"Don't be deceived by appearances. That's not a weak enemy!"
Liam's warning came through sounding serious. The friends woke up and swiftly used [Inspect].
[Shroom Demon Commander
Rank: Sub-boss
Level: 53
HP: 59.000/59.000]
"Enemies reaching so far… unexpected! Subordinates too weak. This commander has to act himself. Annoying!"
The shroom commander's high-pitched voice pierced through the tunnel as he shook his body. But at this point his appearance failed to deceive anyone. The party was ready for battle. As the demon came closer step for step, Silver Blade took a deep breath and suddenly rushed at him. She swung her sword in a wide arc, giving the small enemy no space to dodge. But she had still underestimated the demon.
Before Silver Blade could hit him, he fell apart, transforming into a carpet of mycelia sticking to the floor. A moment later he had already rebuilt his body and swung his small fist at Silver Blade's leg. Just before he hit the tank's leg, the fist suddenly bulged like a ballon and the force it contained multiplied.
Silver Blade reacted instinctively. She didn't try to block but instead jumped backwards, showing the versatility which was necessary to become a great tank. The fist missed but the cost in stance was quite considerable.
[Stance -27]
"That little guy has some tricks up his sleeves!"
"He's really all about being deceptive, huh?"
The friends were quite shocked by the moves the sub-boss showed. Luckily its attacks were rather slow. Silver Blade was the first to recover, once again attacking with her shield. This time the shroom demon didn't try to dodge. The shield hit, drawing some aggro. After one more exchange Silver Blade had secured the aggro, and her friends could get moving.
Having watched the shroom demon's abilities no one dared to underestimate the little guy. The ranged fighters aimed carefully as they started their attacks. Silver Blade cooperated with them, making sure that her body didn't block the sub-boss. Three projectiles accurately slammed into the small demon.
[-671!]
[-898!]
[-489!]
With almost 900 points of damage coming from Silent Acacia it was obvious that the boss had a lower physical resistance. The hunter didn't hesitate and immediately summoned Korn. The winged black tiger appeared, happily flying in circles around its master.
"Ok, ok, buddy! Now is not the time! Attack!"
Silent Acacia commanded Korn and the tiger complied. His predatory eyes narrowed staring at the small demon. With a push of his wings Korn shot through the air, arriving at the same time as the melee players.
At this moment the friends noticed an annoying detail. Since the boss was so small, there was not enough space for everyone to attack. Realizing the predicament Watchful Eye made a suggestion:
"I will attack with all my skills before stepping aside to recover my Qi!"
"Alright, go for it!"
Liam and Quickstep agreed, taking a step back. Watchful Eye appeared behind the demon's back, putting it in a pincer together with Silver Blade. He twirled his staff, striking the demon from above. The enemy showed signs of wanting to dodge to the side, but he was too slow for Watchful Eye. The staff hit the demon squarely on top of his mushroom cap.
[-1106!]
Watchful Eye wasn't done after his first attack. Purple flames latched onto his staff as he struck with its lower end. Subsequently he retreated by a step, driving his Qi into the ground. Seven heavy rocks rose around him.
[-358!]
[-139!]
With each subsequent hit the damage increased slightly. But unfortunately, the demon wouldn't take things lying down. As the third rock was about to hit, the shroom commander again transformed into mycelia. The rock passed above the white carpet and Watchful Eye's skill was interrupted after barely dealing one thousand points of damage.
"Your turn!"
At that point Watchful Eye's Qi was already somewhat low. He retreated to the side, gesturing Quickstep and Liam to attack. But before the two players could arrive, a dark shadow flew past them. A glaring red mark shone above the sub-boss as Silent Acacia activated his ultimate skill and Korn came swooping down, revealing his fierce, sharp teeth for a [Bite].
[-1130!]
To Silent Acacia's disappointment Korn didn't land a critical hit. But he suddenly noticed something else. The additional effect of [Bite] had triggered, afflicting three stacks of bleed on the enemy, dealing continuous damage of 150 points per second. Korn drew a curve in the air and landed another attack. Simultaneously Liam and Quickstep finally swooped in, dealing frightening damage. Cyclone and Fortune were still casting while Silent Acacia kept attacking. The Shroom Demon Commander's HP were reduced to 40.000 in no time at all.
"Enemy too strong. Increase attack!"
The small demon clearly wasn't one to endure a one-sided beating. A grimace formed on his face as he threw another fist at Silver Blade. The tank blocked calmly, already quite used to the enemy's movements. But as fist and shield collided, the expected impact didn't arrive. Instead, the demon commander suddenly exploded into multiple patches of mycelia which landed on the ground and the walls.
Fortune shivered from the sight. But it only got worse. Suddenly the mycelia in the entire tunnel began to wiggle. Identical Shroom Demon Commanders grew out of each patch, dropping to the floor, and turning towards the friends with eerie smiles on their faces. At least fifty little mushrooms covered the floor of the tunnel.
"No way these are real!"
Silver Blade immediately said so. She was confident in her conjecture despite [Inspect] telling her that each of these mushrooms is a Shroom Demon Commander.
"Real or not, we need a way to deal with them. Hurry!"
Balm was somewhat anxious, and rightly so as the little mushrooms began to move. They raised their hands and pointed at the party. Immediately spore bullets shot out of their hands, way too many to dodge them all.
[-100!]
[-100!]
These bullets dealt a fixed damage no matter whom they hit. One hundred points might not seem like much but if left alone those would swiftly become dangerous.
"Do we need to find the real one or destroy all of them?"
Fortune threw out the two solutions which came to her mind and Liam immediately gave her an answer:
"The latter. Bring out some bombs if you have them!"
Liam knew that their group would struggle somewhat to kill all the mushrooms since they had almost no AOE attacks readily available. Cyclone surely wouldn't want to waste her ultimate skill in this situation and Fortune had habitually started the cast for [Arcane Bolt]. The only one with some AOE damage was Quickstep, who immediately used [Whirlwind Slash]. A limited area was engulfed by a sharp wind and the first four mushrooms got cut into pieces.
Finally, everyone got moving. Silver Blade rushed towards the less durable ranged fighters, trying to block at least some damage for them. The rest began attacking towards all directions. The fake shroom commanders weren't tanky. Liam could destroy one in two hits. But their numbers were still quite troublesome.
Boom!
"Stupid shrooms!"
Liam was surprised as an explosion suddenly rocked the tunnel. He glanced behind his back and noticed that Cyclone had given up on casting her skill and threw small bombs. Next to her was Fortune who didn't want to stop her cast, Balm who had little combat power, and Silver Blade who was there to defend. And yet Cyclone's bombs alone had a higher efficiency than the rest of the group counted together.
When the dust lifted, only three mushrooms remained on Cyclone's side. With a few waves of her wand two of those were taken care off before Balm stopped her friends from eliminating the last one.
On the other side Liam, Quickstep, Watchful Eye, and Silent Acacia were still hard at work. Cyclone also turned around to help them. She didn't dare to throw bombs, afraid of injuring her friends, and only used normal attacks. But it was enough. Under the combined barrage of the party the small demons were soon taken out. Liam glanced at his HP. Having only lost 2400 points he thought their party was quick enough.
Just then he heard the sound of another bullet being fired. He turned around and saw a single surviving demon attacking Silver Blade.
"Why didn't you kill that one?"
"I thought if we let a single shroom survive, it gives us a good opportunity to heal everyone back to full.", explained Balm.
"Not bad."
"Makes sense."
"Good idea, Balm."
Praised by her friends Balm smiled brightly as she got to work. An illusionary tree brimming with vitality appeared in the tunnel, spreading healing magic to its surroundings. It didn't take long for everyone to be back to max HP. Afterwards Cyclone took out the last shroom. For a second silence fell on the tunnel before some patches of mycelia combined again to take the form of the original Shroom Demon Commander. The small monster stared at the players, its eyes betraying a lack of confidence.