The version of this chapter on ao3 will have some extra material.
Neo felt strange. It felt like she was being smothered in blankets, but if those blankets were gooey, oozing, and pulsating. At least it was a bit cooler, though, otherwise she would be seriously protesting right now. A big sign and everything. She tried to remember how she ended up in this situation, but the pulsation was getting on her nerves. She remembered that she was with Ruby, so Ruby must have found them some blankets. Wet blankets, from what it felt like. To be fair, in the sweltering heat, wet blankets were probably a blessing. She had to assume that their sticky sweat was what made them turn into slimy blankets, so that couldn't be avoided really. That pulsating sensation must have been Ruby moving around. Neo wanted her to stop, so she kicked out with her foot.
Instead of a yelp or just ceasing to move, the last thing Neo had expected came as a response to her kick. She started to sink deeper into the blankets, and they started to press against her, threatening to force the air out of her lungs. She had had enough, and started struggling back against the blanket mass, flailing her arms only to find they had no room to move. She opened her eyes to find everything black, and the cool slime washed over her eyes. She became aware of a strange tingling sensation. She'd only felt that once before, from a very strong gel with acidic properties which ate away at bacteria, dirt, and dead skin. She remembered giving that spa a very low rating. She also remembered that you were only supposed to apply that gel for so long because it eventually started to eat away at your skin. It was some plant-base substance from a carnivorous plant, diluted to be safe for humans.
Now she had an idea of what had happened. Somehow, she thought she may have ended up inside a carnivorous plant. She didn't remember getting eaten, but it made some sort of sense. If she were being digested, it would certainly explain why she was pretty sure her clothes were starting to melt. However, now that she knew what was going on, the next course of action became a lot more clear. She started to panic.
Ruby was slammed into the floor, tendril vines constricting around her body as they slowly dragged her along the ground. She was barely keeping consciousness with how tightly they had started to squeeze her. While they held her body in their vice grip, they had loosened their hold on her arms for a moment, but not enough for her to start tearing at the captive vines. It was enough, however, for her to snag Hush as she was dragged past it. She pressed the button on the handle, and the blade slipped free of the parasol, leaving her with only the deadly weapon part. She didn't fight back, though. She didn't antagonize the beast. She waited until it lifted her up over its giant maw, gaping open beneath her. Then it dropped her into the gelatinous prison and snapped shut.
She quickly found herself pressed on from both sides by the mucus-ridden walls of the creature's gullet, slowly slipping further down as its juices started to engulf her. It was revolting, and she wanted it to end, but she couldn't risk the chance of it spitting her back up before she found Neo. Turning head first into the slow descent, she pushed downwards, clutching the blade of Hush to her chest. It didn't take long, though it really felt like an hour, before she found her companion with her free hand. She reached out and grabbed Neo's kicking leg, taking a hold of her above the ankle and pulling the two of them together. She reached out again, grabbing the next part of Neo and pulling herself even closer, then wrapping her arm around Neo's back and tightening her grip until they were practically hugging.
Neo didn't know how to respond. Ruby had joined her in what was sure to be a slow and ultimately agonizingly painful death, and now that their bodies were pressed together Neo could confirm that her clothes had indeed started to melt at an alarming rate. If this was some sort of rescue attempt on Ruby's part, it was woefully inadequate. Whatever Ruby was poking her with was also starting to become an extra annoyance she didn't need. Then Ruby grabbed her hand and placed the offending object in her palm. Neo recognized that hilt. It was time to cut herself free.
Lifting her hand up, Neo plunged the blade of her weapon into the side of whatever creature had the gall to try and eat her. She drew her hand back when it started convulsing, sure that she had dealt a painful blow, and stabbed upward into it. She pulled down with all her strength, cutting a long gash through the monster's side through which she immediately thrust her hand. Feeling the cooler and fresher air outside, she pushed her other hand out and spread her arms apart, like she was swimming through the beast's stomach lining. She slipped out to freedom, tumbling out onto the stone floor of the sewers below Mantle. Ruby fell out after her, her hand around Neo's ankle. They staggered to their feet, blinking the smelly goop from their vision so they could see their escape.
Finally freeing her eyes from the blinding slime, the first thing Neo saw in the low light was a tendril snaking its way through the air towards her. She quickly lashed out with her blade, slashing the tip off of the tentacle and letting about three inches of it drop to the ground. Her head was on a swivel, watching for the next attempt, and it certainly was coming. In response to her attack, it seemed like hundreds of the things were approaching from every direction to put down the offending food. She wouldn't be able to take them all on her own, so she needed Ruby's help. There was no one else, after all, so Neo had to prioritize keeping Ruby safe long enough for her to get her weapon, which Neo could see laying on the ground not far away.
Ruby wiped slime from her eyes and blinked her way back into being able to see. The instant she opened her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of Neo's blade flashing past her face and cleaving several vines in half. She jumped back in surprise, bumping into the huge body of the creature they had just escaped from. Looking up, Ruby saw three large vines creeping over the edge of the beast's maw. It was definitely time to go. Looking forward, she spotted Crescent Rose straight ahead of her, but countless tendrils were blocking her way.
"Neo, I need you to clear a path!"
Neo nodded, quickly thrusting herself into the mass of plant matter and hacking away at everything that moved. The plant monster's attention was on her for the moment, and Ruby used that to duck around the side, running over to her weapon and scooping it up. She wouldn't be caught off guard again. As Crescent Rose unfolded, Ruby watched calmly and patiently as Neo was overwhelmed by the constant assault. Though her acrobatic prowess was probably the best Ruby had ever seen, even better than Blake, the sheer number of directions she was being attacked from soon became too much to handle and she was lifted into the air by one foot and one hand, still slashing away at anything she could reach. Her face was the picture of righteous anger as she made every part of the monster that had abducted her regret ever making the decision to accost the woman.
A pair of vines wrapped around Neo's weapon arm, holding it still while the monster decided what to do with her, and another vine coiled around her throat to choke her back into unconsciousness. Crescent Rose's end extended outward for maximum strike range. Now it was Ruby's turn to repay the monster a hundred fold. With the sound of a sniper shot splitting the sewer air, Ruby launched into the air and spun as fast as she could without passing out, flying over Neo's entangled body and cutting nearly every vine that held her. Ruby landed hard on the ground, barely keeping herself from planting her face into the stone floor by balancing her weapon out behind her. What had to be a hundred angry sheered vines writhed in agony and recoiled from their prey. The three larger vines, which Ruby now saw were sprouting out of the monster's mouth, moved to the front and began moving to surround Ruby. The one on her right ventured too close and she punished it by spinning quickly and slicing it down the middle, splitting its end about a meter along its length.
The one on her left took the opportunity to strike at Ruby's back, but found itself impaled by Hush, which Neo had returned to its sheath. As the two vines backed off, Neo took her place back to back with Ruby. She opened Hush up, pointing at the monster threateningly. She looked over her shoulder to see Ruby looking back at her. A quick smile and nod, and they both knew what to do. This would be their first fight together, working as partners on equal ground, armed and ready, against a strong enemy, in the depths of Mantle's sewers, sticky and wet with stomach juices from their foe, their tattered and melting clothes barely hanging onto them.
Ruby waited until the split head started winding up to swipe at them, throwing caution to the wind and sacrificing a damaged tendril to batter its foes into submission, and just before it struck she made the call. "Go!" Shooting forward, they charged the monster's body together. Ruby swung her scythe over her head, left to right, cutting a long gash into the body, and at the same time Neo slashed upwards with Hush, dragging the new wound up to meet the beginning of Ruby's in a corner. The center vine, which was over their heads, dropped onto them to crush them both, but was blocked by Hush as Neo rolled over Ruby's back to reach her other side. Ruby slashed back to the left closer to the ground as Neo landed and cut downwards, finishing a neatly made square in the side of the beast's belly. The split vine slammed into the spot where they were standing, only to miss as Ruby back-flipped over it and Neo's now false image simply shattered, letting the large vine smash into the cutout they had created, which collapsed into the monster's body.
Rushing over to the side of the body, where Ruby could see the split vine sticking out of the mouth over her head, she cut it off with one swift overhead arc of her blade, simply sidestepping the huge bulk as it dropped to the ground lifelessly. The screeching sound that came from their foe gave them both a good amount of satisfaction and a boost of morale. More than that, as they retreated and regrouped, they could see countless gallons of its stomach fluids draining fast from its body through the collapsed wall. The smaller vines, which they could still see hiding behind the hulking body, began to droop as the creature's lifeblood poured onto the stones. This also served to anger the two remaining large vines, which started thrashing about and crashing into the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. A deep gurgling whine rose from its belly, and the body began to slowly move back away from them.
"It's retreating! Stop it!"
They both charged again, and the two large vines moved to meet them. Neo met hers first, opening Hush and stopping it cold. The stones under her feet cracked from the impact, but she didn't budge. Holding her seemingly frail shield in place, she drew the blade out and slashed around the front of her defense, cutting deep into the vine's head. As it recoiled, she stepped back and held the two parts of her weapon up as a sword and shield. It shot forward again, but she blocked it with her shield and vaulted over it, landing on her feet on top of it. She lifted her blade and plunged it into the vine, and then ran along it, dragging her blade all the way along it, cutting the entire vine open. She only stopped once she reached the monster's very mouth, just as Ruby cleaved the other one free of its body, letting it drop next to the first. Neo was about to cut the final of the large vines, when she spotted something from her new vantage point. Hidden behind the giant grotesque plant's body was what looked to be a human head.
It very clearly wasn't another person, as it was attached to the body, and all of the smaller vines were sprouting from the stock that connected the two. That made it a target, and Neo quickly hopped down behind the beast, her blade aimed for the head. Even though the smaller vines, obviously in a panic, wrapped around her in a giant mass, by warding enough of them off with her shield she managed to reach out and spear right through its gross green eye. In an instant, the monster went completely limp and silent. It dropped her onto the ground, and all the vines fell on their own, nothing more than dead weight.
Ruby had seen Neo disappear behind the monster's massive body, and a moment later the whole thing had died, but she still couldn't see Neo. Now that everything was quiet, and it really was silent, she called out. "Are you alright?" Neo stepped around the dead body, holding Hush open in front of her with one hand. With her other hand, she signed four letters. Ruby nodded in agreement. "A bath sounds good right about now."