CHAPTER 32: INTO THE MAW [1]

[We’re back to our normal 3rd person POV]

...

The road forgot to hiss.

When the E-Rank Glass Maw Flytrap swallowed Reid, the Ashroad’s heat went silent like a held breath. Then everything moved at once.

WHOOSH!

"Kara, pry it open!" Jonas roared, already lunging forward like an unstoppable train.

The plant’s six meat-black petals scissored tight, throat pulsing as it hauled Reid down.

Kara slid, bone-dense legs bracing as in a swift move she jammed her spear crosswise into the mouth. Hooks scraped along the shaft of the spear with a noise like forks on glass. "Got it, a little...!"

Tendrils flicked from the rim; thin, glassy cords that kissed the ground and bloomed sticky resin in gray webs.

Travis’s boots glued mid-step, but he slashed low with his knife, cursing.

Holt stepped through the spray like it wasn’t there and started picking tendril buds off with surgical shots, brass ringing on glass.

"Wind, Mira!" Ethan shouted. "Open the throat!"

Mira’s hands carved the air and it hummed in reply.

The breeze that answered wasn’t gentle; it was a decision, a brutal and violent decision.

BAM!

A pressure front slammed down the gullet of the Flytrap, forcing the slick tube to widen. The plant shuddered, throat spasming, then it doubled down, muscles straining to seal tighter against the gale.

A panel chimed in front of all their eyes.

DING!

~----~

[CRITICAL EVENT: Party Leader Captured!]

[Digestive Cycle Active...]

[Subject: Reid Carter – F Rank]

Fatal Threshold Estimate: 1:47 minutes.

~----~

"We have less than 2 minutes, clock’s running!" Holt snarled tightly.

Jonas set his back to a petal and pushed. Muscle stood out in ropes across his shoulders and neck and the plant finally gave an inch, but not for long as it pushed and took back with interest.

Resin crept under his heels.

He bared his teeth and pushed harder. "Ethan!"

The Wheel didn’t spin; it lunged.

DING!

~----~

[Improvised Options Available:]

*Acid- Bile Charge (F Rank)

Burns through plant tissue. High collateral risk to swallowed target.

...

*Maw Splinter Harpoon (F Rank)

Barbed retrieval lance. Anchors into fibrous tract and reverses peristalsis on pull. WARNING: It can be unstable.

~----~

The gears in Ethan’s head spun wildly, weighing his options.

Acid would kill Reid as surely as the plant, and that was a no-go for him. He didn’t let the thought finish when he made his decision.

"Harpoon," he snapped.

The lance breathed into his hands mid-run, shaft rough with resin, head a cruel, tri-angled barb with backward teeth.

He hit the rim alongside Kara and Jonas and looked down into the working throat where there was a slick, white tube that pulsed with obscene efficiency.

"Hold it steady!" Ethan barked.

"The faster you say that, the faster we die," Kara grunted, levering.

Jonas roared, muscles rippling beneath his skin as his veins formed a map due to the strain. Mira drove wind down again until her face went white.

"Travis, free Holt’s flank and keep those glue-threads off us," Ethan said. "Holt, if it throws feeders at me, cut them."

"On it," Holt said.

His Rifle moved like a thought; the next tendril that whipped for Ethan’s forearm lost its last inch and slapped the glass harmlessly.

1:23 minutes.

Tick... tock...

Ethan drove the Maw Splinter Harpoon into the gullet. The meat gave way like wet canvas, and then it seized the head, teeth biting into the barb and refusing to let go.

The Wheel chimed again, a deep humming voice in his bones.

DING!

~----~

[Improvisation Activated: Retrieval Sequence Activated!]

Reverse-drag engaged. Pull must be continuous for 10 seconds to initiate peristalsis reversal.

~----~

"Pull!" Ethan roared.

Kara dropped the spear crosswise deeper, turning it into a wedge.

Jonas wrapped both arms around the harpoon haft; Ethan stacked behind him, spikes itching under his skin, the Exo-Spike Gauntlet wanting to bloom.

"On three," Jonas said. "One... two... now!"

They hauled.

CREAK!

The harpoon strained.

And the plant fought back.

Its throat seized and tried to spit the barb back out. Tendrils lashed but Holt shot them down as fast as they sprouted in groups of three, the Rifle’s report a disciplined metronome.

Resin webs slithered toward their boots but Travis on the ready carved them apart with his trusty kitchen knife with small, desperate grunts, reeking sugar-sour in his nose.

"Keep the wind steady!" Ethan barked.

Mira’s hands trembled; the air hammered the tube wider. "If I drop this, it... closes. Don’t let me drop this!" She pleaded herself.

"You won’t," Kara said, voice flat with faith. "You don’t!"

0:51 seconds.

The harpoon tugged like it had snagged bone. Ethan’s boots squealed on glass, and the haft burned his palms. The gauntlet sang under his skin.

Then...

"Overload," Ethan hissed through his teeth.

Immediately, spines unfolded over his right hand, black resin hardening into a cruel geometry as Rugged Overload hit his arm like electricity.

Strength flooded, his tendons becoming cables, the counterforce bleeding off into the gauntlet’s shock-absorb.

~----~

[Rugged Overload Active!]

Strength output +400% for 15 seconds. Counterforce absorption.

~----~

He locked behind Jonas, hooking the haft with the spiked forearm, and he pulled with his all.

Then...

SNAP!

Something inside the flytrap finally gave way.