The Sporehost

With an effective way to turn enemies into living bombs (although the timing was a bit iffy sometimes) John was able to conserve his mana and have a blast testing his newfound physical capabilities. When he had gone for mindless jogs before (Which still hadn’t paid off by the way) he had only thought about the result, but now he could actually use his strength. He was fairly certain that he could knock-out Frank himself the next time the dick decided to be what his last name, Dickinson, implied. Which was being a dick.

Aclysia culled the last Treant just as John, with half his mana regenerated he felt confident enough, used a Mana Ray to bring a similarly quick end to the last Sporeling. He breathed in once, let his head rotate to relax a bit and waited for the familiar message.

And there it was, now the next question was how the entrance sequence of the day would look like. The answer came in the form of the little shrooms previously deemed useless suddenly jumping from the ground and running towards the trees. In a disgusting display their thin heads split open, and like maggots they bored into the white mushrooms that had infested the trees. A putrid stench filled the air as the white mushrooms started liquefying, running down and falling off the trees like the most disgusting piece of cookie dough John could have ever imagined. As a matter of fact, he had to suppress the urge to throw up, he had seen some majorly disgusting stuff, mangled corpses, cut open bodies, an arm sticking from an otherwise completely indiscernible pulp of blood, broken bones and squished innards, but this certainly beat everything else.

He saw the smaller mushrooms with their darker colors twist inside the now somewhat see-through mess that crawled all over towards a single spot, converging into a creature. The earlier maggot analogy still held true, ten metres long and two meters tall it was a maggot like thing with centipede-like legs on its squishy, white, segmented body. He could see the mushrooms inside twist and turn, grow into some kind of nervous system and once that was done grey chitin horns grew out of the thing's back in another wave of that putrid stench that pestered his nose. The eyeless thing opened its mouth, which made up the majority of its front end. A toothless maw, nothing more but a gap in the white body, John looked inside involuntarily, unwilling to leave the boss out of his sight, and saw nothing but an ocean squirming, teethed mushrooms.

“This dungeon SUCKS!” John decided. Why the hell would a boss only have one piece of loot? Quadruple Experience better be worth it. The Sporehost took a massive breath and, after closing its maw, blew spores of pestilent green into the air, its bloated body shrinking as the air pushed outwards and the new spores mixed with the already present yellow mist all around. Whatever that was John had no interest to get in contact with it.

“Salamander, check if you can ignite that stuff, Sylph keep the air around us clean,” John ordered and watched the disgusting creature, which just stood there blowing more spores into the air. “Got it!” Salamander enthusiastically agreed and, once again the streak of fire, rushed through the air. “Okay, can do, I just hope I don’t get any more of them in my mouth, I did earlier. Accidentally. Of course. Wow, isn’t the sky yellow today…OKAY, I CONFESS I WAS CURIOUS AND ATE ONE. They taste like gummy bears in case you are wondering. At least I think so; I never ate gummy bears myself. Are they bitter? They look bitter. I mean who…” Sylphs words became faster and faster as she kept flying around the rest of the team to create a whirlwind with a safe space for John to stand in the center until they were nothing but a high-pitched whisper in the wind.

The Sporehost opened its mouth again and with a deep, slimy burp spit out three goo covered Sporelings. Compared to their brethren, John had just fought, these were tiny and they also missed the four arms, but for that they ran much faster. Luckily John still stood near the top of the hill he had Gnome create while the Sporehost was a good few meters away from the foot of the hill. That meant that the Sporelings had not only to climb the hill but also get through the storm shield that Sylph was still busy keeping up. “Gnome take out the left one.” John gave her a bit of mana for that endeavor. “Aclysia you take the right one, I will take care of the last one,” in response, he got a nod from Aclysia and a ‘Yes, John,’ from Gnome. He also sent the details to Salamander.

The fire elemental had found out that she could not bring these new spores to explosion however much she tried. She could scorch them to ineffectiveness, which is exactly what they did when they came in contact with her body, so she had no worries. However, she found no way to hurt the maggot-like creature effectively. Its white body was mostly resistant to heat, her attacks leaving the tiniest of grey marks which healed moments later, the grey horns being completely immune to whatever she threw at them. For a moment Salamander considered just flying inside and telling John to give her the power to fry the thing from the inside out but the way through the tubes was blocked by some kind membrane, and she was not confident enough to think that she could dodge all of the tentacle-like mushrooms that covered the inside of the main body.

John at the meantime ran towards the Sporeling he had assigned himself. Gnome had taken care of hers by burrowing it inside the hill while Aclysia was still on her way, just like himself. She swung her sword overhead, the Sword of Glory for a more elegant strike. The slicing blow sunk cut the enemy and into the ground, causing it to vanish the only thing staying on behind being the sticky goo that had covered its body on Aclysia’s blade.

‘Wait, STICKY goo?!’ John thought to himself, but he had already started the kicking motion. He had planned to kick the thing backward and have it explode elsewhere to minimize the chance of getting hit by spores while conserving his mana to shower the actual boss in Mana Rays should Salamander's attack find no success. Now he tried his best not to hit the Sporeling with his foot and instead use the momentum to turn around and run to find a better plan or have Aclysia take care of it. The Sporeling, however, seemed really eager to get kicked and jumped right into the changed path of his shoe. As John had feared the thing stuck to him and started swelling. He had two seconds at best, Mana Ray needed three, everyone else was too far away, the closest one, Undine, tried to wrap herself around the assailant on his leg, despite their still fresh recent conflict she was ready to protect him, however John new that her slime body would only be torn apart for a minimal effect. Unwilling to put Undine through the pain of **** for a second time he let her go into incorporeal form and put his trust into his Mana Protection.

A cloud of red engulfed John, who at least had the wisdom to hold his breath and close his eyes, ripping apart the Mana Protection instantly and vaporizing his mana, he felt a burning pain all over his body as the spores attacked his skin wherever there was an opening. Worst of all, however, was the pain on his leg where he had connected with the Sporeling. He still felt his foot, so he was still in one piece, but the burning heat that pulsated down there was almost numbing his brain with pain, as it tried desperately to shut out the agony and keep him from passing out. Thanks to Gamer's Body the pain subsided just moments later.

John took a hesitant look at his status after jumping backward, the prickling on his skin vanishing after leaving the volatile cloud. His HP was down to 70, his mana, which had been over half full, completely gone. That bomb must have dealt more than 600 damages, easily enough to one-shot him if it hadn’t been for Mana Protection. ‘Stupid I am so fucking stupid,’ He scolded himself as he brought more distance between himself and the cloud. He had just assumed these Sporelings to be a weaker version because they were adds to a boss, but instead, they were much more dangerous. He would not make that mistake again. Undine sent him a mixed wave of disapproval and thanks; it seems she was just like him not sure whether her actions would have amounted to anything.

However things were going, they had to delay until John had regenerated more mana. The Sporehost had other plans. With clicking and squishy noises, it started moving its strained legs. It was slow but the cloud of red that densely hung all around it made it clear that even being in the rough vicinity of it would be nothing even Sylph could do something about. Not without John’s mana anyway.

“Aclysia!” he did not need to say more. Selfish as it was he needed to be safe and with his low HP pool he could not retreat anywhere Sylph not prepared him a path for. Therefore, Aclysia had to engage the enemy alone for a bit while he slowly retreated. As if the Sporehost was not disgusting enough yet though it once again opened its mouth and the teethed mushrooms inside lashed out like a giant tongue. About a meter in length it completely ignored Aclysia and instead flung something at John, something which he quickly identified as a Sporeling. Without thinking much John leaped to the side landing on the forest floor, causing the sentient projectile to miss him. A blink of John’s eyes later the Sporeling had already focused himself back on him and was running at him. John was lying on the ground and could do little more than trying to get up. He had no hope to succeed.

Gnome grabbed the Sporeling. ‘Run John!’ she pleaded as she deeply embraced the explosive lifeform, covering it with her tiny body. He had no other choice but to oblige. With his bee eyes always above, he saw what happened behind him. Felt the shockwave of the explosion and the small pebbles of Gnome's body fly through the air. He got no notification that Gnome was ‘dead’, which made John breathe in relief as he sent the bee inside the red spore cloud to look for her. What he saw was a halfway shattered little girl. Her left half had been entirely ripped apart by the explosion, leaving dirt and pebbles, filled with vein-like mana lines, which made up the inside of her body, exposed. She looked at his second pair of eyes with only the left one still intact, it was filled with pain but also happiness that she was able to protect him.

It would have been **** to leave her in that state, and so he allowed her to rest in her incorporeal form while she regenerated. Her sacrifice bought him more time but would it be enough? The Sporehost had moved on to fighting Aclysia with its tongue; it seemed that it couldn’t just throw out these Sporelings as it liked at the very least.

John checked on his mana. He was back up to 40, but what could he do with that? He needed to assess the situation. He took a deep breath and looked at the enemy. Salamander still tried to find some kind of weak spot on the enemy. ‘Any success?’ John pried. ‘No, I would wager its insides are **** though, but I can’t get there as long as these mushrooms are around,’ Salamander sent back a frustrated answer, burning with anger at the creature that dared to strike down Gnome. Sylph was preoccupied with keeping the air clean, Undine of no use against this enemy and Aclysia, while managing to outmaneuver the rather slow creature repeatedly, could get no hit in that was decisive, the cuts she made on its body being quickly healed and not deep enough to penetrate to the Sporehost's hollow core.

The tongue stretched after Aclysia as she stormed around the creature’s body. That tongue, where did it come from? It was clearly made from the mushrooms from the inside wall, and the number of heads indicated that most of those were involved. John had not seen any base for that tongue when he had gazed down into the creature’s maw, so each individual mushroom must have been growing outwards to form the tongue concluding that it was hollow. “It is hollow!” John shouted out his realization as it became his path to victory. The information quickly went through his network. Aclysia sent calm approval, having no times for words outside of ‘Possible’ while Salamander was excited as all hell ‘Let’s roast that maggot!’

Step one: They would stall the enemy until John’s mana reached 100. This would take another twenty seconds or so. This was rather easy. Aclysia easily took care of the tongue, being that, while the Sporehost's destructive and damage over time capabilities were enormous, he was rather slow in return and Aclysia had an Agility of over 50. The only thing they had to look out for was another Sporeling but whether it couldn't create another one or wasn’t able to spit it out due to its tongue being constantly occupied the Sporehost did not use another one of the Sporelings.

John kept a close eye on his mana before announcing, ‘Now!’ causing Aclysia to change to the Rock and Wind, the dagger she had gotten from Radio Head. She rammed the grey stone blade into the tongue from above and then sliding it along the tongue as Aclysia ran up the base of the disgustingly long appendage. Following the cut was a light-green blade of air, the daggers enchantment ‘Wind-Strike’ which deepened the cut and made the regeneration but just the slightest bit slower. It was all the time Aclysia needed to fulfill step two and, after dematerializing the dagger, ripping the cut further apart at the base. The teethed mushrooms hissed and the tongue wrung around the now immobilized Artificial Guardian and started strangling her. Hopefully, that wouldn’t matter for long as step two of the plan was completed.

Step three was rather uncreative as Salamander flew through the gap Aclysia’s hands kept open. Like theorized the tongue was empty and only a few of the mushrooms had remained inside the main body, not enough to be a challenge for the small fire spirit to dodge. “You hurt my older sister, prepare to die,” Salamander exclaimed as John’s mana filled her being with power, bursting out in a wave of flame.

John saw the fire spread through the slightly translucent body, burning its way through and out of the horns at the Sporehosts back, its hollow tongue swelling and turning into a smoking mess as the stench of burned mushrooms spread through the forest, a less disgusting but still unpleasant smell compared to the putrid stench before. 100 mana was not enough to kill the creature but it was clearly damaged, and Aclysia broke out of the stranglehold as the tongue tried to retreat back into the main body and take care of the dangerous intruder. Aclysia wouldn’t let it, equipping the Cleaver of Streets she brought down the heavy blade, cutting the tongue off right at the base.

The Sporehost was panicked now, thrashing in fruitless motions, spreading red spores like crazy. A perfectly good defensive mechanism against John that it would have been, but against Aclysia and Salamander it was useless, and so all they needed to do was wait for John to regenerate mana. The second outburst of power from Salamander rocked the Sporehost's body, scorching him from the inside. Then a third. The fourth made it collapse to the ground, the centipede legs twitching, slime oozing from the cut-off tongue. A fifth, a sixth, a seventh. Then the eight finally killed the monstrosity.