Maze The Endless Quest - 160 Tendrils everywhere

“Does anyone have an aspirin?” Hera asked.

“Don’t have one. But, like we have a healer, you know,” Alex replied.

“Yeah… I don’t know how to fix a headache. I would need to figure out the cause first and then trigger the healing of the affected part, and honestly? I have no intention of touching on a brain with a five-foot pole,” Runir said.

“You measure a pole in how many feet are in it? How does that work?” Blue turned around.

“Nah, that’s an old expression I learned with my mom. When she was little, they used foot, yards, and miles to measure distance,” Runir explained.

“That is true. If I recall correctly, a foot was about 30 centimeters,” Tom added.

“What’s the point of that? It feels like they are being weird for no reason,” Blue scoffed.

“Well, you are not wrong with that. I think the US was the last place in the world to adopt the metric system,” Runir said.

“Yeah, but what’s with the saying?” Alex asked.

“My mom used to say it when she meant that she would never do something. It’s one of those old sayings that never translated after the change. Saying ‘I wouldn’t touch it with a 3-meter pole’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

“So no cure for a headache?” Hera asked.

Runir cleared his throat, “No, sorry.”

“Ok, Can we keep going? These lights are messing with my head,” Hera asked. She didn’t want to seem cranky, but it was hard to have fun when the lights kept blinking.

“Do you wish to return? It will not be an issue if we leave the dungeon now to challenge it at a later time,” Thomas said.

“No. We are close to the boss, right?”

“We should arrive in around fifteen minutes.”

“Then let’s keep going. It’s not hurting that bad. But before we do this again, I need some aspirin, and maybe some sunglasses,” Hera said as they kept walking.

As Thomas had said, the middle path was far from difficult. It was mostly a stroll through the forest. During the entire forty minutes or so they spent walking, the group only found 30 sprites, including the first group they’ve met. The only slightly complicated part was when they reached what looked like a dead-end, but the path was hidden behind one of the large mushrooms. Tom reminisced as they arrived at the dead end. Apparently, several parties he was a part of when doing the dungeon were unaware of this hidden path, and only after some time, he discovered its existence. Thanks to that discovery, he could bring a much smaller group to the dungeon and even fight alone in it as long as he left before triggering the boss.

“Are you well enough to talk strategy, Hera?” he asked, receiving a nod as a reply, “Very well. The ruler of this land can appear in one of three different forms. First, it would be a gigantic sprite, like the ones we already faced. That beast will have multiple tentacles instead of those tendrils, be careful, for they are not merely glowing lights but scorching to the touch. That is the only attack it possesses, but the many tentacles can pose a difficult battle. The second monster is a powerful light spirit, angry at seeing its brethren stolen by the fungi. It will cast light spells around the area, trying to blind and damage us. Avoid staying in the same place for long, and if you see a floating light, look away as not to be overwhelmed by a bright flash.”

“Ok, which one is the strongest?” Blue asked.

“That would be the light elemental. Its spells are unpredictable and have a minimal delay before activating. If we feel the challenge to be too difficult, we can run away, and it will be unable to come out of its nest. That is applied to all three elementals,” Thom continued.

“And what is the last one? You only talked about two,” Hera asked while rubbing her head.

“The last one is somewhat of a tricky situation. It is the spirit of a tree, who once lived here. It can be reasoned with, and as long as we are able to fulfill its request. The wood spirit will be soothed. If not, the beast will attack, and we must fight it. It attacks by creating small plants to assail us. We must destroy all of them, so the main body appears. It will be a large tree that uses its roots and branches to attack us. We shall aim our efforts at its core, located by the base near the roots. Depending on the request, this can be the easiest or hardest boss.”

“The fight is that difficult?” Alex asked.

“Not quite. The request might be something like killing all the sprites or making all the mushrooms turning the same color using magic or something it gives us,” Tom concluded.

“In that case, isn’t it better for us to just kill it?” Alex asked.

“We can receive some rewards from the request aside from what the dungeon gives. Sadly, I can’t say what they are. The only time I’ve received one such request, the team was unable to fulfill it.”

Tom kept talking about the times he challenged the dungeon, discussing how each team he came with faced the monsters. Hera tried her best to pay attention, but her headache was still a problem. She would need something to protect her from the light if they were going to rerun the dungeon. Or some aspirin, at least. She knew that right now, the group was only waiting around because of her. None of them was tired. She took another gulp of water got up.

“I’m feeling better. Let’s go,” she said.

“Are you sure?” Runir asked, staring at her.

“Yeah. Not 100%, but I don’t think I can get to that point right now. It’s better if we finish this and head back to the city to find something that could help.”

The group nodded and got up, heading deeper into the path. It didn’t take long for the lights start to blink once more, this time even more rapidly than before. They faced another group of sprites, this time with 12 of them, but Hera wasn’t even able to trigger her affinity sight spell. It required too much concentration, and she was already using most of it to keep on fighting. It took five minutes to kill all the monsters and continue to the last chamber.

Hera was already sweating with the pain and feeling restless. Part of her wanted to give up and go back right now. But it would still take another hour and a half to reach the city, not to mention going all the way back through the mushroom forest again. According to Thomas, after the boss was defeated, all the lights would dim and stop blinking. The best thing she could do right now was to finish the dungeon.

The boss chamber was very different from the rest. Instead of the large mushrooms, there were several greenstone pillars spread around a circular arena. At a glance, the room was large enough to accommodate several basketball courts inside, with another set of four in the middle of the stone circle.

As they entered, a small sprite appeared from behind one of the pillars and moved to the center of the chamber. The light started gathering around it from all directions, as if thousands of tiny sprites were converging together. Looking back, Hera saw that the mushrooms stopped blinking and were now losing some of their glow. The sprite in the middle started to expand. In just a couple of seconds, the monster, which started the size of a cotton ball, had already gone past a watermelon’s size.

“Shouldn’t we start hitting it?” Alex yelled over the crackling noise coming from the monster.

“Not yet. If we don’t wait for it to finish its growth, another will be created with the rest of the sprites,” Tom replied.

“Wait, are we fighting all the sprites inside here gathered in one?” Hera asked.

“Yes, but not the ones that moved around. We are facing the sprites that took residence inside the mushrooms!”

“And that is the easiest boss?!” Blue shouted as the sprite became a meter tall sphere and was still growing.

“Don’t be afraid of its size, noble warrior. Its attacks are simple and easy to dodge. Unlike the other rulers, the sprite only has its tentacles to fend off invaders.”

“Those tentacles?” Alex gasped.

The sprite was the size of a hippo already, and the small tendrils had turned into a dozen of larger tentacles, each the size of a palm tree. Unlike the small ones, who only had the tendrils to the sides of its body, the tentacles came from all around. The lights stopped gathering, and the monster shivered, lashing out with all its limbs making that could reach the pillars of stone from the center of the chamber.

Hera activated her affinity sight. Even with Tom’s strategy, any information she could get could help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sprite Amalgamation (Eart…Fir…Wate…Win… Affinity)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The element kept switching. Whatever that creature was, it could change its affinity. Or maybe it didn’t have a fixed one since it was made of several different sprites.

“I can’t see its element. It keeps changing!” Hera warned the group.

The tentacles slammed into the ground, making the giant spite float up. Alex used her wind cutter to slash at it from a distance. Hera flung a poison needle at it, hoping the poison would affect the creature. Blue triggered her [Taunt], making the monster go down towards her as two tentacles stabbed towards the controller aiming at her legs. The strength of each attack was massive. The creature was able to dig deep into the ground with each attack, but Blue was faster, taking a step back and hitting the tentacles twice.

“Hot, hot, hot, hot,” Blue shook her hands after hitting it.

“The beast is covered by a scorching heat. Careful with your strikes,” Tom said.

“How am I supposed to hit it then?” Blue asked.

Runir placed two barriers, one of each of her hands, “Try again.”

Blue punched the tentacles two more times. The heat was still there, but she could manage to touch them without burning her hands.

“Yeah, that helps, but I really need to find smaller monsters to fight,” Blue kept moving from side to side, avoiding the tentacles that tried to stab and slam her.

Hera jumped away from one of the limbs that aimed at her, making it slam against one of the pillars in the area, cracking it with the impact. She moved behind it, throwing another poison needle at the creature. She still wanted to use the grease fire spell, but since Blue was so close to the monster, it still wasn’t a good time to do so. As she hid behind the pillar, two tentacles tried to hit her, slamming the sides of the rock, cracking it even more. Hera took a few steps back to get away from the monster’s range. She tried to push the pillar towards the gigantic sprite, hoping that it would be smashed under it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[All In] effects deactivated, the cooldown will now start

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even using her [All In] skill, it wasn’t enough to topple the rock column. Changing tactics, Hera threw her chakram, tied up in Yarnball. Activating the poison reinforcement, Hera’s weapon flew under the Giant Sprite before a burst of mana launched it upwards. The blade cut deep into the monster’s underbelly, making it spasm uncontrollably and bounce around the pillars while its glow grew brighter than any of the mushrooms they had seen in the forest. The sudden increase made Hera’s headache grew stronger, making it harder for her to keep her eyes open.

The monster’s reaction surprised Hera, who just watched in awe as the giant creature crashed against the pillars. Her attack wasn’t supposed to deal that much damage. The monster slammed against the cracked column that she was hiding behind, but Hera had to close her eyes because of the bright light coming from the sprite.

“Hera!”

“Watch out!”

“Move!”

Hera forced her eyes to open, only to be greeted by the falling green stone pillar about to crush her.