The sound of Yhaine’s panting was momentarily cut off when the creak of a falling tree echoed out.

Lucille dared to look back- a decision that she quickly regretted when she saw the massive fungal entity was gaining distance and getting closer to them.

The Great Rotter also showed its capacity for strength as it quite literally destroyed everything in its path, from trees to rocks to even tiny boulders; none of those things were safe from the primal wrath of the behemoth.

“Uh- what do we do about that thing?!” Lucille turned back to her friends in panic, Zyra looked like she was doing something- and their tactician muttered inaudible words, that's- what?- Lucille couldn’t make them out- while Yhaine just kept running, “GUYS?!”

“Grab the tank of gasoline from Yhaine's bag and throw it at the Great Rotter,” Zyra audibly snapped at her before continuing to mutter something under her breath, whatever it was that their tactician was doing wasn't important-

Lucille focused on what she was told and opened up the duffle bag on Yhaine's back and gawked at the giant container that took up most of the available space.

She reached out and felt her fingers slide across its surface, unable to take hold but that didn't stop her and she tried again, this time she reached for the cap of the tank and her fingers managed to curl around the crank.

She hefted it with a grunt and below her, Yhaine stumbled from the sudden shift in weight.

“Throw it quickly!” Her friend yelled.

Lucille, in panic, was about to do that but something at the back of her head- a small part of her whispered that she should amplify her Minor Strength's output. She did that before tossing the tank of gasoline at the Great Rotter.

The ceramic container shattered on impact against the monster’s body and doused it in gasoline, the strong scent of kerosene reached Lucille's nose and she pulled up her mask.

The heroine faced her friends, “I'm done,” she said in a muffled voice, “can anyone light that thing on fire now?”

“Working on it!” Zyra used Grow Weapon, causing spines and fruits to grow on her Pledge, she grabbed a red colored sphere and tossed it at the monster lumbering after them, the red fruit flew through the air and erupted into flames when it struck the Great Rotter, the gasoline sparked and most of the monster’s front went ablaze.

Its backside hadn't been doused in gasoline so the fire didn't spread there but from how it kept going even after being set on fire, Lucille didn't think it would have mattered anyway.

“It's still chasing after us,” Lucille muttered in worry. Her mouth now mask free.

“Uhuh, thanks for letting me know,” Yhaine's exhausted voice managed to sound dry.

“Its eyes were exposed so they should have melted from the fire, it should be blind now,” Zyra pointed out a silver lining to it all.

Lucille shook her head in denial, “unlikely, it can still sense us through the mycelium” she said, “if something like this came into being then there's a King Fungi somewhere around here-” the fact that they could potentially be on top of it went unsaid, “- and it should be pretty big since we found a Lichen Crawler a while ago,”

“So it can see us all the time?” Yhaine asked.

‘Yeah,” Lucille confirmed, “not only that, I'm pretty sure the King Fungi is sending more of its fauna towards us too,”

The fact that nothing came for some reason also went unsaid- or rather, was glossed over.

“What kind of “fauna” are we talking about here?” Yhaine voiced out another question as she dodged a thrown tree, causing Lucille to bump her stomach against her shoulder plate.

“Spore Bears, Eukaleafs, Eukafumes, those kinds of things,” Zyra answered.

“Great!” Yhaine yelled sarcastically as a giant rock struck a tree a few meters away from them, their front line let out a whine that sounded between a painful cry for help and an ugly complaint, “and now it's throwing things at us!”

The laugh that followed Yhaine's words didn't sound confident. Lucille was even sure it sounded nervous- well, it was nervous- that was… obvious.

“We're going to be fine,” Zyra reassured, “Karsten's going to help-” she didn't even finish her sentence before all three of them were bathed under a pillar of light and their exhausted state disappeared to be replaced by vigorous strength, “- us out soon, or right now,” Zyra finished calmly, “alright- I think we can fight this thing,”

“Uh, how?” Yhaine was the one who voiced that out.

“It's blind now and I think we’re far enough that the mycelium of the King Fungi should be less numerous here,” their tactician answered, “and there's plenty of trees for us to hide in and if I'm not mistaken then there should be a cave not far from here we can hide in as well-”

“Nope,” Yhaine denied vehemently, “we're not trusting that fucking map! It almost got us killed!”

“... okay, we won't,” Lucille watched their tactician throw it away, “there, it's gone and I shouldn't… feel the need to read it now,” Zyra said in realization, “odd.” The Florist shook her head, “okay, Yhaine, bring us down, we're fighting this thing,”

“Are you sure?” Their tank asked.

“I'm sure. And it’ll catch up to us anyway.” Their tactician repeated her words.

Yhaine stopped running and Lucille turned back to the still burning Great Rotter, “Neo's words of bringing fire around here really helped out huh?” She said while eyeing the charred heart at the center of the monster’s chest, which had stopped beating with the veins around it now either inert or burned, “it's so effective against these things,”

“It is,” Zyra agreed with a nod, “by now, it should be weak since its heart is gone and it should be mostly blind,”

“Mostly?” Yhaine stood in front of them despite her fearful words, “why mostly?”

“There's always mycelium,” Zyra answered, “but there should be less around here,”

“Ah,” Yhaine nodded, “well, good luck to you two, since as far as I'm aware, my armor is indestructible,”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“As all Pledges commonly are,” Zyra said with a snort, adding, “get near me, I think Karsten is going to boost us with Holy Bath again,”

“What does it do anyway?” Lucille asked as she and Yhaine went closer to their teammate, in front of them, the Great Rotter was also putting less and less distance between them with each passing second.

“It makes us stronger, heals us, and replenishes our reservoir of Light,” Zyra explained just as another pillar of light came over them, “now get ready, that thing isn't going to go easy on us,”

“I know,” Yhaine stepped forward and grabbed a warhammer from her bag.

“You've been carrying that thing?” Lucille looked at the weapon in barely hidden shock- not that she was trying to hide her surprise to begin with, “no wonder you ran so slowly,”

“I can take the weight easily thanks to my Pledge,” Yhaine shook her helmeted head at Lucille, “and besides, you have that weird holy silver shortsword right?”

“I guess?” Lucille eyed said weapon hanging from her hip.

“It's going to be on us in a few more moments,” Zyra's voice cut into their conversation and casual topics about weapons disappeared in favor of strategy, “Lucille, go fast and run behind us, I want you to circle around the Great Rotter and distract it with your loud footsteps,”

“I'll do that,” Lucille replied, realizing what Zyra meant about distracting the monster with her “loud” footsteps. “Is the mycelium strong enough to hear me?”

“No, but it can feel the vibrations that you make from running,” Zyra answered, “and it transports those vibrations towards the lichen growing at the bottom of the Great Rotter's feet,”

Lucille eyed the fuzzy growth and frowned, “weird,”

“Mhmm.” Zyra nodded, “it's no different from how most Omegafaunas communicate,” she raised her Pledge and prepared to crack the floral whip, “now go, I'm going to try and shatter its heart to expose the fungal core underneath,”

With one last nod, Lucille ran behind her group and slowly, she started circling the monster, and the Great Rotter, to her surprise, followed after her. The monster stopped running and turned to Lucille, not with its head, but its entire body.

Lucille realized something then, “it can't change directions well!”

She faced her friends to see that the two of them nodded to indicate that they already knew.

Lucille saw Zyra sign her to go in front of them by pointing at a nearby tree and then she pointed at the Great Rotter to signal that she wanted Lucille to make the beast face them.

Lucille did just that and when she got the monster to directly be in Zyra's line of sight, their rogue cracked her whip and a green blur flashed out, it struck the massive monster directly on the chest and what was left of its blackened heart shattered away into charcoaled pieces that fell to the ground.

The monster immediately reacted to the attack and it charged forward, ignoring Lucille even as she dashed to its side.

Yhaine and Zyra reacted much in the same way the monster did- which is to say by running.

Yhaine went left while Zyra, to her teammates’ surprise, suicidally went forward and rolled underneath the monster, she then quickly cracked her whip and struck the now open chest cavity of the monster, making the Great Rotter shake.

“It's stunned!” Zyra yelled, “Lucille! Jump on its back and start attacking its spine!”

“I-” Lucille didn't dare waste time and did just that, she jumped and when she landed on the back of the entity, she only wondered for a split second on how she could possibly attack such a massive spinal cord with her dagger before going forward and plunging her dagger at the gaps between each vertebrae.

Beneath her, the Great Rotter shook, “good!” Zyra said from somewhere far away, “now I want you to keep doing that!”

“Uhuh!” Lucille was scared but at the same time- exhilarated at the thought of mounting something so big- she was like the giant slayers of old, fearless in climbing atop colossal beasts and unyielding despite their miniature size compared to those which they hunted.

The Great Rotter wasn't quite like the Saurids of the past but Lucille thought that if there's something that would allow her to compare then and now?

It would be this.

She moved on from one digit and then to the next, gap by gap, she plunged her dagger until the Great Rotter stopped attacking those below it to shake her off.

“Run Yhaine!” Lucille heard Zyra yell out in command as the beast shook Lucille from its back.

The heroine fell off and was thankfully caught by a branch- well, more like she caught herself by hanging on a branch-

“Again Lucille!” Her thoughts were cut off by Zyra's yell, “I want you to start distracting it and then lead it to us! I'll strike its heart and stun it, and this time, you jump in immediately and start attacking!”

“Got it!” Lucille let go and jumped down, once her feet met the ground, she only had a few seconds of recovery before she started running again.

She dashed around the Great Rotter and its gigantic frame followed after her, the fungal beast kept her within its line of sight,- or what accounted for it at least, - looking for an opportunity to charge at her, which Lucille wouldn't give.

When she circled back to Zyra again, their rogue cracked her whip and struck the monster's chest, causing it to once again get stunned.

Lucille moved in before Zyra could tell her to do so and she jumped on the trunk of a tree before bounding up the monster's back and this time, she didn't hesitate in going near the spine and she started stabbing and tearing all that she could touch- the monster shook her off moments later and she once again found herself hanging on a branch.

“That was pretty quick!” Lucille said in excitement as she threw herself off the branch like a circus performer.

“It was!” Yhaine said to her left, “we're doing it again!”

“Got it!” Lucille called back in a positive.

They repeated the maneuver until eventually, the spine broke apart and the Great Rotter's body went along with it- the dirt encased within its ribs funneled down between the gaps like the sand of an hourglass and its arms and legs lost their strength, sending Lucille flying from its back and towards the ground.

The heroine stopped rolling and observed the transformation of the great beast, its form twisting in a perverted mockery of evolution as the lichen growing on the piles that used to be its arms pulsed and throbbed. The flowery growth started to climb across the mound like living slime and it slowly took over the heap of dirt that was now the Great Rotter's body until none of the earth could be seen under all the fuzzy, rainbow-colored growth.

Then the head raised up, and though it now lacked a spine- that job was now being done by a coiling stem of fungi, - it still had the Toiler Gorilla's skull on it, which was now stained from the melted eyes, giving it a look like it had been crying.

The lichen that had taken over in place of the monster's spine pulsed once and then something bloomed within the open mouth of the skull- branches of mushroom reached out to the skies, sending spores to rain down on Lucille and her team.

They covered their faces with masks just as the ground underneath them started to sprout numerous fungal growths, some had spikes, others fired off weird, circular projectiles at them while most had caps that looked like shields.

“Guess it's done transforming,” Zyra looked around in worry, “it’s not walking… so we should be fine,”

“Well we didn’t attack it during its transformation so…” Lucille trailed off.

“And that means?” Yhaine asked, their frontline looked much more confident now that they managed to beat such a gigantic entity.

As an answer, Zyra lit up the remaining molotovs that she had and tossed them at the fungal growth, with two landing directly on the Great Rotter, “we're fighting it,”

Yhaine yelled out something that barely resembled a battle cry and ran forward while Lucille and Zyra locked gazes, the latter shrugged while the former let out a fond sigh.

The heroine eyed Yhaine's charging form longingly, “I swear her mood swings are getting worse,”

“You think so?” Zyra chuckled, “I think it got better,”

“Well, we better continue helping her then,” Lucille didn't wait for their tactician to reply and dashed off to start cutting down stem after stem of the fungal growth while dodging projectiles being shot out by other mushrooms.

Lucille was nearing the body of the Great Rotter and would reach it soon enough and as Zyra cut down the last of the fungal growth around her, the heroine dodged a gigantic tentacle formed from lichen by weaving left.

Lucille was about to continue her assault but a beam of light struck the Great Spreader- it yelled out in pain and when the blindness from the glare disappeared from Lucille's eyes, she saw that their enemy had lost its head and was now slowly rotting away.

Zyra tossed a red fruit at it for good measure.