1

Like before, Damon passed through a thick, twelve-foot-deep floor of compacted earth. As he landed onto the waterlogged earth, he saw no limestone walls or floor. The ceiling bricks and pillars that ran down from them to the mushy earth were the only stone surfaces. The wide pillars crowded the room so much that, initially, he didn’t see the boss.

As Harper bounded into the room, Damon walked to her side and glimpsed a woman positioned at the end of the massive chamber. Water rained in large streams and small trickles from the cracks in the ceiling, impairing his view along with the pillars.

The ten-foot-tall boss, which seemed to be half-human and half-worm, slinked closer to the arriving teammates. It had six arms, three of which had been dismembered, and no legs. The lower portion of its body fattened out to an immense tail that allowed it to slither across the wet surface.

Its pale beige skin, which was completely unarmored, was dotted with large green boils that shook incessantly. The same jade hue highlighted irregular spikes that grew from its side and back. The monster snaked closer, weaving between the five-foot-wide columns.

“So, you have made it, vile humans,” it said in a distorted voice that decayed, seeming to repeat over itself. “Wretched scum of the earth. You are the reason this world is deteriorating.” The creature paused and snarled at them. Its long green hair stretched above its scalp, disheveled and matted. As the boss continued to advance, Zack pulled alongside Damon.

“Hey, she reminds me of those Phyllis Digger chicks,” he chortled.

The general told him to shut up.

“You created this world, and now you are tearing it apart!” the boss roared at them. Its pale green eyes burned with pent-up hatred. The flesh below its nose devolved into a skeletal jaw lined with sharp teeth. “But we will survive to spite you,” the monster growled.

The boss raised one of its remaining arms and a massive boil ballooned from its wrist, expanding to twice the size of its hand. The boil’s green skin separated, pulling apart into two eyelids. A lime-green reptilian pupil tracked them from a large white eyeball.

“And you…” the monster continued, “you will pay for the chaos you have wrought.” As the boss slinked between columns, its Creature Description details appeared.

WORM WITCH (Level 64)

HP: 764

MP: 535

STRENGTH: 69

CONSTITUTION: 76

DEXTERITY: 99

INTELLIGENCE: 53

WISDOM: 74

XP: 454

DESCRIPTION: Primeval earth mother corrupted by the black arts.

Raising her arms, the Witch’s long fingernails, black and green in color, fluttered like bats in the humid air. A grinding noise filled the room, then the floor quaked as pools of water rippled in concentric circles. A gigantic worm shot up from the ground, displacing the surrounding soil.

The blind creature was one foot in diameter, with hardened plates covering most of its body. Only ten percent of its underside was exposed. Running like spokes on a wheel, sharp spikes protruded from the worm’s armor, spiraling lengthwise down its long frame.

Still anchored to the ground, the worm’s head inched closer to Damon’s. Thick streams of water flowed from the ceiling and splashed off of the worm’s shell-like armor. Its mouth opened, revealing pink gums and large fangs.

Damon equipped his hammer, hoping he could break through the monster’s armor. As he swung, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Witch strike the ground. A vibration coursed through the earthen floor, and suddenly he couldn’t move.

The worm reared back and struck his right arm. Its long teeth closed around his steel glove, doing no damage, but it knocked the hammer from his hand. It splashed into the muddy water.

The worm was ready to strike again. Its mouth stretched open even more. That thing is going to eat my face, Damon thought, then remembered a common saying back on Earth. I never thought leopards would eat my—

Abruptly, he could move again. His arms swung wildly from the force he had been trying to exert. The same went for his legs as he lurched and staggered. The worm’s mouth propelled toward him. He ducked and grabbed his hammer. The worm shot over him, where his head had been just a moment before. Damon pounded the hammer into the small section of flesh that wasn’t covered by the armor.

The worm flailed backward. Damon unequipped the hammer and rolled on the ground, looking for another shot at the creature’s underside. In his peripheral vision, he saw the other members dueling with more giant worms amidst the showering torrents of water. Zack had wrapped an arm around the head of a worm and was stabbing it with his sword.

Damon closed in on where the body of his worm met the muddy soil. He could access a wider section of its underbelly there. As he continued to roll, he equipped his sword, swung, then felt another vibration ripple through the water and ground.

Again, he couldn’t move.

The effect locked him into a position he never could’ve held on his own. Caught in the middle of his roll, his rotated body balanced on his bent right leg. What the hell? he thought.

Damon’s eyes spun in their sockets, scanning the room. Almost every teammate was frozen as well, except for Harper and Thao. They moved freely. As he was about to telepath Harper, she did the same for the whole team.

The Witch is using some kind of ‘stun’ spell. When you see her strike the ground, jump!

The worm lunged at Damon, biting into the cheek that already had a hole in it. His flesh stretched, then ripped from his face. He finally gained his movement back, and the first thing he did was scream. As blood jetted from the left side of his head, he charged at the worm and cast Rage. Once again, he felt inebriated, reeling, as he swung the hammer. He glanced at the Witch some fifty feet away. Her arms were raised. She was ready to stun them again. He swung and his hammer obliterated the worm’s shell armor.

A tremor surged through the ground. He tried to jump, but was too late. Locked to the ground, he saw the aftereffects of his attack on the worm. The plates of its shell armor flew like shrapnel across the room, ricocheting off the stone pillars that packed the room. The worm’s flesh was pulverized, with strings of meat hanging from its canted body.

Further behind, the Witch cast a new spell at the other side of the room. A green flash ripped through the room. As it struck the stunned teammates, they flew like toy soldiers, completely rigid, over the floor and then into the columns. The unstunned members were blown away more organically. Damon saw a spray of blood and watched as each teammate suffered a significant point drop in their HP.

The injured worm was still flailing at his side, and the effects of the stun spell ended. Damon quickly switched to his sword and ran at the worm’s exposed flesh, slicing through the rest of its meat. It split the monster in two. The severed pieces fell lifelessly to the mud. As a replacement worm burst from the soil, Damon withdrew his Rage spell and bolted for the Witch.

2

While many of his teammates were frozen, Armando, who had timed his jumps just right and avoided the stun spells, headed straight for the Witch. He was convinced she had to be defeated first.

The Witch’s pale face turned his way and grinned. “Yes. Come to me, you fatherless child, you runt,” it croaked, and its voice repeated on itself. “I will freeze you, then you will watch me eat your flesh!”

Less than twenty feet away from the boss, the young orc equipped his bone axe, jumped, and swung. The weapon arced downward at a lethal speed. It was going to shear right through the middle of the Witch’s head.

But the blade bounced off her scalp like she was made of rubber. The reverse force pulled the axe from Armando’s grip. The weapon clanged behind him. Meanwhile, the forward momentum of his jump launched him into the Witch.

She wrapped her three arms around him. “You can’t hurt me,” she growled as the two combatants came face to face.

With the greater strength stat, Armando quickly pulled free of the Witch’s grasp. He backed away to retrieve his bone axe.

The Witch fired a green wave at him. The spell penetrated his armor, then searing pain sliced through his body. As he hurtled backward, screaming, the boss chased after him, moving her tail across the wet earth.

She caught up to him and clutched onto his battle armor. She slashed her long claws over his face, opening valleys of blood across his cheeks. Leaning in, the Witch bit into the skin between his neck and shoulder. Her sharp teeth burrowed into his flesh, then tore a piece away. Rising back up, she held his meat between her fangs as his teammate’s arrows and throwing knives bounced from her body. The Witch chewed through the flesh, then spat it away. “Ugh, you’re all gristly!”

Even though he had the strength to toss the monster off of his body, Armando allowed her to keep her position. He equipped his skelchion sword, grabbing the handle with both hands. A surprised and worried expression dawned on the Witch’s face. “Oh, no!” she blurted.

The young orc rammed the sword into her chest. And it stopped cold. The force of his swing rebounded up his arms as it drove the Witch off his body.

She advanced on him again. “Stupid orc! You’re not a quick learner, are you?”

As he stood up, she flashed an arm at him and another green wave shot out. Pain erupted throughout his body. Armando screamed and fell to his knees. Blood seeped from the gaps in his armor while his HP fell to 387.

The Witch grinned and pounded a hand to the ground. The tremor that raced through the soil struck Armando. He never had a chance to avoid it. Unable to move, the boss slithered to him and grabbed him by his long, dark hair, pulling his head back.

“Time to say goodnight, pretty boy,” she scowled.

She moved her hand towards his neck. The huge eyeball on her wrist rotated, tracking him. Then the reptilian pupil divided, becoming a wide mouth. Triangular, shark-like teeth jutted from ripped-flesh lips as they closed in on the stunned orc’s throat.