Vraxious- Red Willow Mercenary Compound

  Vrax gazed into the warm, soothing eyes of the Thresher. He finally understood now it wasn’t evil or dangerous; it was just a misunderstood child. It needed love and attention. He hadn’t felt this at peace in years; the sheer calm this wonderful angel brought to him after his months of paranoia and hypervigilance within the Forsaken lands was an utter blessing.

  Vrax knelt and tried to dismiss his armor so he could caress the kind face of this poor little hatchling. His armor, unfortunately, was stuck onto him since his sapling was in his garden. “It’s okay, little guy; don’t be afraid. Come on over.” Vrax reached out with both arms wide so he could pick up his new charge. He would keep it safe. The thresher panicked and lunged for him, starting to tear into the armor right around his throat, ripping hunks of bark free with each heave of its powerful neck.

  The shadows darkened even further; the light from Vrax’s armor was lost from his sight, leaving only the glimmer of its kind red eyes. Its next lunge broke through the armor, tearing a hunk from Vrax’s throat in a splash of hot blood. No, no, it’s okay, little guy; don’t be afraid!

  Something within Vrax’s mind finally clicked and started screaming danger in the back of his thoughts louder and louder. The Thresher's next bite tore something vital, squirting blood a stride into the air. That was enough; Vrax’s mental defenses finally had the proof of danger they needed to pull free for just a moment. Vrax closed his eyes tightly.

  Vrax gasped but just choked on his own blood, the world dark with his eyes squeezed tight. Fuck, fuck, FUCK! Vrax used skills in a panicked flurry, first converting all the life he had stored in his reservoir into precious healing energy to try and staunch the almost certainly lethal bleeding he could feel pouring into his armor. Then, still with his eyes closed, he cast out a wave of necrotic energy. He didn’t know where it was, but it was close, so he pushed the entropic energy out all around himself in a circle over a stride wide.

  [Mana 100/204]

  Vrax dared crack an eye as he backpedaled towards the wall of the enclosure. The smite had flayed the claws and snout of the beast into rotting slag. Vrax tried to summon Dutchess, but there wasn’t enough life around to power his stigmata. Their eyes locked again, but the effect was far lesser this time, and Vrax’s near-death state kept him from being lulled again. Fucker must be nearly out of mana!

  Vrax lunged forward, greedily gulping half a breath of air past his partially formed throat; it whistled and gurgled, but it was enough that his vision stopped dimming. He booted the thresher in its already savaged snout, sending it tumbling across the enclosure. Then he dived past it and did something insane even by his standards.

  Vrax looped an arm around its neck and his legs around its waist, wrestling the beast to the ground. They struggled there for a few moments as Vrax slowly healed enough that he could growl out some words. “Someone throw me some fucking plants!”

  Vrax held on for dear life as his wounds slowly knit closed; he was still leaking a fair amount of blood by the time his cistern ran dry, and he really didn’t want to smite the Thresher again. If after all that he ended up killing it, he was going to be equal parts pissed and guilty. It did just straight up start eating me, though that was fucking awful; I came really, really close to dying right there.

  The enclosure was still shrouded in shadows, so Vrax couldn’t see what his allies were doing, but based on the sound of tearing wood and shouts of alarm, it was something on brand for Torvald. A moment later Vrax and the thresher got partially crushed by the top of a fairly large pine tree. Holy hell, ow, you fuck! Vrax wormed out from under a branch slightly, making sure to keep his death grip on the Thresher.

  “There you go! You all good in there? It’s dark as shit, and I don’t really want to jump in an enclosure with a Thresher!” Vrax wasn’t about to tell him what had just happened, or the big bastard would absolutely come down and probably squish his future mount.

  “All good! Just, ahh...taming and such….” Vrax lied before smiting part of the tree to heal a bit more of his wounds and then reducing it to slag as his stigmata garden ripped Duchess into this realm. It was bizarre; she burst through a torrent of rot midair, falling from the tree since there was no foliage on the ground, and looked around malevolently for prey. Her eyes curiously fell on the thresher in Vrax’s grasp.

  “Duchess, if you can hold this angry shit still and NOT kill it. I will buy you all the chickens!” Vrax said sternly.

  Duchess tilted her head curiously before making a godawful clucking sound; it was like she mimicked a chicken's cluck but threw in some horrid death cries from other animals. “Holy, yeah sure! That, yes! HOLD THIS!” Vrax let go and rolled free. The Thresher barley made it to its feet before a massive claw slapped it back onto the ground roughly, and Dutchess chortled, bringing her face in close.

  There was a very tense moment where their eyes met and Duchess went slightly slack, but her weight held the thresher in place for long enough for its mana to run out again and the gaze to lose its effect. Duchess shook her head in confusion for a moment and then shoved the whole thresher in her mouth, wrapping her tounges around it and paralyzing the thing in fear. Okkkayy...please don’t chew….

  There were a very tense few minutes as Vrax let his mana regenerate to full. It was a reasonably fast process since he only drained it halfway and had some essence invested into its recovery. The moment it was topped off, Vrax ripped the Thresher out of Duchess’s maw by its single protruding arm and channeled every ounce of mana he could into [Adapt Life].

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  The red streaks on its scales shifted to a malignant green with an inner glow, and the beast relaxed slightly, suddenly not in a complete state of fight or flight. It angrily ambled to its feet with a pitiful growl and shuffled farther away from Duchess towards the edge of the enclosure.

  [Mana 4/204]

  Alright, that was a terribly close call. I'm not going to be able to adapt it to be big enough to ride. If only it was a plant. I got that Achievement months ago that makes plants more efficient to adapt… Vrax stood terrifyingly still for a moment; even Duchess looked a bit concerned at how suddenly an idea had struck him. I can graft things...I can make it a plant. Vrax’s gaze turned slowly towards the thresher pawing at its ruined snout.

  “Aww hell, let’s get you fixed up first.” Vrax added most of the remains of the tree to his cistern, reducing it to nothing other than a half-stride of stump and a puddle. Vrax then slowly healed the Thresher's paws and snout. It snapped at him a few times but calmed once it realized he was helping. Vrax added Duchess back to his garden the moment she started trying to climb out of the enclosure.

  She had managed to get her head over the edge, and based on the cursing and screams from the camp, everyone had seen a glimpse of her. Vrax sighed; he knew that was just going to add to the “Oh gods, he summons demons!” rumors. “Torvald, another tree, please!” Vrax shouted.

  Torvalds's head peeked over the edge again now that the wall of shadow was gone. “Really, another? Oh holy hells, you actually did it…” His eyes were fixed on the slight green markings on the Thresher, and he shook his head in disbelief before dropping back out of sight.

  There was another tearing noise, and a second tree was tipped over the edge of the enclosure with a dull thud. Vrax looked at it stunned for a moment; it was a big fucking tree, the base almost reached the top of the enclosure. How high is your strength now, holy crap, Torvald?

  Vrax settled in next to the tree and ignored the panicked shouting still happening outside the enclosure. He needed to think this through so he didn’t kill himself or create an abomination when he grafted the thresher. It has to be something weaker than the thresher so the thresher stays the dominant lifeform and just gains traits of whatever the donor plant is. And honestly it needs to be something lower level just so the graft doesn’t kill me with mana overdraw.

  Lurker would almost certainly work, but I don’t even want to know what that would look like and fifty-fifty odds it just immediately melts itself. I do have a hive in my garden that might be pushing it a bit for power, though the one I'm carrying was a big bastard that had been eating everything on a city block for a month. Then of course I do have some low-level daisies, but do I really want to give this thing MORE aggression problems...and smelter moss is just a bad idea.

  Dandelions are an even worse idea. If that even worked, I'm sure the resulting abomination would be something even I would be ashamed of. What else do I have…oh, Ever Thirst root...probably would make yet another nonviable abomination...or something really cool. No, Vrax, don’t waste the only Thresher you are ever going to be able to adapt until you are tier-2. Daisy or Retriever Hive are my best shots.

  Vrax waited a few more minutes, soothing the Thresher with a calm pat here and there, eventually getting it to play with the end of his spear as he waved it around like a pet toy. The yelling outside had devolved into arguments.

  Vrax could hear Segunda’s near-panicked shouts: “What the hell is he doing in there! What was that thing? Get him out before he kills us all!”

  Jonathan shouted back. “Boss is doing paladin things; fuck off until he is done!”

  Stereos tried to soothe the situation slightly. “The paladin is simply forming new life within the enclosure; interrupting him may have dire consequences and lead to a worse amalgamation of flesh and unrestrained savagery than is intended.” His comments did not have the desired effect.

  “What? What the fuck? GET HIM OUT OF THERE!” Vrax heard the scuffling of boots followed by a savage slap that made his ears ring slightly. Oh shit, better hurry up. I think Torvald just doom slapped the camp representative.

  Vrax summoned the Razor Retriever Hive he had in his garden and slapped one hand on the side of the thresher and the other slightly into one of the tunnels in the side of the hive. Here goes nothing...please work. Vrax focused his will into grafting the two beings together and activated [Adapt Life].

  Mana fled from him violently once again as the hive to his left started to cease to exist, flaking away in motes of dust and life. The energy flowed through him like a bridge pouring into the alarmed thresher. Everything in Vrax’s vision turned to fractals of white and green. He could feel hundreds of legs crawling across his skin as his mana neared empty and his fractured vision began to dim. And then it was done.

  Vrax stood there panting, equal parts scared and excited to see what he had wrought. Last time the effort had rendered him unconscious for hours, and he still didn’t know what he had unleashed into the forsaken lands. This time it was close, but he had managed it without another unwanted nap.

  [Mana 9/204]

  The thresher tapped his helm curiously with one of its claws, pulling his gaze to its new form. Holy fuck. All along its protruding spine, tunnels the size of his fist carved their way underneath the vertebrae into the flesh, leading into the beast's body. There were a few more dotted around its ribs that you could see pulsing as things moved inside.

  Inside the tunnels Retrivers began scurrying from the Thresher's body, but they were almost nothing like the other retrievers. They had the shape of a small flat eel with a dozen bladed legs unevenly shooting from their bodies. The flat body had a tail on one end and a circular, leech-like clutch of teeth on the other, and the umbilical it trailed behind it looked like a sharpened strand of sinew.

  The thresher had kept the same general shape and most of its features, although its scales gave way to a more mushroom-like flesh along the flanks, tail, and alongside its neck now. Adding more meaty mossy coloring to it. It tilted its head curiously as its new hunting companions scurried all over its body. It seemed, if anything, thrilled at the new addition, immediately grabbing one in its clawed hands and inspecting it with a chirping sound. One retriever flung itself onto Vrax's legs, clicking against his armor as it inspected him.

  It worked. Holy crap, it really worked! If I can get grafts that work this well and build from them, my adaptations will become so much more complex! But for now… I'll just let my mana fill back up and see if I can make this thing big enough to ride. I'm going to have to be real careful not to fall off with one of these new retrievers wrapped around me, or I might lose a damn limb. Dungeon, I'm riding in style to you this time.

  Click/Poke Here for way more [Adapt Life]