Sword Art Online - Alternative Reality

Unexpected Debuff CHP.3

"Comming from the left!"

"On it!"

Dynamm and Naut synchronized their shield thrust as they stopped the halberd-like weapon from the 'Mycelium Royal Guard'. Put into a staggered state, Klein lead 3 of his members straight into its center as they tore into it. With the first of its two HP bars nearly depleted, it began retreating backward while it roared, drawing its supporting mobs towards it as it opened its gaping maw with strange tree-like twigs for teeth.

"Don't let it heal up!"

Yuna had her lute out and began chanting again to reapply some of our buffs, but most of us were still stuck fighting the leftover mobs and Klein's group had been intercepted.

"I got it!"

Makhol appeared from the ledge behind us and tossed one of our precious and dwindling anti-fungal/plant bombs at the boss before it could begin consuming the other caps to restore its HP. With a piercing cry, its HP bar was cleared out, but before we could push our advantage, it fell back into the wall, seemingly absorbed by it before it vanished completely.

"Dammit, again!"

I wasn't sure who had yelled that, but I couldn't have agreed more. Still, I had to stamp down the frustration building up as I pushed back the two caps that were trying to force their way towards Makhol and smashed the head(?) of the right one while SIlica finished off the left one. After a few more minutes of exchanging blows, we eventually cleared out the cave, but the boss had disappeared again.

"Argh! What kind of shitty design is that man?!"

That curse came from the spear user Kunimittz as he plopped down, downing an HP pot. I sat down on a fallen log that was covered in strange moss hoping it wouldn't have any adverse effects while Klein came down with Kirito and Makhol in tow. With all of us in a circular formation, we slowly recovered our HP and took stock of our consumables.

"Well, we're still good on pots and our stocks should hold out until the exit. As for the bombs..."

"After using mine, we're down to just three. While I would say it's worthwhile since it wiped out one of its HP bars, we still have no idea if the damage is permanent. Fortunately, we should only have one more area to clear before we are free of this cursed place."

Saying that as she poked at a strange plant that was a mix between artichoke and dandelion, Makhol began sifting through her inventory as she pulled out one of our few remaining bombs and placed it in her pouch. I glanced around and saw the tired expressions of everyone and could only sigh before I looked up to stare at the dangling glowing blue veins on the ceiling.

As expected, we ran into the Mycelium Royal Guards, 3 of them to boot. While individually they would be easy to handle, they always brought along anywhere between one or two dozen support mobs. They were even weaker than the new patrols, but their purpose wasn't to be dangerous fighters, but actual meatshields.

When the Guards began dropping in HP, they would eat the other mobs to restore health, and if that wasn't bad enough they used a variety of breath attacks that were a pain to deal with. Even worse was that they blended back into the walls and disappeared when one of their HP bars was cleared. If their HP stayed down then it wouldn't be an issue, but normally mobs would recover all their HP if aggro dropped for too long. The only good thing about all of this was that we had made excellent time, and were nearly at the exit at just the 40-minute mark.

"Ah...I could go the rest of my life without seeing another mushroom and it still would be too soon."

"Why not make a song out of this entire trip about your hatred against mushroom Yuna?"