New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Alex slowly raised his hands as a sign to prove his non-hostility and waited for the woman to gather her two kids before ushering them inside the house. This action alone already seemed to relieve the man before him, who seemed less tense, but still glared at him.

Vines were starting to break ground under Alexander's feet, and he could feel them slowly climbing up his shoes as they aimed for his ankles.

Once the kids were inside, the vines quickly wrapped around his feet and clamped on him hard. Hard enough that Alex winced as they wrinkled his jeans into his skin.

"Now start talking. Or it gets really ugly, really fast," the man said, putting on a menacing face.

Alex looked at him, his gaze icy.

"Get rid of the snaring vines. I don't react well to threats."

The man looked at him, and his eyes narrowed.

"Yeah? Well, I don't either. You come here, land in my yard, in front of my children. Did you think that I would panic because you know where I live? You're not going to leave here alive if you think taking my kids hostage is the way to get to me. Now, talk!"

Alex frowned.

"You misunderstand my intentions, man. I had no intention of mixing anyone in this. I was just so focused on your mana signature that I didn't even sense your family. If I had, I would have rang the doorbell, like a normal person."

It was the man's turn to frown.

"You're not one of his men?"

"Whose men?" Alex asked, now confused.

The man fell into contemplation, as he mumbled to himself. But Alex's sharp hearing deciphered every word out of his mouth, and his frown deepened.

"If he's not with him, then who sent him? It's been nearly a week since the last one was sent. No. I can't believe him. He has to be lying to get my guard down…"

'Someone is pressuring this man. But who would be stupid enough for that? He seems like a strong druid, at least on this side,' Alex thought, gazing at the vines at his ankles.

He could have broken free at any moment, as they were much too flimsy to hold him down, but they were not weak by any other measure.

And, with his powerful mana-sensing capabilities, Alex could tell there were many more where they came from. The entirety of this plot of land was a rolling, coiling mess of vines, ten feet underground.

"Listen, man. Let's start over," Alex said, trying to defuse the situation.

The man turned his head to him, still wary.

"Why don't we start with proper introductions? My name is Alexander. Alexander Leduc. What is yours?" he asked, his hands still up.

The man before him narrowed his eyes at him.

"Playing coy with me is a waste of time, Mr. Leduc. I'm not going to go work for him. Go back to your boss and tell him to give up before I barge into his restaurant and transform it into a miniature jungle."

Alex looked at him with a dumbfounded look.

"Restaurant? Boss? Listen…" Alex started saying, stopping as he waited to get a name.

With a sigh, the man finally gave up and stated his name.

"Randall. Randall West. But you knew that already, if you found my house," he said, in an annoyed tone.

"Pleasure to meet you, Randall. But you are mistaken. I found you through your mana. I knew nothing about you other than there was a mana signature in the area. I detected it about three days ago, when I flew home from up north," Alex explained, trying to get him to calm down.

"I don't believe you!" the man shouted, becoming agitated.

Alex was about to get angry at the man's hardheadedness, but his senses suddenly picked up a new signature only a dozen meters away, and his gaze became icy again, especially since he could sense the bloodlust in this mana signature.

"Randall, someone is at your door, and he's not here for a friendly visit'. Alex tried to warn him.

But Randall took it as a threat instead.

"Do you think I'll take my eyes off you just because you say you're not alone? I'll take care of him after I deal with you," Randall growled, raising his left hand.

"I came alone, Randall. This man isn't with me," Alex said, feeling the vines grow on him and climb up his body.

In a matter of seconds, the vines were up to his neck, and still coming up.

"You'll suffocate in there while I deal with your partner, and no one will find your remains. You'll fertilize my plants for the act of threatening me and my family." The man said, his face neutral.

'The protectiveness of a father is really nothing to scoff at,' Alex thought as a slim smirk popped on his now-covered lips.

He kept his mana senses on, his vision already impeded by the coiling vines, to see what was going on, and barely heard anything other than the vines wrapping around him.

He could feel the vines trying to dig into him, but Alex had already covered his body in a hard shell of mana, preventing anything from going through his skin.

'He wasn't kidding. These vines were ordered to consume me. Decisive. I like it,' Alex thought, keeping track of the situation in the house.

'But he's got the wrong guy. The threat is already inside.'

***

Inside the house, only a few moments before Alex got covered in vines, Randall's wife had heard a knock at the door. She wanted to watch what happened in her backyard, but she couldn't ignore the ones at the door, or their semblance of normality would crumble.

So she walked to the door, pulling it open with a wide smile. A smile which instantly dropped, when a hand suddenly latched to her throat, clamping down on it like the jaws of death themselves.

The man choking her walked into the house with his arm extended; the woman wriggling in his grasp, as he looked at her with a grin. His burly figure almost blotted out the sun as his body crossed the threshold of the door, taking nearly the entirety of the door frame.

"Look at you, so frail and small. I could snap your neck like a twig. Tell me where Randall is, and no one gets hurt. Well, no more than now, at least," the man said with a creepy grin.

He then slapped the woman across the face with his other hand, letting her go at the same time, as she was sent practically flying from the force of the strike.

She fell to the ground, coughing and wheezing, as she tried to catch her breath, and the man knelt next to her.

"Tell me where he is," he asked again.

"Leave my mom alone, you meanie!" her son shouted, running at the burly man.

The man looked at the kid run at him, and his grin widened.

As the kid reached him, his hand sprung out like a snake, grabbing onto the kid's clothes and lifting him up as he rose to his feet. He licked his lips in delight.

"It's been years since I last offed a kid. Ah, the ecstasy I felt that day. Are you going to let me relive that, little guy?" he asked the kid, as the child paled.

"Please, let my son go! I'll tell you where Randall is!" the mother jumped to her feet.

But a backhand met her face, sending her tumbling to the floor again.

"Shut up, bitch! I'm talking to the kid!" he glared at her.

"Cynthia!" Randall shouted, as he entered through the back door, seeing his wife get smacked to the ground.

That's when he noticed the man holding his son. He was about to call on his house plants to attack him when the man suddenly twitched.

And in that simple breath of time, a knife had been pulled out, and it now rested on the child's throat.

"Tsk tsk tsk. One wrong move, and I send your son to the afterlife. We've been looking for you, Randall," the man said, licking his lips again.

Randall was in a state of panic.

"My dad is a superhero. He'll kick your butt," the kid whimpered, as the knife pressed against his throat.

He was unafraid because he thought his father would save him. But the reality was rather far from this.

His father knew very well that his magic took time to work, and he would never act quick enough to save his son if he did.

"Let my son go. I already disabled your partner in the back. This can still end with everyone keeping their lives," Randall said, trying to have him let down his son.

The burly man frowned.

"In the back? What are you talking about?" he asked, confused.

But those were the last words out of his mouth, as his head suddenly snapped a hundred and eighty degrees with a horrible crunch, and he ended up face to face with the incarnation of evil itself.

"One down, one to go," Alex said coldly, as the man crumbled to the ground, dead.