"How far behind are they?" Nero asked as he considered the best plan. Jumping out the window, unfortunately, was out of the question. A fall from his current height would no doubt result in broken legs, waist, spine as well as a nasty head injury, at the very least.
He checked the edge of his blade, anticipating the fight ahead and was relieved to find that it was still sharp as ever, and without any nicks. It was fortunate that he had received his original knife back. If he had to rely on the one he bought from a vending machine then it would be uncertain how well it would last against so many vines.
"They're slowly closing in, but they have us surrounded," Isa managed to say without stuttering. Upon discovering the lack of panic in Nero upon hearing the news, he was able to muster up some courage as well, though he was still heavily influenced by the emotions he was sensing.
"Help me with this," Nero said as he conjured a tiny flame to illuminate the room. Since they had already been discovered there was no point in hiding anymore. He would rather make the most of the little time that they had.
He walked to the fridge and pulled it from the top, tilting it. Isa quickly grabbed the other end and helped him carry the fridge to the apartment entrance, where they left it wedged in the door.
"That only blocks half of the entrance," he said, pointing out the obvious.
"That's the plan," Nero reassured him. "We're only trying to bottleneck them and slow down their arrival, not stop them completely. Quickly grab the bedsheets from the other room. We're going to tie them together and make a rope."
Going into one of the rooms, Nero ripped the bed sheet off one of the beds and tied it to the bed frame. He seriously doubted if there would be enough rope to go all the way down, but…
"Isa, I know this is going to be tough, but I'm going to need your help. You need to do two things. First, sense if there is anyone in the room directly below us, and at the same time let me know when most of the vine-creatures gather outside our room. Once they're distracted trying to get in here, we'll escape to the room below ours through the window."
Isa's teeth were clattering and he found it very difficult to maintain control of himself, especially with the massive source of emotions he sensed closing in. But he forced himself to act. No matter what, he could not give up now, or else there was no chance of him surviving. He tried to focus on the room below them, but kept getting distracted by the vines closing in.
A loud bang from the door attracted their attention, and Nero left the room to take care of the approaching enemies. Although he would try to avoid hurting any students, now that he was in a precarious situation, he would not hesitate to use Snowflake if needed.
The fridge had been jammed though if it was pushed from the right direction, it wouldn't be a problem to directly slide it out of the way. But true to Nero's expectations, the vine creatures did not have such sense, and merely bumped into it, completely unable to move it. Under the blue light of his flame, Nero could see that the vine-creature he had attracted had finally reached them.
After encountering the blockage in the door, it began to pull itself up using its vines to come in, but that only made it an easier target for Nero.
He used Air push to slam the creature with an air bullet as it hung in the air, throwing it back and slamming it against the wall. It was not the same as cutting vines, but at least this way he didn't need to get close. But he hadn't bought himself as much time as he thought, as creeper vines reached the door and started to come in.
With these, since there was no student's body nearby, Nero did not need to hesitate at all, and directly used Snowflake. A snowflake only a few centimetres long appeared in each hand that he flung across the room, his aim still perfect.
But something Nero did not anticipate occurred. His blueflame suddenly reached for the snowflakes, as if they were the best fuel, and lit them ablaze as they flew across the room. The snowflakes cut the vines effortlessly, but even moreso, lit the vines on fire!
So far, Nero kept the flames he summoned to a minimum, but now the flames on the vines erupted as if someone had thrown fuel to a flame. The entire building trembled as a shriek far above them cut through the relative silence.
But the flames took on a life of their own, tracing the vine and spreading down the hallway. The temperature in the surroundings dropped rapidly and Isa, who had been trembling from fear, suddenly began to tremble from the cold.
Surprise and elation filled Nero as, for a moment, he thought he discovered an extremely potent weapon. But, just as abruptly as the flames had started and spread, they were extinguished, as if they had never been there to begin with.
Nero narrowed his eyes and thought of possible reasons for why this happened. He thought of the snowflakes, and discovered that they had vanished from where they were embedded into the wall.
The snowflakes were acting like fuel. Nero might have just discovered a way to resolve this whole incident, though if he tried to burn the whole creeper that was covering the building, many students would undoubtedly die.
But he had no time for such considerations. A massive hand with dozens of fingers, made entirely of countless woody vines, suddenly appeared, grabbing half the fridge as well as the wall. In a display of herculean strength, it ripped the fridge in half and tore the wall as well, revealing a hulking body made entirely of various kinds of vines.
Nero did not hesitate. A lifetime of training, as well as general common sense, told him that he would be well and truly screwed if he was caught by that thing. He retreated at his fastest speed while throwing flaming snowflakes at the creature.
But the hulking monstrosity was completely undeterred. Though the flames would flare up and immediately begin consuming its vines, the creature just shed those vines and threw them aside, uncaring that they fell on other vine creatures.
"Jump out the window!" Nero yelled, only to find Isa struggling with opening the window! It had been bolted shut, so that it would only open a certain amount. There hadn't been enough time for Isa to get it open yet!
"Use this, I'll stall!" Nero exclaimed, without waiting for Isa to respond. He threw the Air push cardtowards Isa, hoping that the force of the bullets would be enough to break the shatterproof glass. But he had little hope.
Without any concern for saving his aether, Nero encompassed his entire body in his blue flame and began to throw as many flaming snowflakes as he could. But he hardly slowed it down at all. As it passed through the apartment, its body tore through the walls as if they were made of paper.
Due to the sudden increase in flaming snowflakes, it had not been able to completely rid itself of the flames, but even so it kept walking as if the flames could do nothing to it.
Instead of individual vines, the creature thrust forth its entire hand, aiming to catch Nero. He tried to jump out of the way, but when there was such a massive gap in strength and speed, even a lifetime of training could do so much.
Like a sledgehammer, the hand bashed Nero's chest, completely driving the wind out of his body and even cracking a few ribs. Even so, Nero kept his body aflame, hoping that it would cause the creature to flinch, or even retreat. But it did no such thing.
The vines wrapped themselves around Nero and began to squeeze his body, threatening to crush him. This creature, whatever it was, was definitely much stronger than a Neophyte, or even an Initiate. Perhaps only an Arcanist could put up a fight against it.
From somewhere behind him, he heard Isa screaming, but he had no time to pay attention to that. Suffocating and being crushed at the same time meant he could not waste a single second. He concentrated on his flames, making them burn even brighter and fiercer than before. It was his only hope.
But the vine creature was clearly smarter than the rest. It kept replacing the vines trapping Nero, keeping his body trapped within. He could feel the vines squirming as they moved around his body, giving him friction burns. He could feel something piercing his chest, like tiny needles, injecting the parasitic vines within his system.
But he could also feel his flames working, killing the parasites before they entered his body.
The world began to darken as his consciousness was on the verge of slipping, when a new, even more overpowering pressure covered him.