A short while later, Mike returned from the path to the right and reported that the tunnel ended in a dead end. They continued to wait for a while longer, but Jay never showed up.
"I'm not liking this. Where is Jay?" Tom asked.
"I'm not sure, we are probably going to have to go after him. Mike said the other path ends in a dead end, so we were planning to go in the other door anyway." Derek said.
"Alright, let's tell the others and head that way. Hopefully he isn't hurt." Tom said.
Tom moved to tell Zach, Isaac, Kedron, and Chris about the decision to move forward. They agreed it was the best plan and began mobilizing their teams. As soon as they had everyone ready they moved through the exit and down the hall. This corridor was much smaller than the first they had gone through, so everyone had to walk single file.
When they reached the end of the hall they came to a gigantic room that had to be at least six stories tall. At the back of the room, backlit from an internal source stood the largest vending machine anyone had ever seen. It had over a thousand rows of items spanning at least a thousand feet across. Every imaginable item was held there in a can, ready to be sent to a vending machine somewhere in the world.
"It's the most magnificent thing I've ever seen," Bob said nearly breathlessly as he stared at the giant machine before them.
Suddenly the lights blinked and the room grew slightly darker and colder. From out of the side of the machine a giant shadow began to take form. It rose from the machine as though a gas was leaking from the crevasses. It formed together into a massive shape that looked like a bloated ghost in front of the machine.
"GWAAAAAHHHHHH!" The beast screamed out at them.
"You dare to come here to disturb me in my sanctuary?" The beast said in a low, growling tone that echoed through the cavern.
The creature moved forward slightly and Tom caught a glimpse of Jay being held in one shadowy hand.
"JAY!" Tom yelled out. "Jay, are you ok?!"
"Yeah...I'm alright," Jay managed to grunt out. "But would be great if you could get this fucking shitburger to let go of me!"
A shot fired off from the back of the group and the beast screamed as the round struck it in the hand and it dropped Jay who landed unceremoniously on the ground with a yelp of pain.
"And if you pick him back up, the next one goes in your eye you giant cock sucker!" Kiera yelled out.
Quickly getting to his feet and running to the group, Jay pushed past the front lines of the party.
"How dare you strike me! You will pay for this insult you disgusting, pathetic excuses for life!" The monster growled at them.
Extending its hands out, the creature screamed at them again, and shadows that looked like miniature versions of itself began to grow from the shadows on the ground.
"Execute the plan now!" Tom yelled. "Defensive team, keep Bob safe, everyone else begin distraction tactics!"
The parties moved into action. Spells, gunfire, and arrows began to rain down on the beast to keep its attention while Isaac's team moved Bob toward the machine so he could get close. Melee fighters took up positions in the front and began to defend those behind from the summoned creatures.
"Hold back on major skills until it's free of the machine!" Tom yelled.
The shadow creatures attacked with ferocity. The melee fighters were ready for them though. They fought back with equal ferocity and began to push them back. The spellcasters and ranged fighters continued their onslaught of the main monster as well while Bob and the defense team made their way to the side of the machine.
Bob finally made it to the side of the machine and Jerky appeared on his shoulder to help however he could. He turned to face the defense team who had formed a semi-circle around him facing out. They were busy fighting off the shadow monsters to buy him time. Turning back to Bob, Jerky saw he had opened a side panel on the machine and was busy working on some of the circuit systems of the machine.
"LEFT!" Jerky shrieked.
Without missing a beat Bob leaned left and a bolt of shadow hit the machine just to his right. He didn't even stop what he was working on, deep into rewiring the machine.
"RIGHT!" Jerky shrieked again.
Again Bob leaned right and kept working dodging another bolt. Jerky shrieked in frustration and a nearly transparent green shield popped to life behind Bob as a shadow bolt impacted it. The shield held, but cracks formed in the shield from the damage. The defense team continued to fight to keep the shadow creatures off of Bob while he worked.
The melee team had just about dealt with all the additional shadow creatures and managed to keep them off of the ranged fighters with minimal damage to themselves.
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"Is that the best you got!" James yelled at the boss creature as he continued to fire rounds at it.
"You really have to antagonize it?" Derek yelled back to him.
"Hey, I'm trying to keep its attention aren't I?" James asked.
Looking at James the giant shadow creature quirked what could only be described as an eyebrow and then turned to look directly at where Bob and the defensive team were at.
"SHIT!" Tom yelled and fired an eldritch blast at it.
Flinching slightly as the green fire hit it, the creature began to move toward where Bob was sitting.
"If you're going to do something, now is the time Bob!" Isaac called over his shoulder to him.
"Almost done, just need a moment longer," Bob said, his hands moving furiously.
"GWAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The creature screamed again as it reached out headed for the defensive team.
"Got it!" Bob yelled suddenly, plugging something into the board he was working on.
Lights flickered throughout the machine as a shock of electricity flowed across the front window of the machine and connected with the creature as it moved toward them. Screaming in pain as the electricity flowed through its body, it disconnected itself from the machine and flopped onto the floor shaking the entire cavern.
Barely keeping their feet, Tom looked over at the monster now fully exposed as it lay on the ground.
"UNLEASH HELL!" Tom yelled as he activated his strength tattoo and charged the creature.
People from the party began to glow with blues, reds, greens, and yellows as they all activated abilities and charged the creature. Fireballs, lightning bolts, and orbs of all sizes and colors flew from the magic users and began to hit the creature where it lay. It screamed again as it felt pain that wasn't being healed for the first time. Pieces of its shadow body began to explode off of it in large ashy chunks.
It rolled on the ground until it regained its feet and began swiping at the melee fighters tossing them aside like puppets from the ground. Squirrel had jumped on its back and was busy tearing a piece of its neck off as the beast roared again with pain. Flicking its hand up to its neck, it swatted Squirrel away to hit one of the walls of the cavern where he fell to the floor unmoving.
Attempting to reform itself, the beast shrank in size as it formed a new shadow body, now nearly half the size it was before. Again it swiped out at the melee fighters sending more of them flying off. Tom dove to the side to avoid the attack as it flew past him. Getting up, he swung his sword with all his additional strength as he activated cleave cutting through the side of the beast and opening a large gash.
The beast roared again in pain as it looked down at the attackers and swiped again and again. Those with shields did their best to defend against the shadow claws, but many were pushed back by the strength of the attack. It looked over at Tom and made a fist that it reached out to punch down on top of him with. Tom didn't have time to move and put his sword up to catch the attack when a blue barrier formed over him.
It held, but only barely as the beast began to put its weight into pushing down on the barrier. Tom looked over to see Briana with her staff held out in front of her with both hands casting her shield spell over him. As the beast pushed down harder and harder blood began to trickle out of her nose as she forced more and more mana into the shield spell to hold it off of him. Rearing back, the beast brought both hands down in a crushing blow onto the shield.
Tom dove to the side as the blow came down. The shield shattered as Briana cried out and fell to the ground unconscious from the feedback of the spell. He cut at the creature again and it roared in anger at the continued attacks. It reached out and this time swung for the spell casters. A third of them were tossed to the side or killed by the claws at once. More spells continued to hit it as the remaining casters had taken to rounds of drinking mana potions while others attacked.
A shot rang out again and hit the beast in the eye. The creature whipped a hand up to cover its eye as it reared its head back in a scream of agony. It looked down and saw where Kiera was set up with her rifle. It roared again in anger at her and rushed to attack her, clawed hand outstretched. Kiera's eyes went wide in horror as the creature moved to cut her to ribbons.
"KIERA!" Tom yelled out.
At the last second before it could reach her, Seth jumped in front of it with his katana and swiped at the claws cutting the hand. It swiped again and again and again at him as is snarled in frustration and he continued to block its attacks. As one of its attacks swiped out, it aimed for his weapon instead and knocked the block aside as it brought its other claw in for a strike right after.
The claws stabbed into Seth's stomach. Seth let out a gurgling sound as they drove all the way through him and out his back.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Kiera screamed as she aimed up at its face and let round after round loose into its head.
"YOU FUCKING CUNT!!!!!" Kiera continued to scream as tears came to her eyes. "DIE AND BURN IN HELL!!!!"
"HEALERS!" Jay said coming to their side and picking up Seth to rush him away from the battle.
Kiera began to glow as she unleashed a spell at the creature which recoiled and howled in pain.
"CRIES OF REMORSE FEED ME STRENGTH! YOUR TIME HAS COME AND YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR SINS!!!!!" Kiera screamed shooting another spell at the monster.
When this spell hit, it latched onto the creature and shone brighter and brighter as she fed mana into it.
"What the hell is that?" Tom asked.
"I have no idea, but it's coming from Kiera," Derek said in awe of the power she was using.
When the light finally winked out, Kiera fell to the floor unconscious.
"FINISH IT!" Zach called as they renewed their attack on the creature.
"No, no, no NO!" the creature yelled as the barrage began anew. "This cannot be! I will not be defeated!"
It raised both hands up in the air and a wave of power exploded from it, knocking everyone to their backs. The creature shrank again to only about twice the size of a man and it turned to rush back to the machine it had been feeding on.
"Don't let it get back to the machine! It'll heal itself!" Bob called out.
Isaac rushed in from the side holding his shield and used a shield bash on the creature to drive it from its course and onto the ground. Getting to his feet, Tom used his doppelganger spell to create an image of himself that split off and ran to the side to cut the creature off. It regained its feet and began to move for the machine again.
The doppelganger stepped in front of it, halting its progress. It roared at the image and slashed at it only to realize it was a phantom as it swiped right through the copy. It stared in confusion as it tried to understand what had happened. From behind Tom roared as he leapt into the air and swiped across its neck with another full-powered cleave. The beast exploded into a pile of shadow ash as it howled out one last echoing cry of pain that reverberated off the walls of the cavern.