Surviving

Now that the Ivy Monitor could no longer reattach to the vines on the ground, Tommy wanted to try something. He grabbed the small hair-like vines on the back of the monitor and gave it a firm but gentle tug. From underneath the white vines he could see a slight tug, but as it was tugged the vine over the top of the hair-like one immediately split apart. Clearly it wasn't willing to allow this vine to be severed, but the vines on the floor were so thick that it didn't appear they had the ability to move freely. This caused it to actually split itself in order to save the thin vine.

Tommy held the monitor in his arm, fearing that if he severed the hair-like vines the large ones would just no longer move themselves. Tommy kept pulling the thread vines and following them. After about 10 minutes another screen could be seen pursuing him from a distance, gaining on him quickly. Pulling the vines was a slow process as he had to allow time for the large vines to peel away. It was another white screen so when it got close enough Tommy threw the monitor in his hand into the air. This allowed him to move freely without the first monitor being able to reconnect its vines.

Tommy quickly dismembered the monitor, including the thread vines on the back. That's when he took notice that this white vine actually had a yellow hue to it. Tommy caught the falling white monitor and continued to follow the threads.

After walking for another 40 minutes, Tommy was getting a little perturbed. This building wasn't large enough for him to have continually walked for 40 minutes. He continued on for another 15 minutes when he saw something in front of him moving. It was moving much slower than the white/yellow monitor that had chased him before, but for some reason that made Tommy all the more cautious. It was heading from the exact direction that the threads were following. If Tommy kept following the threads they would definitely meet.

As Tommy stared down this never-ending hallway of cubicles with grey ceilings the figure got ever closer. The lights were abnormal from what you would see in a typical office as each light that would normally be there was replaced by a miniature sun. Emitting that same warm glow as the sun over the city. This caused it to be very bright, but also very natural lighting, like standing outside on a sunny day. The figure looked very humanoid but something wasn't right in the way that it moved.

Tommy could clearly see that this figure was a emerald green color. Tommy was shocked. He never saw a yellow let alone an orange one. How could he already be on the 4th level. Worse yet was that his time limit was well over. So he pushed on and kept moving with no other option.

As he came within a few hundred feet he could clearly see the figure ahead of him. It was a woman. She was completely made of vines though. You could see each and every vine, of about 3 inches around, bend and turn to form an entire body. She was beautiful if not weird looking. She had an hour glass figure with a full chest and round bottom. She had no clothes on which was all in well because she didn't actually have any genitals. She just had the general shape and appearance of a woman.

She lifted her hand and as she brought it down her entire arm turned into a giant whip extending a few hundred feet into the air. Seeing it sprawled across the sky almost looked like a green lighting bolt but instead of jagged, it was curvy and flowed in the sky like a river. The moment it reached its peak, the tip whipped forward at unimaginable speed. The impact sent Tommy flying backwards as he dropped the monitor on top of the vines on the ground. The previously white vines on the ground were now green, Tommy never saw them change. He would have sworn that they were white when he was walking on them.

Tommy wasn't hurt at all due to the armor but the hit was strong enough to knock him off of his feet. Actually he was pretty sure that the strength was stronger than his own. Standing back up, he could see the Ivy Nymph throwing her whip-like arm back into the sky. Tommy jumped in the air directly at the vine. It worked, instead of taking the brunt of the force at the highest velocity point, the tip, he avoided 90 percent of the blows strength allowing him to bounce off of the ground. As he landed on all four limbs he used his full strength to launch himself directly at the woman. He tried to tackle her to the ground, instead he ended up beheading her as the vines in her feet rooted her to the ground.

After rolling to a stop on the ground he felt himself wrapped in threads, it felt similar to walking into a spiderweb. When he moved he broke the threads and the head that was previously looking around suddenly looked lifeless. He tried to move the head to look at it a little closer and noticed a piece of her faces flesh just molted off, exposing a screen underneath.

"This was a fucking Ivy Monitor?" Tommy couldn't believe it.

THWAP!!!!!

Tommy was sent flying smashing into a cubicle wall. He quickly shot up and saw the white monitor he was holding now growing a males face. The face was a pale green color. The once white stalks were now a pale green mass of vines, it looked like a Jell-O blob as it was writhing around. Extending out of the ball was a single whip extending 50 feet into the air.

"Are the green vines changing the white monitor?" Tommy couldn't help but wonder. The armor was enough to protect him so far so he wasn't worried. If it could take that attack from the black monitor he was confident about this one.

As the whip was raised again this time it was different. Before when the ivy woman used hers it appeared with bends like a river. This one was cragged and jagged like a true lightning bolt. Tommy could actually see sparks coming off the tip. Tommy didn't want to test his armor with a lightning whip. He once again launched himself at the vine creature taking its head off in one swoop.

"Thank god I found this armor. This is the 5th time it's saved my life, third time in here alone." Tommy made sure that he didn't sever the threads this time and made sure the head didn't touch the ground once.

He couldn't help but wonder how he had already made it to the green level since he didn't ever come in contact with the other 2 levels. It worried him.

"If I had a weapon I wouldn't worry so badly. I killed a green one without much of an issue thanks to my armor, but that means blue is next. Solus said he is the only person to ever make it to the 5th level with the blue monitors, and I basically skipped them all." Tommy was feeling nervous about going forward, but what else could he do at this point. His time was up, they assumed he was dead so nobody would come looking for him. He figured if he's going to die here he might as well push himself as far as he could.

It might not have been a good idea but Tommy was hoping that if he could make it to the end then maybe he could still get out. So he just kept moving forward following those threads. If something kept sending these things after him it must mean that it's scared of him, and better yet, it meant that it could control these things. That means I can stay safe until they open the doors again.

Just then a blue beam smacked the side of his head.

CRUNCH!

There was a spiderweb crack on the face shield of his armor. This was the first time anything had done damage to it. Tommy wanted to turn around and run.

BAM!

A hit to the ribs caused Tommy to double over in pain. A crack was clearly seen on his chest. He was quickly yanked into the air by his neck. He could see a long blue vine dangling him, it lead all the way to a cubicle not far from where he stood. Out walked a blue man dressed in a blue robe. Extending out from the sleeve was in fact that same blue vine.

Tommy was confused. This thing was able to break my armor but the black one couldn't. Maybe it was due to one being elemental damage and the other being brute force.

Tommy did the only thing he could do. He dropped the pale green screen in his hand and kicked it as hard as he could at the blue man walking up to him. The blue man didn't take Tommy as a serious opponent after seeing how easily he knocked him to the ground.

Bam.

The blue man stumbled back, loosing his grip on Tommy, he fell to the ground. In the brief instant that the man was knocked off his feet, Tommy landed, jumped at the man and used all of his strength to chop at his head. His had only cut a quarter of the way through his neck. As his hand was stuck inside the blue mans neck, Tommy felt something hard. This was odd since he couldn't feel anything else through his armor, but he could clearly feel this small cube shaped thing. He grabbed it and pulled it out.

Tommy jumped back away from the blue man with the cube in his hand. He held it in his hand watching the blue man closely. The blue man looked forward at Tommy and just smiled. It was a creepy smile. It looked like a human rendition of the smiley face emoji, you'd think it would be cute, but it is a terrifying sight.

After staring for a few moments he raised his hand out in front of him and vines started drifting up from the ground. A moment later and the vines could be seen being shaped into something. A long spear was formed with a small blade at the tip.

*Geno Gem now linked to your DNA. Would you like to activate it?*