When Yulecat's Fur retraced their step back to the tunnel they had used to enter the second floor of the fungus forest, they found that it was not there anymore. In theory, it was possible for a dungeon to cut off a challenger's retreat, but they had not expected it at this point.
"Welp, I guess we are screwed?" Lyxiss sighed dramatically.
"Should we just use Home Call?" Mina suggested using the return skill to return to Minas Mar.
"It might not even work. Do you think the dungeon wouldn't block Home Call, too?" Bulko commented ponderingly.
"Even if it does, we have to be sure before we try it. The moment one of us is missing, we really have to return once and for all," Mike added as the team leader.
"We should try it! The dungeon is challenging us, we should show it who it is messing with!" Fin said hyped.
The fairy was against just leaving from the start. Seeing the dungeon acting cocky, acting like they were its prey, she was excited to power through In her opinion, this was exactly what they needed, something that would push them to the limits and bind them together even stronger as a team.
It was wrong to say any of them were keen on risking their lives, even if it was "just" in a dungeon, but seeing the current situation... Did they really have a choice?
"Since there is no way out, we might as well go as far as we can, before trying Home Call," shrugging her shoulders, Mina agreed with the brute. Mike sighed.
"Anyone against it?" he asked only for the protocol, he could see the fires smolder in the eyes of Bulko and Lyxiss, even without them saying anything.
"Fine, then let's show the mold who's boss."
With the decision made and the motivation of having no way back burning in their hearts, they returned to the depths of the mushroom forest, to make the dungeon bleed and kill all its mobs. It had just been business up to now, but now it became something personal.
Over the course of several fights against groups of the Fungus Knights where they tried different approaches, they found that Mina's plague attribute was the best way to deal with them. A boss like the Hyphen Hound had a high resistance to most status effects, but the Fungus Knights were only elite-rank at best.
Their strategy was for the party to fight the groups of knights, while Mina would use any chance to keep stacking the plague effect on the monsters. Bulko was in charge of keeping a close eye on the health bar of their enemies.
When they got close to dying it they would take their distance and leave it to the disease to take their lives. It was a security measure since most wouldn't even have the chance to explode when they died of the plague of Sekhmet.
They still had to be careful during the fights. The knights used the spore breath less often, but it was much stronger than the attacks from the Mushroom Fiddlers. The only saving grace was that the knights, were a little slower than the fiddlers, so they couldn't jump back and forth between the mushroom reefs and hide from their attacks. In exchange, their physical attacks were stronger, but this was something the party was able to handle.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
With the new strategy, they were also more confident in having their pets assist in the fights, bolstering their ability to tank and control the opponents. Although the fights were long, dangerous, arduous, and definitely not worth their time, when they looked at the experience they gained, they were not as dangerous as they expected.
After getting used to the peculiarities of the dungeon and exploring the weaknesses, things were not as scary anymore. Still, they dreaded being hit by the spore clouds. It didn't just hurt, puking out blood and mushrooms was disgusting and traumatizing. The knowledge and sensation of mold growing in one's body and lungs was harrowing to say the least.
It was hard to say how long they wandered between the mushroom reefs, but they had to camp at least once to lessen their fatigue and effectively regain stamina. It might have been two or three days before they finally found a second clearing.
In the middle of the clearing sat a chubby amorphous blob with moldy fuzz growing all over it. It was shaped roughly like a turnip with deer horn-shaped mushrooms on top and four stubby legs at the bottom. It also had two chubby arms and a massive red eye in the center.
"It doesn't look dangerous..." Lyxiss mumbled with emphasis on "look".
The red eye snapped around, staring in their direction.
"Well done, Lyx..." Mike sighed. "Any ideas what to do now?" he asked in the round.
The next moment dozens of orifices opened all across its fuzzy body and started spitting out little plush balls with red eyes. These miniature copies the size and shape of trashcans scrambled over the clearing baring their huge fangs at the party standing among the reef at the edge.
Mike gave a sign for a standard maneuver. While the party got in formation, Mina's shadow blades shot up from the ground, impaling dozens of the miniature version. Each died with the smallest touch in a huge explosion of spores blocking their vision of the clearing.
"Back! Back!" Mike called, signaling his comrades to retreat away from the radius of the cloud.
Further away from the edge of the clearing, they could see nothing of what was going on inside.
"These things are like remote-controlled bombs or mines..." Bulko uttered concerned.
One thing was clear to them, they couldn't fight those things in melee combat. These were the spores of a boss, probably one stronger than the Hyphen Hound. It was unlikely any of them would be able to endure being hit with those, no matter the buffs.
"Maybe I could wipe them out with a field of fire, or electricity?" Lyxiss suggested something new.
Not completely new. They had tried it before, but it had not shown much effect on generic mobs. Electricity was not her forte. She was still able to use it, but the magic was weaker and took longer time to cast, compared to her usual spells.
"I'm sure it didn't show much effect because the monsters in this place are just too strong, but that doesn't seem to be the case for these things. They die the moment they get some damage. Since debuffs like silence work to stop the self-destruction, maybe Paralysis or Stun would also work?" the half-elf quickly explained her thoughts
"Okay, do it. We will buy you time." Mike said in a hurry as the fuzzballs started emerging from the cloud, charging at them.
Since Lyxiss was chanting, it was on Mike to try fire. Calling upon the power of Maahes, he used the flames of his blade to create a firestorm and shoot it at the jumping mines.
BooM! BoOm! BOOm!
A series of explosions threw them to the ground and fire, wind and shock waves blew over them. Lyxiss' chanting was interrupted as she was catapulted through the forest like everyone else. Something they had underestimated was the effect of the chain explosion created by the balls explosion and subsequently, the spore cloud they created ALSO exploding, creating a wave of explosions that spawned more explosions by killing the other fuzzballs.
"Don't you dare use fire again..." Mina wheezed, spitting out blood and mushroom pieces from spores that survived the explosions and were shit at them.
"Fire is out, I get it..." Mike commented, trying to get back on his feet.