"I understand how you feel…"
Before Captain Zhang could finish, Lan Jin cut in. "You understand nothing. You are not afraid of them."
"But I am afraid of you screaming. When you scream, I get scared. Can you stop screaming?"
This was not the time for jokes, yet inside the ice fortress, several of them almost laughed despite themselves. The laugh never made it out. The mutated creatures launched a second assault on the ice fortress. The wall was already cracked. With a sharp snap, it shattered completely.
With the monsters suddenly so close, and the corner of her eye catching the mass of insects nearby, Lan Jin could not hold it in. She unleashed a blast of lightning.
The creatures were packed tight, one pressed against the next. The nearest one took the strike, and the current jumped to its companions behind it. Layer by layer, one after another, they fell. The insects didn't even get a second attack before they were wiped out.
The power of lightning was terrifying.
Afraid Lan Jin would see the bugs and lose control again, several teammates stepped in to block her line of sight.
With the insects out of view and no other creatures attacking, Lan Jin slowly calmed down.
Then the thought of more insects lurking nearby made her tense all over again. "We have to get out. I am not staying here. Leave now. Leave right now."
"Alright, alright, we are moving," Captain Zhang said, turning toward the creatures blocking the path and rubbing his temples. "Do we just step over them?"
It was the fastest way through. But the faces lying on the ground were not all animal faces.
Those twisted human faces were the worst. Even Captain Zhang hesitated to set a boot down.
Huang Jinghe asked quietly, "How do we even go?"
"Use your feet."
What else could they do, pick them up and move them by hand? The thought of touching them was even more disgusting.
Lao Gao said, "Sister Lan, Sister Ling, if you don't dare step on them, I will carry you. It is not far."
Pei Xin raised a hand at once. "I don't dare either. Carry me too."
Who walked the stretch didn't matter. What mattered was that their own feet didn't touch those bodies.
Shen Zhiyan glanced at her older brother. "Brother, carry me. I can't walk over it."
Shen Zhiyu stared. "You are afraid? Since when are you afraid of this stuff?"
"I was not before because I had never seen it. Now I have seen it. Now I am afraid."
Shen Zhiyu didn't refuse, and the plan for crossing was set.
Lao Gao took Ling Jiang onto his back. Zhou Zhiye worried that carrying two would be too much for Lao Gao on the soft, yielding bodies, so Zhou Zhiye volunteered to carry Lan Jin.
Lan Jin blinked, then nodded. Carrying two over that shifting carpet was not safe. If anything moved, Lao Gao might lose balance. Falling would be worse. "Alright. Thank you."
Lan Jin climbed onto Zhou Zhiye's back. Because Lan Jin feared insects, the two of them kept close behind Captain Zhang. They were the first to cross the mass of creatures. The rest followed, stepping from body to body, and made it through safely.
Once everyone had crossed, Lan Jin finally let out a long breath. She could not stand this place another second. "Move, move. We have to leave. Cut through here as fast as we can."
Captain Zhang said nothing. Everyone simply quickened their pace.
…
The swarm had shaken everyone's nerves. After a while, the earlier question returned to the front of their minds.
Ling Jiang asked, "What made us all feel so cold just now?"
Before, they could blame the chill on mutated creatures. But now there were no creatures around them, and the temperature still felt low.
At that thought, their steps faltered all at once.
Shen Zhiyan said, "Ling Jiang, don't scare me. Do not tell me there are more things here."
At almost the same moment, Lao Gao raised his hand and lit the dim forest with fire.
No mutated beasts showed themselves. Instead, the shy, quivering mutated plants ringed them on every side, not a single one missing. Vines crept toward them in midair. Roots poked up from the soil. Leaves that were rigid even in stillness all angled their blades toward the team as the light flared.
Captain Zhang's eyes began to ache.
A human-tall plant was stepping out of the earth ahead. It looked exactly like the mutated plant that granted people abilities.
Captain Zhang peered closer. He had not misseen.
Once he confirmed the target, Captain Zhang lost any calm he had left. If anyone got injured by those things, mutation would follow. Never mind how dangerous this place already was. Even if they gained power, the frenzy period afterward would be a time bomb. They didn't have time to waste here.
Captain Zhang lowered his voice. "Don't, absolutely don't, get wounded by the mutated plants here. Especially those with roots stretching out of the soil. If you are injured by that type, you will gain abilities, but if the frenzy hits, we will not be able to restrain you. We can forget finishing the mission."
Yes, gaining abilities was exciting. The death rate was not small either. In a place this dangerous, no one wanted to gamble.
Still, a plant that could walk on its own drew every eye.
Pei Xin suddenly frowned. "Wait. Even if a plant can walk, how does it know when to stop? And it stopped right when we lit up the area and stared at it. Does it… understand human speech?"
Lao Shi's brows knitted. "I am afraid everything here understands human speech."
Those faces from earlier could talk. They had also met those big black cats at the start, and the cats could hold a conversation. If beasts could converse, maybe plants understanding speech was not so strange.
But plants didn't have human faces.