42_Boss battle

“What the hell?” Herman stepped through the hatch and froze at the sight of the Generica border gates and their surrounding area.

Instead of the scorched radioactive dunes he expected, he was met with a half terraformed mix of swamp and desert. At some stretches the landscape was almost seamless, engineered reeds and shallow pools knitting together into a convincing wetland, while at others raw patches of sand and rubble pushed through the layers of terraformed ground, breaking the immersion.

They, however, were swarming with green toads. The chubby creatures crowded the unchanged ground like locusts, spewing a steady trickle of gray liquid that shimmered with the unmistakable glint of nanoids.

As Herman watched the bizarre scene, he saw the desert slowly recede and give way to the growing swamp. A few hundred meters away he could still see the ruins of the destroyed shanty town and the sandy expanse of the neutral zone. However the area around the gate was rapidly getting transformed into a... well a swamp, from all things…

The more he watched though, the more uneasy he became as his brain began to link the separate clues they had gotten so far. He began to form a rudimentary idea of what was happening here, and to say that he disapproved was an understatement to say the least.

"There! That tent over there. That is where the Frogomancer is." Staple said after she recovered from the initial shock of their environment.

"Rustle squeel squeel!" The plant monstrosity squealed in happiness as he saw the lush fertile lands around him. That is precisely why he had left the safety of the garden. To find this paradise so his people could escape the dry desert and settle on the promised lands.

"Calm down Heartsun, you will break the proxy if you fidget too much. I know you are excited about this, but the ground is most probably swarming with nanobots. I don’t think even you would be able to grow here safely." Herman cautioned the excited plant.

"HOLD! Who goes there?" A familiar voice chose that moment to reveal itself.

The space all around them burst out with warefrogs. The frogish cultists appeared to be waiting in ambush around the hatch, probably waiting for some idiots to barge out of it so their smaller toad cousins could assimilate them.

Herman immediately froze still. The enemy hasn’t attacked them yet, so his disguise was working. Still, quick thinking in the social department was definitely not his strong suit. So instead of saying anything, the old man just stood there like an idiot, gaping at the ambushes with an open mouth.

"How dare you question our intent and divine purpose!"

"Don’t you see who we are!?"

"I am… Ribitina! The divine priestess of the cult of Larry!"

The confident ethereal voice of Polya boomed. Startling the gaggle of cultists and making them lower their hands and flicker off their active mana bolt spells.

"We have never heard of…." A random Larry began to say, but abruptly halted whatever he was about to say as he saw the ethereal visage of the divine priestess. The otherworldly woman radiated power and authority, no doubt her divine might stemmed from the direct blessing of Larry Prime himself. Her will could not be denied!

"And this is my faithful accolade… amm… Trogy!" Polya motioned towards the rest of her disguised party. Herman/Trogy appeared as if he had lost all his brain cells. Distant memories of playing the role of a cabbage merchant, back in that damnable kindergarten play resurfacing.

He had forgotten all about that particular humiliation, but the human mind is a funny thing, bringing back old scars at the most inopportune moments.

Seeing that Trogy wasn't going to do anything but blankly stare like an idiot, Staple took charge of the situation.

She puffed up her toadish chest and looked down with arrogance at the warefrogs around them, giving her best evil toad impersonation and finally booming with a loud confident ribbit.

"PKAWK!"

…

Everyone, cultists and not, looked at the squawking toad. Unsure of what to say or do. Thankfully, before their disguises were completely blown and the situation escalated, Polya once again took charge.

“Stop gawking and lead me to the Frogomancer! We have much to discuss me and him. The future of the entire cult depends on it!” The divine priestess demanded, steering the stunned cultists away from their stupor as they cleared a path for Ribitina, her acolyte and the squawking toad to pass, leading them towards the tent in the middle of the swamp.

"Psst, come on, move it." Polya whispered at the still stunned Herman.

"I never knew you were such a good actress." Slippy whispered back.

"Just plenty of practicing in front of the mirror for my hero career." She replied. "Now come, let's not make our hosts more suspicious."

___

In a few minutes, the party traversed through the swamp and found themselves right next to the tent in which the mysterious Frogomancer presumably resided.

"Alright, now leave us!" The divine priestess commanded.

"M-mistress?" The cultist leading the procession said, voicing the unwillingness of all cultists to leave the divine being’s side. They had to make a good impression after all. She was the direct prophet of their divine god LARRY PRIME after all.

"I said Leave us! Clear a perimeter around the tent and do not disturb us no matter what you hear or see. I will be initiating the ritual of “bla-bla” and communicating with THE LARRY PRIME HIMSELF! None of you are worthy to hear his sacred words!" The priestess dramatically declared.

"At once mistress, you will not be disappointed." The chorus of voices rang as they sprang into action, moving away from the tent and guarding the surroundings against any potential interlopers daring to intervene with the divine ritual.

"Ok, this is it people." Polya said, snapping her fingers as the necromancer armor materialized around her.

Herman, having once again buried the haunting memories of his cabbage merchant days, dropped the proxy and set Staple on the ground while Heartsun untangled himself from his body.

Polya charged her raven staff with a ball of necromantic energy, ready to vaporize anything in its path.

Herman summoned a swordfish and held it like a javelin, ready to pierce the hide of the evil Frogomancer.

Heartsun’s body began to transform again, his hands forming two sharp claws each, while bulbous protrusions appeared on his back, ready to launch a barrage of steel-like seeds at any enemy.

Slippy entered flight mode and readied his dungeon core defences in his soul space.

And finally, Staple clucked menacingly, puffing her feathers in a threatening display.

After a brief pause, as her team watched her, it became clear this was the full extent of her preparations.

"Kakhem, alright, everyone." Herman said, moving away from the awkward pause.

"On 3 we all charge at the boss, we don’t leave until he is nothing more than a pile of charred pixels."

"1…"

"2…"

"3!"

"Go go go!"

___

"Wraaaa!"

The party roared at the individual at the center of the tent. Without hesitation, everyone unleashed the full might of their attacks.

Herman threw the swordfish with lightning speed, right at the chest of the evil Frogomancer.

Polya released the ball of energy she was holding, flying through the air and buzzing with crackling energy.

Heartsun shot a barrage of seeds from his back, akin to a magical plant artillery. The tiny steel like projectiles cutting through the air towards their target.

Staple tripped and fell flat oh her face.

In an instant all the projectiles collided with the evil Frogomancer.

The swordfish bounced off the man’s chest.

The energy ball passed harmlessly through the man, vaporized a whole in the tent behind him and exploded with a loud boom at the distance.

Heartsun’s seeds plinked away from the boss and shredded the remains of the tent’s backside.

Staple fluttered her wings ineffectually as she tried to recover and pull herself off the ground.

"He is immune to ranged attacks! Charge him in melee!" Polya shouted with the voice of her hero persona, not letting the failed attacks break her resolve. With a swift motion, two obsidian daggers shaped like feathers appeared in her hands as she charged at the man in the center of the tent.

Not missing a beat, Herman summoned a tiger pike, grabbed it by the tail and swung it at the enemy.

Heartsun also brandished his clawed hands and charged alongside his comrades.

Staple, also probably did something… Though the following few seconds were a blur of activity and nobody from the group managed to see what exactly.

The trio slashed, bashed and trashed at the unmoving body of the Frogomancer. Yet despite all their efforts the man simply refused to die. Not only that, but he also didn't take any sort of damage whatsoever. Even the cheat like packages of Polya and Herman proved entirely useless at the might of their opponent.

Though Herman was rapidly gaining skill up notifications and it was just a matter of time till his attack caught up to the enemy’s defences.

Then the Frogomancer opened his eyes, yawned, then stretched as if he was only now waking up from a nap.

“Oh hey Herman.” The Frogomancer said with a half wave and an awkward shy smile.

“Genady?!” Herman blurted out, his voice pitching up in disbelief.

___

"Hahaha Genadyyy!!!" Herman exclaimed with a wide cheerful smile, halting his attack and extending both arms wide.

Genady’s smile shifted to one of concern as he saw what the old man was about to do, though in the end he slumped down and reluctantly accepted his fate. He closed his eyes and with a resigned expression, braced himself for the inevitable hug.

"Man, I am so glad to see you." Herman said as he tightly hugged the green robed Frogomancer.

"My god, what are the chances of us meeting, hahaha." Herman laughed, uncaring of the tears of happiness flowing freely from his eyes.

"Oh, dammit I am so sorry, I know you hate people touching you. Hell I am acting like a socialite myself, god dammit, I am just so happy." Herman said as he quickly stepped away from the shivering druid.

The man clearly disliked physical contact of any sort and it clearly showed by his mannerisms and stance. Yet after Herman gave back his personal space, the druid seemed to relax and the shy quiet smile returned back on his face.

"I am also glad to see you Herman. Me and Bertha were both happy and devastated to hear about your passing. We know how much you suffered at the end, but seeing you go wasn't easy… On the bright side you did have a pleasant funeral. With her help we managed to place some dandelions at your coffin." Genady said.

"Ah, man, you really shouldn't have bothered, I know how expensive those things are to grow." Herman said.

"A promise is a promise. We all swore to each other to place one of those flowers if any of us passed away. We lost so many people back then and we never broke the tradition. We are not going to do so now!" The Frogomancer said with confidence.

"Thank you Genady…" Herman said after a while, taking a moment to recall all the lost friends from their old scavenger group. Then he grimaced as the truth hit him.

"Fuck, I just realized, if you are here, then you are also..."

"Dead… Yup…" The timid man replied with a grim expression, his usual shy and quiet demeanor replaced with frustration.

Genady supposed he should feel pretty angry, but he was doing his best not to succumb to such emotions. He never was a violent man, though with the rush of memories, he was really struggling to remain composed.

"What happened? You looked fine last time we spoke. You were always the one who cared for his health the most." Herman said with surprise and a bit of hesitation. Usually Genady was even more introverted than Herman. He always minded his own business and the laboratory might as well have been his entire existance. So it was surprising to see what had the man so riled up.

"It… it is a long story…" Genady said with a sigh. "Come come, let's sit and I will tell you all about it." The man said as he skittered to the side to clear all the lab equipment from the wooden table and chairs at the corner of the tent.

"Ah, I am so sorry, this place is a mess. If I knew I would have visitors I would have cleaned a bit. I am really sorry everyone." He added, fussing around the place and doing his best to tidy up the tent.

"Sit sit, I could ask my minions to cook that chicken for us too." Genady said as he absentmindedly pointed towards the toppled down form of Staple, who was still trying to get up on her feet. The mysteries of chicken locomotion proving harder than initially thought for the mechanoid.

That last comment finally stirred the said companions out of their stupor.

"Hey don’t you dare touch auntie Staple!" Polya said as she grabbed the disorientated chicken and smothered it protectively against her chest.

"Hiss!" Heartsun added in support, extending his claws at the Frogomancer and puffing up his vines in a threatening manner.

"I-is that? A living plant?" Genady said with astonishment. Only now paying attention to Heartsun.

"My god how fascinating, is it sentient? How did it grow so much, uuh adaptive growth system, weaponized biological matter, interesting interesting. Bertha would have loved to inspect you!"

The usually shy and awkward man skittered toward the mutated plant monster, prodding and poking it this way and that while circling the now-confused Heartsun. He examined every part of its anatomy with the curiosity of a child unwrapping a Christmas present.

"Herman, quick, smack him with that stupid fish of yours while he is distracted!" Staple clucked from the safety of Polya’s embrace, all the while ignoring the confused squeals for help coming from Heartsun, who wasn't quite sure what to do himself.

"A single hit at the base of the neck should suffice to immobilize him. Then we can figure out a way to kill him in peace. Poison perhaps?" The bloodthirsty chicken said, eager to eliminate her target and fulfill the System quest.

"We are NOT assassinating my little brother!" Herman exclaimed, placing himself between the murderous chicken and the oblivious Genady.

"Are you sure this Frogomancer hasn't bewitched you? What if you inhaled a nanoid dust swarm and the recollection of your brother is just an artificial memory implanted by this, EVIL man!" The chicken ventured.

"And what if you are just a delusional chicken that’s going to end up into soup if it doesn't stop its attempts to murderise a member of my family?" Herman countered.

Staple squinted her avian eyes at the old man, then looked down at her puffy feathery body. After a few moments of contemplation, the tasty chicken finally spoke.

"Fine! We are not assassinating him, but he’d better have a damn good explanation for terrorizing the neutral zone!"