stood once more before the cursed garden. The air was thick with anticipation — or maybe fear. Probably both.
Rows of (un)natural vegetables lined the soil. Once tiny seedlings, they now stood tall like—
"GAHH!!"
Varn screamed as a carrot launched itself into his stomach like a javelin. The sharp crunch of impact was followed by a wet gasp.
The same carrot — the same one that used to do handstands — now stood victorious, wobbling slightly on top of Varn's twitching body like a deranged warrior claiming its first kill.
Silence followed.
No one dared move. Not even breathe.
Kairon blinked, his facial expression darkened like he witnessed the cruelty of human- no... Vegetablilty.
"…Did that carrot just commit murder?"
Mr. Jester slowly reached into his coat and pulled out a spoon.
"I warned you all. Never trust vegetables with abs."
Elira's eye twitched. "It has abs?"
"Look closer," Mr. Jester whispered. "It's flexing."
And sure enough, the carrot's surface rippled — pulsing with unnatural muscle fibers that no root crop should possess.
The silence shattered when the lettuce patch began cackling.
Lettuce. Cackling.
"Plan B?" Kairon said.
"What Plan B?!" Elira shrieked.
"Kill them all." Kairon's expression darkened. He wasn't joking this time, this was a serious issue.
Elira gulped, looked at Kairon and sighed.
She immediately turned her head towards the farm and unsheathe her sword.
'I could swear I am not paid enough...' She thought as she began slaying the Veggies.
First was belzebub, the cabbage. It looked, big and muscular for a vegetable.
She swung her sword, but the cabbage dodged. One of its leaf got latched to the sword, turns out, that leaf was connected to it, like a rope. It pulled.
It pulled the sword from Elira's hand and held it like a seasoned swordmaster.
Elira stared at it.
The cabbage stared back.
It then raised the sword in a textbook style, somehow.... Cooler.
"Woah! It can use the 'Soaring Dragon heavenly light blossoming petal technique?" Jig proclaimed.
"It's using what?" Elira shouted, she was already shocked enough about the cabbage knowing how to fight back but what technique?
Kairon helped Varn escape or what everyone else thought. He just grabbed his lifeless body and threw him near a random House in the county.
"May you wake up with a good morning" Kairon prayed and ran back to the fields.
He saw Elira get jumped on by the vegetables.
He retreated.
Elira had saw him trying to run away, but now wasn't the time to get furious.
She backstepped and held her hands out in a boxing stance, mana splurted out from her hands explosively. The sheer intensity burned some part of her skin but that wasn't a concern to her.
She was only thinking a single thought:
'Kill them then kill Kairon.'
BOOM.
The ground cratered where Elira's fist met Belzebub's gut. The cabbage crashed through the barn wall and lay motionless, half-buried under a fallen rake.
One down.
Three to go.
Steam curled off Elira's body as she straightened, wiping onion-induced tears from her eyes with her sleeve. Her breathing was ragged, but her glare was sharper than ever.
She turned—
And there stood the Carrot.
It cracked its knuckles. Loudly. Which was impressive, considering it didn't have fingers.
Then it did a backflip. For no reason. Just disrespect.
"...You're next," Elira muttered.
FWOOOM—!
The carrot blitzed forward, arms spinning like twin drills. It ducked low and spun mid-air, delivering a spinning axe kick.
Elira blocked it with both forearms — and still skidded back.
"Why is it so fast?!"
The carrot responded with a front flip and landed in a pose that screamed: 'I CrossFit'. Then it pointed at her, as if saying "come on."
Elira snarled. "With pleasure."
They clashed — a blur of fists, dodges, kicks, and rapid movements that looked like an anime fight choreographed by a salad chef.
Carrot leapt off a fence post and tried a flying knee. Elira ducked, grabbed its leg midair, spun, and slammed it into the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Wrong root, but it worked.
The carrot twitched. Then went limp.
She panted.
"Two down."
Suddenly, a green blur shot past her.
She spun—
Wheat.
The wheat moved like a ghost — stalks swaying unnaturally, arms thin and whipping like whips. Dozens of golden strands slithered from its back, each razor-sharp.
It didn't walk. It glided, leaving behind glowing runes in the soil.
Elira barely had time to react.
SWISH—SWISH—SWISH!
She blocked two whips with her forearm. The third sliced her cheek.
She gritted her teeth. "Tch… ranged type pokémon."
The wheat raised both arms.
The stalks all straightened.
Then they rained down like needles.
She flipped back, weaving between the volley. Her boots slid through mud. A few grazed her shoulder, her thigh. But she kept moving.
Then she was in front of it.
Mana flared in her fist.
"BREAKFAST FIST: GRAIN REAPER!"
Her punch detonated the wheat's midsection, sending golden particles bursting into the air like someone just punched a bakery explosion.
Now the corn was left, but it seems like it has already given up.
BOOM!
Elira beated it nonetheless.
Now...
The battlefield lay silent.
Steam curled off Elira's shoulders. Vegetable guts — leafy, rooty, and gluten-infused — littered the ground. The cursed garden was no more.
In the middle of it all, the once-mighty corn — Cornelius the Eternal, who had indeed decided to surrender — now sat face-first in the mud, twitching slightly after the BOOM heard around the county.
Elira stood tall in the cratered soil, her breaths heavy and raw. Her hands were scraped, bruised, glowing faintly with leftover mana.
And yet…
She was not satisfied.
Her head turned. Slowly.
Her eyes narrowed.
There was one still breathing. One who had fled the field. One who dared call himself an ally.
"Kairon…"
She whispered it like a curse.
Kairon, far away, cautiously peeked over a broken wheelbarrow.
Their eyes met.
Elira cracked her knuckles.
He froze.
"...Oh no."
He turned and...
He ran.
---
The Chase Begins
Kairon bolted through the streets, dodging people and cattles.
"Elira! Wait! I had to throw Varn somewhere safe!"
"YOU THREW HIM INTO A CHICKEN COOP!"
"That's still safe!"
Elira sprinted after him like a demon unchained. She was faster. Way faster. She closed the distance like a rocket.
Kairon ran into a field, which was his. He dove through a broken scarecrow frame, rolled, and threw a handful of dirt behind him.
She ran straight through it.
He hurled a random carrot like a boomerang. She caught it midair and bit into it.
"Needs salt," she muttered — and dashed even faster.
Kairon panted, running toward the main road. "Mr. Jester! HELP!"
Mr. Jester sat on a barrel sipping tea from a ladle.
"Sorry, I don't fight people. Only cursed kale."
"USE THE SPOON!!"
"I aplogise."
Kairon was out of options.
Elira's shadow loomed behind him. He barely turned—
SLAM!
She dropkicked him straight into a haystack. His body vanished into the fluff with a loud poof and a muffled "oomf."
Silence.
Elira walked up, grabbed his collar, and yanked him out.
His eyes were spinning.
She shook him.
"Any last words?"
"…Wheat was the real enemy?" he offered weakly.
She raised her fist.
Mr. Jester yelled from afar: "ELIRA, WAIT! IF YOU KILL HIM—YOU'LL BE DOING WHAT THE VEGETABLES WANT!"
"…What?"
"The betrayal arc. It's in every cursed crop prophecy. The strong must fight the weak, and the weak must run until the strong realize that violence is not the—"
She punched Kairon anyway.
Just once.
Enough to leave a carrot-shaped bruise on his forehead.
Then she dropped him, turned, and walked off.
---
Behind her, Kairon groaned.
"Was that... the Soaring Dragon Heavenly Light Blossoming Punch?"
Elira didn't look back.
"…Don't ever say that name again"