The rose wight shrieked in what rlin could only assu was pain. It pulled the sliced tentacle away from rlin’s reach and buried it into the ground behind it. Several of the tentacles that were distracting other groups were now starting to get reeled back in. Loud scratching noises could be heard from the surroundings as the thorned tentacles scraped against and tore up the surrounding vegetation.
Not wanting to lose his current montum, rlin rushed forward and sliced at the wight. The spare tentacle was thrust in his way, but this ti rlin’s blade didn’t cleave through it.
The rose wight whipped rlin away, forcing him to take a few steps back or risk tripping over, and two more tentacles had finally returned to defend her.
Wondering why he couldn’t slice it, rlin took a look at his blade, the holy water coating was completely gone after only one strike. Fortunately he only used a small amount each ti he coated his blade, so the vial still had enough for maybe three or four more coats, depending on how much he poured.
rlin splashed his blade with another coat of holy water, he was awkwardly holding the open vial in the sa hand as the lantern, so his current grip was rather uncomfortable. It was also the arm that had his shield strapped to it, weighing him down further and making any detailed movents like pouring exact amounts cumberso. He placed his thumb over the vial’s opening as he rushed in for another attack, making sure that the contents didn’t spill out and get wasted if he flailed his arms around.
Two thorned tentacles went to counter his strike this ti around. His blade cleaved cleanly through the first, but it barely left a mark in the second. Instead of pushing him away this ti around, the tendril that had been cut lunged itself at rlin’s lantern in an attempt to shatter his light source, while the one that was still intact attempted to pierce through his chest.
rlin barely parried the intact tendril away, but the other one had successfully destroyed the lantern. rlin jumped backwards while throwing the lantern away, getting enough distance away from the rose wight, he began chanting while pouring the remainder of the holy water on his blade.
「Skill ⟪Light⟫ Activated.」
As soon as the spell triggered, rlin touched his sword, causing it to suddenly emit a faint glow that illuminated the nearby forest around him with the five ters around his blade being the brightest.
"Good luck extinguishing this one." rlin taunted as he threw the empty vial into his storage before pulling another vial out, getting it ready for his next attack. Before charging at the wight again, he filled his mouth with almost a third of the holy water before placing his thumb over the vial once more.
He knew the rose wight hated fire, but he wasn’t sure if it hated light in general. Most wights did, but this one was a mutation with the the of roses, for all he knew it could work against him. This was the first ti he had seen such a creature, so he wasn’t well versed in its weaknesses, but he did know of similar creatures. Both undead that had a rged with plants, forming so kind of symbiotic relationship with them, and undead that had been created and/or controlled by parasitic plants, usually so kind of magical or demonic fungus.
rlin rushed forward once more, but instead of blocking his next attack and risking more damage, the rose wight swiped at rlin’s feet with one of the remaining tentacles, hoping to trip him up. rlin saw the attack coming and leapt over it, using it as a springboard to get a little boost of height, allowing him to add extra montum from his fall as he slashed down at the creature.
With only two undamaged tentacles in the fight currently, the rose wight instead chose to sacrifice one that had already been wounded, rlin cleaved through the tentacle, his blade was now caked up with the black tar-like substance the creature had in place of blood. Unfortunately his blade failed to reach the wight, but rlin had already planned for this, and upon getting a good angle, released the contents of his mouth in a fine mist, directly at the wight’s face.
The wight shrieked in pain as its face began bubbling and sizzling, trails of smoke coming off of its now boil covered face. Its tendrils began flailing around, sending rlin flying into the treeline.
rlin slid along the forest floor, his clothes being progressively more stained by the slightly damp dirt and decomposing leaves. He stood back up and spat the remaining holy water out of his mouth, his face began cringing at the taste. A light tal tang remained on his tongue, which he struggled to scrape away at with his teeth.
He began chanting as he ran towards where he was just fighting. He could see various individuals peeking their heads out from around the trees. They had finally caught up after being held back by the tentacles for so long, and were given the position of the monster by its angered flailing.
「Skill ⟪Cleanse⟫ Activated.」
The filth sticking to rlin’s blade and back was stripped away, floating into the air before vanishing into nothing. He pulled his goblin dagger out of his inventory and coated it with holy water before using the remainder of the vial to coat the gladius, he threw the empty vial of holy water in his inventory and held the dagger in his offhand before approaching the rose wight once more.
The monster was still flailing around in pain, its tentacles were snapping small trees on impact, sending them flying. A few bystanders were almost hit by a flying log, and they took that as their hint to stand behind cover. A tentacle swiped at rlin’s face as he approached, which he barely ducked in ti, his back was still scratched by a sharp thorn, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
rlin closed the distance while chanting the words "heavy strike", barely avoiding yet another random sweep from a second tentacle.
「Skill ⟪Heavy Strike⟫ Activated, your next attack will do an extra 30% damage, and has a 10% chance to trigger the stagger effect.」
rlin made the motion of slashing at the wight once more, and as he expected, a tentacle attempted to sweep him away. This ti however, rlin intentionally wanted to bait the tentacle out. Instead of continuing the swing of his blade, which would have collided with the tentacle, cleaving it in half, he pulled his blade back and threw his dagger at the wight instead.
The dagger flew straight towards the wight’s chest, but its path was ultimately blocked by a tentacle. The dagger’s blade sunk into the tentacle like it wasn’t even there, stopping as it reached the hilt. While the tentacle was distracted, rlin swung his blade at the wight once more, he didn’t hear a jingle from his skill being used yet, but it played as soon as his gladius pierced the wight’s neck.
rlin’s blade sliced through the creature’s neck, continuing on down its torso, only stopping once it had successfully cleaved the wight’s left arm and leg off.
"Interesting, a thrown dagger doesn’t trigger heavy strike." rlin mumbled out loud as he pulled another vial of holy water out of his inventory, coating his blade once more.
The wight attempted to claw at rlin with her remaining arm, but that too was neatly cleaved off monts after.
"This just goes to show how easy combat can be when soone cos prepared." rlin taunted the creature, coating his weapon before splashing the remainder on the wight’s incoming tentacle, causing it to essentially lt before reaching him. "And to think you were once a threat."
A single swipe was all it took for the wight’s head to be sent flying, and the creature was finally dead, or so the observers thought. rlin however knew that this body wasn’t all of it, and if he wanted the creature’s death to be permanent, he had to purify it at the source.
So amongst the cheering and shouts of victory from the expedition mbers, rlin pulled his dagger out of the tentacle now motionless on the floor and marched in the direction of the gravestone.
It took a few minutes, but he was now near to where it all started. It was at this mont when the wind picked up, carrying the scent of roses that rlin’s body had now started attributing to danger.
He now stood a few steps away from a small clearing in the middle of the forest. Under a dim moonlight, illuminated by nothing more than rlin’s glowing sword, stood a single monolith headstone that appeared to be in relatively good condition, although there were signs of wear from the elents and overgrowth. The words written on the headstone were nothing more than a strange foreign text, written in a language rlin was yet to acquire the knowledge of.
A withered bundle of roses was resting in front of the headstone. rlin kicked the roses aside and began digging up the soil with his dagger where they once were. Fortunately it didn’t take too long for rlin to find anything, but instead of a skeleton, all rlin found was a drawstring bag covered in runes.
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