Chapter 22: Function of Bravery
Tulland kicked back from the wolf, hoping to get enough distance between him and the bite coming his way. At the same time, he stabbed out with his sharpened branch, something that had always turned out to be a good tactic with the first floor Lungers. He might not have hit with every single weapon strike he ever threw with his pitchfork or his now-lost club, but he had found that most enemies shied away from obvious pain. That distraction would give the vines more room to work.
Here, the vines weren’t there to provide that synergy in the first place. Things had happened so fast that Tulland didn’t have the moment it took to realize he should get them into action with Enhance Plant. And now, mid-lunge, avoiding the wolf’s teeth was the only thing on his mind.
The wolf saw the strike from the spear coming and twisted out of the way in midair, which also forced it into a near-miss with its attack. It hit the ground to Tulland’s side, pivoted faster than Tulland could keep up with, and attacked again, this time managing to come in high and fast enough to hit one of the points Tulland’s armor didn’t cover.
Tulland screamed as the wolf’s teeth sunk into his tricep, and continued shrieking in agony as the monster hung in the air from his upraised arm.
As much as it hurt, Tulland didn’t want to find out what would happen if he dropped his arm, let it plant its feet, and add extra leverage to the formula. Finally gathering his wits, he looked at the two vines closest to the wolf and sent a simple command.
Go.
Tulland had gotten so much into the habit of restraining the vines with mental commands as a type of training that he had almost forgotten how fast the briars could get into action if they needed to. The closer of the two briars loosened itself from his arm in no time at all, catching the wolf with the end of the briar that normally sat near his elbow while it unraveled the rest of its length from the other direction.
The vine on his other forearm made first contact about the time the bulk of the first vine finally reached the wolf and wrapped all the way from its cheek, around its neck and down to make a wrap on a foreleg for stability.
These higher level vines are smarter. Or something.