Mrs. Strawberry saw the Fluffy projectile gleaming as it shot towards them. She redirected the trajectory of the spit-wad-of-death with her pan. The weaponized loogie splattered into a nearby tree. As soon as the midsized timber was wrapped in the webbing a thread went taut, the tree with deep seated roots was yanked back up the mountain pass.
There was an audible crunching and snapping of branches.
The half-eaten tree was hurtled back down towards the adventurers. Devourer was in the line of the munched trunk. He leapt to avoid the whipping branches. He exited his spin and landed atop the long the length of the tree trunk as it came to a crashing halt in the rock wall.
Descendre was unimpressed “You could’ve just sidestepped the flora to avoid it; didn’t have to make it into some complex acrobatics routine.”
“Not as much fun.” He said sticking out his tongue.
Onion peered up at the direction of the attack “Why are no more spit wads being spat?”
“I don’t think the Fluffy can see us.” Gus offered. The Mottoy estimated angles and the speed that the bones and webbing had originated “I think this is a trap. The Fluffy hears a sound, spits some webbing and catches whatever is caught in the web.”
“Clever.” The Derkaz admitted with some admiration in her voice.
The Auris was not so admiring “Don’t be impressed that could have killed me like a bug!”
“Next time side step that attack like a normal person.” The cat suggested primly. She turned her attention to the Mottoy. “How do we deal with this then? You understand strategies.”
“Just as much as you do.” Gus pointed out.
The Fluffy could be heard moving about.
Onion hopped down from his steed with a clapping of his hands “I can attack him from beneath the ground.” He sank into the ground before Descendre could shout a warning about Fluffies attacking underground.
The group waited with bated breath.
Nothing.
There was an eruption of rock and earth, red roots tearing up from the ground attempting to rip through the plant mage with needle sharp barbs. Onion crushed berries and an explosion of blue green flames engulfed the area. The Silken dodged between two of the roots and pelted back towards the group on all fours.” Roots are laced in every inch of the earth around the monstrosity. I touched a tiny root and the roots lashed out like snakes. Lucky I was moving backwards as soon as I made contact.”
“I already told everyone that going underground was dangerous.” Descendre said with biting words, though they were from a source of concern and not true anger. “Devourer’s role is for stupid antics, not you!”
“Oops!” Onion gasped out as he tried to catch his breath.
“That gave us some information.” Gus was already thinking through next steps of their attack. He measured the distance and asked the Silken “Think you can pull some of your old school magic with your spirit hand things?”
Onion nodded his head “Yeah, just need a minute to breathe.”
“INCOMING!” Devourer shouted, pointing up to a webbed orb sparkling in the sunlight.
“It is going to overshoot us.” Gus stated. “Stay where you are.”
The white orb crashed into the ground behind them, the bones trapped in the webbing exploded outwards to cover nearby trees, boulders and a stonewall.
A second orb smashed to the ground beside it.
Then a third.
“The Fluffy just boxed us in!” the cook said.
“Ah.” Gus threw several mushrooms to the ground as he observed more of the deadly spit wads striking the path behind them. “Smart Fluffy.”
Devourer watched the mushrooms sprout as he asked “Why?”
“With us boxed in we can’t go back.” Mrs. Strawberry answered, she pointed at the walls on either side then behind them “It just can fire slowly all day and force us to come to it.”
The Auris caught on “And once we are in range of the roots we are made into pincushions.”
Another Fluffy web struck.
The planted mushrooms formed together, creating a hardened floor of black. The Mottoy nodded to himself with satisfaction before directing his question to the plant mage that was finally breathing normally. “How you are doing, Mr. powerhouse?”
Onion’s leaves fluttered back to life as he stretched “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Just be careful.” The ranger warned. “This creature is clever.”
Another pile of bones and threads exploded behind them and edged the group a little closer to the roots of the Fluffy.
“Not as clever as me.” The Silken crushed berries between his fingers as he moved towards the hidden Fluffy. His leaves started to whisper like crickets in a cavern, the emerald Rootfire rose up around him as he slammed his hands together. The spectral hands tore through the air just short of the Fluffy. “That is clever.” He grumbled.
“Do you think it knew the range of Onion’s attack?” Devourer asked with a hint of awe in his voice.
“Not Onion specifically.” Gus answered. He was watching the mushrooms forming into an incredibly solid building. “It knows the abilities of mages; it is hiding out of sight and out of range of projectiles and magic.”
Another lobbed loogie stuck to the walls, closer to the group.
“We’ll see about that.” Onion growled, he took a step closer, the ground cracked and little red roots reached towards him hungrily. The Silken took a step back. “Okay, cleverer than I gave it credit.”
The Mottoy harumphed. “We can hide in this bunker, if need be, nothing is going to break through it easily. But that means we’re stuck here until the Fluffy gets impatient and gets in range of my javelin or Onion’s magic. The Fluffy’s can be killed by blades, which is why they try to keep their attackers at a distance.”
Descendre looked at the steep cliff faces with a calculating eye. She attempted to gain purchase in the rock with her sharp claws, she gained no purchase. She leapt up, pushed herself off the wall to the opposing wall and lost her momentum, she fell back to the ground though there was a triumphant grin, there was mischief in the syllables as she called out a name. “Devourer!”
“What?” the Auris asked with uncertainty, this tone to her voice was unfamiliar. He watched the cat pace back and forth a few times before she sat down and nodded to herself. He asked again “What?”
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“Yep, I think it’ll work.” She looked back at her childhood friend. “I think we need one of your stupid antics.”
-
Devourer shook free his blade covered ears. “Who are you and what did you do with Descendre?”
“What?” the cat asked with confusion on her face.
“You’re encouraging my reckless behavior.” The Auris pointed out. “Usually you are holding me back from jumping off the cliff.”
“True.” Onion agreed, moving around the cat with curiosity. “And here she is punting you over the edge.” Black leaves sprouted along the branches in his tail. “Ooh, new experience. Reckless-abandon-from-the-voice-of-reason. I like it!”
Descendre’s words became a little less excited “Well, if you think it’s too dangerous we can come up with another plan…”
“Too late!” Devourer blurted as he dashed up a wall. He leapt at the opposing wall. “You already gave your seal of approval!” He landed against the rock as it gravity had shifted and leapt back at the other cliff face, he moved towards the Fluffy’s hiding place in this fashion, jumping back and forth between the walls with his coattails snapping behind him. He leapt over the natural stone wall hiding the Fluffy and his mind raced to find the best way to stay alive.
The Auris only had a moment to take in the odd creature. It was on all fours, the legs were red and with gigantic barbs, here it was clear the ‘roots’ were actually tendrils, tentacles, toes or digits, you could call them what you wanted but they were not wood from a tree. The Fluffy had a round head that was featureless except for a large maw with sharp teeth within. The monstrosity had a thick tail that curled upwards, on the end of tail was a humongous pink flower with white stripes. Devourer did a double take and realized it was actually a series of fleshy fins with eyes inside them. That was all that the three-eared gentleman had time to see before the Fluffy attacked.
The ground cracked and red tendrils lashed up towards the Auris.
Devourer spun, cutting through the barbed roots with his serrated ears. As a gigantic red root passed above him, he touched just the tip of his toes to the tentacle, using it to reorient his body and dive towards the Fluffy.
The tendrils rose to meet the dancing gentleman.
The three-ear twisted, slicing through tentacles like a woodchipper as he aimed for the trunk of the monstrosity. He landed a deep strike.
The Fluffy roared in pain. Instinctively the creature spat webs towards this dangerous foe. Devourer did a back handspring to evade the trapping threads; the red roots caught in the sticky trap instead. The Auris used the bound thrashing tubers to launch another attack at the trunk. He struck and leapt away from more webbing. He hooked a large root with his dagger and swung around to land multiple strikes to the eyes in the ‘petals of the flower’. The Fluffy twisted in furry, attempting to catch the nuisance in his teeth, but the Auris was already out of reach. He backflipped away, his ear blades spinning out like a chain saw severing huge sections of tendrils with more roars of pain from the Fluffy. Devourer had a look of fierce focus on his face as he caught himself again against a root and leapt towards the lower section, landing with his blades, and shoving them to the hilts before leaping away.
The Fluffy roared!
Red roots surged upwards in a wall of death, leaving no room for Devourer to evade.
There was only one option. The Auris leapt upwards using the web trapped tendrils, the red twining death rising around him. The roots collapsed inwards like a cluster of furious snakes.
The adventurers on the ground stared at the column of thrashing tendrils.
Descendre was stunned “Did…did Devourer just---”
“-just pull of the most awesome stunt ever? Yes!” Devourer shouted as he bounced off the walls back to his companions.
“Wait, what?” Onion had sprouted a new batch of experience berries, but he was too flabbergasted to notice.
Gus coughed slightly “I never saw you move like that before.”
The Auris adjusted his bowler hat “Never had an enemy worthy of my full attention.” He gave a quick summary of the battle, ending with “I blinded it, I suggest we vamoose while we can. Because it will start lobbing spit wads at us soon enough.” He stopped on seeing the new webbing that blocked their escape route “Ah, he put up a lot more since I last looked.” He scratched an ear as he asked. “Start cutting through it?”
Onion nodded “Give me a few minutes to get my power going, can you help me, Gus and Descendre?”
Mrs. Strawberry looked at her pan, it would not be helping much in this situation. She slung it onto the loop on her belt and extended a hand “Can someone hand me a Tattered blade?”
The cat sliced through webbing as she responded “Not enough space for more, watch the cursed beast and let us know what it is doing.”
“The blade wasn’t for the webbing.” The woman pursed her lips as she grabbed the Tattered deboning knife. “It is so I can defend out backs.” Mrs. Strawberry edged up the path to get a better view of their enemy. The Fluffy was still lashing out with its roots in pain, but it was only for a short while before the monster stopped thrashing. It started to creep its way into view and down towards the adventurers, the tendrils inching forward across the rocks, searching for its food. She sliced them as if they were a trout’s back. The roots yanked back from the blade as she said over her shoulder, “Fluffy is moving. Where are we at on getting that path open?”
Devourer spun fast as a top to remove the webbing, he was still turning as he replied “We aren’t even halfway through this mess.” His foot caught on a strand; he stumbled in his dance. Once Auris regained balance he eyed the white threads in frustration. “Anyone have any bright ideas?”
“Mruff!” Eli said helpfully from atop the Eulb beetle’s back.
A large tendril shot towards the unprotected backs of the web cutters, Mrs. Strawberry unslung her pan, braced it against her shoulder for support and deflected the root. As it was redirected, she decapitated it with the deboning blade. More of them whipped in range of her edged weapon, while she caught most, some snaked past her cooking gear and found the legs of the Eulb beetle. It swung its head down, tearing the tendrils with its giant jaws. The movement sent the blue cub falling from his perch and into the tentacles of the Fluffy.
The Frozen Death made a surprised yip and was yanked beneath the earth.
“IT GOT ELI!” the granny shouted as she sliced through tendrils to reach him. She could hear Eli mewling in terror as he was pulled towards the Fluffy’s waiting fanged mouth.
Gus was at her side, “Where?”
She smacked a root down viciously with her pan as she nodded her head in the direction of the tunnel created by the tendrils “Underground, the roots have him!”
“AURIS! WE NEED YOU STUPID! NOW!!!” The mushroom knight shouted, he pointed at the rock walls and then the Fluffy. “DISTRACTION! GO!!!”
Devourer sprinted up a wall, leapt from surface to surface towards the monster. The roots were already lashing at him as he ran along the wall, using them like steps to sail into the air with blades aimed at its face. Giant red tentacles erupted from the ground, attempting to slam him into the sky, he rolled to avoid the brunt of the attack, he used it to his advantage, springing down to crack teeth with his ear blades.
The creature roared, all its roots withdrawing to defend against the whirling Auris. The tendrils came from all angles to skewer the three-eared gentleman. He stayed only a moment ahead of them.
Gus shouted “ONION, RESCUE!!!”
The Silken engulfed himself in rootfire and dove beneath the ground. The green glow of rootfire could be seen as Onion swam towards the terrified mews of Eli. The Fluffy was too focused on the spinning dervish to pay any heed to the creature swimming within its territory.
“Now it’s us! Let’s go, Cook!” Gus charged forward atop his steed with shield extended like a battering ram to knock aside any remaining roots that had been forgotten by their host. They were whipping around erratically and the two hacked and slashed their way towards the torso of the beast.
Eli was pulled into view by a root and tossed into the Fluffy’s mouth.
Mrs. Strawberry drove her Tattered blade into its jaw as she shouted. “Spit up my Eli!”
Rootfire engulfed the beast as Onion unleashed his magic.
Devourer shredded through the petals of the creature above as Descendre drove her poisoned tail into its torso. Gus threw his javelin into its throat. The creature thrashed as veins of orange crisscrossed its body. The Fluffy shivered and slumped forward with a gurgling last breath.
“Eli?” Devourer asked as he landed among the roots.
Out of the Fluffy’s mouth crawled a slobber covered and very displeased looking Eli. He waddled over to the cook and pawed at her leg until she picked him up.
“Glad to see you’re alive.” She said as she booped his nose. She looked at the Fluffy before them. “That was a lot of work to kill a Fluffy.”
Descendre started to lick her shoulder free of the webbing still stuck to her fur. She groomed herself for a moment before speaking “Extremely rare.”
“A small one, but impressive all the same.” Gus agreed, he eyed the orange veins along it’s body “I know what each of our abilities is, I don’t know of one that causes blue veins to cover the body.”
Onion was covered with a cornucopia of new flowers, they shifted as he leaned forward to inspect the still pulsing network of orange blood vessels “This is curious, whatever this toxin is, it helped slow the behemoth down, helped weaken it’s armored skin, not by a lot, but just enough to allow our attacks to get just a little bit deeper.”
“Wonder where it came from.” Descendre mused.
Devourer brushed down his jacket “Might have been something it ate.” He stopped to look at Onion and Gus staring at him. “What?”
The two looked at each other.
“Guess we’ll never know.” The mushroom paladin said with forced joviality. Though he looked at the creature in Mrs. Strawberry’s arms for a moment before he turned his attention to the triumphant cheers of his team.