NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13: Bad to the Bone
Milo skulked down the tunnel, back the way he had come when chased by Cronk. Exiting, he turned left and moved along the edge of the large mushroom-filled cavern with the massive shroom in the center. Immediately he ran into a small problem.
The small myconids that he had disturbed had followed him. They weren't as fast as Cronk, though, and had given up the chase at one point. They were wandering around aimlessly about a hundred feet from the mine entrance. He could outrun them, but that would just mean being trapped at the rockfall by a horde of angry mushrooms. Milo elected to take the long way around the cavern. One guardian was an easy fight, and he could probably fight a couple at once. But not a dozen, and especially not when there might be a lot more around.
Hugging the wall and being careful to not step on any stemlings, he moved slowly around the cavern. He bypassed two more large tunnels that seemed to lead even deeper into the caves. He was still hundreds of feet from the ramp up when he noticed the cavern wall was a lot closer to the big shroom. One of the large yellow blossoms moved and was pointing in his direction as if it sensed him. A vine that wrapped around the gigantic stem twitched. The twitch became a hump of loose vine that traveled like a wave down the stem to the ground. Then through the mushroom field towards him, the partially buried vine kicked up loose soil and small mushrooms. It was headed in his general direction or maybe a bit ahead of him.
Following the twitching vine with his eyes, he saw it go to a large lump in the ground. Something slowly crawled out of that lump and stood up. Whatever it was, it had dirt and mushrooms all over it, as though it had lain in the ground for years. It wore a tattered orange robe, and one bony hand held a spikey-looking weapon. Milo was getting very nervous but didn't know whether to run forward or back. He compromised by skulking along the wall and hoping he wasn't noticed. He tried to identify the thing, with mixed results. He saw two names and didn’t like the implications. Caster meant ‘magic,’ and the idea of the flowers taking control of dead bodies was unnerving. And a Named boss was far less powerful than Cronk, but he didn’t have a minecart to drop on it.
Malskitter, the Malevolent Bonecaster Blossom Slave
Named Level 3 Boss
Milo was seeing two names flashing. The first sounded like an evil villain from a bad movie. That kept fading and being replaced by 'Bonecaster Blossom Slave.' The creature shook itself more to shake off dirt and mulch and started shambling toward him. The vine stayed connected, running into the things ribcage where a blossom sprouted.
Milo backed away a bit more, and the creature stopped. The vine was stretched tight, and it couldn't move toward him. It was a stalemate for a moment. If Milo tried to get past it, it could get to him. He'd have to go back.
Or not? He cursed as he saw two more shambling forms moving around the perimeter toward him. One small, one massive, and packing a huge sword. If he didn't want to fight them, he needed to get past this one and run.
Drawing the machete, he sprinted directly toward the Bonecaster Blossom slave. As he got closer, it brandished the melee weapon it held. It looked like a long stick with sharpened bones stuck through the shaft. Getting hit by it would be like taking multiple stabs from daggers. Milo had no intention of standing and fighting, though. Watching for its first attack, he dodged low and rolled past it, crushing several small mushrooms, but luckily no stemlings. He came to his feet and brought the machete down on the vine, slicing through it.
The vine snapped back and thrashed as though he had caused it pain. He took a nasty slap to his side before he moved away from it. A bruise was worth it to defeat this foe so easily.
Mocking laughter informed him that it wasn't so easy. "Good, good, a cunning plan, youngling. You have freed me from the cursedshroomflower. Malskitter will reward you!"
Milo was pretty sure he wouldn’t like the reward. "All good, Mr. Skitter; glad to help. Uh, I don't suppose your reward is letting me sneak on past you?"
The skeleton laughed. The eye sockets that had been so dim before now shone with a green light. Milo noted that the skull was more animal shaped than human, and there was a skeletal tail coming from a hole in the robe. Just his luck that the first ratkin he found was a crazy necromancer bone-thing enslaved by a flower.
"You get a reward, lucky Tallsqueak! You get to host my spirit for the next few decades. This shell is worn out and infested with flowers. Never smell the flowers!! I've been stuck here forever as my shell rotted and the flowers commanded my corpse."
Milo started running. He got two steps before bony fingers erupted from the ground and clutched at his ankles, rooting him in place. Malskitter scrambled towards him. His first slash at Milo hit him in his left shoulder and arm.
You fail to resist the spell Grasp of the Grave. You are immobile for 60 seconds.
Malskitter, the Malevolent, punctures you for 40 points of damage.
You are attacked by a spell! You resisted the spell of Essence Transfer.
Milo struck back with his machete. The necromancer didn't even bother to dodge. Ribs cracked, and bits of bone came loose. "Careful, careful Tallsqueak, soon this will be your shell. Why not give up now?" Milo brought up the pick he held in his left arm. The wound to his shoulder made it difficult to attack with the bulky weapon. Instead, Milo turned his hips and swung with his tail. The hardened tip of his tail hit the skeleton’s right arm, snapping the dry-rotted bone. Malskitter looked down at his arm and weapon on the ground. "Oh bother, why are you being so difficult! This is an honor. Am I not one of the Wurchwitz Hollow’s most accomplished wizards? Foolish youngling."
A bony glowing hand reached for Milo. It was a clumsy attack. Milo doubted that Malskitter had been much of a warrior before he was dead. Now with a body mostly turned to fertilizer, he was clumsy and slow. Milo hit the reaching arm with his machete, snapping the other arm off.
"Looks like I disarmed you, Mr. Mal. Hands down, the best decision I made today."
The skeleton turned and glared at Milo. "PUNS! You dare. This only a minor setback!"
"Maybe you can pick up some new ones at a second-hand store?"
"GHAHHH! I will bite you to death."
Milo's tail hit the brittle neckbone of the lunging skeleton. The skull came loose and fell face-first in the dirt.
"Well, I guess another one bites the dust." The scream from the skull was unintelligible. Milo checked on the other flower zombie things. They were still quite a bit away. He saw that the remains of Malskitter were rapidly decaying. The flower was a blackened husk; the bones rotted sticks. Nothing left but the orange robe and the weapon.
Congratulations! You have slain Bonecaster Blossom Slave. You gain 50 experience in small blades and 50 experience in DEX…oops, guess that wasn't his Final Form?
You have slain Malskitter the Malevolent. You gain 250 Boss experience that may be used for the skills: Tail Fighting, Small Blades, and Dodge. You gain 250 experience in the stats associated with the skills used.
You have gained 5 Enhancement Points.
Glancing at the items, both looked like they were worth taking.
Runed Cowl of the Bonecaster (This item must be attuned to gain more information.)
Bonecaster’s Runed Spike
An ugly weapon made of rune-carved bones and petrified wood. (Must be attuned to use.)
Milo grabbed both items, stuffed the cowl in his pack, put the machete in his belt, and started jogging along the wall. This wasn’t the time for stealth anymore. It was time to run. He took a few seconds to put all 250 Boss Experience into Dodge; he was going to need it.
More vines activated and sent out messages to the undead slaves of the flowers, but Milo was ahead of them now. Fleet of Foot gave him +20% to his sprinting speed, and his agility stat gave him another small boost. By contrast, the undead slaves were slow and dragging heavy vines behind. He made it to the ramp up and was out of range of the flower slaves.
Stopping to catch his breath, he stayed watchful for packs of vengeful mushrooms, but nothing was heading his way. He carefully traversed the second room where Cronk had emerged. Coming from this angle, he saw another mine entrance that he had missed before in his headlong run along the other wall. Did this one connect with the others? Maybe he'd explore some after he got back to Harry. He still had to clear the rockfall and get back to the mycologist.
…and find out what a Heartshroom was.
…and figure out what a Bonecaster was.
… and sell some ore.
… and pay a visit to Kaminski.