[Liem has only a split second to move before the beast crashes into him, and he chooses to use it bracing to keep his feet rather than pivoting to avoid the worst of the impact. His breath wheezes out of him as the mass of root hurls itself into his body, he brings his arms up to block the brunt of the force, and although he staggers back with their momentum, he doesn't fall.
This is a good thing, he realizes, because it's all he can do to resist the pull of its grappling limbs even with his boots firmly on the ground. The bow he'd made such a dash for ends up in the dirt as he uses his injured arm to attempt to hold it off, slashing at tendrils with his blade as grasping roots claw at him. He doesn't know what might happen if it succeeds in pulling him to its centre, but he's confident it won't be something good.
And yet, even as he slices at it, severing some of the thinner roots extending from its limbs, he feels the stab and tug of things working their way beneath armour and into flesh, feels sticky warmth soaking more of the clothing covering his chest, his arms, his flanks, his legs—
He shifts the grip on his knife, holding it at the ready so he can smash the pommel into the creature—to break stone instead of slicing wood and vine. He gives up on trying to break free, lunges into the force of its pull.
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This is a good thing, he realizes, because it's all he can do to resist the pull of its grappling limbs even with his boots firmly on the ground. The bow he'd made such a dash for ends up in the dirt as he uses his injured arm to attempt to hold it off, slashing at tendrils with his blade as grasping roots claw at him. He doesn't know what might happen if it succeeds in pulling him to its centre, but he's confident it won't be something good.
And yet, even as he slices at it, severing some of the thinner roots extending from its limbs, he feels the stab and tug of things working their way beneath armour and into flesh, feels sticky warmth soaking more of the clothing covering his chest, his arms, his flanks, his legs—
He shifts the grip on his knife, holding it at the ready so he can smash the pommel into the creature—to break stone instead of slicing wood and vine. He gives up on trying to break free, lunges into the force of its pull.
And he lets it drag him closer.]