He followed behind the king and together they broke through the bark armor of the left front leg. Sam got the sense that the creature was up to something, so he moved from under its leg and beckoned the king to quickly follow.
Just in time!
The creature plunged its gigantic reptilian body down where they had stood previously. Sam moved back around to the first leg he was working on–on the right—as the creature rose up, back to its feet. He quickly broke through the bark and began thrusting away. It was a risk to leave the king alone with the unrestricted left leg, but Sam had come up with a new strategy on the fly that he felt would make the fight much easier.
He quickly put his shield on his back and wielded his Rapier with two hands. He attacked with only his most powerful charged heavy thrusts. He was in a hurry to destroy this leg faster than Herke could destroy his.
“I need more power!”
He selected his Ignition Powder from his Quick Select slot and imbued his sword with the power of fire. The Rapier lit up brilliantly with flames and Sam continued stabbing the creature mercilessly. The leg fell to pieces when Sam finished it with his Skyward Thrust and he hurriedly moved out of the way, with a huge grin on his face as the beast toppled over on its right side. His improvised strategy had paid off.
“Yes! Now to rip you to shreds!”
Sam quickly ran up to its belly and started stabbing at the soft flesh underneath. Each stab drew forth blood that was both deep purple and cold despite his fiery attacks. The blood hissed and dissipated as soon as it touched Sam’s flaming sword.
King Herke came forward and attacked the beast with a massively powerful Sword Uppercut. Sam followed suit with his own Skyward Thrust, doing even more damage than the king thanks to the additional fire damage from his still active Ignition Powder and the two handing of his weapon. The beast howled as they continued attacking and took down about a third of its total health in one barrage.
Sam stopped attacking the creature once he felt it move only a little. His instincts told him to move the hell out of the way.
“Move out of the way!” he yelled, warning King Herke.
The massive creature rolled over on its side, the same side Sam and King Herke were attacking it from, and tried to rise up with the two legs that it still had on its left side. It, of course, struggled and failed to do so.
Its bulbous iguana looking head was low to the ground and Sam thought to quickly capitalize and attack it. He wasn’t able to get to it before the creature started thrashing around again, slamming its head, body, and legs everywhere it could. The king was once again clipped by one of the attacks and sent flying. Sam stayed safely out of range as he watched the creature’s thrashing.
He could now see the its full body and he found it more horrendous than before. It was mainly the addition of its tail. Its tail was its strangest and most disturbing feature by far. It was long and coiled like a rattlesnake’s tail, but at the end there looked to be the head of another creature. It mostly looked like a fly trap, but had huge red froglike eyes that were disturbingly focused on Sam and Sam alone. Sam had an idea now, how the beast could attack through his defenses so easily last time.
Finally the beast stopped its thrashing, but afterwards it did something peculiar. It leaned on its left side on its remaining two legs and seemed to be applying more and more pressure on them. Then it used the rest of its weight and rolled over onto the legs, breaking them apart in the process.
The sound of cracking wood reverberated around Sam like a tree being felled in a forest. Blood and wood pieces littered the ground beneath the beast along with the two massive legs it shed. The creature fell onto its side, then rolled to its back then belly. Once there, it seemed to be back in control of itself and focused its malice onto Sam.
Now Sam had two pairs of bulbous eyes looking right at him. If he could, he would’ve probably vacated his bowels right there.
“Alright, round two then. Let’s go freak!”
Sam held his shield up in front of him and braved his way forward towards the creature. Now it looked like what it actually was, an extremely fat snake. If this was really the will of the forest, then the forest must’ve had an insatiable hunger.
The serpentine beast slithered forward and charged at him. It clipped Sam’s shield and he quickly lost half of his stamina. He quickly rolled away before being clipped again and taking damage. Thankfully, he saw King Herke running up to give him some assistance.
Quickly, while he had the chance, he ingested another Stim Plant since the effects of the first one had worn off. He was tempted to reapply some Ignition Powder to his weapon as well, but he felt it would just be a waste if he used it now.
Once it reached the edge of the cliff, the Will of the Forest made an impossibly quick U-turn. Sam was hit by its unexpected charge and knocked back. He quickly took a swig of his Soul Fire once he got up, healing all the damage that the monster had inflicted with just that one attack.
It stopped its charge right near him and lashed out at him with its tongue. Sam blocked and saw his stamina diminish greatly as it lashed out again and again. Golden Herke approached it from the side and did some damage with a huge horizontal slash followed by a charged downward slamming attack.
Sam rolled to the side to avoid another tongue lashing then closed in on the other side of the creature’s body. He managed a single thrust before the creature swung its body around and knocked both he and Herke down. He lost a third of his health and reactively blocked once he got up.
Herke continued his attack, doing light but stable damage and Sam followed suit after healing. The front head of the creature attacked Herke with a headbutt, which he managed to block with his greatsword. Unfortunately he still took some sizeable damage and was greatly pushed back since swords weren’t the best thing to block with, even greatswords.
It then chased Herke down leaving Sam stuck facing the backside of the creature and that was not a pretty place to be. He remembered that the creature attached to the tail had an attack that could hurt him regardless if his shield was up or not. He opted to just avoid its attacks.
It wasted no time in attacking with its large fangs, launching its whole head at Sam from a coiled position. The coiling strikes gave it a speed that Sam was genuinely shocked he could dodge. Once Sam seemed to dodge all it threw at him, it spit some sort of purple cloud at him. He remembered how he had died last time and tried to avoid it. He avoided the powerful spit, but when it hit the ground the mist quickly spread and he found himself caught in it. Before he knew it, he was poisoned.
“Shit!”
He felt the nausea come on almost instantly and that hissing sound in his ear annoyed the hell out of him.
“Fuck you, hippie dragon! I was ready for this!” he yelled at the beast.
He continued moving to the creature’s side and once there, ate an Absorption Herb. It instantly healed his poison, relieving him of his nausea and creeping headache. He wasted no time in applying more Ignition Powder to his weapon and going for a two handed Skyward Thrust. He followed up with a pair of heavy strikes and saw that the creature was now at below half its health thanks to all the damage he and Herke had collectively done.
The creature slithered around again and Sam made sure to move out of the way should it swing its body again. The front head once again focused on him, but he ran at it and dodged to its side again once it charged at him. He flanked its side, peppering it with an assortment of light and heavy blows and ending his barrage, somewhat recklessly, with a Skyward Thrust.
The dazzling combo left him completely out of stamina and SP, so he had to pause to catch his breath. The reckless act bit him in the butt, almost literally, as the rear head of the beast struck out with a vicious poisonous fanged attack. Sam had unfortunately lost over half his health and was inflicted with poison again.
“Shitshitshitshitshitshit, SHIIIIIIIIIT!”
He got up and ran as far to the front of the beast as he could, watching
both of its heads carefully and seeing that Herke was also below half health. Unluckily for Herke, he had the front head of the beast’s full attention, but that was certainly a lucky break for Sam. He healed up with his Soul Fire and took another Absorption Herb along with a Stim Plant.
“Here we go! Final stretch. Don’t fuck up, Nagai!”
He again hit the creature’s side with a vicious combo and even though it started slithering forward before he was finished, he still managed to hit it with a charged attack. He ran forward after the front head, so as not to be left with the jerkbag that was the rear head. The beast changed its tactic to instead circle its entire body around Sam. He was now faced with both heads, the fanged lizard plant and the snake iguana.
“Oh crap ... what to do ... what to do ...” he whispered to himself.
The asshole head struck out with a fanged attack but Sam dodged it. He was hit with a headbutt from the front head though. From the ground, Sam noticed that the creature’s health was still diminishing. Herke was putting in work on the other side of it. Sam only wished they could somehow switch positions.
Sam wasn’t sure if he would be able to survive long enough for the king to finish the job. Two heads were indeed better than one, but horrible for Sam’s chances at winning. When he got up, he didn’t even have time to heal.
The heads attempted to bash him again. This time, he had the presence of mind to roll forward, towards where the two heads had conjoined. Now under both heads, he waited for them to attack before rolling away.
He found them easier to dodge at this close range, since their attacks were now back-to-back almost like a single continuous strike. It gave him time to take an action, but it was a decision that left him at a crossroads. Should he take the safe approach and heal to maximum health in case the creature pulled another sneaky tactic or should he just focus on attacking and finishing the fight as soon as possible? He only had a second to decide it. His instincts made the decision for him.
As the two heads of the beast rose, Sam struck out at them doing as decent amount of damage with a single light and heavy attack.
You can do this Nagai. Finish it. Don’t draw it out. Let’s go!
The beast reeled its heads back and struck out at him again. Sam rolled away and dodged the attack expertly.
“Yes! Come on!”
He was able to land another light and heavy thrust on the heads as they rose. He was almost victorious. He could feel it. He whispered to himself now, making his thoughts a reality.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go ...”
The creature reeled back again and Sam could feel his heart pumping like mad. His virtual blood felt hot and he was anxious. In the second of time before the beast attacked, he felt everything at once. There was an intense thrill at the forefront, but somewhere in the back of all that was fear.
What if he lost again? Could he honestly beat this thing? What if he wasn’t able to summon Golden Herke the next time? What if he had just gotten lucky this time around? These were all the thoughts that passed by in a single instant, but Sam hushed them all and focused only on his next move, his survival.
The Will of the Forest attacked like a cornered coiled snake. Both heads lashed out at Sam with intense malice. Sam saw the predators approach and did his best to time their strikes with his own movement.
He dodged the first head and the second head all at once then took his sword in both hands to deliver a light thrust on the plantlike head and finally a heavy thrust into the iguana like head. The Will of the Forest threw its head back and screeched. The sound was ear-piercing and haunting, but after a while it finally stopped as both heads of the beast fell forward and slammed onto the ground violently.
Great Beast Slain
Soon after, Sam was surrounded by only the sounds of the forest and a gentle wind as the massive body of The Will of the Forest faded into a white mist and travelled towards his body. There was nothing he could do to avoid it and the mist was quickly absorbed into him, granting him ten thousand souls and an item called Soul of the Willful Guardian.
Sam looked over at Golden Herke, who gave him the thumbs up before fading away himself. Sam gave a bow to his amazing ally and vowed to search even harder for Rondo, the man who killed the king’s family. Sam paused to read the description of the Soul of the Willful Guardian after taking a swig of Soul Fire. While reading he heard some kind of snapping sound, like someone had broken some cheap metal.
Soul of the Willful Guardian
Use Great Souls to create unique weapons or to gain more souls.
A powerful soul belonging to the once gentle Will of the Forest. The Will of the Forest is a spirit inhabiting the Forest of Woe. Long ago, when the Forest was known as the Forest of Spirits, the Willful Guardian would possess the mightiest animals to attack those with ill intent who entered the domain of the spirits. Over time, like the rest of the cursed land of Heimfall, the spirits of the forest including the Willful Guardian seem to have been corrupted as they now attack anyone on sight. Some would say that those spirits have not changed in the least.
“Interesting stuff. I have to admit that I did like that redesign ... when it’s not glitchy that is.”
Sam smiled and basked in this new feeling of overwhelming victory. He had actually defeated his first boss and it felt damn good. He looked at his status screen to see how long it had taken him to do it.
He looked at his in-game time and wondered if it was actually right. He had already spent more than twelve hours inside the game. How did time go by so fast? The thought that he could lose such a huge slip on reality scared Sam a little. Because he hadn’t felt any lasting fatigue in the virtual world, Sam had had no interest in keeping track of the time, but now it was all he could think about, until he saw that two of his rings were broken.
“Holy crap! Was that what that sound was earlier?”
He quickly went to his inventory and looked to see what was wrong with them. Even their descriptions had changed
Broken Beginner’s Ring
Useless trinket.
Some gifts last forever, others shatter under the slightest bit of duress like a feeble friendship after a broken promise. These two rings were set to last until the Will was broken and not a moment longer. Now you must truly rely on yourself.
Both rings said the same thing and Sam was a little peeved that he had lost them. The twenty point bonus each had given to his physical and magical defenses was now gone. He quickly unequipped the useless things and they vanished from his inventory.
“At least you waited until I beat the boss, but I guess that’s the point,” he said to no one in particular.
He couldn’t be mad at that, since the rings were gifts from the developers in the first place. Without them, he would have taken far more damage. Going forward, he would have to greatly improve his dodging abilities.
He was still a little shaky as his adrenaline levels were slowly calming. He walked over and collected his Death Mark from the middle of the battlefield and got back the nearly five thousand souls and eight quintessence that he had lost before.
He looked to the north and saw that the Soul Barrier on the other side hadn’t faded away like the one he’d come in. Furthermore, it was an unfriendly shade of red. Sam crossed the open field and stood in front of the huge gateway. Up close, the red barrier swirled and shimmered just like its white twin had on the other side. Only this red barrier produced white text in Sam’s HUD whenever he got too close to it.
ALPHA BUILD RESTRICTION: Time Locked Area
Being purposely locked out of something was no fun. It was especially bothersome because it put a sudden damper on his jubilant mood. But he had to consider something.
“That means I beat this damn thing way before I was supposed to. Haha! I’m pretty damn awesome!”
23 Guilt
Alex stumbled over her own two feet, nearly falling down completely as a string of thoughts ran though her head.
I ha
te these hallways! I hate this place! I have to get out of here!
She felt as if she was running forever in her search for the bathroom. The armed guards turned their heads to track her movements. She couldn’t see their faces because they wore military helmets with visors. Their shirts and armored vests were green and white and their pants black, like the other guards in the office.
They looked like cold military robots in their gear and it made her sickness even worse thinking how quickly they had come and ‘secured’ the place. The men were posted at various points throughout the hall. She ran past a few of them to get to the bathroom.
Once in the stall, she wasted no time in heaving herself over and throwing up into the bowl. Tears streamed from her eyes, but she wasn’t sure if it was caused by the violent sickness that upturned her stomach or from the heaviness now weighing on her heart. Her words barely came out a whisper through shuddering gasps.
“There’s no way! There’s just no way! This can’t be real! He can’t be serious!”
She let her tears fall into the bowl and heaved up more bile from her stomach. The muscles in her stomach and throat burned from the rapid and extreme constrictions. Her face was hot and sore from the constant scrunching she forced upon it every time she broke down. Her words were nothing, but foolish hope and she needed to stop clinging to them and get back to reality. She had a responsibility to help the others. She tried her best to be strong for them, to not let them feel the despair that she herself had now felt.
“I just can’t, I just can’t ...”
Her shaking had persisted every time she thought about what happened to Randy. She tried to force the shaking to stop by grabbing her arm, but it did nothing. She could no more do that than she could stop thinking about Randy’s bloody body. It hadn’t helped that she hadn’t slept in over fifteen hours.
The test was now well into the next morning and she would need to sleep soon, but how could she after everything that had happened in the last few hours. She was losing her strength by the minute, so there was no way that she could continue her cheerful act for much longer. She remained hunched over the toilet for a few more minutes until an abrupt knock came at the door followed by a digitized voice.