Forming the Company (Alpha World Book 2)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Bob stuck his tongue out at Gerald while pumping his fist once in victory. Alburet thumped Bob lightly on the head, shaking his. “Don’t antagonize him,” Alburet told the imp softly.

  Bob shrugged as he skipped along beside the group as they began to move again. “So, I just need to collect a hug from Fluff now to complete the set,” Bob said out loud.

  “A small, oversexed teenager,” Fluffball said. “That is what he reminds me of.”

  Karen broke out into laughter, “Oh, I think you’re right. That would explain so much.”

  Bob frowned, “I’m not small. Just because you all didn’t stop growing isn’t a reason to call others small.”

  “We’re here,” Gerald cut in. “We can all look in, the fight won’t start until we cross over the threshold.”

  They all looked into the room. It was about the same size Gnasher’s room had been, but this one was covered with leafy vines. Glowing flowers were scattered across the ceiling, providing illumination. The light flowers were reminiscent of sunflowers, with the petals emitting weaker light than the brighter glowing center. In the very center of the ceiling was a huge flower, similar to a passion flower. The vibrant purple of the petals caught the eye. Where the white middle of the flower would be, instead it was a neon green. When it was targeted it gave them its name, Passionate Constrictor.

  “Well, that definitely looks like nature warning of poison,” Karen chuckled. “Reminds me of the tree frogs in the Amazon.”

  “It will spit poison at a random person, every thirty seconds. The poison splashes in a five-foot area, so spread out a bit but not too far,” Gerald informed them. “The vines come up about ten seconds after the last one of the previous wave dies. We need to get through ten sets of vines, maybe more since we’ll be counting on them missing Bob a few times. Each wave of vines accounts for ten percent of its life, so depending on how many we miss it might stretch out longer, since I doubt it will deduct life from the boss for vines we don’t kill.”

  “We might get fourteen or fifteen waves instead of ten, depending,” Alburet opined as he did a bit of quick math in his head. “We can do that. Remember people, use your potions if Marysue gets caught in a vine or is coughing and you need some healing.”

  Bob shifted from foot to foot, “I’m on my own, right?”

  “Marysue can’t heal you and my own limited heal is probably going to get eaten up by me,” Alburet told Bob. “On the plus side, all you get to worry about is poison spit. I think you’ll be fine. Do you need an order of priority targets?”

  Bob shook his head, “Marysue, you, Karen, Fluffball and finally Gerald.”

  “That is the order I would give,” Alburet agreed.

  “As would I,” Gerald added. “I’ll do the least amount of damage, but can take more than the rest of you.”

  “I’ll do my best to keep us all alive,” Marysue cut in. “I’ll be healing in that same order, roughly.”

  Karen drew out both of her blades. Fluff pulled her dual weapons as well. “I really hope dual weapons is better this time,” Fluff murmured.

  “The vines have very low armor ratings, so dual blades will be the way to go,” Gerald assured her. “Is everyone ready?”

  Alburet put Demonic Haze on Marysue to give her more health, then used the ability Fire Weapon to cover his axe in flames. “I’m good,” he told them.

  Fluff, Karen and Marysue all gave affirmative replies as well. Gerald walked into the room followed by the others with about ten feet between each of them. As they reached the center of the room the flower above them quivered and the scent of flowers washed over them. As they waited, the vines all around the room rustled in unison aside from the ones directly under them. A second later vines wrapped Marysue, Alburet and Gerald up as the flower above them released a globule of green fluid at Fluffball.

  Karen, Bob and Fluff all went for Marysue, attacking the vine on her while keeping an eye on the flower above them. Marysue was freed after fifteen seconds. Once she was free they turned to Alburet, getting him free just as the flower quivered and spat the next globule of poison, this one aimed at a Bob. Bob was able to avoid it as they all turned to help Gerald. Less than ten seconds after that Gerald was free and gasping, as the vine had taken over seven hundred health off of him, as it bypassed all armor value.

  Two seconds after the vine fell off of Gerald the next set of three appeared. This time one of them went after a Bob, missing and vanishing into the mass of vines. The other two got Gerald again and Fluffball. The damage dealers piled onto the one on Fluff first, pulling it off of her in ten seconds. They turned to the one on Gerald, getting it off of him in a little over seven seconds. As soon as they freed Gerald they scattered apart just as the flower spat poison down at Gerald.

  Gerald wasn’t able to get out of the area in time causing a debuff to stack on him, Putrid Plant Juice. It dropped his constitution by 10 for the duration of the fight. “I don’t remember the poison being a flat Con debuff,” Gerald called out as Marysue cast another heal on him.

  The next set of vines came two seconds later. This time they wrapped up Marysue, Gerald and Alburet, just like the first set had. The group responded quickly again. As they cut down the first vine, freeing Marysue, the room suddenly filled with purple haze from the Passionate Constrictor above them. This stopped Marysue from healing as the others turned to free Alburet while coughing. By the time they got Gerald free, he was on the edge of death and had to use a potion to keep himself up as they scattered to avoid the next poison spit.

  There was no relief for them though, as the next set of vines appeared wrapping up Fluff, Karen, and Marysue. Alburet, both Bobs and Gerald converged on Marysue, freeing her as quickly as they could before turning to Karen. By the time they freed Karen, Marysue had stopped coughing and started healing again. They had to dodge the poison as they freed Fluff, who unfortunately got hit with the poison.

  Marysue was trying to triage them as best she could when the next set of vines appeared. They wrapped Karen and Gerald up as the third missed Bob. They swarmed Karen first, killing the vine quickly before turning to Gerald, whose life was ticking away rapidly. Marysue used her emergency instant heal on him to buoy him up as the others freed him.

  “This is getting rough,” Gerald gasped as he came free of the vine.

  They scattered again just as the boss spit poison. It missed them all, but they were a bit more scattered than they should have been. The next set of vines appeared, this time getting Alburet and Karen, with the third missing Bob again. They got Alburet free first, allowing him to reapply Demonic Vitality to himself before he joined them to free Karen.

  They dodged the next volley of poison and were gathered back up when the next set of vines appeared. It was supposed to be random but again Alburet, Marysue and Gerald were all wrapped up.

  “Oh, come on, not the tank and healer again,” Karen groaned as they worked to free Marysue first.

  By the time they got Marysue free, Gerald was doing badly, so Marysue focused on healing him as the others freed Alburet. Once Alburet was freed they converged on Gerald to free him. Marysue told them to back off. Puzzled, they did which meant only Alburet got caught by the poison as he’d lost track of the timing. Cussing, he joined the others to finish freeing Gerald.

  “Without add-ons it gets a lot harder to keep track of multiple things,” Alburet groused as they waited for the next set of vines.

  Luckily, the next set of vines went after Bob and missed, but also Fluff and Karen, allowing the others a small reprieve. It was short lived though, as the next round of vines came right after they dodged the next poison spit.

  Gerald, Alburet and Karen were the next victims of the vines and to make matters worse the purple mist came back. Marysue joined in the melee to free Alburet as she coughed, unable to heal until the debuff wore off. By the time they got Alburet and Karen free, Gerald was almost dead. Attacking with passion, they cut into the vine but it killed Gerald just before they ki
lled it.

  “Fuck,” Alburet spat as they dodged the next round of spit. “This is going to get even tougher.”

  He wasn’t wrong, as the next set of vines caught Marysue, who was still coughing, Alburet and Karen. Fluffball and Bob went to work freeing Marysue first. It took them awhile though, which meant she was able to heal when she was freed but that she was also badly hurt. She started to heal herself, worried about Alburet and Karen. Just as they freed Alburet, they had to scatter to avoid the next poison attack. Converging back on Karen, they freed her but her life was well under half by that time.

  “Thanks,” she gasped as she came free.

  The next set of vines quickly took their attention attacking Karen, Fluff and Alburet. Bob cussed as he worked to free Alburet. It took almost a full thirty seconds to do, which left Alburet just enough time to move as the plant caught Karen and Fluff with its poison attack. Alburet went to free Karen but noticed her health was far worse off than Fluff.

  “Bob, free Fluff,” Alburet shouted as he attacked the same target. “Sorry, Karen, won’t be able to get you both and Fluff is a guaranteed save.”

  Marysue frowned but switched her heals over as well, as she noted her mana was getting dangerously low. She used a mana potion to help her as she continued to heal.

  Karen died before they could get her out, which also let the vine attacking her get away. That left Alburet, Fluff, Marysue and both Bobs alive. The next set of vines came quickly, taking Alburet again, along with Marysue. The third vine missed Bob.

  Bob got Marysue free, but the poison got Alburet and Fluff during that time. As their constitution dropped it also lowered their total hit points. Alburet and Fluff died before they could be freed. When Alburet died, both Bobs vanished abruptly, leaving Marysue all alone. She died shortly after when the next set of vines attacked her, leaving the boss with just a sliver of health.

  Once the fight ended the group respawned at the entrance of the dungeon. “Well, that was not fun,” Karen commented as she looked at Alburet. “Why did you switch out priority?”

  “Your health was really low while Fluff still had a good amount of life at that point. I doubted we could get you free before you died, so it made more sense to free Fluff.”

  “I agree with him,” Marysue added. “I don’t think even if I had focused all my healing on you that you would have made it through. However, there is something to note. The boss kept with three tentacles even after people died.”

  Gerald nodded, “So we should go in without any minions, then have Alburet summon and then copy Bob. That should give us only two tentacles during the fight, but still give us the extra damage.”

  “Yes,” Marysue agreed.

  “That means this fight will be easier for Necros and Summoners, if they know the trick,” Alburet mused.

  “Okay, so we going to give it another go?” Karen asked.

  The group started down the tunnel towards the Passionate Constrictor a few moments later. No vines or pollen attacks interrupted them as they walked down the path. They paused at the entrance to double check they were ready before they entered.

  This time around the fight was much easier, with only the two vines to deal with. Marysue was right in that the boss didn’t add a third vine even after Bob and his copy were summoned, so Alburet summoned Stacia and Tiny as well to add even more damage in. With all the extra damage and with fewer vines to worry about the fight became trivial compared to the first attempt.

  Once the plant died the center of the flower fell to the floor. “I think that’s what we loot,” Gerald mentioned as he went over to touch it. Everyone’s loot appeared in a window before them. They each got a Fragment of Passion for the quest as well as their new gear.

  Karen got a new dagger with agility, Fluff got a new belt with strength, Gerald a new sword with constitution, Marysue a new helm with intelligence and Alburet a new set of pants with wisdom. Each of the gear had boosts of ten to whichever stat it gave.

  “I’m really close to eighteen,” Fluff mentioned as they trudged back to the split tunnel.

  “Same here, but for nineteen,” Gerald added.

  “Still a ways to go for twenty, myself,” Alburet chuckled.

  “I think you’re still in the lead for levels,” Gerald told Alburet. “When I checked the forums this morning someone had mentioned hitting nineteen an hour before I logged on.”

  “I wonder if they’ll be in the immersion test?” Alburet said.

  “Who knows?” Karen shrugged.

  Chapter Twenty

  They paused to have a spot of lunch and some tea at the junction of the three tunnels. Alburet filled in Stacia on what she missed during the first fight with the Passionate Constrictor. When he finished recounting the first fight, Gerald decided to give them the rundown of the fight coming up.

  “Okay. The Shaman is going to have a number of Gnoll Warriors to aid him, along with two Gnoll Acolytes to help heal the Warriors. We have five minutes to kill the Warriors and the Acolytes, as the Shaman will be casting a spell for that time. If he gets the spell finished before he takes half of his life in damage, we will wipe. The Warriors and Acolytes form a line between us and the Shaman. No one can get past them and no spell will go by them, which means we have to deal with them before we can get to him. Once we only have one add left we can start in on the Shaman. We’ll have Stacia and her double Daze the Acolytes. That should stop the heals, which will make our job much easier. We will focus down the Warriors one at a time starting with the left most as we enter. Tiny, you take the first two on the left, so we split the incoming damage between us. The Warriors didn’t have any abilities during beta, so it should just be a standard tank and spank. Any questions?”

  “Did I do well enough for my hug?” Bob asked.

  Stacia laughed before she grabbed Bob and squished him into her chest, followed by her double sandwiching him. Karen joined in from one side. A mumbling could be heard as the women kept the imp pinned for a few moments.

  Alburet shook his head at their antics, “You know, you’re only encouraging him.”

  “Aye, master, but he did as best he could to help ya with the first attempt,” Stacia replied before she released Bob.

  Gasping, Bob flopped to the ground clutching his small chest, “My heart, oh darkness what a way to go…”

  Fluff giggled, “He likes to ham it up as well.”

  Gerald sighed, “Were there any pertinent questions about the fight?”

  No one had any so the group finished their lunch and headed down the last tunnel. The tunnel had the occasional vine growing from a wall or ceiling that waved gently as they went by. Ahead, they could hear guttural voices speaking in an unknown tongue. Slowing as they approached a bend, Gerald peeked around the corner before stepping back. “First set of trash, two Gnoll Warriors,” he told them. “Tiny, take the one on the left as we go in. Kill it first then come over to mine.”

  The fight didn’t last long with them being able to focus first one, then the other Gnoll Warrior down. They looted the bodies and moved on. “After Gnasher and Passion, the trash seems a little dull,” Karen muttered as she flipped a dagger from hand to hand.

  “Next set should be two Warriors and an Acolyte,” Gerald informed them. “Stacia gets to daze the Acolyte and one of the Warriors while we focus them down one by one.”

  When they reached the next small room they followed his plan and were soon moving on again. The last set of trash had three Warriors and one Acolyte to deal with. Stacia dazed the Acolyte and a Warrior, while Tiny and Gerald grabbed a Warrior each. The others piled in on Tiny’s Warrior before going on to Gerald’s opponent. They then killed the third Warrior once Gerald brought it out of the daze. Finally, they killed off the acolyte with no issues.

  “The next room is the Head Shaman’s room,” Gerald told them as they looted the bodies. “So stick with the plan. Stacia dazes both Acolytes while we focus on the Warriors. Once all the Warriors and one acolyte are dead we
rush the Shaman. Tiny will take the two leftmost Warriors while I take the other three, focus his down then move on to mine. We have five minutes to kill them and take away half of the Head Shaman’s life. If we succeed it’s a normal fight once he comes out of the trance, with him casting as we try to kill him. If we fail, he summons both Gnasher and Passionate to his side. There is no way for us to survive all three of them.”

  “He summons the bosses we already killed?” Fluff asked.

  “Yea,” Gerald told her. “If we hadn’t killed them, then during the fight with the Warriors we would have vines to deal with as well as occasional knockbacks.”

  “Ugh,” Alburet voiced as he shook his head. “Bad enough as it is, thanks.”

  “Exactly. And here we are,” Gerald said, lowering his voice as they came to a bend in the tunnel.

  They took turns peeking into the room. The room was the same size and shape as the rooms the other bosses had been in. A large bonfire in the middle of the room provided light. Warriors and Acolytes lounged around the fire. Beyond the fire, the Head Shaman was inside a blue glowing field dancing around a collection of stones and plants.