Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society

Bam!

The red-haired Blight Human crashed into a tree as parts of the roots covering his body fell, shredded to the limit.

"Keuk!" He raised his arms upon spotting two flower buds nearby, shielding himself as the two flower buds bloomed, spitting out seeds like shrapnel, piercing through his defences. He hurriedly slipped behind the tree, hearing the sounds of the seeds impacting the tree trunk.

But just as he was about to move, his foot stepped on a patch of grass that riled up in response, transforming into a mouth that clamped upon his foot, digging into it little by little, "Shit! Not again!"

Roots jutted out of the ground and ripped apart the patch of grass, freeing his leg as he moved away, grunting in pain as he was injured all over. But, it was apparent that he wouldn't get any time to rest, for a pleasant aroma began to waft into his nose, causing his skin to itch.

It was a familiar ability, one lacking potency as an itch was all it caused. Those with strong willpower could resist it. After all, the ability was useless as long as one refrained from scratching themselves. And the red-haired Blight Human was confident in his willpower to withstand it.

Unfortunately, that was in the case he was free. But in this chaotic battle, he had to focus a good fraction of his attention to resist the urge to scratch himself, one that caused his reflex to turn sluggish, causing him to be prone to more attacks.

"What the…when did this appear?" He was shocked to see a wall of cactus surrounding him, its thorns pointed his way, damn sharp. Each cactus reached a height of four metres.

It wasn't much, for this was a height the red-haired Blight Human was capable of traversing if he focused all his power on the jump. But, in a scenario where he was being bombarded by attacks from all sides, there wasn't much he could do.

His bulky form was necessary for him to defend against their attacks. And in this form, he couldn't jump past the wall of cacti. Moreover, ramming into it would only hinder him, for the thorns on the cacti would pierce and attach to his root covering, only serving to further endanger him.

Pata-pat!

Fist-sized seeds rained down from above, falling within the region covered by the wall of cacti as the red-haired Blight Human was alarmed at their appearance, also recognising them, hurriedly causing a group of roots to jut out of the ground around him, forming a wall to protect himself from the attacks.

The seeds on the ground drilled into the ground as soon after, a sapling grew out from each, creeping upon the ground as their numbers intensified, soon covering the ground within the cacti walls.

They reached the roots created by the red-haired Blight Human, latching onto them to siphon all their power, thinning them out while the vines multiplied.

This was a parasitic variety of creepers that were deemed useless and banned by the Fornol Empire for the sole reason that they were only useful against the abilities of the Blight Humans. Therefore, it was decreed that those that awakened to any form of parasitic plant wouldn't be supported by the Empire.

Neither will they be given any resources nor a salary that every other Blight Human received. Moreover, those discovered rearing such Blight Humans would be sentenced to death.

Of course, the royalty had a troop full of Blight Humans with such abilities, created as a means to counter any overambitious group of Blight Humans. That was why the rule was imposed in the first place. It was also to give them a way out, making them choose between the option of death or serving the crown.

And now, all the abilities used by his attackers were parasitic in nature as the red-haired Blight Human shouted in rage, "The lot of you will be killed! Surrender, if you don't wish to implicate your families too."

"Our families are safe. You needn't worry about them." A black-robed young man snickered in response, going around as he planted more flower buds in the trunk of the trees, causing them to bloom and shoot seeds at the red-haired Blight Human.

As all abilities ran counter to his Blight Human powers, the red-haired Blight Human was pushed into a passive situation, constantly sustaining injuries that pushed him to the brink of death.

Just as he planned to retaliate with a last-ditched suicidal attack, the red-haired Blight Human stared, pale-faced as a vine began to grow on his hand, digging into his body as his hair too turned into a set of vines, causing him to faint as their roots dug into his brain and sucked in all his brain matter.

"Shit!" The leader of the group was the sole person that was alive now, glaring in anger at the turnip, growling in rage, "Kekua Fornol…"

"I'm surprised you know my name." A smug voice resounded from the turnip that lightly danced before rushing at him like a bulldozer.

The leader scowled in response, creating a leaf right beneath the location where one of the turnip's legs stomped, sending it flying back like a spring-laced trap. But, the turnip simply rolled on the ground, kicked back, and returned to its sprint, chasing after the leader that tried his best to run away.

"Everyone knows of the blasted thief that dares attach the grand Empire's name to her own." He screamed, leaping from a leaf as he watched solemnly at a rock that slammed into the leaf, wrecking it apart.

The turnip was like a giant that hurled debris at him, turning it all the more dangerous. Of course, it too was a parasitic plant but the most shocking of all was the fact that it was a mobile unit.

There was one constant in the powers of all Blight Humans, it was the fact that they had to rely upon the ground to create. It was not to mention that they could only fight defensively, as their powers were plant-based.

Even though it gave them an overwhelming defensive advantage, their mobility was grandly lacking.

Consider the leader's ability, for example. He could condense leaves to move. But in truth, if he remained in one place and surrounded himself with a wall of leaves, his defence would be impregnable.

Unfortunately, the situation meant that he couldn't be trapped alone in the middle of nowhere, amidst enemies. Hence, he had to let go of his advantage and fight wielding his disadvantage instead.

But, Kekua Fornol was an exception, for her power was a mobile unit. It was originally a parasitic plant, a vegetable that could only grow on other plants. But, as a vegetable, it was prone to be eaten by herbivores.

Hence, over the ages of evolution, it became capable of storing water in a certain part of its body, creating a network of fibres there to act similar to a jellyfish, a sort of pseudo nervous system, thereby allowing it to detach itself from the plant it parasitised and jump over to another plant.

Unfortunately, it was only capable of this once in its life, at a time right before it matured. But, after obtaining this as an ability, Kekua Fornol was obviously able to take advantage of this trait that had evolved to the extreme.

Thanks to that, she created a mobile fortress to sit comfortably within and fight her battles, receiving great infamy as a result.

The roots at the end of the turnip's arms coiled around a boulder, exerting strength to cause it to crack. Following that, the turnip threw with all its might, watching the boulder emit a sizzling sound and fly towards the leader at a tremendous speed.

But unlike before when they all targeted him, this boulder slammed into the trunk of a tree near the location the leader passed by. It exploded into dozens of rocks that splattered everywhere, some of them slamming into the leader, catching him off guard.

His leaves barely protected him but unfortunately for him, they couldn't guard the trunk he was guarding, causing it to slip out of his hands and fall to the ground, "No!"

"Haha!" A chirpy laugh resounded from the turnip that leaped into the air and caught hold of the trunk. Its body formed a crack that parted to reveal a mouth, swallowing the trunk before vanishing.

Now that the trunk was secured in her custody, the initiative fell in her hands as Kekua Fornol turned around and began to run away.

"Damn you!" The leader bellowed in rage, knowing very well the importance of the trunk, aware that a failure in transporting it safely meant his life in the Fornol Empire was no more. Therefore, no matter what he did, he had to retrieve it from her.

In his rage, he jumped on a leaf and made a beeline towards the turnip, unaware of the black-robed figure standing on one of the branches nearby, sporting a wide grin as he installed a flower bud on the tree trunk.

By the time the leader realised, it was too late as the seeds of the flower bud pelted the leaves protecting him, the force of the impact sending him to the ground, right into a patch of grass that ripped apart the layer of leaves while a pair of seeds slammed into them, drilling through them before generating creepers that ate them up.

Thump! Thump!

"No, spare me!" The leader was alarmed, the leaves he created being eaten up by the grass and vines, turning him helpless as he stared at the turnip walking towards him with thundering footsteps.

His screams vanished after a loud thud, resulting from the turnip's fist pummelling his body into a paste in one hit.