Rhos lowered himself into a crouch and pressed his palm flat against the cool forest ground. He sharpened his eyes and hearing, letting his heightened awareness spread through his surroundings.
Sounds gradually separated into countless layers. The rustling of leaves from high above, the groaning of tree trunks bending beneath pressure and the constant scraping of vines carving trenches through bark.
He remained completely still while focusing on the ongoing battle between Leopard Cat Nimra and the wild plant colony.
Even though her movements were still frighteningly fast, she was beginning to lose ground. This was mostly because she no longer carried the deadly precision she had moments ago.
The green spirit energy cloaking her body was flickering, which made every dodge come a fraction of a second later than the last and every swing of her claws having little less cutting power than before. It was clear that signs of fatigue were starting to show.
Multiple vines slammed into the earth where she had been standing moments before. The impact blasted apart roots and scattered rocks across the forest. At the same time, she rolled underneath another digging her claws into it, tearing it apart.
"Tail Scythe!"
Nine enormous vines were severed instantly by a crescent of green light. However, they were immediately replaced with six more before she could breathe and continued their attack.
"Oh come on!"
These ones moved faster than before, making it even more difficult even with her speed. She barely avoided one that scraped its thorns across her shoulder, another caught her thigh and a third wrapped around her ankle, attempting to keep her rooted in place.
Using her claws, she was violently able to tear herself free, leaving strips of her flesh behind with it. Blood stained the leaves beneath her feet yet she smiled with anticipation.
"I’m getting tired of looking at your ugly vines. Just die already!"
When she sprinted forward, she was immediately caught off guard by a vine that struck at her ribs hard enough to throw her several meters across the forest.
She rolled a couple of times before digging her claws into the earth to stop herself. The wild plant continued its assault, the ground erupted with dozens more vines, each one carrying barbed thorns and lunged into the woman who vanished into a green streak.
Watching all of this unfold, Rhos didn’t move an inch. He focused entirely on the creature.
He had already established before that charging at that thing as he was right now would be down right suicide. No, calling it suicide was generous, it would be just stupidity.
This was why he took this opportunity to study it instead and see what opening he could exploit.
Rhos’s Patron Spirit did not grant him overwhelming strength nor did it bless him with miraculous powers capable of changing the tides of the battle with a single attack. It simply gave him everything he needed to live by recognizing subtle disturbances before they become danger to himself.
There was a pattern to everything. Every living being possessed habits and everything repeated itself. Nothing moved randomly forever. The longer something lived, the more it repeated its movements.
Those repeated movements became patterns that could be exploited by anyone patient enough to observe, notice and act on them accordingly.
Survival rarely belonged to the strongest. More often, it belonged to the adaptable and adaptability began with understanding.
Rhos just had to observe and find the patterns of this wild plant.
"....three, four, five, six.....ten"
His eyes narrowed at the ensuing battle. Every time Nimra severed several vines at once, the creature was forced to move others from elsewhere. The severed didn’t regenerate instantly so for less than a heartbeat...
The defensive wall surrounding its core became noticeably thinner.
The more he continued to watch, the more the pattern repeated itself, like muscles contracting beneath skin. The redistribution always followed the same sequence.
That fraction of a delay wasn’t a large enough opening, but it was large enough for someone reckless to gamble his life on it.
Fortunately, Red Deer Rhos was not the reckless sort. Instead of charging there himself, his mind was assembling possibilities this entire time. Counting how many times he had been intercepted or died.
This was a method of survival he had developed that allowed him to weigh his chances against tougher opponents. In order to use it fully, he had to have a decent chance at winning or else it wouldn’t work.
He imagined every step, every possible route and the outcome they all had. In his first attempt a vine pierced straight through his stomach. In his second he was caught and crushed to death. In his sixth he was caught by his ankle and pierced by thorns. In his twentieth he reached the halfway point but died still.
"Twenty five, twenty eight, thirty..."
In his mind, Rhos had lived through a number of his deaths. Which further credited how reckless this was. However, every imagined death carved away another useless mistake, increasing his chances at surviving.
Sweat slowly rolled down his forehead despite never having moved. By the time he reached his 50th simulation....the route had become significantly cleaner.
Meanwhile Nimra staggered backward after another heavy impact sent her skidding across the dirt.
She coughed blood as she forced herself upright. She struggled to stand and breathing had become noticeably heavier.
"...Come on.."
She whispered through clenched teeth while continuing to take a feline fighting stance. Even though she was nearing her limit and covered in wounds, she wasn’t ready to call it quits.
"You can still move. Just keep moving a little longer"
When a vine lashed toward her face, she leaned back just enough for the thorns to brush past her nose, leaving another cut wound. Three more immediately followed and she shredded them apart.
However she had enough strength to slash two, the third one slammed into her ribs and launched her through a young tree.
"Ngh!"
She slid back to the ground before somehow climbing back to her feet. Blood dripped from her mouth. With her trembling legs she tried to move forward and raised her claws once more.
Suddenly she felt a hand pressed on her back, and when she turned about to attack, she saw a young man appearing beside her.
It was Red Deer Rhos, his amber eyes glared at the wild plant with the determination of someone ready to put an end to this.
"Well done, Nimra...I’ve finally got it"