[New Tier 2 Path Unlocked: Briar Berry Noble]

[Briar Berry Noble. Tier: 2. Rarity: Legendary. Level Requirement: 15. Additional Requirement: Possess a single piece of the Briar Lord’s set. Have an affinity for Nature Mana. Possess a Mancer or Kenesis class type. Evolution information: Gains a humanoid form and the status of the Briar Noble. Unlocks the path of the Briar Lord once the full set is obtained. Warning: May alter current class. Tier 3 Path: Locked]

[Accept the Tier 2 path: Briar Berry Noble? Warning: This may alter your current class]

“I will kill you, Fogdahn! I will end you and your pathetic family for what you have done!” Burquinn screamed, flinging more of his thorn abilities at the horror moth.

Fogdahn adeptly dodged each of his attacks and parried others with ease, twirling his scythe like expert polearm wielder in one of those old kung fu movies. When there was an opening to do so, Fogdahn would launch an Eldritch-powered spear of energy at Burquinn, which he was in no condition to fully dodge himself. Each time the spear shot forward Burquinn would only narrowly miss it, and often found himself over-extended and off-balance.

For a moment I actually felt sorry for the guy. While the description of the belt had said that the now dead God had stripped the Lord status from Burquinn to save him, the person I saw now clearly didn’t care about that. He fought with rage and fervor, feeling betrayed and robbed by someone he looked at as a friend, only to then be betrayed once more by Fogdahn just as he had finally found the item that was taken from him. I thought about how I would feel should Foggy ever betray me like that, but then I remembered that he just wanted to eat me the second I died and I decided not to dwell on that right now.

I wanted to toss around the idea of if I would accept this new path or not, but then I just laughed at such a stupid thought. Did I really just go through all of this bullshit for nothing? Would I really just turn this shit down? No way.

After selecting [Yes] again, I decided to say, “It’s Morphin’ Time!” I really hope that isn’t copyrighted.

Pain.

Pain rippled all throughout my berry body, dropping me to my knees and doubling me over in shredding agony. It felt as though I was deep in a briar bush. Every thin needle of the thorns dug into my flesh, pressing deeper and harder as I screamed and shivered. Make it stop… Make it fucking stop… It was too much. I thought I would pass out, or straight up die, multiple times as the transformation took place. I could feel my body shift and alter, feel things grow from my blueberry body as new appendages wiggled themselves into life. What was this sensation? How could anyone be expected to accept this willingly? I pleaded and begged for any of those surviving Gods of this world to just come down here and kill me now.

Then it stopped, and all that remained were the clashing sounds of battle from either side of me.

[Name: Barry.

Title: Hero of the Blood Orchard War.

Race: Briar Berry Noble; Pantherathropy, tigris-strain.

Level: 15.

Class: Briarmancer.

Rarity: Legendary.

Equipment Level: 491]

“W-What…” I muttered as the pain receded like my former human bodies’ hairline. “What… Happened… to me…”

I pushed myself up, standing to wobbling feet and feeling the weight of my new body pulling me back to the ground. I felt heavy. My arms hung down long at my sides, and my knees felt like they were full of jelly. I dropped down to a knee, breathing heavily as waves of vertigo washed over me at the sudden shift with this new form. I panted, grabbing the sword I dropped as the chime of clashing metal and burst of abilities sounded out in a chorus all around me. My mind was cloudy, and I had trouble focusing on anything but the cries of combat for several moments.

Until I heard Fogwarth scream out in pain.

“Gah!” Foggy cried out, instantly snapping me out of my fog.

“Foggy!” I shouted, forcing myself to stand and then looking over the edge of the platform.

From my vantage I could see it all. The leaking walls and the rising murky water, now only four or five inches from the bottom most platform. Aeronik, Bellbane, and Ak all lay prone from the damage of the prior guardians. The enormous, ruined carcass of the tapeworm that seemed to inhabit half of the stomach’s floor with its massive size. Then there was Fogwarth. I could see the many lacerations over his flabby, green body, and each one oozed with fresh blood; clearly the work of several impacts of the ice blast ability from the Guardian. Somehow Scrappy had managed to get on the back of the Guardian, and I could see the Orchid holding on tightly to the invisible creature as it rushed around and flailed to toss him off. That was it then, that was the strategy I overheard Foggy plan with Scrappy.

It was a bold move, but a smart one.

Foggy was on his last leg, the constant stream of battle finally catching up and slowing my Companion down. I could see the invisible creature barreling around the platform thanks to Scrappy, and it was clear that it would soon attack Foggy once again. Yet, the big man could barely even lift his shield, let alone brace himself for further combat.

Fuck it. I might not know what I am or what I could actually do now, but there was no time like the present to figure it out.

I ignored the battle between Burquinn and Fogdahn that raged behind me, and leapt down to Fogwarth’s platform.

“I’m here, Foggy! I got you!” I screamed, stepping beside him with my sword at the ready.

Foggy looked at me, an expression of utter shock overwhelming him. He opened his mouth to speak and fought to get the words out as his eyes looked me up and down again and again.

“Sir berry… You… Y-you are…”

“Yes, Foggy,” I said, radiating confidence and power. “I am now on the path of the Briar Lord.”

“Naked!” He shouted, pointing down at my twig and berries. “Oh dear! Your blueberries are out, sir berry! Well played, my friend. We shall meet this invisible creature with the nakedness it has shown us, and only then can we fight as equals. Now then, let’s see here… One boot at a time…”

“Hey! Knock that off!” I said to Foggy as he began to take off his pants and boots to join me.

A moment later I looked up only to find Scrappy headed right toward us on his invisible mount. I turned to face them, preparing to utilize whatever abilities I still had left.

I began to cast ky rose-hips, only to find that the ability was gone. Or, rather, changed. Suddenly it was new and different, evolving into something else entirely that maintained most of the same properties. I didn’t bother to read the description and instead I just hoped for the best as I cast my new [Strangling Briar Grove]. This time, instead of a small growing bush of rose-hips and thorns, a huge, wide area burst up in a mound of dense, tangled brown thorny stems that nearly took up half of the platform by itself. Immediately I could see the damage calculator explode, a flurry of -27s through -31s bursting out from the deep darkness of the grove.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Proud of my handiwork, I decided to move forward with more of my newly awakened powers. Next up was a new version of a new ability, and I summoned my boomerang into my hand.

[Bananarang Briar Burst] seemed like a slightly different version of my first boomerang, with the only difference at first sight being that the banana now had thorns poking out from its peel, which was real odd and not very appetizing. I tossed the boomerang into the grove as the guardian rustled and fought to get out. It exploded with the same mashed banana substance as before, only this time it also unleashed a scatter of spiked thorns that shredded into the guardians.

A whopping -122 floated up, along with several more -1s and -2s from the thorn shrapnel.

This was incredible… This is what real power felt like. For once I was not the weakling or the one holding this team back in a fight. I looked down, seeing my human body, which was a matte blue unfortunately, and feeling whole again. I couldn’t wait to find a mirror or something, I just had to see if it was my real world human face again.

The grove began to die off, but I could only grin as it happened; the guardian had been marred in its purple blood and banana guts, making it now clearly visible.

It was far longer than I thought, with thin hair-like legs that ran the length of its body. Still, it wasn’t as centipede-like as I had thought, because the body was more of a long tube with ridges along the back like a dragon, and it had two nubs where a head should be, each having an ice-laden hole at the tip. Scrappy remained cling to its back, occasionally dropping a leafy elbow or fist when it could.

“Scrappy, hop off!” I shouted, preparing to use my more powerful abilities.

The Orchid obeyed, leaping off of the Guardian and running across the platform to us. I eyed the guardian carefully, seeing it sway on its hair legs and sluggishly approach us with pulsating ice holes. That was just fine for me, since my next two abilities were the most powerful in my growing arsenal.

My ace, my [Sunflower Beam Cannon], was not spared the transformation process either. Though I really couldn’t complain when I got to see what it had evolved into. Three enormous blackberries ripped up from the stone platform floor in a tight bunch, a fan of leafs behind each and long, twisting thorned stems to support them. The [Bramble Beam Cannons] absorbed whatever ambient mama was around them just as the sunflower had, only this time each of the three blackberries had their own blast of swirling emerald and white energy. All three beams fired forward and connected with the guardian, stunning it and knocking it off of its feet.

The creature twitched, stunned and weakened, and all I could do was grin as I waited a few seconds for my mana regen to give me the extra points I needed for my coup de grace. I smiled as I realized my most powerful ability had only received an upgrade and was still much the same.

Only fucking massive.

The [Obelisk of the Firethorn Berries] was double the width and length of the last one, rotating a little faster and sending out a combination of bursting flaming berries and burning thorns for an added boost to the burn chance. The obelisk spun right beside the guardian, ripping it to shreds and burning the pieces. The flames grew, the damage notifications just kept coming until I could barely see individual numbers.

Then it was over, and the only sounds that remained were those of Fogdahn and Burquinn on the platform above us.

[Your party as slain Proteus Mira - Bacterial Guardian - Level 29. You are awarded 932 experience points]

It was nice getting the lion’s share of the experience for once, since I basically just got the scraps like a participation trophy before. I idly thought of how much Foggy and Ak must have received this entire time, noting their way higher levels than my own, but that wasn’t important now. What was important is that I had just kicked some serious bacterial ass.

“Sir berry! That was marvelous! It was stunning!” Foggy nearly bowled me over as he wrapped me in his massive, squishy inch worm arms. For once I could actually hug the big guy back, nearly seeing him eye to eye. “Such power! We shall make a deadly duo!”

“Yes! Agh, yes!” I said, trying to free myself from his bear-like grip before he broke my back. “Now let me go, Foggy! Your brother is up there fighting Burquinn!”

“Burquinn? Oh, what delicious irony! Come then, let us show him who now holds the night of the briar!”

Foggy released me and together we charged for the platform with Scrappy climbing up my back and onto the top of my head, pumping his fists in victory. I had to remember to talk to the Orchid about that, because he was way too big to be on my head now, and it didn’t feel too great.

We climbed up the platform just as Burquinn fell back, landing in a sprawl while in his tangled thorn armor just as he had worn in our first fight. His giant briar sword and his armor began to dissolve as the last bits of his power died out.

“It is over, Burquinn. Yield, or die,” Fogdahn said, his scythe blade hovering right over Burquinn’s chest.

Burquinn’s breathing was fast, his chest rising and falling like a ship caught in a storm. The weakened, bandaged being looked to us as we approached, clearly seeing that he was outnumbered and way outgunned. It was over for him, and no trickery or escape tactics would save him this time.

Scrappy dropped down, ran up, and gave him a swift punch for good measure.

“I… stop that!” He said, swatting away the Orchid. “I yield. You are the victor, Fogdahn…” Burquinn turned his attention to me next, eyes softening into an expression that was mournful, as if he were seeing the remains of a loved one. “Take good care of my mantle, blueberry. It is one to be respected and honed, and can be just as much a curse as a blessing. Heed my words; never forget that it is your duty to always serve Palea first, and always serve the Gods second. They are…. They are spiteful beings…”

I nodded at the fallen foe, acknowledging his words. I didn’t fully grasp them just yet, but I felt like in time I would. After he turned back to Fogdahn, I made my way to the center mechanism and stood upon it, feeling the button shift down and watched the covering of ivy peel away from the glowing gem. With it finally revealed, Fogdahn fluttered his wings and flew over to it, placing his oily black tendril to it and causing it to flare up with energy.

[Dungeon Alert: The second part of the Fifth Trial is now complete. The Husk of Vacel Juniperscar is now complete. Reward: 7,000 experience points. New title awards are now available with a titlesmith. The heart chamber of Vacel Juniperscar is now unlocked. Please enter the heart to claim the final reward]

“Yes! Fuck yes! We did it!” I said, raising up my sword in triumph.

“Yes we did, sir berry! Our party is victorious again!”

All around us I heard the sounds of draining water, and I approached the platform’s edge to find that the murky water was draining into the floor rapidly, just as the top platform began to descend back down to the ground. The worm’s body had also started to dissolve, and soon the stomach cavern began to look like we had never even stepped foot in here in the first place.

Each of our platforms dropped to the ground, becoming nothing but a normal stone floor in the process. Seeing my damaged allies again sent a chill through my spine at just how close we were to losing them. We gathered them up, with Bellbane being the only one able to move and Aeronik needing to be carried, and both sat right beside Ak. Before they could ask any questions I summoned my healing spores, thankful that it was the only ability that didn’t have a single change to it.

Sadly the spore medic familiar didn’t appear this time to offer additional healing, but the glowing orbs of light fell and warmed my team as they began to heal.

“Barry,” Ak-Lok said, staring me up and down; I quickly remembered I was naked besides a belt, gloves, and boots, so I covered myself up the best I could. “You have done it. You have evolved.”

I nodded. “I did, Ak. I fucking did. And this time I don’t even have a decay debuff. I’ve checked at least five times so far.”

What I left out is that I would continue to check every single day since last time it decided to creep back up after a little while. But I wouldn’t add that fear onto my friends right now.

With our party healed up we made our way to the new opening at the other end of the stomach, which was a tunnel like the one we used to get in, only this time it was just a tad smaller . I was really questioning everything I learned about the body in health class when it tried to think of how we would get to the heart from the stomach, but I decided to drop it. It was a fantasy world after all, and if blueberries can walk and talk then why couldn’t stomachs somehow connect to hearts?

“So, do we just walk all the way to the heart now? And how will we know where the heart even is?” I asked, still covering my dangly bits.

“You will see,” Burquinn answered, hands wrapped in chains behind him.

Scrappy hopped off of me and began to step into the tunnel, briefly looking around as our scout to see if there were any dangers. He stepped in a little more, then turned to give us the all-clear to enter, just as a Fehicle shot down the tunnel and crashed right into him, killing him in the process.

“Well, shall we?” Foggy said.