“As for the rest of us,” Wolfgang said, watching in disgust as MotherQueen drilled into the ground, bringing Nikk with her, “avoid the green stuff. Healer, you just heal at will. No need for antidotes this time.”

“What happened to Nikk?” Max asked.

“You’ll know soon enough,” Wolfgang said.

The end of Mother Queen’s long body slipped from her original hole. Her tail was tipped with what looked like a horn but not sharp. Instead, at the tip of the horn was an opening. She continued her dive into the ground and halted once only a few feet protruded, her horned tail standing rigid and pointed to the sky.

“Where’s Nikk?” I asked.

“Trust me,” Wolfgang said. “You’ll find out.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I said. “Is he alright?”

“If he listens to my instructions, he’ll be alright, yes.” The sheep looked up at the boss’ tail. “Now focus. The green stuff is coming.”

It shuddered with increased fury. Whatever was coming was going to be just as bad, if not worse, than the mist had been. The shuddering stopped. The hole at the tip of the tail dilated to almost ten times its original size.

A shot of green ooze spurted from the top. It arched high in the air before plummeting to the ground. Max side-stepped it with ease, looked to Wolfgang, and scoffed. “This is the green stuff to avoid? This is the great difficulty you warned us about?”

“Stay focused,” Wolfgang said, his eyes locked on Mother Queen’s tail.

Dozens of similar spurts launched from the tip of the tail—each one was sent flying in a different direction. The sun blinded me as I tried to follow their trajectories. I couldn’t get a good look at them until they were half-way back to the ground. One whistled toward me. I dove out of the way and barely avoided it. It crashed to the ground where I’d been standing with a heavy thud. The weight of it seemed just as dangerous as its toxicity.

Countless more thuds followed as the rest of the spurts landed in random locations around us. Max zipped back and forth with great speed to avoid the projectiles, but even his nimble figure struggled as many green bombs just barely missed him. Even Buttons seemed to understand the importance of dodging the spurts.

Wolfgang rolled around and struggled with keeping his footing. The sheep’s form was clumsy and no quicker than average, but he was a small target. Hendrix had stopped his song, fixed his lute on his back, and focused on the oozing barrage.

I wanted to keep an eye on my fellow party members, but one of the spurts glanced off my shoulder, nearly dislocating it. The bit of substance that stayed behind burned my skin, just like the mist had.

Manalolz ran toward me, uncorked potion in hand and eyes to the sky. “How bad is it?” The healer called to me.

“I’m fine. Only took about ten percent of my health.”

“Heals!” Wolfgang shouted from behind Manalolz.

The healer skidded to a halt just as a pile of ooze slammed into the ground before him. He turned and ran to the tank, dodging another bomb along the way.

He blew red powder onto the injured tank who’d been drenched in burning green ooze.

“I need a heal!” Hendrix called.

Manalolz rolled his eyes and hurried to the bard, fishing a fresh potion from his pink pocket. A bomb plummeted directly for his anticipated position.

“Look up!” I shouted to him.

He did. The healer dove out of the way just as a green explosion took place before him. Another bomb whistled down toward him. He caught it at the last moment and rolled aside.

Immense weight pinned me to the ground. I’d been so busy watching out for the healer that I’d forgotten about my own safety. I gazed out over the battlefield, dazed and barely clinging to life. I kept silent until Manalolz managed to heal Hendrix and called out. “Heals!”

“Oh my God!” Manalolz shrieked. “Can any of you noobs just avoid the shit falling from the sky?”

“Hey! Don’t use that word,” Hendrix said.

“That stuff falling from the sky. Whatever,” Manalolz said as he made his way toward me.

“Not that word,” Hendrix shouted.

Manalolz ignored him. The healer crouched beside me and blew red powder onto me that worked immediately. I hopped to my feet and dodged another bomb that would’ve surely killed me had Manalolz been only a moment later.

The ground shook, and the spurts stopped. The tail shuddered, retracted into the ground slightly, and darted out again. Something small and mostly green catapulted out of the tail. It was Nikk! The toadkin performed a few flips as he arced through the air and landed in his crouched position with the arm out.

His HP was low. Almost dead.

“Heal him!” I shouted.

“I was going to!” Manalolz shouted back in the tune of a frustrated young girl.

“What happened?” Max jogged to meet his friend. “Are you alright?”

Nikk remained crouched as Manalolz blew powder onto him. His skin was riddled with burns and drenched with a viscous green substance. “I don’t want to talk about it.” His wounds mended, and the slime faded off of him.

Mother Queen’s tail disappeared underground. Tremors followed. Wolfgang pranced back to the boss’ original position and waited. I did the same, trusting the tank knew what to expect next. The ground shook as Nikk and Buttons joined us, and Max prepared his bow. Hendrix plucked some strings. Manalolz mixed more potions.

“Antidotes, too,” Wolfgang said.

“Oh no,” Manalolz said. “She’s gonna do that again?”

“Two more times,” Wolfgang said.

Manalolz cursed and fished out different herbs to crush and mix.

Mother Queen erupted from the ground, roaring toward the sky. The sound shook the earth and my bones. Wrench ready, I charged in and started hammering away. Nikk thrust with his spear, opting not to climb the beast this time around. Buttons attacked, and Max released a steady stream of effective arrows. The boss’ attention was already locked on the valiant sheep.

We continued producing consistent damage and slowly brought the boss’ health down. Manalolz mixed potions while Wolfgang relied on his dodging ability to mitigate damage. Mother Queen roared and spat out another storm of mist. I winced before the mist even reached me. The memory of the pain from last time was all it took.

It hurt just as much. The party’s health was hovering at around five percent again, and Manalolz was quick at work. He complained throughout the process but delivered hasty doses of antidote followed by effective heals.

The fight continued. We brought the boss down to thirty-three percent, and it roared again. Mother Queen’s roar had yet to mean anything but bad news. This time was no different. The boss swallowed Max and created a new hole where the elf had been standing. Her tail jutted out of the ground like it did after she’d eaten Nikk.

No words were needed this time. Manalolz was ready, as were the rest of us. Only Nikk seemed a bit confused, but once the green bombs started raining from the sky, it didn’t take long for him to figure it out.

We managed to dodge much better this time around, but apparently not good enough to keep Manalolz from complaining about our ineptitude. Wolfgang ran up to the healer as Max was spat out of Mother Queen’s tail-end.

“I know it doesn’t matter since I’ll probably never see you again,” the tank said, “but you’ve got to stop trash-talking your own party-mates. I’m telling you this for your own good. Trust me.”

“I wouldn’t trash-talk if you didn’t deserve it,” Manalolz said. “You don’t know how much it pains me to use one of my potions on a noob who couldn’t just simply get out of the way. The only thing you’re right about is that we’ll never see each other again after this.”

“Enough of this,” I said as the ground shook. “We can argue once the boss is dead.”

They wordlessly agreed, and the party was back in position at Mother Queen’s original hole. Manalolz took care of Max’s health. The boss jutted out and towered over us. Her flesh was filled with cuts, holes, and arrows as her health crept toward thirty percent.

“What’s left?” I asked Wolfgang. “More mist? Another swallow?”

Wolfgang nodded. “Mist at two percent. Swallow at one. She’ll be swallowing you, Billington, so get ready.”

“How do you know?”

“She swallows each damage dealer,” Wolfgang said. “I don’t know why, but it’s what she’s done for as long as I can remember.”

There was one last stretch of dealing damage to the boss while Manalolz crafted more potions, keeping a close eye on the dodging sheep. Her health winded down. My gut churned the closer we got to two percent. The idea of being swallowed by the beast was almost too much to handle. Nikk and Max had both survived it, but that fact did nothing to calm my mind.

She hit two percent and spat out another storm of mist. Even though we’d survived it twice already, there was no getting used to the pain. It hurt just as much, if not more, each time. Manalolz showed more efficiency as time went on. The fight against Mother Queen was most challenging for the healer. Manalolz had done an excellent job so far, but I refused to commend him aloud because of his shabby personality.

Our wounds were healed. We attacked again. It didn’t take long before a shadow hovered over me. I didn’t dare look up. I knew what it was. A stream of spit splashed beside me as the shadow widened. I took a deep breath, and everything went dark.

I crashed through the earth, rocks and dirt thrashed about me. I couldn’t see a thing. A deep gurgling sound shook my bones and nearly caused me to retch. The dirt disappeared, making way for some light.

I stood on a spongy pink ledge in an endless pink tower. The walls were glistening and slippery, tinged here and there with green. The air was thick and moist and smelled like a steaming hot plate of death.

Beneath me was a black abyss, bottomless. Above was more of the same, but with an end in sight in the form of a small light that barely reached me where I stood. Was I supposed to climb? I tried. I dug my fingers into the pink wall but couldn’t find purchase. I pushed my fingers in again, desperate to find a way out of my stinking prison. Green sludge seeped from the wall and burned the tips of my fingers. I ripped them from the crack I’d made in the wall and wiped the sludge onto my pants to stop the burning.

I leaned against the wall and sighed. If there was no way to climb out, how was I supposed to escape? Nikk and Max had both been launched out of the tail-end like the spurts of poison. Perhaps I simply had to wait until the boss spat me out, too. Wolfgang’s voice sounded in my mind. “Hit the green sacs when they pop up.” It was the advice he’d given to Nikk just before the toadkin had been ingested. Green sacs. I looked around in every direction but couldn’t find anything but pink walls and tiny bits of green here and there, none of it in sac form.

Warm air rose from the depths below—hot air. It was difficult to breathe as the choking steam rushed upward. Something large and green shot up past me. Then another. It must’ve been the ooze bombs.

I leaned over and looked down to see if I could find any green sacs. I found something green, but it wasn’t a sac. An ooze bomb slammed into my face, nearly knocking me off my slippery ledge. The sludge burned the skin on my face, causing my health to drop slowly.

More ooze bombs flew upward. Many of which glanced off my arms, causing more burns. I made myself as small as I could to avoid the bombs. Nikk and Max both took much less space than I did, especially laterally.

Something bulged against my back. I moved forward as much as the ledge would allow and turned to find a green sac. I drew my wrench and hammered it as fast as I could. The sac exploded and splashed a stinking liquid all over me. Luckily, it didn’t seem poisonous like the rest of the sludge, as my HP was unaffected.

The walls contracted. I was squeezed hard enough to be crushed, but the walls' slippery nature pushed me upward instead. My movements were limited under the immense pressure of Mother Queen’s muscles, but I fought to keep my gaze upward.

The walls started drying up. My upward momentum slowed. If the walls dried, I’d be dead in mere seconds beneath her pressure. A green sac appeared above me. My arm was stuck against the dry wall stopping me from bringing my wrench up. I struggled and thrashed, but it only made the walls close in tighter.

I bent my wrist to reach into my pocket, pulled out a handful of beads, and released them just outside my pocket. I gripped my wrench and pulled upward. I tried bringing my arm up again. My skin pushed the beads into the fleshy wall and rolled them upward. With my arm free, I hacked at the sac. There wasn’t enough room to gather much strength in my swing, and so my hit glanced off the sac, causing nothing but a wobble.

The air was limited, and it was getting hard to breathe. I pulled my arm back as much as I could and hammered the sac with everything I had under the oppressive weight of the boss’ muscles. The sac burst and poured thick, pungent goo all over me. I closed my eyes and spat some out of my mouth. It tasted sour and rotten.

Regardless of the taste, the slime helped to lubricate the walls, and I was on my way up again. It stung to open my eyes, but I had to risk it. I needed to see the light. It was close. I could make out clouds and sky outside the tail hole. I made my way up slowly at first, but the closer I got to the top, the faster I went.

I could feel immense pressure building up beneath me. Sounds of the outside world met my ears for the first time since I’d been ingested. Bombs landed on the ground, Hendrix played his song, and what sounded like the muffled voice of Manalolz complained. I guessed a little less than a minute until I was out.

My guess was wrong. Less than a heartbeat later, the pressure beneath me reached its tipping point and blew me out of the tail. I soared through the air, getting a nice aerial view of the party as Manalolz scrambled to heal those who were unsuccessful in dodging bombs.

I was on my way down, followed by a heavy stream of blood from the tail. I crashed to the ground. The air left my chest, and blood splashed down onto me, drenching me. Manalolz was at my side, promptly powdering me with a healing potion.

“We did it!” Wolfgang cheered in his human form.

I got to my feet, my health back to full. Mother Queen’s tail blew into a hundred ribbons of loose flesh. It wriggled around for a bit until finally falling limp against the ground. A crate slid out toward us.

Hendrix put his lute on his back and hopped toward the crate. “Come on. We deserve something good after this one.”

Nikk was already at work, reviving Scallion. Max fed Buttons with something that raised her HP.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Hendrix cried after opening the crate.

The rest of the party stared at him, waiting for an explanation.

He reached into the crate and pulled out a pink wizard hat.

Manalolz cheered and ran forth to retrieve his loot.

“Why do you keep getting drops?” Hendrix sneered at the healer before handing over the hat.

“God knows I’m the only one here who isn’t a noob, I guess.” He donned the hat and smiled, stroking his moustache.