Jill’s yell was unnecessary. Mash could already tell that he had messed up, just looking that the monster absorbing the limbs was enough to tell him that. The scattered somewhat charred limbs were dragged into the thing's feet as it stepped over them. The monster’s feet were round disks, where large toes surrounded them like petals of a flower. Honestly, while it was a disturbing sight, it was nowhere near the most disgusting thing in this dungeon. It didn’t heal either, and instead, it just grew new parts and limbs. The bleeding eyes were still bleeding, blue blood pouring into its deranged smile. The hole in its side was completely ignored too, the creature simply growing in size.
Mash couldn’t stop moving, but with buffs from persist, he was confident in dodging the creature. They obviously didn’t let the creature recover, and Jill appeared above the boss with Luke, letting him fall onto the boss. Luke grew larger as he came down, his buffs shining around him. Luke grew larger, and Mash realized that his skills were eerily similar to the bosses. They were both altering their bodies through some manipulation of their souls.
That got Mash to realize why necromancers were so feared. This boss was essentially a glorified child and had trapped hundreds of humans and made many of them into monsters. If such a mindless boss could accomplish this, then he could only guess what a real lich could accomplish. Luke being called a hero made sense now. Even without a special weapon or title, it was clear that he was one of the only people who could fight a lich. The undead continent’s existence made a lot more sense to Mash, as even powerful people would be unable to do much against a lich. And Luke had basically promised to attempt to deal with that. He was both excited and terrified of going there with Luke at some point.
Luke came down with an overhand swing of an extremely enlarged ax. Mash had forgotten about the weapon but didn’t think that would happen again as it split the monster’s head in two with a thunderous crash as it hit its back. Mash was stunned to see small arms stopping the blade. From both halves of the creature’s head sprouted hundreds of arms that grabbed at the ax stopping. Luke was easily half the size of the boss but was held easily. Luke’s weapon was stuck, and hands quickly grew out to grab him. Mash was horrified to see the monster start to absorb Luke.
They obviously wouldn’t let that happen, and a large blade of blood cut the boss’s extra arms letting Luke leap away. The ax stayed lodge in the creature’s head, though it didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Mash started forming draconic maws from wood. Currently, he didn’t have the power to beat the boss, but there was nothing to say that wouldn’t change if he gained some more stats. Rather than a few larger creations, he made many smaller ones, launching them at the boss like a volley of arrows. Red started doing the same on the other side, though she used a larger single weapon as she didn’t have his unlimited energy.
Mash wasn’t focusing on dealing damage like she was though, just trying to tear off chunks of the creature. Most of his creations twisted and broke when the boss could react to them, but a few came away with chunks of the boss. None were larger than a handful, but it was what he was aiming for. Some of the creations devoured the flesh themselves, giving him a slow gradual boost to his stats, but not all. He was bringing flesh to himself in a steady stream. He wasn’t looking forward to eating them and was still worried about the twisting effect. His skill though stated that it removed the negative effects of what he ate, so he guessed that it wouldn’t affect him.
Holding back his vomit, he stuffed the first piece into his mouth. He didn’t really care about how it looked, but he couldn’t help but see himself within his mana territory. It looked like he was in a deep kiss with the wooden creation, and he was glad to see that the others were too distracted with the fight to see him. Otherwise, he was sure they would tease him about it. Even, he had to stop himself from laughing as he tried to eat the creature’s flesh.
That was easy as the revolting taste crushed his laughter. It was slimy and turned into a sticky goo as he swallowed it. Not to mention that it was extremely salty and made him gag as he swallowed it. It felt like his entire throat was coated by the material. He kept it down though, and let the buffs fill him. Compared to letting his creations eat the flesh, the gain from eating a portion directly was noticeably greater.
Despite his better judgment he continued to eat the thing, with the improved stats and greater concentration letting him make more and more little draconic mouths. He was essentially a moving bush, dozens of branches sprouting draconic mouths lashing at the abomination. Rather than just coming from his back, they came from all around him, so that he could attack while doing his full range of motion. The others had their own plans too, and they had managed to rip one of the arms off the creature. Though it didn’t make the fight easier as the arm thrashed wildly consuming whatever flesh it touched to grow larger. It was just another thing that they needed to worry about.
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Mash was growing increasingly worried that they didn’t have the techniques to kill the boss. One of the rules everyone knew about the class system was that there was no such thing as invincibility, but he knew that monsters were bound by that system. Who knew what abilities this thing had? Luke though didn’t seem affected yelling loudly to the others.
“Distract it, I think I need to attack its soul.”
His voice boomed as his added size, made the voice deeper and echo in the room. Each word itself, caused Mash to wince as the sound hurt his ears. He felt worse for Red, who was standing near Luke, and from a quick glance at her face, she didn’t look happy. Mash felt bad for her because this was likely the second time her eardrums had been damaged by her friends. Mash still felt bad about that, especially when he heard about how they were all blinded and deafened by his attack.
Trying the only other thing he had, Mash switched to focusing on lightning. The dragon maws latched onto the boss and he channeled his lightning through them. It wasn’t great, but it did seem to stun the boss. Although, it didn’t look like it was doing any damage either. However, its movements did slow as he continuously channeled lightning into it. The shocks were visible to him, and he could see parts of its skin burn, not that it got even a small reaction out of the creature.
Luke took that moment to rush the boss again, he thrust his hand into the boss, and for the first time, Mash heard a guttural yell from the creature. It was a horrid sound of hundreds of different pitches screaming all at once. The boss grew panicked as its hundreds of eyes focused on the arm that punctured its chest. The creature launched out waves of its mana, and he saw the arms around the thing, twist and break into visceral explosions. The smile that it had broken and tore apart its already split head divided into more pieces. The image was horrific as its head was split into pieces that were barely connected to its body through thin strands of flesh. Teeth and eyes fell out, as it made the new face. Mash didn’t think that anything could be more disgusting than the big masses of limbs from earlier, but this was worse. A lot worse.
Mash didn’t need any other signal and turned and ran as fast as he could. He was worried about Luke and the others but couldn’t risk going to help. He just ran, into a corner of the room, able to move much faster than attack. He didn’t know what to do about that attack, although Priscilla had an idea.
“Just push its mana back with your own. Normally, that wouldn’t work forever unless someone had an unreasonable amount of mana. After all, the person would need a near unlimited amount to even attempt this.”
Mash was very surprised to feel the tone of the message. Did she really need to say all that, now of all times? Was this a poorly timed attempt at improving his mood? He really hoped not, as it didn’t change his impression of the situation.
“This is really not the time.”
She didn’t seem to care of his retort and had already begun showing him what he needed to do. Essentially, he would need to push his mana out continuously. The plan was to counter the boss with raw amounts of mana. he started his motions, using his weapon as a focus point, and sent a continuous stream of mana outside of his body. It spun with his motions, clashing with a wave of its own.
Mash was surprised to see that his mana was so dense now that it colored his surroundings. His mana was a mix of dark blues and greens, whereas the other creature’s wave was still invisible. This meant that he would have an easier time resisting the thing’s attack and he was able to push against the wave. The clash was visible, and the two different forces constantly exploded against one another. Mash could feel the outer parts of his mana twisting into an explosion, but that actually helped him resist the things spell.
It was like parting a river, and waves of the thing’s mana rolled past him. He felt Jill and Red arrive behind him, but he couldn’t control his mana to avoid them, and they were barraged by the mana too. With their armors, the damage he could deal was minimal, especially considering the twisting effect of the creature. Mash checked their condition and realized that Red was missing a leg. It seemed like she had cut it from the middle of her thigh and replaced it with a bloody imitation. Jill seemed uninjured but was exhausted, and he could barely see what was happening with Luke.
Mash watched as Luke’s arm began to twist rapidly, and his heart rate quickened. Luke was going to die, that was the first thought that flashed into his mind. Luke didn’t twist though, instead, the monster started twisting, as if it was being affected by its own attack. It didn’t seem prepared either and instantly collapsed in on itself exploding into a mess of limbs and parts. Luke’s arm was blasted away, but so was the other creature. Mash even felt the rush of a level up letting him know the thing had finally died.
Mash didn’t hesitate and moved towards Luke. If he stopped moving, he would fall unconscious, but first, he needed to make sure Luke was ok. That final attack had started affecting Luke, and Mash worried that more than just his arm was torn up. Jill beat him there though, Red by her side. As Jill finished the teleport, she fell on her back seeming completely drained. Luke didn’t seem tired at all and started healing both his arm and Red’s leg. When Mash saw the healing start, relief washed over him like a waterfall.
He stopped moving, as he recognized that his friends would be ok. He could ask Luke about what had happened later, for now, he slammed into the ground falling completely unconscious. The metal did not make for a soft landing, and he thudded roughly, as darkness swarmed his vision.