The doors to the boss room slowly opened, spurred into motion by Lucian’s touch. The chamber beyond was the largest yet and in its center a large golem stood motionless, slumped forward slightly. It was almost like the half-plant half-stone golems they had fought previously, except it was half again as large. Its oversized arms bore a set of 4 equally oversized scythe-like claws, and its body was wrapped with large thorny vines.

  Lucian activated [Manifest Weapon], blue energy manifesting and shaping itself into a slightly oversized longsword in his hand.

  Annabelle grimaced, glancing at the large claws, “[Forest’s Protection] or [Witch’s Hex]?”

  “I’d say hold off on picking.” Lucian said, cracking his neck and taking a breath, “Let’s see how it moves first.” Annabelle nodded, and he stepped through the door into the chamber.

  As soon as he crossed the threshold, a pair of green lights on the golem’s head lit up and it shifted, standing upright fully. The air in the room shifted as the boss woke up, a silent pressure rippling off of it.

  Lucian exploded into motion, bolting forwards. Annabelle took that as her cue, gesturing at the boss and incanted a spell, “[Poison Bolt]!” sending a dart of sickly green light streaking towards it. The spell impacted its chest, the light seeping into the thick vines wrapped around its stone exterior. The light in its eyes flared angrily in response and it moved with a spell that defied its stature, charging forward as the vines the spell had struck slowly began to wither.

  Lucian and the golem met and it raked its arm across the ground in front of it, claws cutting gashes across the floor. Lucian dodged, using [Quickstep] to get past the claw before the swing finished, moving between the bosses legs. He swung his sword as he moved, cutting across its left leg as he passed it. He felt [Quickstep] level up, but ignored it to focus on the fight.

  Once he was clear of its legs he wheeled around, moved back towards it, and swung his sword towards its left leg again, activating [Slash] and [Penetrating Strike]. He dug a few inches into the stone and then wrenched his sword free, moving backwards to avoid retaliation.

  As Lucian and the Boss clashed, Annabelle acted. “[Witch’s Hex]! [Poison Bolt]!” She fired off two spells in quick succession, an eerie glow enveloping the boss before a second green bolt impacted it, this time in the arm. [Witch’s Hex] increased a target’s vulnerability to her poison, and said poison was being boosted twice over by an item and a skill. Even for a boss monster, the damage would stack up.

  The golem shuddered and its claws flashed with a glimmer of green light that erupted into a coating of green fire. Lucian leapt back, avoiding a blow that left streaks of green energy lingering momentarily in the air in its path and shattered the ground where it struck. A wave of green flame swept outward from the impact zone, dissipating after a short distance. Lucian narrowed his eyes, an area of effect attached to the attacks made them undoubtedly more dangerous, and he had no idea how bad being hit by the fire would be. Ideally, he would never find out.

  Annabelle fired off another [Poison Bolt] as Lucian dodged the empowered attack, striking the golem’s back, spreading more poison through the vines wrapped around its body. More of the vines were withering, the process accelerated by the addition of more poisonous energy.

  Lucian [Quickstep]ped back to the golem, dashing under its arm, its flaming claws still embedded in the ground. He felt the skill drain less Spirit than before due to the level up. He swung his sword against the golem’s leg in the same spot as before, activating both [Slash] and [Penetrating Strike] again as well, deepening the cut he had made before. He pulled his sword free and continued moving, running out behind the golem.

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  As he moved, the golem’s eyes flashed with a brighter green, and a wave of green flame erupted from its body in all directions. The energy washed over Lucian, but the flames didn’t reach him, licking instead against the blue aura of [Spirit Barrier], charged on the nearly 60 Spirit he had expended fighting it so far. The aura greatly dimmed as it absorbed the heat, but it held. He shot out of the flames before coming to a stop, laughing.

  Annabelle launched another [Poison Bolt] as soon as the burst of flames cleared, hitting the golem’s chest again as it turned. At this point, some of the vines around its body were beginning to fall apart. The golem switched targets, charging at her. She grinned, “[Tanglethorns]!” Binding roots shot up from the ground and wound around the golem’s injured leg.

  It tripped, falling forward with a crash. Lucian moved and once again triggering both [Slash] and [Penetrating Strike], the expenditure slightly reinvigorated the dimmed aura that surrounded him as he cleaved downwards. His blade struck the same spot as it had twice before, cutting most of the rest of the way through the golem’s leg. He moved back again as the golem struggled against [Tanglethorns], cracks spreading through its leg as it tried to stand. Its bound and injured leg collapsed under the golem’s down weight, sending it back to the ground.

  Annabelle pointed slightly down at it, “[Poison Bolt], [Poison Bolt]!” She shot the spell off twice. The golem’s movements as it struggled to pull itself towards her slowed, the vines withering faster. Then it simply stopped moving, the light in its eyes dimming and then going out.

  Annabelle and Lucian smiled, and he walked over to her, “Nicely done!”

  “Of course it was.” She giggled, making an exaggerated motion of tossing her hair, “Oh, I leveled up twice!”

  “I got one level, up to 30 now.” Lucian said, also bringing up the level notification for [Quickstep] which he had ignored earlier.

  “I also leveled [Quickstep], which is nice.” He hummed, “Lets take a break? I need to look at my skill choices.”

  “Sure, but let’s grab the chest first.” Annabelle shined her flashlight across the room to a nook in the far wall, where a larger stone chest sat.

  “Hopefully it’s something good.” Lucian chuckled, dismissing his sword. The pair walked over to the chest, and opened it.