“Stay away from the middle one if you can Inkler. In fact, let’s start with the white petals. It seems to be limited to physical attacks only.” I charged ahead as he dropped into invisibility. Just as I feared, the middle creature could attack any point within the square, and did so by exhaling a massive cloud of thick green gas.

“[Halitosis].”

Great, the middle plant can speak. It didn’t matter, I plowed through the poison gas, dodging the overhead strike of the bruiser. “[Keen edge].” I slashed at the trunk of the plant, cutting a lot less than what I expected. As the monster raised its head again, I continued attacking. “[Reality slash][Dark bolt].” One more slash and a blast of darkness against the trunk took off another fraction of the creature’s health, and cutting through a few more strands of the tough fibers that made up the main stalk. I was forced to retreat as the flower came down again, smashing the ground where I was just standing. A sudden pain shot through my leg as I saw Inkler’s reality slash cut some more of the gradually weakening portion of the stalk.

“What the hell?” I growled, wondering how I got injured. It wasn’t the middle one, as it could only reach with its gas attack. Looking to one side, I saw the madbiscus pointing at me with some greenish goo dripping from the stamen. “Inkler, the blue one can fire projectiles, don’t get hit.” I shouted. As I did, I saw a large black orb arching through the air toward my position. “[Dancing shadow steps].” I was forced to use a skill to move out of the way, and was incredibly glad I did. The black orb exploded into a massive gravity wave, adding an incredible amount of power to the bruiser’s attack.

“Fucking great, they have combo moves.” I muttered, determined to end this fight as soon as possible. At least how they were spread out I didn’t have to worry about the rose plant. I charged forward again, taking a glancing blow from the bruiser, I decided to go for broke on this attack. “[Reality slash][Keen edge].” After slashing through the trunk twice, I shoved my foot into the wound and pulled up the other side with my blade. “Let’s see how you like this. Shadow and light, unite in annihilation. [Oblivion sphere]!” At point blank range I fired right into the gap, jumping backwards to lessen my own damage from the explosion. I rolled on the landing, some sense of danger causing me to raise up my hammer.

*Clang*

An impact from the madbiscus would have pierced my heart had I not reacted in time. Though I was saved from one attack, I was knocked off balance and couldn’t react when another gravity sphere landed and the bruiser smashed down right next to me. That blow sent me flying, taking off a third of my health! The bruiser wasn’t doing much better, having had over half of its stem cut through by that combination. Another slash from Inkler tore off more of the insides, causing the plant to slow down and slump over. I guess the innards were more flexible and provided the movement. “[Dark bolt].” I calmly fired another blast at the same location, causing the bruiser to give a halfhearted flop.

Before I closed again, I saw the madbiscus stamen start to swell. “[Dancing shadow steps].” I said with a grin, teleporting over and grabbing the end of the stamen before savagely twisting it. Do plants panic? This one must have been introduced to the feeling just before the base of the stamen exploded in green ichor, the flower flailing about in agony. “Finish that one off Inkler, but don’t take too long.” I ordered, as I started to go to town on the base of the flower. This one was a bit easier to cut into, I didn’t even have to boost my attack to cut the stem. This one tried to evade me, but with its weapon out of commission and being rooted in place it didn’t have much hope. It still took a while, and I got blasted by several gravity orbs and clouds of green gas, but they did no damage.

“Ah, that’s two down, who’s next?” I asked as I flicked off some green goo from the plant. The halitoscium was smashing the ground with his pine cones, and the rose was spinning around, but neither could come close. “I think it’ll be the ranged one.” Circling around past the corpse of the bruiser, I charged in against the voidgazer. Halfway there, the central plant decided to send another gas cloud my way.

“Getting real sick of that attack.” I muttered, flinging my last pyrophoria potion in its mouth. It shattered on a tooth, the mouth slamming shut just before it could enter, but that was fine with me. A pained wailing erupted from the plant as it burned, and the two other plants immediately stiffened. Flowers pointing towards the sky, they sent out a screeching noise. In front of the central plant, a summoning circle appeared and a garden gnome appeared, complete with red hat.

“[Refreshing rains].” It called out, creating a gentle rain that washed most of the potion off the monster, and started healing it of its burns.

“Inkler, you can chase that one. Have fun.” I said, as I got within range of the voidgazer plant. It immediately pointed at me, and I felt a bit of suction as it started to create a gravity sphere in the middle of the flower. “[Oblivion sphere].” I said with a grin, firing the orb right at the flower. The blast blew apart the tubular section, taking off a major portion of the creature’s life. The plant also seemed to be stunned, as it was just waving back and forth. Perfect for several slashes to the stalk, allowing me to finally kill it. I turned back to see how Inkler was doing, to see a panicked gnome flying through the air at my face.

“HIYAAAAH!” I screamed, reflexively smacking it away with my hammer. Inkler dropped the camouflage, leaping up and batting at the flying creature. I watched for half a second as Inkler was batting the poor creature around. He would let it almost get away, then slam a massive paw down on top of it and hold it in place. Tilting the paw to the side, he would check to see if the creature was still there before slapping the paw back down as it struggled to get free. I shrugged and left him to his games.

“Alright, which one of you dies first?” I asked the two remaining plants, both of which had limited ranges. If they had eyes, I swear they would both be glaring daggers at me. I decided the rose bush first, since it wasn’t the main focus of the square. “[Dark bolt].” I fired a blast at the flower, surprised when it flicked one of its thorny tendrils to deflect the magic. I calmly walked closer, until I was just inside of what I figured was the creature’s range.

It sent out a probing attack, cracking one tentacle like a whip. I dodged to the side, only to be forced to take the next attack with my forearm. The whip wrapped around it, tightening and digging in several thorns. I took minimal damage, but I think I worried the plant a bit when I grabbed the rest of the tentacle and smiled. “[Keen edge].” With one slash, I cut off a full foot of tentacle, causing minimal damage but the plant seemed intimidated. It was cradling its injured limb as it dribbled a yellowish green sap, but it didn’t take any further action to attack me.

“Alright, let’s try this again. [Dark bolt].” Again the tentacle whipped out and destroyed the spell. I took a few steps forward, and on my third one the creature finally reacted. Instead of attacking, it tried to make a wall of flailing tentacles to prevent me from getting close. As if something that simple would stop me. I checked my mana levels to be safe, frowning to see the down to nearly a third of the max. While it was probably enough to finish the fight, I decided to err on the side of caution and down a potion to get it back up to better levels. Once that was done, I used a [Dancing shadow step] to get past the wall of thorns and used a [Reality slash] to deliver a massive blow to the flower. I aimed just above where the tentacles attached, and managed to get halfway through the stem before my attack lost momentum.

“[Oblivion sphere].” I again launched a point blank attack into the wound, this was slightly safer than the first time as the plant was arching in pain to get away from me. The slightly enclosed space gave the blast enough oomph to sever the majority of the stalk, only a few strands keeping the two halves together as the flower toppled over in death. “You done over there Inkler?” I asked, looking to find the gnome trapped under a paw again. It had lost its hat and an eye, and reached out to me as if begging for death. “You’ve had your fun, and got to chase around a small creature. Kill it already, we still have to deal with the main boss.” I said.

Inkler chuffed in annoyance before biting down and crushing the gnome’s head. The body immediately disappeared in blue motes of light, and we both turned to look at a much subdued halitoscium. I couldn’t help but revel a bit in the feeling that the boss seemed scared of Inkler and me. “Let’s hold off a bit Inkler, I want to work on something.” I said. I backed away so that I was out of the creature’s attack range, glad to see that it didn’t try and blast me with gas anymore.

I sat down and summoned a dark bolt, but didn’t fire it. While it was a good base spell, it really needed to be upgraded to something better. Using shadow manipulation, I started tweaking the shape. I elongated it, and started slowly adding more mana. The front gained a mouth full of teeth, an elongated snout, and a wicked set of horns that came out the side of the head before dropping down and travelling parallel to the jaw. A small way back were two limbs with claws. Once I had the shape down, I kept adding at a steady rate, making sure that it would evenly distribute. Once I felt the form had as much mana as it could handle, I added another dark bolt in its jaws. Once I had it finalized, I got a notification.

New Spell Acquired!

Shadow dragon bolt

Beginner level 1

Formed of shadow energy, this spell has been designed to strike fear into its targets. Casters with a high enough shadow manipulation will have a large amount of control over the flight of this spell, giving it a homing ability.

Cost: 75 mana

Damage: 250-500

Cooldown: 15 seconds

Chant: Roaring darkness, assume the visage of the apex of all apex predators. Shadow dragon bolt.

I smiled at the notification, ecstatic with a new spell. Turning to the boss, I launched the dragon at it. I could feel the trajectory, and knew that when the monster completed its swing the dragon would get pulverized. With but a thought, I altered the trajectory so that it flowed out and over the pine cone that the boss was using to smash it, and watched as it smashed into the face of the creature, splattering dark magics on its face.

“Whaaaahahahahahaa!” The creature cried out in pain, trying to wipe the magic off as it smoked on its face. I guess there was a bit of a corrupting influence in the spell, something to keep in mind for future use. Sitting down again, I went through the same process only using a light bolt. This was a lot harder to do as I had a bit less of light manipulation, and I could only trickle the mana in at about half the speed of the shadow. For some reason, the light dragon just felt like it needed to be different. Instead of horns, it got a mane of flames, and the toes of the foot had three claws instead of four.

New Spell Acquired!

Light dragon bolt

Beginner level 1

Formed of light energy, this dragon will obliterate creatures of darkness. Casters with a high enough light manipulation will have a large amount of control over the flight of this spell, giving it a homing ability.

Cost: 75 mana

Damage: 250-500

Cooldown: 15 seconds

Chant: Coalescing light, roar forth and strike true. Light dragon bolt.

“Perfect!” I shouted, launching the spell at the monster again. This time I let it hit the pinecone, as I had a feeling that a pure light spell would most likely heal the plant monster, something I wasn’t about to do. “Well, that’s two spells finished. What do you say we end this?” I asked the monster as I got to my feet. Nodding to Inkler, I started my attack. “[Light dragon bolt][Shadow dragon bolt][Oblivion sphere].” I summoned both dragons, and had them twist around each other, linking each tail to the oblivion sphere. Just before my spell launched, Inkler used his reality slash on the back of the creature. Arching in agony from the unexpected attack, it couldn’t defend against my attempt at a spell.

“Oh, that’s gotta hurt.” I muttered, as the spell form actually detonated inside of the creatures mouth, shattering all of its teeth. It must have counted as a critical hit as well, since the health dropped by a third. “[Dancing shadow steps][Keen edge][Rocket slash][Reality slash]!” Each new skill came from a different direction as I finally managed to chain together several skills with the dancing shadow steps and used the last one as a retreat. “[Shadowgheist].” I used the last remnants of my mana to summon a clone, and we all entered close range and started tearing into the boss. It tried to retaliate, but whoever was getting targeted would dance back and defend while the other two unloaded. It only lasted about a minute under our combined assault before finally wilting.

“That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” I said with a fake sniffle, as not only the boss, but the entire hedge maze withered and died right before my eyes. I gave Inkler a few scratches as I went around and started looting all the bodies.

Loot gained:

Burning blood poison x15

Voidgazer petals x15

Greater madness toxin x15

Bruiser sap x15

Ring of rapid recovery x1

Mansion seal (1 of 5)

Ring of rapid recovery (rare)

Reduces the time spent under status effects by 75%

New Spell Acquired!

Twin oblivion dragons

Beginner level 1

Forced together, shadow and light dragons unleash terrible energies when they impact the target.

Cost: 175 mana

Damage: 550-1100

Cooldown: 1 minute

Chant: Shadow and light, twist in strife. Annihilation approaches in the wake of their titanic struggle. Twin oblivion dragons.

Level up x 7

Holding together the three pieces of the mansion seal I had already obtained, they fused together to form a shield shape. The bottom had a broad spade shape to it, while the top looked like someone had taken a curved bracket symbol and turned it so the point was facing up. The bottom third was solid green, while the top portion was blue. I guess the remaining pieces would fill in the heraldry.

“Well Inkler, we have two choices.” I said, interrupting his purring. “Do we head over to that massive tree? Or do you think we would be better off by heading to the chapel?” He looked at both, looked at me, then flopped down onto his stomach. “HAHAHAHAHA! Alright, we can take a bit of a break I guess. Half hour for food, but not until we leave the area of the hedge maze. I don’t want to be in here when it comes back.” He let out a forlorn sigh, but eventually got up and followed me when I started walking away. Compared to the hours it took to reach the center of the maze, the straight shot was a much welcomed two minute hike. At the end, I flopped down and pulled out some rations for a quick meal.