Once she took off and disappeared from my sight, I made my preparations to ambush the three pursuers. To continue their chase and snipe us from afar, they would have to show their faces.

[Conglomerate] fully activated, [synthesis] at maximum. Whoever you are, you've gone far enough. I'll stop you!

No matter what kind of suits they had, if they were living, they needed to breath. That didn't fully apply to my fey body but I still breathed even though I didn't need to. To be frank, I planned to trap them and suffocate them. It was totally a plant thing to do.

I had nothing to fear. As long as I kept a check on my mana, I might as well be a plant version of a zombie.

Now, how do I shoot things? Hah. I wish I had this thought out first.

There was still some time before those three would show up. Using this grace period, I brainstormed all the possible ways I could make my body shoot things. If I could overcome this obstacle, fighting enemies at a distance wouldn't be as troublesome.

Think! Think! Think! Magic? No, I don't have magic, I think. I can only rely on abilities and traits. Chemical? I'm still bad at chemistry. Mechanical? I don't want to just throw things. Elastic? No rubber bands here. Oh wait, what about compressed air?

I went over what all the abilities and traits did then tried to combine them to see if I could get anything to work with compressed air.

Aha! [Transformation] should do, I hope. I can pull air into this body so it should be doable. I just need to transform my body a bit. Let's give it a try!

With my new ability, altering my body was quite easy and painless. With the aid of [conglomerate], even the minute details could be taken care of. In this case, I recreated my skin with tiny pores, and along with them came countless tiny channels connected to my newly created expansive lungs.

Originally, my skin, given its nature had no pores whatsoever. I didn't need to sweat or breathe or anything that were essential to other living beings or even other fey beings that weren't derived from plants. It was like this fey body was only a physical projection of my plant bodies.

In any case, with this, I could store super compressed air in those pores by distributing the air I breathed in. Blocking the pores were tiny needles coated in sticky goo. They weren't just tiny and light, but tiny and heavy. If they were too light, wind would just blow them off course.

Those weren't the only body parts I altered. As much as I disliked it, I opened up space in my arms to store compressed air as well. This was actually going to be my secret weapon.

I breathed, and breathed. It kind of felt strange that I was only inhaling and not exhaling.

Once I was ready, I hid under the cliff and waited with miniature strawberries clutched in my hands.

Seconds passed.

They should be here any moment now.

Minutes passed.

Where are they? Don't tell me they found out about our plan?

Just then, three black silhouettes appeared above me.

Phew. Now's my chance.

As I made a mad dash at them, I released waves of sticky needles. Immediately after, assisted by compressed air, I blasted those extra durable strawberries aimed at the sky, at them, and everywhere around them. Each strawberry acted both as clones and a place I could teleport to.

"Take cover!" One of them shouted.

Even with their human sized mobile suits, which were closer to skeletal armored suits, their bodies weren't fully protected. From what I understood, if these needles managed to entered their skin, removing them would be extremely difficult. In addition, with the presence sticky goo, irritation and inflammation was sure to follow. They had no choice but to protect themselves.

My first gamble paid off. Countless needles were stuck on them.

Next, using [strawberry substitution], I swapped my position with one of the first strawberry that passed the black clothed people. I was really grateful that [conglomerate] allowed me to use [strawberry substitution] without that severe restriction.

Pow! Eat that!

My fist connected with one of them.

My goal was to get them as close together as possible so I could wrapped them all up in one go. However, that plan was quickly tossed into the trash bin. The reason? My punch had no impact. I might as well had tapped the guy.

Contingency plan!

Since I was close enough to one of them, I used [synthesis] at maximum. The strawberries that had scattered around suddenly burst forth with lush green growth. As for my fey body, I tackled the one closest to me, my vines binding and cocooning until he couldn't be seen anymore. Thorns and needles continued to grow within. Only death awaited him as I separated myself from the green cocoon as gravity pulled it down the bottom of the canyon.

The other strawberries that had burst from [synthesis] weren't as successful. One of the armed human managed to evade my sticky vine nets. The remaining one wasn't as lucky. Escaping from the vine nets was one thing but there were large enough pieces stuck on his armor.

Too late for you. [Synthesis].

To have any of my clone stuck on them was a game over. Within seconds, that man was wrapped in thick layers of thorny and sticky vines. To ensure they wouldn't survive in their mobile suits, I had vines especially tucked crawling through any openings. Helmets weren't going to save them.

"You monster! How dare you!" The remaining person screamed in rage as she hovered above the canyon.

Hmm? A woman? Two bulges on the chest and a feminine voice. Yep.

I hadn't noticed earlier because I was too busy.

"No, you," I replied while facing her. 

She aimed her long rifle at me.

You didn't think I prepared all these special clones for nothing, right?

The moment she was about to shoot, only a falling strawberry remained where I was.

From above, I could see her panicking and scanning below to locate me. However, the situation had changed. I was now the hunter, and she a prey. If she had took notice, the strawberries I shot up had yet to fall.

Making use of [synthesis] and [conglomerate], the strawberries that had not yet burst had their leaves enlarged and altered to become parachutes the second they reached their peak height.

Their inability to track me was one of the biggest advantages I had.

Thank you, |escapist|.

I dove at her with my top speed just before she glanced up.

It's too late for you.

The shadow from my large black wings probably alerted her. However, it was too late. In a state of panic, she managed to land two shots on me. As for me, although I could dodge the hits via [strawberry substitution], I didn't want her to escape. Losing my left shoulder and my right forearm because, I didn't hesitate a single moment despite the pain I was feeling.

Then, with a huge grin on my face, I smashed into her as she screamed. My [synthesis] ability was on a rampage, completely engulfing her as we tumbled down. Thorns, needles, sticky goo, and plenty of vines were synthesized continuously. To ease my pain, I merged with this giant green ball and began using [absorption] on all three of them.

There's no way you can survive. But, plants are survivalists, you know? No matter how amazing your suit is, if you're only subpar, it's wasted on you. Who screams like that on the battlefield?

The battle came and ended swiftly.

Now that I had a better look, those mobile suits looked really nice and professional. It was no wonder Smoothie thought they were super strong. Sure, if I was to fight them head on, I would definitely get obliterated by their rifles. However, to think they didn't know how to deal with an ambush was quite the lucky day for me. I wondered if they were just too used to being hunters and suddenly ended up on the receiving end of things.

I examined the three corpses while transforming my body back to what it used to be before the battle. Having hollow arms and prickly skin just felt too strange for me.

"Hmm... I can't just leave them here. I guess I'll use [absorption] to break them down and store them away." Then, I thought about it again, "Actually, I should keep their rifles and a set of their suits. Maybe Smoothie will be able to tell me more about them."

blanksphere

The coward tactician strikes again?