Chương 73: 1-72 Going down

Before Josef could think of a way to recall Linda, trying to point her at the downed knight, someone else took up the matter of the elf's security. Dusty, using his still massive jaws, bit down on an armored leg and dragged him away, like an overeager dog. It wasn't the most efficient mode of transport, but it would have to do. With the boss now giving them its full attention, they would not have the time to switch around positions easily.

The first of the large appendages came crashing down on Linda, who still tried to swing at the creature furiously. She barely managed to sidestep the strike, and before she could retaliate with a swing of her own, a second attack came swiping sideways. Interposing her sword, she reduced the impact but was still flung away by the force of the attack. At least it sent her closer to the rest of them, instead of down the abyss below. There would be no return from that one, as far as Josef could judge.

Not to bide their time idly, he and Pretzel both opened up by attacking from a range, being the only ones able to strike the looming worms consistently. They were simply too high to be struck, unless they came down to make their own attacks. A barrage of water-based projectiles rained on the closest limb, creating an impactful opening strike that left the thing reeling from the forces involved.

Unfortunately, the hail of attacks didn't have the strength to do more than bludgeon the creature's flesh, meaning the actual damage was rather on the small side. Even so, after freeing up some space in his own reserves, Josef reduced the frequency of his water magic and instead sent out streams of mana, harassing the creature with his draining magic. They might not overcome it with a sudden show of force, but he was quite confident in his ability to outlast it in a prolonged fight.

After all, who could endure longer in a fight than a healer with the ability to steal mana? Zippa, similar to the elven lady, decided to go for a more straightforward exchange of strength. Huffing some small streams of flame upwards at the flailing appendages, he quickly got the attention of one, drawing it into a brutal beat-down. Sidestepping an aggressive downward slam, he dug his claws into the creature before brutally pulling at it, all while torching it with more fire.

A screech of pain tore through the battlefield, not from the worm-like appendage, but from the yawning abyss below. Clearly, it didn't like the hot welcome, or the aggressive tugging. Was the core of the enemy down there? Maybe ripping out its limbs would damage it. Sharing his observations out loud, betting on everyone's awareness to pick up on it, he continued harassing his own target.

He might not be able to copy Zippa's physical prowess, but once it was too tired to move about, he could just let the big lizard finish it for him. Unless, of course, if Dusty came back and got enough mana to assume that monstrous form again. However, he had no plans to patiently drain and share mana until the bunny had a large enough stock for its transformation. Not if he could finish this more quickly than the last boss encounter.

Josef barely managed to tuck into a dive roll to the side as a forceful stream of green liquid erupted from the target of his bullying. He had surprised himself with the sudden bout of dexterity, not expecting his physical coordination to have climbed to such a level. Then again, regular people with no magic systems could do it even better than him, so why couldn't he? Watching the patch of ground he had just vacated, he saw surprisingly little reaction from the dangerous looking substance.

Other than a small dent in the ground where it had impacted, there was almost no effect from the attack. Just as he was consigning it to be nearly harmless, he noticed faint wisps of smoke rising from his own clothes, where a small amount of the liquid had sprayed him. From there, it quickly dug into his flesh, causing him to grimace in pain. If he hadn't just gone through literal fire, then that level of pain would have seriously affected him.

Now, though, he could take it in strides, as he directed his magic to place a regenerative effect on himself. Apparently, this carnivorous plant had a way to soften its meals outside of its body. Josef probed the substance with his own mana, trying to drain it of its energy, but to no avail. It was corrosive enough to make his mana lose cohesion, fraying the stream on contact, causing it to collapse.

"Don't get hit by that stuff. It's bad!" he shouted to whoever cared to listen. Not that Zippa had to be overly concerned with getting spat on, since his opponent was still firmly within his claws. The same couldn't be said for Bezzo though, who had joined Linda in her own raging stand. Though it would be more precise to call it watching over her, as she still hadn't found her way back to reason.

Whenever she found herself pushed back or bowled over, he would step in to rake it with his claws, spreading his new poison. It appeared not to be as strong against the boss as it was against the creatures on the floors above, barely able to travel along the appendage before fizzing out, but the necrotic patches it created looked harmful enough.

Soon, the two of them found a rhythm of partly voluntary teamwork, where the reptile softened the target and the elf viciously tore it open with her sword, spilling the creature's ichorous blood. If not for the regenerative magic still active from facing off against Aifreed, Josef might have been concerned for them, seeing how it had the same effect as the substance it spat at him. Actually, that reminded him of someone.

"Hey Zip, this thing also spits its own blood, how do you feel about that?" he joked between heavy breaths, beginning to feel winded from all the dodging around.

"Really. Funny!" The reptile grunted, strained from keeping his target pinned. Its flailing had only increased as the burning of its body continued. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. Then, as one last desperate spasm failed to bring it freedom, it suddenly tore apart and dropped lifelessly. The part of it that was connected to the rest of the creature soon slid off, falling into the darkness below.

Gulping down air, as the battlefield seemed to go silent for one shocked moment, Zippa continued, "Or are you saying you see a family relation to my handsome mug." The grin on his face was insufferably smug, but well earned, as Josef had to admit.

"Sorry, Zip, but you clearly aren't even in the same league-" As if the monster had grown tired of the joking, it suppressed him with an even faster assault of swings, slams, and spit. Thankfully, Pretzel was there to help take the heat off him, interrupting the corrosive liquids with her own water magic. Her orbs weren't quite on the same level as his latest upgrade, Grasping Waters, but she appeared to be on the brink of making it.

Gaining a sudden inspiration at the thought, he waited for another slam to come for him and conjured an orb of his own while sidestepping it. Then, having it erupt into four bulbous limbs, the water grabbed the creature and began tugging at it. The force still couldn't compare to that of Zippa, but it was enough to keep it down, barely. Then, taking advantage of Mana Stream's nature, he pierced the draining attack straight through his own spell's growths and into his enemy.

From there they returned to complete the cycle of draining and resupplying magic. It almost looked like the work of a tailor, the streams working like threads to keep it all together. Though Josef knew that in truth, only his water had a truly physical force to keep the monster pinned. That force, though, was increased by the steady supply of new mana reinforcing the spell until the watery appendages had grown into something closer to monstrous arms.

As if that was not enough on its own, Pretzel finally achieved her own evolution of the spell, which unlike his own, only created a single limb of water. A limb, which soon revealed itself to be more than first assumed, as it slithered around the worm, before one end opened up and bit down on it. She had created a water serpent of sorts, though it was lacking in identifying details.

Together, they pulled and crushed with all of their might, and soon, be it from internal damage or lack of mana, the creatures flailing slowed and stopped. In the end, it didn't rip apart like Zippa's own, showing them the difference in pure physical strength between them and the lizard, but it was good enough to finish the job. Lacking any trace of life, the appendage slid back down into the abyss below, disappearing from sight.

Meanwhile, Linda and Bezzo got around to finishing off their own quarry, with some help from Zippa, who pinned it down to allow the rest of them to go all out. As the necrotic tissue spread all over the limb, the poison now visibly worming around in its flesh, it was the elf's greatsword that sealed the deal. Plunging down from a mighty jump, the raging berserker plunged it deep into the weakened flesh, piercing all the way through and lodging into the ground below.

This time, the destroyed appendage couldn't even disappear from sight, as not even Linda herself could pull the sword out without trouble, leaving it stuck right where it died. Not that she tried, as the woman simply slumped down where she stood, as if the only thing holding her up was the anger that had now dissipated.

"Is it gone?" Josef wasn't sure which of them had asked first, as he finally allowed himself to breathe more easily after getting to check over the elf's wounds more thoroughly. By all logic, considering how much she had been smacked around, she should have suffered more than the massive bruises she had ended up with. Somehow this woman was even sturdier without the metal armor she had worn during their first meeting.

It was probably part of her class, but it was still weird to see the trope of female armor reflected in front of him like this.

"I don't think so. I'd expect a level from killing something that large." Bezzo shook his head.

"Also, it doesn't look like any exits have opened." Confirming the reptile's theory, a thunderous roar from the abyss below shook them all, before several more of the flower's appendages rose, looking as new and unharmed as the first ones. Even worse, there were four of them now.

"Oh, come on." Josef cursed when two of them locked onto him immediately. Maybe he couldn't just outlast this fight after all. No matter how much he could heal and refill his mana, he would ultimately grow more and more tired.

"Are we supposed to keep going until no more come up?" Zippa asked worriedly as he tried to grab onto his new target.

"Will there be even more next time?"

"We probably have to kill the flower itself, not these things." Bezzo shared his thoughts with them, distracting a limb that was going for Linda, who was still struggling to regain her sword. Even now, after Pretzel got the attention of one worm off Josef, the pressure on them all was still substantial. It was hard enough to succeed while outnumbering their enemy, but if things continued like this, they would soon find themselves overwhelmed. But what could they do?

If even Zippa's flames weren't enough to burn away one of the gigantic petals, then how were they supposed to deal with the rest of this creature? They couldn't exactly pluck the massive flower from the ground.

"What if we go for the core?" he suggested. That strategy had worked best so far, even if the last time was a little rough in the end.

"And where do you think we can find that core?" Linda snarled angrily, straining to remove her greatsword from its fleshy prison. Whatever boost she had used before, now that it had run out, she was struggling majorly. Josef's gaze landed in the darkness, from where their enemies rose, and into which their bodies fell afterwards. Somewhere down there, beneath the rows of teeth and flailing appendages, the creature's roars had emerged. If there was any place for the core, it was down there.

"Don't be stupid, that's suicide!" Bezzo had caught his gaze and shouted in disbelief.

"Maybe not." While the walls of the meaty canyon below were bustling with teeth, the same couldn't be said for the very center of the hole. Normally, that would make for a very far jump into the unknown below. However, thanks to Linda, they had another option available.

"Keep that sword in there, and we can use that to get down."

"These things aren't going to give us the breathing room for a climb!" Zippa had begun to grill another monster in his deadly hug, but was interrupted as another swung at him. They would have to keep up the pressure up here, both to cover for whoever descends, and to make sure they wouldn't go after Aifreed, wherever Dusty had dragged him off to. Thinking of the downed knight, his heart clenched.

Seeing the greatsword slowly cutting through the impaled limb, tearing and expanding the wound as it was slowly dragged down under its own weight, he made a split-second decision.

"I'm going in, keep them busy!" he yelled, much to everyone's surprise, as he jumped at the dead appendage and began a hasty descent along its length. Barely holding on as he slid down into the hole, he cast a small light to keep away the dark.

"Josef!" Zippa, yelled up above, sounding distressed. He was going to end this before any more of his friends could get hurt. Filled with determination, he almost missed the little figure jumping after him.