The Warped Forest Page 22

  But how to bypass the army of warped animals? And there seemed to be no obvious entrance for the Spire of Creation. For all she knew the chimeric stones were the key to entry, but that could be totally wrong too.

  The mass of flesh around the spire was equivalent to the quantity of creatures she'd had to kill to get to her current level. There was no way she was going to be able to farm them all in six days and still have time to battle the Warped Mother.

  After watching them mill around the white stone for an hour, Alex sent in Inky to see if she could pull away a group of animals or if the whole mass would come.

  When Inky reached the outer ring of trees, a prompt appeared.

  Trigger the Spire of Creation final encounter? [Y/N]

  7 Day reset upon failure

  Alex carefully swiped NO and told Inky to come back. There would be only one shot at winning, which made her difficult odds almost impossible. Had she more time, she could attempt the encounter, learn from her mistakes, and try again, honing her strategy until she won.

  But only getting one attempt would mean that her tactics would have to be mostly improvised. Once she started, the encounter would play out until she won or lost. It wasn't that she couldn't improvise, she'd proven that she was more than capable, but her strengths lay in meticulous planning and execution.

  Standing on the hillside with her hands clasped on top of her head, Alex considered her options. There was no way she could beat that many mobs at once. Even if she could reliably pull them one at a time, she'd max out on fatigue before the encounter ended. Maybe if she'd been an endurance build, she could manage it, but the Arcane Mastermind wasn't made for long fights.

  The only way she was going to make it into the Spire of Creation was to have one of her minions train the group away. She quickly realized the task would have to fall to Pinky, who could survive the pull.

  She had a good idea how she would use Inky anyway, unless she could find the entrance to the spire quickly. It felt like a sketchy strategy, using her minion to kite the menagerie while she ghosted in and fought the Warped Mother. But nothing else she thought of really came close.

  "Sometimes the simplest plans are the best," she said, not quite convincing herself that it was true.

  Alex pulled out a large chimeric stone and stared at the swirly surface.

  "I still don't know what you're for. I feel like the low-experience reward means I was supposed to figure it out when I was a lower level," said Alex with a sigh.

  Nothing she'd tried during the year had revealed their true purpose. She'd used the Transference spell on them, cooked them in her pot, and done dozens of other experiments, but the stones remained completely inert.

  When she stared at the marble-sized stone, there was something about its appearance that bothered her, but the familiarity never revealed itself. Maybe the reason for their existence in the Warped Forest would be revealed inside the Spire of Creation.

  When Alex finally decided to make the attempt, she approached the ring of trees that separated the Spire from the rest of the Warped Forest. Hordes of warped animals milled about mindlessly as if they were waiting for a command.

  Brooding Giraffillas, Warped Animal, Level 13

  Cantankerous Pearabbits, Warped Animal, Level 11

  Angry Badgerhounds, Warped Animal, Level 14

  The longer she watched, the more variety of warped animals she saw, which was of no surprise given her battles in the forest.

  Alex considered whether or not she should take a few days to level up her skills, but realized delaying wasn't going to help. This fight wasn't going to be won with a few extra points of damage.

  "This is the point of the raid the leader gives a pep talk to the team," said Alex, shaking her head lightly. "But it's just me, and I'm not playing for a world first, or even a monetary reward. If I don't win this fight, I'm going to die from this cancer in my head."

  Alex checked with her minions, who sat on a nearby branch attentively, waiting for her commands.

  For the first time in a long time, Alex wished her online friends were there to watch. Nothing she'd ever attempted came in even close. Even the Avatar of Destruction seemed like child's play compared to the challenge before her. The impossibility of it brought a secret smile to her lips.

  Alex walked forward until she hit the threshold of the clearing.

  Trigger the Spire of Creation final encounter? [Y/N]

  7 Day reset upon failure

  Alex hit YES.

  Are you sure? [Y/N]

  No mercy for the unprepared

  Alex winked at her minions as she hit YES a second time.

  "Let's do this."

  Chapter Forty

  As Pinky flew into the menagerie of warped animals, Alex held her breath. If there was one way that the whole encounter would conclusively fail, it would be if her invulnerable minion couldn't pull the mass of mobs away from the Spire of Creation.

  The little brown bat fluttered over the horde, flying far enough above that nothing could hit her with a ranged attack, but low enough to catch their notice. It felt like a suicide mission even though Alex knew Pinky would survive the initial counterattack.

  As Pinky circled the area, heads rose in interest. Animals shifted towards Pinky, not yet pursuing, but her passing created a wave of warped flesh.

  Alex's heartbeat thundered in her chest. She had to remind herself to breathe as she watched her little minion.

  After Pinky made a complete circuit of the Spire of Creation, she flew to a heavy clumping of animals on the southern side. Then without warning, she dove into the mass, hitting them with a light taunt, before soaring back out.

  A host of cries rose from the area she'd attacked as the warped animals tried to get after her. While the rest of the menagerie wasn’t affected by the immediate spell, when the others shifted to go after Pinky, they were sucked in like a vacuum.

  Before Alex knew it, the whole mass slid southward as if the world had been tilted that way, quickly turning into a stampede, dust rising from the plain. When the first animals hit the southern edge of the forest, the trees shook as if they'd been hit by a bomb, and smaller foliage was trampled to colorful pulp.

  As the warped animals fled south, Alex circled north so she could make it to the white stone structure and find a way inside before they could return. She ran across the flattened plain, the rumble of thousands of warped animals reverberating through her feet like a continuous earthquake.

  But as she approached the Spire of Creation, she forgot about the warped animals. The massive stone building seemed to grow in size as she approached.

  When she reached it, she realized it had to be at least three hundred feet in diameter at the base. It hurt her neck to glimpse the peak from her position.

  Touching the stone revealed an unnatural warmth as if the stone itself were alive. Alex glanced back towards the southern forest before starting to jog around the circumference. She preferred to use a provided entrance—if there was one—rather than make her own way, but it would take time to run around it.

  By the time she was moving south, Alex realized she was going to have to use Inky. The only problem was that it meant her journey into the Spire of Creation was one way. Once she was inside, there was no way out since her minion would be stuck outside. Alex hoped that killing the Warped Mother would provide an exit, but there were no guarantees in the hardest game in the world.

  "Your turn, Inky," said Alex.

  Her minion flew close, triggering her ghosting ability, which Alex promptly stole with Misdirection.

  As soon as her body went incorporeal, she pushed through the pale wall, stumbling when it provided no resistance. Inside the stone, she had no idea which direction she was going or how thick it was, but she moved as fast as she dared, because if she returned solid before the spell wore off she'd die in the stone.

  Alex broke into the center a moment before the spell ended, returning her flesh to solid. The warm, moist air immedi
ately choked her, leaving her gasping as if it were a jungle in high summer.

  Despite the heat, the monstrous vision at the center of the spire brought shivers to her spine. A chemical smell burned at her nose as if the creature standing but a hundred feet away was puffing off methane gas.

  Alex wasn't expecting a pillar of black goo pulsating with pseudopods as if a creature inside was trying to climb out as the final boss, but as the slick black trunk formed, extending to squeeze out a tawny muscular shape that looked like a cross between a pony and a tiger, she knew she'd found her final foe.

  Warped Mother, Boss, Level 22

  Alex watched in horror as the warped animal that had just birthed shook off the oily excess, revealing a dangerous warped animal beneath.

  Spitting Poniger, Warped Animal, Level 9

  Standing on the backside of the Warped Mother, away from the newly birthed poniger, Alex hoped that she'd avoided notice, but it made a low growl in the back of its throat as it marched towards her.

  "This should be fun," said Alex, wishing she had her minions with her.

  The Spitting Poniger trotted towards her, shaking its head as if it were trying to dislodge something from its throat.

  "I swear to Merlin if you spit bees or wasps, I'm quitting this game," said Alex as she unfurled her whip.

  She hated the idea of fighting toe-to-toe, but she didn't have a choice.

  When the Spitting Poniger reared back its head, Alex dove to the left.

  The Spitting Poniger misses you with its Acid Spit attack!

  Rising to her feet, Alex snapped the Shocking Strangler twice in quick succession.

  You have hit the Spitting Poniger for 28 damage!

  Critical hit! You have hit the Spitting Poniger for 57 damage! The Spitting Poniger is affected by Shock!

  You have gained a skill point: +1 One-handed Whip

  The poniger cried out as it lurched towards her. The newly born warped animal seemed unsteady on its feet, and since it was seven levels lower than her, she was able to dodge the next attack, once again returning twice as much as she got.

  But as good as the beginning of the fight was going, she was aware that the Warped Mother was birthing a new creature. A glance at her fatigue showed it was at 8%, which was still low, but a long fight would not be the best strategy for her as an Arcane Mastermind.

  But it was hard to be a mastermind without minions or even other creatures to play against.

  The Ghastly Crocagoat proved to be an easy kill, as its stubby legs couldn't catch up to her as she kited it around the room. The only problem was that by the time she finished killing it, a Giant Porcudillo squeezed from the Warped Mother's oily pseudopod.

  After the porcudillo rolled after her, it prepared a shot of spikes from its quilled back. Alex managed to steal the attack, misdirecting it to the Warped Mother.

  You have misdirected a spine shot attack to the Warped Mother for 6 damage!

  You have misdirected a spine shot attack to the Warped Mother for 8 damage!

  You have misdirected a spine shot attack to the Warped Mother for 6 damage!

  The amount of damage was disappointing, but anything she didn't get hit by was a win.

  As Alex dodged the mobile porcudillo, she watched with frustration as a new creature emerged. Rather than continue to spar with the level 9 quilled mob pursuing her, Alex shifted her focus to the Warped Mother, hoping to disrupt the birth.

  You miss the Warped Mother!

  You miss the Warped Mother!

  You hit the Warped Mother for 23 damage!

  When a Growling Firetoad emerged from the glistening black trunk, Alex decided that either it couldn't be interrupted or she was too low level to deal enough damage. She was currently level 16, while the Warped Mother was level 22. The difference in levels was six, which Alex had found to be enough to significantly decrease her hit rate and damage. It seemed like five levels was the magical number that allowed her attacks to more consistently hit. Even some of her spells referenced the five-level difference. The only way she'd grinded through the early levels when the mobs were so much higher was by exploiting the physics of the game.

  A Giant Porcudillo hits you for 9 damage!

  Alex extended her arm, cracking the whip at the Giant Porcudillo before the Growling Firetoad reached her. She made three successive attacks before circling around the Warped Mother to avoid her pursuers.

  While the firetoad lacked mobility, it made up for it with a ranged attack that arced towards her as a wad of lava saliva. She had to throw herself out of the way to avoid being hit by the fiery loogie.

  As she whittled the Giant Porcudillo down, a third creature emerged from the Warped Mother—a Flailing Archhound. The new addition provided danger as it had enough mobility to catch up with her. Lacking a defensive strategy, she started taking hits from the three warped animals, wearing down her fatigue and hit points.

  When the firetoad launched another flame spit, Alex waited until it had almost reached her before casting Wind Gust, blowing it right into the archhound, which lunged in with its snapping jaws.

  The Flailing Archhound has been hit by flame spit for 34 damage! The Flailing Archhound is affected by Burning!

  The hound yelped, bounding away as it coughed out bits of flame as if it'd eaten a bucket of ghost peppers.

  Down to the two mobs, Alex cracked her whip again, catching the Giant Porcudillo right in the soft spot beneath its chin.

  Critical hit! You deal the Giant Porcudillo 67 damage!

  You have slain a Giant Porcudillo!

  You have gained experience: 750 XP

  As her experience bar flashed across her vision, Alex was reminded that she was almost to level 17, which would help her against the Warped Mother. The only problem was surviving until she reached it.

  As the flametoad repositioned itself to launch another volley, Alex realized the Warped Mother was no longer birthing a new warped animal. This pause either suggested that a new phase of the combat was beginning, or that the Warped Mother had to rest before the next birth.

  Alex used the opportunity to make a strafing attack on the Warped Mother, snapping her whip with an overhead flair.

  You have hit the Warped Mother for 18 damage!

  In the moment Alex turned her head to check on the flametoad, a pseudopod in the shape of a fist extended from the Warped Mother, knocking her across the ground.

  The Warped Mother hit you for 67 damage! You are affected by chimeric acid!

  Alex climbed to her feet, shaking off the violence of the throw. Her shoulder had hit first, jarring her bones right through her teeth. A DoT icon formed near her hit point and faez bar, indicting she'd be taking damage over time for an unspecified time.

  She was already down 30% of her hit points and had a fatigue of 38%, and she’d barely touched the Warped Mother. This fight wasn't going as she'd hoped, but she hadn't seen many opportunities to turn the tables.

  With no time to massage away the ache in her shoulder, Alex was squaring off against the approaching firetoad when the ground shook violently. The firetoad stopped in its tracks a mere two dozen feet away.

  Alex rocked on her feet as the ground swayed. She couldn't determine the reason but it kept coming in rolling waves.

  An ear-splitting crack behind her flung dust across her back. Other cracks formed in the white stone spire at intervals, filling the air with concrete booms, forcing Alex to throw her hands over her ears.

  As dust billowed into the air and hunks of rock as big as basketballs fell from above, the Warped Mother extended a second glistening black trunk, and Alex watched in horror as two more warped animals were given birth in the Spire of Creation.

  Chapter Forty-One

  As the walls of the Spire of Creation crumbled, pale dust raining down on them, Alex continued her mad dance with the six warped animals pursuing her.

  In normal pixel-based games, multiple mobs proved more dangerous because they could usually move through each
other, but this world was as real as the one she was born in, so the creatures kept getting in each other's way as they tried to attack her. Even when they managed to organize themselves, Alex would misdirect an attack, or confuse them with a well-timed Wind Gust.

  You have been hit by a piece of rock for 8 damage!

  The hunk of pale stone careened off her shoulder, bringing a cry to her lips and allowing the Horny Pigaline to close the distance, bringing its powerful jaws down on her hip. The pigaline's teeth tore through her Cloth Breeches, opening up a gaping wound.

  Critical hit! You have been hit by a Horny Pigaline for 37 damage!

  The injury made moving agonizing, as the stretching of her hip muscles tore the wound as they worked. The pigaline opened its toothy mouth to take another bite from her, so Alex cast Dewdrop Orb directly into its throat.

  The watery orb lodged itself deep inside. The pigaline shook its head to remove it, but the spell stuck fast, giving Alex an opportunity to escape the slower warped animals.

  Alex checked on the Warped Mother only to find her motionless again, the two trunks empty. She guessed the boss was going to make a pseudopod attack again, but that didn't help her avoid it as the black glistening fist shot unerringly through the air, catching Alex right in the hip.

  The Warped Mother hit you for 85 damage!

  Alex grimaced as she hobbled away, misdirecting an attack from a Vile Gorihippo into a Gritty Foxilate, which turned into a side battle as the two warped animals clawed and bit at each other.

  But as promising as it was, the overall fight wasn't getting any better. Hunks of stone kept missing her. A piece the size of a Buick had landed right behind her, letting in a ray of sunlight that illuminated the dusty air. The Warped Mother kept birthing new creatures, and she'd barely dealt any damage to the zone boss.