Chương 136: Joseph, Part 2

Bad to worse. Bad to fucking worse. Being manhandled by a giant man who called himself Father Quercus wasn't doing any good for my psyche. All the gravity bullshit in the world didn't matter if I somehow couldn't focus it on this asshole. Even one-handed he was beating the Hell out of me. That axe of his only didn't cut me in half because of all the focus I put into resisting the blow and grabbing a hold of the weapon. I still felt it thunder through my body regardless.

As the force of his swing finally outmatched my resistance against it and sent me rolling again, I pushed myself back to my feet and yelled "Shivvy!" And when the liquid metal stretched over to me, I called out "Long!" so he would form his rod shape, which I shouldered. My only hope was Shivvy eating through his weapon. That was my only play.

"Ah, yes," Quercus called out.

"The supposed bane of the Wyrdwood. I regret to inform you that substance is only a risk to the Wyrdwood if it makes contact." With a swing of his axe down, he split open asphalt in two clear strokes. And with a golf-swing, sent debris flying at me.

"Damn it- Wide!" I yelled, Shivvy spanning back out to absorb the projectiles. And yet again, the giant proved himself far faster than me as he landed with a skid at my right flank. Another golf swing, this time towards my back. Shivvy snapped behind me and immediately started eating at the wood. Unfortunately, even at the speed of his consumption, all that did was lessen the weight and dull the blade of the axe as it slammed into me, sending me lunging forward from the force.

I at least managed to land on my feet, giving me the capacity to turn and see the results of Shivvy's interception. The liquid metal had consumed most of Quercus' weapon, which he tossed aside. The stump of the arm I tore apart was forming more and more vines. They were whipping and lashing around. He had Wyrdwood in him. It was a similar regeneration to Gleditsia's and the tree people's. But his body was all flesh, how did that even work? If nothing else, it seemed slower and far less controlled.

His one available hand reached up towards one of his horns, grabbing at it and yanking it free from his head. Another one formed from the same spot as the horn held in his hand grew and expanded into a large hammer, the wood creaking and groaning as it took its shape. That made it click. I figured out what he had. Wyrdwood was embedded inside him, it made horns. He could shape the horns, and they didn't have to stay attached to him. They'd grow back.

The Wyrdwood inside him could also regenerate more serious bodily injuries, but that didn't guarantee him full protection. It wasn't as fast as Gleditsia's, meaning wearing it down would theoretically be much easier. In the corner of my eye, I could see the hurricane of movement from Jairo and the two wooden wolves. The only things I'd seen as fast as him, and they were in an endless hunt to get him into a more vulnerable position. He seemed to be doing the same. None of them were landing direct blows.

Just constant grazes and tears. As I was beginning to lament not knowing May's position, the squeal of her blasts went from just individual VWEEM s to a constant trickle like rain on a tin roof that came flying towards Quercus. Using the hammer, he was able to shield himself from the direct impact, but the Wyrdwood weapon was already wearing down. I was reminded how deadly a force May could be in the right circumstances, if she was able to put pressure on the hulking man that was kicking my ass without any issue.

Well, the tables were in a turned position. I could get my payback while he was busy guarding.

"Long," I called, gripping one end of Shivvy as he elongated into a rod again. I launched myself, going for a low swing at Quercus' legs to try and get him back on the ground, this time on his fro-"Skoll! Hati!" Wolves. More of them. About the same size as the two chasing Jairo. They came out of nowhere and slammed into me with enough force to throw me off my feet.

"How many-" I shouted as I dug my hand into the jaws of one of them, tearing the bark apart to pull my leg out. My other hand yanked out from the other wolf's mouth, sending splinters flying.

"-Wolves do you have!?" Quercus laughed.

"More than those! Fenrir!" Bursting out from the treeline was a fifth one. The thing was bigger than the van. And fast enough to clear the gap towards me in a couple blinks of the eye. I braced as best I could, Shivvy being too busy with tearing into one of the smaller wolves to assist me, so I just had to take its full force slamming into me all at once. I was getting used to the blows. They weren't hitting as hard, but those fangs in its mouth were still unpleasant.

But then I realized: If it's biting me, then it's holding onto me and I didn't need to fight for grip. The wolf was handing that over to me. And I capitalized on that by digging my heels into the asphalt and lifting the wooden beast into the air, before slamming it back first into the ground. I could hear bark splitting. As the impact caused it to relinquish its grip on me, I looked towards the other two wolves. Shivvy was fighting them off on his own.

It looked strange, almost like they were playing tug of war using him, while he stabbed through their heads and bodies. They were in a stalemate of some kind. They were, somehow, healing faster than he could eat away at them. Why could they heal faster when even Gleditsia couldn't resist it? Shivvy could tear through house-sized trees in minutes. I thought back to that wooden heart dangling from Quercus' necklace. One of the Fathers who captured Jairo along with Belladonna was given one.

He ate that one and he suddenly started building much more complex structures out of his vines. It didn't take much to figure out those hearts caused some kind of increase in power. But I thought it would be from eating them. Was just proximity a power boost? And did that mean Quercus' powers weren't just the horns, but the wolves? Just what the Hell was this guy? Didn't have time to think about it. My first focus was on this big wolf, he called it Fenrir. Had to get it out of the equation.

It was already piecing itself back together. There was no tearing it apart, if Shivvy was failing to take down the smaller ones. Best I could do was get rid of it. I gripped its jaw, swinging my arm up with the intent to hurl it as high into the air as I could, same as with that tree man. However, its fangs dug into my hand at the last moment, causing my arm to whip forward instead and hurtle it into the horizon. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Well, it was possible that Fenrir could still end up in orbit. Worst case, it'd be no one's problem in the ocean. Looking over towards Quercus to see how May was wearing him down: She wasn't. While he was stuck standing in one place to resist her constant machine gun fire of hard light blasts, she wasn't firing them fast enough to counteract the hammer he was wielding from regenerating. And the little nicks and holes in his body from the stray blasts were filling up with vines.

"And this is why I decided to act," Quercus called out.

"Only one of you can threaten the champion. None of you can even threaten me. We have wasted far too much time on deliberation and politics and recruitments. We have access to the three Sperma tes Parthenou. The Throne will be built and all of Nemea's most devout will be there to witness it. Have you all not realized something?"

"What the Hell are you talking about?" I asked, though I didn't wait for an answer as I lunged again. Unfortunately, I was interrupted in my charge by the two wolves that were playing with Shivvy getting in the way, their fangs digging into my shoulders.

"I was the distraction. Your fourth member is likely realizing this right about no-" SHNK SHNK Two hooked, bladed weapons suddenly were dug into the neck and shoulder of Quercus. Wooden handles. They looked like small scythes.

"I couldn't intercept!" Flowstate yelled out, rushing out from one of the holes in the building.

"By the time I got there, the prisoners were already gone!" Quercus laughed, blood and plant matter spurting out of the wounds as he used the vine-spilling limb's tendrils to rip out the weapons, tossing them aside.

"Did you think we couldn't discern their location at any time? That we had to search? No, no. They were in before you even got here. You must remember you are at war, boy. War is an old man's game." With a flick of his massive arm, he sent the wooden hammer flying at May. With a shriek, she lunged away and fired off a blast to send it spiraling out of the way. The maneuver didn't land properly, as the handle of it whipped across her face and sent her sprawling.

"An old man's game, meant to be played by warriors. You may have a warrior's blood in you, boy, for that would be the only reason you could contend with my son." His son? Don't fucking tell me-"But you refuse to live as one." Father Quercus gripped one of his horns, ripping it free and hurling it towards me as it suddenly expanded into a menagerie of barbs and blades. Instinct took over as I thrust a fist out, tearing my arm out of the jaws of one of the wolves. The punch splintered it apart.

He waited on that opening, as at the same time the two wolves that were holding me down, and the two with Jairo, all rushed over to surround him.

"Consider these your final days before our reckoning begins. My task here is done." Thick vines coiled around him and his wolves, yanking him and the few un-shot ADU members into the ground. The only ones left behind were the ones killed in the gunfight.

"Shit-" I started, immediately feeling along my body for injuries. I was too caught up in the fight and wasn't paying as much attention to more serious pains. I didn't notice any blood on my arms, legs, or shoulders. They kept targeting the armored areas. That had to be deliberate. But why? They were fast enough to go for my neck. In the moment I couldn't have thought about it, but with the decompression already happening, that kept digging through my head. He could have killed me. All of us. Why didn't he?

I thought back to what he said. His son. Batshit insane, lot of control over Wyrdwood, thinking about warrior shit. I didn't want to believe it. But unless there was another person like that in the ADU, there was only one person he could've been talking about. The nausea piled up in me as everyone else tried to gather. Chris picked up his weapons from the ground, slipping them into his costume.

"Guys, I'm sorry- I thought they were just going to physically cart the prisoners out, but when I got there, there were these huge holes in the ground." Jairo panted as his body took to its more human form, before speaking.

"What about the guards? Isn't there supposed to be a bunch of guys with guns to keep the prison safe?"

"I…" he trailed off, then shook his head.

"I didn't see any. The prison looked completely empty inside." Fighting back the urge to vomit as all those impacts from Quercus were starting to catch up to me, I spoke.

"That explains why we only saw it on the news. We would've known about the attack earlier if there were staff in the prison. They cleared it out first."

"Yeah, but how?" Chris asked as we made our way back to the van.

"I didn't even see signs of life. It almost looked abandoned in there." We regrouped with a very groggy May on our way to the van. One of the men with rifles the Super Commission had tag along with us, the redhead who gave his very wrong analysis on the way, approached us before we climbed in.

"We're going to be assessing the area and confirming no more ADU are on-site. Do any of you need medical?" I shook my head. Chris and Jairo shook theirs. May groaned out a "I've probably got a concussion." The agent nodded.

"Right. We don't have any trauma kits for concussions, unfortunately. Try to keep awake and they should be able to help you back at base. Take care." Asshole. Getting into the van, we humiliatedly made our return to the testing facility in a sort of grim silence. None of us died or were seriously injured. But our pride took a pretty nasty blow. That bastard came out of nowhere. None of us could have expected it, so it wasn't necessarily our fault, but that didn't make it any better. Sam took May and hauled her off.

Tancred brought Chris and I off to speak.

"Right, that went terribly," Tancred started.

"Don't start blaming yourselves, though. But do you think you guys obtained any useful information?" Chris spoke up.

"The prison was completely empty. Leo and I both think it was cleared out in advance so no one could call for help. We're not sure how they could've done it." Tancred nodded.

"Right, anything else? We had overhead footage, but none of it recorded audio." I remembered something Quercus mentioned.

"He said something about three 'Sperma tes Parthenou?' I'm not sure what he meant, but they apparently have access to those."

"Hm," Tancred hummed.

"Greek. Means 'Seed of the Virgin.' Virgins are a popular topic in any sort of cult group. We've established they're a cult, of course, but this is a bit of a more heavy step. I'm going to have some feelers get put out. There might be precedent that we can use as reference. If we can, maybe we can intercept whatever they plan on doing." Just some feelers. I felt like Tancred was acting way too subdued about this.

Maybe he was trying to stay calm under pressure, but he needed to recognize we were getting our asses kicked and we were woefully unprepared.

"Additionally," he added.

"We're going to also look into this Father. We'd been trying with the others, but most are nobodies. Gleditsia doesn't exist on any record. The two we did have were Bambusa and Moroides, but they're Chinese nationals and we're not going to get any sort of timely correspondence from the CCP. But if we can figure out who these guys are, we have another vector for attack. People have weaknesses. We need to find theirs." I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Great. So what are our next steps?" Tancred clasped his hands behind his back.

"For now, we're operating as normal. But now we operate under the knowledge that the ADU is a lot better equipped than we thought. We will be engaging in aggressive reconnaissance on any ADU activity. You may be sent out on missions at hours you normally are off when it's detected. It's gonna get harder before it gets easier."