Grey sat up, spinning around to see that he had fell around 7 feet. A wall of mist was above the ledge he fell from. Crow and Damsel popped out of the mist like some two-dimensional portal leading into another dimension. Damsel landed face first into the muddy forest floor next to Grey. Crow surpassed both of them, somersaulting forward and sticking another perfect 10 landing.

All three looked up, the wall of mist was still emanating that horrible rumbling. The goats did not follow. Swirling, the wall of mist began to tornado in the center, like a topographical view of a hurricane. It spun, fast, then sealed itself. A black wall closed completely and the eerie hum from the forest was gone.

Dead silent. No mist. All joining together in a sigh of relief, they surveyed the area around them.

“So. No more path, huh?” Crow walked around and looked for an opening in the forest.

The area they landed in was a massive circular field covered in a damp moss. Vines lined the walls and ascended upwards, covering the sky with its impossibly long, mangled branches. Torches were hung at every compass side of the stage-like setting. Just beneath the forests vines were speckled pods. Thousands at least. All different sizes; big, small, massive. The pods sat dormant under the foliage like a fungus feeding off of the roots.

“Look!” Damsel pointed to the north side of the large open field, “It’s that way.”

Some 30 yards ahead of them, on the opposite side of the field was an impressive, limestone staircase.

“It must lead out of the forest.”

“Let’s go.”

The three walked side by side. Only making it a few feet towards the staircase, popping sounds like bubble wrap echoed all around them.

“Ugh, what now?” Damsel swiveled her head all around.

Incessant popping and tapping rung in the air.

“Look.” Crow, pointing at the no longer dormant pods under the trees.

Grey equipped his Item screen, pulling out his Crude sword and Shield of the Misnomer. Damsel and Crow took out their respected weapons. A bow appeared in Damsel’s hands. She quickly placed one of the basic quivers onto the arrow rest. Crow spun two small daggers expertly in his hands. The devastatingly sharp blades tucked back against his forearms.

A sonata of crackling continued; a tune played by the horrible hatchling pods. From them, dark colored arachnids crawled out. The eggs continued to hatch until hundreds of bodies, and thousands of legs blanketed the floor leading to the staircase.

“Sp...Sp…” Damsel started.

Crow finished her mumblings, “Spiders... It’s spiders.”

Grey fashioned his shield in front of himself and his sword at the ready, “That’s a lot of freaking spiders.”

Ignoring the obvious statement, the three of them backed away slowly as the floor grew double in size from the insect ridden disease that was hatched. The arachnid creatures were definitely born of the forest. Having no eyes, their bodies were a smooth black like a satin sheet, or Crow’s glorious bangs. All glimmering in the glow of the flora; the moonlight hanging in the trees.

They walked slowly, leg by leg, steadily crawling towards the three. The path had sealed behind them, and the round stage-like field was surrounded by tall vined walls. The Colosseum was set for the three gladiators.

“Oh. My. Gods.” Damsel still stuttering on her words. Gagging as she readied her bow.

Crow sharpened his blades by rubbing them together, creating a sinister screech of metal in the process, “Useless creatures. Let’s squash them.”

He leaped, and bounded. Landing on the heads of the creatures in process.

“Protect us from the outside, Damsel.” Grey dove into the dark crowd of insects.

Damsel aimed her quivers from a distance, repeating the same word every time she shot, “Ew,” swoosh, “Ew,” swoosh, “Ew.”

Arrows flung by the heroes’ heads and into the spiders bodies. Crow twisted and contorted his body in an assassin’s arsenal of movements; raining a calculated hell with his blades. Grey swung his sword and bashed his shield into the meek creatures. Teeing off on the round bodies of the spiders, they flew in every direction. A flurry of prompts appeared in Grey’s peripheral as miniscule amounts of exp. flooded into his pixelvision.

It wasn’t enough to level him up, but he was on his way. They communicated over their party chat.

“How many of these things are there!” Grey swung around, his blade slashing through the insects, his shield launching the creatures into oblivion.

Damsel continued firing arrows, “Too many!”

“327.” Crow stated matter of factly. Running along the heads of the spiders, squashing them in his path, “And they keep on coming. Look.”

The hatched pods sealed themselves with every new hatchling. The shells would crack, shake in a static state, then reappear whole. Repeating that process every time one of its hatchlings died.

“They’re regenerating.” Grey took a step back to observe the pods, “It’s the forest, we need to burn the vines down.”

“Grey!” Damsel shot an arrow near his foot.

“Hey! What’s that for?” Grey turned to Damsel, smashing a spider in the process with his shield.

She looked neither sad, nor mad, but disappointed, “Don’t you even think about it.”

Begrudgingly, “He’s right.” Crow retreated, a trail of the million crawling legs following him like they were honey spilled on the floor. He ran towards one of the vined walls, jumping off of one of the speckled eggs, dashing one, two, three steps along the wall and snatched one of the lit torches from the iron sconce.

“No!” Damsel tried to fire warning shots at Crow, but the damned Rogue was faster than she could aim her bow.

Running along the wall, he held the torch to the vines to ignite them. As if doused in gasoline, they burst into violent flames. The Forest squealed and the vines erupted. Engulfed in flames, the tree lined sky above fell in a flurry of ash and terror. The eight legged creatures on the mossy floor continued their attack, but did not regenerate. Above, a setting sun finally made an appearance. Lighting the battle ground below, turning the wretched creatures from creepy, to almost insignificant. The vined walls fell, and the dark stage turned into the sunny mountain side of the misty mountains. The staircase just ahead, well lit, and eager to be climbed.

“Nice! Only a few left.” Grey ran through a massive crowd of the spiders, using his shield as a bulldozer. Legs and guts flew around him like a plow on the early morning streets of late December.

Damsel’s shots were more infrequent. Crying made ranged attacks very difficult.

Ping, a golden hue erupted around the Hero. Giddy with excitement, he thrust his fist in the air, “Yes!” He ran over the thousands of shattered insects around him, his boots sloshing in guts as he approached Damsel, “Level 2 Damsel! So cool.”

She put the bow on the ground, and fell to her knees next to her weapon. Defeated, she clutched some of the ash that had fallen to the floor and squeezed it tightly in her hand, “Yeah…that’s great.”

Crow walked over to the two, “Alright. I think that’s it.”

“No.” Calmly, Grey pointed behind Crow with a limp, raised arm, “There’s one more.”

The tiny little creature made a valiant effort; a last ditch kamikaze mission towards the prodigy Rogue. If the creature could talk, or had a mouth, it’d say, “For my fallen Brothers!”

But it didn’t.

Crow, “Oh. Thanks.” He lined up his kick at the 20 yard line as the creature ran towards him, laces out. An effortless extra point, he kicked the small creature sending it flying off of the mountains edge.

“Aaaahhhhhh!” It would have said, but couldn’t. Instead, it tumbled in the sky and fell forever to probably a horrible death 1000 feet below.

The exhausted heroes walked toward the staircase, eager to be done with the horrible forest levels; taking in the magnificent view in the process. A great accomplishment was achieved, passing their first true level. The steps were a great dust washed limestone. Massive stones placed by the Gods, leading to the next adventure.

Grey approached the steps first, stepping on the first massive stone.

“Wait!” Crow reached out and pulled Grey off of the step.

Stumbling backwards, “What is it, Crow?”

“I think--” He stopped.

Damsel followed, “Oh. Come on!”

The stones rumbled in place. Rocks fell all around them, the door at the top of the staircase turned to rubble. The three took a step back. Makings of the doors crumbled and fell down into the added pile of destruction. A blast of light burst through the opening at the top of the steps. From the light appeared the final test put in place by the forest.

Walking on eight spindly legs, carrying the torso of a hideous oozing black poison, and a massive horned skull. Blue flames burned behind its eyes. The massive beast descended the stairs, and approached the heroes.

“Seriously?” Grey equipped his weapons once again, “Spiders, goats, now…”

“Spider-Goat?” Damsel interjected.

Silent, only a menacing grin appearing on his face, Crow fitted the ear buds back into his ears.

The beast stood in front of the opening, blocking any safe passage. It roared, and the black ooze burst around him just as its predecessors. Grey’s automatic Pixelvision revealed the identity of it:

Protector of Misty Forest Gate Coziosm

A twisted damnation born from the poisonous pools of Misty Forest. Appointed as protector by it’s foul creator.

Level: 4

HP 240/240

“There’s nowhere to run,” the beast cried out. Speaking in a strange tongue, but translated into the Heroes’ party chat. “Entrance to the Misty Mountain is only allowed by my granting. Which…” The beast laughed maniacally, “is death!”

Raising his hooved hands in the air, he shot deadly globs of poison which rained down onto the battle ground. Causing a nasty Area of Effect. Grey, Damsel, and Crow all split up, dodging the attacks. Separated, they readied their weapons, looking for any weak points in the intimidating creature.

“Uhh, what’s the plan here, guys?” Grey tumbled to one side, avoiding another attack.

Damsel somersaulted, landing on one knee and firing an arrow towards the beast. It disintegrated on impact from it’s boiling body, “My arrows are useless.”

Crow, “I can’t get close to him.” The young rogue was continually knocked back by the blasts. Frustrated, he could only do his best to dodge the attacks.

The poison rain continued to fall, but was futile in killing the agile heroes.

“Fine,” The best stopped raining horror, “I’ll kill you one at a time.”

Raising the hooves high up in the air, the heroes were taken off-guard. Waiting for the rain to fall, they looked upward. In an instant, the beast pushed the hooves out in front of his body, releasing a flurry of webs. They hurled towards Damsel and Crow. Trapping Damsel easily, she flew backwards and was blanketed by the silky entrapment. Crow nearly dodged it, as the sticky mess clenched on his foot, tripping him. Then, crawled up his body and trapped his arms so he could not free himself.

“Now. You!” the beast raised his webbed hooves to Grey.

Grey could feel something behind his shield. Some sort of force was building within him. Webbed horror was thrown his way. Instinctually, Grey threw his shield in front of his body. Just as the web approached him, he pushed against the shield, and the webs burst in flames as they came in contact.

“Arrghh!” the beast angrily stopped the attack.

Grey placed the smoking shield behind his back and held the sword firmly in his hand. Some sort of violent adrenaline pumped within him and he took off running towards the Spider-Goat. The once heavy sword felt light in his one hand.

“No!” The beast once again the rained the poisonous gobs of horror above. But it was useless.

With each footstep, the earth below Grey’s feet crumbled and he ran towards the beast with blinding speed. Dipping to his right, he dodged one attack, slicing his blade through the beasts leg. It awkwardly fell to one side, not able to regain balance. In one smooth motion, he spun around to the other side, easily slicing through the other four legs. The great Coziosm fell to the floor wincing in pain, rolling back and forth on his round, legless body.

Damsel and Crow released themselves from the loosened webs. Swiping at the tacky webbing on their bodies.

“Grey, you did it!” Damsel ran to Grey.

He breathed heavily, his chest bouncing up and down with each fiery breath. The adrenaline seemed to subside and his breathing calmed to a steady manner. The weight of the sword seem to creep back, and he equipped it back in his Item Screen to rest his arm.

Crow ran to Grey, taking out his earbuds in a brief moment of excitement and curiosity, “Whoa, how’d you do that!?”

Grey had no answer. He stood confused, looking down at the Boss he seemed to have slain, “I don’t know. It just kinda...happened.”

Disappointed, “Ooof course it did.” Crow fit the earbuds back in and turned away.

“You guys. The door leading at the staircase is open.” Relief chimed in Damsel’s voice, “We probably don’t even need to kill the...GREY!”

She turned to find Grey’s sword already handle deep in the beast’s chest. Blood pooled slowly out from under the already downed creature, “But…”

A flurry of points dumped into Grey’s Exp. bar. The boss was a worthy opponent and offered a generous amount of experience for an early game foe.

“The points…” He shrugged.

Crow, endearingly, “Maybe you aren’t so bad after all.”

The three ascended the staircase, leaving the horrible forest behind them. One level was down, but many more were to come. More battles were ahead. Evil forces to face; unlikely heroes to rise. The misty mountain was still a daunting task, even for a seasoned hero. They passed through the opening at the top of the staircase, awaiting transport to the next task.

The forest level had ascended into cavernous mouths and into snowy facades and dissipated into a mysterious summit hidden by a blanket of mist. Gods know what ghastly beasts would await the three young heroes standing at the foot of the mountain. Grey, Damsel, Crow, all insects compared to the impressive piece of coding that awaited them.