“What is that thing?!” shrieked Kaya as they ran.

“I don’t know,” Lukas shouted back, looking over his shoulder at the Shroom King. He had never seen this monster before. There were no bosses or even mini-bosses in the Longhill caves as far as he remembers. The patch did say there would be new mobs called Elites in the game but he didn’t expect one to show up in a low-level area like this.

The colossal walking mushroom lumbered after them. It was faster and twice as big as the regular Shroomling. The surface of its grey body was split in different places to reveal red eyes with pitch-black pupils. It had three large arms that looked like they belonged to a corpse, two on the left and another on the right. Each of the three hands dragged a lifeless body. Probably Gavin’s party mates. A mouth filled with jagged teeth was slightly open across its belly, revealing a wet purple tongue.

Lukas did notice however that the Shroom King’s HP bar was already halved. Gavin’s party probably attacked it thinking they could take it on their own. It was plain to see they were wrong.

“Lukas! Watch out!” warned Kaya.

But it was too late. Something heavy collided with Lukas’ right shoulder and it sent him crashing into the cave walls. Pain shot up from his right side to his entire body and his HP bar dropped by a quarter.

Looking up, he saw a Shroomling towering over him ready to deliver another blow. With pure instinct, Lukas triggered Parry Stance and blocked the attack. He rolled out of the way from the next blow and struck back with Wild Strike, stunning the Shroomling.

“Keep running!” he shouted at Kaya.

What the hell was happening? Lukas thought as another Shroomling took a swing at him. All the Shroomlings they passed were now turning and slowly lumbered after them. The presence of the Shroom King was somehow affecting their behavior, making them aggressive instead of passive.

Realizing this, Lukas knew they were not going to make it out. They had wandered deep in the caves. If they kept running for the exit, they will just pull more and more Shroomlings behind them. And if they were unfortunate enough to run into a group huddled close together, there would be no way out.

“Kaya, this way!” Lukas shouted, leading the way down to a different tunnel.

“But… the exit… where are we going?” Kaya asked as she followed.

“I have a plan. Just keep up!” he turned and gave a reassuring smile. A smile that did not match the panic he felt.

Please still be there… please still be there…

Rounding the corner of the tunnel, Lukas saw what he was praying for. It was a slim gap between two stalagmites along the cave walls.

“Get in!”

Lukas helped Kaya slip through the gap and followed just in time as the first Shroomling slammed into the small opening. The space beyond was just enough for a few people to stand on.

“What the… this is a dead-end!” said Kaya. The panic in her voice was palpable. “Why would you-”

“We weren’t going to make it out,” confessed Lukas.

“Then… that’s it? We’re stuck here?…” She started to hyperventilate.

There were now half a dozen Shroomlings waiting on the other side. The huge bulk of the Shroom King slowly came into view from the shadows, still dragging the bodies of Gavin’s party. Lukas knew they would be safe here. He had used this exploit area before. He would lure mobs and cast spells at his leisure from this spot, out of reach from attacks. It fell out of fashion when others found out about it. Soon there were a dozen players trying to do the same thing and the area could only fit four people at the most.

The Shroom King charged and slammed against the gap, making the walls vibrate. Lukas lashed out with Wild Strike but it did very little damage. It must have unbelievably high P.Def. After giving the stalagmites a good pounding with its massive head, the monster backed off a fair distance and started to glow faintly purple. Lukas’ eyes went wide. It was casting a spell.

The poison. He thought in alarm as he remembered Gavin dying.

Thinking fast, Lukas pulled out one of the remaining five Fire Bolt scrolls and used it immediately. A flash of fire shot out from the piece of paper and flame engulfed the Shroom King. He did not know if it would work but to his relief, it did. The glowing stopped and the monster’s HP bar went down by a few points and kept declining from the Burning status.

“Can we kill it from here?” asked Kaya hopefully.

“No.” replied Lukas honestly. “I only have four scrolls left. It won’t be enough.”

“But it will leave eventually... Right?”

“No. We’re too close to its aggro range. We have to kill it.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?!... Heal it to death?”

Lukas looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry…” she apologized. “I get really toxic when I panic.”

The Shroom King slammed into the walls again, making them both jump. A thick purple tongue slid its way through the gap. Lukas hacked at it with his sword making the appendage retreat. The monster let out a blood-curdling screech and hammered the walls with its head again before backing off to the same spot where it started glowing purple once more.

Lukas used another scroll to interrupt the spell. This time, the Burning status didn’t trigger but the glowing stopped all the same.

There’s a pattern here... He noticed.

In an instant, a strategy began to formulate in his head. One that might just work but could get them both killed.

“Kaya, I have a plan.”

“What? Can it get us out?” she asked desperately.

“I think so. But I’m gonna need your help and I’m going to need you to trust me.”

Kaya looked at him seriously and nodded.

“You can depend on me, Lukas. I trust you,” she said with conviction.

“Good… here.” Lukas said as he handed her the remainder of the Fire Bolt scrolls. “Every time the Shroom King glows it means it’s trying to cast a spell. Probably that poison that killed Gavin…. So use the scrolls to interrupt it.”

She nodded.

“If you run out of scrolls, it will eventually cast that poison spell. Heal yourself if your HP goes down enough. Don’t overheal, okay? Be efficient. Keep healing yourself until I get back. Got it?”

“Got it.” she nodded. “Hit it when it’s glowing… Don’t overheal and keep healing until… wait, what? Until you get back?”

Lukas took out the teleportation scroll.

“Trust me. I’ll be back for you.” With that, Lukas disappeared in a blinding flash of blue light.

“LUKAS!!!” shouted Kaya as the Shroom King slammed once more against the walls.

The purple tongue squeezed through the gap again and nearly reached her. Kaya hit the thing with her wand and it retreated. A massive red eye eclipsed the slim gap and the monster let out a guttural chuckle. It seemed to enjoy her panic. It retreated to the same spot and threw one of the corpses it was carrying in her direction. The body made a sickening thud against the stone walls. Kaya could see it was a girl. An Acolyte, just like her.

In her distraction, Kaya nearly didn’t notice that the Shroom King beginning to glow again. She fumbled with the scrolls and finally triggered one to stop the monster’s spell just in time. When the firebolt made contact, the Shroom King hissed and roared seeming frustrated that it kept getting interrupted. It charged again.

The floor shook on impact. The fear she felt was doubled not having Lukas beside her. But she had to stay calm. She can’t lose her nerve now. Lukas has a plan and he was relying on her.

A notification showed up in her HUD.

Lukas Corvo has left the party.

What?! What the hell is going on?!... Did Lukas leave her for dead? Why?

But her thought was interrupted by the huge purple tongue that almost managed to grab her leg.

Again and again, the gruesome charade went on. The Shroom King would charge and after a few moments of pounding against the stalagmites, it would back off to start casting its spell in which Kaya would have to stop it. It happened twice more until there were no Fire Bolt scrolls left.

That’s it... I’m dead. She thought. Where are you, Lukas?

The Shroom King seemed to sense her despair and flashed an ugly evil grin as it started to glow once more. This time, there was nothing stopping it.

The spell went off and a cloud of purple spores shot through the small gap. Kaya immediately felt horrible. Her vision blurred, her extremities tingled and her stomach turned. Her HP bar was dropping at an alarming rate but she kept calm.

Don’t overheal. She told herself.

When her HP bar dropped to half, she used Heal and it instantly shot back to full but it went down almost instantly just like what happened to Gavin. With her ability’s cooldown time, she calculated that she could use Heal again whenever her HP was down to half but her mana regeneration can’t keep up. She only had enough MP to heal herself three more times, four tops.

The purple tongue crept toward her and she crawled back against the far wall. Kaya didn’t have the strength to give the thing a smack with her wand.

“Lukas… Please…” she whispered. It was getting hard to keep her eyes open.

She saw a red flash coming from outside through the small gap. One of the Shroomlings was burning and it instantly went down.

What?...

Another Shroomling burned to cinders. Then another and another. All six Shroomlings outside went down in flames before the Shroom King could notice the Swordsman from behind.

Kaya saw Lukas through the gap. His sword shimmered and glowed with blue energy.

The Swordsman charged as the Shroom King swung one of its grotesque arms but the blow was easily parried by the glowing sword. Lukas then countered with a slash and the monster’s HP bar went down considerably. Kaya could see he did more damage than the Fire Bolt scrolls ever did.

“Here! Catch!” yelled out Lukas as he tossed a bottle of clear liquid through the gap.

Kaya barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground.

Antidote Lvl. 3

[Effects: Removed all poison effects Lvl. 3 and below.]

She immediately uncorked the bottle and drank. In a matter of seconds, she felt better and her HP bar stopped dropping.

“I told you I’ de be back,” Lukas said with his back to her still facing the monster.

Kaya could see that he was covered in sweat. He must’ve run here from Longhill. He didn’t have to come back. But he did.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You can thank me later,” Lukas said as he rolled out of the way from the charging monster. “We have to kill this thing first!”

The Shroom King flung another body, this time directly at Lukas. The impact sent him tumbling and his HP bar dropped to half. Kaya immediately used Heal and Blessing at him.

Heal[Active]

[Effects: Instantly restore target’s HP by an amount based on Int. Deals 150% damage of the same amount to undead type creatures. CD: 10s]

Blessing [Active: Buff]

[Effect: Bless a target with protection. Grants bonus P.Def and M.Def based on Int. Duration: 60s CD: 10s]

“Thanks!” Lukas said as he charged forward with Wild Strike. This time it didn’t deal the same minute damage as before. A chunk of the Shroom King’s HP disappeared. It was down to a third of health.

Lukas backed off and popped the cork of a blue potion and drank the contents. Kaya saw his MP bar filled to half but continued to drop.

Why is he losing so much mana?

Lukas charged again to exchanged blows with the monster. With each attack, a sliver of HP disappeared from the creature but with each blow it landed, Lukas lost a fifth.

Once, twice and three times more the two clashed. The sword danced through the air, leaving trails of blue light. Kaya kept throwing out heals every time she saw Lukas’ health go below half. The Shroom King grew furious with each slash, not being able to cast its spells or hit its nimble target.

Finally, the monster’s HP bar was now just a thin line and Lukas’ was about a quarter. Lukas charged head-on and Kaya tried to cast Heal but couldn’t. She looked at her status bar in panic and realized her MP bar was empty.

“Lukas! Don’t...” she tried to warn but it was too late. She averted her eyes.

There was the sound of a clash followed by a resounding thud.

Kaya looked up hesitantly to see what happened and saw the Shroom King dead on the ground. Lukas was standing over the huge carcass his HP and MP bar back to full and the level up animation shining around him. The blue energy around his sword vanished before he placed it back into its sheath.

“It kinda works!” He said, flashing a wide grin at her.

Kaya saw his status bar clearly for the first time.

Name: Lukas Corvo

Class: Swordsman Subclass: Conjurer

Level: 26