Collide Gamer

Chapter 123 – 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) he had only thought about the end result. Actually using his Strength was satisfying. If Frank ever bothered him again, John could punish Dickinson for being a dick. A grimly satisfying thought and a short-lived one. He had greater things to worry about than his bully in a school he no longer cared about.

Aclysia culled the last Treant, just as John, with half his mana regenerated, felt confident enough to use a Mana Ray to bring a similarly quick end to the last Sporeling. He breathed in once, rolled his neck 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 harmless, suddenly jumping from the ground and running towards the trees. It seemed whimsical, like a scene from a fairy tale, until the thin heads split open.

Four mandibles, resembling the jaws of a maggot, latched onto the white mushrooms that had infested the trees. A putrid stench filled the air, as fungal matter liquefied. Mushrooms cascaded down like wax, sloughing off the trees. Everything looked like he was in the middle of a massive heap of fly larva. John had to suppress the urge to throw up. Even after everything he had seen and felt, this particular combination of stench, wiggling bodies, and wet squelching sounds was disgusting. It was like the entire world around him was rotting away.

The small mushrooms moved within the semi-translucent mess of liquefied fungal matter. A carpet of crawling matter, it all concentrated in a single spot. The blessing of this entire situation was that the ocean of sickly white was flowing around the hill. At the foot of the elevated position, the boss monster manifested.

Ten metres long and two metres tall, a maggot-like thing with centipede-like legs on its squishy, white, segmented body. John could see the mushrooms inside twist and turn, grow into some kind of nervous system, and once that was done, grey chitin horns twisted out of the thing’s back in another wave of that putrid stench that pestered his nose. The eyeless creature 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 of squirming, toothed 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 out of its chitin horns. Its bloated body shrunk, 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 in getting 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. For the moment, it seemed content just exuding more spores.

“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…” Sylph's 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 on in the centre 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 lacked the four arms. In return, they were quicker on their feet.

Luckily, John still stood near the top of the hill he had Gnome create. 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 endeavour, “Aclysia, you take the right, 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. She could scorch them to ineffectiveness, which was also what happened when they came in contact with her body. However she found no way to hurt the maggot-esque 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 were 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 of 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 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 more precise strikes). The attack sunk through the enemy and into the ground, causing it to vanish. The only thing staying behind being the sticky goo that had covered its body, now stuck 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 backwards and have it explode elsewhere to minimize the chance of getting hit by spores whilst conserving his mana to shower the actual boss in Mana Rays, should Salamander’s attack find no success.

Now he tried his best to not 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 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. John knew that her slime body would only be torn apart for a minimal effect. Unwilling to put Undine through the pain of dying 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 in his leg where he had connected with the Sporeling. He still felt his foot, so he was still in one piece, just burning with pain that his brain tried desperately to shut out to 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 backwards, 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 damage, easily enough to one-shot him if it hadn’t been for Mana Protection.

‘Stupid – I am so fucking stupid. Don’t get lost in doing things physically just because it's novel,’ 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. She was just as uncertain whether her planned action would have amounted to anything.

However the way things were going, they had to delay until John had regenerated more mana. The Sporehost had other plans. With clicketing 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 too much for Sylph to handle. Definitely too much when he didn’t have mana to send her.

“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 without the air getting cleared first. Therefore, Aclysia had to engage the enemy alone for a bit while he reconsidered his options.

As if the Sporehost was not disgusting enough yet, it opened its mouth and the toothed mushrooms inside lashed out like a giant tongue. About a metre in length it completely ignored Aclysia and instead flung something at John, something which he quickly identified as another Sporeling.

Without thinking much John made a leap 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 landed and was running at him.

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. Through his Bee eyes, always above, he saw what happened behind him. He felt the shockwave of the explosion and saw 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. His Possession entered the cloud to find her. What he saw was a halfway shattered little girl. Her left half had been entirely ripped apart by the explosion, leaving the dirt and pebbles, filled with vein like mana lines that made up the inside of her body, exposed. She looked at his second pair of eyes with only the left one still intact. A tormented little smile appeared on her face.

To leave her in that state would have been torture, so he made her shift back to her incorporeal state. The time her sacrifice had bought had to be enough.

The Sporehost had moved on to fighting Aclysia with its tongue. There was some sort of cooldown to the Sporelings, it appeared.

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 vulnerable though, but I can’t get there as long as these mushrooms are around,’ Salamander’s answer burned with anger for the creature that dared to strike down Gnome. Sylph was preoccupied with keeping the air clean, Undine was of no use against this enemy and Aclysia, while managing to outmanoeuvre the rather slow creature repeatedly, could get no hit in that was decisive. The cuts she made on its body were 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 time 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 dodged around the repeated attacks of the tongue. In return for its area attacks and immense defenses, its attacks were slow. Aclysia had an Agility of over 50. The only thing they had to look out for was another Sporeling. Whether it didn’t have the ability to create another one or wasn’t able to spit it out due to its tongue being constantly occupied, the Sporehost did not use that ability.

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 extended tongue from above. Running forwards, she sliced the blade by dragging it through the mushrooms. Following the cut was a light-green blade of air: the dagger’s enchantment ‘Wind-Strike’. It deepened the cut and made the regeneration just the slightest bit slower. It was all the time Aclysia needed to fulfil step two. After dismissing the dagger, she gripped the edges of the wound and pulled it open wide with all her strength. The toothed mushrooms hissed. The tongue wound around the now immobilized Artificial Guardian and started strangling her.

Step three was rather uncreative. Salamander flew through the gap Aclysia’s hands kept open. As 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 semi-translucent body, burning its way to and then out of the horns at the Sporehost’s back. Its hollow tongue swelled and turned into a smoking mess. The stench of burned mushrooms spread through the forest, a less disgusting but still unpleasant smell compared to what came before. 100 mana was not enough to kill the creature outright but it was clearly damaged. The mushrooms that made up the tongue attempted to turn inwards again. Aclysia wouldn’t let them, equipping the Cleaver of Streets, she brought down the heavy blade, cutting the half-cooked 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, but against Aclysia and Salamander it was useless and so all they needed to do was wait for John to regenerate mana. A second outburst of power from Salamander rocked the Sporehost’s body, scorching it 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 eighth finally killed the monstrosity.