CHAPTER 30: AMBUSH!

DING!

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[WARNING! You have stumbled upon the home of an Ambush Predator Plant: Glass Maw Flytrap!]

[Rank: E]

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"Move!" Reid barked, already bringing his Rifle up.

In one movement, his alert level went from 0 to 100 despite the fact that all the others were slower to react.

With his special ability, Reid always seemed to be one step ahead.

His world dipped into one of clarity, his perception dropping gears as Rift Energy flooded his veins, powering his ability.

He watched the Maw Flytrap move.

And as it did, he saw the petals slowed, hooks unfurling like barbed tongues, the lure’s shimmer mapping currents for him. He picked a shot that didn’t exist yet, one that would exist the moment the lure hit a specific eddy, and squeezed.

BAM!

The bullet tore the lure in half, the sweet stink instantly curdling into something sour.

But the plant didn’t flinch.

Two petal-lobes scissored, not at Reid’s gun but at the rope, snapping it clean in one motion. For a brief moment, the line went slack as their carefully arranged formation came apart like marionettes cut loose.

Mirrored tendrils, thin as piano wire, flicked from the flytrap’s rim and kissed the glass, and anywhere they touched, resin bloomed, sticky and gray, gluing boot soles in place.

Kara lunged, her spear darting to wedge the mouth open but a tendril looped her ankle. Bone-dense or not, it yanked her off balance with obscene strength.

Jonas roared and grabbed the line around her shin, muscles bulging as he hauled her back to safety. The plant yanked harder even as the glass under Jonas’s feet screeched.

"Wind!" Reid snapped, eyes already choosing a second shot.

Mira didn’t hesitate. She thrust both hands out, and the air answered in a hammer-blow.

BAM!

The blast slammed three petals wide, revealing the throat, a slick well pulsing like a heartbeat, lined with pale, grasping cilia. Wind ripped resin threads free and skittered them across the lane like gray spiders.

Ethan’s Wheel spun with hungry certainty.

DING!

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[Improvised Gear: Sunder Charge – F Rank]

An adhesive charge that disrupts fibrous musculature or plant tissue within a 2 meter radius. Delayed detonation: 3 seconds.

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"Cover!" Ethan barked, and sprinted straight into the scent.

The flytrap felt him coming. Petals snapped down but he dove under them, slid on glass, and slammed the charge into the lip of the Flytrap.

The resin stuck. He kicked hard, buying a yard of space for himself.

’Three... two...’

A tendril whipped his thigh.

And with it a flash of lightning pain followed, and then, ’One...’

BZZZT!

The charge popped like a clapped book. The flytrap’s lip quivered, fibers unstitching as a petal slumped, jaw askew.

"Left seam!" Holt called even as he pulled the trigger.

BAM!

In the same breath that his Rifle cracked, a tendril parted and fell twitching. He’d watched the way the plant stretched and known where it would be thin.

"Reid, its core is deep. You’ll need..."

Holt could not finish speaking when the ground under Reid bulged.

And out of the crack behind him, a second maw surged! It was smaller, with feeder head, all hooks. Its petals snapped toward Reid’s torso, fast and sure, not at his weapon but his center.

Reid whirled.

Time slowed enough for the tiniest exhale. He twisted, barely escaping a tendril trap, then he turned a bite into a graze, and used the recoil to pivot.

Still, he was not perfect, a petal caught his shoulder and shoved him a half-step... closer to the main mouth.

"Reid!" Mira screamed.

Kara’s spear skittered on glass. Jonas lunged again, holding his hand out. Travis flung himself toward the commander without thinking, knife up like a prayer.

They all wanted to help.

But then, the main flytrap surged.

BZZZ!

Four petals scissored in a perfect, awful choreography. Reid’s blade flashed once, cutting a tendril that would’ve taken Travis at the knee, and then the petals closed around him with a wet, sealing slap.

For a fraction of a second his world was a cathedral of green-black meat and white hooks. He drove the rifle forward as a wedge, jammed the muzzle against the throat, and squeezed point-blank.

BAM!

The shot went off inside the maw as slime exploded and the throat convulsed, but still, the plant swallowed.

The rope went slack where Reid had been. His Rifle strap slapped the glass. The maw bulged once and took him

down into the slick pulsing shaft.

"...!"

Silence found them like a cliff edge.

"Reid," Kara said, her voice flat with denial.

The flytrap hunched, petals flexing, throat working with obscene efficiency as it dragged him deeper. Tendrils lashed the lane, trying to re-glue boots, trying to tie hands.

Holt’s next shot punched a petal; it bled sap and did not care.

Jonas hit the rim with his full weight; resin slicked under his boots and the mouth gave a little, but then it surged back with a strength that made his teeth grit.

Mira’s wind shredded more tendrils as she attacked in desperation and panic, but for every one she tore, two found glass to hook.

The system did not comfort.

DING!

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[CRITICAL EVENT: Party Leader Captured!]

[E Rank Glass Maw Fly Trap Digestive Cycle Initiated...]

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Ethan’s lungs forgot to work as his eyes turned bloody red with adrenaline.

The Wheel reacted like it could sense his emotions as it roared in his skull like a forge. He could feel the seconds burning; he could almost see the metronome of the plant’s peristalsis hauling Reid down inch by inch.

"Hold it!" Jonas bellowed, arms wrapped around two petals, shoulders bulging. "Pull!"

Kara braced, her spear wedged sideways to pry.

Mira drove wind down the throat to stall the drag, face white with effort. Holt stepped into spitting range without flinching, muzzle practically in the plant’s teeth, and started choosing tiny, insulting places to put bullets.

Bam... bam... bam...

The Flytrap convulsed but didn’t stop.

Travis grabbed Ethan’s elbow with sticky, shaking fingers. "Tell me you’ve got a miracle," he said, voice breaking in panic. "Please, tell me you can pull him back."

Ethan looked at the heaving maw, at the resin threads crawling like little gray hands, at the sweet stink turning sour as the plant sealed itself for work. His hand clenched and spikes answered, blooming.

The Wheel spun so hard it was a coin thrown perfectly and hanging midair, asking what it wanted to become when it finally fell.

And at that moment, the flytrap finally swallowed.

Reid vanished past the ring of teeth!

The road, kind for an hour, grinned like a con artist who finally managed to scam clients who grew too comfortable with it.