Chapter 3

The green energy felt like a freezing river bursting through a dam. It surged through Jolie's bloodstream, overriding the weakness of her zero-GCI body.

In the pitch-black room, Jolie's eyes flashed with an eerie, luminescent emerald glow.

Aloys felt it. Even through the haze of the aphrodisiac and his feral madness, his combat instincts flared. The aura of the female beneath him had mutated from prey to something highly dangerous. His jaw clenched, and he tried to crush her wrists to neutralize the threat.

Jolie let out a guttural scream. She channeled every ounce of the freezing green energy into the palms of her hands and pushed it outward, flooding the environment.

In the corner of the suite, three expensive, decorative potted vines reacted instantly. The Arborgenesis Gift-a power she didn't even know she had-injected them with terrifying vitality.

The fragile, decorative stems exploded in size. Within half a second, they mutated into massive, thigh-thick vines covered in dark, pulsing veins.

Four of the colossal vines slithered across the carpet like giant anacondas. They whipped through the air and snapped around Aloys's thick ankles, locking on with the grip of a vice.

Aloys roared in shock and fury. He tried to yank his legs free, his muscles bulging as he applied thousands of pounds of force.

The vines didn't snap. His brutal strength only managed to leave faint white stress marks on the bark.

The distraction cost him his leverage. Jolie seized the split-second opening. She drove her knee upward with brutal precision, slamming it directly into his groin.

Aloys let out a choked grunt. The crushing grip on Jolie's wrists loosened just a fraction of an inch.

Jolie ripped her hands free. Her palms glowed brighter, casting a sickly green light over Aloys's enraged face. She directed the remaining vines straight at him.

Two thick branches lashed out, wrapping around Aloys's biceps. With a violent jerk, the vines hauled his massive body backward, ripping him off Jolie and dragging him through the air.

Suspended above the floor, Aloys's survival instincts took over. His body erupted in blinding, crackling blue lightning. The Thunder-attribute power of a top-tier Primal illuminated the suite in strobe-like flashes. He channeled the high-voltage electricity directly into the vines, trying to incinerate them.

Jolie's heart skipped a beat. She instinctively activated her secondary Gift: Sylvan Soul. A shimmering, translucent membrane of life energy coated the vines, acting as a perfect biological insulator.

The blue lightning exploded against the membrane. The outer bark charred and smoked, filling the room with the smell of burning wood, but the core of the vines held strong.

With a flick of Jolie's wrist, the vines slammed Aloys into the far wall.

CRASH.

The impact shook the entire hotel suite. The expensive silk wallpaper tore, and the drywall fractured into a spiderweb of cracks.

Aloys was dizzy, his vision swimming. The combination of the aphrodisiac, his psychological revulsion, and the massive over-exertion of his lightning power pushed his feral index past the point of no return. His body was shutting down.

His eyes bled crimson. With a final, inhuman bellow, he flexed his left arm so hard the bone popped, physically snapping one of the charred vines in half.

Jolie's breath hitched. She couldn't let him get loose. If he touched the floor, she was dead. She slammed her hands together, focusing all her remaining mental power into the ultimate Arborgenesis execution.

The hardwood floor beneath Aloys splintered and erupted. A massive, primary root burst from the ground directly behind him. It split into a hundred smaller, razor-sharp branches that wove together at blinding speed, forming a dense, inescapable wooden cocoon that pinned Aloys flat against the cracked wall.

Aloys thrashed wildly, his lightning sparking weakly against the wood.

The tiny thorns lining the vines dug deep into his skin, injecting a potent, plant-based neurotoxin.

Aloys's movements grew sluggish. His chest he heave as he fought the paralysis. His golden eyes, burning with a lethal promise of murder, locked onto Jolie's silhouette in the dark. He memorized her scent, her shape.

Then, the toxin won. Aloys's head rolled forward, his chin hitting his chest as he slipped into total unconsciousness.

Jolie collapsed onto the carpet. Her clothes were soaked in cold sweat. Her chest heaved as she sucked in greedy lungfuls of air.

She stared at the terrifying man cocooned on the wall. She had actually survived.

Suddenly, a crisp, mechanical voice echoed directly inside her brain.

[System Alert: Ultra-high concentration of feral regulatory energy detected. Do you wish to absorb? ]

Jolie froze. She looked up at the unconscious Aloys. The terror in her chest evaporated, instantly replaced by a cold, calculating greed.