Fight your way out.

Fuck it. Sometimes you had to take risks to get rewards. No deal. The spider rustles its abdomen angrily, "Fine. Then we will take the priestesss." Many legged shapes start to scamper towards you. I said...-You rise to your full height, spreading your vines out like angry snakes whipping through the air- NO. DEAL. Your voice booms through the forest, echoing menacingly through the wood and the spiders shrink back. It doesn't take them long to recover, "HSS! Attack my sisters! Attack!" And the hollow dissolves into madness.

Dozens of dark shapes leap out of the shadows, biting at your fibrous body as you try to shield the **** priestess. You had to dump her out on the ground to bring your vines to bear and she is now clinging to your legs, screaming as the arachnids press in from all sides. You aren't exactly defenseless though. The spiders are fast but you have flexibility and reach for this sparring match. Your vines sweep out in great arcs, splattering purple fluids on the ground as you beat back the encroaching horde. Most of them seem almost suicidally willing to run up and bite into your flesh, dealing at most 2-4 HP of damage, but then just as quickly falling back (which was usually where you caught them).

It takes you a minute to understand: they're trying to poison you. Except you were a plant and therefore immune. They seem to be realizing as you rapidly thin their ranks, tiny Dings signaling your XP gain. They withdraw for a moment, some outright fleeing into the bushes. HAHAHA...FLEE! FLEE, LIKE THE INSECTS YOU ARE! Bad choice of words. A dozen larger spiders that had been hanging back suddenly throw themselves at you in a rage, "We! Are! Not! INSECTS!" Every monster has a weak spot, something they'd been called over and over by heroes till the mere word itself threw them into a rage. You probably should have just said 'like the arachnids you are', maybe they would have preferred the correct terminology.

Unlike their smaller "sisters", these spiders had some serious fangs. You could feel your HP diminishing at an alarming rate simply from the brute **** of their bites. ROOOARGH You bellow as you flail about, trying to overwhelm them with sound again, pushing every advantage you had. Unfortunately, these spiders were waaay past caring about ear damage and the pain only increases their frenzy. You feel your movements start to slow as your hard flesh cracks and splinters under the ferocity of their attack...

Suddenly the tortured surface of your vines regenerates, dozens of sap-oozing bites vanishing as a pulse of healing magic courses through you. You almost pause in surprise but instead stab a rejuvenated vine directly through the largest spider, feeling a burst of XP rush through you as you toss the body at its comrades before it fades. The spiders pull back in surprise and call a full retreat as your threshing limbs follow. The leader, missing half its face from a particularly brutal hit, calls back at you as it falls into the bushes, "Thish ishn't over Flower Child! Priestessh! I'll get you my pretty! And your little plant too!"

You watch them go, breathing heavily despite your lack of lungs. Looking down, you see the priestess still clutching your leg, hands spread over you like...like she'd cast a spell. She looks up at you through wide eyes, trembling slightly. You reach down and gently disengage her from your legs, twining her up protectively once more as you slowly wade back to the Lair. Did you just save me? She nods jerkily, seemingly just as surprised as you are.

And just like that, the day was good again.