Chapter 11-2: Ivy
Remembering that the dogs had a weakness to ice, Ivy threw a potion towards the three dogs that were advancing on her. Glass shattered on one of the chest spikes of the middle dog, causing the cool blue liquid to slowly coat it's flesh. Steaming, the liquid chilled the dog and slowly froze it completely, causing it to fall forward. It's arms broke the fall and sank into the ground, effectively keeping it from moving until it thawed. Seeing this, the other two dogs advanced forwards, not even caring for their fallen comrade. Ivy bit her lip as she thought about a battle strategy. An idea sprang to her head as she ran behind a tree. "Run while you can, pony! We will catch you and take you back to our beds!" One of them snarled. A small red flower, with petals shaped like flame, was in front of her beside the tree she was hidden behind. Quickly, she grasped it and started to expertly grind it in her hooves without causing burns. This plant was notorious for being extremely spicy. She grabbed an empty glass vial from her pack and slid the powdered flower into it. In one of her pouches was an accompanying herb mixture, which she added to the flower.
A sword embedded itself into the tree and caused Ivy to jump with surprise. "Found you!" the dog growled. This potion would have to be made on the go. She tucked herself into a ball and rolled under the legs of the dog while she stoppered the potion and shook it thoroughly. This caused the petals from the flower to ignite, heating the glass from the inside out. The rest of the concoction slowly burned and changed colors, and then melted into a swirling crimson liquid. Satisfied, Ivy uncorked it and said, "I give up. Come and get me." Withdrawing their weapons and taking on a hungry look, the creatures walked towards her. "Out of tricks, huh, little pony?" One of them chided. When they were close, Ivy snorted and said, "Not even close." as she drank the potion. Confused, the dogs stopped for a moment. "What did you do?"
Ivy burped, causing black smoke to flow out of her mouth and nostrils. "Not much, just drank a Dragon's Breath potion." she stated calmly, as she opened her mouth. A gout of crimson flame shot from her mouth, bathing the dogs in a massive wave of scorching agony. Soon after, she closed her mouth and spat out a few small embers. The dogs were in flames, running around in circles, attempting to douse the fire. As the dogs found their way to the small pond adjacent to the playground, Ivy took a second to plan out her next attack. Clearly, the dogs had a little more fight in them and a few burns wouldn't be enough to put them down for good.
Concentrating, she skimmed through her catalog of potions she knew how to make. Suddenly, one caught her attention. Looking through her pack, she found the necessary herbs and poured them into a new vial. A sudden realization was brought to her attention. She needed one more ingredient to complete the mixture she was working on. The pond where the dogs were was the algae-infested water she needed to add to the vial to make it most effective. She needed to distract them so she could successfully harvest it. Careful not to shake it more than necessary, she stoppered it and put it into a loop on her armor.
A strap held a perfect distraction. In the bottle, there was a small bulb which glowed with a white-hot intensity as well as a bulb that was dark grey which had wisps of grey emanating off of it. Ivy shook it violently as she yelled, "Come and get me you stupid mutts!" Too angry to realize that this wasn't a trap, the dogs ran at her, blades flailing. The burns, blisters, and scorch marks on their skin had become very apparent. Slowly, the demon pill's effects began to take hold. Charred fur and skin melted away to make room for new fur and skin. When the dogs were close enough, Ivy threw down the bottle and shielded her eyes as she ran through them. A bright flash of light and an obscuring cloud of thick smoke had appeared where the bottle once was. Enraged and partially blinded, the dogs began to cry out and scramble to get out of the smoke bomb.
Once she got behind them, Ivy carefully brought out the mixture she was working on as well as a small vial. With the vial, she scooped up a bit of pond scum and poured some into the concoction. The dull green liquid fizzed and bubbled as the water was added to the bottle. Small seeds barely sprouted within the mixture. Absently, Ivy swirled the potion until the seedlings were about to break out of the bottle and hurled it into the smoke. Once the glass shattered, the seeds took root and sprouted. Vicious vines came up from out of the ground, wrapping and entangling themselves around the dog's forms. Jaggedly sharp spines sprouted from the sides of the vines, impaling the dogs with several inch long thorns.
Bloodcurdling screams were heard each time the thorns punctured their victims. Vines crept along their bodies, continually ensnaring them as a slow paralyzing digestive enzyme spread through their bodies which was injected through the thorns. The thorns work much like a spider's fangs, hence the name of the plant, Spiderthorn. As the vines made their way up their torsos, impaling as they went, until they made it to their throats which wrapped around and started to cut off their oxygen. The plant started to pull the dogs down to the earth. With a dull thump, the dogs slammed into the ground with a force large enough to cause unconsciousness. However, the demon pills they had eaten before had increased their durability to such attacks which caused them to stay awake the whole time.
Coiling around the practically lifeless bodies, the roots took them under, feeding the plant. Suddenly, Ivy remembered the other dog that was frozen. Cautiously, she coaxed a vine over to the stuck Blood Dog. It had almost thawed out by this time, but it's arms were too deep into the ground to pull out. The vine attached to the dog's foot and slowly injected it's poison into the body. A few more vines followed and started pulling the screaming creature into it's demise.
Satisfied, Ivy decided to go help Sophie with her battle. Suddenly, a teal streaked comet slammed into the ground with enough force to cause a crater. Vaguely, Ivy remembered that Sophie's battle aura was a similar color and shrugged. "Guess she's alright. Looks like there's only one left, but we're probably going to need Spell for this one." Ivy thought to herself. She searched through her saddlebags and found a blue potion. Then she scanned the area for the bush I was still meditating in. Upon finding it, she threw the potion to the bush and shouted, "Spell! You're up!"