Summoned and Unwanted

245 Overloaded Vine Guardian

Furthermore, Ester didn’t have many options when it came to a fight of speed and reactions without Elsir utilizing her sigils with ease. She could only block with the mudcrab shield and swing the dormant sword Elsir if an enemy approaches.

Currently, freezing an enemy became impossible without Elsir or enough distractions to amass cold intensity. Additionally, condensing wind until it becomes destructive takes time and concentration to build up and take form.

“Iris, remember Vincent’s words. He will kill them for you. So don’t let anger take control over your judgment. You and I aren’t strong enough to fight alongside Vincent, Kazumi, and Lupa right now.” Ester tried to convince Iris, but her voice of reason didn’t reach Iris. The voice of reason failed to persuade Iris to stop, but Ester didn’t want to give up.

“I will kill them! I will kill them all!” Iris shouted, blinded by rage. She shoved her hand in one of the leaf pouches and took out a fist filled with magical seeds she created in her free time as practice.

“They! They! They need to die!” Iris clenched her fist tightly. A few seeds cut her skin, and tiny beads of blood started to trickle on the seeds.

Ester didn’t want the kind, caring, and timid Iris to step into a place of no return. She grabbed Iris by her shoulder firmly and reassuringly said, “Please, calm down. You are bleeding from your hand. I also want to make those who killed my parents pay dearly, but...”

“No! I must make the humans pay for what they did.” Iris interrupted. She clenched her fist even harder. Blood oozed from her fist, but the color of the blood was normal, unlike Vincent’s mutated blood from Overload or Overheat forms.

The moment the first drop of blood fell and touched the ground, Iris grunted, “My head! What is this monster of nature?”

Ester didn’t know if Iris was suffering from a sudden awakening or if it was the side effect of her eyes turning green like Vincent’s and the horn shining brightly.

.....

Ester couldn’t guess what was happening, mostly because Iris didn’t lose control of her reason, unlike Vincent’s Overload. Thus, this was a new predicament appearing before her.

“I... ” Iris struggled and pushed Ester away. She swung her arm, and all the seeds in her hand flew in the air. Before all the seeds landed on the ground, thirty seeds glowed and wiggled energetically in mid-air as if they wanted to sprout.

Suddenly, the thirty seeds moved closer as if they were being drawn to each other by a strange force. Fifteen random Magical Seeds on one side and another fifteen on the other.

The seeds merged and shone brighter the moment each seed touched another. Shortly, two avocado-sized seeds stopped shining and fell on the ground. As they rolled to a stop, Iris commanded, “Seed Guardians. Sprout!”

The radiant jewel-like horn dimmed, and her eye color returned to purple. Iris closed her eyes and fainted from Mana Fatigue.

Ester caught Iris before she fell. Ester could now surmise that Iris awakened a new spell instead of the side effects caused by her eye color change nor the glowing horn.

*Sigh* Ester let out a sigh of relief. “You scared me... but what was it? Seed Guardian or something?” She turned her gaze at the seeds on the ground and said, “I hope whatever made you lose all your mana isn’t...”

Ester stopped speaking after she heard a faint crackling sound. She focused her gaze and saw the two large seeds now glowing red.

The two seeds wobbled as if something inside of it wanted to get out. Multiple thin string-like vines burst out from the stem and twirled as if each one was a living snake that wanted to get out.

The vines grew thicker and longer as time passed. Each vine vigorously moved as if it was searching for something.

Ester didn’t need to wait to start doubting their safety. She then recalled Iris calling it a monster. “We need to get out of here!” Ester squatted and placed Iris on her back.

One of the bright red seeds dug itself in the ground after all the vines entered the earth and disappeared from Ester’s sight. Whatever the seed was trying to do, it wasn’t there.

The second seed shot its vines at an old tree like a vicious octopus latching its tentacles at an object. The vines mysteriously grew thicker while the tree mysteriously withered.

Branches snapped from the weight of the now withered leaves, and the tree soon lost all of its life. The tree looked as if it sucked dry of all its nutrients and water.

Ester gulped and slowly walked away while carrying Irison her back. Ester tried her hardest not to make a sound and attract the attention of the mysterious red glowing seed, but vines soon shot at the tree beside them, and it started to also wither at an alarming rate.

Each extending vine didn’t seem to be limited by range. They only became thinner the farther the distance traveled. The glowing red seed didn’t want to let its food run away, it seemed.

Suddenly, two strange vines much thicker than the rest extended from the ground. One had the glowing red seed attached to it while a red flower grew at the tip of the other.

Both vines continued raising upwards until the vine with the seed stopped at three meters high, while the one with the flower stopped about half a meter underneath.

After the appearance of the two thick vines, the rest of the vines stopped sucking the life out of the second tree. Ester soon felt the earth tremble after each vine entered inside the ground.

In less than ten seconds, multiple vines shot upwards from the ground and collected together. The more vines that appeared, the more of a human-like gigantic figure they started to shape.

“Iris... is this a Seed Guardian you called a monster? It’s more like a seed of death and destruction...” Ester mumbled in surprise. Her eyes couldn’t stop looking at a gigantic human-like body made out of vines forming before her.

The vines acted like a rib cage around the red flower. Shortly, the red flower inside its chest, as if it was the heart. Next, a few red petals grew in random places on the vines. Their appearance was quite similar to the red flower petals.

The vine monster completed its growth. It turned its head, locking Ester and Lupa in its sights.

The head was hollow as if it was a hood. In the center of this emptiness laid the glowing red seed that started the process of its creation. The red light emitting from the seed made Ester worry as it looked at them as food to absorb.

Ester retreated one step at a time with Iris on her back. Such a dangerous vine monster made Ester decide to back away and head towards Vincent and Lupa. It was a danger she couldn’t outrun nor fight.

The vine monster raised its arm and shot multiple vines headed towards Ester and Iris. The moment the vine reached dangerously close, Ester moved her legs and made an emergency split.

The vines missed Ester and Iris by an inch. The emergency evasive maneuver succeeded. However, it came at a cost. Iris fell from Ester’s back, and the possibility to evade another attack became impossible.

Ester noticed there wasn’t enough time to lift Iris and run. She quickly summoned the mudcrab shield and placed it on Iris.

A pair of crimson eyes glowed, and a breeze of wind swirled around a pair of Wind Sigils. Ester got up and started collecting while condensing the wind as much as she could.

The enraged monster made of vines raised the other arm and shot dozens of vines at Ester. The vines traversed faster than before. Ester didn’t have time to collect enough wind, so she had to do with the current wind spiraling around her forearms like a pair of wind gauntlets.

Ester ran to her left and made some distance from Iris. She jumped and made multiple cartwheels, evading the vines by a couple of inches. A tree soon stood in her way after moving vigorously not to get impaled.

Ester had to stop, but the vines didn’t. They weren’t going to let this occasion slip by. She raised her arms and tried to block with the wind, gradually increasing the spiral’s momentum.

Ester saw Vincent guarding with his gauntlets all the time. Additionally, she also saw how Ollie fought with wind armor. Thus, Ester didn’t freeze from thinking about what to do next.

The vines drew closer and closer *Slash, thud* “Sister, I came to help.” Said Lupa after she lunged, spun in mid-air, and chopped all the vines headed towards Ester.

“You’re the best!” Ester felt at ease now that Lupa was beside her. Her heart rate calmed by a bit after she wasn’t alone anymore in front of the enormous vine monster.

“I’m the best girl Lupa, after all, hehe.” Lupa boasted with a grin.

*Thud!* Lupa jumped, evading a column of vines. The vines couldn’t touch the agile wolf girl.

Lupa ran up a tree and exclaimed, “You bad pile of grass! I am the ambush master!”

With Lupa’s presence and how she always attracts attention with her fighting style, Ester could now move without the fear of getting attacked. However, Ester was in a dilemma.

Ester wanted to move Iris out of the way and let the energetic Lupa jump from one tree to the other freely, but she had to remove all the wind she amassed. Thus, Ester would need to begin gathering the power of the wind to help Lupa.