Kim couldn't say what surprised her most: the fact that the enlarged flowers were carnivorous or that she'd been caught off guard in a world where logic had been turned on its head.
Even as she reached for her sword, she felt vines starting to entangle her legs, preventing her from being able to move them. Briefly making her wonder if these might be the kind like those hentai scenes in some anime she'd seen where the tentacles have their way with the female characters.
However, when a flower leaned towards her, she quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. It was clear why the vines wanted her to remain still: it would be easier for the flower to eat her.
As she drew her sword, she was made aware of Elmo and Patrick unleashing flames on the flowers. Which, while effective, was rather dangerous with how easily the flames moved from one flower to another and quickly created a wall of flames that made Kim wonder if she might get cooked from being in the proximity of these flowers.
"I'm not sure you should have done that!" Patricia called out, sounding like she was a little uneasy about the flames. "We don't want to barbecue ourselves."
"Don't worry, there's not much fuel for the flames to continue after the flowers are gone," Elmo replied, sounding as if he was proud of that fact.
"And what about firewood?" Heather asked, yelling to be heard over the roar of the flames. "The flowers look like they might be the only source."
Elmo didn't seem to have a response to that, but Elwin, surprisingly, came to his rescue. "It doesn't matter if we get eaten by the flowers before we can even get the firewood."
Kim swung her sword, slicing easily through the flower, although that didn't seem to immediately kill the plant. Instead, it looked like it was trying to wiggle towards her. As if eating prey that was near it was all it could think of. Unsure if she actually needed to do anything else, she stabbed the flower where its mouth was in the middle of its petals, causing it to stop its wiggling. As she took a deep breath to steady herself, she couldn't help but glancing at the flames, wondering if they might head her way before long.
"You know, I think more are heading this way," Sonya commented, sounding like she wished it was otherwise.
Kim then looked towards where the flowers had been growing more dense and say that they were in fat moving. They were separating so they weren't close enough for he flames to jump from one to the other, but it was also clear that they were trying to surround them. Kim wasn't sure if these flowers had a common brain or if they were individually trying to eat them. A distinction that felt like it could be important, though she couldn't immediately think of how.
So, Kim started to swing her sword at a rose, only to have it grab her arms with it's vines. Vines that had thorns that bit into her, nearly causing her to drop her sword. Though, a quick spell from Elin saved her, even if her spell included flames. Flames that quickly consumed the flower and set a little bit of the grasses around it on fire as well.
Kim would have preferred to not have used flames to get out, but at the moment, she was pretty sure results mattered more than anything else right then.
The amount of carnivorous flowers seemed endless. It wasn't clear how many there really were, but one thing Kim noticed was that the grass didn't seem to carry the fire very far. Which as far as she was concerned was unusual, but pretty much par for the course in this world.
"Should we fall back?" Bart asked as he swung his staff, cutting through the base of the stem of the flower closest to the stream. "I think there might be more than we can handle."
Where's the fun in that?" Patrick asked in response. "We can just burn the rest of them. I think their stems will survive enough that we can use those as firewood when we're done here."
"What if they don't?" Kim found herself asking as she cut through several vines that lashed out to try and grip her again. "I don't think the grass itself is very flammable and knowing that, it might b e better to find another way to deal with these flowers rather than using fire to burn them haphazardly.
"Sorry," Elin said quietly, almost like she was the one who'd come up with the idea of using fire in the first place.
While Kim wanted to do something to reassure Elin, she was otherwise preoccupied with all the flowers that were still coming at them. Though, she was sure that Elin would understand.
Elwin seemed in his element as he sliced through vine after vine and an occasional flower bud or bloom before moving on the next. The flames didn't seem to bother him as he cut down several flowers in a matter of minutes. Almost like he was born for this moment.
A cry of surprise from Heather alerted Kim to the flowers coming in from the stream, one of them having sent a tentacle-looking vine to drag Heather towards it. While she looked rather helpless as nothing she could do would allow the plant from even slowing the pace in which Heather was pulled towards it.
Sonya shifted into a wolf before Kim could leap towards the flower. Her clothing tearing as her body shifted shape to accommodate the change in physique and shape.
As Kim watched, she nearly lost what remained in her stomach from lunch. It was rather unsettling to Kim where Sonya's skin rippled while her bones seemed to pop out of place before reattaching themselves in a different way. Even bones like her ribs that weren't supposed to do that did so.
When the transformation was complete, Sonya was a large wolf, easily the size of a pony. Which Kim figured was a different kind of wolf than what she had on her world.
As soon as Sonya had regained her bearings, she leapt at the flower, biting down on the stem just below the bulb of the flower and started to tearing at it with her teeth, green fluid coating Sonya's mouth as the flower top fell off, falling to the ground like all the others that were merely cut off.
Kim returned her attention to the flowers that she had been facing as another thorny vine bit into her leg as it tried to drag her from her feet and overwhelm her that way. However, Kim was ready for such a tactic this time. She didn't plan on letting the mindless flowers get the better of her.
When the fight was over, Kim felt like her arms were made of lead. Where she wasn't in any condition to start a new fight, even if it was another life or death situation.
One thing Kim noticed, once she didn't need to worry about vines or other things from the flowers being a danger, was that the flowers in the center of their blooms were teeth. Teeth that looked like any other kind of tooth that were in a fanged animal.
Kim cut one out to take a closer look and felt her hand go numb from the contact with it. She wasn't sure if it was from fighting so much or not, but she suspected that the tooth had either been coated with something that dulled her nerves or was a kind of paralytic agent that was excreted from around the tooth to help the flower take control over its prey.
"Elin, would you see if I have any status effects or whatever?" she asked Elin, wondering if these might be useful if they tipped their weapons with them.
Although, she couldn't be sure if that would work so well, as it was very possible that the contact effect of the teeth might wear off over time.
Still, it was an idea that she couldn't just pass up. Especially if they had to fight a strong enemy like the hydra again.
"Sure," Elin said, walking over to Kim. Then when she could touch Kim, she said, "Assess."
Kim waited patiently for Elin to look at what likely came up for her. She wished she could see it as well, but if that was possible then if she looked at her stats, she was certain that others would be able to see them as well. Which would be a price she'd rather not pay in order to see it. As such, it was merely something she'd have to endure.
"Uh, it says you have a minor paralyzation," Elin said, sounding a little confused. "How'd that happen? I got hit with the thorny vines as well, so that couldn't be it…" Elin trailed off as she clearly was getting lost in thought.
"Uh, Elin, it's because of this," Kim said, showing Elin the tooth. The tooth that she needed help to pull all of from the dead carnivorous flowers.