Sam took a deep breath, and then charged out of the mushroom forest, leaping through the air towards the giant monster in front of him, the only way that he would be able to reach the top. As he leapt, the monster started to wail in a deafeningly loud voice, causing Sam to grit his teeth. The spores that were being vented up towards the roof of the ceiling stopped, and they began to swirl around the monster instead, before forming into a spear like aggregation midair, and flying at Sam.
He swung his hammer in the middle of his leap, and struck the spear of spores, only managing to dissipate them throughout the air. However, a sudden whoosh of fire ripped through the spores, the result of his Dao coming into contact with the highly flammable material. He had never really paid attention to this before, but when his hammer was enhanced to this degree, its surface was actually red hot, more than hot enough to set the spores on fire. The only reason he never really spotted that was because the hammer was too durable to be affected by such heat at all, which meant that there were no residual marks left afterwards.
Sam flew through the spores, making sure not to breathe any in. The progenitor wailed again, and swiped out at Sam with a previously hidden appendage that looked nothing more than a giant whip of rotting flesh. Sam batted it away with his hammer, and landed in front of the monster, his momentum spent. The creature shifted, its head twitching as it moved, and slowly began to rise, lifting its suppurating bulk off of the cavern floor. The monster was far larger than Sam had suspected before, and as it rose, he saw that it had been sitting in a hunched position. The creature only had one leg, and it tapered at the bottom, making the monster look like some sort of grotesque mushroom made out of flesh and nightmares.
It stomped once, causing the mushrooms around it to shake. As the mushrooms continued to shake, Sam saw that the effect was not simply from the ground shaking. All around him, the ground started to crack as white tendrils erupted outwards, trying to grasp at him from all directions. Sam imbued his hammer with power, and then thrust it downwards, slamming it into the ground before his legs. There was a bang and the ground shattered, and a nova of energy shot outwards, destroying all of the nearby tendrils. More kept coming however, and as the mushrooms around Sam started to shift, he realized that they were coming from the parts of the mushroom that were under the ground. It seemed that the mycelium progenitor had a modicum of control over its kin.
Sam flashed forward, pushing off the ground before the white tendrils could reach him, heading towards the monster standing in the middle of the clearing. He jumped at the last minute, and whipped his hammer around, striking the side of the creature’s body. It had not expected for much to happen evidently as it did not move, but his strike was far more powerful than his size would suggest, and the creature staggered back as it landed, taking off a chunk of skin with a blast of reddish light.
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The monster howled in rage, and swiped out at Sam with another appendage, knocking him out of the air. He skipped along the ground, feeling the tendrils grasp at him, and try to pull him down. He ripped his way free, too strong for them to hold him, and continued forwards, stepping over the writhing mat of mushroom mass. The progenitor took a massive step forwards, bringing one of its arms up and over its head and down towards Sam.
Sam rolled away, tearing up more of the white tendrils, and kept moving as the arm slammed down next to him, shaking the earth with its force. The monster was slow, but quite strong, as befit something of its level.
Sam swung his hammer into the grasping arm, feeling the flesh rend and tear beneath his blow. Gore splattered everywhere, and Sam grimaced as some landed on his armor. He kept moving, heading towards the main bulk of the progenitor, knowing that he could not dally here.
The mushrooms around him swayed more and more violently, and the number of tendrils was only rising as time went on. Soon, he would be buried beneath them, no matter how strong he was. He needed to hurry up.
Sam started to use his armor to empower himself, and his body quickly exploded with power, allowing him to race ahead of the grasping mat of white vines. He raced towards the monster at the center of the clearing, as it wound up another swipe. Sam ducked under its strike, sliding on his knees across the cavern floor, and snapped back to his feet in an instant, using his momentum to drive his hammer straight into the central part of the monster’s left knee.
With a muffled thud, the weapon slammed home, and the creature stumbled, its leg twisted by his attack. It did not have any bones as far as he could tell, standing upright simply by virtue of its System given strength. However, there was only so much it could do, and Sam’s strike toppled it easily.
He raised his hammer above his head and brought it down with a shout, sending his remaining Dao energy into it. The weapon bloomed with light, and then impacted the progenitor’s head, slamming it into the floor with an earth shaking thud. Blood weltered over the ground and the monster let out a muffled howl. One of its appendages snapped out and grabbed Sam, tossing him into the ceiling up above. He grunted as he impacted the stone, and reversed his body, landing securely on his feet next to the now rising monster. It was tough if nothing else.
Sam swung his hammer once more, but it was caught by yet another appendage rising out of the labyrinthine depths of the various folds of skin that covered the disgusting creature. It grimaced at him through its grotesque mouth, and swung him toward the wall, using his hammer as a lever.
Sam rooted his feet firmly and tore his hammer out of the monster's grasp, drawing blood with the sudden motion. The creature roared in anger, and it waved one of its appendages in rage, causing the mushroom tendrils to speed towards Sam at alarming rates. He jumped up into the air as they passed beneath them and flash fried the things with a quick burst of Dao energy, landing back in the scorched patch of earth as if nothing had happened.
He grinned at the monster from beneath his helmet and ducked under another ponderous swing, heading towards the thing once more. This would be a battle of attrition more than anything else.