We walked cautiously into the courtyard, spreading out as we moved toward the church. Every step we took sent lightning streaks across the mycelium tendrils covering the stone courtyard. The tendrils were everywhere here. Before, they were as thin as a hair. Here, they were as thick as a cord.

  The field of mushrooms surrounding the church at the end of the courtyard trembled and swayed, and the earth began to shake. I maintained my balance as the ground continued to rumble.

  The church began rocking back and forth, sometimes violently, causing parts of the steeple to crumble and crash to the ground below. The ground around the church ruptured, and rays of purple light splintered from every opening on the broken ground.

  A guttural moan, low enough to feel in my stomach, emanated from the purple light-encircled church. The ground parted as something impossibly large rose from the courtyard. The church and the earth underneath it rested atop a rising behemoth mushroom monster. Unlike the humanoid monsters we had faced earlier, this monster was entirely inhuman. It was shaped like the same purple mushrooms that surrounded it, but its cap was thick and large enough to hold up a church.

  It was as tall as a building, and I could see the lamellae clinging to the underside of its cap like fungal ribs. There were no eyes that I could see, but I was terribly worried about its mouth. The top of the mouth was fixed, connected to the undercap, and lined with dagger-like teeth. The bottom jaw was hinged and connected to the main stalk. The bottom part of the mouth was also lined with deadly teeth.

  Protruding from the massive mushroom stalk were two fungal arms, the same perfect-white color as the stalk. The net of tendrils connected directly to the monster. In fact, it appeared to be the source of the mycelium strands. When the monster fully emerged from its hole, it bellowed a horrifying howl that rattled my insides.

  “How are we supposed to defeat that?” Tabby asked. “Ersabet, can you light it on fire?”

  Without responding, Ersabet darted forward and got a Fireblast off on the monster. She dove back just in time to miss a swipe from its heavy clubbed arm.

  The mushroom king caught fire and flailed around, howling in pain. Then, it sank back into the hole it had emerged from, returning the church to its proper resting spot on solid ground.

  There was an explosion of dirt and mud as the monster rose back from the ground, pissed off, and the fire was effectively smothered. The monstrous toasted mushroom beast returned to its former position. It didn’t have any eyes that I could see, but it sure felt like it was looking at me.

  How could we kill this?

  As if she could read my thoughts, Ersabet echoed them. “How do we kill such a thing?”

  “This is a game, right?” Tabby said quickly. “There should be a way to kill it other than brute force.”

  I looked at the monster and the thousands of tendrils coming from it, and I knew Delen was right. “We cut the tendrils. Disconnect it from its life source, or the hive, or whatever. Just start cutting!”

  The monster launched a three-foot-wide chunk of the earth at me, and I rolled to the side. When I was up, I activated Speed Check and held my blade downward, the tip of it pressed hard against the ground, and then I ran as fast as I could, severing hundreds of tendrils with each passing second. I would have encircled him within ten seconds, but a wave of tendrils crashed into me, tangling themselves around me as I was tossed off my feet.

  The mega-shroom had used its giant arms to gather and redirect the tendrils to take me out, and it worked like a charm. Entangled in the laces, I slashed carefully, occasionally getting a solid cut through one of the many tendrils that had engulfed me. I would get out, but it would take a minute. My face was mostly still free, so I watched the battle unfold as I slowly and awkwardly hacked my way out of the mycelium net.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Tabby was trying to distract the monster with her sling, and it looked like its attention was about to turn her way. Kitz and Delen were back where I had started my slicing spree, working in the opposite direction and maybe slightly less efficiently.

  Ersabet was nowhere to be seen, which meant she was behind the giant, hungry-for-flesh mushroom. I hoped she was doing some real damage. I could have had it fully disconnected by now if I hadn’t run face-first into its trap. Now, someone might get hurt.

  I was making progress freeing myself, but I had to be careful because I didn’t want to cut my arm off with my sword. The blade parted the tendrils like they were paper, but it would part my skin just the same. Gently, I managed to cut through enough of them to free myself and eagerly resume my tendril butchery.

  “Duck,” Delen yelled.

  I turned to look at him to see who he was speaking to, and realized it was me. I fell flat, but it wasn’t fast enough. The monster had ripped out a chunk of the courtyard and had flung it my way. I managed to duck underneath the bulk of it, but a chunk of sandstone caught me in the ass and spun me around, landing me flat on my back.

  I found my feet and, while my butt ached like crazy, I knew my injury wasn’t severe. I could assess my ass later.

  The monster’s back was to me now, its attention switched to Ersabet, who was sprinting across the courtyard, and making quick work of the tendrils.

  The mushroom monster roared a terrifying, desperate roar. We were hurting it. This was working.

  The monster stuck both of its trunk-like arms into the earth and roared again. The purple-rimmed cap glowed a violent violet. It raised itself upright, withdrawing its arms from the ground before stretching them outward. Slowly, something grew from its stumpy hands. The process sped up drastically after a few seconds, as each arm thinned and grew into longer and longer tentacles.

  With a roar, it swiped one at Ersabet, but she jumped over it easily, slicing away another mycelium strand as she landed.

  I returned to my own efforts. With the monster focused on Ersabet, I continued to cut through the mycelium net, hoping beyond hope that this plan would work.

  I heard a sharp cry and saw Tabby take a hit to the gut from the monster’s tentacle-like arm. It hit her hard in the belly, bending her over and launching her ten feet away. I rushed to her but had to duck as that same tentacle passed over me. Once it passed, I bolted to Tabby. I found her on the ground, gasping for breath. She didn’t appear to have any serious injuries, but it would take her a minute or two to regain her breath. I brushed back her hair and assured her she was fine. I tried to help her relax as the battle continued to play out.

  Ersabet launched her whirlwind spell, the cyclone sucking up mushrooms as it grew in strength. It collided with the mushroom monster and stayed there. The wind wasn’t damaging it, but it served as a great distraction. The monster swung its tentacle arms wildly, trying to dissipate the tornado. I would have laughed at the display if the tentacles were whipping around violently. I dragged Tabby away from their range, and I pulled out a throwing dagger. It was a long throw, but the monster was so big that it was hard to miss. My dagger was caught up in the whirlwind before it could impact the big bad mushroom.

  I smiled, remembering using this trick against a Kurskin while I was in Danver. I threw four more blades into the whirlwind, and they spun around dangerously, occasionally slicing the monster’s mycelium flesh.

  “John, help me up,” Tabby said, finally finding her breath again.

  I gently pulled her to her feet. “You okay? You took a pretty hard hit.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “But I think I lost my weapon.”

  “We’ll find it after we beat this guy.” I pulled out two of my daggers. “Use these. We’re almost done.”

  I took in the scene around me and realized that my words were true. Delen and Kitz had finished a quarter of the circle, and Ersabet was nearly done with her side.

  Tabby and I went to work, and each slice of the mycelium strands weakened the monster at the center of the net. It was beginning to struggle to hold up the weight of the church above it. I checked and noticed that Speed Check was off cooldown, so I activated it and sprinted through the remaining strands like a reaper.

  The monster roared, but it was more of a pained moan than the thunderous bellow it had produced before. Its arms returned to their normal trunk-like state, and it fell forward, catching itself on them, but only for a moment, because the left arm crumbled under the weight, and in an instant, the rest of the monster’s strength gave out, and the church came crashing down hard atop it. The tall steeple snapped from the force, and the top half tumbled downward and crashed to the ground only a few yards from where Kitz and Delen were standing. Seeing it tumbling down, they had smartly dodged away, unscathed.

  A notification popped.

  Mini-Boss Defeated

  Fungal Monstrosity

  You defeated this boss with your brain, not your brawn. What a smart boy you are! You’ve received a strategist’s chest. Congratulations!

  I had another notification. That nasty shroom monster had been worth a ton of XP, and I had a Level Up waiting for me. I’d get to it and the strategist’s chest in a moment. First, I needed to check on my friends and tend to my own wounds.