Lifeforce is a type of energy that everything possesses. Whether it be plants, animals, sapients or even undeads. Although the last one is not commonly known.
It fuels the vessel, exhausting itself till it vanishes, leading to expiration of the being. Most refer to this process as "death of old age".
However, time isn't the only thing that leads to its diminishment. The other being injuries or destruction of the vessel.
If the vessel is damaged, lifeforce can escape through the wounds, leaving somebody with a lessened lifespan. Although that only happens with bigger openings than your average stab or even slash wounds. Unless they hit an organ that contains higher concentration of lifeforce, of course.
The Foliage Shaper and others in its family are an exception to the rule as they don't require any large openings to absorb foreign lifeforce, instead having special cells dedicated solely to this task.
The Core however didn't expect to see anybody entering its dungeon with a smaller than standard amount of lifeforce. As those kinds of sapients are usually far from their original strength and chose to not take the risk associated with dungeons.
The Only One surprised it with this as not only did it enter its walls knowing that it wasn't in its top most condition, chose to get separated from its companions but also didn't exhibit any of the usual signs of lessened lifespan.
The Core didn't see any gray hairs, wrinkles or detect any smells. It also didn't perceive any injuries, though those could be hidden behind clothes but wounds severe enough to cut through lifespan usually manifested themselves along with some kind of physical degeneracy, such as inability to move certain limbs.
So how could Foliage Shaper deplete its lifeforce so quickly? Is the Invader one of the rare cases of beings that is naturally born with less Lifeforce?
While The Core was thinking about such matters the fight of attrition was going strong.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Although The Only One was starting to exhibit signs of panic, making foolish mistakes under pressure of near death, leading to even more lifeforce loss and increasing the dread, the monster it was fighting wasn't faring much better.
Her energy was being steadily depleted since the beginning of the battle and the amount lost has increased due to the excitement that caused her to act more recklessly than she did at the start.
The Core didn't understand why she was so excited, she hadn't acted that way with any of the other animal-like monsters, was it because this one was an invader?
Nevertheless she wasn't losing so The Core didn't command her to calm down, which it remembered it could do, instead it ordered her to cover the walls of the floor.
That included the opening to the previous floor, as it worried The Only One might try to escape.
Normally it wouldn't do that, as the reputation that would spread if an Interloper escaped would cause it to become a target for extermination, but if it didn't kill it now who knows when it could get a next chance to murder a sapient.
Logically it knew that with its existence exposed, more and more sapients will come to see if it has any treasures worth taking, but it couldn't stop the fear that if it doesn't take the opportunity now, it won't show up later.
Although that meant that Foliage Shaper decelerated her attacks during the process of hiding the exit.
The Only One noticed the fact that the vines started growing over walls at a frightening speed because of the slowed attacks that led it to have an opportunity to get distracted. It began rushing to the walls, although it was more of a trek due to the constant interruptions of Foliage Shaper that picked up speed till it returned to the previous one.
Nevertheless it made it to the nearest wall and started attacking it, breaking the vines.
The Foliage Shaper regrew them but The Core couldn't help but notice that the regeneration speed of its monster has slowed.
The Invader ignored the spot it just punched and walked, although it would be more accurate to call it waddling, to the left to punch the vines again.
Was it trying to find the exit? Too late for that as it seemed to be on its last legs and the door was on the other side of the room. If it wasn't clouded by panic it would have realised that and begun searching there instead of here, wasting precious time in the process.
The Core couldn't help but share in the enthusiasm of its middle boss as the Invader grew slower. It was about to die!
Just as The Core was about to order the Foliage Shaper to somehow speed up the murdering process from impatience, The Invader tripped on a conveniently placed vine.
The Foliage Shaper didn't waste any time and submerged it in her vines, increasing her suction till the long awaited notification showed up in The Core's view.
[ 2/10 sapients killed]
English or Chinese titles?
