Chapter 6: Boss fight
The moment the colossal slime achieved its full manifestation, Mitch felt the air itself shift around him.
Mana signatures blazed to life in his enhanced perception. At least five massive thorny vines erupted from the stone floor with earth-shaking force, their barbed surfaces gleaming with a sickly green luminescence.
His heart hammered against his ribs like a caged bird, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins.
The wooden bat felt suddenly inadequate in his trembling grip, but he forced himself to move.
With a desperate leap, he launched himself sideways, feeling the razor-sharp thorns of one vine slice through his shirt and carve a burning line across his back.
"Mana ball!" he screamed, his voice echoing off the cavern walls as he thrust his left hand toward the towering slime boss.
The sphere of chaotic energy streaked through the air like a miniature comet, its unstable surface crackling with barely contained power.
The impact sent shockwaves through the chamber, and a thunderous explosion echoed off the stone walls.
Viscous green sludge splattered in all directions, some of it hissing where it struck the ground.
But even as Mitch watched, the massive creature began to regenerate. The damaged section flowed back together like liquid mercury, though he noticed with grim satisfaction that the slime had lost perhaps a tenth of its total mass.
The core within pulsed with malevolent intelligence, its glow intensifying as if registering his threat.
"Mana ball! Mana ball! Mana ball! Mana ball!" Mitch unleashed his remaining spells in rapid succession, each one accompanied by frantic movement as more vines erupted around him in a deadly forest of thorns.