Kenny gave her a wide smile. It looks like they will have something more to celebrate than just passing this area after they fight this boss. He gave her a nod and whispered back as he looked at the ugly creature, “Nice. Do you have some idea how to get that trigger to awaken? Or what Skill Tree it is assigned to?”

Val looked back at the monster as well. Her smile damped as she stared at it. It rubbed its staff up and down its back before stopping and then scratching its butt with its free clawed hand. She blanched at the sight. Trying to take her mind off of the gross scene, she thought back to when her last teammates had awakened their second Skill Tree.

They weren’t sure how the trigger had awakened it. All they could say was when the right conditions were met it just happened. They claimed their body grew hot and a searing hot pain coursed throughout their bodies. Much like what happened when the first Skill Tree awakened. But that was all there was to it. They didn’t say there was anything else.

Val looked back at Kenny and replied, “No clue. Those I saw that had it happened only said the right conditions needed to be met.”

Kenny nodded as he thought it over. “Any ideas what conditions will need to be met here?”

Val shook her head. “Not a clue.”

Kenny let out a breath of air before looking back at the goblin. “I guess we’ll just have to kill it and see what happens.”

“I guess,” Val said sounding unsure. She then tried to analyze the creature the best she could by studying its movements and behavior. “What do we think this boss can do? Stat Talent is Wisdom and Swamp Witch Doctor is in its name so it’ll be a mage, but there has to be more than that right?”

Kenny nodded. He then pointed his index finger at both of the small bodies of swamp water as he said, “Something could be hiding in those. I don’t see any other reason to have them there unless they have traps that could try and pull you in after wrapping around your legs.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Val agreed as she thought about it. “Then let’s try to not get close to that. I’ll try to stack two Slow Debuffs and then try to poison it with a blast from my wand after you get its attention and turn it away from me. As you whittle its health down I’ll rinse and repeat?”

Kenny nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Adjust when needed or if needed?”

“Will do,” Val replied as she watched Kenny slowly approach the opened area.

She gave Kenny sometime to enter the area before she started making her way into position. After Val finally stepped through the invisible line they could never know was there, sounds of broken wood echoed all around them. Val and Kenny turned around to see trees suddenly falling over, blocking their escape route.

They swiftly turned their heads back as a loud shrill replaced the sound of falling trees. The Goblin Swamp Witch Doctor had its hands in the air waving its staff in as much of a threatening manner as it could make while also screaming at them. It then lowered its staff and pointed it at Kenny and started chittering something in its language.

Not sure what it was planning to do, Kenny decided to take action. He bent his knees low enough as he leaned forward and then leaped as hard as he could. However, as he leaped the creature had finished speaking. A strange grey muddy ball of light with sparks of red flew from the wooden staff and struck Kenny in the chest.

Val watched as Kenny suddenly dropped face first to the ground and slid a few feet before coming to a stop. Her eyes widened as she watched him writhing in pain as his arms dropped to his sides and his legs clamped together. As she stared at him, confused about what was going on, she noticed he looked like he was trying to move his arms and legs but couldn’t. Veins bulged as he let out deep groans of pain through clenched teeth.

Seeing him like this Val almost froze where she stood. That was until she noticed the ugly little creature threw a couple of mana blasts into the two pools of swamp water. The water started to bubble shortly after the mana blasts entered.

It was slow at first, but after a few seconds had passed the bubbles started growing in both numbers and speed. It continued until the entire pool was full of rampaging bubbles like someone had turned up the heat underneath a boiling pot.

Val wasn’t sure what was going on in those two swamp pools. She had read about Witch Doctors before and knew they specialized in Hex, Voodoo, and Curses type magic. The kind that caused their targets to feel like they were being tortured or had their stats take a hit whenever they used them.

They were nasty abilities that bypassed physical defenses but could be countered or defended against depending on a person’s mental defense. However, she thought there was another type of magic they used but couldn’t remember what it was until two creatures suddenly emerged from the bubbling pools of muddy water.

Two webbed hands suddenly shot out from the water, mud sliding off of the skin as they slammed down on the edge of the pools. The webbed hands gripped the moist land helping them pull the rest of their bodies out of the gross looking water. As mud slid off their rough and wet skin while their entire bodies were fully on display on the land, Val was able to get a better look at these creatures.

They were the Toxic Skin Toads, but much different. Chunks of their once slimy flesh were missing here and there as bones poking out of the open wounds. Their eyes were dull and lifeless and their heads rolled back and forth or left to right like they couldn’t properly keep them straight.

As Val stared at them and listened to the deep gurgled moan escaping from their lips as water poured out, Val fully understood what was going on. These creatures were dead. These were Undead Summoned Creatures. This Goblin Swamp Witch Doctor was using summoned Undead Toxic Skin Toads as its backup.

A sudden realization popped into Val’s mind. This goblin creature used a spell to make Kenny drop to the ground in pain right before summoning these creatures. If it was smart, and it looked like it was, then it was going to try and keep him there until its summoned creatures reached him and have them try and kill him before targeting her. It viewed Kenny more of a threat and her as a lesser one.

This realization slightly ticked her off. Sure Kenny and his ridiculous Endurance Stat made him look like a tough opponent and all she had was slow and this wand, but she could be a threat too damn it. Something she was going to make this damn ugly creature realize.

Val channeled a small bit of her mana into her right glove. After she felt she had channeled just enough mana to activate the effect she gripped the wand in her hand tightly before bringing it back and whipping her wand forward. As she whipped it, Val pushed the channeled mana from her glove into the base of her wand before forcing a small ball of magic out and towards her target.

The goblin didn’t see it coming in time. Its eyes were fully focused on Kenny as it started chanting in its native tongue of raspy and guttural tones. The spell it was trying to form as it channeled its own mana sizzled out as the poisonous magic ball slammed against the goblin’s head causing it to snap back.

An angry growl escaped the short nasty humanoid as it snapped its gaze upon Val. Val formed a triumphant smile as she understood the monster was now viewing her differently. A screen appearing for a brief moment to inform her that she had been successful in poisoning the boss creature.

Something she was happy about for about a second as the goblin barked orders at its Undead summons. The two Undead Toxic Skinned Toads leaped forward away from the area Kenny was laying down at and towards Val.

Val’s smile dropped as she realized she might not have thought that out far enough. Deciding that standing there wasn’t the best idea, Val started to move to her right. She tried to throw out a Slow Debuff on the undead on the right, but when she received a fail notice she channeled some mana into her glove and threw out a poisonous magical blast from her wand.

To Val’s surprise the poison had landed without issue. However, the effect of the poison was lessened due to the creature being dead already and was lacking a lot of blood. Val wasn’t sure what that all meant, but she was happy it did have some effect. After creating some distance from her pursuers, Val tried once more to land a Slow Debuff on one of the Undead Toads. This time she was met with a successful notification.

Val was about to let out a triumphant shout but then quickly jumped backwards as a muddy grey ball of light with red sparks landed where she once stood. During her attempts to both poison and land a debuff on the undead toads she had almost forgotten about the Goblin Witch Doctor. She mentally kicked herself for that mistake because if she had been hit with whatever spell that was she would have been in a lot of trouble.

Hearing the Goblin stomp its feet in frustration, Val decided to move in the opposite direction. After seeing these undead toads move she had deduced that they didn’t have the same kind of power in their body like they did when they were alive.

This meant the jumping power they once had was now cut more than half. They could still jump high enough above a person if one was hit with that strange power the goblin had and they fell to the ground, but other than that they couldn’t jump very high.

Thanks to that she was able to determine how to stay alive. She moved in a way to put the undead creatures in a position where they would block Val from the Goblin Witch Doctor’s sight. If it wanted to throw that nasty spell or any other it had that it wasn’t showing just yet then it would need to move to see her.

When it did get into a position where Val was in line of sight Val had to do one of two things. She would either turn to run to the other side to get out of the creature’s line of sight or she would throw a Slow Debuff and a Poisonous magical ball at it before running to the other side.

She tried out both situations a few times. Her attempts to land a Slow Debuff failed each time, but her other magical attacks landed on point and were successful in keeping the poison going. Something the Goblin was getting very upset about.

Val wasn’t sure how long this game of peek a boo with the Goblin Witch Doctor was going on for. While to her body it felt like it was forever, her mind felt it was much shorter. She was happy she was able to catch the creature’s attention for as long as she had, but with her small Stamina Pool getting closer and closer to the bottom she was starting to worry she might not be able to go on long enough for the spell to wear off of Kenny so he could get the attention off of her. Her worries came true not too long after the thought appeared.

As she ran in a line to her left, she saw the hand of the Goblin appear which made her turn to start running to the right so the monster wouldn’t see her. When she reached the other side however, a muddy grey ball with red sparks had perfectly timed its appearance and slammed right into her causing her whole body to lock up and tense.

A blinding pain suddenly coursed through her body. It felt like a current of high voltage electricity was rippling throughout her muscles, bones, and skin. Her mind dulled the pain enough to stop herself from blacking out, but the intense feeling flowing through only made her wish it hadn’t.

Another thing that she felt as this spell latched onto her was her entire body grew hot. She started sweating as she felt the sensation of pins and needles pricking even inch of her skin from head to toe. She could feel goosebumps forming as her hair felt like it was standing up. The pain from before had disappeared as this new one overwrote it.

She wasn’t sure what was going on but as this was happening her mind locked onto a new threat. The closest Undead Toxic Skinned Toad had reached her and was in the air right above her. As she watched this disgusting flesh ripped amphibian jump right above her and was starting to come down with a body slam all she could do was let out a teeth clench painful cry as panic started to fill within her.

That panic lasted for a brief moment as a loud battle-like cry screamed out in the air right before a figure slammed his entire body into the undead toad hard enough to make it fly away to the side.

The sight of Kenny throwing his entire weight into the shoulder slam made Val want to scream out in joy. Until chunks of the undead toad dropped down and landed on her stomach and sides as well as all over the side Kenny had used to slam into the creature. Apparently the undead summon’s Endurance was so low that Kenny’s own body slam was powerful enough to make it explode.

Kenny grimaced as he tried to shake off the decayed chunks of toad flesh off his body. After a few quick shakes he swiftly jumped back to dodge the same grey muddy ball of light that had hit him at the start of the fight. He turned to see the Goblin Witch Doctor stomping its left foot on the ground while shaking a fist at him. Kenny grinned at that.

“You’re not going to get me with that again you little turd bucket,” Kenny stated at the creature as he threw a middle finger at it making it even more frustrated.

Kenny let out a laugh as he went to taunt the boss monster once more. He had an eye on the other undead toad that had suddenly stopped moving. Seeing that the creature wasn’t moving, Kenny went to give the goblin his full attention.

He stopped as a massive cold chill ran down his spine making him feel like there was an even bigger threat brewing behind him. He slowly turned his head and tensed as he saw Val rise like a violent storm high above him glaring down at him.

Kenny then saw the chunks of undead toad flesh roll down Val’s stomach and legs which made him understand why she was so angry. He opened his mouth to defend himself but stopped as he watched a confused expression suddenly appear on Val’s face. A couple of seconds had passed before that confusion was replaced with a look of pure joy.

Kenny didn’t need to wait to get the answer to the question that had formed as Val shouted, “I got it!”

Understanding swiftly came to Kenny as he heard those words. Not that he needed to hear anything, but Val continued, “I awakened my second Skill Tree!”

Kenny went to say congratulations, but then felt something coming their way and swiftly pushed Val out of the way before jumping backwards himself. Right as they both were out of the way, a ball of muddy grey light flew right past them.

Val looked annoyed as Kenny said, “As happy as I am that you were successful. I think we need to finish this fight first before we celebrate.”

“Oh, don’t worry, we’re going to finish this fight alright. I’ll even be generous enough to show both of you my new ability,” Val replied as she glared daggers at the short ugly little creature.

It looked back and forth between Val and Kenny unsure which it should attack. Deciding that Kenny was the bigger threat it started to chant a short spell before forming a muddy grey ball of light. However, before it could finish its spell, a similar yet smaller version of its own spell suddenly appeared and slammed right into it.

As it had focused on Kenny and paid less attention to Val, who was pissed at this creature for continuously viewing her as the least threatening. Because of that it hadn’t caught the spark of red that flashed out from her eyes. It also hadn’t heard her utter a single syllable to form the spell. Pain. The same spell it had used on both Kenny and Val.

The ability, Pain, Val had used wasn’t as strong as the Goblin Witch Doctor’s was but it was enough to cause every muscle to tighten and send ripples of pain throughout its body and cause damage with each small wave.

It was also strong enough to cause the boss monster’s own spell to stop forming and fizzle out. However, due to the creature’s high defense to abilities like these, it was able to move its hand that was still clutching on to the staff it wielded and chant the spell one more time.

It pointed its staff right in Kenny’s direction as he sprinted forward towards it. However, at the last second it shifted the direction of its staff and fired off the ability right for Val instead. Val’s eyes widened as she saw this swift change and took a step to move out of the way, she panicked as she realized she moved too slow and knew she was going to get hit.

That was until she saw Kenny quickly bounce over from where he was and took the ability almost point blank. He was close to the monster, just inches out of punching range with his fist out like he was trying to punch the creature when the muddy grey ball of light slammed into his chest.

The sudden appearance of him being there shocked both Val and the Goblin Witch Doctor. Both couldn’t understand how he was able to get where he was from where he was at before. However, that wasn’t what surprised them the most.

Last time Kenny took a hit from this spell he had dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks. This time he stood there, fist outreached, gritting his teeth through the pain that was rampaging throughout his body.

With a savage smile he growled through his clenched teeth, “Release.”

Confused by what he was talking about, both Val and the Goblin Witch Doctor watched as a venomous green and toxic purple liquid started to push out of his clenched fist. They then saw him shakily pull his fist back up high like he was fighting something that was trying to keep him down, open his hand and swipe down hitting nothing but air as he fell to the ground.

The Goblin Witch Doctor, with wide eyes, screamed out with a high pitch shrill as a decent amount of the liquid separated from his hand and splashed into its eyes. It swiftly dropped the staff it was holding and slammed both hands into its face trying to rub the liquid off.

That was its first mistake. The more it tried to rub the liquid off the more it seeped into its body until finally a poison debuff was applied. The second mistake was it was left wide open and defenseless, something Val took advantage of. Especially as a sudden nasty idea popped in her mind. She had a new ability and something that could possibly pair well with it.

As the Goblin Witch Doctor screamed from the burning sensation of having poison splashed into its eyes, it was unaware of the pain it was about to be subjected to. Moments after receiving the poison Debuff, it heard a female voice shout out, “Pain!” A small wave of pain rippled throughout its body causing it to tense up.

At first it didn’t care about the added sensation layering onto the burning poison, however, when it heard the same voice shouting out the word pain again, its blood ran cold. The small wave of pain had intensified as a second wave rippled. Then a third wave washed over the creature’s body.

It wasn’t sure when the final wave of pain coursed through its body even though the female human’s voice repeated the one single word over and over nor when the blasts of magical power started slamming into its body, but it didn’t matter. It was on the ground, muscles locked, bones creaking, mouth open wide silently screaming. The last few moments it only had a single thought running through its brain. Just kill me already.

 

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