A screaming wail resounded once more shaking everything and anything. The small and peaceful mushroom forests seemed to all become dimmer perhaps out of fear or submission.
'W! Try and make it back!' Ed transmitted through the mark. W who was still on the ground returned from his despondence and started rapidly beating his wings to fly away.
But his flight speed could not compare to the creature's lengthy stride. The tentacle-like roots that the ominous creature used to move were fast approaching and seemed like they would sweep him away.
For a small mushroom such as himself, to be swept away by that was equal to death.
'Fly towards the wall' Ed suggested. The creature was wide enough to block the entire cavern but if it covered it perfectly it would get stuck, there was space!
W struggled to try and do so but the vine-like legs would occasionally scale the walls while running forward.
'It's game over!' W transmitted before the video cut off. A root happened to hit him after the monster suddenly burst forward. This gave Ed a bad premonition, it was bad enough to not mourn the passing of W.
'Quickly! Enter my domain!' Ed transmitted to the lizardmen. The mushroom must have spotted some targets and sped up to attack them!
"Enter its domain!?" One exclaimed out of the group of five. Since Kroz had stayed behind with four others and Var sent four more to bring them back alongside the refugees the group was small. Yet, the monster still found them appealing.
Even Var Agus was able to notice this change. He had previously thought this was one of the deity's subjects realized it wasn't the case.
"Let's go!" The situation had to be graver. This was more likely than not a competitor.
The situation in the caverns was unknown to Var but not entirely so to Ed.
'This place is freaky' It was a land of punishment where the dungeon pitted a bunch of different creatures to engage against one another. Over the decades and centuries, these creatures would branch out and evolve different paths resulting in weird skills being manifested.
The perfect example was drawing closer. The mushroom monster skidded as it stopped its traction to turn towards Ed and the running lizardmen. Its terrifying teary-eyed face was causing Ed to shudder mentally.
'Where do I even begin to fight that?' Ed asked himself while watching the lizardmen hurry over.
Var and his group tried to avoid the mushrooms to the best of their ability as they entered but soon realized how troublesome that would be after looking back.
"It's going to catch up!" Someone shouted their fear of death rearing its head. They started to trample his creations.
Ed didn't judge these lizardmen for being afraid however as he was also uncertain on whether he'd be able to defeat it. But after ruminating on it for a short while, Ed came to a conclusion.
'This won't be another lightning firefly bug moment' He wasn't about to lose everything to a single mob. Previously, he had made it his goal to defeat the lighting firefly bug. This was already done.
'The waves had many monsters' His arch-nemesis had not been an exception. But with the water mushrooms and the bug focused on the bait, it was an easy takedown.
'This isn't an easy takedown but I can do it' Many of these parts had been turned into new mushrooms so while victory was not assured, neither was his defeat!
The small sound of an explosion rang out and a ball of iron flew out of a mushroom. This was one of Ed's new cannon mushrooms. Ed had modified one of the Poison Turret mushrooms he created last time and turned it into a cannon.
The ball of iron landed squarely on the beastly mushrooms but surprisingly, the ball practically bounced off.
'Huh?!' Ed found that to be ridiculous. The lizardmen who were watching this found it even more ridiculous. Was the deity playing around?
'Why is it so bouncy?!' The pitiful-looking creature had the qualities of a bounce house?! That didn't make much sense.
A new thundering cry shook the vicinity and Ed who was significantly closer now was affected by the intense vibrations. Some of his mushrooms seemed to want to break apart and fall off.
[You've been dealt damage. -0 hp]
'Argh, I can't test the waters.' It was time to go all out!
All of Ed's long-range mushrooms started to fire out their projectile. That was the poison turret mushrooms, the sling shrooms and their elemental variants, and some other new shrooms. Like… The Lightning Rod Mushroom.
It was practically a harpoon that used the lightning glands of the Lightning Firefly bug to generate electricity.
Another new projectile was the net shroom. It grew a flimsy mushroom cap that formed a net and could be launched out to slow down enemies. Ed's firepower had been greatly bolstered and it showed.
[Unnamed (Shocked)]
{ An unnamed poisonous mutant of the magic mushroom family of fungi. }
'So that's poison…' The luminescent pink sap of the mushroom turned out to be poison. Ed's assessment also confirmed that this creature was unique to the dungeon.
'Otherwise, the system would have a name on record' It even knew things outside the dungeon so why would this be a problem? On second thought, the system might know a bit too much but now wasn't the time to consider that.
The shocked creature was being quite literally electrocuted when it let out another one of its sonic attacks. The main difference this time was that this was done in tandem with a wave of poisonous pink water.
The sonic attack rocked the cavern and the projectiles were miraculously stopped. The lizardmen who had retreated all the way to Ed's main body were terrified when they saw the wave of noxious pink water start cruising its way forward.
Ed's sentry shrooms were sending him signals but most of the signals cut off after only a second. The poison was deadly! But...
'Nice try' The toxic water was stopped by the mounds of mud created by the magic mud mushroom.
[You've been poisoned. -3 hp]
'What?!' Ed was now the one being shocked. The poison which he thought would be intercepted by the wall of mud was in fact not at all.
'Di- Did it poison my mycelium?' Were his sentry shrooms sending him tainted signals? Ed immediately understood that this creature was not a regular abomination crafted by this hell called a cavern, it was one made to kill mushrooms.
'This was deliberate!' He was being targeted, likely by the other mushrooms! He had dismissed their thinking capabilities but it seemed they weren't entirely lifeless.
The unnamed monster, the Wailing Mushroom as he would be dubbing it, started to charge closer to him once more after the firepower had lightened.
With the discovery of having been poisoned, Ed held back nothing. His stash of doom shrooms started to disappear from his storeroom. The location where they would appear was obvious.
The Wailing Mushroom was showered with explosions and its entire body became obscured by the sheer number of explosions that continued to ring out. By the time Ed had the decency to stop, the wailing mushroom was…
'It- It survived' The wailing mushroom had used its roots to guard itself after the first few explosions. This resulted in its survival and although many of its roots were crippled, the thing could still move.
[You've been poisoned -2 hp]
The roots protecting it started to lower and pink shone past into Ed's sentry shrooms. The left side of the monster had been blown apart leaving the beast with only one creepy eyehole. Its teary expression seemed especially sinister now that some pink sap was spilling out in loads.
The wailing mushroom didn't seem to mind however as it started to crawl forward. Its cauldron-like poison cap even started to bubble like magma.
'Not good!' The saggy cap of the wailing mushroom and its maw then folded close before spraying out the poisonous liquid onto his mushrooms like a sprinkler.
[You've been dealt damage. -0hp]
As more and more mushrooms were washed out, poisoned, and killed by the projectile Ed kept on losing 0 hp. Ed believed it was the system indirectly telling him he was poisoned.
[You've been poisoned. -3hp]
In contrast, that message was the system directly telling him he was poisoned.
The wailing mushroom crawled above the mud wall and started to trample on Ed's mushrooms indiscriminately. It then suddenly received jolts of electricity.
[Tesla Shroom]1
Another of Ed's new creations stopped it momentarily. A new harpoon accentuated with electricity also landed on it causing it to become even more immobile. Its constant jolting caused the poison in it to stir and drip down onto Ed's field until finally, the wailing mushroom snapped out of it.
With less liquid in its body, the surges became less effective until it finally let out another sharp wail uprooting many of Ed's mushrooms that hadn't already begun to rot from the poison.
The doom shrooms he planted began to explode randomly and Ed's field was chaotic as a whole.
The lizardmen who were there had their ears bleed from the too close for comfort cry and at that moment a couple of lizardmen arrived from the top wearing confused expressions.
"Is- Is that a monster mushroom!?! Where is Var?!" One asked noticing the weird situation Suddenly, the world became brighter.