Tatsuo and Mr. Springbottom has finally made it back to the top where the Moss Goliath have felled them. Mr. Springbottom leaps off of Tatsuo’s back, giving out a straining grunt has he presses his hips forward with the sound of his back cracking.

Mr. Springbottom: Hhhrrnngh…! Whew~ That was quite the journey…It’s unfortunate to have to see my hot springs in ruins like this… – He says broodingly with the remains of his property scattered in the hot spring ponds before him.

Mr. Springbottom (turning back to Tatsuo): But that sure was something kid! You did it! You actually got us back up here! I must say, that was probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen in my life!

Tatsuo: No worries. I’m sorry about what happened to your hot springs though.

Mr. Springbottom: Aye…I’m bummed about that too…But there’s no use staying moping about it! That darn monster…!

Mr. Springbottom: Now I know about the hot springs located underneath here as well! But I'd have to find a way to get down there and back up…

Tatsuo: Before you do that, I could actually take you back up outside if you’d like.

Mr. Springbottom’s face lights up.

Mr. Springbottom: Hm! Indeed, you could do that can’t you?! Now that I’ve seen firsthand what you can do! I suppose it’s about time I confronted Clara…I’ve been putting it off for so long, but it’s better to meet her now than never again.

Tatsuo: Well, it shouldn’t take too long for me to climb up this hole compared to the cliff we just scaled. Just let me know when you’re ready.

Mr. Springbottom: Yeah…Just give me a moment…My body is still feeling stiff from earlier…

*Swapping scenes back to the rest of the group.

Victor and the group are currently engaging the Moss Goliath in combat. The group has already taken care of the controlled adventurers. Their bisected withered bodies lay scattered on the floor.

Sharon fires a magic casted arrow, combined with Windie’s wind slicing attack. With windie’s attack empowering it, the arrow shreds through the arm of the Moss Goliath, tearing it off its torso.

Sharon: Go! Now!

Victor begins to advance onto the monster. The Moss Goliath screeches out, and mushrooms with flowers on their head begin to pour around the group. Darren comes leaping in, aiding Victor in fending off the incoming mushroom swarm. Darren looks back to see the mushrooms beginning to swarm Sharon while she charges for her next attack. As he’s about to backtrack, Windie swoops in defending Sharon. The mushrooms split into two from Windie’s wind blades.

Darren (thinking): Looks like I won’t have to worry too much in protecting her…That thing is pretty darn strong…! It also quickly took down those human corpses just like that too…!

Queenie draws her staff from her back and begins to sparingly pelt the mushrooms coming after her with simple mana bolts. A mushroom brushes past and slams itself against Queenie’s back. Sharon catches Queenie dropping to the floor.

Sharon: Oh no! Windie, go help Queenie! I’ll be fine here!

Queenie (thinking): …I made a grave miscalculation…! I intended to get hit on purpose…But for some reason I’m starting to get really drowsy…! Was it because I got hit by the mushroom…? Perhaps this was how the Moss Goliath managed to get its human’s hosts enough exposure to spread its infection…

Victor: What’s going on over there?

Darren: I don’t know! But it doesn’t look good! I’m going back for support, you can stay alive by yourself in the meantime, yeah?

Without having to respond back, Darren sprints back to Sharon to cover for Windie’s absence.

Victor: Alrighty Victor…! You just have to hold your ground until we can get our formation back in check…! – He says to himself to help overcome his insecurity in the situation.

Suddenly, the Moss Goliath begins moving, aggressively charging head first onto Victor’s direction with a couple mushrooms proceeding it. Before Victor knew it, the Moss Goliath was already in range to attack Victor.

Victor (thinking): What?!

Darren immediately turns his head back: Oh shit!

It was too late, Victor didn’t have time to brace himself for impact. Even if he had the premonition to prepare himself, Victor would’ve had to somehow survive the Moss Goliath attacking along with the mushrooms following it. If any of the mushrooms made contact with him, it would spell him a groggy doom.

Suddenly, the boss slime saves Victor by ramming itself against the Moss Goliath, pushing it out of its tracks while the mushrooms gets flung off to the side. The rest of the group react in amazement of the miracle that they’ve witnessed.

Victor: You…!

The boss slime firmly holds the moss goliath in its place, restricting its movement. The Moss Goliath struggles to break free as it shakes its body about in order to thwart off the gigantic slime.

Victor: This is perfect! Now I don’t have to come to you! – He says as his body trembles secretly in fear of being near the Moss Goliath.

Victor fires up the steam gauntlet, cogs and machineries begins to rotate as they crank up. Steam begins to bellow as it hisses out of the gauntlet. The Moss Goliath extends its arm into the ground and begins morphing the environment. However, to its dismay, it finds its arm and the ground beneath it to be frozen in a white, powdered substance.

Darren (thinking): Hm? Is it just me? Or is there something white on it?

Queenie casually laying on her back, tiredly observes the fight at the side. Her hand is discreetly directly touching the ground. Slowly her mind fades in and out of her drowsy state, until she slowly falls asleep.

Victor stomps forward, a sound similar to a flintlock setting loose clicks, and the steam gauntlet explodes into the Moss Goliath’s stone-plated face. The face of the Moss Goliath splinters. The Moss Goliath shrinks back into the ground without resurfacing, leaving behind its cracked face mask.

Victor (thinking): …Did I get it…? – He thinks in anticipation of it returning.

After waiting for several moments, Victor finally relaxes himself. “Phew~!” He puffs to himself in relief. Darren runs up to Victor, slapping him on his arm.

Darren: Yo! Good job dude!

Victor: Ooowwch…! – He moans in pain, clutching his arm.

Darren: Oh, sorry. Forgot about your gauntlet.

Victor and Darren hear an outburst from Sharon.

Sharon: Oh no!! Queenie!! – She exclaims while checking up on her.

The two boys follow suit to check up on her as well.

Sharon: Wake up Queenie!! What happened?!

Darren: Relax…She’s just sleeping.

Sharon: Huh? Really? How can you tell…?

Darren (scoffs): Please…I’m a professional when it comes to sleeping. I can tell at a glance.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

An idea lights up in Victor’s head.

Victor: Oh! Right!

Victor walks up to the boss slime, taking a chunk of its body.

Victor: Here, stuff this down her mouth. – He says, presenting the slime chunk at them.

Darren and Sharon: HUH…?

Victor: Just trust me! It’ll work!

Sharon: Huh..? Are you sure…? That’s a slime part…Shouldn’t you at least cook it or something first…?

Victor sighs to himself, “Fine, I’ll do it myself! Just watch!”

After feeding the slime part to Queenie, she quickly opens her eyes and gets up. She stares off into space in a daze. Darren’s and Sharon’s jaws hang down, flabbergasted by the result.

Queenie: Oh wow, it worked.

Darren: Wait what…? Were you listening the entire time…?

Queenie: …I’m a light sleeper.

Queenie (thinking): But this is an interesting development. So the slimes here have the property to ward off the effects of the mushroom monsters. Did they naturally develop this ability as a survival interaction against these species…?

Queenie turns to the spot where the Moss Goliath was where its stone-mask lays on top of the pillowed, white area.

Queenie (thinking): It didn’t turned out exactly how I planned, but in the end, it all worked out…Fortunately it didn’t used much of its environmental shifting abilities…But I wonder why…Is there a certain condition for it…? Does it expend energy…? Was it because it was being overly cautious since it knows one of us can counter its ability…? Or was it just desperate to make our bodies hosts…?

Queenie couldn’t help but feel bothered that the questions that she had will never be answered.

*Meanwhile at the hot springs location.

Tatsuo and Mr. Springbottom were on the verge of getting themselves out of the gargantuan hole.

Mr. Springbottom: My goodness! We’re already near the top! It’s so bright! It’s as if I’m staring directly into the sun! Are you okay boy?

Tatsuo: I’m alright. I’m not sure about you though, I think it may be best to close your eyes.

Mr. Springbottom: Are ya kidding?! I can’t miss out on something as beautiful as this! Plus, this will mark the moment I set foot onto the surface in over six years!

Tatsuo’s hand clamps down onto the surface, and he springs the both of them up. After landing on his feet, the two of them look right up at the light source that has been basking them.

It turns out the hole above them didn’t lead them to the surface, but instead a bigger room with a giant luminescent orb hanging above, lighting the entire room and the one which they came from. The shining light exposes the bright, vivid, lushly green colors of the wall of gigantic vines entangling the room. It was as if Tatsuo and Mr. Springbottom were ants peering from the inside of a lime from inside out.

Tatsuo: Uhm…I’ve had my doubts…But I don’t think this is the surface…

Mr. Springbottom: No…You don’t say…I…Wasn’t expecting this…! But now that I think about it…Never did it turned dark when I was stuck on the floor below…

Tatsuo: …And you only realize this now…?

Tatsuo: Well, whatever this is, it’s overwhelming. I can sense a massive amount of magic coming from it…The most I’ve ever encountered.

Tatsuo turns to Mr. Springbottom: Any guesses?

Mr. Springbottom: Hmmmm…If I had to make a guess…I’d say this is the Ellen’s core…

Mr. Springbottom continues to marvel at the holy sphere while Tatsuo spots something in the distance.

Tatsuo: Hey, I don’t know if you can see it from here, but there seems to be some openings on the walls. They kind of look like the passageways me and Victor took from the floor below.

Mr. Springbottom: Really?! – He brings his hand up to his forehead to cover his face from the light and squints his eyes.

Mr. Springbottom: …I don’t see anything myself except for the giant vines, but I’ll take your word boy. In that case, those may be passageways that could lead us back outside! And on the chance that they don’t, we could always just return back to the floor below.

Mr. Springbottom: In any case, now that I know you can freely navigate us anywhere here, we can just follow the slimes since they know how to get to the surface.

Tatsuo: You’re right! But first I need to find my friend Victor first. It’d be bad if he ran into that monster earlier on his own…

Suddenly, the Moss Goliath bursts itself from the ground next to them. The Moss Goliath turns its head towards the two, surprised to see them in its area. Likewise, the two also look back at it in surprise.

Mr. Springbottom: Well now…Speaking of which…

The Moss Goliath thrusts itself head-first towards the two. Tatsuo takes Mr. Springbottom and leaps out of the way; evading the Moss Goliath’s charge into the ground beneath them.

The Moss Goliath digs its head out and begins to grow limbs out of its appendage-like body.

Mr. Springbottom: Is it just me…Or does it look a bit different from the last time we saw it…?

The Moss Goliath begins compressing itself, twitching and slowly reforming back into its original form. Tatsuo glances at the Ellen’s core and the Moss Goliath.

Tatsuo: That monster…It’s trying to recover itself.

Mr. Springbottom: What?!

Tatsuo: I can sense it sapping energy from the giant light. At this rate, it’s also going to grow stronger.

Mr. Springbottom: T-then…! We need to stop it now…!!

Tatsuo: Relax. Even if it does get stronger, I can still beat it. It’s not like it can completely absorb all of that thing’s energy anyways. It’s like eating, you can only eat so much until you’re full. The only problem is getting rid of it completely. Earlier when I fought against it, it kept regenerating itself with the vines around here.

Vines extends from the Moss Goliath’s arms, lashing out at Tatsuo and Mr. Springbottom. Tatsuo blocks the vines with his body, unfazed by the attack.

Mr. Springbottom: Boy! Are you okay…?

Tatsuo: Yeah, I’m fine–

The Moss Goliath smacks Tatsuo away with its giant arm. Before Tatsuo was sent tumbling, he quickly grabbed hold of Mr. Springbottom. Tatsuo while holding onto Mr. Springbottom fumbles across the vine-like surface.

Tatsuo: You okay?

Mr. Springbottom: Yeah…You don’t look to be bothered by anything, just what are you made out of…?

As Tatsuo looks up, an interesting scene unfolds before him. The Moss Goliath shakes the arm that had struck Tatsuo in a panic. Tatsuo wonders to himself why it was doing that. With his keen eyesight, he can tell that the arm it’s shaking has been slowly corroded.

Mr. Springbottom: …What’s up with it? Now’s your chance!

Tatsuo: Wel…Hold on now…

Mr. Springbottom: Huh?

Tatsuo takes a step forward, and the Moss Goliath quickly whips a vine at Tatsuo. Tatsuo grabs onto the vine and snaps it in half. He firmly holds the piece of vine in his hand and carefully observes it. Slowly, the vine was crumbling away.

Tatsuo (thinking): That’s strange…I’m not using any of my powers…Why is this happening…? What changed from the last time I fought it till now…?

Tatsuo backtracks his thoughts until an idea clicks in him. Tatsuo turns to Mr. Springbottom and asks for him to hold onto the piece of vine as well. Upon receiving the vine from Tatsuo, the vine resumes to disintegrate.

Mr. Springbottom: W-what?! What’s happening?!

Tatsuo: It’s the hot spring water. That’s the thing’s weakness. We both fell into that stream from when it first attacked us, right? We still haven’t completely dried off from it. Especially since we were climbing so near the waterfall. It might also be why you never encountered this thing at all until now. You were always at your hot springs, which is what this monster hates.

Tatsuo urges Mr. Springbottom to stay put and that he’ll end the fight fast before it can escape. He tells Mr. Springbottom to plug his ears as tightly as possible. Mr. Springbottom listens to Tatsuo’s weird request as he cluelessly plugs his ears with his hands.

Tatsuo begins to sprint towards the Moss Goliath. Seeing this, the Moss Goliath begins to merge its body with the ground in order to retreat.

‘Oh no you don’t.’ Tatsuo says in his head, expecting this to happen.

Tatsuo opens his mouth and inhales deeply. Followed by his deep breath, Tatsuo lets loose an ear shattering yell, “KA!” Tatsuo’s shout booms throughout the Ellen, his voice could be heard echoing through all the chambers in the Ellen.

Making their way through the tunnel, the group quickly presses their hands against their ears.

Sharon: Ouch! That’s so loud–!!! Tatsuo?!! – Sharon squints her eyes in sharp pain.

Darren: What…The hell is he doing…?!

Outside at the village, Clara perks her head up.

Clara: …Am I imagining things…? Or was that a yell I heard….?

Mr. Springbottom landed on his back from Tatsuo yell, completely bewildered by not just how loud it was, but the power behind it. Even after the yell, Mr. Springbottom could feel the floor slightly trembling.

The Moss Goliath freezes in place, paralyzed not only from the shattering of its auditory function, but because it feels an overwhelming sense of fear…An innate fear. It sees its impending doom running towards it. No matter how much it tried, its body didn’t budge; leaving itself open for Tatsuo to punch it.

Unable to fight back, Tatsuo chains a combo of punches, pushing the Moss Goliath closer to the center of the room. Once they both got close enough, Tatsuo tackles the monster together down the giant hole. The two of them slam into the floor of the level below where the hot springs is.

Chunks of mossy and vegetational remains are strewn along the floor, tearing off from the Mossy Goliath’s body slowly corroding. From the dust, Tatsuo walks up to the Mossy Goliath whose body is held loosely together. Tatsuo grabs the Mossy Goliath from its head and takes it towards one of the hot spring ponds. He dumps the torn up monster into the pond, and the monster shrieks out in pain. Vines flail about, splashing liquid everywhere, until it slowly simmers to a puddle, along with its body. Its stone-faced mask also corrodes away. Just like that, the mossy monster has met its end.