Chapter 20 - Thick Vegetation

As we watched, the adventurers crossed the foyer, heading through the doors on the far left side. The room they stepped into exceeded all my expectations.

I was expecting the Garden to be a well-groomed area, filled with flower beds and maybe some exotic plants. What it actually looked like was a jungle. Massive trees filled the entire area, their thick foliage nearly blocked out all sight of the glass windows, and skylights in the roof. Although the path was well maintained, the areas beyond were completely overgrown with ferns and smaller plant life. It looked like the adventurers could leave the path if they wanted, but it would certainly be hard going.

The three remaining adventurers crept forward slowly, scanning the foliage with every step.

“They’re being pretty cautious,” I said to Bella, without taking my eyes off the screen. “I mean, there’s only three of them left, but still…”

“There’s a reason for that. Charlotte originally designed the Garden to be ideal for ambushes, and hired staff good at maneuvering, or hiding in the thick foliage. I doubt Chelsea and Bea will use too many ambushes here… it wouldn’t exactly be sporting against just three adventurers.” Down on the tablet the three adventurers arrived at a small clearing with, what appeared to be, a deep stream through the middle. There was a small wooden bridge that would allow the group to cross, but they seemed to be hesitant to approach it. “Oh, the stream, nice! I think you’ll enjoy this,” Bella said, raising the tablet so we could both see it better.

Once the party worked up some confidence, the barbarian stomped forward. She managed to get about twenty feet from the bridge before two massive figures emerged from the water, blocking the way to the bridge. They resembled bullfrogs, but were eight feet tall, standing upright, and covered in tribal tattoos on their arms and chests. They didn’t have armor, but both had a massive turtle shell shield, and a huge club with crocodile teeth fitted down the edge. Despite these huge frogs in front of them, both the sorcerer and priest kept their eyes on the trees.

“I… don’t recognize that race,” I said, squinting at the screen, trying to take in all the details I could.

“I’m not surprised, they’re not exactly local. The Pekeketua are an isolated islander race who rarely leave their home. Occasionally, a few youths get wanderlust and decide to travel around, like these five,” Bella explained.

“Five?” I asked, or at least started to, when I noticed a flash of color in the trees. The priest threw up a shield, just in time to intercept some sort of small projectile, while the sorcerer sent a massive burst of fire into the trees. A trio of frogs, these ones much smaller and with a bright blue and orange coloring, jumped out of the trees to avoid the blast. They scrambled around, trying to bring some strange pipe-like weapons up to their lips, but before they could they were struck by a massive wave of ice. The supercooled water froze them in place for a moment, allowing the priest to follow-up with bolts of holy light, shattering the trio.

“Yes,” Bella said with a smirk, “five. They’re not exactly the same race, but closely related. It’s a pity they were caught so close together, and they’re facing a sorcerer so versed in area control spells. Those blow pipes they use can be fairly debilitating if they manage to hit anyone.”

I nodded, splitting my time between watching the barbarian fight the two toads, and taking notes. They were strong fighters, and I was sure if the barbarian didn’t have magical items, or the toads had just a few, they would have made short work of the woman. The barbarian, however, was fighting defensively. She used her magical hammer to stagger each toad, while relying on some sort of healing artifact to stay in the fight as long as possible. Another minute or so, and she would have gone down, but once her teammates were done with the blowpipe frogs they helped her finish the massive frogs.

“Awww… that’s unfortunate. I always cheer for the frogs,” Bella explained with a smile. “They always seem to put in a hundred and ten percent.” I nodded, busy recording what I had just seen, when Bella grabbed me by the back of my head and forced it upwards. “I told you, you need to pay attention or you’ll miss something. Watch.”

On the screen the three adventurers, freshly healed, and flush over their victory, started crossing the bridge. I guess because they were in a clearing, and just defeated the frogs, they weren’t expecting trouble. That was a mistake.

They were about halfway across the bridge when prehensile vines shot out of the stream and grabbed both the priest and the barbarian, attempting to drag them into the water. The barbarian managed to smash the ones around her ankle, but by the time she recovered the priest was already gone; Pulled off the opposite side of the bridge, into the flowing water below.

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Out of the woods, on both sides of the clearing, emerged a handful of plant women. Their upper half looked like a green skinned, humans, but below the navel they had a massive flower, and a mass of writhing vines, instead of legs. Alraunes. They use these vines to pull themselves forward, while simultaneously striking at the group with the largest tendrils. The barbarian was frantically searching the stream, looking for the priest, while the sorcerer was sending out massive sheets of flame, trying to delay and kill their ambushers.

This back and forth lasted a few minutes, until all the alraunes in the clearing were finally cleared up. The barbarian, while struggling to find her friend, found a single alraune hidden in the foliage at the edge of the creek. The plant woman let out a small smile, pulling her vines out of the water only to reveal they were empty, the priest long since derezed from drowning. The barbarian returned the soft smile, before delivering a brutal hammer blow to the alraunes’ face, ending the engagement.

“Effective! Using the expected lull in order to take out a linchpin of the group,” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, this run is pretty much over now,” Bella replied, subdued. “Since there are only two left, Bea and Chelsea will probably give them a warrior’s death. Better ratings that way.”

With the priest dead, the barbarian and sorcerer slowly, but surely, made their way through the last leg of the Gardens. As they approached the boss area I could see the anthophilans surrounding the boss area. The bee people were standing at attention, spears held straight up, eyes focused on the center. There, right in the middle of the arena, was Bea, dressed in an insectoid-styled, lightweight, half-plate armor. Beside her, a massive creature that consisted of the front half of a lion, the rear half of a goat, and the tail of a dragon.

“Chelsea and Charlotte are chimera?!?” I exclaimed in surprise.

“You didn’t know?” Bella asked, “Really?”

“Well… after I ruined that first meal I felt a little awkward asking,” I replied. “I guess I shouldn’t be THAT surprised, given what I know about them, but still…”

“Charlotte could be a force of nature, if she wanted to, but Chelsea is no slouch either. It’s unfortunate that the anthophilans aren’t going to fight. I’ll have to see if I can dig something up for you later.”

On the screen, Bea stepped forward and addressed the two adventurers. “I commend you for getting this far. This, however, is where your adventure ends. In the spirit of fairness, there will be no more tricks. I will engage you first, then Chelsea. Are you prepared?”

The barbarian hefted her hammer, stepped forward, and spoke only two words. “For Glory!”

As soon as she did, Bea burst forward, pulling a wicked-looking serrated blade from the scabbard at her side. The armor was apparently light enough that she could still fly with it, which meant she closed with the two adventurers extremely fast. The barbarian moved between Bea and the sorcerer, bringing the big hammer down in an attempt to crush the anthophilan mid-flight . Fast as lightning, Bea brought her blade up, deflecting most of the hammer’s blow. The force drove her to the ground, but she landed on her feet, and as soon as the hammer left her blade she shot directly up, shooting out of the way of an ice spike the sorcerer had aimed in her direction.

Despite the barbarian’s attempt to keep track of her, Bea lost her by spiraling downwards. First, she used the woman as cover from the sorcerer’s follow-up attack, then maneuvered herself around to the barbarian’s back, giving her time to deal with the sorcerer. The man did his best to defend himself, setting up a wall of flame, but as he did Bea flicked her sword back, and when she threw it forward the blade extended. The serrated blade separated, each section connected by a thick wire to the next. Despite all the sorcerer’s efforts, the whip blade found its mark and embedded itself in his chest.

The second it took Bea to extend her blade was all the time the barbarian needed to recover and bring her hammer to bear. The blunt instrument caught Bea in the back, once again driving her into the ground. This time the anthophilan couldn’t recover, and the followup blow finished her off.

Now alone, the barbarian looked at Chelsea’s location and gave the Chimera a tired smile. “Guess it’s just you and me now.” She paused, just for a moment, to take a deep breath, then sprinted across the area, right towards Chelsea.

The Chimera simply took a deep breath in, then unleashed a torrent of flame from her mouth. To the barbarian’s credit, she managed to struggle through and make it to Chelsea’s location, only to take a claw to the face. She struggled to rise, arms shaking, but it was no use with her wounds. Chelsea simply brought her tail down and speared the woman, ending the run.

It took me a moment to realize that it was all over, and I felt the need to sit back and take a breath.

“Pretty impressive, huh?” Bella asked, a wide smile on her face. “Now all you have to do is organize everyone so they can put up that sort of show against an invading army instead.” I turned a little pale at that, which just made Bella smile wider. “No pressure.”