So far, so good. They were now pretty far in, and examining the ground from the edge of the flying turtle’s shell.
“I can’t see anything!”
“Guess we’ll go down.”
Even these two would struggle to defeat foes they couldn’t see.
Perhaps they could pull it off eventually if they dropped a bunch of Iz’s bombs and Maple fired all her Machine God artillery, but there was no need to waste that much time and resources.
“Maple, lower us down.”
“Right!”
They couldn’t see below, but it was best not to dive off the side. Maple slowly lowered Syrup into the mist. Beneath that fog, they couldn’t tell if they’d be landing in a monster den or a bottomless pit.
They’d taken a blind leap once before, and they’d nearly landed on a bunch of spikes. These days they preferred to look first.
“Anything?”
“Not even a sound!”
“Then let’s land.”
With a wump, Syrup dropped to the surface. Their surroundings were still blanketed in purple fog, but there were no signs of any monsters.
“Where is the source?”
“Maple, is that it?”
“……?”
Sally was pointing at a huge crack in the ground. As wide as the two of them standing side by side with arms outstretched. They moved closer and peered in. The quantity of mist pouring out was certainly far greater than anywhere else.
“Yikes!”
“If you couldn’t null poison, no way you’d get through this.”
“Keeping Martyr’s Devotion going, then!”
“Even more grateful for it.”
On closer inspection, there was a series of platforms along the crack’s edge. They couldn’t exactly ride Syrup down, so they’d just have to follow the intended route.
“No telling what’s waiting after a fall, so be careful. If we get separated, we won’t even be able to locate each other.”
“Yup, minding my step!”
Gingerly, they descended into the crevasse. Eventually, they reached a murky underground chamber. There was a hissing sound from every direction—poison spurting out.
“Watch out.”
“Yeah. No telling what’s hiding here.”
On guard, they examined their surroundings. The space was pretty big, but the ceilings were fairly low, making it feel cramped. It would be tough for them to maneuver vertically.
Splut. Mingled with the hissing poison, they heard a sound like liquid splattering.
A dark-purple liquid shot out of the fog, and they knew right away that it was poison. A lump not unlike Maple’s Hydra was coming their way. Sally reacted first.
“Flash Spout!”
Sally stepped out of the skill’s way, and the stream of water pushed the poison back. Maple raised her shield against this unseen foe, scurrying to Sally’s side.
“Something’s out there.”
“A boss…right?”
“Probably.”
Without seeing it, they didn’t have much to work with. But the boss wasn’t waiting for them; it was lobbing more poison their way.
The projectiles were on the slow side. Sally could easily avoid them, and even Maple probably could if she tried. But if this was a poison slinger, then they couldn’t exactly charge recklessly at it.
“It stays on the ground, huh?”
“Sally, don’t step out of range!”
A puddle of poison remained where the projectiles landed. The duo was already half-blinded by the fog, which meant the field gave the boss a big advantage.
Without Martyr’s Devotion, they likely wouldn’t even have had time to stop and talk.
“Guess you could start firing back?”
“Sure thing!”
Maple deployed her weapons and sent a barrage into the fog. She swept the area, up and down, right and left, and caught something—chipping away at its HP.
Spotting that, they closed in. Sally moved ahead but stayed inside Martyr’s Devotion and tried to catch a glimpse.
“It’s some sort of slime!”
A big, purple gelatinous body. Purple mist sprayed out of it, and the entire boss itself appeared to be made of poison. It had no arms or legs, no eyes or mouth. It was a living ball of poison.
“Cover Move!”
Maple caught up with Sally, allowing her to get even closer.
The boss moved slowly. There was no way it could escape from Sally. She called out Oboro, wreathed her daggers in fire and water, and charged in.
“Quintuple Slash!”
Her blades sank deep, leaving gouges spraying red sparks. But even with the three layers of damage her skills did, it didn’t feel like she’d accomplished much.
“Pretty tanky… Does it have damage reduction?”
Sally backed off before it could counterattack, squinting into the fog to see what it did.
The boss swelled up and sprayed a stream of extra-thick toxic fog.
“Sally!”
It spread rapidly, making dodging hard. Martyr’s Devotion was still active, but Maple called Sally close, just in case, and the mist caught up with them.
“Urgh……?!”
“I was afraid it would have one!”
That icon meant Maple was poisoned. Even the regular snake mobs there had resistance reduction; it was no shock that the boss did, too.
The only problem was that they had no options to get away.
“Maple, you focus on healing.”
“Heaven’s Throne. Glow of Deliverance. Meditation.”
In addition to her healing skills, Maple used one of Iz’s items, surrounding herself with green mist that healed her continuously. With a regular potion topping it off, she had five heals at once, and that filled up her HP nicely. Watching Chrome fight had proven the strength of constant healing.
“If it’s just poison, I should be all right.”
But if she was sitting on the throne, Maple couldn’t move. While Meditation was active, she couldn’t even attack. Maple was currently a statue that provided impenetrable defense.
“We’ve gotta make it come to us…but will it?”
At this range, the boss was content to lob poison at them. The boss fight was likely not designed to be a lengthy battle of attrition (not in this poison), which meant one or the other—Sally—would have to move if this fight was going to go anywhere.
But Sally also couldn’t leave Maple’s protection.
Maybe Flash Spout would knock it their way. She considered the idea, but then Maple let out a squawk.
“Sally! This might be our shot!”
“……?”
“It’s got a resistance reduction!”
“……! Right. On it.”
It seemed her friend had not even considered that this might be a tough battle, much less a losing one. Was that confidence born from strength? Or from faith in her fighting partner? Hopefully the latter, Sally thought, changing up her strategies.
The snake had been an appetizer. Now for the main dish.
Perhaps the boss had what they wanted. Sally did what she could to deliver that slime to Maple’s gullet.