Forgotten Lands - Chapter 46 (Book 1)

The Tainted Dryad moved through the Boss Room with a dancer’s fluidity. Her steps echoed across the cold cobblestone in a fierce breeze. The Tainted Dryad’s body seemed to merge with the Corrupted Smog around her – a beautiful yet deadly gown of corrosive smog and darkness.

As she extended her slender hand, her shadow began to move. The corrosive smog spread through the surroundings and surged forward.

The final battle of the Tower of Nature’s Normal Difficulty raid had begun!

Zayn flashed a bright smile as he emerged behind the Tainted Dryad. He held his breath and covered his body in a thin layer of energy. The energy membrane corroded quickly, but it gave Zayn a few seconds before the corrosive smog began to etch into his skin.

Natalia used Healing Light on Zayn instantaneously and she didn’t stop there. She continued using the Healing Card to maintain Zayn’s condition. Her energy was consumed rapidly, but she managed to work against the highly potent properties of the corrosive smog – to a certain extent, at least.

Their plan was not perfect, but Zayn’s preparations came in handy. It was not his first rodeo against a Tainted Dryad. Of course, he knew what he had to do to defeat her.

His Foundation Orbit was on the lower end and he didn’t have the right Cards to deal with her in an instant, but it was a good thing that he was not alone.

Zayn used Coalesce to merge the corrosive smog with the purple liquid that covered the Tainted Dryad’s body. The first attempts failed but that was something Zayn had expected. It required tens of uses until the corrosive smog fused with the purple liquid. Bits of the purple liquid turned darker while other parts turned black.

The Tainted Dryad screamed at the top of her lungs, but nobody could tell for sure whether that was because she was injured or enraged.

Her arms extended and her fingers transformed into roots. They lashed out at Zayn, who evaded them by a hair’s breadth with another use of Blink. Melanie and David appeared by his side. They weren’t healed by Natalia’s Healing Light and had to suffer the corrosive smog’s full potential. However, Natalia managed to use Empower to strengthen them.

Melanie and David blocked the root fingers and protected Zayn, whose expression turned more serious as the seconds passed.

The Tainted Dryad’s body was not covered in a darkish-purple liquid that was highly inflammable. Even though the Tainted Dryad had been corrupted and was not part of any ordinary biotope, she didn’t lose the natural disadvantage of the Dryads. They were known for being weak to flames. That applied to Tainted Dryads as well.

The Tainted Dryad was panicking. She sensed that something was wrong and had perceived Zayn as the most dangerous enemy. However, she didn’t manage to reach Zayn. The corrosive smog burned his skin but Natalia’s Healing Light counterbalanced the damage.

The others suffered greatly but they managed to retreat once Zayn finished the first step of his plan.

Step two was something Zayn had prepared beforehand. Humongous roots burst through the cobbled floor beneath the Tainted Dryad. She stared at the ground, her dark eyes widening in surprise.

There should be no plant life left in the Boss Room. The Tainted Dryad had removed everything. She removed all life from her surroundings and lived on the cold, lifeless cobblestone.

Zayn had to rake his brain when he noticed that there was no connection to any roots anywhere near the Boss Room. Fortunately, he had Rapid Plant Growth and Root Strike to grow and control roots from anywhere. He senses a bunch of roots outside the Boss Room’s hallway and used both Rapid Plant Growth and Root Strike to make them grow and funnel them through the ground straight to the Boss Room.

Under normal circumstances, Zayn would have considered this a waste of time, but the roots were necessary for something.

They burst upward and coiled around the Tainted Dryad as if she was their lost lover. The roots covered every inch of the Tainted Dryad’s body.

The Tainted Dryad struggled to regain freedom, but Zayn didn’t give her any time to relax.

He consumed two Energy Potions in quick succession, ignoring the aftereffects that would affect him for hours, and used Coalesce to merge the roots with the Tainted Dryad. It didn’t succeed at first, but Zayn used Coalesce dozens of times in quick succession. A bad headache crept up the back of his head, but there was no way Zayn would stop now.

He retrieved a small vial and hurled it into the Tainted Dryad’s face as she freed herself.

The glass vial broke and emerald-colored viscous liquid splattered all over her face. Zayn spammed Coalesce once again at that point.

[Proficiency of Coalesce reached 100%. Level Up!]

[Proficiency of Coalesce reached 100%. Level Up!]

Coalesce advanced to Level 10. +2 Soul Essences.

‘YES!’

That was what Zayn had been waiting for. Perfect!

“BLAKE!!!”

Zayn’s voice resounded through the hall. Blake responded at once. She had been waiting for this moment and was ready.

Her energy pool was drained rapidly as blazing flames conjured in front of her. Blaze lifted her staff high into the air, closed her eyes, and focused entirely on her energy and the Cards in her Heart Deck. The sensation of her energy channeling into the Advanced Fireball and how it usually ended flashed through her mind over and over.

However, this time, something was else. Blake kept her eyes shut and focused her entire energy on the Fireball Card. She didn’t use the Card repetitively to conjure several Fireballs. Instead, she continued to insert more energy into the Card.

A blazing fireball manifested overhead. The compressed flames pulsated wildly and expanded. The fist-sized fireball grew. It was the size of a fireball after a second and the size of Blake’s upper body within five seconds.

“NOW!” Zayn screamed at the top of his lungs. His energy pool was already threatening to be sucked dry and he couldn’t confine the Tainted Dryad any longer. The energy veins screeched loudly and Zayn perceived that his energy pool was strained. If he continued to go on like this, his energy pool would crack and sustain considerable damage.

Zayn was already fully aware that he would attain the Energy Poisoning ailment after drinking so many Energy Potions in quick succession, but that was fine. They were about to finish off the Tainted Dryad at any moment, either way.

Blake’s humongous fireball whizzed through the air in a beautiful arc. It smashed into the root cage that confined the Tainted Dryad and exploded. The Tainted Dryad gave her utmost to block the attack. She gathered the corrosive smog from the surroundings and conjured a dome of corrosive smog around her. However, the fireball was unstoppable. It churned through the corrosive smog without slowing down.

A terrified scream rang out through the surroundings when the fireball impacted. The roots were set ablaze, and so was the Tainted Dryad. The highly inflammable darkish-purple liquid burned brightly.

The flames spread quickly. They covered the root cage and engulfed the Tainted Dyad. However, the emerald liquid that had splattered all over her face turned her situation even worse. The orange-red flames flickered brightly, the temperature in the surroundings increased, and it was only a matter of seconds before the flames around the Tainted Dryad’s head dyed greenish-azure.

The temperature in the room skyrocketed, whereas the Tainted Dryad’s screams dimmed. They grew weaker by the second. The sizzling flames muffled all noises as they burned down the Boss Monster that ought to be the most terrifying monstrosity in the Tower of Nature.

Blake was just about to drink an Energy Potion and shoot a few more fireballs when she saw the terrifying scene in front of her. The Boss Monster was burning alive. She tried her utmost to escape the flames but the inflammable substances had already been fused into her body.

Her eyes flicked to Zayn, who was the culprit of the Tainted Dryad’s suffering. The Boss Monster was not yet dead, but it was only a matter of time before she would burn to death.

Zayn considered attacking the Tainted Dryad to end her suffering a little bit faster, but he was exhausted. His breath was rough and his head thumped as if it was threatening to burst apart. Even his view was blurry at this point.

He retreated and let the Tainted Dryad burn. At the Normal Difficulty of the Tower of Nature, the Tainted Dryad’s Foundation wasn’t high enough to learn the traits required to discard a portion of her body and claim minor fire resistance. Zayn thought that she might attain this kind of ability in the Nightmare Difficulty of the Tower of Nature though.

He never had to deal with a Tainted Dryad that weak. Her Foundation barely crossed 120 Units. She was stronger than ordinary monsters and her abilities had been strengthened as the Tower of Nature’s Boss Monster, but that also meant fusing the amplified corrosive smog with her poisonous skin transforming her body into perfect fuel for any kind of fire.

It might have been overkill to throw an accelerant with special properties into her face, but Zayn liked to make sure that the Tainted Dryad was going to die. The Emerald Accelerant was expensive due to its unique properties. It was a Rare potion that required various unique herbs to produce. A single vial cost several gold coins.

The price was steep Zayn figured that it was unlikely that he was going to make up his costs. But that was fine. The Normal Difficulty level of the Tower of Nature was just the beginning.

He was just getting started!

Tainted Dryad(Boss Monster) has been slain.
29 Soul Essences, 3 Common Cards, and 8 Uncommon Card Shards have been distributed according to combat contribution.