Everywhere the eye could see, there were roots. Paying no heed to how rocky the soil was, they sprouted as if fired from a canon, spraying gravelly dirt in every direction.

“Harth? Uh, do you know what’s happening here?” Strangely enough, the roots had avoided the area directly beneath us, but at any moment, I expected to be skewered.

“A test,” was all she said in return. What the hell that meant, I had no clue, and it didn’t look like I’d have much time to ask.

My initial assumption that the roots were going to attack us directly turned out to be wrong: Instead, at the room’s center, they coiled about one another, rapidly forming what looked alarmingly like two massive torsos, each supported by two gnarled legs the size of tree trunks.

Not all of the roots were joining together, however. Some of the thinner ones writhed and wriggled on top of the dirt instead. Despite their slithery motions, they remained stationary until suddenly, with a chorus of snaps, they broke off from the root system tying them to the earth.

I watched in horror as whatever strange magic animated them continued to shape them further: At the front of each of the tinier, detached roots, a crude, triangular head formed. Worse yet, a crease appeared on each of the heads, growing inward until it turned into a yawning mouth. As one of the creatures opened wide, I spied thick, wooden fangs.

Identify confirmed my fears only seconds later.

Root Snake

A quick scan of the room revealed that a full ten of them had formed. Blissfully, as if waiting for their larger companions to complete their transformation, they held off from attacking us. There was no doubt, however, that the peace was temporary.

“You wouldn’t happen to carry around a flamethrower, would you?” In the enclosed space and with their numbers, the snakes themselves would be a challenge for us. With whatever monstrosities were growing on top of that, I was struggling to see how this “test” ended in any other way besides us getting smashed to paste.

“Fight at the perimeter of the room, with your back to the wall. If the snakes surround you, you’re done. Try to kill as many as you can.” Her words came out clipped and tense, a far cry from the Hartha I’d grown used to. “I’m going to see if I can hit the big ones before they’re fully finished.”

Wasting no more time, she sprang into motion. No longer content to ignore us, however, the snakes slithered after her. This was a problem considering she’d just told me to take care of the snakes.

Why does it feel like this is about to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done? With that thought in mind, I dove into combat, charging towards the host of magically enchanted plant serpents.

The closest of them was coming at Hartha from the side, and I barely managed to get in its way before it passed me. I lunged out with my spear, but given its speed and its size, it made for a nearly impossible target, and I missed.

On the upside (but also kind of on the downside), my strike did have the intended effect: Registering the attack on its life, the snake stopped its mad dash for Hartha and turned my way.

Okay, not to be a major downer here, but one out of ten is actually pretty awful. Questioning my sanity, I turned from the snake before it could launch a counterattack and ran towards another. Striking out once more, this time I had marginally better luck, grazing it on the side.

I would have expected it to hiss or cry out in pain, but evidently, animated wood lacked the necessary vocal chords. For a life or death fight, the room was eerily silent.

Despite the lack of audible feedback, the snake notably did not like being hit. What was more, its siblings seemed to be aware of my partially successful strike and decided I was a bigger threat than the shadow who hadn’t attacked them yet. Two of the farthest snakes continued towards her, but hopefully, she’d manage. At this point, my hands were full.

With eight wooden serpents wriggling towards me, I followed Hartha’s advice and ran to a wall, outpacing them all. They weren’t slow per se, but I was just able to outrun them if I tried. Moments later, the first of them came into range, and I lashed out.

It was then that I realized that a spear was an awful weapon to fight snakes with.

This time aware of the incoming strike, it deftly slid to the side and forward. Once it got past the tip of my spear, the long weapon was unwieldy, and I had no good way of striking at it. As much as I wanted to keep the snakes at bay, if I was going to land a hit, I needed something closer ranged.

While I had a knife in my spatial pouch, retrieving it was easier said than done.

In what I’m sure looked like the height of martial prowess, I tried to run around the perimeter to buy myself some time. I say tried to, because the snakes were much, much too close.

The one that had managed to slip by my spear launched itself from the ground, mouth wide open. While I tried to dodge, my Dexterity was not up to the task, and I barely had time to move. It went straight for my calf, latching on with an unshakable grip.

As it connected, I cried out, only to realize that I wasn’t in pain. I glanced down at my leg, relief flooding over me as I saw the snake sinking its teeth into my leather armor. While it wasn’t that thick and the fit was still poor, evidently, the snake’s fangs weren’t particularly long either.

On top of that, the shadows hadn’t skimped on the quality of the armor. After all, good leg armor was kind of a must when you fight spiders all day long.

My relief lasted for all of two seconds.

The armor around its bite began to blacken.

“Shit! It’s corrosive! Bad, bad, bad, bad!” If it could do that to armor, what could it do to me?

Hesitant to try pulling it off and giving it access to my hands, I made good on my earlier plan, sprinting away from the rest of the snakes. The one on my leg flapped against me as I did so, and I could feel my panic rising as it continued to eat away at my armor. Feeling like the world’s largest idiot, I dropped my spear and frantically opened my pouch, mentally shouting Inventory as fast as I could.

Guided by pure adrenaline, I took out my knife and slashed at the snake still attached to me. Immobile, it stood no chance, and thankfully, the knife bit deep into its wooden skin.

A foul bubbling substance seeped from the wound, and a moment later, the snake went limp. As it was still lodged in my armor, I yanked it off, throwing it to the ground.

While I’d managed the feat while running away at full force, however, the other snakes had hardly been idle. What was more, neither had the thicker roots at the room’s center.

I barely had time to steal a glance towards Hartha, but what I saw was not particularly encouraging. On the up side, she’d already managed to down her two snakes. Much like with her earlier performance against the roots sealing us in, however, her efforts against the legs of the monstrosities were proving ineffective.

Unfortunately, we were out of time.

The last of the roots locked into place, and what had earlier been nothing but bodies with legs was now two humanoid figures, looming a full three meters tall. Lacking any fine details, their appendages ended in club-like stumps, and their heads were simple, featureless spheres.

They began to move, and I had time for a single Identify before I dealt with my own issues.

Lumbering Root Golem

A small part of me was glad my Identify wasn’t able to see its level or health. Something told me I wouldn’t have liked what I saw.

All right. Incredibly awful and bad, but not my immediate problem. The snakes chasing me had clumped together, and while I could theoretically continue to lead them around the room, it wouldn’t do any good. My stamina still hadn’t fully recovered from chasing the dryad — there was no way I was going to outlast whatever magic kept the monsters animated.

I realized what I needed to do and nearly puked from anxiety as a result. It’s just like the spiderlings, T. You got this. Just have to let them land on you, and then get 'em quick.

There was no way I was fast enough to cut them in mid air, the solution was much simpler. I’d trust my armor, and cut fast.

It was one thing to plan something and another thing to do it, though. Convincing myself to stop running took a second, and then as three of the leading serpents leapt at me, I fully failed to stifle a yelp and a flinch.

Aiming slightly higher, two of them landed on my calves while the other bit perilously close to the weakened section from the first snake. Not keen on having even more on me at once, I turned and ran before the other four could follow suit.

As much as I’d love to say I made three quick cuts and was done, using a knife while running was hard enough. When the targets in question are moving with your legs, the task becomes considerably harder. I managed to get one of the ones on my calves while in motion, and then pulled ahead, briefly stopping to deal with the other two.

Frantically, I pulled all three off, only for the remaining four to make their move. All at once, they struck, unerringly flying towards their target which was unfortunately me. As two connected on each of my legs, for the first time in the fight, I gasped in genuine pain.

Root Snake bites you for 4 damage.

You have been afflicted with Caustic Venom! Take 1 damage per second for 40 seconds.

Holy hell that hurt! Either through bad luck or good instinct on the snake’s part, one of the four had managed to strike right where the first had. Already weakened from one round of venom, the armor was thin enough to break through. The result was a load of acid hitting my veins, and me almost dropping my knife from the pain.

I slashed down at the offending snake first, slicing into its woody skin and wincing as I pulled its fangs from my flesh.

Then, right as I was about to finish off the last three, the room shook, throwing me to the ground.

Regaining my feet, I blanched as I saw the cause of the disturbance: One of the root golems had thrown a downwards punch, a giant crater left in its wake. Judging by the force it has used, I wasn’t sure even Hartha would survive an attack like that.

Luckily, as suggested by their names, the creatures were slow. Hartha had dodged the first blow, but I caught sight of the second golem winding up, intent on pulping her. Despite their lack of speed, with their sheer bulk, they were managing to box her in. Plus, even if one of them missed, that didn’t mean Hartha would be able to keep her feet beneath her as the impact rolled through the floor.

In sum, she was in a bad spot. As there were only two of us, I was the only one who could help.

This… This is stupid. You know this is stupid, right? With every shred of willpower I possessed, I ignored the three snakes corroding their way through my armor and ran for the spear I’d dropped earlier.

In one deft motion, I scooped it up from the floor and chucked it at one of the golems. Rather, it would have been deft if the throw had been clean. Instead, it flew slightly to the side, hitting the golem mainly with the length of the shaft.

“Over here!” I hollered at the hulking colossus.

While my throw had hardly flown true, and I was horribly unable to come up with an appropriate taunt in the heat of the moment, the golem didn’t seem to mind. Sluggishly twisting about, it pulled away from Hartha to close the distance between us.

Should I be happy about this? Or horrified? Both? Damn, I really need to find a therapist once things settle down.

I had a few moments yet before the golem reached me, and I used them to deal with my more pressing concern. Despite moving as fast as I could, however, I’d given the snakes more time than I should have.

Root Snake bites you for 3 damage.

You have been afflicted with Caustic Venom! Take 1 damage per second for 40 seconds.

This time around, I failed to put on a brave face, tears coming to my eyes as my other leg began to burn. Through the tears, I brought the knife down on the remaining three snakes in turn, but that hardly helped with the venom that continued to take its toll.

Worse yet, the golem was only a few meters out now, each of its steps slamming down percussively as it neared me. I started to run from it intending to lead it on a chase for a while, only to collapse as the first step sent a spike of pain through my burnt leg.

I don’t think I can do this, I realized with a start. I climbed shakily to my feet and started a weak jog away, but on top of the venom chewing through my legs, my stamina was nearly spent from trying to outrun the snakes.

My jog proved just enough to prevent me from an untimely death as a mass of wood crushed the rocky soil directly behind me. While the golem’s punch hadn’t fully landed, I was still sent flying forward, and as I landed on my feet, I nearly vomited from pressure on my legs, crumpling immediately.

Then, just when I was sure I was done for, a green glow suffused me, and the blackened wounds on my legs began to knit back together.

Hartha heals you with Breath of the Forest for 23 health.

“Tess! Up!” She spared no more words for me, having her own problems to deal with.

It was enough, however. It hadn’t healed me to full health, nor had it removed the venom, but the spell got me back on my feet, just in time for me to dive out of the way of another battering ram of a fist.

I was lifted from the ground once more, and in my brief flight, I saw something that only made my spirits sink lower.

The snakes were spawning again.

As opposed to the initial ten, only two of the caustic cretins poked through the earth this time, but it was two more than I could deal with right now. One came slithering towards me, while the other made a beeline for Hartha.

This is never going to end if we don’t kill the big guys, is it? My mind raced as I scrambled to my feet and started running again, but no bright ideas came to mind. Are they really so thick that the knife won’t do anything?

If I was going to get beaten into a mist one way or another, there was hardly any reason not to give it a go. Panting heavily, I shot forward towards the golem, arriving at one of its legs before it had time for another punch. Hoping against all hope, I slashed my knife into the back of its leg, only for the blade to… sink into the wood? What-

Then, I saw it. Around the wound I’d inflicted on the golem, the wood began to visibly blacken. All at once, it hit me.

“Hartha! The wood is weak to the venom in the snakes! Coat your weapon in it!” Somehow, cutting through all the snakes had apparently covered my blade in whatever substance ran through them, and if the acid was effective on leather, it appeared triply so on wood.

Truthfully, I was pretty sure normal snakes didn’t have their venom running throughout their entire bodies, but I wasn’t going to complain. I’d almost died to enough fantasy bullshit lately; if for once it was going to save me, I’d count it as a win.

The two snakes that had spawned took on new meaning after the revelation, and as the golem wound up for another punch, I summoned up the last dredges of my stamina to run for the snake.

I reached it right as the golem struck once more, but this time, the punch helped me: With significantly less weight than me, the snake handled the resulting force poorly, gracelessly lurching into the air. I dove on it, managing to slice through it before it had a chance to reorient itself.

After making certain to liberally run my knife through the bubbling fluid seeping out of it, I drained the final drops of my stamina running back to the golem. Abandoning all pretense of good form, I wielded the knife with two hands and swung it like an axe, burying it as deep as possible into the back of its leg where I’d struck before.

This time, backed up by more of the acid, it cut through the roots like a razor through butter, making it a full three fourths of the way through.

Legs burning from both venom and exertion, I had nothing left in me, but I didn’t need to. As the golem took a step to turn around, its own massive weight proved its undoing. With a series of crunching snaps, the few remaining roots in its leg broke apart and the entire golem started to fall.

Thankfully, it had turned just enough that it did not fall in my direction. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to dodge it, and that would have been a horribly embarrassing way to die.

Instead, it crashed into the floor with a force larger than several of its punches combined. Falling from a full three meters, its head splintered on impact, spraying me with an assortment of woody shrapnel that shaved a dozen points of health off.

Were I a better person, I would have attempted to fight through the pain and exhaustion to help Hartha, but instead I collapsed, sucking in as much air as I could. If I could do it, so could she.

Sure enough, only half a minute later, another ear-shattering crash sounded throughout the cavern. Only moments later, Hartha stood over me, and another wave of healing eased my pain.

“Hartha?” I called out to her.

“Yes?” She examined the extent of my injuries with a frown, taking in the bite marks, blackened wounds, and piercing splinters.

“You know,” I coughed out. “I’m not sure I like dryads very much.”