A Path of Bone and Poison 117 I.T. 20 Hunter

I approached Hunter who was still nailed to the wall. His eyes were glowing purple as he stared at us, his mouth twisted into a maniacal smile. A nightmarish voice that was not his own uttered words that raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

"From your bodies our children will rise. They will feed on your energy giving rise to more powerful beings. Let his luminous presence feast on your mangled corpses"

As Hunter spoke the mushroom on his back floated up into the air, red blood could be seen dripping from its roots that were still connected to the host below. Hunter screamed as this happened, his voice filled with pain that I could not begin to imagine.

At this time Hylia sent an order using her telekinesis.

"He is still in there! He is our ally Sierra; you must save him!"

Sierra nodded in response. Her staff was already emitting a fiery aura as she began to cast her spell. Fireballs shot out at an exaggerated speed, and yet the seemed to me as if they were in slow motion. My eyes were fixed on his face. His brown eyes were bloodshot, but the blood was a neon purple. His mouth hung open, his teeth appeared rotten, and his flesh was slowly decaying.

The roots above him were pulsating, pulling the nutrients from its former host. With every passing millisecond more of his vital energy was being pulled from him. Just as the last of his life force was being pulled from his body the fireballs struck.

The mushroom above screamed in agony, but Hunters body slowly began to regenerate. The mushroom desperately tried to escape the fire, pulling its roots from its host as it tried to fly higher into the sky.

The mushroom seemed to have succeeded, its roots dangling above the limp body of Hunter. The scene was absolutely still before my eyes for the briefest of moments, until a hand shot up from Hunters body. It grabbed onto the root, wrapping around his hand as he desperately looked up at it. A soft voice could be heard from him. Soft, but incredibly hard.

"Not today you bastard. Not after everything you have done"

I could feel a strong earth energy emitting from him as a hammer formed in his other hand. His eyes held a determined look as he arched his back, his right arm hanging below him as his right arm, the arm that held the root, pulled him I to the air.

He used all the energy he had to the lob the earthen hammer at the mushroom. The impact of the blow was massive, crushing the into the mushroom with such force that the skin bowed in. And like a bow the skin quickly returned to its shape, sending the hammer flying back at him at an even faster speed.

I did not have time to move to intercept the blow, but that did not mean I could not act. I instantly used my Overload ability, firing 3 shots in a row at the falling hammer. The massive force of the bullets hammered into the hammer, forcefully shifting its trajectory.

As the bullets hit, they split the hammer into pieces. A smaller shard was only slightly shifted, it continued to plummet towards Hunter. He did not have time to react as the shard struck him in the shoulder, tearing all the way through as it plummeted to the ground below.

He did not even have time to scream as the mushroom took advantage of the situation, tugging strongly on its dangling root. The force was intense, and a tearing sound could be heard as his arm was forcefully ripped from his body. A mixture of red and purple blood poured from the wound, only to evaporate in the constant barrage of fireballs Sierra continued to fire.

At that time, a magical explosion could be felt behind us, And I instinctively knew that Bailey had fired her rifle. I was not disappointed as florescent purple goo rained down on us from the sky.

Hunter was falling at the same time. I activated Arcane body and overload at the same time. Focusing all of it on my legs I burst forward in a burst. The speed was much higher than anything I had ever experienced before. In the blink of an eye was I was already underneath him. I had to rapidly switch focus from my agility to Dexterity to stop on time. I managed to catch him, but the sudden explosive power in my legs had caused my muscles to explode. I fell to the ground in a heap, barely blocking Hunter from what would have been a fatal fall.

Immense pain filled my legs, my head was swirling as I looked down to see my thighs were a mangled mess. Thankfully, we had Sierra, whose phoenix flames had moved her to being a semi divine being in my eyes as I watched my wounds rapidly healing before me.

On top of me Hunter began to groan. His wound has likewise healed, but his arm was gone. The healing he received had saved his life, but because it was not divine his arm would be forever lost.

As he opened his eyes, I was relieved to see they were the light brown they had always been, not a trace of the purple energy could be seen. I let out a weak smile as my upper body fell to the floor exhausted.

As I looked up into the "sky" above us I could only notice the lack of mushrooms around us. Save for the 5 different colored mushrooms around 20 feet away. The 5 mushrooms made a weird five-pointed circle. I could not truly see this, only think about it as I stared above me.

I was too exhausted to move. The massive strain I had put on my body with that move was not something I could currently handle. It was a last ditch move, and the old man of the tower had told me to only use it in an emergency. I could only chuckle at the thought. I don't know if this would qualify as an emergency or not but saving a comrade's life was worth the exhaustion I felt.

Around me I could hear the others discussing. I listened intently, even as Hunter rolled off me.

"The mushrooms must be a type of parasite, feeding on their hosts as they look for more prey" -Sierra

"I feel so useless against these things! I cannot even get in close without fear of the spores. Thankfully, your fire seems to be their weakness" - Leisha

"Yea, but my mana is basically used up. I need to rest and meditate if we are going to continue." Sierra looked towards Hunted and I. "She is basically useless now. Her wounds are healed, but the strain on her body was far too much. I doubt she will even be able to move for three days. And let us not even talk about Hunter. Who knows how long until he is ready to move, or if he is even still himself."?

I could hear a hushing sound that could only be Bailey, but it was interrupted by Hylia.

"We will stay here for three days, long enough for Yuri to be able to move. We need a constant guard. From the outside as well as from him."

She lifted her arm, and a long metal thread began to pour from her spinnerets. When she had produced enough, she began to wrap it around Hunter, binding his arm and legs together. Thankfully, she was kind enough to lean him up against a pack she had pulled from her inventory.

Chapter end