Gotta Go!

"... So that's what happened, huh," Mike mumbled as Theresa finished recounting her experiences in this location.

His brows were knit together in concentration as he considered the implications of what she'd said.

On one hand, he was pissed.

It seemed like Namor had gone the extra mile to make their lives extra difficult. Convincing who knows how many students to try and take them out was going to make this entire excursion many times more difficult, as they wouldn't need to deal with just beasts anymore.

Moreover, while Mike didn't particularly care about attracting the ire of half his grade, he absolutely could not stand it when someone targeted others for something he did. He found it both cowardly and gross,

The quiet growl that left his throat furthered this point.

But on the other hand...

'This sort of makes things easier.' Mike mused.

His confrontation with Namor–and possibly Agnes–was more or less inevitable. While Mike didn't have as much of a vendetta against them, the fact is that he didn't like them, and if they deemed it necessary to permanently remove him from the picture, he had no qualms doing the same to them first.

As such, if they are actively looking for him and his companions, then confronting them to settle things once and for all should be a bit easier.

Seeing his face scrunched up in irritation and concentration, Theresa noted how he resembled a scowling puppy before speaking and breaking his train of thought.

"I was thinking we can use this to our advantage." Hearing this, Mike blinked and tilted his head while humming.

'Strange, he's acting more... wolfy... than usual. Did he use what he used in his fight against Kris? But he isn't nearly as clingy as back then. Is it something else?' Theresa wondered as she observed Mike. From his tackling her to their following conversation, his behavior was a lot more animalistic than usual.

She also noticed that he kept sniffing her scarf.

"What are you thinking?" Mike finally asked, and Theresa pushed those thoughts out of her mind before responding.

"Well..." She tapped her watch, and a projection of the number "1088" appeared. "A lot of the points I earned just now came from eliminating Tristan. It seems like forcing another student out of the excursion causes all their points to transfer to you." She folded her arms and tapped her arm.

"If our guess is correct about Namor and the other prominent members of the different families using their underlings to farm points is correct, then I think we should use that to our advantage." Hearing this, Mike perked up as he seemed to see where she was going.

"You want us to take them out and harvest their points?" He asked clarifyingly, and Theresa nodded.

"We don't like them, so there's no reason to be polite. Moreover, we can flip the situation and force them to come to us. I wouldn't be surprised if they are either setting up some elaborate trap or something similar. We can force them to throw away their plans to act personally if they see that we prove to be too problematic." Hearing this, Mike rubbed his chin.

"Hm. I see, so you basically want us to be proactive. Instead of waiting for us to come to them, we make them come to us." He slowly grinned.

"I like it." He nodded.

He didn't mind being hunted down. However, he was a predator, so if he could make it to be on his own terms, he would gladly do so.

He was about to say something when his smile suddenly turned brittle, and his face paled slightly.

Seeing the abrupt change in his demeanor, Theresa frowned.

"What's wro–" Before she could finish, Mike lunged and slammed into her, forcing both of them into the ground. This time, there was no warmth in the motion, just pure urgency.

CRASH!

A deafening boom erupted above them as something tore through the air with a shriek that split the wind itself.

A moment later, a powerful gust followed, hot, sharp, and filled with debris as splinters, stones, and dust rained down like shrapnel.

Theresa coughed as she blinked rapidly, then froze.

Where they had been standing a moment ago was just gone.

A massive vine as thick as a building pillar had carved an entire level of the hole, slicing from one side to another like a whip of green steel. The walls of the hole along its path were shredded, scarred so deeply that one could see a raw, jagged wound stretching nearly a hundred meters across the far side.

Chunks of stone still fell from the newly formed scar, clacking and echoing as they tumbled.

Her heart skipped a beat. Had Mike not tackled her...

Her brain rapidly filled in the rest. What would have remained of them...

Nothing above the waist, most likely.

Before she could continue to ponder on the matter, a surge of energy erupted from atop her as Mike activated his aura at maximum output without any hesitation.

Without waiting for her to say anything, he unceremoniously threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Hold on!" He shouted as he discreetly transformed his legs with his partial transformation, acquiring another boost in strength as he suddenly blasted forward like a rocket.

A moment later, the vine moved once more, and this time, it didn't take a linear path.

Like a snake, the thing coiled and whipped around the entire floor of the hole, ripping it up like someone had dropped several powerful explosives and detonated them at the same time.

Theresa was horrified.

'How is it so fast?!' She shouted internally. She was barely keeping up with the absurd speed of the vine amidst the devastating destruction it was causing. If they were hit even a single time, she doubted the ship in orbit would have time to retrieve them before they were reduced to bloody mists.

But despite this...

Mike managed to avoid the vine each time.

It was like he had eyes everywhere. No matter what angle the vine came from, he'd somehow anticipated it and moved just in time to avoid the whip that repeatedly broke the sound barrier.

Sometimes, they'd be thrown into the air by the powerful vine, and it would try to hit them midair, but Mike would create a ring using his aura and kick off it, changing direction midair before they got swatted like flies.

She forced herself to crane her neck to view his side profile, and she was surprised when she saw the deep concentration in his bright blue eyes.

'Right... he isn't doing this easily. It must be taking all his concentration just to prevent us from getting hit.' She bit her lip and suddenly felt a bout of uselessness. If it wasn't for him, she would have undoubtedly died in that first attack.

'Yeah, no. Like hell I'm just gonna be reduced to dead weight.' She gritted her teeth and suddenly shifted her position.

It was risky as it forced Mike to abruptly change his grip, which nearly made him lose his balance and resulted in a close call, but they managed to make it work as Theresa was now in front of him with her legs wrapped tightly around his waist while he supported her by holding the small of her back.

As for what she planned to achieve?

"That's better." She huffed as she had a bit of a better position. Without hesitation, she summoned her bow and drew it.

The vine struck again, with Mike once more narrowly avoiding the attack. But this time, Theresa released the arrow before the thing could properly retract itself.

It struck it and exploded... and did absolutely no damage as the vine righted itself, completely unscathed.

However, the concussive force from the explosion did seem to halt it a bit. It was only for a moment, but one Mike capitalized on.

He crossed more ground this time before the vine retaliated, and Theresa was about to draw her bow again when Mike suddenly mumbled.

"Coming in from the left at a downward angle." His voice was soft, like sparing any more attention to speak louder would break his concentration, but Theresa heard him, and purely on instinct, she fired her bow in the direction he pointed out, and sure enough, the Vine came from there.

The arrow struck it, once more doing no damage, but again, the cuncussive force slowed it down briefly, and Mike used that moment to dodge more effectively.

Theresa's eyes widened as she realized what just happened, but she couldn't dwell on it as Mike.spole again.

"Sweep from the same direction." Theresa once more followed and fired in that direction.

The vine indeed swept like a calamatous pillar that tore up the ground, but it also swept right into her arrow and caused it to explode, once more slowing it down.

'He's giving me call outs.' She realized as she drew her bow, and once more, Mike mumbled the direction the next attack would come from, and Theresa fired in that direction, slowingdown the vine and allowing him a bit more leeway in their retreat.

Just like that, the two of them started to walk in tandem, as Mike focused on dodging and escaping while Theresa focused on making their path to escape a bit easier each time.

Not even 2 minutes had passed since the Vine showed itself, but it felt like an eternity had passed as they finally reached the edge of the hole, which was now thoroughly torn up by the vine.

As soon as they did, Mike created a Haven Ring and used it as a step as he pushed off it, shooting upwards.

The vine followed after them, but it was a bit easier to anticipate its path in the air, and Mike continuously hipled from ring to ring as the thing tried to blast them out of the sky to no avail.

It was only after they reached the top that the vine stopped chasing them, and Theresa was about to get out a breath when Mike suddenly accelerated.

Confused, she wanted to ask what the issue was when the ground started to shake, followed by a... sound.

It wasn't quite a roar, but it had so much depth that Theresa felt her vision blur momentarily as it washed over her.

That's when she heard a sound similar to something breaking through the earth, and it was then she realized...

The vine was one part of a far, far larger creature.

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