Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

a normal one, she knew the entire parlay had taken only the briefest of moments. The transfer of knowledge was another near-instantaneous sliver of time. She could not see the gorillemur. However, with the newfound connection to the others, she could tell how far away it was and shared in the discomfort the plants were feeling from being bent, uprooted, and crushed by its passing as if they were done to a distant appendage of her own body. Pressure from its steps tickled along roots underground, and provided a ping like echolocation or a radar.

She turned and rushed to meet the threat. As she began to run, nearby plants pushed nourishment into her feet, and she grew with each step. Run, forest, run! she thought as she passed a tree that had fallen, revealing a ball of upturned gnarled roots. She grabbed the trunk, wielding it like a cudgel as she caught the first glimpse of the gorillemur.

It had grown in size as more creatures had joined the conglomeration, and was now easily thirty feet tall and getting larger. Yuki yanked the tree free, shook off the dirt clumped in its roots, and swung the trunk, hitting the beast solidly in the side of its torso.

Lemurs exploded away, flung like LEGOs in all different directions. Yuki had left herself over-extended with the swing and a powerful backhand hit her and bent her over. Instead of flying away, her feet intertwined with the underlying root system. Rolling with the blow, she leaned back and was able to rebound to her upright posture in a way that would have made gymnasts and limbo-aficionados gasp.

Dropping the tree, she began to punch the creature, pushing more thorns out along her abnormally large fists and forearms as they broke off and embedded in the individual creatures. She found she could secrete all sorts of nasty poisons along their length, the variety overwhelming. Without time to choose, she just made a cocktail of the worst and kept attacking. Each hole she punched into the creature was quickly sealed with other animals who crawled to fill the gap underneath.

In frustration, the gorillemur bellowed again, calling to more lemurs who leapt down from the treetops, adding to the mass. With each punch, Yuki started activating Compost to break down the dead bodies of lemurs. They crumbled to a nasty paste. As the spatter began to hit the ground, she felt a surge of energy as the forest metabolized the nutrients and gave them back to her. With this assistance, she was able to grow in proportion with the monster, but she was still dwarfed by its size.

Unable to land any attacks, the gorillemur pulled itself up a nearby tree to regroup. Its bulk began to undulate and swell. Soon it would be large enough to overpower her if she did nothing. As Yuki pursued, she felt a massive drop in her power as her feet left the nourishing comfort of the soft soil. The fact that her growth had stopped as she lost her connection to the ground was not lost on the animals who began a taunting yipping noise as it jumped from tree to tree, retreating upward.

With a thought, she sent some vines to grab the creature to secure it. Briefly the monster was bound, but abandoning those lemurs, it melted out of the vine’s grasp and was off to another limb. The further from the forest floor, the more difficult it was to manipulate the vines as they all needed to be rooted and they became ungainly the higher up they had to extend.

Seizing upon some of the gifted knowledge, she expelled a cloud of thorns like shotgun scatter, but the gorillemur was too agile. It easily dodged and twisted out of the few shots she managed.

She pulled herself after the creature, hearing the other plants cheer her efforts. They were excited, finally having an agent to actively defend them. Not wanting to let them down, Yuki pushed forward, looking down as she perched atop another thick branch. She wasn’t afraid of falling from this height, but felt something probably best described as homesickness as she distanced herself from the comforting and nourishing safety of the ground.

More mocking yips baited her to follow, and she reluctantly began climbing again. Its ascent brought it in the direct path of more of the infernal creatures and they replenished those that were lost and then began building up, forming new layers upon layers. It’s arms also grew, and its enhanced reach allowed it to climb even faster.

The gap between Yuki and it began to grow. As it moved from tree to tree, finding larger ones to climb as it fled, Yuki had to get creative and lash out with vines, swinging like Tarzan to keep up with the creature. It was not as easy as the holovids made it look, and she got hung up on branches as there were no clear paths as she scrambled to stay close to the beast.

There was a large crack and the gorillemur shifted to stay in the trees. Looking at the large treetop that had splintered in its paw, it threw it at Yuki. The monster was so heavy now that the trees couldn’t support its weight anymore. Its demeanor changed from one of flight to fight as it began breaking off branches and limbs, throwing them recklessly in her direction without any real aim. A couple times, she almost lost her footing as the limb collided with the tree she was holding onto and the jolt of impact almost made her lose her grasp. She mentally grew her fingers longer, gaining a better grip.

Another branch distracted her and an inhumanly long arm flicked like a whip, snatching her while she was distracted. Claws dug into her bark skin and pressed in like ticks. She was slowly pried free from her perch and pulled across the clearing created by the broken trees. The gorillemur clenched tightly, but it did not have