“Holy fucking shit,” Vaati muttered.

“Ditto,” the Summoner replied, staring blankly at the living tree before him.

“Well,” Audrey brought her fists just to chest height. Clenching her hand onto her fist, she cracked it, audibly sounding out a bony joint popping into place, “We found the the source of this stupid mist. Time to kill it.”

“Are you insane?!” Ral shouted out in outrage, swishing the Trident, which still radiantly sparked out electricity from its ends, left to right frantically. “We’re even lucky that we didn’t manage to provoke it somehow!”

“While I may be worried for our… well-being,” the Summoner coughed out before continuing, “We must kill it.”

Ral stared at the Summoner--but seeing as he was not physically tangible and not visible, he simply stared incredulously at nothing in particular. “For what reason?” Ral jerked a bit as he questioned.

“Duh.” The Summoner extended both his arms sideways, opening their palms as he did. “For the experience points.”

“I dunno…” Malideus muttered out. “I’m conflicted about this.” Malideus brought his hand upon his chin. Scratching it a bit, he muttered out, “On one hand, presuming that we’re following RPG logic, we can probably kill it by flinging a few explosives at it while slashing it to bits… On the other hand, this boss looks way beyond our level.”

“I say we go for it,” Vaati answered nonchalantly, his tone laced with a casual ring to it. “I mean--we’d have to die like more than five times. Should be enough for us to chop off this tree.”

“Well,” Ral began moving towards the right, intending to bypass it entirely. “It seems that we’ll just have to-” suddenly, mid-sentence, Ral stepped upon something thick and… starchy.

Looking down, Ral was reasonably appalled--upon his foot was a wriggling root that was exposed a bit above the surface.

“Oh look,” Malideus pointed out jokingly as he extended his finger towards the large tree creature, “You triggered the boss fight.”

“Oh for-” Ral cut himself off as the root below him suddenly trembled violently as it raised itself high, appearing itself more like a ravenous serpent rather than a root.The root burrowed itself into the ground, retracting from sight as it flung out pebbles and dirt as it retracted from view.

The MC glanced towards the large tree.

The tree behemoth’s slits, formerly closed, were now widened and opened, revealing large, red eyes whose irises were like that of a snake; aforementioned eyes, of course, were fixated all collectively on the Main Character.

“Well,” the Summoner spoke up with deadpanned voice, “It’s rude to stare… didn’t anyone tell this big tree thing that?”

Its roots began to uproot, revealing themselves like poised tendrils of a jellyfish, as they all pierced out from the dirt, frenziedly shaking about in place. The ground shattered and quaked as dirt upheaved, spiraling out of the holes were tendrils of roots, their pronged tips poised at the MC.

“Prepare yourselves everyone!” Ral shouted out as he took a stance, struggling do so as the earth did not relent on shaking.

Suddenly, the soil became turbulent as a whirring sound played out from the ground.

“Guys?” Vaati spoke up, wearily looking around, however, nothing more than mist-obscured silhouettes of trees were within his eyesight. “What the hell is making that creepy noise?!”

“The soil!” the Summoner exclaimed as he strafed backwards, pointing the still-ignited Trident at the ground before them.

Towards the direction of the end of the Trident was a long line of mound of soil, serpentine almost, constantly being upheaved and expanding as it stretched towards the MC.

“Under control,” Ricky resounded deeply with an asserting voice. Positioning his footing, he awaited whatever was burrowing their way to the MC.

As the trail of dirt closed in on them, mere inches away, the MC dodged in the last second, the trail of dirt sailing past them, and quickly, Malideus took over, getting an idea.

“Aight, let’s send this overgrown fag to hell!” Malideus shouted. With a flick of his wrist, the Trident degenerated into nothingness, vanishing in a display of glowing particles of gold. Shifting his hand just over his head, he flicked his wrist once more.

Flashing into view and into reality, the Staff of Vodahmin began to materialize within the opened palm of the Main Character. Clutching it tight, Malideus fidgeted the staff’s elemental properties. Magic surging and changing, the Staff went alight with fire.

Swinging it to the left as the MC landed on the ground, resounding out an audible thump within the ghastly space of the forest as they touched the ground, the Staff parted the winds as it flung out fire. Cascading like a whirlwind, cinders and torrents of fire surged at the tree.

Engulfed, the flames ran forth through the Behemoth Tree, leaving a trail of scorched ground--dirt layered with specks of molten stones and embers. Crackles of fire sounded persistently throughout the atmosphere as the flames died out gradually.

The flames having extinguished, the view towards the Behemoth Tree was once more clear. The tree, layered with still-burning ash, had some of its eyes shut, presumably due to damage, as it wriggled about frantically in agony. Hazes of burning cinders fluttered around it, dissipating into the wind.

The Behemoth Tree let loose a roar, inducing a tremor-like shake upon the ground. The deafening screech pierced through the listlessness with ease.

“Dammit!” the Summoner yelled out, staggering back as he plummeted the Staff into the ground, causing it to stand still. Putting both hands on each ear, he cursed out, “That’s disorientating us!”

As the roar died out, the MC turned his glare forward once more, spotting the Behemoth Tree.

“Uh oh. Dodge!!!” Vaatii said, and the MC threw itself to the side as the tree blew a column of gritty smoke at them, causing Malideus to laugh.

“Ha! I knew there was something familiar about this tree! It’s got cursed breath!” Malideus shouted out, still mid-jump, as the Main Character finished strafing to the side with a jump.

“Whatever! Time to die, shrub!” Audrey roared out like a war cry as she sprinted towards the Behemoth Tree, sidestepping and dodging the incoming vines obstructing their way. Closing on the distance with a pounce, Audrey brought herself up into the air. Crashing down on the tree, she pierced through the tree with her fist.

“That…” The Summoner remarked with a deadpan, but pained expression on the MC’s face, “That really hurt our fist…” Attempting to retract their fist, the Summoner was adversed as their fist stubbornly remained within the breach they had placed within the Behemoth.

“Oh crap…” Vaati muttered out, his eyes widened with both panic and anxiety. “Don’t tell me that it’s stuck.”

“It’s-” Ral grunted as he brought his foot upon the trunk of the Behemoth, attempting to push themselves out of the hole. Panting, Ral resigned from attempting to struggling free, his lowered postured indicating fatigue. “It’s definitely stuck….”

Shooting from the ground just mere steps away from them, myriad roots emerged from the charred soil. Styling themselves as if they were serpents, they observed their victim--swaying to the sides rhythmically as they idly gazed upon the MC.

The tendrils wrapped around the MC’s arm, and lifted them into the air, just below the base of the Behemoth Tree. Revealing itself with a scraping creak, a maw appeared within its base, bared with thorn-like, wooden spines within its orifice--all too eager to devour its prey.

“Uh oh.” Audrey said, more than a little fazed by this as she stared at the hanging maw of thorny death poised just a few feet below them.

“Oh hell! No, this is NOT okay!!!” Vaatii screamed, followed by the others as they all collectively struggled within the vices of the vines, shaking themselves violently at their viney shackles.

“This is not good! This is not good at all!” Ral said, struggling even further.

“God damn iiiiiiiiit!!!!!” The Summoner cried as the MC was flung into the maw, and the said spike-filled orifice closed quickly on the MC’s body, resulting in a sickly, wet crunch, followed by silence and a steady stream of blood as the eldritch tree chewed its victim, contentment on its wooden face.