She staggered on her first step, teetering between the first stone and the ground as she windmilled her arms back and planted her feet on solid ground after hearing that. 'A week . . .' Eyes landed on the trapped lump that was the Asian student right across from her. Seraph made no indication how far back that memory was . . . or if it was as early as today. It weighed more on the price of a mistake.

Mind shattering from mana . . . If worst came to worst and she still failed . . . That was one thing she wanted to avoid at all cost. Memories lapse, images were embedded, the difference of fantasy and actual events skewed . . . There were few things that could match its devastation. She gave the moss, this 'Flower of Life' a hard glare, watching for any motions that would indicate it trying to overgrow the stone stump . . . And stretched.

The tatters her shirt would have to be forgotten as she brought both arms out. Modesty would have to be sacrificed for balance as her breasts swayed with her movement, the ever present rings dangling from her erect nipples as she made it to the first landing. Her breast rose slowly and rested again as she took a deep breath. The first step was made, only several more to go.

Seraph watched on with a smile as Narissa gave up on trying to conceal her breasts from him to maximise her balance and ensure she did not fall into the flower of life. Of course her actions ensured that Seraph could see her breasts and the rings in her nipples as they swayed back and forth with her movements. She was watching the flower of life closely as she stretched out to the first stone, and it remained unmoving as she reached it and brought her other leg to it, resting for a moment. When Rahs had done this the flower had started to respond, in fact Seraph could feel it now, clamouring to grow onto the stone and start to feed off the mana it could draw from the dark skinned student's juices.

Seraph held it back as Narissa got to the next stone, and the next one, and even the next one. But when she was on the middle stone he let it grow, covering the two stones at the extreme ends of the path in a manner of seconds. She would be able to feel life pulsing and surging around her as the flower redeployed it's growth. Now that she was trapped it didn't have to spend massive amounts of energy to go slowly, and instead could grow slowly, engulfing stone after stone over nearly a minute until finally the last stone left was the one Narissa was standing on. And soon enough even that last refuge was starting to get overgrown. Narissa would have about twelve seconds more before the flower reached her, and then she would join the Asian student whose fate Seraph had used to warn her.

Things were going as smoothly as Narissa could have hoped for. She wished that the stones weren't as far apart as the first though. She had to keep it to the backburners of her mind that Seraph was no doubt enjoy every jiggle of her breast or how the rings danced from her nipples every time she almost lost her balance and had to swing her arms back in place. She had to focus on only the next step and ensuring that she was rooted to the one she was at before moving on.

It was around the half way point that she checked around her for her progress. Keeping her arms up as she behind her, she had to strain her eyes to find the first stump . . . Only to see the top of it swallowed by the moss. 'It's moving faster than I thought it would.' She knew better than to risk even grazing the bottom of her shoe from the stone. She thought it would only grow if something actually touch it. But apperantly it wasn't the case.

Stretching her legs more quickly to the center, she realized she'd have to focus more on moving than taking her time. She picked her eyes up from her current stone, looking for where the end would be. The moss encompassed the area she was in and . . . the stones that were supposed to have reached right out of its reach was gone. "No! This can't be!" Dark eyes looked down as she saw some of the previous steps she had just left sink into the hungry vegetation. She was stranded.

"No, no, no, no . . . I have to think of something," she fretted as she tried to keep her balance on the one stone. It wasn't like she had a bushwacker in her pocket to combat this, Kanoe never taught her the ways to attack yet. Looking down at her stone, she realized it would only be seconds until the moss would reach up to her and grab onto her foot. There was little choice she had. Looking up, she wondered if sprinting the rest of the way was even possible. No doubt she'd lose a shoe or two.

"Ah," she steeled herself. "Here goes!" Just as the moss grew an inch towards the sole of her shoe, she leapt off the refuge, hitting the ground with her mana 'barrier' as heightened as she could to slow the growth of it near her as she tried to dash on the spongy surface.

Seraph remained silent as Narissa finally noticed her route of escape, and of pushing forward, was cut off. He let her imagine him chuckling at her predicament, and at what fate lay in store for her. Not that she knew Seraph had no intention of her stopping here, that would spoil the entertainment. As amusing as it was watching those caught in the flower of life, watching them try and squirm as the flower assaulted every part of their body at a frantic pace, watching their mind erode under the pleasure before they simply submitted to it and came over and over again, drawing enough energy from the flower of life to sustain themselves through climax after climax while it used their mana to grow and grow, Seraph didn't want to limit Narissa to just one fate in the garden. He wanted to use her body himself, and to get her ready and in a more acceptable state of mind he was going to let her stumble into flower after flower, each one pushing her control to the limit.

Finally Narissa bolted, starting off with a leap with the intention of sprinting over the moss. For a moment it even looked like it might work ... well until she tried take her second step. The moss had latched on to her shoes, and was rapidly growing up them both. By the time Narissa tried to lift her foot up off the ground for the next step the moss had completely covered her shoe, and the moment it did escape would become almost impossible. The moss grew up both of Narissa's legs, again at a rapid rate, quickly covering her legs, hips, middle, chest, arms and soon growing up over her neck and head.

As Narissa's view became nothing but a fuzzy green moss, a small amount of light seeping through the flower, she would feel a soothing liquid spread out across her body, the 'nectar' of the flower of life. She would feel a surge of energy, as if she had just had several hours sleep, flow through her skin and into her body, just as countless roots started sliding across the immobilised and helpless student's body. She would feel root after root, sometimes multiple at once, quickly slide across her lower lips (sometimes from opposing directions), curling around her nipples, and teasing her ass. Each movement was quick and frantic, and her entire body was stimulated by it.

Looks like you weren't fast enough ... oh well, have fun watering the flower Narissa. Seraph said, amusement underlining his voice. The only real thing that was going Narissa's way was that the flower of life couldn't cause her rings to activate. Everything else was heavily stacked against her.

Narissa tried to fight it, yanking and pulling her leg as hard as she could to get away, but it only resulted in her losing more time as it made its way up her leg, under her skirt and her body falling forward. She was completely ensnared. The very shoe she thought that would ensure a few more steps and offer her an escape as the moss went for it only turned into a shackle and tether before she even knew it.

"NO!" Her voice came muffled even to her own ears as the moss closed in over her, the soft moss encasing her as she writhed and tried to pull herself free, her mana acting wildly in turn. But the wilder she attempted to become, the more the moss had its way as it began to molest her within the casing, making her groan as tears built up in her eyes. It couldn't end like this! Not like this!

Seraph watched for several seconds before a gesture from him caused the ruby cat, who had jumped off Narissa's head unnoticed when she tried to sprint across the moss, to plod across the moss and over to her. It sat down next to her for a moment as the roots teased her, and just as she would feel six slender roots starting to press into her body the cat slashed out with it's claws. Within a moment the moss covering Narissa was gone, and the cat pounced over the prone student and walked along in front of her, the moss changing from being a living growing plant into a pathway made from a solid sheet made from a single ruby. As annoying as the cat no doubt was to Narissa, this was the second time it had 'saved' her from a flower's torment.

The path lasted long enough for Narissa to rise and scramble along it, crumbling away behind her as the moss recovered the ground it had lost. But it could not catch up with Narissa, and nor could it grow over the ruby and cut off her escape deeper into the garden. At the end of the ruby escape route the cat sat, it's gemstone tail swishing from side to side, as it looked up at Narissa. The cat meowed, clearly expecting the student to carry it. Of course she didn't have to carry the cat, no magic bound her or tried to influence her towards that.

But she would hear Seraph's voice, slight annoyance under-toning it. I knew I should have picked something that wasn't so free willed as a cat. He grumbled, apparantly annoyed that Narissa had gotten out of the flower thanks to a cat he created.

Just as she felt the renewed energy, knowing it would signify her end to have to be conscious and aware of the plant raping her, a light shined through. The moss fell apart around her as she gasped for air. What she saw . . .was something she certainly didn't expect.

Beneath her, a hard floor of shiny ruby. Ahead of her, a clear red path that the moss couldn't seem to grow around. Right in front of her, the culprit that seemed behind it all. She didn't think twice. Moving her way to the end, keeping aware at how much slower the moss seemed over the ruby surface, Narissa didn't give it a second chance as she followed the cat. The span of time it took for her to cross was covered by the moss behind her, finally through the dangerous moss field.

"AH! Made it!" She said triumphantly, panting as she rested her hand on her knees, breast hung from her chest like fruit as her shirt was more like a tattered open vest. Yet she honestly didn't care as she breathed in the fresh air from the claustrophobic hold the moss had on her. She looked down as the cat remained steadfast in front of her. "I guess I have you to thank, huh?" The sound of Seraph's contempt to his own creation was music to her ears as she opened up her arms to the cat. "Then I guess I have no problems for thanking you, come on."

Seraph had to admit the sight of Narissa panting on her hands and knees was an impressive sight to see, her breasts hanging freely down from her chest through the tattered remnants of her blouse making it all the better. Although he definitely didn't let this on he was quite pleased when Narissa opened her arms and the Ruby cat jumped into them, the smooth gemstone it was made out of being warm as if it was an actual cat. It was seemingly weightless as well, and purred as it snuggled up in her arms, seemingly content.

With the moss behind her Narissa was now free to move along the path again, and for a short while, long enough for twists and turns in the path to take the flower of life completely out of sight, nothing impeded her progress along the path. Flowers lined the edge, but unless Narissa actually reached out and touched one it would not activate. The cat seemed far to comfortable where it was to want to jump out and activate a flower like it had done earlier.

But that safety would not last forever. Seraph had no intention of letting her think she had gotten away from him. Her next obstacle was two flowers that had grown on the opposite edges of the path, reaching up nearly eight feet into the air. The flowers leant over the path and had entwined with each other. Although it appeared to have nothing beneath them if Narissa had her mana sight on she would see thousands of strands reaching down from the flowers and brushing against the path. Around each of the flower stems the ground was bare and barren, with no trace of any flowers, or magic of any kind. Even in this mana rich environment those two sections of dirt around each flower stem, extending for a foot out from each stem in a semi-circle bordering the path, had no trace of magic at all.

Narissa would have to find a way past, but she would also have to choose between walking along the path and through the apparent strands of ... whatever it was, or walk off the path and onto the garden itself.

Holding to the cat to hers chest, allowing the jeweled feline to rest on her arms, Narissa made her way further and further away from the moss. But caution had taken its place on her mind, keeping her mana sight on to assure none of its reach was near by or accidentally ensnaring her again. For the time, there were little to no flowers around, more shrubs blocking her path as she began to descend further into the realm of mana and further away from anyone that could hear her scream. On off chance, she wondered if the girl that was controlled had been entirely released. Hopefully they had made it back to the dorms without being attacked. But as a group, the chances of being targeted was little, unlike herself that kept going further alone into enemy territory.

Soon, the path opened up to what looked like a spiderweb of netting. On either side of her, a field of flowers grew, but the ground . . . "What's happening around here now . . ." It seemed for a bit that the flowers were not filled with any mana whatsoever that was near her . . . But they were supposed to, right? "You have any ideas, Cat?" she asked it, giving it a friendly pet as she overlooked the area. The only two flowers that seemed to have any mana were the ones out of reach and above her. Twins, both seeming to emit strands of mana in front of her. She didn't think that maybe they held a part of the teleportation spell, they seemed more . . . Purposeful in their placement. Besides, they were far out of reach from her hand.

So . . .the next flower couldn't have been here . . . It must have been beyond. Only the flowers behind her, which seemed more decorative purpose. The most likely path she wanted to take was straight ahead without wasting any time or falling into more traps . . . But even though she could see the threads that lay before her, she couldn't tell for what purpose they were. They could've been like the barrier that blocked her and the girls in . . .or perhaps be harmless themselves and do nothing if she walked under them. "Hmm . . . I have to test this first . . ." Going to the area that had the least amount of mana, Narissa was careful to simply pull a stem out of the ground, intending on tossing it to the threads to see if they would burn, or do nothing at all.

Holding the cat in one arm, she grasped around the the plain plant, uprooting it.

Seraph hadn't even been paying attention to the other girls he had used to get Narissa here, and considering where they left the garden there was little chance anything he had done would have stopped them leaving. Of course the moment they stepped foot outside the garden they were vulnerable to whatever else lurked in the forest. They were not something Seraph had any interest for, his entire attention was focused on Narissa, unfortunately for the blue haired dark skinned student. He wasn't even watching other scenes from the various flowers in his garden that had caught a student, despite how entertaining such scenes were he was enjoying himself playing with Narissa like this.

As Narissa paused upon reaching the two entwined flowers Seraph settled down to watch, a slight smile on his lips. He knew both options had a peril, something that would go wrong and have Narissa end up being trapped and tormented for a few seconds before the cat saved her, again. When she gave the cat in question a friendly pat as she asked it for ideas it simply meowed and rubbed it's head against her hand. Not the most helpful of responses, but exactly what one would expect from a cat. The cat itself didn't seem to react to the strands, although if Narissa moved near the two flowers that were now entwined, or the mana-dry ground around them, it would hiss at the flowers.

Seraph couldn't help but smile broader as Narissa decided to test the flowers with another flower, a move Seraph considered rather stupid. Even if she picked a flower with low mana content it was obvious, well at least to Seraph, that this was relatively low mana. Even the weakest flower from the field around her contained far more mana than any of the students at Shokushu did. They just appeared weak because of the massively overwhelming strength of everything else. The moment she plucked the stem of the flower the spell stored within it activated.

Suddenly the cat hissed at the flower, and Narissa would have a second of warning to let it go before the spell activated. If she didn't manage to let it go the flower would suddenly grow, vines wrapping around her arm and securing itself in place, but not doing anything apart that. Once it had done so Narissa would not be able to get it off however, and it would be quite likely that it would do something more nasty later, or be used as such.

It was only the moment that Narissa touched the stem that she realized that there WAS mana within it as the garden. Not just the regular amount in all life, but Seraph's. Being used to the large amounts in the other plants it was barely noticeable in this one until she picked it up. The angry hiss at the cat scared her off as she let her hands loose from the cat, afraid it wanted to scratch her from petting its ruby head the wrong way. Freeing her hands and dropping the stem at the same time, it was only then that she had seen the stem turning into a ferocious growing vine.

"Gah!" She quickly backstepped away from the greenery, waiting to see if anything else would sprout from it. But the few seconds it fell, it laid dormant. "That's it . . . no more flowers. . . ever again . . . And with flowers being on either side of her except through the path of mana threads, her choice seemed more than obvious then. Skirting passed the unmoving bundle of vine, she stepped in front of the mana doused path, clutching the cat to her chest in an almost 'I'm not going in there alone' manner. Reinforcing her mana 'barrier' she took a first step, her hand holding the cat being the first on her person to come into contact with the thread.

The cat in question seemed irritated that Narissa had dropped it, especially since it had simply been trying to give a warning when it realised something bad was about to happen. When it reclaimed it's position in Narissa's arms it didn't retract it's claws, and they gently pressed into her arms as she held it. It's attitude changed after a couple of moments, when it decided that it had had enough of being irritated and it retracted it's claws.

As Narissa clutched the cat closely to her chest it purred and rubbed against her happily, not reacting to the mana strands as she walked down the path and underneath the two entwined flowers.

The flowers in question were simple channeling spells. They drew all the mana from the area around their roots and that mana 'dripped' out of the overhanging plants. The cat, being a creation of mana, would obviously hiss at something like that which could destroy it, while it simply reached out to lick at the strands of mana the moment it could reach them with it's tongue.

Moments after the cat's tongue licked the strand of mana Narissa's hand came into contact with one of the strands, and in a heartbeat that strand flooded mana into her system. As the power surged through her body more strands, seeking a way to 'earth' their stored power, reached out to entwine Narissa, quickly catching her in a web of strands of pure mana as it flooded her system. While this was raw mana the sheer amount overwhelmed her 'barrier' shattering the polarity as more and more power poured into Narissa's now helpless form.

All of this happened within seconds, as seconds after Narissa was caught in the flower the cat hissed again and startec scratching at the threads. It couldn't get them all, but it could get enough so that Narissa could push her way forward and escape from the flower.

When she was on the other side the cat looked proudly up at Narissa, it's expression proud of itself, and expecting a pat of course. As it did so Seraph let out a sigh of annoyance. Pity that cat is staying so close ... without going personally I can't actually do anything about it without catching you in the spell... It would appear that Seraph was really starting to get annoyed by the cat.

Narissa had breathed another sigh of relief. It seemed this cat was interested in her well being, with how many times it pulled her out of the traps. Although this time, just as she recalled with the moss, she didn't feel the slight bit tired, her energies replenished, both mana and physically alike. Surely there had to be some reason for that. Wouldn't he want to put more tiring traps about? Ones that left her unable to keep going and thus, lose faster?

The cat in question was something she'd hope wouldn't prove to be a finicky thing and decide to screw her up later, but for now, she was just glad it was on her side and hearing the music of Seraph's voice in frustration. It was definitely something she wanted to remember. The change of pace would certainly do her well as she picked herself up from the exit of the mana channelers. "Note to self, not many things really actually harm me here . . . That means stay extra away from them."

In hindsight, the answer to why she was given so much energy would be much more obvious. But for now, she simply couldn't call up on her barrier, too much energy floating within her to handle for the moment. The timer was pressing on her again and she needed to find those other flowers. Failure to do so would result in . . . . She just didn't want to think about it.

Seraph smiled ever so slightly to himself at Narissa's actions as she recovered from the flower she had almost got caught in. He wasn't controlling the cat, he had given it a mind and intended to let it keep that mind. In fact it was reasonably intelligent, and probably had a dislike for Seraph ingrained inside it as a result of the dorment control spell that Seraph could activate to make it act as he wished.

But he had no intention of activating that spell, despite how 'annoyed' at it he acted to Narissa that was more a show to see her reaction. Of course it wasn't helping Seraph just because of it's dislike of him. The other reason was it loved the attention the student gave it. Being patted sent a nice pleasant sensation though it's ruby body and into it's magically created sentiance. As long as Narissa continued to pay attention to it, to pat it, it would help her. Well until Seraph took control of it of course.

When Narissa didn't pat the cat for saving her, or pay it any real attention at all, it quickly became irritated with he. The ruby creation hissed once before turning tail and running away into the field of flowers to the side. As it did so it brushed against a flower bush seemingly made from water, activating it.

The flower bush took a few seconds to 'unfold', water pouring out of nowhere as the spell stored inside it took shape. A water elemental, little more than a rounded pillar of water, rose from the bush. A 'head' extended at the top of the rounded pillar and regarded Narissa. As it 'percieved' the student in front of it a area around it's middle froze and extended out into an cock shaped icicle. Narissa would have a few seconds to start fleeing before it slid onto the path and tried to capture her. The cat would continue to run along inside the garden to her side, giving the student occasional glances of ruby in the flowers to her right. If it felt that she had suffered enough and wasn't going to not pay it attention again it would no doubt help her. If not ...

Seraph had decided he definetly needed to keep the cat. It was almost as entertaining to watch as the students were to play with.

Narissa should have been able to guess the disposition of that cat and its carpious nature on her own. But with the other matters around her, it was only a matter of time until her attention would be draw away from her. Then the cat's true nature revealed itself. Before the student could realize what had happened, the cat had left her side and jumped in towards the meadow of flowers.

"Wait! Where are you going?" she asked as she reached her hand out towards it, unable to follow the ruby feline, less she activated a flower. But it looked like that would be done for her as she saw something churn within the flowers, the cat bounding back as something rose from the shrubbery. "I . . . Don't like that. . . Not at all." At first, it was too busy formulating itself, she could tell, its watery mass still bubbling and its form glistening in the moon light. But as she saw exactly what form it was beginning to take, she had already taken a cautious step away its form regarding her from over the flower patch as it began to frost over, hardening into an erect form of a cock.

Narissa didn't give it the time to give it a head's start as she turned her body away to run from the feline's triggered trap.