Repeating the one step to bring out the boss from the beneath the mycelium network, Sonja stepped up to the edge and got into a stable kneeling position as she drew and nocked an arrow on the string to pull her bow to its full length. The moment she let the arrow fly her hand was already moving to the quiver to prepare another arrow.
The first shaft entered the meaty trunk of the fungus, looking like nothing more than a wiry acupuncture needle stuck in a giant’s neck, as Sonja laid the second across the handle of her bow. The razor-sharp shell of energy characterizing her new Boosted Arrow ability rippled over the arrow head and settled around the metal.
Just as it had the day before, the tangled mess of mushroom mycelium uprooted itself and assembled itself into a humanoid form. Again it seemed to only know that something had caused damage to the fungus king, but not what or from where.
The Boosted Arrow flew at extreme speed to impact the thing’s torso. The force of the shot rocked it on its feet, driving it back a couple of steps, but it did not fall. Its head whipped up to stare directly at them. For a moment it stood unmoving and quiet, almost as if it was trying to determine what the best next step was.
Apparently deciding that a straightforward bull rush was the way to go, the mushroom guardian broke into a mad dash, its first two steps tearing up soil as the roots of its feet were ripped free. It was headed straight for them at speed.
“Fall back! Back! Back! Back!” Heath shouted frantically and unslung his shield. “The big guy’s coming.”
They slid down the slope to fight on flat ground. A guy with living roots instead of real feet would probably have an advantage on uneven ground. Sonja stayed up on the edge to observe the development down in the crater — whether the guardian decided to change course, or if the striders would follow the giant up to them and complicate the fight.
“Mike!” Heath said as they got into a formation, facing the fungus king. Without a word Michael laid a hand on the tank’s large back upon which the silvery light of his Single Protection ability hummed to life and washed over Heath’s body.
“The striders are hostile to the plant man!” Sonja shouted from the top, her eyes never leaving the crater. “They attack it whenever it enters the range of their feelers! They’re hurting the boss! They are not following! The plant man is not retaliating! It just keeps coming towards us!”
“Eik, you ready?” Heath asked.
“Yep,” Eik said with a nod as he chewed on one of the poisonous flowers given to him by Atla before they’d been shoved through the fracture. He felt the effects of Noxious Invigoration kick in once the poison entered his system.
The poison itself was much more potent than the molded balls of mixed, finely chopped toxic roots and herbs, and Eik already felt a stomach ache coming on. But the strengthening effect was rivaled only by the time the cannibalistic cult leader forced him to swallow that horrible drug.
Within a dozen seconds the sound of the protector climbing up the side of the crater announced its arrival. Tangled fingers gripped the rocky rim and rocketed the strange creature upwards to land with a crash in a position with a mossy fist planted on the ground. It stood up slowly and regarded the three of them with its flickering yellow eyes.
“Was that… a superhero landing? Did that weird thing just do a superhero landing?” Eik asked.
“Surely not, right?” Michael muttered.
“It’s coming! Look alive, guys!” Heath shouted and raised his tower shield to meet the oncoming plant monster. Were mushrooms plants?
Before it had managed to take two steps an arrow slammed into its back, but being non-boosted it barely rattled it. The mycelium had already completely wrapped itself around the Boosted Arrow and seemed to be swallowing up the wood.
The guardian’s body was missing several chunks here and there where the striders’ legs had impacted it as it ran past them. Just by looking at it, it didn’t seem like those creepy spider crabs had the power to properly tear through the boss’ defenses, but the spines growing all over the legs must have acted similarly to a vegetable grater and shaved off layers.
Michael weaved his fingers in the familiar pattern and summoned the golden cords of Bind to take a hold of the monster’s feet as it charged. For a moment it appeared to trip even as the ability broke against its dense weight, but the roots of its body sprouted out to catch the fall and sped up its onrush
A deafening crash of metal echoed through the mushroom forest when the fungus guardian smashed its fist into Heath’s shield. The tank grunted as he withstood the blow, his heavy boots sliding through the soft moss.
“This thing hits like a god damned truck, guys!” Heath breathed as he righted his stance to receive the next hit. “Resonating Strength is giving me a good bit of extra power, but I can’t do this forever. If you could find a way to kill this piece of crap quickly, I’d be very appreciative!”
“On it!” Eik shouted and activated Movement Boost as he whirled sideways and around the monster where he leapt onto its back. Then Sonja was there, her thin blade drawn, slashing into the outer layer of moss and vines. It made a sound as if she had cut into a cucumber but instead of severing it cleanly in two, her sword got stuck halfway through as murky green sap poured out of the guardian’s wound. It smelled like freshly cut grass.
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A knotted fist came around but an activation of Disengage carried her back and away from the attack, her sword still stuck where she’d left it in the monster.
It bashed Heath’s shield again and again, pushing back the big man while Eik plunged Viper Fang into its gnarled back. The moment Profound Toxin began to flow, the thing froze like a statue. Then it appeared to wobble and undulate as it restructured itself. Suddenly Eik was no longer clinging to the guardian’s back, its yellow eyes opening in what had been the back of its head. With arms that were quite literally like trunks, it took a firm hold around his body and began to squeeze.
Heath and Michael both began to bash away at its legs and back as Sonja rejoined the fight, yanking her sword out and making two more cuts. Heath scored a deep, sappy gash with Unerring Strike, but the thing seemed completely oblivious to anything but its desire to crush Eik in a deadly embrace.
Able to neither move nor wield Viper Fang Eik did the only thing he could think of and released Profound Toxin from every single pore in his body, much like what he had done when the slime had gobbled him up during the Great Raid on Earth.
His scream of pain turned into a desperate, breathless rasp as the crushing power increased by the second. The toxin never stopped flowing, but Eik didn’t know if a plant or fungus had the circulatory system to be properly affected by his ability. He could feel the Profound Toxin present in the thing but the speed at which it was transported through the many intertwining vines was glacial compared to other monsters and animals.
He soundlessly called forth Accelerant and felt the toxin obey. Rather than the rocking and pulsing reaction that Accelerant caused in animals, the guardian of the fungus king simply exploded where the toxin had managed to penetrate deep enough to respond to his ability. Several of the cuts made by Heath and Sonja as well as the striders had been drenched in poison and Accelerant had forced them open violently, severing most of the affected roots completely.
This seemed to weaken the guardian’s vice grip enough for Eik to force his feet up for purchase on the giant’s body and kick up and out of its embrace. He tried to correct his flight mid-air but all he managed was a pathetic, panicky flailing of arms and legs like a beetle turned over on its back to then land hard on his ass, sending jolts of pain through his already aching body.
The others kept up their assault, the Sitting Duck trait evolved from Heath’s Fortitude ability finally seeming to attract the thing enough to his shield for it to attack him instead of someone else. In order to keep the guardian’s attention focused on him even as the others attacked it, he did his best to weave both Unerring Strikes and regular slashes of his short sword in between his shield blocks.
Eik sat himself up and felt around his ribs to check for breaks and bruises. It hurt whenever he took a breath so he popped one of his home made healing spheres to be on the safe side — one of the only ones left in his belt pouch. He really hoped that his broken leg had been the last serious injury they would see before making it back to the Nidafjeld Alliance.
“Hey! Chest! Take a look at its chest!” Heath shouted as Eik rejoined the battle. “Do you see what I’m seeing?”
Sonja danced out and behind Heath to get a better view. “It looks like a gemstone of some kind,” she confirmed.
“That might be the key to killing this damn thing!” Eik added and sliced into its back twice quickly. “Like a video game!”
Michael ran behind Heath to get to Eik to massage his rib cage with healing hands. Eik really hoped that the young healer would get to pick Pain Suppression next time his Heal ability leveled. He’d have loved some of that right about now.
“How does it work in a video game?” he asked Eik.
The Dane gave him a look of disbelief as he jumped back to avoid a vine snaking out to get him. “Destroy the indestructible and untiring golem’s core and it will crumble into nothingness to reveal the room where the princess is being kept hostage! How do you not remember that?”
“I never really got to play video games much before the Unified Mass decided to transform our lives into a waking nightmare,” he said, his mouth a thin line.
“Ah, yeah, that sucks, man.”
“But I don’t think it’s a very good habit to equate the fantasy world of a video game with the fantasy world of our actual lives anyway.”
“You got a better idea?”
“I, uuh—”
“Let’s just try it!” Heath shouted with annoyance. “It either works or it doesn’t!”
“Sonja, help me get through its back!” Eik called as he carved even more grooves into the roots. Sonja came and added her own while Michael kept up his healing and took every opportunity he could to use Bind to hinder the boss’ continued onslaught on Heath.
Once the golem’s back was marred by numerous cuts, Eik delivered a globule of Profound Toxin like a water balloon to soak into and mix with the sap. Without looking back, the thing swung a backfist for his head but he ducked and put a hand on one of the roots of its legs to trigger Accelerant.
With a loud pop, juicy, green flesh erupted from the guardian’s back. With so many of its tangled appendages destroyed at once, the thing seemed to fall apart slightly and lose power.
Activating Movement Speed, Eik leapt for the yellow gemstone, leading with his hands like a diver. He ripped it out of its body where it had been held gently by some kind of slight, brittle sapling.
Before it could pull the same trick that it had done when it caught him earlier, he kicked off into a smooth backflip.
“I hope you played little league baseball, Mikey!” he yelled and lobbed the stone toward the young healer.
His high F-rank letting him react, Michael hefted the iron mace into a two-handed grip and smashed the little gemstone out of the park with a crunch like glass breaking.
Immediately, as if someone had pulled the plug on a terminator powered by a wall socket, the guardian fell apart into a heap of roots and vines. To be safe, they hacked through all of the individual parts at least once.
“Phew!” Eik said and fell onto his ass with a hand on his ribs. “That was not an easy fight! Glad that’s over and done wi—”
“Shh!” Sonja shushed, her bow suddenly back in her hand. “I hear something from down there. It almost sounds like…”
A gnarled, mossy hand appeared at the rim of the crater, followed quickly by a head.
“Nuts,” Eik groaned and got to his feet and drew Viper Fang.
Fingers came up to grip the head of the second guardian, revealing yet another head. A few paces to the side a fourth guardian climbed over the rim.
“Shit!”