Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Skeletons overgrown by hyphens and sprinkled with mushroom caps released themselves from their moldy surroundings the moment they got close. It was impossible to see them, among the growths before they moved on their own.

It was a horrifying, but mostly sad sight. Seeing the rotting skeletons used as frames, lifelessly moved by some parasitic fungi gave them a sense of desolation and despair. It had an even more tragic connotation than many kinds of undead.

Another intrusive thought came over them. The spores in the air. Hat if this was, what happens to anyone that was too weak to resist the infection? Maybe it would still happen to them later on? How horrible would be the feeling of having something like not just grow inside and kill you, but knowing that one\'s skeleton would become a lifeless puppet for your killer to manipulate?

"Lyxiss, kill it with fire!" Fin exclaimed, but the half-elf was already far ahead of her.

Fin\'s call was swallowed by a roaring elemental fire snake that shot at the skeletons. The flame became even bigger, burning up the spores in the air. One of them was hit, and swallowed by the merciless flame, only leaving black bones behind.

The other skeletons, however, managed to evade. As the snake with a basic consciousness pursued them, the enemies proved their terrifying agility, making them just more disturbing. Their awkward movements, in the beginning, were just a ruse!

These bones covered in black hyphens and mushrooms agilely jumped and hid between the mushroom pillars, so fast that they had a hard time keeping track of their silhouettes in the twilight of the dungeon. Any night vision did not help too much, in the dim, complicated environment.

It was not just that they did not adhere to movements that were in the range of human possibilities, but they immediately melded into the background when they sat on the coral-like mushroom reeves. Their brains had a hard time discerning their location and even using observation skills did not work when they entered a kind of masked state.

"Even if you hide, it won\'t help you!" Lyxiss exclaimed and the flamed snake crashed into one of the reeves where a skeleton hid. However, nothing happened, except the mushrooms becoming slightly scorched. The elementalist was left stunned.

"We shouldn\'t underestimate this place. I doubt it\'s called the Abyss for no reason. Get serious and stay vigilant," Mike gave his instructions and they took a tighter formation to defend against the quick bonies darting around them.

Mike and Fin stayed with Bulko and Lyxiss, while Mina vanished into the shadows. Mike saw movement from the corner of his eye and fended off the bony claw with his sword, but the Mushroom Fiddler had already hidden again before he could do a countermove.

The impact he had felt on his weapon, was more than enough to let the catman know, that they could not underestimate these things. They could not underestimate these dungeons. This was just the first mob they met on the first floor. It was customary, that they would be the weakest and most numerous beasts in the dungeon.

He saw another flash of movement on Fin\'s side, but before the fairy made a move,t eh Skeleton was cut apart by shadow blades that shot out from the ground. An assassin against assassins. With Mina\'s Skill, it was no surprise that she could stalk and kill the fiddler in the dark.

However, as the skeleton was cut apart by the shadow blades, the Mushroom Fiddler suddenly exploded in a cloud of spore that enveloped the whole party. They felt the shock wave, but it was accompanied by a rush of severe pain, coughing, and breathlessness as they all broke down in fits of coughing.

Their coughing quickly turned into them vomiting blood and tiny mushrooms. Bulko had the strongest physique among them, but even he was surprised by how little the spores affected him. He quickly chugged a healing potion and started casting healing magic to help the other recover.

Despite also coughing blood, Fin managed to activate her divine powers. A golden aura quickly covered her and expanded to protect the others. She was the chosen of Bes, the protector of homes, families, and children. They were her family, her home.

Of course, the monster did not let go of the chance their suicide bomber had given them and attacked the incapacitated party. Without the fairy\'s quick action, they may have suffered heavy losses. Like this, the moment a mushroom fiddler got too close to the party, they were eradicated by knives of divine light, that shot from the aura enveloping the party members.

Even if they tried to detonate, the divine light just swallowed them whole, the moment they were hit by one of the knives, not leaving a trace of the monsters. Under Bulko\'s and Fin\'s efforts, the party soon recovered.

"Kugh, Fin, how long is this protection going to last?" Mike asked when he finally got enough breath to speak.

"Not much longer. It also has a very long cool down, so you better get ready and drink some more potions," she answered, wheezing herself.

"urgh, that didn\'t work out at all. We have to change our strategy here," Lyxiss commented, between taking a gulp of an endurance potion.

They had collected a few important pieces of information. The spores ignored their armors and the best way to resist them was high endurance, which was why all of them drank Endurance Potion, which could temporarily increase their attributes.

The other was that fire was definitely effective against them. Overwhelming divine power, too. However, simple attacks that did not get rid of the corpse, or pure physical attacks seemed to only lead to the creature turning into spore bombs.

"Give me some buffs, I want to try some things," Mina said grimly and spat out a globule of blood. She was angry, mostly at herself since she had caused the current situation. Even when she knew that it was not necessarily her fault, as she could not know this would happen, she was dissatisfied.

Mike observed her for a moment, before giving Bulko and Fin a nod, to stack their buffs on the shadow assassin. His sister gave him an appreciative nod, before vanishing in the shadows and leaving the area of protection.

Seeing their comrades get eradicated when they got too close to the light, the mushroom fiddlers turned to observe the party from a safe distance. Or that was what they thought. Since they were currently not hiding, Mina was able to use this chance.

It quick succession three of the creatures died without exploding or a trace of Mina being seen. One simply fell over dead, split in half. The second was swallowed by rapidly growing ice that encased the body before falling over and shattering.

The last one suddenly started shaking violently, as the hyphens and mushrooms growing on the skeleton were suddenly eaten by a growing rot, that swallowed them and turned the mushrooms to dirt.

"Fire, Ice, Disease, and Silence seem to work against their suicide explosions," the catwoman stated as she reappeared among the party. She had just tested the powers of the Shard of Biting Ice, Asclepius\' Needle, and the power of the Blessing of Sekhmet on the fungi enemies. Now they knew of several ways to suppress the spore explosion.

Based on that they came up with some ways to counter the mushroom fiddlers before Fin\'s protection ran out.

"Good, let\'s go ahead and show them who they messed with."