Hoss stomped away the roots trying to wrap around his feet. He continued to kill flea after flea while wiping away the stream of snot coming from his nose.
Mave pulled Ellis from the ground and slashed away the roots clutching to his body. For everyone else, these roots only reached their calves.
For Ellis, it almost reached the end of his waist. Though Ellis didn't mind this kind courtesy at all, even if he was being handled by Mave like a child.
She sneezed again through her shouts, trying to keep everyone in order. Michael thought the way she sneezed was cute for someone as intimidating as her.
Excuse me, the voice rang louder in his head, what's that supposed to mean?
Michael's body tensed and tripped over one of the fleas in front of him. He swung his sword over and smacked away another flea's face trying to eat him. The roots tried to quickly wrap his body to the ground only to slide off.
He recalled the voice in his head only gotten that loud to warn him from danger, not from the sound of someone sneezing.
"What's with this mana beast?" Jule coughed. "Is it trying to kill us by giving us the common cold?"
Hoss coughed louder, spitting off the collected snot on the roof of his mouth. The problems of a fever did not bother his work of chopping fleas in half.
"It's trying anything," Ellis said, his voice muffled through the cowl. "I don't think this is the last of its efforts. The fleas, you called them, are barely a threat by themselves. It must have—"
The room groaned from above, shaking away any fleas that forgot to drop on the adventurers. The adventurers watched the roots drag from the ceiling, snapping and wrapping itself an abomination of a body, then finally something massive fell.
When it slammed to the ground, the entire room shook as it threatened to collapse. Ellis stumbled over, being rocked by the sudden imbalance. Mave shielded her face from the flying debris of roots and heavy pollen being blown their way.
"What now?!" Dean hoarsely coughed. "I'm getting tired of this—"
Something tremendously heavy was stomping over to them. Through the thick yellow clouds was a figure, a giant, composed of roots sown together to make two arms and two legs. Its eyes were sunken and had vines wrapped around every crevice of its massive body.
The root giant was heading directly towards them, snapping apart the walls they thought were indestructible.
Jule's party ran away, the most reasonable reaction towards the root giant. But Ellis couldn't get up. The roots under him and subconsciously wrapped around his body the moment his back hit the ground.
Mave tried to pull him apart despite the horrifying sounds of heavy stomping drawing closer. She raised her sword in the air as Ellis winced, and hurriedly swung across the roots on his legs.
Ellis frantically screamed like a girl, watching the root giant even come closer into view. He didn't care if his legs would be chopped off, it was a fate better to be choked from the inside by roots.
She pulled him out, even ripping away from the roots that tied to his arms. But in doing so, his bag of flammable bottles were left behind.
He yelled in protest as watching his bag be burrowed deeper into the floor and consumed by the roots.
The root giant didn't make any sounds, it didn't roar or screech like other mana beasts. It simply walked towards the adventurers and that was convincing enough that they couldn't fight against the abomination.
They couldn't swordcast like Stefan and blow it to smithereens nor could any of them cast any spells. Fire was out of the question as well, seeing the entire room blow up in flames without any exit was a death sentence.
"That's the mana beast!" Ellis stumbled as he ran. "That's the one we're supposed to kill!"
"Really?!" Mave sarcastically yelled back. "You don't say!"
They couldn't stand in one place for too long. Ever since the root giant had strung down from the ceiling, it seemed like the roots around them became more aggravated. They caught up with Jule's party, also running around avoiding the latching roots from the walls, and tried to come up with a plan.
But what plan could they possibly devise? All they had was swords against a giant composed of thick and impenetrable roots.
"Come on, little leader!" Jule hopped over a flea. "You can think of something, right?!"
Ellis scowled. "You really expect me to do something here?"
"I'm giving you a compliment!"
Hoss swerved around a thick root and roared, swinging his greatsword into the heel of the root giant.
The root giant turned around, completely unfazed by the greatsword. It kicked Hoss away, launching him through arrays of vines and roots. Then it turned its attention to the adventurers gawking in shock. It kicked again, sending a wave of unregarded shells of fleas towards them.
The adventurers dispersed. They couldn't run for cover, they couldn't drop to the ground, or stand still. The roots below them were constantly moving like live tendrils of a nightmare, aiming to burrow into their bodies.
Hoss grunted, ripping his arms away and tearing the roots clutching at his legs. He grabbed the mandible of a nearby flea and slammed its shell onto another, shattering both of them.
Dean tripped to the ground, falling into a coughing fit. He tried to wipe the phlegm from his mouth to find he couldn't move his hands. They were being tugged down by the roots.
Jule heard his cries. She rushed over to help him, also being intertwined by the roots the longer they stood still.
"We can't—achoo!" Mave sneezed. "We can't keep going like this!"
Ellis ran along with Mave, even if they were just delaying the inevitable. The root giant started to head towards Dean and Jule, knowing the both of them were the most vulnerable. Hoss kept struggling, smacking away fleas that crawled close to him and tried to pick away his legs.
This entire situation was doomed.
"These roots," Ellis said. "We need to find something to stop it!"
"How are we supposed to do that?!" Mave yelled in disbelief. "Ask the root giant politely to stop?!"
"It's the magic!" he said. "We need something to…"
They both exchanged looks.
"That boy!" she loudly groaned. "Where is he—"
Michael jumped from the tall roots above and raised his magical sword. He sank his blade into the root giant's nape. The yellow glow in the room flickered in response to its pain. It stumbled back, clearly shook from the sudden shock of its magic being neutralized.
The roots around Hoss slipped away, losing its tight hold around his body. He shook away the fleas clawing at his sides and jumped from the ground. Dean and Jule suddenly sprung apart from the hold on their legs being free from the roots.
Ellis noticed the flowers stopped ejecting clouds of pollen into the room and also the roots underneath their feet became weaker.
"Michael!" Ellis ran over into view. "What are you doing—"
Michael held tight on his sword, his voice straining as he tried to stay on the root giant's nape. This entire time, he had climbed high in the roots for the perfect spot to jump onto the mana beast. It was a crazy idea, as told by the voice in his head, but they needed him. This was the best Michael could offer to this quest.
The root giant swung its body around, trying to shake off the pestering human hanging on its nape.
But Michael didn't let go. His golden sword glowed in the room, contrasting to the flickering lights from the sprouting flowers.
His ego sword was breaking apart the root giant's magic which was probably causing the pain inside its body. Then he started to lose his footing. The roots strung across the root giant's body started to shed like dead skin the more Michael was holding onto his sword.
The root giant reached its hand behind its head, latching onto Michael's body.
He lost the grip on his sword. The root giant pulled his small body to its dark and sunken eyes. It had no mouth yet it wanted to eat him alive. Michael awkwardly frowned. He couldn't tell what the mana beast was trying to convey but it was clear for one emotion: pure hatred.
The root giant tossed Michael across the room, crashing him through thin roots before slamming against the wall.
Michael couldn't tell what just happened. It still felt like he was spinning through the air. Did that root giant just throw him? How far did he go? Something was warm running down his ears, cutting him from his thoughts. He forced himself to lift his head, watching a flea crawl closer to his still body.
The flea opened its mandibles, presenting a drooling but small mouth of uneven sharp teeth. It prepared to eat Michael's face.
Someone kicked the flea over, thrusting a sword into its soft underside.
Mave dragged him over. "Get up, boy."
Michael heavily groaned, sitting back on one of the thick roots.
She lowered herself to his eyes. "Can you fight, yes or no?"
He thought her face looked ridiculously puffy, her red nose still streaming with snot, and her voice congested from the stuffed sinuses.
"Can you even hear me?"
He nodded to the multiplying versions of her. Was his head trying to play tricks on him?
"Listen—achoo! You did something to that mana beast."
He tried to stay awake. It felt like his head weighed a thousand pounds.
"Whatever you did, it's weaker now. Do it again. It's going to be our only way out."
"Mave!" Ellis called from over. "It's coming!"
She turned back to Michael. "You want to prove yourself, right? This is your chance. Hurry and—achoo! Hurry and move."
Michael watched her run off. He forced himself to stand and peeked over the thick root and caught the situation. The roots under their feet were considerably slower and weren't as severe as last time.
Jule and her party cleared the remaining fleas on the ground while Ellis and Mave took the daunting task of distracting the root giant. Though it was a matter of time before everything would return back to that harrowing sense of despair when it gained back its magic.
As Mave explained her plan to Ellis, he couldn't believe it either. It was too much of a responsibility for someone so inexperienced.
But Michael didn't care. He climbed the nearest tall root, gaining some height while constantly slipping in and out of his consciousness. He glanced over to the root giant chasing Mave across the room as she kept sneezing.
His sword was pulsating and glowing, still stuck on the root giant's nape.