The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1119: Spore Dodging

Steve gestured toward the boss. ”Alright, this is what will happen, for the new members. It’s strange saying that, as nobody takes newbies here.

But the boss will send up puffs of spores with every attack and movement.

They are toxic, so don’t let them touch you, and don’t step in the patches where they land and bloom. But we will also assign four people to destroy the blooms on the ground, as the boss will heal when he steps on them.

There is a small safe spot behind the boss’s back, which is where most of the melee will stay. The Tank needs to be in front of him and keep him from turning, until he moves to go to a healing patch.

Then the melee scatters until the tank picks him back up again.

Once he gets to his chosen spot, he will call all his spores back and heal. For that reason, it’s urgent that we destroy all the spores on the floor.

After that, it’s rinse and repeat.

Karl, we’re counting on you to keep him as still as possible. Don and Reggie will keep you cleansed, so that the poison of the spores doesn’t get too intense. You’re pretty durable, so they shouldn’t suffer too badly. Some tanks need nearly constant cleansing, or it’s a pain to keep them alive.

Got it?”

”Don’t knock him over, don’t let him turn, make sure the team has cleared the floor.” Karl agreed.

”You lead the way. Turn him if you can, if not, we will circle the edge of the platform.” Steve agreed.

Remi was looking forward to this boss. Toxic spores were always good for something, and she fully intended to collect some for her future experiments. She had plans for a potion that would increase the imbiber’s poison attack damage, but she was missing some ingredients.

And where better to get them than from Totem Ranked sentient fungi?

Karl shifted back into dragon form and charged the boss, while Hawk circled overhead, waiting for the spores to start to fly.

[The healers don’t look happy about this fight.] Remi noted after transforming into Spirit Snake form so she could just float over the battlefield and not worry about weird squishy things touching her scales.

Thor nodded. [The spores must be a real problem. But we’ve got Brother Hawk. If Ghostfire doesn’t take care of the spores, nothing will.]

Rae just laughed and used [Night Haunter] to make herself incorporeal.

She also wouldn’t have to worry about what she stepped in.

The Myceloid boss was so large that even in dragon form, Karl was still the smaller combatant. But deep blue ichor poured from rapidly healing wounds when he clawed at the creature, and it turned to face him without hesitation.

Karl heard the others coming behind the boss, and then noticed that the spores which flew from the splatters of blue blood had a puffy top, like a dandelion seed.

That let them float across the battlefield, and while that also made it easier for the mages and clerics to shoo them away with a wave of their staff or wind magic, it also meant that they could land anywhere in the combat area, including among the melee fighters, who were actually doing quite well at using skills to destroy the ones that got too close.

[Rae, we need to stop making him bleed. We’re making it worse.] Karl realized.

They had both been using Hemotoxic strikes, and the boss was bleeding freely, though he was healing a third of the total damage that they were doing.

That number would surely go up once they stopped him bleeding, but half the area was on fire thirty seconds after the fight started.

Karl caught one massive fist of the boss and punched him in the face with a closed draconic fist.

Yes, that worked well.

And it didn’t make him bleed any more than necessary.

Most of the warriors didn’t have any such option, so the back of the boss was bleeding much more than the front, but they aimed their skills up, so the spores from the blood floated well away from them.

Though Karl couldn’t see it, as he was on the other side of the boss, the warriors were beginning to get concerned by the amount of fire on the ground. Hawk had been burning all the spore spots as soon as they hit, but there were so many in this fight that there was fire everywhere.

Then, the boss began to shift.

It headed for a spot where a spore had just landed, and Hawk’s fire was failing to stop it from growing.

[I think it’s part of the dungeon effect. Just work to destroy all the others, and put out the extra fire, so the warriors have somehwere to go.] Karl instructed as he followed the boss.

Its health made a small bump as it absorbed the one spot that wouldn’t burn, then plummeted as it called all the burning spore patches to itself and got covered in Ghostfire.

”Well, that’s a new one. I never thought about leaving the patches on fire.” Steve laughed as the boss smouldered.

”It’s dying fast, too. Why did we never think of this before? It’s brilliant.” One of the others laughed as they got back in position, while Karl attacked from the front, keeping the boss from trying to swat out the Ghostfire that was ravaging its body.

It was nothing more than a gigantic walking spore colony, and now that it had pulled Ghostfire inside its body, the boss was already doomed.

It just hadn’t realized it yet.

”Everyone, go all out, we can drop this boss before it moves again.” Steve ordered.

They could also rest after, if they were out of mana or stamina. The mages and healers looked fine to Karl, and those were the only ones he was worried about.

There was no way for the damage dealers to completely avoid the spores in this fight, but area healing was also one of the most mana intensive spells that any of them had.

If things got too bad, he would ask Tian to help with healing, and not just fire magical stones like a machine gun.