"Be careful. These plants are fast with their attacks and their stems can regenerate even if you sliced them off." Park Sun-jae warned. "So, try to dodge if possible."
"Okay!" Kim Jae-hoon gripped his spears tightly as he advanced forward with a murderous intent in his eyes and aimed to bring down one of the nearest flamingo plants he could reach his hands on.
When he came inside the 6 metre radius area of the plant monster, it instinctively sensed danger and attacked him with its stems immediately like it was shooting arrows. These stems were sharp as a blade that they can pierce through someone's body like it was a thin paper.
The young man saw the attack incoming and dodged every single one of them by swiftly moving here and there. But it was useless.
Every aim the plant made at him was sharp and precise that it would at least graze him to different parts of the body no matter what.
As it was nothing serious of an injury, he ignored it and set foot on one of the lower stems of the plant in order to jump his way up to the top, and cut its head off to kill the goddamn plant monster.
However, as time went by, the small injuries inflicted upon him by the plant started affecting his performance and it slowed him down a little. On top of that, he started feeling pain in his right hand again and he was hurt all over his body that the pain caused by it was unbearable to him as well. After seeing his friend suffering like that, Park Sun-jae became nervous and worried about him. He thought it would be an easy job to kill a giant plant since the bigger they are, the slower their attacks are.
Unexpectedly, his predictions were wrong and he put Kim Jae-hoon in grave danger that he was regretting his decision of bringing him here against his own will.
"What do I do? Situation looks serious!" The ghost said while biting his nails off in frustration.
Meanwhile, Kim Jae-hoon realised that if he only dodge the attacks, he would never reach the top and accumulate more injuries in the process. So, he began slicing those stems off with the spears he had in his grasp and started cutting his way through the path to reach the head of the plant while avoiding the fire simultaneously.
Nevertheless, the attacks didn't stop no matter what he did. Instead, it became more fierce and improvised the next time they dealt a blow at him. He would get pushed back little by little and also get injured in the process. Since the damaged parts of the plant's body would grow back on its own, it wasn't easy for him to get closer to the target as he thought.
In addition, the plant hasn't used its ultimate fire attack on him yet. So, if it had used it while he was busy defending against these stems, he would've been done for. But Kim Jae-hoon was aware that the plant won't shoot fire at him while he is standing on a part of his body. The reason was simple. Although the Flamingo Plant can breathe fire out of its mouth, it was actually vulnerable to the fire itself and won't regenerate if any part of its body caught on fire.
That was the plant's weakness and strength at the same time. Thanks to that, the young man won't have worry about the fire for now.
Unfortunately, the situation still looked dire for him and he had to take some extreme measures at the time in order to kill the plant.
The young man focused all of his attention on the offense and ignored all the attacks directed at him as he advanced forward. While clearing the way by slicing off the obstacles in the path, he was moving twice as fast than before but also receiving serious injuries in the process. However, he didn't gave up and kept moving forward while enduring the excruciating pain he was feeling all over his body.
After a bit of struggle and endurance, the young man finally reached the flamingo plant's head and was able to cut it off clean in one strike with his spear before the plant could spit one last fire at Kim Jae-hoon's face which was a close call to him.
"Whew, I thought I was a goner for a second there." He sighed in relief.
Upon seeing a fellow plant going down, it made the other plants infuriated towards Kim Jae-hoon which made the situation aggravated and they all started attacking him at once.
"Kim Jae-hoon, hurry up and escape from there!" A sudden loud voice reached his ears and he looked behind him only to find himself getting screwed over by the other plants.
The young man did not waste any time as he slide down through the main stem of the plant and reached the ground. He immediately approached the sliced off head while evading the multiple enemies attacks and pulled the orb out of its mouth before running away to the direction where the exit was.
Soon, Kim Jae-hoon was out of their attack range and kept running until he exited the cursed place once and for all.
As soon as he was outside the Mist Garden, the young man collapsed on the ground with the orb gripped tightly in his hand as he gasped for air.
"Woah! You did it." Park Sun-jae smiled at him with a surprised look on his face.
He wasn't sure his friend would make it back considering the chances of survival was very slim. But he was glad that Kim Jae-hoon didn't die and survived another day to live.
The latter noticed his surprised tone towards him as he replied after he took some time to adjust to normal breathing.
"What? Are you that shocked? Were you expecting the opposite?" He asked with a serious gaze.
"To be honest, I only knew the strength of a Flamingo Plant theoretically. Hence, some of my calculations were wrong and I put you in grave danger because of that. Hope you forgive me." Park Sun-jae said apologetically as he slightly bowed down to him.
"No worries. It's fine. Either way, we're going to face similar monsters in the future. I guess we can call this fight as a practice match before the real battle." Kim Jae-hoon chuckled.
"It's not funny. I was at fault. I put you at a greater risk when I send you there. I shouldn't have done that."
"You know what? Sometimes, you're just annoying that I want to beat you up. Stop blaming yourself for all the little mistakes you do unintentionally. Nothing is certain in this world. Sometimes, we gotta risk our life in the face of such uncertainity. As they say, 'there is no gain without some risks involved'. You got it?" Kim Jae-hoon smiled.
"Okay. If you say so." The ghost nodded with an admiration on his face for Kim Jae-hoon.
He got the same body as Park Sun-jae once possessed. However, the way he do things with his current ability is so different and compared to him, the young boy was coward and pushover for the bullies who made him this way.
'Would my life had been turn out differently if I acted brave and fearless like Kim Jae-hoon?' he wondered inwardly.