Soul Crossers | Wattys 2024

Chapter 3: Soul Crosser

Sol Surge's vessels tapped into the abilities of their fairy half's memories as they charged at Agreullous. The devilish sentience of wood launched his arms at them, causing them to panic. A vine sprouted from one hand to the other, which they caught once their human half's creativity kicked off, hang gliding on the monster's hand and laughing as they double-dived kicked him in the face.

"Someone's gonna be feeling Agro after that one."

They sprung with a rapid barrage of punches, smashing parts of his bark off. Pissed, Agro morphed both arm limbs into a cage, binding, choking, and slamming Sol to the ground. Though mildly hurt, the pain barely fazed them compared to when they were just two people, rolling under his splintered hand.

Agro chased after them via turning his finger tendrils to skewer them. Posing in between the path of two, Sol gripped their hand with their human side's wish for something to strike from long range manifested into their hand glove opening up in the shape of a flower bud with a circle hold. 

They fired a shot of concentrated energy and a frenetic pollen blast which broke parts of Agro's fingers and blinded his eyes from the corroding microspores.

The more demonic of the two standing creatures swung his claws around with the screaming desire for sight, uppercutting them into one of the light fixtures.

"He's blinded? In that case," creating a plan. They tied the structure to their back, then slid and spun past a heavy swing to Agro's head with the large bar. The light flickered on and off as Sol disappeared from Agro's sight. Giggling at different sound intervals to throw him off, they waited until darkness descended one last time.

"Right in front of you," singsonging.

Sol leaped out of their bedroom, smashing the tree creature in the back using a chair with their vines so hard, he dropped to the floor. The roots for feet fumbled to push him up, leading Sol to charge and fire an energy ball of pollen to cover his body while fanning the gas to spread by spinning the vine around.

Temporarily destroying his binary of reality of fiction led to Sol's true objective. They rushed into Syntel's dorm, biting and slashing the binds around Jace's body and locked the door. They rolled into the following room to free their neighbors, turning at the sight of the malnourished bodies in their underwear.

"Pervert!" Sol blasted Agro in the back, who used that to strike at the same location. They narrowly slide into another room to free another duo. His tendrils had the two jumping around on the debris from the broken parts of his body they used to shield themselves as they rescued Syntel's Resident Advisor.

After freeing her, Sol spotted the accumulated dead bark, grass, and tree around them and their body. However, Agro's body had only shrunken down by a quarter of his original size.

"He wasn't gaining his powers from absorbing them? He is, but the roots still have their souls he can feast off of. Great, so we have to beat him? Or do enough damage to free the host. Host? He injected his soul into another similar human." Talking to themselves as one merged entity was something they'd didn't care as much as agreeing to end this as fast as possible.

Agro recovered and ricocheted his arms at their feet. Sol tripped, rolling into the debris that piled up faster and faster until they rolled around the hallway as a sphere of leaves and organic matter. Though dizzy, they got enough control to drift left and right, even riding up the walls from his elongated attacks.

"We still need a way to get in close. Plant, light, solar energy. Can we channel solar energy into our bodies? Well yes, but nothing too big." In their mental plane, a screen of thoughts widened so both sides could see what the other was thinking more clearly. Lilac thought his idea was crazy, but Syntel's laughter and excitement to try it got her on the same page.