More Questions and No Answers

[Level 20 Experimental Horror Defeated -50% xp for defeating an opponent 5 levels below you]

[+150xp]

"Justin you ever seen anything this?" Derrick asks and kicks the dead body roughly.

"God no. This thing...it's some kind of Frankenstein's monster. Look you can see the seems here and here where the limbs were literally attached."

They examine the monster closely. Makins sure to loot it, recieving a few hundred credits for their trouble. And Cera finally speaks up.

"It's saturated in magic. My mana vision skill is lighting this thing up like a Christmas tree."

"Mana Vision?" Justin asks.

"Yeah let's me see the mana spectrum. Quite useful. I can see how densely magic is in objects, traps, and creatures. Supposedly it'll eventually help determine monsters' magic weakness depending on its mana color."

"Interesting. And this creature's mana? What is it telling you?"

"That it doesn't have it's own mana. The mana is literally attacking its own body. It's why I think this thing was so...crazy."

They sit for a second contemplating, then set out. They are attack 4 more times only once having to deal with more than one horror. Cera casts an ice spell on one of them freezing it's feet in place long enough for Justin to manage to behead the other with a Void Strike. After which Derrick and he team up on the stumbling monster and shred it to pieces with their blades.

Derrick and Cera manage to gain a level and a half.

They continue forward fighting their way and occasionally coming to bends or caverns in the cave. Finally they reach an end where a decrepit wood door stands in their way.

"Ok guys. I'm betting this is the boss. Whatever is behind here is going to be a crap shoot. If it's the leader of these crazed monsters I have a feeling this is going to suck."

"What do you think it'll be?" Derrick asks nervously.

"I bet it'll be some sort of creator for these things." Cera suddenly pipes in. "I've been noticing that the Horrors' Stitched on limbs and body parts are looking fresher and more recent as we get closer. Less mana damage to these...hosts as well tell me they have been made more recently than the first ones we fought."

"Hmm...I was just thinking the same thing. Whatever is in there is creating those things."

They take a moment to prepare, making sure all their health and mana is full. Justin opens the door shield moving forward first.

The room they step in is straight from an 80s horror movie. A thick slime coats the entire room. As their eyes travel around the room they see the boss. A hulking monstrosity of bloated flesh. Something a kin to the Queen from and old movie about aliens crosses Justin's mind. The disgusting creature has long spindly arms that wrap up under its body, literally holding up its massive belly off the ground. It has no legs. It's body held up by a mass of tentacles that ring around what looks like a massive sphincter. It's head is a pulsing, bulging sphere. Pustules can be seen dripping green thick liquid down its neck.

[Rectus: The Horror Seeder Lvl 25]

I deep raspy voice vibrates in their minds as they stare in shock.

"UUGGHHH. That thing is DISGUSTING. How is it talking in my HEAD." Derrick sounds histerical the longer he talks.

Something in the way it twitches causes Justin to instinctively throw up his Bulwark skill. Just in time the dark blue shield raises as a glob of yellow slime bullets toward them. It slams into his just-formed shield and splatters across it.

The action kick starts the fight. Justin and Derrick rush forward, Justin leading with a Void Strike. His Sword slices off two of the ugly monsters tentacles. Derrick's sword thrusts forward and sinks deep into the stomach of Rectus. Rectus finally let's go of its stomach and a figure literally DRIPS out of the sphincter, sprawling onto the ground.

[Experimental Champion Horror lvl 21]

"Attack the champion with fire Cera! We will kite the boss" Justin yells and slashes at a tentacle that rocketed toward him.

A gout of fire spread over the champion obscuring it from view. When she let's off the stream the creature comes into view. It is clearly severely burned and suffering, however the fire doesn't seem to stick dying out on the mucous that's dripping off it from Rectus. Cera slams an ice bolt into its head without having to be prompted.

[Experimental Champion Horror defeated]

Throughout this Derrick and Justin dance among the flailing tentacles and lashing arms of the boss.

Rectus suddenly screams in rage as his hp drops to 25%. A shock wave suddenly folds out of him, it's waves visible and sickly green and yellow.

Derrick is thrown 10 feet back and skids, somehow keeping his feet. Justin somehow manages to place his shield in front of himself. The force however, is still strong enough to send him spinning around his shield being jerked to the side by the force like a sail by wind.

[Your party has been cursed with decay -20hp every 5 seconds.]

Justin immediately casts a Heal and Remove Curse on himself. Then he assess the boss. they are all hurt at this point. Derrick is breathing heavily, having trouble just keeping his weapon up. Cera, he finally notices, was flung clear across the room and lay unconscious.

"Screw this." He says to himself. He tries to remember the feeling he had before while using Void Strike. Pushing his mana into the spell. It doesn't work like before though. Only minorly increasing his spells power. He grits his teeth and charges forward. Just before he is in range of the monster he leaps forward and slams his blade into Rectus' chest all the way to the hilt. He allows gravity and the sharpness of Void Strike to pull him and his blade down the length of its torso, splitting open the monster. When he lands on the floor he rolls away expecting an attack.

Rectus sits slumped on the ground, it's chin resting on his chest, none of its limbs moving.

"Wait what do you mean champion?!Champion?!? And what do you mean win again? TELL ME!"

Rectus looks at him then. Amusement in his dying eyes.

[Rectus: Horror Seeder Defeated]

[Level up!]