The structure of the dungeon felt like the creature was all around them. If the tiny plants they had cut down on the way were any indication, these cursed roots had a foothold everywhere.

“Don’t forget to distribute your points,” Jay said. It was a reminder to himself as much as to everyone else. They could take advantage of the breathing room to prepare for whatever came next. There were five points available to spend on his character statistics sheet. He put three into Perception, raising his current total to 25. The final two points landed into Speed and Balance. He would find out which ratio was best for maintaining balance. He needed more Balance, but he wanted Speed. One to each at least brought the ratio down.

Ken started poking at the mess of vines with his rapier, causing the mass to strain against the stone as it attempted to grab the weapon. It failed. Ken’s weapon didn’t put a dent into the mass, either.

Taylor Lynn threw a small ball of fire into the center of the roots. Surprisingly, the whole plant mass shrunk back from the stone door, leaving an opening in the stone that would fit a person.

For a moment, all seemed well in the sleepy little hallway. It was silent. Jay waited for something to happen, counting seconds to see how long the roots would remain open. As the seconds dragged on, he could feel the party getting restless. More fire began to form in Taylor Lynn’s hands, Lester watching Ken with interest as the other man stalked closer and closer, his rapier drawn.

Just as Jay began to consider pushing forward, chaos broke. Visible amounts of noxious green gas began to form in the corridor behind them. From ahead, something, presumably the source of the roots, let forth a shrill screech.

The choice was taken from them. The party shuffled through the opening.

On the other side was a room made of stone and dirt in equal proportion. Stone had crumbled in pieces from the wall. The damage looked like it had happened years ago. The room had been here awhile. The stone flooring was gone from this part of the dungeon. In its place was rough dirt.

A small, wriggling plant root shot through each broken crevice in the stone wall. More roots jutted from the dirt floor, forming a strange spider web shape in the center of the room. There was no exit.

This had to be the end of the dungeon. Jay looked around for a sign of their enemy, walking the edge of the wall to better understand the layout and avoid the roots.

The Maragon [Final Boss], Level 18. Health: 2,945/3,000.

The extra points he had put into Perception gave him only a split second to dodge as the roots suddenly went taught. Springing from the center of the “spider web” was a strange creature, primarily humanoid in shape but made of plant material. There was no apparent face, but the head was facing the party.

The final dungeon room was large enough to dilute the noxious gas that had been chasing after the party. Still, any final boss would be a serious challenge. He was flying blind, which he was used to, but he barely understood any of his team’s classes and knew nothing about this monster. He could do something about the ignorance, at least. He activated the Analyze ability, hoping to glean something obvious.

System Message: Analyze successful. The Maragon is a powerful boss, set in permanent residence to defend a significant place many centuries ago. As a plant creature, it is susceptible to fire attacks and fire-based damage. On the other hand, metal weapons of all types will deal reduced damage to the plant. The Maragon is resistant to lightning and ice damage. The mighty monster is immune to poison, acid, and mental attacks.

Jay whistled. The creature was an absolute beast. Despite that, he knew he would find a way to defeat the creature. He was looking forward to the final boss-level loot.

He called out what he knew as Lester and Ken charged the enemy, “Susceptible to fire, but metal weapons deal reduced damage. Resistant to cold and lightning. Immune to poison, acid, and mental.”

He made his way over to the other two, joining Taylor Lynn and Jenny. He handed both of his mp potions to Taylor Lynn, hoping to burn the boss down.

“Burn this thing to the ground,” Jay said. “Jenny, don’t hold back on your healing or potions, either. We’re going to need everything in this fight. We’ll resupply later.”

The melee weapons of Ken and Lester were, as expected, proving ineffective against the plant material of the final boss. The boss remained in place at the center of the web. From there, it struck out at Lester and Ken with sharp whips of plant material. The strikes were fast but dealt minor damage on impact. However, the sheer number of whips whistling through the air posed a problem.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The creature didn’t need to see to attack, focusing on something else like sound or movements in the ground. With help from Jenny’s healing, the battle was holding fine.

Jay looked around, searching for some way to use the terrain to his advantage. The room was constructed as a habitat the boss fit well in, and he didn’t see an obvious way to change that.

Spells were flying from Taylor Lynn. Jenny loaded a complete set of her tag abilities onto Lester. The abilities increased his defense, raised his melee statistics, and healed him over time.

Jay sincerely wished he was level 15 to utilize a new ability. His Rapid Fire ability was off cooldown, so he activated it. He wasn’t going to hold anything back, either. He wanted to conserve smoldering bolts for when he saw whatever threshold attacks the boss would have. He did open with them, anyway, firing off two as spells and attacks pummeled The Maragon’s core body and the plant material surrounding it. The health of the boss slowly fell. He switched to regular bolts, conserving the last ten smoldering bolts.

The flurry of attacks marched on. Lester’s new sword and Jenny’s defensive tag protecting him further reduced the boss monster’s damage. He warred with the creature to keep its focus and let the others attack freely. The creature’s roots violently flailed, delivering a storm of glancing blows.

As the fighting dragged on, the countdown on Jay’s attack speed buff ran low. He had blasted through most of his regular bolts. The only thing dealing meaningful damage to the boss was Taylor Lynn’s fire spells. She was already running through mp potions, and even her charged-up spell only made a small dent.

He reviewed his options. The slime bolts weren’t worth anything against the final boss due to the creature’s immobility. In the span of his buff, the party only burnt a third of the health bar.

Jay slowly burned through the rest of his bolts without gaining any insights to accelerate the fight. Everyone around the battlefield started to tire, unused to fighting for longer than short bursts. Taylor Lynn finished drinking her second mp potion as Jay weighed what to do. The party still needed to burn 1,700 health.

“Have you been attacking the center?” Jay asked, directing his question to Taylor Lynn. She nodded as she continued trying to throw fireballs into the central figure of the root-based spiderweb. Jay watched, now focusing on her attacks, looking for the impacts.

His concentration was ruined as he stepped to avoid a falling chunk of rock. Looking up, Jay was concerned about a dungeon collapse. It would be terrible to be stuck at the final boss. Then, a horrifying realization dawned on him: the door required a Monster Hunter to open.

Turning back to the fight at hand, Jenny worked like she’d gone entirely mad, relying on her saved-up mp potions to continue healing. Tags fluttered from her one after the other as she spread healing and buffs throughout the party.

Lester continued to hold firm against the relentless assault of root whips. He started moving more often, dodging and relying less on his damage reduction to block attacks. Ken was growing deeply frustrated as he tried to find a spot on the creature to inflict more than slivers of damage.

Finally, the creature’s health fell to half. It disappeared as the roots converged to protect the central human-shaped figure. Ken tried to stab through the roots, dealing zero damage. Taylor Lynn wasted a fire spell with no different result.

“Hold your attacks,” Jay ordered.

“What’s going on?” Lester asked. Jay was just as lost. The boss was fully protected, with the scene reminding him of a flower bulb. The roots formed a shield protecting the inside. Jay sidestepped another piece of falling stone.

“Watch out for the falling rocks,” Jay cautioned. “I’m not sure what’s happening, either. So be prepared for anything. Most of the bosses enter a new phase after hitting health thresholds. This must be similar.”

Taylor Lynn and Jenny caught their breath, no longer required to murmur constant spell-activating phrases. Their mp slowly ticked back up. Ken stood, deeply frustrated at the situation but no longer wasting energy.

Jay and Lester both eyed the creature suspiciously, expecting a literal metamorphosis. Neither player was confident they could defeat a magic butterfly at this point.

“Is this thing over?” Ken asked. He stood with folded arms, angrily glaring at the monster’s tangled shield of roots.

“It’s half health,” Jay said. “It can’t be.”

The shell exploded outward. Roots shattered as if they were made of stone instead of plant matter. Each shard clattered to the ground and transformed into a diminutive humanoid-shaped creature resembling The Maragon. Each tiny monster was only a few inches tall. Dozens of them were now running around the dungeon room.

The Maragon itself, now free of its shell, whirled back onto the players, vine whips windmilling. Jay activated Analyze, trying to find more information about the little offshoot monsters.

System Message: Analyze successful. The Shards of the Maragon are splintered from the shell of its creator. They lack any source of defense, instead exploding into poison the Maragon can use to magically recover health. The poison stacks deal increased damage per stack.

“Don’t let them near you,” Jay called out. “They activate stacking poison that drains health to the boss. They die easily. Attack quickly.”

Pandemonium ensued throughout the final boss’s lair. The players all sprung into action. Even Jay’s small pet was driven into a frenzy by the scurrying little plant creatures. Cuddles jumped from Jay’s shoulder, chasing after some of the tiny mobile plant-people running around. He wasn’t sure how to control his pet—his help would have been valuable ages ago—but Cuddles obviously took offense to the shards.

The Strogian Death squirrel's eyes flashed red.