Chapter 5: Revenge

---Just outside Sleepywood 16:18 ---

Vines twisted around the landscape, ripping pieces of ground open from their emergence place, some long, hanging onto the almost non-existent sky, some short, newly sprouted seedlings. Each produced different pieces of fruit, which the monsters around thrived on, creating a sense of irony, living mushrooms eating other plants.

Marinas watched over the animals, examining the small little ecosystem the Green and Horned Mushrooms build with one another. They never fought over food, and even would share food from their stocks if the other one was running low. They even mated with one another, creating the occasional Green Horned Mushroom, which were usually killed for their rarities.

Marinas put her two hands together, forming a small symbol with her two pointer fingers, pointing straight up as one, as she lightly bent her knees, and focused the magic energy around her. "Dark Sight!" She called, as the energy swirled into her, and a large plume of smoke went up around her. When the smoke cleared, her body was transparent, and invulnerable to frontal damage, but still susceptible to magical attacks, which she needn't worry about here, as all mushrooms were about as good at magic attacks as real mushrooms.

She quickly ran down the field, watching the mushrooms frolic and play happily. A group of younger mushrooms were playing a game of Ring around the Rosie, and a few were resting in a mushroom nest. One mushroom was pregnant, and its mate was watching over her to make sure no harm came to her. She couldn't help but smile at how adorable they all were.

She approached the large gates into the town, made of crumbled, dirty, brown rocks, made into a square arc over the entrance. A man sat on the top of it, blood red paint all over his face in a tribal manner, with eyes that looked close, but gave a sense of piercing vision. He was named 'The Rememberer', who traveled far and wide over the lands, bringing back tales and even small trinkets from his visits to foreign countries. The newest addition to his collection was a few small bricks of plastic with holes and bumps all over it. He called it 'Lego', which he brought from a place aptly named Legoland. She had heard the newest story in his collection, about a land hidden under the water, but she didn't believe it herself. The story sounded ridiculous and farfetched.

---Sleepywood 16:29---

Sleepywood was what it was named after; it was a very calm and sleepy town. It was also quiet, and many residents often stayed inside, for the outside air was unclean to them, and was incredibly difficult to breathe in. They only strayed from the safety of their shelters when they needed food, which was never far away. Though townsfolk were rarely seen, they were rumored to be incredibly friendly. They shared the food they would make with their young with passersby, and the food, while sometimes sour and rotten from the first few failed attempts, usually tasted amazing.

A large, eroded statue stood in the centre of the dark forest town, which looked as it had faced thousands of years of hardship, but still held dearly onto the creepy blank stare it had when it was newly made. It always gave people a sense that they were being watched, and it always had its eyes on them. It was fabled that it had mysterious powers, containing a second world inside its head, split into three pieces, where fabled flowers of various color grew.

Two men sat at the base of the largest building in Sleepywood, a large building made from processed wood, built on the vine anchored landscape, where people could come to rest their body in the heated saunas, and often, people would show off items they had found, or items of rarity. But the sauna didn't concern her, as her mind and body were feeling fine, aside from the pain of the destruction of Kerning City, but she was doing her best to block out the disturbing images from her mind. She felt like a simple tree branch, very weak and fragile, clinging to her sanity, as it could snap at any seconds if the wind blew too roughly. She held her arms to her chest, trying to remind herself of what she had come here for.

To test out the Revenge in combat.

Marinas entered the dark, moss-covered and rotting tree, into the heart of the Ant Tunnel.

---Ant Tunnel Park 17:11---

Corpses of recently deceased Evil Eyes lined the ground, giving fresh meat to the many hungry Stirges that roosted in the endless caverns. Marinas' Revenge dripped a green thick liquid, the blood of the many lizards that stood in her path. The young bandit climbed up to the 24 Hour Store, where she purchased some Unagi and Red Bean Soda for her dinner, and a sack of White and Mana potions for the battle she was about to face. She focused her energy again, holding her magic energy around her feet.

"Haste!" She called, as her feet lit up a light blue color, and started bounding away down the jagged rocks that jutted out of the walls, a series of platforms for her to travel on. She came to a stop at ground level, clearing out another pack of Evil Eyes, with the occasional Zombie Mushroom. She approached a nest of Evil Eye eggs, and harnessed her mana again, this time using it to move to another part of the cave, where more Evil Eyes wandered around aimlessly, tearing and devouring each other when other food sources were unavailable. Skeletons of already devoured Evil Eyes littered the ground like garbage, and the stench of rotting meat was unbearable. Marinas fled, worried less about hurting more creatures, and more disturbed by the smell the creatures made, wherever it was coming from.

At the top of the cliff was a small gravestone, with indecipherable words written on it, most likely in the language of the monsters. She jumped into the hole in front of it, falling deeper into the cave's darkness.

Inside the cave were many Zombie Mushrooms, but they weren't what she was here for. She leapt down to the final level of the cave, where a single Zombie Mushroom was bouncing around happily. She ran at the undead fungus, and thrust her dagger into him, as it penetrated him deeply, leaving a fatal wound. She pulled the dagger free, unstained by blood, as the once innocent mushroom fell to the ground, the charm holding its revived soul to its body falling from it's head, sending it on to the afterlife.

The ground rumbled violently, knocking Marinas into another Zombie Mushroom that had just jumped down from higher up. The ground quaked with intensity, throwing Marinas to her knees, as a gigantic, evil, but still playful-looking, Zombie Mushroom. This is what she had come to test her new friend out on.

Zombie Mushmom.

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Yay, I'm still going with this.