The next strikes from the vines arrived moments later. I was once again forced to block the blows with my arms, but the extreme pain and breaking of my bones I expected did not occur. Rather I only felt a slight popping in my bones, but it was quickly healed by the combined effects of the earing and fireballs. It was then that I remembered the secondary effect of the earring. It also gave me 20% damage reduction. It was a high tier effect.
I did not have time to marvel at the effects of the earring as more vines began to emerge from the ground. The two vines that had originally been assaulting me were joined by four more. They did not strike at the same time, rather they assaulted me in a rhythmic pattern, giving me no time to recover as they continually beat me.
Behind me I could feel Bailey's attack get stronger. If only I could give her my Overload ability this attack would be able to slay the beast in a single strike. I could tell from the force of the blows assaulting me that a single elemental bullet would not be enough to slay the creature, and as of yet it had not used any abilities other than its vines, and that weird hallucinogenic ability it had used at the beginning.
The fight had only just begun, and the damage we had caused it was minuscule. The only attacks that had any lasting effect were those of Lucifer and by the way it was reacting more than likely Bailey's attack. This was going to be a long fight, and I had been reduced to a meat shield for Bailey. My mana was also decreasing at a rapid rate. I was forced to turn of [Arcane Body] as the expenditure was far too high.
Because of this the amount of pain I received from the attacks skyrocketed. My intelligence was no longer giving a boost to my constitution, so my defense had taken a massive hit. Each attack caused a grunt of pain from me, and I did not know how much longer until those grunts would become screams.
Tears ran down my face from the pain I was receiving, but thankfully at that time I felt the energy behind me reach its apex. A large of highly condensed mana shot past me. I could feel cold energy from the shot as it flew past. It was enough to tell me that the shot was of the ice element.
The mushroom rotated, taking the shot to the blue section of its cap. The energy of the shot was dissipated, but the florescent light of the streak was reduced considerably. The change was only temporary, as the other lights around it faded slightly and refilled the blue light to a level that matched them.
All the lights began to glow, before they all suddenly dimmed, leaving only the purple light. Behind me I could hear agonizing screams, and I knew it could only be Hunter. The screams became extremely loud, and the sound of metal hitting the floor could be heard. I turned my head to see Hunter sauntering towards us. His eyes glowed with an intense purple light, and his missing arm had been replaced with one made of earth. His muscles were much more defined than they had been before, with a noticeable difference in size.
He had a sadistic look on his face, as he rotated his neck around. A voice was not his boomed from his mouth. The voice was feral, each syllable resonating with a primal power.
"Five little lambs ready for slaughter. Which one should I kill first?"
A sense of dread filled my being as I looked at his approaching figure. A halo of purple energy surrounded him, crackling as if it were lightning. Little did I know how correct I was. His body vanished in a blur, before appearing once again before me. The lighting around him crackled as his massive stone fist flew towards my face. I moved my arms to block, but the power of the blow far exceeded what I could handle. I could feel my bones being crushed by the blow, as I was sent flying backwards.
That moment of flight seemed to happen in slow motion in my eyes, and I could only watch in horror as Hunter disappeared once again appearing above me as he struck me from above. I fell to the floor like a meteor, blood spirting from my mouth as I bounced off the floor. I could not breath as all the air had been knocked out of my lungs.
I could only lay there trying to gasp for air as Hunter landed before me. He stood above me looking down, as he cracked his knuckles. The sadistic look never left his face. If I did not act soon, I would end up dying. The mushroom had strengthened him to a point that I could not compare to.
I only hesitated for a moment before I activated [Overload] and [Arcane Body]. I did not focus it on a single body part like I had before, this time I used it to strengthen my entire body. Under the effects of overload, the 5% increase to all my stats received a massive boost of 50%. The cost was not cheap, normally [Arcane Body] cost 1% of my mana per second, but with the effect of [Overload] the cost was 20 times what it had been. I was able to have a massive boost to my overall ability, but with the mana I had already used I would only have 4 seconds to do it.
I could feel Bailey charging another shot. She had begun almost immediately after the last shot had been fired. The Fungus was focusing all of his attention on me and had little time to spare on the real threat to its life. Only two of the vines were attacking her, but Leisha had moved to intercept them. Her body was strong, but cuts appeared rapidly on her body, only to be slowly healed by Sierra's fireballs.
My body began to heal from its wounds as I jumped up, my head passing through his legs in a blur. I moved my arms instinctively to block the blow he had thrown at me. Fractions of a second later I countered with a kick to his chest. It was like kicking a steel board, but the blow still managed to cause him to step backwards half a step.
One.
He recovered instantly, the sadistic look on his face showing momentary shock, before being replaced by a maniacal grin. His body disappeared, I could hear a faint crackling behind me and quickly dodged the blow that would have hit me in the back of the head. As I turned to face him, I was forced backwards as I repeatedly dodged his blows.
Two.
My time was rapidly running out, and I could not be forced into just passively defending. Thankfully, I was not fighting alone. Arrows rained down on Hunter, forcing him to block the projectiles with his earthen arm. This gave me a chance to act. As Hunter was distracted, I pointed my pistols at him, Firing rapidly. My skills with my pistols had reached an outstanding level, and the amount of times I could fire was almost endless. The only limitation was my stats. Firing a pistol required intelligence, agility, and dexterity. Intelligence influenced the attack power, agility the speed at which I could fire, and dexterity my accuracy. At this range it was almost impossible for me to miss.
In less than a second, I managed to shoot 7 times from each pistol. A total of 14 shots flew towards Hunter, more than enough to disable him. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Hunter disappeared reappearing a few feet from me. He lifted his finger and wagged at me. The image was a taunting one, one that my mother had used a lot when I had made mistakes. One that told me I was being a bad boy.
Three.
I only had a second left to act, but that was more than enough. I could feel that Bailey's shot was almost ready to fire, and if I could delay him for a second more that the shot would be successful. I was not the only one to notice this. Hunter turned his head, staring at Bailey for the briefest of moments before he once again disappeared, reappearing right before her.
I no longer had the luxury of sparing my body. I shifted my arcane body to my legs. I could feel a massive boost to their power as I shot myself forward like a bullet. Hunter did not have time to react as my foot shot into his face. I could feel his jaw being dislocated as he stumbled a few feet away.
Four.
All the energy left by body, and I could feel the muscles in my legs had once again become a mess as I fell uselessly against the ground. Still, I could not help but laugh as I felt the healing energy of the earring repairing my legs at a rapid rate. A fireball from Sierra only served to increase the healing. I still could not move, but behind me I could feel the energy of the elemental bullet explode as a high-speed projectile sped through the air.