Amoral Village Head - Chapter 49 The ZukrFire

The days passed swiftly and we were almost on the fifth section of the orchard. We were working like usual and i was with Ochi when we heard the news that a Zukr vine in the last section of the orchard is looking very dangerous and the head called for everyone.

Once we heard that Ochi and the old man Zhambul started running towards the last section. I was shocked and on seeing Ochi turning back to beckon me to follow quickly. I followed their lead and ran behind them.

While running i noticed that not only us but the entire group was running towards the west .Once we reached there I saw the village head standing near a tree and Bayaar resting near him.

Then I withheld the biggest Zukr vine I have seen in the orchard till now. The Zukr vine was almost as thick as the tree trunk and was constricting the tree as in some places it looked like the bark of the trunk was crushed from the pressure.The ridges that was usually present in its leathery body was almost looking like sloped needles and were leaving thin sharp cuts wherever they were in contact with the trunk.

When my gaze travelled towards the tree i felt a disturbing feeling in my gut. The tree looked lifeless with bare branches that were thin as sticks above its trunk. It looked like somebody leached the life out of it and left it dry.

Whoever in our group that were able to activate their gift activated it.Tulga was the first to start and she started melting the top layer of the vine. Ordzol went to work on another section peeling it.

Hunbish the man with the goofy face held his hands on top and bottom of the vine and activated his gift.His gift started crushing the vine in the area he kept his hands on.He strained himself to keep his gift activated and finally  broke the vine. But, he had to rest once he did that and told us he can’t activate his gift again.

Dekhgui stepped in and started displacing short pieces of the wood in the place that hunbish broke and lengthened the gap between the breaks.

Unlike the other Zukr’s i was shocked to see this one was regenerating fast enough to see with our naked eyes. Particularly, in the case of the Ordzol’s gift. The vine grew quickly before our eyes to fill the layers peeled out of it.

Ordzol and Tulga stopped applying their powers to different sections and started applying it together in the place where Hunbish broke it. They tried their best and made the gap wider.

In the time they did that the Zukr vine grew to fill its entire peeled and melted sections. And we were able to visibly see the tree getting thinner faster. Atlast, Ordzol and Tulga stopped as well to rest.

The last to go was Ochi, he went to the broken section of the vine and took one  end of the break in his hands. He lowered himself for stability and activated his gift. He strained visibly and with a powerful shout broke an entire section of the vine out of the tree and threw it.Everyone shouted in excitement and the village head patted on Ochi’s shoulders and asked him to rest.

I was elated by Ochi’s result and patted his shoulders enthusiastically. I  was getting hopeful that we can wait for another day to recover and completely eradicate it.I was completely wrong.

The Zukr vine which I always considered inanimate suddenly started pulsing. Its leathery body expanded and contracted in frantic motions. The old head’s face fell down on seeing this and shouted at everyone of us to step back.

I steppped back in hurry and watched the Zukr vine coming alive. I saw with a shocked face that it started writhing around the tree like the Zukr in the metaphysical state.

The Ilphyr tree thinned further and the section of the Zukr vine our group widened with all our efforts filled rapidly and connected again. In a few moments a red fire started burning along it sloped ridges only to grow and spread on its entire body.

The vine started crushing the entire tree along its length. The fire that grew along its body started spreading to different sections of the tree and started burning it. In a few moments the entire tree was burning in a  red conflagaration. The red fire consumed the tree without leaving anything behind.

Atlast, when the entire tree was burned to nothingness the Zukr vine hovered in the air with the red fire still burning on its body. It then coiled around itself and continued burning to eventually leave nothing behind.