Apocalypse Baby-Chapter 270: Death in Bloom
The arena pulsed with unnatural life.
What had once been pristine stone was now blanketed by a writhing jungle of thorned vines, blooming nightmares, and invisible traps.
From above, it looked less like a battlefield and more like a living organism—one with a pulse, a breath, and a singular will.
A will that belonged to Vess of Tranagia.
She stood at the heart of the chaos, her feet rooted into the ground as thick cords of vine and moss coiled around her like obedient serpents.
Her arms were raised—half in command, half in communion—as if she were less fighter, more priestess.
Her long green hair flowed like leaves in the wind, eyes glowing with the eerie fluorescence of photosynthetic fury.
Across from her, Kira of the Anima lay sprawled, battered and gasping.
Her toned frame trembled as she struggled to rise, bruises forming fast across her ribs and shoulder. Her once-bright aura flickered like a dying ember.
The battle had been brutal for her at least.
Vess hadn't just fought.
She had dominated.
Her first act had been to claim the arena.
From the moment the match began, the ground erupted—vines surged across the stone in a chaotic bloom, spreading like wildfire.
Kira couldn't take a step without triggering something.
Pollen traps burst under her feet, releasing pale yellow clouds that clung to her fur and skin, sapping her stamina with every breath, roots lashing out at her legs like living whips, and spiked creepers laced with poison lashed like spears.
The fight was less combat, more siege, with Kira having nowhere to go and battered relentlessly.
And yet…
Despite all the hits she'd taken, despite the bruises on her ribs, the sting of poison, and the burn in her chest, she hadn't gone down.
Not yet.
Kira exhaled sharply through gritted teeth, one arm hugging her ribs.
Her knees buckled—but she didn't fall.
She still had some fight left in her, so with a desperate cry that echoed across the arena.
Then her body began to shift once more into beast form.
Her ears lengthened, eyes sharpening into predatory slits.
Her limbs bent, bulged, and expanded with muscle.
Fur sprouted rapidly across her frame until her figure warped entirely into that of a full beast-form—a towering rabbit-like creature nearly the size of a kangaroo, with iron-hard feet tipped with obsidian claws and lean.
No doubt she was capable of moving at devastating speed.
The crowd exploded in cheers at the sight of her transformation.
Even Alex, watching from the stands, leaned forward.
He had missed her first transformation—but now?
Now he was locked in, eyes wide, waiting to see what she could really do.
SKRRR!
Kira's claws dug deep into the stone floor, scraping it with a sharp sound as she crouched low.
Then her form blurred.
And she vanished.
She zipped from place to place in bursts of motion too fast for the eye to follow, striking at Vess from every angle.
Every time she struck, it was like a silent thunderclap—a brutal clash of claw against vine.
She tore through the undergrowth, dodging spores, sidestepping root-spears, aiming to find Vess' weak spot, which was: Her core.
Kira knew the truth about Tranagians—They didn't just have one core.They had multiple, each vital, each deadly if destroyed.Worse, they could move them by sliding them through their own vines, hiding them like deadly secrets in a living maze.
That was the weakness Kira was hunting for.
If she could find the core, she could end this.
But...
Vess was just too much for her.
The Tranagian didn't even flinch, her vines anticipating every angle, every dodge, every assault, twisting and lashing to block her path.
Kira launched a clawed roundhouse, which was blocked with a smack.
Then Kira rebounded mid-air, twisting to launch a dive-strike from above.
But Vess countered, her vine whipping out to catch Kira by her ankles, slamming her to the ground with a brutal thud that echoed through the arena; Dust and petals bursting up around her like an explosion.
Kira pushed herself up, legs shaking, lungs burning.
Kira rose to her feet and tried to channel Emi, hoping to push through the trap-heavy terrain, but Vess's vines lashed out in waves, interrupting the channel and knocking her back into thickets of poisonous brush.
It was relentless.
Like she was punished for even trying.
Every second she fought, the toxins worked deeper into her bloodstream.
Her movements grew shaky. Her claws were less sharp. Her steps were less precise.
She was burning energy faster than she could recover it.
"Damn it!"
Kira snarled, a sound more animal than human.
She had given all she had.
All her strength.All her speed.All her rage.
And yet, she hadn't managed to cause any major damage to Vess.
The Trangrian was still brimming with life as she had been in the beginning.
"Am I that weak?"
Kira whispered, her voice laced with frustration.
Kira asked herself, staring at Vess, who had a bland expression on her face, the Tranagian looking at her like she was just another weed in her garden.
Kira clicked her teeth together, fury flashing in her glowing eyes, and charged forward, claws drawn, wild and desperate as she ran straight toward Vess
But that was when Vess decided it was time to end it.
The moment Kira's foot hit the ground—
A runic circle beneath her flared to life, glowing a bright, eerie green.
The floor beneath her gave way, not in collapse, but in coverage.
Vines snapped upward in perfect sync, wrapping around her from every side.
They formed a cage, snapping shut like a beast's jaws.
Before Kira could slash her way out—
A translucent green bubble shimmered into place around the cage, sealing her in like a caught animal in a glass trap.
Kira, inside the cage, clawed and slashed at the inner membrane, but it didn't pop. It absorbed, the membrane rippling like water, soaking up the damage without even flinching.
Then, the air inside shifted.
Hisssssss.
The inside of the bubble darkened, dim green light pulsing along its curved walls, and then a faint mist began to leak from the top, swirling down in slow spirals like smoke from a broken tank.
Kira coughed once.
Then twice.
The gas reached her lungs like needles dipped in fire.
Her body twitched once, then again, before fully convulsing.
Her arms jerked. Her legs stiffened. Her back arched.
The gas inside the sphere wasn't just poison, it was acid.
The mist ate through her fur, causing it to peel in chunks, revealing blistering skin underneath.
Her flesh bubbled, cracked, and began to flake off in dry sheets.
Her muscles tightened like they were being pulled by hooks, then went slack.
She tried to scream, but the bubble muffled everything.The sound that came out was a wet gasp, a choked whimper, barely audible even to herself.
And then, her transformation faded.
Her beast form collapsing back into her human one, which made the agony even worse.
The crowd began to go silent.
Then the gas thickened.
Kira dropped to her knees, her hands slapping the ground weakly.
Then, she toppled to her side, her cheek pressing against the burning floor of the cage.
Her body was melting, her skin and muscles sagging like wax near a flame.
Every breath was agony.
Every second dragged like a slow execution.
Her hand rose. Trembling.
Reaching for something—anything.
A final plea.
Maybe instinct.
But then—
The last bit of her skill peeled off like a burned layer of paint.
Only bones remained.
White. Smoking. Still faintly glowing with heat.
The bubble dissipated, and nothing but scorched vines and a steaming skeleton dropped to the ground.
Kira dead. ƒrēenovelkiss.com
A long, long, tense silence hung in the air. at the horrific scene.
And then—
The arena exploded with cheers.
Loud, thunderous, frenzied.
They roared like they'd witnessed a legendary moment—because to them, they had.
A complete, unstoppable, clinical victory.
The proctor also appeared on the arena ground announcing her win.
Kira's bones dissipating into golden lights,
Vess didn't react to the cheers, only retracting her vines.
Her expression was unreadable, cold, and quiet.
*
In the VIP Combatant Zone, Alex stepped back from the screen, eyes wide.
He couldn't believe how brutal real-life Groot was, ending Kira's life like that.
There were no doubt less...
