“Okay! Iz really gives us so many more options.”
Sally had been tossing balls into the back. Not at random, either. The angle and sound of the incoming projectiles gave her a good idea of where the boss was, so she was aiming these balls to land behind it.
There was a thud, and the mist rippled.
When she heard that, Sally shot her webs into the fog. She felt them snare something. Certain it had worked, she reeled them in.
Something scraped across the ground. Breaking through the mist—several large spheres. And the blob-of-poison boss, pulled by the pile of balls behind it.
“It worked!”
Iz had made these balls. They grew bigger over time. Ordinarily Maple Tree tossed them into the air and they grew spikes and attacked, so Sally hadn’t planned on taking advantage of them. But she’d managed to work them into her plan to bring the boss to them.
“Ice Pillar!”
This skill cut off the boss’s escape route, pinning it right in front of Maple.
It was flinging a bunch of poison at point-blank range, and Maple was getting all gooey, but since she took no damage from this, she didn’t have to care.
“I got it here… You going for it?”
“It seems soft! It’ll be fine!”
“I was more worried about the unappetizing appearance, but…your head still won’t reach, huh? Lemme fill in the gap.”
Sally pushed the boss even closer, until Maple could reach it with her mouth even sitting down. They were now so close that it tried to attack by climbing on top of her.
“Can you breathe?!”
“I’m not underwater! I’m fine!”
“Whew! I guess you can fight this one sitting down. It is edible, right?”
Maple’s response was action. Little damage sparks were spraying from the boss, its HP slowly falling. They weren’t letting it go until it was gone.
“Enjoy!”
“Will do!”
She was totally buried in poison but sounded bright and cheery. Sally relaxed and stood ready for the unexpected.
✦ ✦ ✦
Maple’s battle feast went on for a while. This was the tenth stratum; if eating were their only attack, it would take a crazy amount of time to defeat the boss. But the skills Maple had obtained before only required the final attack to be a bite (more accurately, a drain attack). Sally had confirmed that when she acquired Web Spinner.
“Double Slash!”
Sally was shortening the feasting time but keeping her damage on the low side, not wanting to carve it down to an HP benchmark that would change its attack pattern.
But as Maple ate one bite at a time, that moment arrived.
The poison ball began to wobble. Sally watched closely as it slipped from her bindings, vanishing.
That alone was no problem.
But Sally saw the glow of Martyr’s Devotion moving, too, and sprang into action.
“Superspeed!”
Fortunately, the skill had a generous range. Sally ran in the same direction and managed to stay under its protection. Normally, that light just drew attention to them, but this time it saved her bacon.
“Maple, you okay?”
“I-I’m fine! Didn’t expect it to bound away like that!”
Relieved to find each other safe, they realized that the purple mist was dissipating. They’d likely still be poisoned, but the visual obstruction was gone.
And their new expanded view revealed several poison blobs bouncing around.
“What the—?!”
“……It split? If we can’t guess which one is real, we’ll waste a lot of time as this poison eats away at us. It’s sure spraying poison like crazy.”
The floor was now so covered in goo, there was no safe place to stand. Naturally, the poison projectiles would normally do actual damage, requiring a swift end. For most players, a boss that split itself would be a tough fight.
“But you’re only inside one of them, which sure makes that easy.”
“Pure chance, but whew!”
“Let’s take this down ASAP. Gonna be hard getting back to the throne.”
Sally used some potions to make up for the loss of healing and waited for the meal to end.
“How’s it taste?”
“Not great…”
It might be the same color as grape gelatin, but it was all poison. Not exactly a pleasant flavor.
“Yeah? Hang in there.”
For better or worse, Maple had achieved success by eating enemies, and it was a regular part of her repertoire.
“Let’s hope you at least get a skill this time.”
“Yeah!”
As they kept one eye on the gradually diminishing HP bar, the boss gradually stopped moving, and the battle drew to a close.