I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

The dead tree was still for a moment, and then it became dry, root after root, until what used to be living branches of the tree turned brittle, cracked, and fell apart into dust.

Felix frowned and stared at the place where he tore a tree out of the ground, and saw how something was beginning to grow from there. The plants that were growing there were not veins, but vines. There were several vines that were growing out of the soil, one was as thick as his arm, others were as thin as a rope, and all of them were growing very fast, faster than he would expect them to grow even under these circumstances.

Felix could feel how the earth started shaking under his boots and saw how the vines were trying to grab him. He jerked back quickly, boots scraping against dirt, frustration building fast behind his ribs. The cards above him dropped into a rapid spin, cutting into the vines as they wrapped, but the pace of growth outstripped every cut. The severed pieces on the ground kept moving on their own, twisting together, folding into something with shape, round at first, then splitting into limbs. The cards pulled back on their own, hovering still, as Felix stood frozen, watching the process finish right in front of him.

Numenroot rose from the ground, standing on the two-meter-high legs of vines and having no facial or any other features besides the head-like formation of vines.

"Finally time to get down to business." Felix clenched his fist and Numen flowed into it, compacting into layers upon layers of energy, until it felt thick enough to break rock. The cards spinning above continued to whirl faster and faster, forming a steady circle of movement.

Vines shot out from the body of the creature simultaneously, wrapping themselves wide around Felix in a slow and careful curve, cutting him off from every avenue of escape.

Felix breathed out slowly, releasing it through his nose and swung his fist forward in one straight shot. There was no reaction from the Numenroot, no damage done, no sign of injury at all to the body. The vines wrapped up tightly behind him.

SECOND IMPACT!

As soon as the condensed energy impacted the creature, it blasted through the chest of the creature with a force that tore open a hole in its chest. The vines around him fell dead onto the ground of the woods while the Numenroot struggled to remain upright against the force. Felix pulled his hand back quickly, shaking it out with his hand burning.

"It still hurts." He turned his hand over, looking carefully at it, seeing small red lines on his knuckles where it bit back at him.

The top of the chest of the Numenroot fell backwards with a loud thud but the vines around the wound were already pulsating, pulling in the Numen still floating freely in the air. The gaping hole in the chest wavered, filled with more energy and more vines, growing back into its humanoid figure, bigger than before.

"This is starting to get on my nerves." Felix rolled his neck once, eyes narrowing at the new formation in front of him.

The Numenroot slammed both of its fists into the ground. Felix ducked out of the way just in time, watching in shock as the stones split open beneath where he had just been standing. He circled around from the right, delivering a sharp swing to its side. The creature took the hit and immediately recoiled, thrashing its vines wildly from side to side. Felix remained at a safe distance, circling the creature slowly and watching carefully as it twitched.

"You need to do better than that." Felix sneered, breathing evenly. "There is no way you’re going to hit me like that."

The head of the creature jerked viciously, vines springing out of the back and heading straight for him. Felix leapt into the air, meeting the attack head on rather than backing away from it. Two sets of the vines hit him directly, and he fell backwards, allowing them to slide down past his chest, while two other sets shot up from the ground to grab him. Felix jumped over them, but the vines followed, curling around his ankles. They were intercepted by his cards, which cut the vines down just before they could trap him.

Felix slammed into the Numenroot’s shoulder and slid to the ground. It began shaking again, its vines already retracting into its body to try to grab him again. Felix kicked into the side of its head, making it lurch low enough to avoid his attack and send it flipping back into the ground. The vines converged on the place that it had been trying to grab him before, clashing with each other futilely.

Its head whipped back up, and Felix went after it before it could recover. The six cards closed into a ring and swirled violently around its neck, severing its head from the rest of its body at the same time. Its head tumbled off, and he went for its legs. He brought the two cards to hand, pouring Numen through his arms, and plunged them into both ankles before sliding free and rolling back up onto his feet. One more kick sent the collapsing body sprawling flat.

"Didn’t say try harder?" Felix shook dirt from his sleeve, breathless but otherwise fine.

Yet vines were starting to move back towards his feet, the scattered body parts rejoining their roots, and the head slowly reforming from loose threads.

Felix made a dismissive sound and bolted away, disregarding vines chasing after his legs. He grabbed the fattest vine connecting back to the ground and started tugging on it with full force. It wouldn’t give even an inch. Then Felix forced Numen down on it, tightening his grip with both hands, while the cards went to work on its neck simultaneously, chopping it up quickly without giving the plant a chance to regenerate. The vine vibrated strongly in Felix’s hands. He tightened his grip against it, his arm veins straining to the limit, until finally, the root broke with an ugly wet tearing noise.

The Numenroot shivered one more time and burst with new growth, shooting forth dozens of new branches at the same time, all of them fast. Felix released it and leaped away, dodging what he could, then jumped over another cluster growing under his feet, hanging himself on an overhead vine.

The cards continued their vicious circle dance, chopping up vines like there was no tomorrow, yet the number of them never seemed to decrease. Felix’s eyes scanned the area frantically, his body reacting faster than his thoughts. A vine lashed at his wrist and was instantly chopped off by him using his other hand, but then he got grazed by another vine right near his leg. He leaped into open air to avoid it, when suddenly he realized that he was standing right in the middle of a rapidly closing cage of vines.

His mind froze for half a second. Then a vine shot at his ankle and pulled him away hard, sending him flying several meters away and crashing heavily on the ground.

He slowly pushed himself up, spat the blood on the floor, and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "It would be nice to get a couple more helping hands here."

He looked over at Dune, who was still standing at the spot where she’d been watching the whole time.

"Yes." Dune answered, making a tight fist with her hand.

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