With Root Webs, everything changed.
I was still blind, I was still just a plant with no eyes but with Root Webs, I could almost ignore the fact that I am actually blind.
This is because all of a sudden, I could see more, feel more, so vividly and across a wider radius that it felt like I had eyes once again. But it was different from having eyes, vastly different.
Whereas with eyes you can see, differentiating colors through light, with my Root Webs, you feel. All the vibrations, movements in my territory, I detected them all, so clearly that a vivid image was created in my mind.
My territory was indeed small; mostly filled with plants just like me but weaker and smaller, and some weed at the edge of my territory.
All the plants were submissive. The only one not submissive was the encroaching entity.
I could feel so much now but most importantly, I could feel it.
Like a low hum through the soil, I could feel it; my rival still breathing, still there. After all the pain it caused me, it had the audacity to linger.
It should've crawled back to where it came from, limping and humiliated. But it stayed.
'And there, bastard, is your mistake!'
[System Update: Territorial Advantage Achieved. Counteroffensive Recommended.]
[Territory: 4.1 sq.m – Opponent: 3.7 sq.m]
[Status: Dominance Opportunity]
I didn't know exactly how it happened and what exactly happened, but if I was to guess, I think by damaging my enemy enough, at least more than it damaged me, I managed to encroach into its territory, eating into it and that is what gave me the sudden territorial advantage.
Since my territory was at 3.6 sq.m previously, by gaining 0.5 extra square meters, my guess is that my enemy's original territory was 4.2 sq.m.
It didn't matter though.
All of that was numbers, mathematics.
What still mattered in the end was life and death, survival.
No hesitation. No more cautious probing or patient tug of war. This was war now. And I wasn't look for just survival. Not anymore. Now, I wanted extermination.
My roots surged forward like an uncoiled whip. I stopped caring about subtlety. If I was a creeping weed before, now I was a storm; a storm tearing through the soil, barbs bared, tendrils hungry.
I didn't just want to claim more land. I wanted to devour it.
Its defenses flared almost instantly. That familiar chemical stench returned; allelochemicals, toxic excretions meant to stunt and kill. This bastard really had a lot of ways to kill, but I'd tasted that before. Adapted. Evolved.
I twisted my way through the hazard zones, rerouting my newer roots through my Spine Bloom formations.
Explosive pods ripened beneath the dirt, clustered like mines under a thin crust. And when its aphid drones came again, I welcomed them.
They burst apart midair as the Spine Bloom detonated with sick satisfaction, showering the soil with insect gore.
'You thought I'd let you pull that trick again?' I snarled in my head. 'The only way to kill me is to kill me once, quick and decisive'.
'Give me time and I'll burn you!'
'Bring your bugs. Bring your fumes. I'm done playing defense'.
My Feeder Tendrils reached deep, engaged in another silent tug of war which I won this time and then I wrapped tight around its core root cluster. I felt it writhe violently in satisfaction. It was fighting back desperately, but this time, panic bled through its pulses. Its movements were sloppy now. Frantic.
It had tried everything it could, even more than I have, including allies. And yet, through sheer spite and determination, I was overpowering the big bastard.
Barbs sank in. The tendrils tightened.
[Core Breach Achieved.]
[Initiating Drain Sequence...]
I didn't just crush its core, I fed on it like a cannibal.
And gods... it was delicious.
'Fertilize that bastard!' My whole being was filled with glee.
Its core was nutrient-rich, laced with evolutionary fragments I hadn't known to crave. It was like eating knowledge. Memory. Strength. The raw experience of a rival who had lived longer, fought harder... until me.
'Is this how warriors felt in ancient times?'
This was the last thought I had before the system notification lit up again.
[New Ability Triggered: Phytoleech Bloom – Drains biomass and evolutionary data from defeated flora.]
[Enemy Core Absorbed.]
[Evolutionary Fragments gained.]
[Evolution Options Expanded.]
[Territory: 7.8 sq.m]
I pulsed with power. My roots flexed, my leaves unfurled wider. Everything felt sharper; my senses, my control over my tendrils, the air around me. Even psychologically, I felt myself brimming with sudden confidence.
Even the sunlight above tasted sweeter.
I rose through the earth, just enough to bask in it.
That rival, my first real enemy in this twisted world was nothing more than mulch now. Spite never tasted this good.
If I had teeth and lips, I would be grinning already.
'Next bastard that tries me better come with backup'.
The soil settled. For the first time in days, there was silence.
[Territorial Control: 7.8% of Trial Threshold Achieved.]
[New Threat Detected: Unnatural Flora- Approaching.]
Of course. Of course. I should've known better than to expect a moment of calm in this cursed, godforsaken world, wherever this was.
But still... still I couldn't help feeling indignant.
'F*ck! Damn! Rot me sideways!'
'Like what the f*ck! After such a battle, you bastard system, whoever you are, you can't even let me catch my breath?!'
This world doesn't rest. It only tests. Again and again and again.
I already learned this some time ago, but still, facing the reality time after time never made the experience any less tolerable. It was still utterly awful, and immeasurably hateful.
But this time, I don't feel fear in the face of a new threat.